Ranking a vector of alternatives on the basis of a series of paired comparisons is a relevant topic in many instances. A popular example is ranking contestants in sport tournaments. To this purpose, paired comparison models such as the Bradley-Terry model are often used. This paper suggests fitting paired comparison models with a lasso-type procedure that forces contestants with similar abilities to be classified into the same group. Benefits of the proposed method are easier interpretation of rankings and a significant improvement of the quality of predictions with respect to the standard maximum likelihood fitting. Numerical aspects of the proposed method are discussed in detail. The methodology is illustrated through ranking of the teams of the National Football League 2010-2011 and the American College Hockey Men's Division I 2009-2010.


Nonconventional parallel simulations methods are presented, wherein speed-ups are not limited by the number of simulated components. The methods capitalize on Chandy and Sherman's space-time relaxation paradigm, and incorporate fast algorithms for solving recurrences. Special attention is paid to implementing these algorithms on currently available massively parallel SIMD computers. As examples, "superfast" simulations for open and closed queuing networks and for the slotted ALOHA communication protocol are discussed. Several of the simulations are implemented and show impressive computational speeds. This paper summarizes previous results of the authors and presents some new experiments and simulations.


In this work the electromechanical performance of planar, single- layered dielectric elastomer (DE) actuators was investigated. The mechanical power density and the overall electromechanical efficiency of DE stripe actuators under continuous activation cycles were examined. The viscoelastic behavior of the dielectric film was modeled with a three-dimensionally coupled spring-damper framework. This film model was fitted to the mechanical behavior of the acrylic film VHB 4910 (3M) evaluated in a combination of a uniaxial loading test with holding time and subsequent unloading. In addition the quasielastic film model was derived in order to evaluate the quasistatic behavior of DE actuators under activation. For the simulation of DE actuators the boundary conditions of the film model were accordingly adapted. By embedding the actuator into an appropriate electrical circuit electrodynamic effects were incorporated as well. The quasielastic model of a planar DE actuator with free boundary conditions predicted a stable deformation state for activation with constant charge. For activation with constant electrical voltage, however, the model showed a stable and an instable equilibrium state. For activation voltages beyond a critical voltage the film collapses in thickness direction due to the electrostatic forces (Maxwell stresses). A biaxially prestrained stripe actuator was described with the viscoelastic film model. The stripe actuator was cyclically activated and cyclically elongated with a phase shift (displacement-controlled). A qualitative parameter study showed that the overall electromechanical efficiency as well as the specific power density of such DE actuators strongly depends on the electrical activation and the external mechanical loading.


warded by the product may be quite different from the one in which he buys it, there is a gap to be bridged analogous to the one between the advertisement and the purchase. Here again what is needed is a conspicuous cue. Again the cue should be one that is present at the sales counter, but this time it should also be present when the customer is rewarded by consuming or using the product. Since the immediate effects of rewards are much greater than the delayed ones, this distinctive cue should be present at the very moment the customer is being rewarded by using the product, or as near as possible to that moment. This crucial transfer of the effects of reward from the breakfast table (or other situation in which the product is used) to the sales counter is helped by distinctive features such as pictures on boxes, brand names, trademarks, and devices such as writing the name right on the biscuit sd that the customer sees that name immediately before experiencing the delicious taste. How to achieve most effectively this transfer from the rewarding use to the sales counter is a challenge to the creative worker in advertising. THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING


Title: Conclusions in systematic reviews of mammography for breast cancer screening and associations with review design and author characteristics Authors: Smriti Raichand (firstname.lastname@example.com) Adam Dunn (email@example.com) Mei-Sing Ong (email@example.com) Florence Bourgeois (email@example.com) Enrico Coiera (email@example.com) Kenneth Mandl (email@example.com) Version: 1 Date: 05 Jan 2017 Author's response to reviews: Response to Reviewers: Conclusions in systematic reviews of mammography for breast cancer screening and associations with review design and author characteristics Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the comments from the reviewers, which we feel have helped us to improve the study and clarify the manuscript. The following is a detailed response and a description of how we addressed each of the comments. Page and paragraph references below refer to the "tracked changes" version of the manuscript and the revised version of the additional files.


Seismocardiogram (SCG) is a complex; nonstationary signal used for pathological analysis of cardiac vibratory activity and reflects mechanical aspects of the heart contraction and blood ejection. It is a continuous noninvasive measurement of the heart activity in three dimensions. It measures the accelerations onto the chest wall by the heart through its movement, plotted as a function of time. In this paper, collected data from a particular device are thoroughly analyzed to identify the critical points. The points which can be consistently identified have been selected from the SCG waveforms are aortic opening and closing points, and atrioventricular opening and closing points. Based on these points which are the 6 parameters including time intervals and amplitude measurements, two equations are generated and can be used for heart condition diagnostic purposes.


