This paper examined the challenges of performance auditing in public sector accountability with emphasis on the Office of the Auditor-General in Nigeria. Specifically, the study looked at auditor's independence threat and the unsatisfactory performance of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and challenges faced by the Office of the Auditor-General while carrying out performance auditing in the Nigerian public sector.


In his important essay on analytic and ethnic genres Dan BenAmos raised an urgent call for the study of "grammars of folklore." One of the arguments in his essay was that the system of ethnic genres would be a suitable object system for folkloristic grammarians to study. If, as Ben-Amos maintains, it is true that "folklore communication, allusive and complex as it is, is based upon culturally defined rules, then their discovery is essential."1 The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, through argument and example, the utility of certain grammatical or, more correctly, semiotic concepts in discovering the rules of folklore and arranging them systematically so that they might be used in the classification of genres. Our discussion will center primarily on African narrative, both for ease of argument and because it is the subject of most of our research. A grammar might be defined as a systems theory of a language. In normal usage, however, grammar is generally understood as referring to the subsystem of structure that languages possess, that is, their syntax. When we use the word in this paper we mean to indicate a more general definition, one derived from the works of Charles Morris and Rudolf Carnap. In their writings the term semiotic is used to describe what Carnap called "a complete theory of an object language."2 Carnap describes the semiotic in this fashion:


The unsteady transient free convection flow of an incompressible viscous fluid past an infinite vertical channel in the presence of applied magnetic is considered by taking into account viscous dissipative heat along with the free convection currents. The variations of velocity field and temperature field for air ( r P =0.71) and water ( r P =7.0) under the influence of magnetic field M, Grashof number G and Eckert number c E have been discussed. The variations of skin-friction of air and water have also been studied. The finite difference technique is employed in solving the governing equations.


The present investigation entitled "Field efficacy of certain insecticides against Maize stem borer [Chilo partellus (Swinhoe)]" was conducted at the Central Research Field, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj, U.P. during Kharif 2018. Among all the treatments studied, lowest per cent infestation of stem borer was recorded in Carbofuran (7.98), followed by Spinosad (9.71), Chlorpyriphos + Cypermethrin (11.10), Chlorpyriphos (11.45), Fipronil (12.14), Imidacloprid (12.84) and Dimethoate (14.92). The treatment Dimethoate (14.92) was least effective among all the treatments. The best and most economical treatment was T4 Carbofuran 3%G (1:1.96) followed by T3 Spinosad (1:1.80), T1 Chlorpyriphos 50%EC+ Cypermethrin 5%EC (1:1.68), T2 Fipronil 0.3% Gr (1:1.59), T5 Imidacloprid 17.8 %SL (1:1.59), T6 chlorpyriphos 20% EC (1:1.52), T7 Dimethoate 30% EC (1:1.32) as compared to T8 Control (1:1.21). All the treatments were found significantly superior to untreated control in reducing the maize stem borer infestation.


This paper is concerned with the problem of fault detection (FD) observer design in finite frequency domain for two-dimensional (2-D) continuous-discrete systems described by Roesser model. Two finite frequency performance indexes are introduced to measure the fault sensitivity and the disturbance robustness. On the base of the generalized Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov (KYP) lemma in 2-D continuous-discrete case, sufficient conditions ensuring simultaneously stability and finite frequency performance are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Market-driven software development companies experience challenges in requirements management that many traditional requirements engineering methods and techniques do not acknowledge. Large markets, limited contact with end users, and strong competition forces the market-driven software development company to constantly invent new, selling requirements, frequently release new versions with an accompanying pressure of short time-to-market, and take both the technical and financial risks of development. This thesis presents empirical results from case studies in requirements elicitation and management at a software development company. The results include techniques to explore, understand, and handle bottlenecks in the requirements process where requirements continuously arrive at a high rate from many different stakeholders. Through simulation of the requirements process, potential bottlenecks are identified at an early stage, and fruitless improvement attempts may be avoided. Several techniques are evaluated and recommended to support the market-driven organisation in order to increase software quality and avoid process overload situations. It is shown that a quick and uncomplicated in-house usability evaluation technique, an improved heuristic evaluation, may be adequate to get closer to customer satisfaction. Since needs and opportunities differ between markets, a distributed prioritisation technique is suggested that will help the organisation to pick the most cost-beneficial and customer satisfying requirements for development. Finally, a technique based on automated natural language analysis is investigated with the aim to help resolve congestion in the requirements engineering process, yet retaining ideas that may bring a competitive advantage. (Less)


Linguistic complexity has become an established construct in SLA research, mainly due to the essential role of complexity measures in the assessment of learners' written performance. However, research on syntactic complexity was criticized for promoting a reductionist approach, with the consequence that an entire dimension of the construct was left unexplored. In fact, while several definitions of syntactic complexity emphasize concepts such as variety and diversity, most research on L2 writing has confined its calculation to a handful of indices, mainly measures of syntactic elaboration (length-based metrics and frequency of clause-linking devices). There are several reasons for extending the operationalization of syntactic complexity to diversity measures. First, proficient language use does not necessarily imply an increase in the use of weighty structures (longer sentences with more subordinate clauses). Second, the complexification of learners' interlanguage is largely dependent on the typological specificities of the target-language system since languages may rely on different grammar features to encode similar propositional content.


PURPOSE: To provide a method and a system for diagnosing a failure of production equipment capable of automatically diagnosing a failure even in the case of manufacturing various kinds of industrial products. CONSTITUTION: This system for diagnosing a failure of a production equipment contains a production equipment 5 to be diagnosed, diagnostic quantity sensors 32-37 for measuring a diagnostic quantity of the production equipment 5 to be diagnosed, a real time controller 531 for driving and controlling the production equipment 5 to be diagnosed, a failure real time determination module 533 for forming a failure diagnosing data by computing in relation to outputs of the diagnostic quantity sensors 32-37 to determine a failure, an equipment information memory device 103 storing the data of the diagnostic quantity of the production equipment as an equipment information data base to process the same/similar processing with the production equipment 5 to be diagnosed, and a process control information memory device 102 for recording the process control information data base containing a recipe of a manufacturing process sequence and a recipe of a load test sequence for driving and controlling the production equipment 5 to be diagnosed to output the recipe to the real time controller 531.


useful book. Taking up Michael Hechter's discussion of internal colonialism and working in a framework of labor, class, and nation that E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Helgerson, and others have set out in the past few decades, Netzloff makes a contribution to studies of colonialism and class. More particularly, he works on the poor and the vagrant, supplementing work done by scholars such as Paul Slack and Lind Woodbridge. Netzloff raises the question of the erasure of the poor and laboring classes in England and its colonies. In Hakluyt as well as in Richard Eburne colonization could relieve England of its burden of the poor, unemployed, and unable. This study negotiates the intricate relations and story of nation and empire, land, and capital. England's Internal Colonies is a book whose signs are worth reading and, no matter how refractory, a typology worth decoding, as William Blake might have said in a later context. JONATHAN HART University of Alberta


IS GLOBALIZATION GOOD for women? The answer to this question obviously depends on what one means by "globalization" and by "good" and which "women" one has in mind. After explaining briefly what I mean by "globalization" and "good" and indicating which women I have in mind, I intend to argue that globalization, as we currently know it, is not good for most women. However, I'll suggest that the badness of the present situation is not due to globalization as such, but rather to its specific neoliberal mode of organization. I'll identify some of the questions that globalization urgently raises for political philosophy and end by sketching one vision of an alternative form of globalization that could be very good for women-as well as for children and men.


Accurate and reliable fault analysis is essential to improve the performance of gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and ensure the safe and stable operation of the power system. Advances in the perception and measurement technology of power primary equipment have increased the scale of GIS operation and fault data. Driven by massive samples, deep learning has brought new opportunities for GIS fault identification and intelligence diagnosis. As an unsupervised learning method, stacked autoencoder (SAE) can automatically extract representative expressions and in-depth features from massive unlabeled data. Consequently, it can effectively alleviate the problems of incomplete data category labels and limited data samples. Meanwhile, transfer learning can avoid the need to train the model from scratch under the new dataset. For this reason, this paper combines SAE with transfer learning to realize partial discharge (PD) pattern recognition of GIS in order to solve the problem of complex and variable and large randomness of the on partial discharge samples. Unsupervised greedy layer-wise pre-training and supervised fine-tuning are leveraged to train the SAE model. The experimental data was generated using four types of PD in the laboratory. The optimal SAE structure is trained under the source domain, and the GIS PD pattern recognition under the target domain is realized through transfer learning. Experimental results show that the proposed method has stronger robustness and generalization while improving the accuracy of partial discharge pattern recognition of GIS.


From 1886 to 1995, heavy mineral placer deposits in Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada have yielded 1,143 tonnes (36.78 million ounces) refined gold, 179 tonnes (5.76 million ounces) of byproduct silver, 20.1 tonnes (646,046 ounces) platinum metals, 2,858 tonnes tin, and minor amounts of tungsten, mercury and antimony. Approximately 78 percent of total gold, 98 percent of total platinum, and 96 percent of total tin output from the Alaska-Yukon regionhave been extracted from placer deposits; remaining historical production of these commodities have been derived from standard lode (hardrock) deposits. Reserves of all past productive commodities exist in Alaskan-Yukon placer deposits. In addition, significant resources of titanium (ilmenite), iron (magnetite), and zircon have been delineated in strandlines of Alaskan coastal areas.


The delay Lyapunov equation is a matrix boundary value problem arising in the characterization of many properties of time-delay systems, for example stability analysis. Its numerical treatment is c ...


We compute the factorization homology of a polynomial algebra over a compact and closed manifold with trivialized tangent bundle up to weak equivalence in a new way. This calculation is based on the model of a graph complex and an explicit morphism into the codomain, which makes it possible to twist the algebra with a Maurer-Cartan element and potentially apply other deformations.


