UAVs are widely used in fields such as industrial inspection, disaster relief and package transportation. Therefore, it has great significance to realize safe and smooth path planning in an unknown dynamic environment. For this reason, this paper designs a path planning system suitable for unknown environment based on the hybrid A ⁎ algorithm by the following three modules, the planning module, the navigation module and the control module to achieve the above-mentioned functions. We built a drone model and experimental environment in the gazebo simulator, verified the performance of the system with smoothness as an indicator.


We develop an integrated sensor system to detect rare earth elements (REE) in natural minerals on-site. The system combines reflectance and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy in order to present a noninvasive alternative to conventional time-consuming and costly chemical analysis of drill cores in mineral exploration. The major benefit lies in the rapid gathering of continuous spatial information on the type and abundance of the REEs in drill cores. Additionally the sample material remains unharmed during the whole process. To maximise scan speed and sample throughput, our system operates in continuous line scan mode, with continuous sample flow beneath the detector.


We outline the main ideas underlying the CONQUESTcode for first-principles modelling of systems containing many thousands of atoms, focusing on the alg orithms used to achieve linear-scaling of the cpu and memory requirements with number of atoms, and t he strategies for implementing the algorithms so as to achieve good parallel scaling on paralle l computers. We note that the code can be run at different levels of precision, ranging from empiri cal tight-binding, throughab initio tightbinding, to fullab initio. Very recent technical developments implemented in the cod are outlined. We give illustrations of physical systems currently being s tudied with the code, ranging from biologically important molecules to Ge hut clusters on Si (001), in cluding structural relaxation on systems of over 20,000 atoms using electronically self-consistent density-functional theory. Arrangements for obtaining and learning to use the code are also noted.


ABSTRACT This article examines men's career decisions in Early ChildhoodEducation and Care (ECEC) using feminist post-structural agency theory that postulates a hybridization of 'male' and 'female' agentic factors. Anzaldúa's concept of new mestiza provides a theoretical foundation. The research focuses on the careers of three veteran male ECEC workers from different countries who participated in a 5-year longitudinal study using narrative interviews and story line depictions. A hermeneutic model of data analysis revealed participants' unique blend of 'male' and 'female' agentic styles responding to challenges of a gender-normed female profession. Cultural context was considered in the analysis. For these men, the status incongruity resulting from their choice of 'women's work' framed career decision-making and led to the construction of particular agentic behaviors. These findings contest gender binary agency paradigms and reconceptualize agency among male ECEC workers as balancing the seeming contradiction between masculinity and a commitment to the ethos of caring.


The library at Edge Hill has been closely involved with the institution's virtual learning environment (VLE), WebCT since its introduction in 1999. Early library activity with WebCT focused on collaborating with learning technologists and academics to embed electronic resources, and support students through the Help Desks. Ongoing involvement has resulted in the library, now part of a converged Learning Services, creating a suite of online staff development modules. This paper will describe how an e(lectronic)-learning ethos has been engendered within the service. It will also describe the suite of online courses available to Learning Services staff, explaining why bespoke online courses were created. It will describe the underpinning pedagogy and the process of developing and delivering these courses in a way that ensures that the technology adds value to the learning. The paper will use the most recently developed online module, Customer Care, as a case study. This module provides a context-rich, theoretical and practical grounding in customer care for staff in a converged service. The case study will describe the beta testing of the module and the learner feedback. It will consider the future challenges for e-learning support and development within the department.


Based on deeply analyzing the situation of the IT industry chain of China, this paper takes dissipative structure theory and synergetics to analyze its evolution dynamic mechanism, and then constructs the evolution model to judge its evolution laws. Finally, this paper puts forward with innovation mechanism for the IT industry chain of China from five aspects including conception innovation, perspective innovation, model innovation, force innovation and strategy innovation.


Pediatric Critical Care Medicine www.pccmjournal.org 679 In 2011, we led the Pediatric Emergency Mass Critical Care Task Force (1) which recommended that hospitals which provide care exclusively to adults be prepared to provide care for pediatric patients in a pandemic or disaster which impacts children proportionally to adults. In the 2014 Task Force for Mass Critical Care (2), we highlighted the need for a systems-level approach for the provision of critical care in pandemics or disasters where pediatric patients are not considered a "special population" but rather are entitled to an equitable share of critical care resources. These recommendations were driven by the significant lower critical care capacity for pediatric patients within the population compared to that of adults. Although these recommendations remain valid today, we did not envision a pandemic, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which so disproportionately affect adults that pediatric intensive care clinicians are being asked to accommodate critically ill adults in their ICUs (3). In this issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Remy et al (4) comprised dual trained adult and pediatric intensive care physicians provide timely advice primarily aimed at pediatric intensive care physicians regarding key differences in the medical management of critically ill adults. This practical information is timely and much needed by pediatric intensivist caring for adults suffering from COVID-19. However, effective and safe care can only be delivered if a structured framework in place as an enabler. Thus, thoughtful preparation beyond the information provided by Remy et al (4) is necessary to prepare pediatric units to care for adult patients. Issues of ethics, justice, and societal considerations are important in determining whether pediatric critical care beds should be made available for adults. It is widely accepted that there are finite critical care resources and the process to allocate these resources ethically must include considerations of equity of all patients in need (5–7). However, there is very limited practical guidance to assist providers facing the ethical challenges of considering both adults and pediatric patients together vying for a single pool of resources (8). Although there is certainly a strong basis to argue that allowing adults to die while ventilators sit unused in a PICU is unethical, healthcare systems must have a process in place for making decisions regarding the allocation of critical care resources that can address the ethical and medical complexities of allocating resources that takes into account the differences within and between these populations (9). Caring for COVID-19–infected adults in ICUs at pediatric hospitals (which do not normally care for adults) should be considered equivalent to providing adult critical care in an alternate care facility. Commensurate with published recommendations (2, 10–12), this should only occur during a crisis surge response after the strategies for conventional and contingency responses (2, 13), including maximally expanding critical care capacity within adult hospitals such as recruiting pediatric critical care staff and expertise to adult units. In order to successfully provide the care outlined by Remy et al (4) to adults in a pediatric hospital, the enablers of care such as staff, "stuff," space, and systems must be arranged a priori. Successful delivery of care also depends on a robust "3Cs" (command, control, and communication) system (2, 11, 14).


We investigate the initial chemical events sustaining a detonation in shock‐compressed PETN resulting from intermolecular collisions behind the shock wave using first‐principles reactive molecular dynamics. The reaction dynamics of bimolecular collisions was studied as a function of collision velocities and crystallographic orientations. For each orientation, threshold collision velocities of reaction, and products of decomposition were determined. The timescale of reaction was evaluated and used to understand whether these initial chemical events are largely driven by reaction dynamics, or temperature. Bond dissociation energies were calculated and used to rationalize the outcome of the chemical events in the course of the reaction dynamics. Finally, the relationship between orientation dependent sensitivities and steric factors is discussed.


Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) constitute a small subset of normal bone marrow (BM) cells but have also been shown to be present, sometimes in large numbers, in several hematological malignancies such as acute myeloid leukemia with RUNX1 mutation, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia or, obviously, blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasms. These cells have been reported to display somewhat variable immunophenotypic features in different conditions. However, little is known of their plasticity within individual patients. Using an unsupervised clustering tool (FlowSOM) to re-visit flow cytometry results of seven previously analyzed cases of hematological malignancies (6 acute myeloid leukemia and one chronic myelomonocytic leukemia) with a PDC contingent, we report here on the unexpectedly high variability of PDC subsets. Although five of the studied patients harbored a RUNX1 mutation, no consistent feature of PDCs could be disclosed as associated with this variant. Moreover, the one normal single-node small subset of PDC detected in the merged file of six normal BM could be retrieved in the remission BM samples of three successfully treated patients. This study highlights the capacity of unsupervised flow cytometry analysis to delineate cell subsets not detectable with classical supervised tools.


This paper resolves the modelling problem of target vehicle's lateral motion in real-traffic tracking applications. We incorporate CTR (Constant turn rate) model with UKF (Unscented Kalman Filter) algorithm to deal with the vehicle's turning maneuver on curve road segment for a high accurate vehicle motion estimation. In order to test the proposed model's accuracy and applicability under complex real road environment, we design a traffic simulation experiment and drive the test vehicle to pass a turning road. The yaw rate and position information, which could be collected by smartphone sensor (gyroscopes, GPS and orientation sensor), are considered as observed value. Then, vehicle motion trajectory can be accurately obtained after the computation of the proposed model. Comparing with other vehicle motion information fusion algorithms, the result shows the proposed model presents a better accuracy in estimating and predicting vehicle lateral motion state on curve road segment.


The goal of this task was to investigate how formal methods could be incorporated into a software engineering process for flight-control systems under DO-178B and to demonstrate that process by developing a formal specification for NASA's Guidance and Controls Software (GCS) Experiment. GCS is software to control the descent of a spacecraft onto a planet's surface. The GCS example is simplified from a real example spacecraft, but exhibits the characteristics of realistic spacecraft control software. The formal specification is written in Larch.


The aim of this paper is to provide an insight into how knowledge about dr. Franjo Tuđman was internationally created, namely the international context in which scientists and experts have produced factual truths about Croatia's First President's leadership, his role and accountability in the events that have marked the violent disintegration of former Yugoslavia, Croatia's war of defense, and democratic transition. Developed discourse of the international scholarship about Yugoslav wars of disintegration and Croatia's painful democratic transition is analyzed to determine how and in what way Dr. Franjo Tuđman is represented in selected publications available to the author of this paper. International scholarly production under the review is rather multidisciplinary with a variety of approaches, methodologies and theories providing rich data which in this case is studied juxtaposed to dominant transitional justice discourse framework. Such qualitative sociological research tries to deconstruct international scholarly context in which factual truths about dr. Franjo Tuđman were socially constructed by scholars and experts. Even though not always framed under the umbrella of transitional justice scholarship, developed discourse is Even though not always framed under the umbrella of transitional justice scholarship, developed discourse is nonetheless analyzed through critical lenses of social constructivism and approached in post-modernist sociological manner.