I propose an empirical model to analyze product differentiation and oligopoly market structure. The model endogenizes firms' product-type decisions, measures how effects of competitors differ depending on their product types, and can incorporate alternative specifications for the product choice game. I estimate using data from oligopoly motel markets along U.S. interstate highways; motel establishments are characterized by their quality choice. The results demonstrate a strong incentive for firms to differentiate. The effects of demand characteristics on product choice are also significant. Game specification is of minor importance, although differences in the games analyzed do affect equilibrium market structure predictions in some cases.


The ability of corona discharge as an electrohydrodynamic propulsion system has been considered by many physicists and aerospace researchers. The results show that the most important factor in increasing the thrust force and thrust effectiveness is increasing the momentum transmission frequency in other words reduction of ion mobility that leads to a reduction of the average velocity. By configuring the wire-cylinder in atmospheric conditions, in an experimental study, using a new strategy in generating corona discharge, and without changing the system configuration, the thrust force is increased by increased of exciting species and reducing the ion mobility. DC superimposed AC (AC-DC) voltage source was utilized to achieve higher thrust force efficiency. Results show that the thrust force generated by the AC-DC source is increased by 4–2 times, with the applied voltage range of 10–20 kV compared to the DC source, respectively; while the thrust effectiveness has also been increased. A theory is introduced to calculate the thrust force due to ionic wind generation in the corona discharge regime. Accordingly, a relation is obtained for calculating thrust force and ion mobility using the average vertical ionic wind velocity on the side of the grounded electrode to support experimental results.


In this paper, novel filter designs using the Groove Gap technology with a contactless surface on both sides have been presented. The main idea of this paper is to design a Groove Gap Stop band unit cell at X-band with a double side air gap. By using this method, all the cells can move within the component without any risk of leakage. This study was done using CST and ANSYS as simulation tools and traditional CNC aluminium was used to manufacture the proof of concept between 8 and 12 GHz. Finally, a reconfigurable Groove Gap component is proposed that can be set as a waveguide or as a band pass filter whose order and frequency response can be continuously reconfigured, and a stop band filter.


The PS2 is proposed as a replacement for the existing PS accelerator. It is presently considered to be a normal conducting synchrotron with an injection energy of around 4 GeV and a maximum energy of around 50 GeV, significantly higher than the present PS that delivers 25 GeV protons.


An investigation conducted on the children left behind in Suqian,Jiangsu Province reveals that the group of people are faced with the problems: lack of family care,unsatisfactory guardianship,not good schooling condition and so on.The paper accordingly considers that rural residential schools are to be an effective attempt to solve the problems in the Children's Living and Educational Condition.The kind of school is considered as a remedy for the children's emotional need,and it sets up a flat for the children's overall development as it brings them team spirit and consciousnesses of gratitude.


In "outer sphere" electron transfer reactions, motions of the solvent molecules surrounding the donor and acceptor govern the dynamics of charge flow. Are the relevant solvent motions determined simply by bulk solvent properties such as dielectric constant or viscosity? Or are molecular details, such as the local solvent structure around the donor and acceptor, necessary to understand how solvent motions control charge transfer? In this paper, we address these questions by using ultrafast spectroscopy to study a photoinduced electron transfer reaction with only electronic degrees of freedom: the charge-transfer-to-solvent (CTTS) reaction of Na− (sodide). Photoexcitation of Na− places the excited CTTS electron into a solvent-bound excited state; motions of the surrounding solvent molecules in response to this excitation ultimately lead to detachment of the electron. The detached electron can then localize either in an "immediate" contact pair (in the same cavity as the Na atom), which undergoes back electr...


Chinese-Canadian critic Jin Li shows how five Canadian artists born in the People's Republic of China rediscover ancient Chinese philosophy through Western postmodernism. Biographical notes. 3 bibl. ref.


Using a new computer grading program (UGRS), 1 and 2A Common lumber was sorted based on the percentage of board surface measure found in the maximum allowable number of grading cuttings. For 1 Common, 46.0 percent of 921 boards had percentages in the FAS range (83-1/3% and above). For 2A Common, 54.7 percent of 825 boards had percentages in the 1 Common range. When gang-ripped first, these quality sorts produced important differences in the number of rips, crosscuts, and parts produced for primary and salvage operations when processed to easy and difficult cutting bills. In addition, important differences emerged in the cost and amount of lumber required for each of the quality sorts.


A disagreement by providers on a diagnosis often comes at the expense of the patient. Doctors must support each other, even when they're not on the same page.