Computer science education is to teach students to solve problems, design systems, provoke creativity, and explore their own interest by using basic concepts of computer science. From science to the humanities, mathematics and logical thinking ability also affect every aspect of computer science education. To foster mathematics logical thinking and problem-solving ability in primary and secondary schools, students not only require to learn to read, writing, and arithmetic, but also need to understand the abstraction of mathematics operations and logical thinking processes. Therefore, this study uses visual programming language as a basis, i.e. Scratch 2.0 offline edition, to introduce abstraction of mathematics operations. Scratch 2.0 can empower learners using graphical elements to solve mathematics problems with a smooth learning curve through user-friendly programming interface. However, the latest version of Scratch 2.0 does not include enough functions for abstracting mathematical blocks. Consequently, this study integrates Scratch programming environment with math library of Python language to expand functionality and improve usability of Scratch. Moreover, learners are expected to learn and practice more about mathematical thinking through those additional Scratch building blocks.


This study utilised TESTA (Transforming the experience of students through assessment) to examine assessment and feedback processes and practices within nursing and midwifery under graduate programmes of study at Edinburgh Napier University (UK). TESTA is a tried and tested process that uses validated tools and has been widely accepted by Higher Education Institutes worldwide. Three triangulated methodologies are used to gather data related to current assessment and feedback practice through an audit and the student voice is heard by means of a questionnaire and focus groups. The results of our TESTA approach demonstrated that students experienced mainly summative assessments and a wide range of assessment type yet failed to see the value of some forms of assessment. The findings also demonstrated that students were unclear about goals and standards expected of them and were dissatisfied with the quality and quantity of feedback they received. The study initiated a dialogue amongst staff and served as a catalyst for appropriate changes in assessment and feedback practice within the current programmes. Groups of staff worked on specific priorities within the data and the outcomes of this informed the design and development of a new curriculum.


The design of large high power thyristors will be described with respect to their application in closing switches e.g. for electromagnetic launchers. The basic limitation today is the plasma spreading of the ignited area within the thyristor chip. As closing switch, the turn-off characteristics are unimportant and a large charge carrier lifetime is advantageous to improve plasma spreading. Available devices with VDRM= 4400 - 6500 V and silicon diameters 80 - 100 mm are analyzed and the circuit requirements for their application are described. These devices can be used for switching load currents of more than 100 kA in less than 100 /spl mu/s. The possible requirement of series and/or parallel connection for higher powers is in many cases offset by the inherent ruggedness of thyristors compared to ignitrons or other gas tubes. Main advantages of thyristors for suchs applications can be summarized with longer lifetime, no degradation, high rep. frequencies and no warming up time. The performance of high power diodes to turn-on at high di/dt > 100 A//spl mu/s in free-wheeling applications is also considered.


Animal studies have proved useful in establishing the actual development of tolerance to nicotine, the magnitude of such tolerance, and mechanisms that underlie this tolerance. The majority of these studies have used the rat and mouse as experimental subjects. Most of the chronic tolerance studies using the rat have focused on the effects of nicotine on locomotor activity. Depression of locomotor activity typically occurs following the injection of nicotine in doses exceeding 0.2 mg/kg in drug-naive rats. Tolerance to this depression develops following chronic treatment (Keenan and Johnson 1972; Stolerman, Fink, Jarvik 1973; Stolerman, Bunker, Jarvik 1974). The magnitude of this tolerance is influenced by the dose and dosing interval. Tolerance persists for greater than 90 days when nicotine is injected chronically. Tolerance to the effects of injected nicotine on depression of locomotor activity could also be produced with nicotine administered in the rats' drinking water or through subcutaneously implanted reservoirs (Stolerman, Fink, Jarvik 1973). Under certain experimental conditions, rats treated chronically with nicotine exhibit an increase in locomotor activity following nicotine challenge (Morrison and Stephenson 1972; BaA5ttig et al. 1976; Clarke and Kumar 1983a,b). A careful analysis of the response to an acute challenge dose of nicotine demonstrated that soon after the first dose of nicotine, depressed locomotor activity was observed; after 40 min or more, increased locomotor activity became apparent (Clarke and Kumar 1983b). Chronically injected rats exhibited this enhanced activity progressively earlier postinjection. More recently, Ksir and others (1985, 1987) demonstrated that chronic nicotine injections may result in enhanced locomotor activity immediately after nicotine injection if the rats were acclimated to the test apparatus for 1 hr before nicotine injection. These findings indicate that in the rat, tolerance develops to the depressant effects of nicotine and that this tolerance uncovers a latent stimulatory action. If mice are injected chronically with nicotine, tolerance develops to the locomotor depressant effects elicited by a challenge dose of nicotine (Hatchell and Collins 1977). The degree and rate of development of tolerance appear to be influenced by the sex, as well as the strain, of the animals. Tolerance development has been studied by continuously infusing mice of several inbred strains with nicotine and assessing tolerance by measuring locomotor activity, body temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, and acoustic startle response following nicotine challenge. Such studies have demonstrated that: (1) Tolerance to nicotine increases with the nicotine


This study investigated the influence of maternal choline intake on the human placental transcriptome, with a special interest in its role in modulating placental vascular function. Healthy pregnant women (n=26, wk 26–29 gestation) were randomized to 480 mg choline/d, an intake level approximating the adequate intake of 450 mg/d, or 930 mg/d for 12 wk. Maternal blood and placental samples were retrieved at delivery. Whole genome expression microarrays were used to identify placental genes and biological processes impacted by maternal choline intake. Maternal choline intake influenced a wide array of genes (n=166) and biological processes (n=197), including those related to vascular function. Of special interest was the 30% down‐regulation (P=0.05) of the antiangiogenic factor and preeclampsia risk marker fms‐like tyrosine kinase‐1 (sFLT1) in the placenta tissues obtained from the 930 vs. 480 mg/d choline intake group. Similar decreases (P=0.04) were detected in maternal blood sFLT1 protein concentrations. The down‐regulation of sFLT1 by choline treatment was confirmed in a human trophoblast cell culture model and may be related to enhanced acetylcholine signaling. These findings indicate that supplementing the maternal diet with extra choline may improve placental angiogenesis and mitigate some of the pathological antecedents of preeclampsia.—Jiang, X., Bar, H. Y., Yan, J., Jones, S., Brannon, P. M., West, A. A., Perry, C. A., Ganti, A., Pressman, E., Devapatla, S., Vermeylen, F., Wells, M. T., and Caudill, M. A. A higher maternal choline intake among third‐trimester pregnant women lowers placental and circulating concentrations of the antiangiogenic factor fms‐like tyrosine kinase‐1 (sFLT1). FASEB J. 27, 1245–1253 (2013). www.fasebj.org


Background and aim This study aimed to determine the effect of gestational nicotine exposure before neurodevelopment on the morphology and histology of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in rats. Methodology Adult female Wistar rats were time-mated and grouped into three categories: (a) control–given 0.1 mL of normal saline, (b) low-dose nicotine–given 6.88 mg/ kg/d/0.05 mL, and (c) high-dose nicotine–given 13.76 mg/kg/d/0.1 mL in two divided doses. Treatment was given intraperitoneally from gestational days 2 to 6. On postnatal day 15 (P15), the pups were separated from their mothers, anaesthetised and sacrificed, followed by intracardial perfusion with 4% paraformaldehyde. PFC was excised from the brain and processed for tissue histology, histochemistry, and morphology of brain cells. Results Gestational nicotine exposure during the first week of gestation in rats significantly reduced birth weights in nicotine-treated groups compared with control; it, however, accelerated body weights, altered neuronal morphology, and elevated astrocytic count significantly, while oligodendroglial count was slightly increased in the PFC of juvenile rats examined at P15. Conclusion These alterations revealed that gestational nicotine exposure before the commencement of the cellular processes involved in brain development negatively affects neurodevelopment, and this could result in neurological dysfunctions in later life.


When projecting and planning a final high-level radioactive waste disposal site various uncertainties need to be addressed. A geological model is an abstraction of one possibility to interpret the exposed outcrops, drilling results and geophysical data. In numerical modelling the geological model is further simplified due to computational limitations. The behaviour of rocks is modelled with more or less complex constitutive models which are based upon laboratory experiments. Complex constitutive models have a huge range of input parameters, which rarely can be obtained completely by these experiments. The samples, which will be used in the laboratory experiments, are, as the data of the geological model, always a selection of drilling cores. For example, in a mechanical laboratory, harder rocks will be overrepresented in comparison to softer parts of the core.

Since the mentioned uncertainties are not avoidable many authors suggest that an open communication of these uncertainties can support the confidence of the public in the work of the professionals and as well as the projected development of the final disposal site. This contribution will present an overview of these uncertainties in the geological and geotechnical barriers of an final disposal site to discuss the relevance of these.


Abstract The ego-syntonic nature of anorexia nervosa (AN) emphasizes how some aspects of this disorder can be highly valuable to patients. To understand the different perspectives that patients with AN hold about their condition, we explored the meanings they attribute to it. Thirty-four AN patients were asked to write a letter to their condition describing what it represents and means to them. Letters were then evaluated using a standardized coding scheme. Three pro-codes resulted to be mostly represented: difference (i.e. feeling different from others because of AN), company (i.e. being protected by the disorder), and identity (i.e. being totally represented by the illness). Some anti-codes were also particularly used: anger/hate, expressing anger toward AN, fear/distress, betrayal/pretend (i.e. feeling cheated by the disorder), and loss/waste (i.e. describing a feeling of life being wasted). In addition to pro- and anti-codes, the ambivalence theme was also well represented. Given the complex adaptive function of this disorder, this study may provide a framework of different perspectives that therapists could refer to and patients could identify with during the therapeutic process toward discovering individual meanings of the disorder.