The value of the deep cerebral veins in cerebral angiography, as an aid in localizing space-taking intracranial lesions, has been well established by a number of investigators. Particular attention has been directed to localization of the foramen of Monro through visualization of a characteristic vein coursing through it. This vein, formed by the junction of the striothalamic (terminal) with the internal cerebral vein, forms a smooth, sharp curve as it courses around the posterior margin of the foramen. The point at which the two veins join has been called by Krayenbuhl and Richter the "venous angle of the brain" (V-A) (Fig. 1). The deep cerebral veins have a fairly constant course and configuration. Exceptions are not unusual, however, and should be distinguished from pathologic changes. It is the purpose of this paper to show the normal variations of the deep veins and sinuses and various types of tributaries of the internal cerebral vein which result in a false "venous angle of the brain," and to discu...


Paul Arthur, Special Relationships: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Problem. The Blackstaff Press, 2000; 316pp; 0–85640–688; £16.99. Rick Wilford (ed), Aspects of the Belfast Agreement. Oxford University Press, 2001; 263pp; 0–19–924262–3 (hb) £40; 0–19–924404–9 (pb) £15.99 Robert McCartney, Reflections on Liberty, Democracy and the Union. Maunsel and Company, 2001; 262pp; 1–930901–12–7 (pb) npg. Deaglán de Breadún, The Far Side of Revenge: Making Peace in Northern Ireland. The Collins Press, 2000; 400pp; 1–90346–401–3 (pb) npg. Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke and Fiona Stephen (eds), A farewell to arms? From 'long war' to long peace in Northern Ireland. Manchester University Press, 2000; 360 pp; 0–71905–797–3 (pb) UK £16.99 Graham Spencer, Disturbing the Peace? Politics, television news and the Northern Ireland peace process. Ashgate, 2000; 211pp: 0–75461–522–7 (hbk) £39.95 Brian Walker, Past and Present: History, Identity and Politics in Ireland. Institute of Irish Studies, 2000; 148pp; 0–85389–769–7 (pbk) £9.50 Barry Desmond, Finally and in Conclusion: A Political Memoir. New Island, 2000; 411pp; 1–90260–241–2 (pb) £11.99 John Horgan, Noel Browne: Passionate Outsider. Gill and Macmlllan, 2000; 344pp; 0–71712–809–1 (hb) £19.99 Donal Ó Drisceoil, Peadar O'DonnelL Cork University Press, 176 pp; 1–85918–310–7 (pb) £12.95 Enda Delaney, Demography, State and Society: Irish Migration to Britain, 1921–1971. Liverpool University Press, 2000; ISBN 0–85323–735–2; 085323 745 X (pb) npg. Maedhbh McNamara and Paschal Mooney, Women in Parliament, Ireland: 1918–2000. Wolfhound Press, 2000; 256pp; 0–86327–759–4 (hb) £18.99 Brian Nolan, Philip J O'Connell and Christopher T Whelan (eds), Bust to Boom? The Irish Experience of Growth and Inequality. Institute of Public Administration, 2000; 389pp; 1–90244–848–0 (pb) €25.39 Neil Collins and Mary O'Shea, Understanding Corruption in Irish Politics. Cork University Press, 2000; 98 pp; 1–85918–273–9 (pb) £6.95 Paul Gillespie (ed) Blair's Britain, England's Europe ‐A View from Ireland. Institute of European Affairs, 2000; 326pp; 1–874109–54–0 (pb) £15 Ben Tonra, The Europeanisation of National Foreign Policy: Dutch, Danish and Irish Foreign Policy in the European Union. Ashgate, 2001; 305 pp; 0–7546–1261–9 (hb) £47.50 Brigid Laffan, Organising for a Changing Europe: Irish Central Government and the European Union, Policy Institute, 2001; 109pp; 1–90258–505–4 (pb), £10 Thomas C. Lawton, James N. Rosenau and Amy C. Verdun, (eds), Strange Power: Shaping the parameters of international relations and international political economy. Ashgate, 2000; 476pp; 0–7546–1329–1 (pb) £19.95 Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver, and Peter Mair, Representative Government in Modern Europe: Institutions, Parties, and Governments 3rd edition. McGraw‐Hill, 2001; 468pp; 0–07232–267–5 (pb) $51.85


The paper addresses the important problem of signal segmentation, when signals are corrupted by multiplicative noise. A hierarchical Bayesian analysis is proposed to estimate the change-point locations and amplitudes. However, closed form expressions of the change-point parameter estimators are difficult to obtain. The proposed methodology draws samples distributed according to the change-point parameter posteriors by a metropolis-within-Gibbs algorithm. The main advantage of the algorithm is that it allows joint estimation of the parameters and hyperparameters of the hierarchical model.


The purpose of this paper is to develop a high speed detection scheme for moving and / or stationary point targets in a multitarget environment as registered in an IR image sequence. An iterative approximate 3-D line searching algorithm based upon the geometric representation of lines (for non-maneuvering targets in space) in a 3-D space is derived. The convergency of the algorithm is proved. An analysis is performed of the theoretical detection performance of the algorithm. The statistical experiment results show high effectiveness and computational efficiency of the algorithm in the case of low SNR. The idea may be employed to satisfy the real-time processing requirement of an IR system.


insufficiency; and other physiologic and patho logic sites of absent, increased, or decreased circulatory exchange. An slRb.slmKr radionu clide generator has been constructed to produce, at a constant rate, slmKr, a water-soluble gas, dif fusible through capillary membranes, emitting a monoenergetic gamma ray, and decaying with a half-life of 13 sec. This gas in solution may be infused at a constant rate intra-arterially into an organ or anatomic region. Infusion may be sustained until equilibrium conditions prevail. In this steady state intravascular radioactivity remains constant as it is replaced by newly gen erated 81―'Kr.The gas that diffuses into the ex tracapillary space exchanges more slowly than the intravascular activity. The rapid decay pro duces a heterogeneity of distribution of radio activity which depends on the diffusion time. A static image produced by a scintillation camera will detect, record, and display this heterogeneity and may be processed to define the adequacy of capillary exchange. The built-in clock of rapid decay will define the kinetics of exchange in a steady state with a single image. Applications of the @lmK,.generator delivery system are de sen bed.


At present, the intelligent systems are used to study the functional state of living objects. They are often built on a multimodal basis, i.e. decision-making is carried out through several information channels with the subsequent aggregation of these decisions. In the proposed method, the electrocardiosignal is a source of information. The principle of multimodality is implemented by analyzing of various methods and aggregating the results using neural networks of block and hierarchical structure. The method was tested on the classification of patients with pneumonia with a clear diagnosis. A group of volunteers without pulmonary pathologies was used as an indifferent class.


For many years the User Systems Engineering Group at Texas Instruments has been using software user-interface prototypes as a primary tool for the design and development of user interfaces for complex systems. Our model of the prototyping life cycle is introduced and its benefits are discussed. Current issues in prototyping often center around the introduction of new prototyping tools such as HyperCard™ or Prototyper™. Our discussion focuses on how these tools fit within the prototyping life cycle.


Objective To Observe the effect of treatment of tibial shaft fractures with intramedullary interlocking nail fixation and analyze the reasons and prevention. Methods 52 cases of tibial shaft fractures were treated with intramedullary interlocking nail fixation. All cases were performed open reduction and static interlocking nail fixation and were followed up for the average of 18 months (ranged from 3 months to 3 years). Results All fractures healed in average of 8 months (ranged from 3 to 12 months). According to Johner and wruh's criteria, 43 cases obtained excellent result and good in 4 cases, fair in 3 cases, poor in 2 cases. The complications included failure interlock in 2 cases, angular malunion in 2, nail broken in 1, screw broken in 1, posterior wall fracture of proximal tibia in 1, pain ankle in 1, no infection case. Conclusions Intramedullary interlocking nail fixation may provide strong fixation, high healing rate and early motion in case of tibial fracture. But the operators must be train for preventing complications.


In this article, we analyzed the different extent influence of polarity effect, area effect and adsorption effect in EDM. We took some measures to reduce the electrode wastage pertinently. According to the practice, they are significant in effectively low wastage machining in EDM.


Fifty-four subjects (36 females and 18 males) affected by clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS) and with onset of the disease at 15 years of age or before were prospectively studied in five Italian MS centres. Female/male ratio was 4.7 in subjects with age ≥12 years, suggesting a role of hormonal changes in triggering MS onset. The mean follow-up duration was 10.9-5.6 years. The functional systems more frequently involved at onset were the pyramidal and brainstem (both in 28% of cases). The onset was monosymptomatic in 31 subjects (57%). The course was relapsing-remitting in 39 subjects (72%) and relapsing-progressive in 15 (28%). Disability was assessed by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS): the mean score after 8 years of follow up was 3.5 (-2.5). The score was <4 in 68% of cases, between 4 and 6 in 8% of cases, > 6 in 24% of cases. Disability after 8 years was highly predicted by disability in the first year (p=0.008). There was a tendency to a worse prognosis in relation to the number of relapses in the first 2 years (p=0.08). The outcome was not influenced by the characteristics of symptoms at onset, age and gender.