The paper describes an investigation of the effects of computer-based training (CBT) delivery methods on learning and retention in target recognition and identification tasks. Two training methods (drill and practice, and branching computer aided instruction) were administered to subjects at two locations. Measures of cognitive complexity also were obtained on each subject and compared against test scores. Results confirmed that learning did occur with both CBT methods. Results also suggest that training design is not straightforward, and must consider a number of student and training site factors as well as the topic to be trained. Trends, while not highly significant, do suggest directions for further research.


Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an exceptionally lethal cancer for which new therapeutic approaches are needed. Despite over 30 years of clinical research, little progress has been made in the management of SCLC, and outcomes remain poor with median overall survival (OS) of 29 months with chemo-radiotherapy and prophylactic cranial irradiation in limited stage SCLC, and of 9–11 months in the metastatic setting with platinum-etoposide, even in the most recent randomized clinical trials with chemotherapy alone (1,2).


By analysing resource allocation and efficiency of public TCM hospitals at county level and above in Zhejiang province,this paper discusses the following problems:the conflict between strong TCM demand and weak TCM hosiptal strength,the rising risk on hospital management due to irrational capital composition and the improved work efficiency tied to operating cost.


Ingolfi ella moluccensis, a new species of ingolfi ellid amphipod (Ingolfi ellidae), is described from coarse coral sands of the Gura Ici islands (northern Moluccas; Indonesia). The species is unique among ingolfi ellideans in the display of a rounded outgrowth on the proximo-lateral margin of basis of P5, and of a sexually-dimorphic, modifi ed medial margin of coxa in the same limb. Other features point to close affi nities with a group of seven insular species that show a broad but punctuated distribution along the Atlantic and SW Pacifi c oceans. These species share the combined display of four denticles on the posterior margin of dactylus of G1 & G2; three comb rows of denticles on the medial margin of the protopod of U2; a trifi d unguis of P3-P4; and a bifi d unguis of P5-P7. The placement of ingolfi ellideans among the amphipods is briefl y discussed in relation to current analyses. An overview of all species of Ingolfi ella within a comparison of 12 characters is provided, including the eight new species described since 2003.


This research aims to describe the implementation of sustainable development in the city of Tangerang, Indonesia, and to investigate important factors influencing the performance of local governments in implementing developments of this type. Data for this case-study-based research was collected through document review and in-depth interviews, and transcripts and data were analysed using NVIVO version 10 software. The results show that, following the political reforms put in place in 1998, the sustainable development program implemented in Tangerang City has been very progressive. Tangerang's success reflects synergy in three main aspects of sustainable development, namely, the economic, the social, and the environmental. The leadership, public participation and religion are found to be dominant factors determining the success of sustainable development.


Codicological, palaeographic and philological observations show that the Trace of Basel is subsequent to the date generally attributed to it (1369) and identify the cause for which TB was inserted in its present location in the colophon, particularly in the talking drawing that follows it.


The importance of music in our daily life has given rise to an increased number of studies addressing the brain regions involved in its appreciation. Some of these studies controlled only for the familiarity of the stimuli, while others relied on pleasantness ratings, and others still on musical preferences. With a listening test and a recorded heart rate ratings experiment, we wished to clarify the role of familiarity in the brain correlates and the reaction of cardiovascular system of music appreciation by controlling, in the same study, for both familiarity and musical preferences. First, we conducted a listening test, in which participants rated the familiarity and liking of song excerpts from the classical repertoire and dangdut. Music the recorded fluctuation of heart rate gives us a slight information that there is/are factors that influence human biology system to respond music, aside from the natural respond of body to music in terms of experience that amateur and non-amateur musician had. Hence, familiarity seems to be a crucial factor in making the listeners emotionally engaged with music.


This article reviews the primary concepts underlying the current movement toward the provision of comprehensive school-linked services for children and families in low-income communities and the implications of this movement for school psychologists. The development of collaborative partnerships involving schools, public, and community-based agencies is an attempt to increase the availability and accessibility of needed services to children and families. The adoption of collaborative governance and a case management system is intended to offer an alternative to the proliferation of separate categorical programs and the associated lack of coordination among programs. The hope is to emphasize prevention and efficient early intervention. Collaborative efforts can provide an opportunity for role expansion among school psychologists. This possibility is discussed within a consultation model of service delivery that is consistent with the collaborative nature of school-linked services and with the preventive stance that orginated them. School psychologists are in a position to contribute to team consultation, case management, and needs assessment. Implications for training are drawn.


The present article examines the place of the Jewish question in the ideology of the monarchist (right-wing, "black hundred") parties. In spite of certain ideological differences in the right-wing camp (moderate Rights, Rights and extreme Right-Wing), anti-Semitism was characteristic of all monarchist parties to a certain extent, in any case before the First World War. That fact was reflected in the party documents, resolutions of the monarchist congresses, publications and speeches of the Right-Wing leaders. The suggestions of the monarchists in solving the Jewish questions added up to the preservation and strengthening of the existing restrictions with respect to the Jewish population in the Russian Empire. If in the beginning the restrictions were main in the economic, cultural and everyday life spheres, after the convocation of the State Duma the Rights strived after limiting also the political rights of the Jewish population of the Empire, seeing it as one of the primary guarantees for autocracy preservation in Russia, that was the main political goal of the conservatives.


Incorporation of V2O5 on Ni/KCC-1 catalysts enhanced CO2 adsorption and activation through additional basic sites and more exposed Ni sites.


Directional wave energy focusing in space is one of the mechanisms that may contribute to the generation of a rogue wave in the ocean. To this effect, in this paper, we study the generation of extreme waves in a three-dimensional numerical wave tank from the motion of a snake wavemaker. The numerical model solves incompressible fully nonlinear free-surface Euler equations for potential flow, using a higher-order Boundary Element Method and a mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian time updating. Recent improvements of this numerical model have consisted in the implementation of the Fast Multipole Algorithm, in order to improve the computational efficiency of the spatial solver. A typical case of a near breaking rogue wave is presented as an application. A description of the particular geometry of such a wave is given, as well as preliminary results for the particle velocities at the surface and under the wave crest.


Brominated (BIIR) and chlorinated (CIIR) poly(isobutylene-co-isoprene) are commercially available materials com- monly known as halobutyl rubbers. The effect of leaving-group ability on the reactivity of halogenated poly(isobutylene-co- isoprene) was studied to place iodobutyl rubber reactivity into context with these materials. The effect of microstructure on reactivity of existing commercial materials was studied through comparison to that of polymers containing rearranged halomethyl (r-CIIR, r-BIIR, and r-IIIR) microstructure (prepared from as-received BIIR). The effect of leaving group on both thermal stability and reactivity towards nucleophilic substitution with acetate, N-butylimidazole, and sulfur was examined. The material containing the iodomethyl microstructure (r-IIIR) readily underwent nucleophilic substitution at low temperatures; however, it was extremely sensitive towards dehydrohalogenation at temperatures above 65 °C. At temperatures between 100 and 135 °C, the material containing the bromomethyl microstructure (r-BIIR) demonstrated the greatest balance between reactivity toward nucleophilic substitution and elimination through dehydrohalogenation. Exceptional thermal stability at temperatures up to 190 °C was displayed by the material containing the chloromethyl microstructure (r-CIIR); however, its reactivity towards nucleophiles was variable and nucleophile dependent. Sulfur vulcanization studies showed a clear effect of microstructure on the ability to cure with sulfur. While commercial chlorobutyl rubber has no ability to cure with sulfur alone, when rearranged to its chloromethyl microstructure (r-CIIR), curing occurs readily. Both commercial (BIIR) and rearranged (r-BIIR) bromobutyl rubber readily vulcanize in the presence of sulfur; however, BIIR cures to a greater extent.


Abstract : In a continuing effort to establish performance changes due to water ingestion into an aircraft gas turbine engine and possible design improvements, an experimental investigation was performed with a model gas turbine prediffuser-combustor sector utilizing a number of mixture and flow conditions in a tunnel operating with a two-phase, air-liquid film-droplet mixture. For given entry conditions into the prediffuser (which can be related to the exit conditions of the core compressor in a bypass engine, and, therefore, also to ingestion conditions at the engine face) the two main issues are (1) the amount of water entering the primary zone of the combustor, and (2) the local reduction in temperature, flame-water interactions, and the vitiation caused by the vaporizing of water. Flow visualization and estimates of water flow and droplet size in the primary zone have been undertaken under cold flow conditions. The amount of water entering the primary zone has been found to be a complex function of (1) the air-water mixture conditions at entry to the prediffuser, and (2) the effects of gravity on the flowfield for given geometry of the prediffuser-combustor, and the flow split between the primary and the coolant streams in the combustor. Combustion tests have been carried out to establish the effects on performance, occurrence of flameout, and recoverability of combustor exit temperature by enhancement of one or both of the fuel equivalence ratio and the oxygen content of air. Water Ingestion, Hail Ingestion, Turbofan Engine, Combustor Performance


This paper expounds the necessity of psychology research serving Chinese from the point of requirements of development in psychology,necessity of promoting Chinese psychological quality and advantage of Chinese cultural resource and Chinese psychologists.


This study was aimed at evaluating the phytochemistry and antiplasmodial properties of the aqueous and methanolic leaf extracts of Jatropa curcas against the malaria parasite; Plasmodium falciparum . The need for new therapeutic compounds against malaria parasite is made more urgent by the continued spread of resistance to almost all the available anti malarial drugs. Phytochemical detection followed by antiplasmodial sensitivity test was carried on the two leaf extracts following standard procedures. The pyhtochemicals detected from both extracts were alkaloids, glycosides, tannins, saponins, phenol, steroids and flavonoids. The result of Plasmodium sensitivity tests revealed that both the aqueous and methanolic leaf extracts of Jatropa curcas were highly effective against the malaria parasite. However, the methanolic extract showed greater activity than the aqueous extract. At extract concentration of 10mg/ml, the methanol extract produced the highest parasite clearance rate after 72 hour incubation period, with percentage elimination of 95.4% while the aqueous extract produced 87% elimination at the same concentration and incubation period. These observations showed that Jathropa plant may contain chemicals with promising antimalarial properties which when fully harnessed could constitute a novel therapy for the management of clinical malaria. Keywords : Antiplasmodial, Jatropha Curcas , Extracts, Phytochemistry.


Objective To analysis of indapamide combined with amlodipine pieces of the clinical value of combined treatment of hypertension coronary heart disease. Methods To select merge coronary artery disease in our hospital 110 cases of hypertension patients as the research object. 50 cases were randomly divided into observation group(with up to Mr Amine combined with amlodipine pieces), control group 60 cases(using amlodipine pieces), observe and compare two methods of treatment for patients with blood pressure, heart rate, angina pectoris and the effect of left ventricular function. Results After 2 months treatment group the total effective rate was 92%, control group total effectiveness 78.4%(P 0.05); In the two groups before and after treatment of blood pressure, heart rate all have significant differences, observation group with indapamide combined with amlodipine piece of DBP and SBP and HR metrics to improve after treatment were significantly better than the control group,( P 0.05), suggesting combination effect is better than pure amlodipine, compare exist significant differences between groups, with statistical significance. Conclusion Tips to take indapamide combined with amlodipine piece for hypertension patients of coronary heart disease curative effect significantly better than pure amlodipine curative effect, worth clinical application.


Solid phase synthesis was applied to prepare a number of LH-FSH-RH analogues. Each constituent amino acid residue of this hypothalamic principle was systematically replaced by Pro. Ten samples thus prepared, after partial purification, were submitted to biological assay. However, none of the inactive peptide, hopefully an inhibitor, was found in these analogues.


Background Adults with significantly impaired decision-making through dementia, learning disabilities, or critical illness are often excluded from research because of the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research with people who lack capacity to consent [1]. Concerns are often raised about who can act as a consultee or legal representative (usually a family member), and how they make a decision about research participation [2]. Family members can find making proxy decisions about participation challenging and some experience decisional and emotional burden as a result [3]. Some studies have reported that nearly all proxies experience some degree of burden when making decisions about research [4]. This leads to a high proportion of families declining participation [5]. Despite numerous innovations to improve informed consent processes for research, there are no interventions for proxies who are making decisions on behalf of someone who lacks capacity.


We report the experimental observation of an ultranarrow resonance, as narrow as EIT ones, due to the transfer of coherent population oscillations to the lower states of a Λ-system.


ABSTRACT This experiment investigated the effects of feeding mannan oligosaccharide to beef cows during late gestation through 30 d of lactation on cow and calf performance and calf passive immunity. Angus and Angus × Hereford cows (n = 69; BW = 569 ± 68 kg; age = 5.3 ± 7 yr) were allotted by BW and age in a completely randomized designed. Cows were assigned to 1 of 2 treatments including 1) 1.36 kg/d during gestation of a cottonseed meal–based 30% CP supplement and 1.81 kg/d during lactation of a cottonseed meal–based 38% CP supplement (control); 2) control plus 10 g/d of Bio-Mos (Bio-Mos; Alltech Inc., Nicholasville, KY). Experimental supplementation began on February 14, 2012, and was terminated after cows consumed the lactation diet for at least 30 d. Cow and calf blood and colostrum were collected within 12 h of parturition. Cows fed Bio-Mos tended to maintain more BW from parturition through the end of the feeding period (P = 0.10). Similarly, cows consuming Bio-Mos were better able to maintain BCS from initiation of the experiment through weaning (P = 0.05). At parturition, no differences for IgG 1 concentrations in colostrum (P = 0.28), cow serum (P = 0.19), or calf serum (P = 0.70) were detected. Similarly, parturition calf serum IgG 2 , IgA, or IgM concentrations were not different (P > 0.14). Adding Bio-Mos to winter supplement may limit BCS loss following parturition in spring-calving beef cows; however, there was no effect on passive immunity characteristics.


2019- nCoV viral disease threatening every individual throughout the world. It is a highly challenging task to control the spread everywhere. There are certain antiviral drugs, steroids that are currently being prescribed to infected patients for faster recovery. But there is no proper cure today for this pandemic. In this present study, we have focused on controlling the replication and other possibilities of interaction of the 2019-nCoV virus inside the host cells. There are various herbs prescribed to us to improve our immunity and prepare our bodies to fight against this pathogen. In this study, herb compounds that are selected are Andrographolide (AP1), 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide(AP3), Ascorbic acid, Cinnamaldehyde, Curcumin, Diallyl sulfide, Eugenol. Gingerol, Kaempferol, Deacetylnimbin, Piperine, Quercetin, thymol, thymoquinone, Vasicine based on the literature survey. Selected ligands are most of them to treat respiratory tract infections and are also related to improving humoral immunity. Selected Ligand was allowed to dock against viral proteins which Crystal Structure of the SARS COV-2 Papain-like protease (Figure 1a) (PDB ID: 6wx4), RNA dependent RNA polymerase (Figure 1b) (PDB ID: 7c2k), Crystal structure of SARS COV-2 ORF7A encoded accessory protein (Figure 1c) (PDB ID: 6w37) Crystal structure of SARS COV-2 ADP-Ribose phosphatase NSP3 Proteins (PDB ID: 6w6y), PDB ID 6zsl Crystal structure of SARS COV-2 helicase NSP13 (PDB ID: 6ZSL), Crystal structure of NSP10-NSP16 Complex (PDB ID: 7bq7), PDB ID 6xdc Crystal structure of SARS COV-2 ORF3a Protein (PDB ID: 6xdc) to study their efficacy to control the replication and possible interactions in the human system using computational docking study. A Protein-Protein interaction study was also performed to study the efficacy of papain enzyme inhibitory efficacy of selected target proteins. Molecular dynamics studies were also performed to ensure the ligand efficacy for the selected target proteins.


A Newtonian iteration scheme has been constructed for solving a scattering problem using the Schwinger variational functional. The scattering problem is formulated as an eigenvalue problem with respect to a pair of unknown variables: a phase shift and a wavefunction. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed iteration scheme are demonstrated on exact solvable tasks of an elastic scattering problem with Morse and spherical well potentials.


To develop methods of predicting radiated noise that can be used in design offices, it is essential to formulate hypotheses to simplify the general problem. The expression of the acoustic presssure autospectrum for quasiplane surfaces in far field is used, obtained from the Green's function, which depends on: the Green's function, the cross‐spectral density function of the normal acceleration on the body. The spatial distribution of the vibrational field on the vibrating body is, in an industrial context, very difficult to obtain, as it would require too many measurement points. It is therefore necessary to approximate it, and to this end it is assumed that: the vibrating body can be approximated by a combination of elementary surfaces; these surfaces are thin plates; the energy of each mode is uniformly distributed in a given frequency band. Once the vibrational field has been characterized in this way, it is possible to deduce the acoustic radiated pressure. A number of validation tests were carried out...


Hoff and Bretthauer discuss the scientific and political controversies surrounding the introduction of a national screening programme for colorectal cancer.


This article examines the issues of how Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will impact adaptive teaching. It focuses on 2 of the major differences between conventional standards and CCSS: the increased complexity of text and the addition of disciplinary literacy standards to reading instruction. The article argues that adaptive teaching under CCSS requires adaptations of teachers, as well as adaptation to student responses. These phenomena are particularly critical when using texts of higher complexity and when teaching reading in different disciplines.


The bubbling behaviour of fluidized beds has been thoroughly investigated in the last decades by means of several techniques, e.g. X-ray, Inductance, Resistance and Impedance based techniques, PIV. In recent years, Digital Image Analysis Techniques have shown their potential for accurate and cost effectively measurements.Most of the work related to bubble behaviour analysis deals with single-sized particles, while almost all industrial equipment operates with multi-sized particles. Although considerable work has been done in the past with focus on the analysis of the mixing-segregation behaviour and predictions of fluid dynamics regime transitions, a lack of knowledge still exists in the analysis of bubbles properties measurements for the case of polydispersed systems.In this work, digital image analysis has been adopted to accurately measure fundamental global parameters such as bubble hold up and bed expansion as well as average bubble hold-up distribution maps or bubble size distributions in bubbling fluidized beds of binary mixtures of particles. The experiments have been carried out at steady state conditions with binary mixtures of corundum particles, at various inlet gas velocities. This preliminary study has been performed with the aim to collect valuable data for future development of predictive models and validation of CFD codes.


Context. Spiral galaxies are very common in the local Universe, but their formation, evolution, and interplay with bars remain poorly understood after more than a century of astronomical research on the topic.
Aims. We use a sample of 391 nearby galaxies from the S4G survey to characterise the winding angle and amplitude of spiral arms as a function of disc properties, such as bar strength, in all kinds of spirals (grand-design, multi-armed, and flocculent).
Methods. We derived global pitch angles in 3.6 μm de-projected images from (i) average measurements of individual logarithmic spiral segments, and (ii) for a subsample of 32 galaxies, from 2D Fourier analyses. The strength of spirals was quantified from the tangential-to-radial force ratio and from the normalised m = 2 Fourier density amplitudes.
Results. In galaxies with more than one measured logarithmic segment, the spiral pitch angle varies on average by ∼10° between segments, but by up to ≳15 − 20°. The distribution of the global pitch angle versus Hubble type (T) is very similar for barred and non-barred galaxies when 1 ≲ T ≲ 5. Most spiral galaxies (> 90%) are barred for T >  5. The pitch angle is not correlated with bar strength, and only weakly with spiral strength. The amplitude of spirals is correlated with bar strength (and less tightly, with bar length) for all types of spirals. The mean pitch angle is hardly correlated with the mass of the supermassive black hole (estimated from central stellar velocity dispersion), with central stellar mass concentration, or with shear, questioning previous results in the literature using smaller samples.
Conclusions. We do not find observational evidence that spiral arms are driven by stellar bars or by invariant manifolds. Most likely, discs that are prone to the development of strong bars are also reactive to the formation of prominent spirals, explaining the observed coupling between bar and spiral amplitudes.