Management is a condition for a well-executed program, without management, the program does not go as planned. Organizing is an activity carried out in various small tasks, instructing the tasks, responsibilities and powers of each individual according to his own capabilities, carefully selecting and classifying people according to the level of ability to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. Good organization produces a good organizational form, starting from work system, structure, resources to other aspects. This study discusses the following: 1) the administration of the Arabic language program at Rawda Al-Hasana Islamic Boarding School in Medan, 2) the implemented programs and activities to improve Arabic language skills in the Rawda Al-Hassanah Islamic Boarding School in Medan, 3) the division of tasks in organizing the Arabic language program in Rawda School Islamic Interior Hasna Maidan. This study uses qualitative descriptive research methods. Data were collected by observation, interviews and documentation. After data collection, the data is analyzed through a) data reduction, b) data presentation, and c) conclusion/verification. The management of organizing the Arabic language program at Rawdat Al-Hassana Institute uses the font and staff organization model. This organization takes place vertically from a superior leader to a leader below him. To help run the organization smoothly, the leader gets help from the employees under his command. Programs to improve language skills at Al-Rawda Al-Hasana Institute Maidan include: language development, training, court implementation, exams implementation, purchasing various competitions such as; Language Fair, Trilingual Speech Contest, Book Reading Contest, Interregional Drama


Maintaining the balance when a robot is pushed forward is fundamental for legged robots. An essential topic in the literature is capture point; it is the place where the robot can step to in order to recover from the push. In this work, we study the Variable-Height Inverted Pendulum (VHIP) as the model for a pushed robot. We found all of the points that are allowed to be a capture point for given initial velocities of the center of mass and actuator limitations. We also develop a controller to reach a capture point using the reaction force to the ground as input variable. We pay attention to the unilateral contact and the maximum-value of a function of the reaction force. First, we obtain the necessary conditions that must be satisfied to be able to achieve balance by providing a decomposition of the VHIP into a new Divergent Component of Motion and a Convergent Component of Motion. Then we present two control laws to stabilize the system and we show that the region of attraction is equivalent to the region of necessary condition for balance. Finally, we briefly discuss the physical places where balance can be achieved.


Particles of a tobacco stream are first expanded by passing across a high-frequency field wherein they are exposed to the action of electromagnetic waves which effect a vaporization of moisture in the capillaries with attendant increase in volume. The thus expanded particles of the tobacco are thereupon conveyed through a drying zone wherein the particles are externally heated by hot air for a short period of time to thus effect rapid drying of strata immediately adjacent to external surfaces of the particles and to thereby stabilize the particles against shrinkage. In the last step, the tobacco stream is forcibly cooled with air to effect a condensation of vaporized moisture in the capillaries. The expansion of tobacco can be enhanced if the tobacco stream is caused to pass through a bath containing freon or another organic fluid having a boiling point lower than water before the tobacco stream is conveyed across the high frequency field.


Three research groups at the University of Rochester, Harvard, and Hoffmann-La Roche, with a fourth trailing closely behind, have synthesized aklavinone, the nonsugar portion of the recently discovered, promising anticancer drug aclacinomycin A. These organic syntheses, each interesting in its own right, also set the way for making and eventually testing many structural analogs of this drug, some of which might become clinically useful and commercially profitable. Aclacinomycin A belongs to the anthracycline family of anticancer drugs, which includes daunomycin and adriamycin. Though widely used for treating certain kinds of cancer, such as acute leukemia, these anthracyclines are far from ideal. Their most serious drawback is their toxic side effects, particularly their tendency to damage the heart. In potency, aclacinomycin A is similar to adriamycin but is 10 to 15 times less toxic. Hence, shortly after its isolation in 1975 by Japanese researchers at Sanraku-Ocean Co., aclacinomycin A was being called...


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A large number of bacterial toxins consist of active and cell binding protomers linked by an interchain disulfide bridge. The largest family of such disulfide‐bridged exotoxins is that of the clostridial neurotoxins that consist of two chains and comprise the tetanus neurotoxins causing tetanus and the botulinum neurotoxins causing botulism. Reduction of the interchain disulfide abolishes toxicity, and we discuss the experiments that revealed the role of this structural element in neuronal intoxication. The redox couple thioredoxin reductase–thioredoxin (TrxR‐Trx) was identified as the responsible for reduction of this disulfide occurring on the cytosolic surface of synaptic vesicles. We then discuss the very relevant finding that drugs that inhibit TrxR‐Trx also prevent botulism. On this basis, we propose that ebselen and PX‐12, two TrxR‐Trx specific drugs previously used in clinical trials in humans, satisfy all the requirements for clinical tests aiming at evaluating their capacity to effectively counteract human and animal botulism arising from intestinal toxaemias such as infant botulism.


This paper identifies a number of errors and inconsistencies in a series of air pollution intensities for Mexico that were recently created by the World Bank. Because these data are being used to conduct public policy analysis and advice for Mexico and countries at similar levels of development, knowledge of the limits of these data is of utmost importance. In addition to identifying the problems with these data, this paper makes a series of adjustments to offer a corrected dataset. These newly corrected data are available on the World Bank's New Ideas in Pollution Regulation (NIPR) web page.


Medical malpractice is a complex and delicate issue, given the fact that errors or negligence in the provision of healthcare services can have serious consequences for the patients. From the patients' perspective, medical malpractice insurance provides a level of safety and trust in the healthcare system. If they incur damages due to medical negligence, they have the option of seeking compensation through medical malpractice insurance policies. This insurance helps them obtain financial compensation for additional medical costs, further treatment, lost wages, and other damages. On the other hand, healthcare professionals may face allegations of malpractice, even in situations in which their actions were in compliance with professional standards.


Pairs of speech-language pathologists independently rated severity of phonological impairment for 45 preschoolers, aged 30 to 65 months. Children were rated along a continuum from normal to profoun...


Background : Health industry has always used natural products as an alternative. Propolis, a natural antibiotic, is a resinous yellow brown or dark brown substance derived from honey bees (Apis mellifera). The main chemical compounds contained in propolis are flavonoids, phenolics and other various aromatic compounds. Flavonoids are well known plant compounds that have antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory proprieties. Propolis is expected to be an alternative used for root canal treatment with lower toxicity compared to calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH) 2 . Over the last decade, a new material, mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) was developed, and has been used as the gold standard. All materials used in mouth should be biocompatible. The initial level of material biocompatibility evaluation involves toxicity and genotoxicity tests. Purpose : This research is aimed to conduct comparison test of genotoxicity effect of propolis extract, MTA and Ca(OH) 2 on fibroblast BHK-21 cell culture. Methods : This research was conducted with single-cell gel electrophoresis method. Results : The results indicate that propolis extract cannot cause DNA damage, while MTA can cause apoptosis and Ca(OH) 2 can cause neucrosis. Conclusion : It can be concluded that propolis extract has genotoxicity effect lower than MTA and Ca(OH) 2 , but MTA has lower effect on fibroblast BHK-21 cell culture.


Richard Perez, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of New York-Albany. Richard Perez has been associate editor of Solar Energy Journal since1995, and has published more than 120 articles and reports on solar radiation, renewable energy applications, and day lighting. He and his team advise the National Renewable Energy Lab on solar radiation profiles of the U.S. Richard built and lives in a passive solar photovoltaic home, and in 2000 received a U.S. patent for "Load Controller and Method to Enhance Effective Capacity of Photovoltaic Power Supply." Perez earned a doctorate in atmospheric science from UAlbany (1983) and a diploma of advanced studies in external geophysics from the University of Paris (1978).


The clustering of wind turbine generators (WTGs) in many dynamic multi-machine equivalence methods of wind farm (WF) is according to the deterministic data. However the forecasted wind power and speed are full of uncertainty. Considering this point, a WF dynamic multi-machine equivalence method is presented for the power system dispatch early warning calculation. The joint probability density functions (PDFs) of wind power and speed errors in forecast are selected as clustering index. The improved KL distance is applied to evaluate the similarities among the wind power forecast error distributions of all WTGs. All WTGs are divided into several groups by k-means algorithm. The WTGs and lines in each group are equivalent to a single-machine equivalent model. Considering both inaccurate and accurate scenarios of wind power forecast in the simulation case, the WF output responses curves of the detailed model, the conventional equivalent model and the proposed equivalent model are compared. The result indicates that the proposed equivalence method has better accuracy when the forecasted value is inaccurate.


The presented paper is interested in a speaker identification problem. The attributes representing the voice of a particular speaker are obtained from very short segments of the speech waveform corresponding only to one pitch period of vowels. The patterns formed from the samples of a pitch period waveform are either matched in the time domain by use of a nonlinear time warping method, known as dynamic time warping (DTW), or they are converted into cepstral coefficients and compared using the cepstral distance measure. Since an uttered speech signal usually contains a lot of vowels the techniques using a combination both various classifiers and multiple classifier outputs are considered in the decision making process. Experiments performed for a hundred speakers are described.


The aim of the study is to verify the turbulence in the negotiable financial instruments market in Poland, by evaluating the composite stress index, which includes indicators concerning the stock market (volatility, liquidity, CMAX based on stock index WIG), the bond market (volatility of 10-year Treasury bonds, their liquidity, the sovereign spread and the yield curve spread) and the derivatives market (the change in the number of open positions and volume in the futures and options market). The analysis of index values for the years 2007–2015 confirms the robustness of the stress index (FIMSI) in the diagnosis of stresses in the market (when the index value exceeds the long-term trend by more than 1 standard deviation).