This article considers the dynamic effects that the labour market has on poverty and social exclusion.1 It shows how the analysis of labour markets can help our understanding of social exclusion and reviews some of the evi dence from Europe and the United States. The evidence is that there is consaderable move ment into and out of poverty. However, there is a significant group who stay in poverty for a number of years and a group that experience repeated poverty spells. The data also show that labour market transitions are an import ant cause of movements into and out of pov erty, although demographic factors are about equally important. There are tnterestang similarities between the pattern of movements into and out of un employment and those for poverty: many people leave unemployment quickly, but there are also important groups who are unem ployed for several years or who become unem ployed repeatedly. It is not only easily observable personal characteristics that are relevant to determining an individual's em ployment patterns: repeated periods of unem ployment appear to result from 'unobserved heterogeneity', rather than any damaging ef fect from earlier unemployment spells. This finding raises the interesting possibility that the observed repeated spells of poverty are also due to unmeasured personal character istics.


The Database Performance Monitoring (DPM) software (copyright in processes) is being developed at Sandia National Laboratories to perform quality control analysis on time series data. The software loads time indexed databases (currently csv format), performs a series of quality control tests defined by the user, and creates reports which include summary statistics, tables, and graphics. DPM can be setup to run on an automated schedule defined by the user. For example, the software can be run once per day to analyze data collected on the previous day. HTML formatted reports can be sent via email or hosted on a website. To compare performance of several databases, summary statistics and graphics can be gathered in a dashboard view which links to detailed reporting information for each database. The software can be customized for specific applications.


Two multi-carbazole encapsulated TADF dendrimers were obtained by coupled tercarbazole with di(pyridin-3-yl)methanone as units. Both of tBuTCz-DPyM and MeOTCz-DPyM show small singlet-triplet energy gaps (ΔEST) (0.01 vs 0.02 eV) and...


To evaluate the appropriateness of antibiotics used in the intensive care unit (ICU) settings of a tertiary care teaching hospital and identify the different parameters of inappropriateness in prescribing pattern of antibiotics. To observe pathogen specific anti- biograms in ICUs. A prospective hospital based was done for 6 months in patients admitted in intensive care units and prescribed with antibiotics, excluding the paediatric and neonatal ICUs. Data was collected, the appropriateness of antibiotic treatment was analysed based on the hospital antibiotic prescribing guidelines and the Database 'Up-to-date guidelines'. The primary outcome measure was the appropriateness of indication, dose, frequency, duration, culture not done, de-escalation and antibiotic therapy started. Of the 380 patients studied, 67.6% were males and 32.3% were females. They received 34 different class of antibiotics (n=733) during their ICU stay. Empirical antibiotic therapy was given for 68% and only after infection was proven microbiologically in 32% of patients. E. coli (32.28%) was the most common micro-organism causing infection in the ICU settings. The most frequently prescribed antibiotics were ceftriaxone (20.3%), Piperacillin + tazobactam (10.2%), Imipenem (6.4%) and levofloxacin (6.0%). Overall, appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing was (84.4%) and inappropriateness was (15.6%). Inappropriateness in dose (7.0%), frequency (3.5%), duration (21.9%), indication (15.7%), culture not done (39.4%), de-escalation (3.5%) and antibiotic therapy started late (8.7%) were the parameters for inappropriateness in antibiotic prescribing. The current study identified 84% of the antibiotic prescribing patterns to be appropriate and also gave an insight to prevent microbial resistance.


The city of Harbin will be one hundred years old in 1998, a mere child among the cities of the world, but throughout its relatively short existence it has remained a unique and fascinating historical phenomenon. From 1898, the year of its foundation, and throughout the upheavals of this century until the 1960s, Harbin was the home of a sizeable Russian community in China. This paper looks only at prerevolutionary Harbin: the causes and circumstances of its foundation and development, the historical events that affected its existence, and finally its population, its administration, and its social and cultural life. Visitors to prerevolutionary Harbin have left us a collage of impressions, which to some extent alleviate the scarcity of historical material. P. N. Krasnov, on a military inspection tour of Manchuria, China, Japan, and India, wrote in 1901: "Some people dare to call Harbin a Manchurian Petersburg . . . well, it is still far, immeasurably far from Petersburg's standards, but people are building something special here."1 An experienced English traveller, John Foster Fraser, passing through Harbin in the same year, remarked that Harbin was "for all the world like a 'boom' American town ... It is a magnet to all the adventurers in Russia. There are two or three murders every week."2 On the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, Henry B. Miller, the US Consul to Niuchwang (now Yingkou), referred to Harbin as "this wonderful city ... as distinctly a Russian city as though it were located in the heart of Russia,"3 while a Russian visitor


BACKGROUND: A two-stage bioreactor, comprising a biotrickling filter (BTF) as the first stage and a biofilter (BF) as the second stage, operated under steady- and transient-state conditions, was tested to remove gas-phase hydrogen sulphide, methanol and α-pinene. RESULTS: Hydrogen sulphide and methanol were removed in the first stage, while α-pinene, was removed predominantly in the second-stage fungal BF. The effect of the liquid trickling rate was evaluated in the BTF, while concentration-dependent synergistic and antagonistic interactions in both reactors were assessed by varying the concentration of one pollutant, and by maintaining 100% removal of other pollutants. Increasing the liquid trickling rate decreased methanol removal significantly, from >93% to 40%. Increasing the concentration of hydrogen sulphide from low to high loading rates did not affect the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), however, the reverse occurred. Under all the conditions tested, α-pinene removal in the second-stage biofilter still remained higher than 80%. CONCLUSIONS: The results show the maximum elimination capacities achievable for this complex ternary mixture, under a wide range of operating conditions. c � 2010 Society of Chemical Industry


Objective
To explore the value of simplified thyroid imaging reporting and data system(S-TIRADS) for diagnosis of thyroid nodules.

Methods
A total of 490 nodules were included in the study. Their literature were reviewed to establish S-TIRADS based on malignant features. Three sonographers with different years of experience evaluated 490 nodules independently. The rate of malignancy was calculated for each grade. Inter-observer agreement was calculated using the kappa statistic. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value(PPV), negative predictive value(NPV), accuracy and receiver-operating characteristic curve(ROC curve)were used to assess the value of S-TIRADS.

Results
The average malignancy rate for each grade of S-TIRADS was 0%, 4.09%, 25.44%, 64.86%, and 100% respectively. The kappa values between radiologists with different experience were 0.63, 0.69, and 0.63. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy were 94.11%, 78.35%, 53.33%, 98.06%, and 81.63% for experienced radiologists. The area under the ROC curve was 0.918, 0.877, and 0.905 respectively.

Conclusion
S-TIRADS is a simplified and repeatable imaging reporting and date system, which can be used as a communication tool of thyroid nodules between different physicians.

Key words:
Ultrasound; Thyroid imaging reporting and data system; Thyroid nodule


Objective To analyze the clinical determination and mechanism of poststroke dementia.Methods 186 consecutively hospitalized patients who at admission after stroke,completed clinical valuation of neural-functional defect and intelligence assessments,and head CT scan.Their intelligene performances were assessed again after three months .Results Frequency of poststroke dementia was 32 5% .Poststroke dementia was related to age,level of education,residential area,hypertension ,hyperlipidemia,the location and severity of stroke,history of coronary heart disease and diabetes.But it unrelated to sex,smoking,alcohol drinking and type of stroke.Conclusions Dementia is frequently occurred after stroke,and multiple risk factors contribute to its occurrence


The validity of two implicational universals regarding consonant clusters was tested in an analysis of the interlanguage of 11 subjects who were native speakers of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. The results were strongly supportive of the two universals, suggesting the possibility that primary language universals hold also for nonprimary languages.


Traditional debates on legal theory have devoted a great deal of attention to the question of the determinacy of legal rules. With the aid of social sciences and linguistics, this article suggests a way out of the 'determinate–indeterminate' dichotomy that has dominated the academic debate on the topic so far. Instead, a dynamic approach is proposed, in which rules are deemed to undergo processes of political 'de-determination' and 'redetermination'. To illustrate this, the article uses the example of Article 125 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the 'no bailout' provision, which played a major role in the management of the Euro-crisis. As will be shown, with the start of the crisis, this provision, whose meaning was once scarcely controversial, became the object of intense interpretative disagreement. As it became politically relevant, the rule also became the site of interpretative competitions, until the intervention of the European Court of Justice disambiguated and redefined its meaning.


1 Overview Block ciphers serve as fundamental building blocks for much of modern cryptography. They are used extensively in practice for (symmetric-key) encryption, and to a lesser extent for message authentication. Specially designed block ciphers can also be used to construct hash functions, as has indeed been done for, e.g., the SHA family of hash functions. Block ciphers can be used for pseudorandom number generation, as part of challenge/response protocols for entity authentication, and for defining a random-looking mapping between elements. In short, they are both incredibly useful and truly ubiquitous. Several specific block ciphers are also among the most well-known cryptographic primitives. The block cipher DES (the Data Encryption Standard) was perhaps the first modern cryptographic algorithm—it pre-dates RSA—and is certainly one of the earliest to be standardized. Developed in the late '70s, DES served as a cryptographic workhorse for over 20 years and is still used today in the strengthened form of triple-DES. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), the modern replacement for DES, was designed by public competition in the late '90s and is in widespread use today. DES and AES are among the most heavily analyzed cryptographic algorithms we have. At the most basic level, a block cipher F is an efficiently computable, keyed permutation. That is, F is a function F : {0, 1} n × {0, 1} → {0, 1} where the first input serves as a key, and we let F k (x) denote F(k, x). The fact that F is a permutation means that for every key k the function F k : {0, 1} → {0, 1} is a bijection; moreover, F −1 k should be efficiently computable (given k). From a theoretical cryptographer's point of view, the main security property of a block cipher is that it that should be indistinguishable from a random permutation. A formal definition is somewhat involved, but informally we imagine an attacker interacting with a " black box " that either computes F k (·) for an unknown, random key k, or that computes f (·) for a permutation chosen uniformly from the set of permutations on {0, 1}. The block cipher F is secure if no efficient attacker can distinguish between these two possibilities with probability significantly better than random guessing. (The book under review—which takes a practical perspective—leaves this notion of security informal and does not focus on it too much. In practice, block …


This work presents manufacturing of glass/polypropylene commingled yarns and analysis of low velocity impact (15J, 25J, and 35J) and compression after impact (CAI) performance of thermoset and thermoplastic composites produced from the  hybrid commingled yarns. Hybrid commingled yarns were produced through an air jet nozzle at different air pressures. Results showed that commingled yarn tenacity and mixture quality were highly affected by changing the air pressures. Impact tests indicated that thermoplastic composites absorbed around 73-80% of the impact energy while thermoset composites absorbed 39-41%. CAI tests presented that thermoplastic composite had higher residual strength with a different failure mechanism under compressive loading.


According to a large dead time and inertia of the control object of indoor temperature and humidity, an automatic monitoring system of room environment based on wireless sensor network is designed. The star-type structures are adopted for the wireless sensor network. By placing sensors network nodes in monitoring area, the system collects monitoring information in center measure and control system to realize unified data management and routing monitoring function of network. The collection part digitalizes the signal from the sensor and sends it out using wireless digital transmission technology. At the reception part, the data is received, saved and displayed. The real-time fuzzy control of parameter is realized, such as temperature and humidity, and make environmental factors stabilize in its optimum. Monitoring experimental result indicates that, this system is reliable and suitable, provides a practicable measures, and high in the ratio of performance to price. The control system not only has a high controlling accuracy, but also has the characteristic of rapid adjustment with small overshoot.


A vision servo tracking algorithm based on adaptive multi-cue integration mechanism is proposed. The RGB color cue and edge cue are utilized to represent the target and then they are joined to the similarity function with which mean shift algorithm is used to find out the optimal location by iterative computation. The feature weight is used to adjust adaptively in the tracking procedure, Bhattacharyya coefficient is used as criterions for selective sub-model update. Experimental results show that the algorithm can achieve stable tracking performance in dynamical scene with the appearance of the target changing. Compared with tracker using single cue, the algorithm in a complex environment can real-timely track the target more accurate and robustly, and achieve the real time performance of vision servo tracking control.


Abstract We study the temporal variation of subsurface flows associated with active regions within 16 Mm of the solar surface. We have analyzed the subsurface flows of nearly 1000 active and quiet regions applying ring-diagram analysis to Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) Dopplergram data. We find that newly emerging active regions are characterized by enhanced upflows and fast zonal flows in the near-surface layers, as expected for a flux tube rising from deeper layers of the convection zone. The subsurface flows associated with strong active regions are highly twisted, as indicated by their large vorticity and helicity values. The dipolar pattern exhibited by the zonal and meridional vorticity component leads to the interpretation that these subsurface flows resemble vortex rings, when measured on the spatial scales of the standard ring-diagram analysis.


It is our great pleasure to present to you the proceedings of the 6th edition of the ACM Cloud Computing Security Workshop (CCSW) held in conjunction with the 2014 ACM Computer and Communication Security (CCS) conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, November 3-7, 2014.

The paradigm of cloud computing has been revolutionizing todays' information communication technologies, impacting and redefining how data is stored, retrieved, processed and shared. Cloud services provide an elastic, scalable, large-scale environment typically marked by a high degree of resource virtualization and sharing among tenants. While the economic benefits of cloud computing are widely recognized, this new computing model creates security and privacy requirements different from traditional environments. With the wide adoption of cloud computing paradigm, security, privacy, and availability of the involved operations, components, and systems are becoming of increasing importance.

The CCSW workshop focuses on the security challenges and research opportunities raised by the recent developments in cloud computing. The goal of the workshop is to explore the security and privacy challenges that are raised by cloud computing, and foster development of new ideas and solutions that can be transitioned into practice.

The 2014 CSW workshop received a total of thirty-six high quality submissions, out of which twelve were selected by the program committee through a rigorous reviewing process. The workshop includes four invited sessions, three invited talks and one memorial session.

We are delighted to have three keynote talks that bring new perspectives and practical problems from industry to the research community related to issues like security and privacy of data stored in the cloud, economic impact of security, and risk management in cloud settings. The three invited talks are:
Joanne Martin, CISO and VP for IT Risk, IBM, "Securing Cloud Environments for Enterprise Computing"
David McGrew, Fellow, Cisco, "Privacy vs. Efficacy in Cloud-based Threat Detection"
Bryan D. Payne, Director of Security Research, Nebula, "Reducing the Cost of Security in the Cloud"

The memorial session, organized by Elaine Shi, celebrates the life of Emil Stefanov and his research contributions to cloud computing security. The contributors to this session (Ari Juels, Srini Devadas, and Zygmunt Pizlo) discuss Emil's most impactful contributions to cloud security and beyond.


Objective To find the feasibility of thyroidectomy starting from armpit or breast by endoscopic.Method In41cases,the age from21to42years old,32cases were thyroid adenoma (27cases were simple side of nodular goiter and5cases were double sides)and9cases were nodular goiter(5cases were simple side of nodular goiter and4cases were double sides).Cut at armpit or breast,establish channels under skin to thyroid gland and remove the focus applying ultrasonic scalpel with endoscopic.Results32cases adopt apply the armpit-beginning operation and9cases adopt the breast-beginning operation with endoscopic completely,the respective opera-tion consume a minimum of 1hour and15minutes,a maximum of 5hours and35minutes.Average time was2hours and5min utes.Average blood loss was45ml in the armpit-beginning operation,and average blood loss was95ml in breast-beginning operation.There were not any complications.Con clu sion Thyroidectomy with endoscopic is a new secure method.For the magnifying of endoscopic and illuminating of cold light.The operating field becomes clearer so that ultrasonic scalpel can deal with any blood vessel of thyroid gland.


The crisis taking place in Turkish banking sector in 2001 caused many structural changes in the following periods. This study aimed to examine the relationship between profitability and concentration which are important indicators in view of banking sector in the period of structural change. As profitability indicator Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) were used and in order to show concentration K bank ratio and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) which are used at most were put to use. According to the results, profitability and concentration indicators after the crisis taking place in Turkish banking sector in 2008 moved in the same direction unlike the period before the crisis.


Closed-type shield tunneling methods were developed together with computer-aided automatic control systems. However, automatic control systems are based on empirical relationships and do not have a precise theoretical background. In this paper, a model of the theoretical dynamic load acting on the shield during excavation is developed, taking into account shield tunnel engineering practices; i.e., the excavated area, the tail clearance, the rotation direction of the cutter face, sliding of the shield, ground loosening at the shield crown, and the dynamic equilibrium condition. To evaluate the validity of the model qualitatively, the simulation of shield behavior and the sensitivity analysis of the model parameters on the shield behavior are carried out in both straight and curve alignments for both sandy and clayey ground. The results for the shield behavior are examined, comparing them with the empirical and the theoretical one, and it is confirmed that the proposed model represents the shield behavior reasonably well.


If people want to project a successful personal style, hair style might play a big role as well as clothing. The purpose of this study was to observe hair behavior according to demographic variables, and to analyze correlation between desired hair image and clothing image sought. Questionnaires were distributed to 600 females aged , using a convenient sampling method. Only 556 reliable questionnaires were selected for statistical analysis. Correlation r, ANOVA and Chi-square were used to analyze the data, using the SPSS program. There was a significant association between hair style and occupation. Career woman preferred roll straight perm treated hair, students preferred general perm treated hair and full time house wives preferred general wave perm treated. The medium layer cut was the most preferred cut style. People want to give different accents in hair styling with occupation and age variable. Certain desired clothing image had a high correlation with desired hair style image. Those who people want to express sexy, and bohemian image through clothing, they also want to create those image in hair styling with a high correlation(r=0.683, r=0.704).


Though a signature verse (takhalluṣ) is often found in medieval Persian and Ottoman Turkish poetry, this is less frequently the case in Arabic poetry at this time. However, Muḥammad Ibn al-Shihābī al-Ṣūfī included such a signature verse in 38 Arabic poems, many inspired by recitations of Ibn al-Fāriḍ's poetry. This article offers a critical Arabic edition and English translation of two of these poems, followed by an extensive discussion of linguistic and stylistic aspects of Ibn al-Shihābī's Arabic and poetic style. Both poems also highlight trends in Arabic poetry at the end of the 9th/15th century, including the incorporation of elements from regional varieties of Arabic, and Ibn al-Shihābī's innovative use of the signature verse, which may reflect the influence of Sufi chanting practices.