This research is aimed to study production, technical and the profit of group and individual system on smallholder dairy cattle farm. The research has been conducted in Banyumas Regency. Data collection was done by surveying about 80 farmers, Unit Output Price Cobb-Douglas Profit Function estimation employed Ordinary Leas Square (OLS) method. The different of variable from the result of profit estimation. Profit function analysis on group system showed that manpower pay, animal age, lactation period, lactation month and farmer education have a significant influence on the profit. Whereas, on individual system influence of manpower pay, animal age and lactation month were significant on the profit. Dummy variable showed that group system has more profit than individual system, it was because on group system; (1) has cheaper price on forage and concentrate cost, (2) has higher average of production result, and (3) has higher price of  milk per unit. (Animal Production 4(2): 94-100 (2002) Key words : Profit, Group and Individual System


The in vitro antitumor activity of mulberry fruit vinegar was investigated by MTT method, and the morphology of cells was observed. The results indicated that mulberry fruit vinegar possessed higher antitumor activity, and the inhibitory activity heightened with the increase of mulberry vinegar concentration. The morphological observation results indicated that under the effect of mulberry fruit vinegar, both SMMC-7721 cells and Hela cells were decreased and clustered together, cell membrane was deepened, dimmed and presented irregular development trend. The comparison showed that mulberry fruit vinegar had stronger inhibitory effect on Hela cells than SMCC-7721 cells.


During strabismus surgery, tight extraocular muscles are sometimes encountered. Surgical recession of a tight extraocular muscle can be difficult because of restricted globe rotation which may prevent the optimal exposure necessary for surgery. In addition, tight muscles can indent the sclera, making needle placement into a tendon particularly dangerous. Since the sclera is often thin under extremely tight rectus muscles, the risk for scleral perforation during needle placement in the tendon increases. I developed a new muscle hook to minimize this risk.


The large superfamily of G-protein-coupled receptors, with their 7 transmembrance-spanning segments constitute a unifying signal transduction mechanism for all kinds of chemical messengers. The 7TM receptors are also the target for the majority of drugs used in human medicine today. However, most of these compounds have so far only been directed towards a small subset of monoamine receptors. Thus, the pharmacotherapeutic potential of 7TM receptors as such appears to be immense. This work features contributions from 30 researchers working in the field. It provides an overview of current knowledge of the structure and function of 7TM receptors and related proteins. An important focus is directed at the implications of these aspects for modern drug research and development both in practical and more theoretical terms. Each paper is followed by extensive discussions, giving participants the opportunity to question data and generate ideas for future research. The book should be of interest to pharmacologists and doctors within the fields of biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics, as well as genetics.


We prove that the symbolic dynamical system generated by a purely substitutive Arnoux-Rauzy sequence is measurably conjugate to a toral translation. The proof is based on an explicit construction of a fundamental domain with fractal boundary (a Rauzy fractal) for this toral translation.


Tensile testing to provide tensile test data for ASTM A285 steel for application to fracture analysis of Type I and Type II high level waste tanks has been completed. A total of 32 tensile tests were done on 8 heats of steel.


Theoretical performance results for L-branch (L/spl ges/3) coherent equal-gain combining (EGC) in correlated fading channels are not known. This letter develops a novel approach for performance analysis of L-branch EGC in equally correlated Rayleigh fading channels. Such channel gains can be transformed into a set of conditionally independent channel gains. The cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the EGC output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is, therefore, derived. The symbol error rate (SER) of different modulation schemes with EGC in equally correlated Rayleigh fading channels is evaluated. Numerical results that illustrate the effects of equally correlated fading on the SER performance of EGC are also provided.


This thesis develops an algorithm for automatic license plate recognition (ALPR). ALPR has gained much interest during the last decade along with the improvement of digital cameras and the gain in computational capacity. Earlier character recognition has been used in structured processes like bank cheque processing. Now the ability of recognising car license plates has gained interest. ALPR can be used in many areas from speed enforcement and toll collection to management of parking lots where the ability to recognise the identity of each car accurately provides the number of cars and the parking time of each car. The algorithm developed here is aimed to be lightweight so that it can be run on board a car in real-time. With images provided by a USB web-camera (with modified optics), the system will be able to recognise Swedish standard license plates under normal conditions. The algorithm is built in three sections; the first is the initial detection of a possible license plate using edge and intensity features in the image; in the second, the text of the plate is found and normalized; last is the actual character recognition. The first step uses edge and intensity detection to extract information from the image. The information is then combined into segments, which are evaluated for the likeliness of containing a plate. The second step evaluates the selected segment to find the position and orientation of the plate. The plate is then rotated to horizontal alignment and normalized. The last step reads the characters by correlation template matching. Template matching is a simple but robust way of recognising structured text with a small set of characters. The resulting implementation can successfully recognise Swedish standard license plates with a frame rate of around 10 frames per second. It manages different relative sizes of the plate in the picture, from very large to small plates of height about 20 pixels. The algorithm is though inferior recognising unevenly illuminated plates or plates with bright white surroundings such as snow. It utilises the match information from consecutive frames for decision support.


The multistep nature of cancer development provides a rationale for cancer prevention. Activation of oncogenes, inactivation of tumor suppressor genes and modulation of mitogenic signal transduction pathways are critical in cancer progression and present attractive targets for cancer prevention/intervention. In this respect, cell cycle regulation and its modulation by various natural (plant-derived) and synthetic agents are gaining widespread attention in recent years. A number of phytochemicals inhibit cell cycle progression in cancer cells, yet their clinical applications are still in infancy. The present review is focused on the modulatory effects of phytochemicals on critical cell cycle molecules, and discusses how they inhibit proliferation and/or induce apoptotic death in cancer cells. Key Words: Cell cycle, Cyclins, Growth factors, Oncogenes


A B ST R A C T Oral drug delivery systems being the most economy and leads the worldwide drug delivery market. The major drawback in oral drug formulations is low and varying bioavailability, which mainly results from poor aqueous solubility. It is estimated that 40% of active substances are poorly water soluble. Among the various available approaches to improve the oral bioavailability of these molecules, the use of self-emulsified drug delivery systems (SEDDS) has been shown to be reasonably successful in improving the oral bioavailability. However, traditional preparations of SEDDS are usually prepared in the liquid state which produces some disadvantages, such as high production costs, low drug incompatibility and stability, drugs leakage and precipitation. To overcome this problem solid SEDDS (SSEDDS), prepared by solidification of liquid/semisolid selfemulsifying (SE) ingredients into powders, have gained popularity. The S-SEDDS not only increase the solubility of the drug, but also exhibits the advantages of solid dosage form. The present review explains the recent trends in Solid SEDDS (S-SEDDS) with regard to the selection of lipid systems for current formulations, solidification techniques and the development of solid SE (self-emulsifying) dosage forms and their related problems and possible future research directions.


At present, the evolvement of the eco-environment of Tarim River Basin in Xinjiang ygur Autonomous Region draws great attentions at home and abroad, and then how to ensure the social economy and eco-environment of the basin to develop in a direction of virtuous cycle sustainablly is just an important subject being studied and discussed all along. Therefore, some ideas on the planning of Tarim River Basin are put forward herein for reference.


The invention relates to a method for detecting environmental data (5) which describe at least one property of an environment (6), by a plurality of motor vehicles (3) monitoring data (8) are recorded in the area (6) and (through a stationary server apparatus 2 ) receiving a part of the observation data (8) and the received observation data (8) of different motor vehicles (3) on the basis of a predetermined criterion aggregation (29) are combined to form the updated environment information (5 '). The invention provides that by the server device (2) on the basis of already in a central storage device (2) stored environment data (5) is a minimum requirement criterion (18) is determined, which is to meet with updated environment information (5 '), and containing at least one of the minimum requirement criterion (18) query message (16) is sent to the motor vehicles (3) and by the motor vehicles (3) the observation data (8) at a respective vehicle memory (9) stored and those observation data acquired (8) containing the minimum requirement criterion meet (18) to the server apparatus (2) are emitted.


Objective To assess any correlation in the plasma endothelin(ET) concentration in patients with essential hypertension(EH),as well as those with and without target organ complications. Methods We measured plasma immunoreactive ET concentration in 54 subjects of EH and 27 normotensive subjects.Results The concentrations were higher in hypertensive patients than normotensive subjects( P 0.01).The plasma level of ET in patients with stage Ⅰ( n =28) was as much as that of normotensive subjects ( P 0.05),and that of patients with stage Ⅱ( n =11) or Ⅲ( n =15) was significantly higher than that of patients with stage Ⅰ and normotensive subjects ( P 0.01,separately).Plasma level of ET in 15 patients with left ventricular hypertrophy by echocardiography and 11 patients with heart hypertrophy and expansion by ECG and X-rays was significantly higher than in patients without hypertrophy and expansion ( P 0.01,separately).The concentrations were higher in 7 patients with congestive heart failure and 5 patients with renal involvement than that with normal heart and renal function ( P 0.01, P 0.05 separately).There were no close correlations between the concentrations of plasma ET and mean artery pressure ( r =0.014) or hypertensive duration( r =0.065),or age ( r =0.082) in the patients with EH.Conclusions These results suggest that ET plays an important role in the pathophysiology of the organs impair in EH.