The distributions of 17 tree species with seeds or fruits that are commonly eaten or otherwise used by humans were studied in reference to anthropogenic soils in a seasonally dry lowland tropical forest in Bolivia. Two types of anthropogenic dark earths (ADEs) were identified: terra preta (TP: darkened with charcoal fragments and with abundant pottery shards) and terra mulata (TM: somewhat darkened but with little or no pottery). In 216 ha, we compared the densities of trees >10 cm dbh of useful species in nine TP patches, three TM patches, and six areas with nonanthropogenic soils (N‐ADE). The TP, which covers approximately 20 percent of the sample area, has higher contents of organic matter, extractable P, and extractable Ca than N‐ADE soils, as well as higher pH and extractable P than TM. TM has organic matter and Ca contents similar to N‐ADE soils but significantly less extractable K. In general, TP has higher nutrient content than surrounding soils, both at the surface (0–10 cm) and deeper in the profile (40–50 cm). Despite these differences in soil fertility and contrary to our expectations, none of the 17 tree species were concentrated on TP perhaps because interactions between local dispersal agents and natural disturbances have masked historical patterns. Alternatively, past inhabitants of the study area may have enriched forests with useful tree species in areas where they were not practicing the intensive soil husbandry that results in ADEs.


Selenium and vitamin E are micronutrients essential for normal health and maintenance in poultry. They are necessary in preventing free radical damage to phospholipid membranes, enzymes and other important molecules. Two experiments were conducted in a semi-commercial environment to examine the effect of Se source and vitamin E level in diet on broiler performance and meat quality. Increasing vitamin E from 50 IU to 100 IU did not affect growth performance of broilers although the 24 h drip-loss was tended to be reduced (p=0.06). There was an interaction between vitamin E and the source of Se in glutathione peroxidase activity (GSH-Px) and Se concentration in excreta. Increasing vitamin E from 50 IU to 100 IU elevated GSH-Px and Se concentration in excreta by 42 IU/g Hb and 0.9 ppm for the organic Se group, respectively, but reduced GSH-Px and Se concentration in excreta by 16 IU/g Hb and 1.3 ppm for inorganic group, respectively. Vitamin E played no role in the feather coverage of the birds when scored on day 37. Organic Se is more effective in improving feather score and 24 h drip-loss, with a markedly higher deposition rate in breast muscle and a lower excretion rate in the excreta (p 0.05) the energy utilisation by birds. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2004. Vol 17, No. 7 : 1000-1006)


Objective To investigate the relationship between anaurosis fugax and carotid atherosclerosis.Methods Color Doppler Imaging was used to examine carotid atherosclerosis and to quantitate hemodynamic parameters of ophthalmic artery(OA)、central retinal artery(CRA)、central retinal vein(CRV)in 64 patients with anaurosis fugax.Results The incidence of carotid artery atherosclerotic was 90.63% in patients with anaurosis fugax.The blood velocity in OA、CRA and CRV in carotid artery atherosclerotic side was much more slower than that in non-carotid artery atherosclerotic side in anaurosis fugax patients.Conclusions Anaurosis fugax was interrelated with the degrees of carotid artery stenosis.The blood velocity was decreased due to the carotid atherosclerosis in the ipsilateral eye.


In the general population, the overall incidence of acute patellar dislocation is 5.8 per 100,000 people in the United States1. The rate of patellar dislocation is estimated to be highest in the age group of ten to seventeen years, with reported rates of 29% to 43%1-3. Women have a 33% increased prevalence of acute patellar dislocation compared with men1. Patellar instability typically occurs in patients with several anatomic risk factors, including both soft-tissue and osseous abnormalities. Conlan et al. studied twenty-five cadaveric specimens to analyze soft-tissue restraints associated with patellar instability and found the medial patellofemoral ligament to be a critical medial soft-tissue restraint in preventing lateral instability4. Furthermore, biomechanical and radiographic findings have led many surgeons to state that disruption of the medial patellofemoral ligament is the "essential lesion" required for patellar dislocation1,4-7. Disruption of the medial patellofemoral ligament was diagnosed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in twenty-six (96%) of twenty-seven patients8; the lesion most commonly occurs at the femoral attachment site9,10 (Fig. 1). In addition, the deep capsular layer, the medial patellomeniscal ligament, and the medial patellotibial ligament all have been found to contribute to the soft-tissue stabilization of the patella against lateral …


We present here a detailed study of the ac susceptibility and nonlinear dc magnetization in the vicinity of ${T}_{f}$ in an insulating spin-glass with short-range magnetic interactions, manganese amorphous aluminosilicate. The variation of the freezing temperature ${T}_{f}$ with the measuring frequency $\ensuremath{\nu}$ between 13.5 Hz and 4 MHz can be interpreted by a Fulcher law, but in a wide range of the characteristic parameters ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{0}$ and ${T}_{0}$. The behavior of the in-phase and out-of-phase components ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{\ensuremath{'}\ensuremath{'}}$ of the ac susceptibility is consistent with a large distribution of relaxation times. The dc magnetizations were studied by means of a superconducting quantum interference device and a fluxmeter in applied fields ranging from 0.01 to 1000 Oe. The rapid increase of the nonlinear susceptibility when approaching ${T}_{f}$ is in agreement with the mean-field theory of spin-glasses. We then show that the experimental results can be described by the scaling relation ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{S}(H,\ensuremath{\epsilon})={H}^{\frac{2}{\ensuremath{\delta}}}F(\frac{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}{{H}^{\frac{2}{\ensuremath{\varphi}}}})$ and determine the scaling exponents $\ensuremath{\delta}=5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ and $\ensuremath{\varphi}=1.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2$.


High-Quality factor miniaturized inductors are prerequisites of RFIC Applications. This paper presents a novel fractal stacked inductors using modified Hilbert space filling curve. The parallel stacked inductor with differential excitation improves the Q factor values. The results show more than 50% improvement in Q over conventional fractal inductors maintaining same inductance value with the same occupying area.


Introduction The modality of assessment used at a University Clinical Practice in Brazil is interventive psychodiagnosis in which the active participation of children and families is considered. Orientation is given following the input provided by children and their parents. Objectives Evaluating the use of an electronic form to be fulfilled during the observation of a child's play in psychological session. Methods A child at the age of 5yrs 4m was brought for psychological assessment with the complaint of aggressiveness and irritability. His parents answered the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL -1 1/12 5 yrs) and the Psychology interns had to observe the child's play and fulfill an electronic form in which the choice of toys and plays, motricity, creativity, symbolic abilities, frustration tolerance, adequation with reality were verified. Results The results of CBCL indicated that the child was within the clinical range regarding anxiety and depression along with somatic complaints. The indicators observed in the electronic form such as rigidity in the modality of play, the lack of adequate ability of impersonating in role-playing, the difficulty of using creativity during play unless he was guided by peers or the Psychology interns and the constant anguish of separating himself from his parents were crucial for parents' orientation. The psychological treatment lasted five months and benefited from the information obtained through the form once the symptoms of irritability and aggressiveness were reduced. Conclusions This modality of assessment can be instructional for parents and may also reduce financial and time costs once provides specific indicators to observe during play.


Every human being basically has potential, namely the ability to acquire "knowledge" without going through the sensory and intellectual processes. It's just that the potential is different for each person depending on the intensity of the syiddah and dhu'f that exist in him. In fact, that potential is often "hidden" in the corner of his unconscious, so that it cannot be actualized. Philosophers call it ontologie (the science of being), or metaphysics (which is behind the veil of reality). So the main humans are divided in looking for something that exists. One with a way of thinking, by writing to the exact sciences, logic and so on. And another by way of feeling, by way of zauq. Thanks to the sincerity of his heart, while the first group was still searching, which sometimes met the corners of the truth, and sometimes stumbled into other paths, the two contemplated in the realm of taste, and they were satisfied with that taste.


The conversion of a wide range of carboxylic acids into their acyl imidazolides with subsequent addition of an aziridine rapidly gives a quantitative yield of the corresponding N-acyl aziridines.Iodide (or bromide) ion catalysed rearrangement of N-acyl 2(S)-benzylaziridines 1 to oxazolines 6 proceeds quantitatively.


The precision payload or instruments on the spacecraft were disturbed by micro vibration. Aiming at vibration isolation, an active-passive hybrid vibration isolator based on piezoelectric reactor and micro-amplitude isolator is proposed, witch combined with the active vibration control and passive isolation method. The dynamic model of the hybrid isolator is established, an active control algorithm was designed by using the feed-forward feedback composite control mode. The simulation result shows that, the displacement excitation can be isolated effectively in full frequency segment. Theoretically, the validity and feasibility of the isolator are proved, which provides a reference for the isolation performance test.


This paper reports part of the first year of a three year longitudinal study of primary and high school students' motivational beliefs and strategic knowledge in English, Mathematics, Social Sciences and in general school learning. 391 Year 5, 804 Year 7, and 664 Year 9 students completed the global Causal Attributions Scale (Chan, 1994) as well as three domainspecific versions of the Chan scales. In addition, all completed the


Abstract Agricultural production management problems have always been rooted in several disciplines. However, the increasing complexity of the technical knowledge required of a production manager in agriculture today raises serious questions as to whether an individual producer possesses within himself the multiple competencies required to insure the survival of the production unit. The application of modern computer technology is the most promising vehicle through which the agricultural manager can expand his management abilities over the large number of complex disciplines with which he must cope. Computerized management information systems can provide the agricultural manager with accurate, timely information in a form that is most useful for today's management decisions. This paper is an attempt to outline a computerized management information system which could be made available to every manager of a modern dairy operation.