A field test was conducted to compare the performance of multiplex and distributed supermarket refrigeration systems. Two supermarkets in the vicinity of Worcester, Massachusetts were the sites utilized for the field test. One store was equipped with a multiplex refrigeration system that had 3 compressor racks and air-cooled condensers. At the second store, a low-refrigerant-charge distributed refrigeration system was installed that consisted of 10 compressor cabinets. Heat rejection for the compressor cabinets was accomplished through watercooled condensers piped to a fluid loop that used dry fluid coolers. The second store also had water-source heat pumps for space heating and cooling that were piped into the fluid loops. Both sites were instrumented to determine energy consumption, refrigeration and heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) loads, and numerous system state points to characterize operation. Data were collected for approximately 18 months. A comparison of the performance of the two refrigeration systems was made based on the information gathered. The results showed that the multiplex refrigeration system used less energy and showed better EER than the distributed system. A TEWI comparison between the two refrigeration systems showed significant reductions in atmospheric CO2 generation by the distributed system despite added energy use. Test results also showed that the water-source heat pumps produced energy cost savings for store space heating by recovery of the refrigeration reject heat.


In order to measure aspherical surfaces more accurately,the influence of test device on measurement error was analyzed.Instead of ronchi grating,sinusoidal grating was used to test aspherical mirrors based on the Ronchi method.By synchronous phase detection technology and geometrical theory,shape deviation gradients of all tested points could be obtained.Then the surface of the tested mirror was reconstructed after restoring shape deviations using area wave-front reconstruction method.The influence of combination fringes,asphericity and grating contrast on reconstructed tested surface were presented.The numerical results showed that both the combination fringes and grating contrast affect the testing accuracy of aspherical surface,and the error of reconstruction increases with asphericity.The results may provide an affective and reliable basis for Ronchi test device.


Based on the questionnaire,simulated writing assessment and application of corpus linguistics,this paper analyzes the writing mistakes of the independent college students and studies their English writing.The real language materials of corpus help students adjust their own language in learning to write the authentic compositions.The usage of retrivals of tware can enhance the students' linguistic consciousness,strengthen language sensitivity and improve English writing.


The total variation diminishing (TVD) finite difference scheme can be interpreted as a Lax-Wendroff scheme plus an upwind weighted artificial dissipation term. If a particular flux limiter is chosen and the requirement for upwind weighting is removed, an artificial dissipation term which is based on the theory of TVD schemes is obtained which does not contain any problem dependent parameters and which can be added to existing MacCormack method codes. Numerical experiments to examine the performance of this new method are discussed.


This study analyzes the technological capability upgrading and entrepreneurship in the Indonesian fish processing industry. The analysis viewed from the Sectoral Innovation System (SIS) focuses on two aspects: the enabling factors for innovation, and the role of entrepreneur in technological capability upgrading. The study finds that Indonesian fish processing companies: (i) are less interactive with local universities or other STI (science, technology and innovation) centers, and innovation was mostly done through learning by DUI (doing, using and interacting); (ii) are characterized as low-tech industries with a high standard for food safety and product differentiation; (iii) apply adaptive innovation, modified from existing technology or knowledge, except for the leading companies who apply innovation for new products in the market; (iv) actors, technology, market trends, and networks are the main enabling factors for innovation; and (v) the role of entrepreneurs – especially in building entrepreneurial networks – were dominant in the leading companies. The entrepreneurial networks exist and work in global distribution chains that are widely adopted by companies to export their products through buyer–producer relationships. The pathways toward export markets are: global born directly, fastly learned global, and delay learned global companies. These categories have enriched the Mets category (2012). The policy implications of the findings for government should: (i) facilitate companies' interaction with local universities or other STI centers; and (ii) encourage domestic companies to improve their competitiveness by shifting to higher added value products through various innovations and trading policy schemes.


This month we focus on current research in recovery after gynecologic surgery for benign indications. Dr. Whiteside discusses four recent publications, which are concluded with a "bottom line" that is the take-home message. A complete reference for each can be found on Box 1 on this page along with direct links to the abstracts.


We believe the gold mine located nearby Castropodame (province of León), of the roman time, as a primary deposit, is not evaluated enough and it provides some amazing discoveries. There is an underground passage that cast some doubts on its purpose. In this work we suggest the possibility of have been destined for several miner bedrooms. We propose an hypothesis that expert in roman time archaeologists may examine in depth.


Collaborative Distributed Beamforming for Cooperative Spectrum-Sharing Systems Ali Afana, PhD. Concordia University, 2014 The scarcity of bandwidth has always been the main obstacle for providing reliable high date-rate wireless links, which are in great demand to accommodate nowadays and immediate future wireless applications. In addition, recent reports have showed inefficient usage and under-utilization of the available bandwidth. Cognitive radio (CR) has recently emerged as a promising solution to enhance the spectrum utilization, where it offers the ability for unlicensed users to access the licensed spectrum opportunistically. On one hand, by allowing opportunistic spectrum access, the overall spectrum utilization can be improved. On the other hand, transmission from cognitive nodes can cause severe interference to the licensed users of the spectrum. This requires cognitive radio networks (CRNs) to consider two essential design targets, namely, maximizing the spectrum utilization and minimizing the interference caused to the primary users (PUs). Such interference can be reduced through proper resource allocation, power control or other degrees of freedom techniques such as beamforming. In this thesis, we aim to use joint distributed beamforming and cooperative relaying in spectrum-sharing systems in an effort to enhance the spectrum efficiency and improve the performance of the secondary system. We investigate a one-way cooperative spectrumsharing system in the presence of one PU and multiple PUs. We study two relaying schemes, namely, decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying in conjunction with distributed optimal beamforming. We employ zero forcing beamforming (ZFB) as a sub-optimal scheme, and compare both approaches through simulations. For both schemes, we derive closed-form expressions and asymptotic expressions for the outage probability and bit error rate (BER) over independent and identically distributed Rayleigh fading channels for binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)


Background Transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) requires the use of irrigating fluids. The absorption of large volumes of these fluids may lead to hyponatremia and consequently TURP syndrome. If not treated promptly, the patient becomes cyanotic, hypotensive, and ultimately sustains cardiac arrest. Conivaptan is one of vaptans, a new group of vasopressin receptor antagonists that are increasingly being used for the treatment of euvolemic, hypervolemic forms of hyponatremia especially in the ICU. This study evaluates the efficacy of a single dose of conivaptan to prevent hyponatremia in TURP patients. Patients and methods In a prospective, randomized, double-blinded study, 50 male patients scheduled for elective TURP under central neuraxial block were included in this study. Patients were divided into two groups (A and B) (n=25 for each group). Group A patients received intravenous conivaptan 20 mg over 30 min, whereas group B was the control group who received the usual maintenance fluid. Preoperative serum sodium and potassium levels in patients were measured, followed by intraoperative levels, and these levels were recorded after 60 min by blood gas analyzer using venous blood samples. All patients were carefully observed for the early symptoms of TURP syndrome perioperatively. The serum levels of sodium and potassium of all patients were measured 1 h after surgery. Results The mean level of serum sodium showed statistically significant reduction (hyponatremia) intraoperatively and postoperatively in group B. There was a statistically insignificant increase in the mean level of serum potassium (hyperkalemia) intraoperatively and postoperatively in both groups. Electrolyte changes were asymptomatic clinically. Conclusion A single dose of conivaptan was found to be effective in preventing a marked decrease in the serum sodium levels in patients undergoing TURP with no effect on the serum potassium level.


Background: Tuberculosis (TB) has remained a major public health threat worldwide and considering this, Govt. of India declared TB as notifiable disease in year 2012. Objectives:  To assess the trend of TB in Satara district, India and to evaluate outcome of new sputum positive TB cases registered under district Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). Materials and Methods: A retrospective record based cross-sectional study was conducted in District Tuberculosis Centre (DTC), Satara district, Maharashtra, India during March 2013. All Registered TB cases under DTC from the year 2002 to 2012 were included as study subjects. The district RNTCP records since the year 2002-2012, for all TB cases were viewed and analyzed by investigator according to RNTCP outcome evaluation indicators. The trend of TB was statistically analyzed for the period of eleven years by using chi-square trend test. Results: Annual the total TB case detection rate was 117.94/ lakh for year 2002 which decreased to 98.30 / lakh for year 2012. The proportions of pulmonary TB cases decreased from 92.23% to 81.0% since year 2002 to 2012 whereas proportions of HIV-reactive TB cases increased from 3.11% to 25.3% since year 2009 to 2011.Proportions of male TB cases were almost the double of females; however child TB cases increased continuously with maximum TB cases belonged to pulmonary type. The proportional trend of New Sputum Positive (NSP) cases showed periodic fluctuations ranging from 34% to 50% since year 2002 to 2012.  The performance of outcome evaluation indicators of NSP cases during evaluation period as viz., cure rate ranging from 79.91% to  87.02% with periodic fluctuations, sputum conversion rate continuously increased from 78.5% to 93.5%,treatment success rate ranging from 82.7%  to 90% with apparent difference, whereas defaulter rate decreased from 7.5% to 3.8% by year 2011, treatment failure rate continuously decreased to 2.1% whereas Death rate  ranging from 5.2% to 10.4%. The proportional trends of outcome evaluation indicators of NSP-TB cases showed statistically significant difference over period of year 2002 to 2012. Conclusion: Data indicates that TB is still big problem in rural area of western Maharashtra, India and need to strengthen the awareness programme about TB and involvement of private health sector to control the burden of TB.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i4.11112 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.6(4) 2015 30-35


Tamoxifen (TAM) is a life‐saving and cost‐effective drug widely used in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. However, the adverse effects of tamoxifen can lead to non‐adherence and poor patient outcomes. Therefore, exploring novel strategies to improve TAM safety profile is crucial. Given the key role that vitamin D (VD) plays in modulating lipid metabolism and inflammation, in addition to its benefits in reducing risk and progression of breast cancer, we evaluated the protective potential of VD against TAM‐induced hepatotoxicity focusing on lipid metabolism and microRNAs (miRNAs) regulation. Female rats were pretreated with VD as cholecalciferol (500 IU/kg/day, po) for 4 weeks before receiving TAM (40 mg/kg/day, po) concurrently with VD during the fifth and sixth weeks. Liver histology, lipid profile and expression of genes, proteins, and miRNAs involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation were examined. TAM‐induced steatohepatitis was evidenced by elevated liver triglycerides and cholesterol contents, increased serum miRNA‐122 level, and ALT activity, in parallel with accumulation of lipid droplets, focal necrosis, and inflammatory cells infiltration in hepatocytes. Prophylactic use of VD mitigated TAM‐induced steatohepatitis by modulating key transcription factors in the liver: PPAR‐α, Srebf1, and NF‐κB and their downstream genes/proteins Fas, CPT‐1A, and TNF‐α resulting in reduced hepatic lipids and suppressed pro‐inflammatory signaling. Notably, VD pretreatment mitigated TAM‐induced alterations in the expression of serum miRNA‐122, hepatic miRNA‐21, and miRNA‐33. The combination therapy of VD and TAM has complementary benefits in terms of safety and not only efficacy and should be further investigated clinically.