This case study aims to investigate the role of teachers' personal practical knowledge in interactive decision making for three pre-ser-vice non-native ESL teachers. The research question is: What role does pre-service ESL teachers' personal practical knowledge (operationalized as teaching maxims in this study) play in their interactive decisions (decisions made during teaching)? Content analysis on language learning =teaching autobiographies was carried out to map out teachers' personal practical knowledge. Interviews, observation over time, and a video-based method of eliciting introspective data were employed. The teachers' lesson plans and journals were triangulated with the other data. Findings were that some parts of a teacher's personal practical knowledge might be competitive or conditional while being applied in particular instructional contexts and that while some new maxims start shaping during classroom teaching, some old ones are seen in a new light. Results also show that during classroom teaching, the participants have limited access to their personal practical knowledge (only about half of the interactive decisions made were guided by their personal practical knowledge). However, this played a part in informing post-active decisions (decisions made after teaching), and delayed accessibility to such knowledge nonetheless helped evaluate new maxims of teaching.


Technical methods used for the analytic calculation of corrections to the superfine splitting associated with the electron line are described. The main results of the intermediate calculations are presented.


Herein,we reported an unified Cu-catalyzed asymmetric umpolung hydroamination, which is capable of direct preparation of a series of beta-amino acid, ester, amide and nitrile in a highly regio- and enantioselective manner, without the requirement of traditional pre-installation of stoichiometric quantities of auxiliaries.


Acupuncturists may apply a needle into different locations for a given acupuncture point.1 This may raise doubts and uncertainty about the efficacy of acupuncture treatments, and cause complications in acupuncture research and education. For example, the LI4 point located in the first web-space of the hand is one of the most commonly used acupuncture points, but the placement of LI4 is slightly different in standard textbooks used for teaching acupuncture in China2 and Taiwan.3 For illustration, the two LI4 placements are named …


This research aims to identify the critical successful factors of mobile commerce (m-commerce) adoption in each stage of the system life cycle and to further build a reference model for businesses' consultation towards a successful m-commerce adoption. We initially identified 21 critical factors based on Gowin's Vee conceptual learning framework and the grounded theory method. These factors are further arranged into a model developed from combining the four aspects in Leavitt's diamond model and the six stages in Sathish et al's system life cycle. A Delphi questionnaire and a case study are used to revise the model and verify the its applicability, respectively. The results of this study have found more factors from the top 10 critical success factors categorized as Technology and Task aspects. Furthermore, the top three important factors for m-commerce adoption are the support capabilities of the IT vendor, senior management support, and capabilities of the project team.


The effect of windward surface temperature on the heat transfer to the leeward surface of the shuttle orbiter was investigated. Heat-transfer distributions, surface-pressure distributions, and schlieren photographs were obtained for an 0.01-scale model of the 37-0 shuttle orbiter at angles-of-attack of 30 deg and of 40 deg. Similar data were obtained for a fuselage-only configuration at angles-of-attack of 30 deg and of 90 deg. Data were obtained for various Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers, and surface temperatures.


A method and system for realizing ring back tone basing on group mobile telephone exchange service, it includes: service control point attached by group mobile telephone exchange acquires the ID of the extension user called by callers; and sends the routing information of the ring back tone intelligent peripheral equipment and the ID of the extension user to the gateway mobile exchange center/mobile exchange center respectively, where the caller located in; the gateway mobile exchange center/mobile exchange center where the caller located in, routes the ID of the extension user to the ring back tone intelligent peripheral equipment, according to the received routing information of the ring back tone intelligent peripheral equipment; the equipment connects the call to the visited mobile exchange center of called extension user, and plays the group ring back tone ordered by the group customers to callers. The invention can play the group ring back tone ordered by the group customers to users during the process of exchange exchanges the call to an extension.


We use data on individual French exporters to document how a change in trade costs, following the introduction of the euro, affected the export margins of firms in relation to export decisions, the number of products exported, and the average sales per product. Our results confirm two effects predicted by the theory: firms increase the range of products they export as well as their intensive margin. This effect is most evident in markets with moderate monetary policy coordination before 1999. General equilibrium competition effects reduce the initial positive impact on each of these margins. We find no evidence that firms increase their participation in the export market.


The dynamics of large networks is an important and fascinating problem. Key examples are the Internet, social networks, and the human brain. In this paper we consider a model introduced by DeVille and Peskin [6] for a stochastic pulse-coupled neural network.
 The key feature and novelty in their approach is that they describe the interactions of a neuronal system as a discrete-state stochastic dynamical network. This idealization has two benefits: it captures essential features of neuronal behavior, and it allows the study of spontaneous synchronization, an important phenomenon in neuronal networks that is well-studied but unfortunately far from being well-understood. In synchronous behavior the firing of one neuron leads to the firing of other neurons, which in turn may set off a chain reaction that often involves a substantial proportion of the neurons.
 In this paper we rigorously analyze their model. In particular, by applying methods and tools that are frequently used in theoretical computer science, we provide a very precise picture of the dynamics and the evolution of the given system. In particular, we obtain insights into the coexistence of synchronous and asynchronous behavior and the conditions that trigger a "spontaneous" transition from one state to another.


230 Avenida de la Vista, Tucson, Ariz. 85710. This examination yields information which indicates the presence, severity and type of reading disability. It also gives advance information about whether the method of teaching used by the writer and described below is likely to be effective. The logistics of organizing a central class of children from all sections of a wicle-flzzn; city presented certain practical problems. Transportation had to be provided privately; neither funds nor facilities were available. It was necessary for the children to be brought to the classroom either by a parent or by friends. Since arrangements for transportation could not be made in every case, the number of enrollees was reduced from 15 to


Acknowledging the long history of mutual interference between Architecture and Photography, their complex and ubiquitous relationship, and understanding Photography as a relevant artistic and critical research tool, Inaki Bergera s work offers new light over these matters. Photography and Modern Architecture in Spain fosters a renewed under - standing of Spanish architecture from the modern period, compiling and structuring all the information that was somehow scattered or lost, speaking about the photographers that were creating images of those modern buildings and the architects to which they were associated with. New American Topographics is an astonishing photography book reinterpreting the visual discourse of the New Topographic aesthetics and bringing them to contemporary time.


For the collection and clinical usage quantities of regional blood changing randomly, it is hard to efficiently adjust regional blood supply and demand balance extent with quantitative way. To solve this problem to some extent, a vague set based adjustment model is proposed. Blood stock level of regional blood center being chosen as expressing indicator and the ideal blood stock level interval as criteria, and considering the fuzzy characters of the indicator being subject to its criteria interval, vague set similarity measure function is applied to found a vague set based measure function for regional blood supply and demand balance extent. With the introduction of adjustment factor, derived from the measure
function, an adjustment model for regional blood supply and demand balance is established. With the application of the model, and referring to the literature published blood stock operation data of several regional blood centers in China, a determination method of the aimed lower and upper limit of blood center stock control level is obtained. The aimed lower and upper limit of blood center stock control level can be an operable reference to blood center stock operation, which is helpful for regional blood center to effectively manage its blood stock level according to different regional blood supply and demand balance goal.


Background: The distal sensory polyneuropathy (DSP) was more frequent among diabetics, although its determinant was not well known among diabetics in Benin. Objective: We aimed to assess the frequency of DSP and its determinants among diabetics at Parakou. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study carried out from 1 March to 31 August 2012 and included 336 diabetics followed at the diabetes unit of Parakou hospital. The diagnosis of DSP was based on DNS (Diabetic Neuropathy Score) criteria and other criteria. All data concerning the diabetes mellitus were recorded. We used Epi-Info and SPSS 16.0 software to perform analysis. Results: They were 187 females (56.0%) with the mean age of 54.9 ± 10.9 years. 298 patients fulfilled criteria for DSP; the overall prevalence of DSP was 88.7%. The main associated factors in multivariate analysis were treatment duration of diabetes more than 4 years: OR = 36.7 [4.0 - 336.9]; the elevated glycaemia: OR = 3.1 [1.4 - 7.1]; the activity with high income: OR = 0.2 [0.0 - 0.8]; the ethnicity: nagots/fon: OR: 3.7 [1.4 - 12.5]. Conclusion: Those results suggested the high frequency of DSP among diabetics at Parakou.


Node space in underground pedestrian system presents a complex character. The knowledge of this system should not rest only on the theory about aboveground node space, instead, the reason of its existence, occurrence and evolution, as well as the basis behind its characters, should be found out from other aspect. In this paper, its source is traced for analyzing it from its carrier; so as to get rid of the sense of divided or disjoined analysis and put the complex modalities in order, to form a vivid theory frame.


Vertical greenery system (VGS) is commonly used for facade shading. It has many advantages in its natural aesthetic, air filter, carbon sequestration, and many more. This research is the continuation of the previous research in 2019, which used Shibataea kumasasa as VGS. It was found that using Shibataea as VGS has reduced the indoor air temperature by 0.5-2°C on average, with 5°C maximum temperature difference. On the other hand, it decreased more light (in range 26-95%), made the illuminance of the room lower than the standard requirement. A studio room should have minimum 5% daylight factor or 500 lux, while on the room measurement, the lowest was 20 lux in the morning hours, the highest was only 200 lux in the afternoon. As an attempt to look for vegetation with better performance, this research uses another bamboo species, Equisetum hyemale to be examined and then being compared to Shibataea. The result is that for the thermal shade, Equisetum performs less effectively than Shibataea. As for light shade, the Shibataea reduces more illuminance than Equisetum, thus makes it a less favorable alternative. The balance of thermal-light effective performance maintained by the leaf area index can be the focus of future research.


The ion drag force acting on dust grains was measured experimentally in a low-pressure Ar plasma in the regime of strong ion-grain coupling. Argon ions were drifting in the axial ambipolar electric field naturally present in a hot-filament dc discharge plasma. Following the method of Hirt et al. [Phys. Plasmas 11, 5690 (2004)], hollow glass microspheres were dropped into the plasma and allowed to fall due to gravity. The ion drag force was derived from the particle trajectory deflection from the vertical direction. The result is in reasonable agreement with a theoretical model that takes strong ion-grain coupling into account.