Two seasons of geoarchaeological and geophysical fieldwork (2008, 2009) were conducted at a small mound, known locally as Kom el-Farahy, some 800m to the south-east of the necropolis of Hagr Edfu. The work shows that the site formed as an island in the Nile, suggesting that the river lay 3km to the west of Edfu town and temple during the New Kingdom. Geophysical fieldwork on the west side of the Edfu mound has clearly revealed the profile of the sandstone outcrop upon which the temple stands.


. First in this paper we will prove the Kakeya maximal function conjecture in a special case when tube intersections behave like line intersec- tions. This paper highlights how different tube intersections can be than line intersections. However, we show that the general case can be deducted from the line like case.


The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Toolkit is a computer program for training scientists, engineers, and university students in three soft-computing techniques (fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms) used in artificial-intelligence applications. The program promotes an easily understandable tutorial interface, including an interactive graphical component through which the user can gain hands-on experience in soft-computing techniques applied to realistic example problems. The tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on the workings of soft-computing technology, whereas the hands-on examples allow interaction and reinforcement of the techniques explained throughout the tutorial. In the fuzzy-logic example, a user can interact with a robot and an obstacle course to verify how fuzzy logic is used to command a rover traverse from an arbitrary start to the goal location. For the genetic algorithm example, the problem is to determine the minimum-length path for visiting a user-chosen set of planets in the solar system. For the neural-network example, the problem is to decide, on the basis of input data on physical characteristics, whether a person is a man, woman, or child. The AI Toolkit is compatible with the Windows 95,98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP operating systems. A computer having a processor speed of at least 300 MHz, and random-access memory of at least 56MB is recommended for optimal performance. The program can be run on a slower computer having less memory, but some functions may not be executed properly.


The government seems to be convinced that competition makes for better systems. It has pulled back on the centralised National Programme for IT in England and is now encouraging hospitals and general practices to choose their own computer hardware and software.


On the basis of the investigation and research into problems in documents of civil judgement,the paper mainly discusses the rules and methods of judges′ interpretation of law.Then it puts advances nine principles needed to be observed when striking a balance between judges′ interpretation of law and judical fairness.Moreover,four measures are also recommended for the reformation of composing the civil judgment documents.


Embodiments of the invention disclose an information display method and a terminal. The information display method comprises the following steps: after receiving information of distance between the terminal and an object, judging whether the distance between the terminal and the object is less than a preset threshold value by the terminal according to the information of the distance; and if judging that the distance between the terminal and the object is less than the preset threshold value, displaying the preset content in the current display interface of the terminal different from the other contents except the preset content in the current display interface according to a preset rule. In the embodiments of the invention, when the preset content in the current display interface of the terminal is displayed different from the other contents except the preset content in the current display interface according to the preset rule, the terminal is capable of carrying out adjustment according to the information of the distance between the terminal and the object without inputting touch operation by a user, so that the operation step of displaying the information by a user terminal can be simplified.


Lidar-assisted control is very promising to reduce the cost of energy for large floating offshore wind turbines by reacting proactive to wind changes. This paper presents a tutorial on how to develop and test a lidar-assisted controller using examples of a 15 MW floating reference wind turbine.


A single-letter stock ticker symbol is a limited resource – only 26 possibilities are available in a stock universe of over 475,000 possible one-, two-, three- or four-letter ticker symbols. These symbols were first allocated based on trading volume therefore some of the most important companies at the time were initially placed into this group. This paper examines the history of this group of stocks and documents a decline in the importance of these firms due to a natural turnover in commercial leadership and no established mechanism to remove the single-letter designation from firms that lost their prominence.


Premature sign off of audit procedure is one form of Reduced Audit Quality / RAQ behaviors. This act refers to falsely signing off a required audit step, which is not covered by other steps, without completing the work or noting the omisson of the procedures. However, auditor dares to express an opinion based on those procedures. An auditor can  make a wrong opinion on the financial statement if he conducts such act. As a result, litigation risk faced by an auditor will increase because of issuing a wrong opinion.  The objectives of this research are : first,  to know the sequence of audit procedures which most are often signed off and second, to test the effect of time pressure, audit risk, materiality, review procedure and quality control on premature sign off of audit procedure. The result of this research indicates that there is a priority sequence of discontinued audit procedure in time pressure conditions. The audit procedure which is often omitted is understanding business's client and the audit procedure which is seldom omitted is physical examination. The logistic regression shows that time pressure, audit risk, materiality, review procedure and quality control have an effect on prematurly signed off audit procedure.


Severe malnutrition is the consequence of systemic deficiency of energy and nutrients over a prolonged period: in children development is stunted and the individual is at risk of fatal (often clinically 'silent') infection and other illnesses. It is a medical and societal emergency: mortality is high, despite attempts to provide appropriate care.
 When severe malnutrition affects several individuals in a society, it reflects a state in which basic needs and justice are not met. Severe malnutrition may also result from clinical disorders affecting a single person with gastrointestinal disease, poor appetite, or reduced food intake for other reasons. The World Health Organization has produced guidelines for facility-based care of patients suffering severe malnutrition, and this chapter explains the diagnosis, treatment, and management of the condition, along with its possible complications.


The picture quality of a liquid crystal display (LCD) significantly changes with the observation angle. One of factors involved is the color change of an image. This study aimed to clarify the influence of color reproduction range on picture quality. In the experiment, "saturation decrement ratio" was newly defined for each of the primary colors, which restricted the change in color reproduction range on a display. Picture quality was measured by subjective evaluation of images reproduced with different saturation decrement ratios. We found that picture quality decreased monotonically with decreasing color saturation. When the saturation of a primary color was independently decreased, the decrease in picture quality was largest for a decrease in the saturation of blue. Moreover, the decrease in picture quality was larger than that of blue if the color temperature was kept constant.


In this study, we investigated the concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the ambient air of a small scale municipal waste landfill site. Seasonal sampling was carried out simultaneously at two sites, i.e. one in the center of the landfill area, and the other at a boundary site. Among 38 target VOC, toluene appeared to be the most dominant compound, followed by benzene, and xylenes. The higher levels of BTX imply that paint-containing materials and/or organic solvents are the most significant sources of the VOC in the landfill environment. Seasonal variations for the samples collected at the landfill site indicated that the VOC concentrations tend to be higher in the spring and fall season and lower in the winter season. In addition, night-time concentrations appeared to be generally higher than day-time. Such daily variation might be due to more stabilized atmosphere during the night-time. Similar patterns were also found in samples collected at a boundary site. This study demonstrated that the municipal landfill, although it is small-scaled, could be an important emission source of atmospheric VOC, particularly in the vicinities of the landfill. Thus, an appropriate control strategy is required to prevent any undesirable secondary pollutions from the environmental sanitary facilities such as landfill.


Part I. Introductions: 1. Within the shady hold of modernity: a preface to Creolization 2. A glow of after-memory: (beyond) identity politics in postcolonial literature and theory Part II. Irruptions: Bernadin de Saint-Pierre, Edouard Glissant, and the Double Time of Modernity: 3. 'The shadow of what one will be': Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's insular relations 4. Resisting memories: Edouard Glissant and the medusa of history Part III. Eruptions: (Rewriting) Caribbean Romanticism: 5. The memory of Hayti: William Faulkner, Victor Hugo, and the Saint-Domingue revolution 6. 1835, or Le troisieme siecle: the Creole afterlives of Cyrille-Charles-Auguste Bissette, Louis de Maynard de Queilhe, and Victor Schoelcher 7. The (un)exploded volcano: Daniel Maximin's Soufrieres and the apocalypse of narrative Part IV. Conclusion: 8. The last frontier: memories of the postcolonial future in Keri Julme's the bone people Notes Bibliography Index.


Defines the conception and characteristics of the revolution in modern science and technology, analyzes the influence of modern science and technology on civil engineering, points out the main challenges that civil engineering is facing, presents that technical innovation is strategic choice of the development of civil engineering, which would be beneficial to promote the development of civil engineering.


Reviewing the philosophical literature on time, one is struck by a dichotomy of approaches: on the one hand there are studies on time as a scientific concept and on the other hand there are inquiries into time as a moment of or as the horizon of human experience. Is it possible to overcome this division? Is it possible to develop one concept of time that unites both approaches in order to conceive of them as different appearances of this one concept? This study tries to develop this comprehensive concept of time based on Hegel's notion of reflection. By connecting different forms of reflection to time, the connection is shown between the different shapes of time: the volatile now, the relations 'earlier-than' and 'later-than' (i.e., the time of nature) on the one hand, and the glimpse of time (= Augenblick) and the determinations 'present', 'past', and 'future' (i.e., the time of - a part of - human experience) on the other hand.


Phonons in the α-quaterthiophene (4T) and α-sexithiophene (6T) polymorph phases are investigated using the direct method combined with density functional theory (DFT)-based total energy calculations. The simulation of inelastic neutron scattering spectra (INS) on the LT and HT polymorph phases of 4T and 6T enable the corresponding spectral signatures of these materials to be identified. In particular, there are two fingerprints:  (i) the low-frequency vibrational modes (frequencies lower than 200 cm-1) and (ii) the vibrational modes in the 600−900 cm-1 frequency range. The good agreement with the INS experimental data allows us to assign unambiguously the origin of all features (first-order and high-order processes) of these spectra and to predict that the LT phase is the phase measured experimentally both on the 4T and 6T materials. Moreover, the broad background in the 600−1400 cm-1 frequency range and the well-defined features which appear around 940 cm-1 in the calculated INS spectra of 4T/HT and 6T/H...


In this fourth part of our series, you'll meet two patients experiencing the same degree of pain. But their life-styles are different. Should life-style issues influence nurses' pain-control decisions? Compare what you think your nursing colleagues would do with the opinions of the nurses surveyed by the authors.


The article clarifies the fact that the issue of studying the personality development of higher school
teachers in the context of their professional activity is relevant. Readiness for professional activity is
considered as a system characterized by appropriate coefficients, the complex consideration of which allows
obtaining reliable information about the real level of teachers' professional work. It is expedient to present the
features of the professional teaching staff of higher educational institutions in three categories: a practising
teacher, a teacher-researcher and a scientist in the field of specialization of an educational institution. The
higher school teachers' scientific and pedagogical activities in the context of modern morality are an important
component of their professional competence, substantially affecting the results of their teaching and research
activities. It is considered as the realization of the idea of humanization of science and education.


In this context, we have investigated the growth kinetics and characteristics of metamorphic InAs QD lasers on GaAs, wherein special techniques of p-doping and tunnel injection are incorporated. As a result, we have realized high quality InAs QDs on GaAs that are comparable, in both photoluminescence (PL) intensity and linewidth (~30 meV), to state-of-the-art 1.1 and 1.3 μm InAs pseudomorphic QDs. 1.5 μm metamorphic lasers made with these heterostructures exhibit ultra-low Jth, large T0 (556 K), large modulation frequency response and near-zero alpha-parameter and chirp


Pre-table for treatment of containers e.g. bottles, plastic, cardboard packing has rinser, filling machine, locking machine and associated transportation elements along with transportation star interconnected using joining elements (13). The joining elements are used to connect two container treatment machines.


Oil spills caused by the accidents have been occurred from house and factory waste, grounded tanker, the rupture of storage tank and oil pipelines, the deterioration of various industrial facilities, etc. Many oil spills result in contamination of shorelines and workplace. Fire and explosion may happen from these spills. There are several technologies used for clean-up application, which include use of oil dispersing agents, absorbents, solidifiers, booms and skimmers by physical, chemical, and biological methods. Methods for oil spill clean-up operation are classified into the absorption type, gel type and self-swelling type. Porous materials with oil absorptive properties are classified into micropore, mesopore, and macropore depending on their pore sizes. Recently, new porous materials with smaller size have been developed, but the selective oil absorption in water-in-oil interface demonstrates the macro pore size. In this study oil absorption effects were evaluated using the organic porous materials with a complex function of gel type and swelling type. Samples were subjected to analysis by FT-IR spectroscopy and were characterized in terms of gel formation and morphologies. Oil sorption capacity, pressure retention force and gel strength were also measured. From these results, the physicochemical reactivity before and after gelation was verified and the industrial applications of clean-up operation were suggested.


This study investigated the hindrance of customs procedures to the development of free trade zones in Taiwan, attempted to identify the hindrances and proposed solutions through literature reviews and field research. Through literature reviews and field research, this study found that: a. customs procedures impede the liberalization of international logistics in free trade zones., b. the coexistence of business in existing development areas and same business in free trade zones impedes customs management; c. customs is inflexible in thinking and rules and is not easily subject to autonomous management; d. unsimplified customs procedures are one of the major obstacles to the development of free trade zone in Taiwan; e. the Customs Administration, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and non-governmental enterprises have different attitudes towards autonomous management of security guards and audit mechanism.


(1986). The causes and character of the Arab exodus from Palestine: the Israel defence forces intelligence branch analysis of June 1948. Middle Eastern Studies: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 5-19.


IgE antibody specific for AgE (IgE—AgE) was eluted from human basophils at acid pH and quantified by its binding of 125I AgE in antigen excess. The quantity of Ige—AgE recovered from 30 ml of blood ranged from 0.08 ng to 10.3 ng representing 500 to 56,000 molecules IgE—AgE per basophil. The number of molecules of IgE—AgE per basophil was compared to plasma IgE—AgE, total plasma IgE and leucocyte histamine release in response to AgE.

The ratio of plasma IgE—AgE to basophil bound IgE—AgE ranged from 100 to 4000, indicating that there are a limited number of IgE receptors on the basophil surface as contrasted to the concentration of IgE in the plasma. There was no correlation between IgE—AgE in plasma and the number of molecules of IgE—AgE per basophil. However there was a significant correlation between the ration of IgE—AgE to total IgE in plasma and the number of IgE—AgE molecules per basophil.

Two measures of leucocyte histamine release in response to AgE, cell reactivity (maximum per cent histamine release attainable) and sensitivity (lowest antigen dose leading to 50% release), were compared to the number of IgE—AgE molecules per basophil. Cell reactivity was dependent on the number of IgE—AgE molecules per basophil. Only 2500 molecules IgE—AgE per basophil were required to reach a cellular reactivity of 50%. Cell sensitivity to AgE was not correlated with the number of molecules IgE—AgE per basophil which indicated that other factors played a role in determining the sensitivity of a population of basophils to antigenic stimulation by AgE.


Background. 5HT3 antagonist, an antiemetic alternative to dexamethasone, is an effective drug for the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). Methods. PubMed and The Cochrane Library (from inception to June 2016) were searched for relevant RCTs (randomized controlled trials). Results. Seven trials, totaling 682 patients, were included in this meta-analysis. This meta-analysis demonstrated that 5HT3 antagonist was as effective as dexamethasone in preventing PONV (RR, 1.12; 95% CI, [0.86, 1.45]; P = 0.40) within 24 hours of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and no significant heterogeneity was observed among the studies (I 2 = 0%; P = 0.98). During the early postoperative period (0–6 h), 5HT3 antagonists were superior to dexamethasone in reducing POV (RR, 0.31; 95% CI, [0.11, 0.93]; P = 0.04), while, in other postoperative stages (6–12 h, 12–24 h, and 0–24 h), it was not more effective in the prevention of POV than dexamethasone. And no significant difference was found in the prevention of PON between 5HT3 antagonists and dexamethasone at different postoperative periods (0–6 h, 6–12 h, 12–24 h, and 0–24 h). Conclusions. As a result, it is advisable to encourage 5HT3 antagonists as an alternative to dexamethasone for the prevention of PONV in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.


Sparse data causes the data explosion problem in precomputation process and decreases the performance of OLAP. The regular sparsity map is an object that saves information about specific empty domains of the OLAP hyper-cubes and enables business analysts to define rules and place data constraints over the multidimensional cube. The preserved information can be used for several purposes — data validation, storage consideration, user-interface improvements. In this paper we present an approach for a regular sparsity map representation. It allows implementation of set operations between a regular sparsity map and multidimensional domains and requires less storage and computational resources.


We shall work in the piecewise-linear category, so that all manifolds and subsets thereof, as well as all maps are assumed to be piecewise-linear. If M is a manifold, denote by #k M the k-fold connected sum of copies of M and by 2M the double of M, that is the manifold obtained by sewing two copies of M together by the identity map on their boundaries.


Introduction. The majority of patients with occipital infarcts display homonymous visual field defects (VFD), with negative implications on activities of daily living and quality of life. To overcome the disability, better prognostic markers in the acute phase, as well as more targeted rehabilitation, would be useful. The aim of the current study was to present an overview of the topographic distribution of occipital infarcts and to investigate whether lesion volume can predict VFD at baseline and after six months. Materials and Methods. Multicenter, prospective study including patients with acute occipital infarcts (NOR-OCCIP project). All patients were examined by a neurologist in the acute phase, admitted to a stroke unit, and further assessed by an ophthalmologist within two weeks. Topographic and volumetric data from brain imaging in 72 patients were analyzed and computed by an experienced neuroradiologist. Results. A majority (81%) had occipital infarcts with involvement of the primary visual cortex, and VFD were detected on perimetry in 80% of the examined patients. Higher infarct volume led to more severe VFD at baseline (

 p
 =
 0.019

 ); this was more evident if the infarct was located on the right side (

 p
 =
 0.001

 ). The odds for VFD improvement after six months were higher the larger the infarcts were (

 p
 =
 0.020

 ). There was a statistically significant association between volume of infarcts and atrial fibrillation (

 p
 =
 0.016

 ), previous myocardial infarction (

 p
 =
 0.023

 ), and modified Rankin Scale at three months (

 p
 =
 0.007

 ). Conclusion. Higher infarct volumes led to more severe VFD at baseline. More than half of the patients (54%) experienced improvement of their VFD at six months; a higher grade of improvement was seen in patients with larger occipital infarcts. Large infarcts were more common in patients with cardiovascular disease, strengthening the argument for secondary prevention.


Paliperidone palmitate (РР) is a new long-acting antipsychotic injection for acute and maintenance therapy in schizophrenia. РР has been shown to be effective in reducing PАNSS total scores in four short-term trials in acute schizophrenia. It was also effective as maintenance therapy in a long-term trial in which time to recurrence of symptoms was significantly longer in paliperidone-treated patients compared with placebo. In addition, РР was shown to be noninferior to risperidone long-acting injection in one study, but this noninferiority was not established in another longer study comparing the two drugs. РР should be initiated with 150 mg equivalents on day 1 and 100 mg on day 8, followed by a recommended monthly maintenance dose of 25-150 mg based on efficacy and tolerability. PР is generally well tolerated, although it can cause weight gain and a rise in prolactin levels, which is generally greater in women than in men. Overall, РР may have advantages over other currently available long-acting injections, and therefore may be a useful alternative for the treatment of schizophrenia, although further long-term trials comparing it with active treatments are warranted.


In the main text we deduced the qualitative dependence of the energy, and hence the Josephson current, on the phase difference δφ sc between the two superconductors in Fig. 2(a). This Section explores the physics uncovered there more quantitatively. We continue to work in the limit where the tunnelling strength M(x) vanishes whereas the pairing fields in Eq. (15) pin θ beneath each superconductor. The normal region between the superconductors can then be described by an effective Hamiltonian H = mv 2π x2+ x1 dx[(∂ x ϕ) 2 + (∂ x θ) 2 ], (S1) subject to boundary conditions on ϕ(x 1) and ϕ(x 2 +) induced by the neighboring superconductors. Because (in contrast to the earlier discussion of the solution for localized zero-modes in Methods section) the same field is now pinned at both endpoints, it is essential that one incorporates compactness of ϕ in what follows; failure to do so yields incorrect results for the dependence of the energy on δφ sc. We will for simplicity set ϕ(x 1) = 0—that is, we fix the eigen-value of the operatorˆn (1) ϕ defined earlier to zero without loss of generality. At the right boundary, however, we take ϕ(x 2 +) = mod π m ˆ n (2) ϕ + δφ sc 2π + π, 2π − π, (S2) wherê n (2) ϕ is the same integer-valued operator introduced previously. The right-hand side of Eq. (S2) minimizes the pairing term in Eq. (15) and importantly also restricts ϕ(x 2 +) to lie between −π and π for any δφ sc andˆn (2) ϕ. Imposing this bound on the range of ϕ(x 2 +) ensures that ϕ(x) need not exhibit any unnecessary twists between x = x 1 and x 2 +. To diagonalize the Hamiltonian we decompose ϕ, θ as follows: ϕ(x) = ϕ (x 2 +) x − x 1 x 2 + − x 1


We report on the crystal growth of the quasi-one-dimensional quantum spin chain compound SrCuO2 and its doped variants containing magnetic cobalt (0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, and 2.5%) and nonmagnetic zinc (0.5% and 1%) impurities. Crystals are grown using the traveling solvent floating zone (TSFZ) method in a four-mirror optical furnace. Some crucial factors, key to the stability of a TSFZ process, including the choice of solvent composition and its associated melting behavior, are discussed in detail. The grown crystals were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, neutron single crystal diffraction and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Co-doping induces magnetic anisotropy and a corresponding change of magnetic behavior characterized by the presence of a sharp peak in the magnetic susceptibility at low-temperatures (T = 5 K), which is not seen for the pristine compound. The peak position is shown to scale linearly with Co-concentration for low doping leve...


Summary Isolated beating rat hearts perfused with [1,2-14C] acetaldehyde oxidize the compound to 14CO2. Inhibition of the oxidation by pretreatment in vivo with disulfiram suggests the involvement of a myocardial aldehyde dehydrogenase. The dehydrogenation of acetaldehyde may be rate-limiting since acetate oxidation to carbon dioxide proceeds faster than acetaldehyde oxidation in the perfused rat heart. We are grateful to Steve Altman for helpful discussion and technical assistance.


"Join us at this international conference as scientists, engineers, and researchers from academia, industry, and government laboratories come together to share results and discuss issues on related topics through a variety of formats, including oral presentations, poster sessions, panel discussions, tutorial sessions, short courses, professional development workshops, a career expo, exhibits, and more! ECS meetings' unique blend of electrochemical and solid state science and technology provides opportunities to absorb and exchange information on the latest scientific developments across a variety of interdisciplinary areas in a forum of your peers."


Photography become an activity which is liked by various kinds of people for it is pleasing and promising. It's not a surprise that there are many people wanting to learn photography. This empowers a former photographer of Rolling Stone magazine, Anton Ismael, to build a community focusing on phatography activity named Kelas Pagi Jakarta. This community shares knowledges of photography to the society for free. This study aims to find out the meanings, motives, as well as the typhology of the Kelas Pagi Jakarta members toward the photography learning activities in the community. The study is a qualitative study using phenomenology approach from Alfred Schutz's theory. The result shows that many people regards Kelas Pagi Jakarta as a mean to get knowledge from the expert. There are also found that one of their motives on participating in this community is to be able to have expensive knowledge for free as well as open up their chances of obtaining a relation inside of photography's world. Last, three clusters results typology as follows: (1) Quality of Work; make something with a good quality, pursue what have left behind, and strengthen self-quality. (2) Social Contribution; share about something they've got to be useful to those who want to know about photography. (3) Existence; the chance to develop themselves in order to increase relations by counting on photography profession to earn for their live.


In this paper I will review the state of the text generation lexicon. I have two primary goals: 1) to give the reader an idea of what is currently being done, by setting out some of the alternatives designers of generation lexicons have faced, the choices they have made, and the implications of these choices for the types of lexical phenomena they have been able to represent. 2) to suggest what a generation lexicon could do, i.e. what range of lexical phenomena is relevant to the generation task. These issues will be addressed more or less in parallel throughout this paper, with more attention to the first goal in the first two sections, and to the second in the last three sections.


The research was carried out in two stages: the production of seedlings of chinese cabbage in trays with subsequent transplantation for the field, aiming to evaluate the performance of different substrates on the culture development. For this reason it was determined, both at the stage of formation of the seedlings, as in adult plants the length of the aerial part, number of leaves, root length, dry mass of the aerial part, root dry mass and diameter of the root collar. The experiment was conducted in a protected environment with the following treatments: T0 Plantmax substrate® (HA); T1: 100% compound; T2: 95% compost + 2.5% sand + 2.5% rock powder; T3: 90% compost + 3% sand + 7% powdered rock and T4: 85% compost + 6% sand + 9% rock powder. In the production of seedlings, the organic substrates formulated with 100% and 85% compound, had better results, the 15 and 28, respectively. The results of field have shown that the addition of rock powder is a determinant factor in the performance of seedlings, with the best results in the plots cultivated with seedlings obtained in the substrates formulated with 7 and 9% of basalt powder.


Wind speed plays a very important role in the scheduling of power systems and dynamic control of wind turbine. Wind speed forecasting has become one of the most important issue for wind energy conversion recently. Adaptive and reliable methods and techniques for wind speed forecasting are urgently needed in view of its stochastic nature that varies from time to time and from site to site. Back Propagation (BP) algorithm-based neural network, which is a commonly computational intelligence method, has been widely used in forecasting fields. But it does have some deficiencies and uncertainties, for example, the hidden nodes of BP directly affect the network's generalization ability and accuracy, but there is not yet an effective theory to determine the number of hidden nodes. In order to solve the problem of BP network, a combination forecasting model with differently weighed BP networks is proposed in this study. Wind speed data collected from a New Zealand wind power plant is used for experiment research. Simulations show that the results of combination forecasting method is better than those of only one BP network.


CdSiO3: Tb3þ , Re3þ long-lasting phosphors were synthesized by the conventional high temperature solidstate method. A green-light phosphorescence phenomenon, which was associated with the D4-FJ (J1⁄46, 5, 4, 3) transitions of the Tb3þ ion, was observed. Introduction of Re3þ (Re3þ1⁄4Gd3þ , Y3þ , La3þ) ions, which deepens the depth (Et) or/and increases the density (n0) of traps, greatly improved the afterglow properties of CdSiO3: Tb3þ . Possible mechanism of CdSiO3: Tb3þ , Re3þ was discussed in this work. & 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Privacy with the use of face images is becoming a major concern in civilians' applications. Recent studies have exploited privacy protection methods by means of facial attributes editing or de-identifying face images. Altering attributes causes loss of information for facial analysis while most de-identification studies did not quantitatively evaluate how well facial attributes are preserved. Moreover, state-of-the-art face analysis utilized 3D information for better performance. Existing face privacy studies only focusing in 2D domain is a key limitation towards the compatibility of more advanced 3D face analysis. This paper presents the first study on the possibility of 3D face de-identification with preserving facial attributes. We systematically evaluate the performance of 2D/3D face/facial attribute recognition and develop 2D/3D de-identification methods with preserving facial attributes using Auto Encoder and Generative Adversarial Networks approaches. We present comprehensive and reproducible experimental results using a publicly available 3D face database with facial attribute annotations for benchmarking and further research. https://github.com/kevinhmcheng/3d-face-de-id


The characterization of nanometer CMOS transistors of different aspect ratios at deep-cryogenic temperatures (4 K and 100 mK) is presented for two standard CMOS technologies (40 nm and 160 nm). A detailed understanding of the device physics at those temperatures was developed and captured in an augmented MOS11/PSP model. The accuracy of the proposed model is demonstrated by matching simulations and measurements for DC and time-domain at 4 K and, for the first time, at 100 mK.