The flow behaviors of different poly (vinyl chloride) and corncob flour composite were characterized using a Göttfert 20 extrusion rheometer. The rheological characterization includes extrusion experiments at different temperatures and screw speeds. By evaluation of flow rate and die pressure the flow properties and the activation energy of the flow can be determined. This also provides insight into the internal structure/organization of the prepared composite and gives information about process ability and processing window parameters. The flow of the melt is mostly determined by the molecular weight of the polymer but for PVC the higher organization of the polymer as tertiary and quaternary structures have also a significant effect. Moreover, the molecular weight affects not only the viscosity but also the relaxation times. This flow behavior of the polymer has changed significantly by shearing time and thermal history of the materials. PVC composites compounded from raw PVC powder of various K–values (molecule weight) were prepared and examined via a complete rheological analysis. The PVC composite's morphology mostly depends on the concentration of the components, the material matrix and the corncob additive. The viscosity of the composites, the Rabinovich exponent, and flow-viscosity curves were determined in this paper. The results of the rheological tests can help us to make comprehensive conclusion about the composite structures, processing possibilities and applicability.


Social media has become an important platform for the public to express their opinions and comment on all manner of things. Analysis of social media data can yield interesting facts and views about another person, product, business or an issue. This paper focuses on content profiling based on sentiment analysis of Twitter data for a particular User, Business or a Hashtag by focusing on the emotions, reactions and opinions written on Twitter by different users in the form of tweets and using statistical, learning and natural language processing techniques.. To accomplish the task, this paper will also use various Machine Learning techniques along with a combination of Python Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) VADER Library. The different machine learning classifiers are evaluated and results show that Artificial Neural Networks perform the best with 76.46% accuracy, Random Forest second most accurate classifier with 75.95% accuracy and Multinomial Naïve Bayes achieved 75.65% accuracy. The methods described here provide users with a robust and flexible way of profiling Twitter users using sentiment extracted from tweet data.


This article, on the one hand, presents the theoretical analysis of the flexible
exchange rate and its effects on the economic policy of emerging countries with
serious financial and currency crises. On the other hand, it proposes an exchange
rate regime to the Brazilian economy to aim at mitigating the external constraints
observed after the Real Plan.


We study the high clustering model of K. Klemm and V.M. Eguiliuz [1]. The basic idea is the growing networks based on a finite memory of the nodes. Our main contributions are as follows: based on the high clustering model, we investigate analytically that it does generate a power-law degree distribution and give the exact solution from the perspective of Markov chain. And the degree exponent varying is depend on the parameters α and m.


The lower portion of the center pillar 1, a through hole 14 penetrating the side wall portion 12b of the outer reinforcement 12 is provided. Through-hole 14 is provided is formed in a substantially D-shape, and the straight portion 14a, and a circular arc portion 14b which is connected with both ends of the linear portion 14a. The length of the arcuate portion 14b is longer than the straight portion 14a. Linear portion 14a is disposed inside the vehicle, the circular arc portion 14b is located outside of the vehicle. By thus to have a margin in the line length to the arc portion 14b, since the tensile stress is less likely to take when receiving a load F by the side collision, breakage of the center pillar 1 is less likely to occur.


The Satyarth Prakash of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, was not just a book of Religion. Rather, it was meant to be a moral code of conduct, a guide for the Aryan People to adhere to. As such, the Swami had taken pains to spell out the model character of an Aryan woman, among other things. He had given the Iwoman question' a centrality because he perceived women to be the key to the maintenance of caste purity; and because he wished to exploit the reproductive capability of women, so that a judicious sexual union would produce the required Aryan male progeny. Swami Dayananda Saraswati died in the year 1883. He died too early, his followers felt, without giving them adequate guidance to follow his precepts as taught in the Satyarth Prakash. They, nevertheless, endeavoured to be true to his word, and to make the Satyarth Prakash their spiritual guide. This was especially true of his followers in Punjab, where the number of Arya Samajis grew rapidly. By 1891, their number was 24,458, which increased to 65,282


The present invention is mainly a metallic substrate surface processing method comprising the steps of: (i) providing a metal substrate having surface hydroxyl groups; (Ii) contacting the metal substrate with a solution of at least one organophosphorus compound so as to permit reaction of said hydroxyl groups on the surface of the metal substrate with said organophosphorus compound to form a monomolecular layer on the surface and a second layer organophosphorus physisorbed molecules partially crystallized, the resulting treated substrate is coated organophosphorus compound monomolecular form and physisorbed crystallized form. Furthermore, it aims a treated metallic substrate obtainable by this process, the corresponding solution and its use for treating metal substrates to improve their tribological properties during their forming, in particular deep drawing, and their resistance to corrosion.


This paper uses a heteroscedastic ordered logit model to study the effects of various vehicle, environmental, roadway and occupant characteristics on the severity of injuries sustained by vehicle occupants, conditional on the crash occurrence. As expected, the models find that heavier vehicles increase both a vehicle's crashworthiness and its aggressiveness towards others. The models also find that if all passenger vehicles were to become 1000 lbs heavier, crash injury outcomes would not change dramatically. However, if all passenger cars were to become light duty trucks (i.e., minivans, pickups and sport utility vehicles) of the same weight, incapacitating injuries and the fatalities are predicted to rise by 26 and 64 percent, respectively. Beyond weight and vehicle type, many other factors were controlled for all well. For example, older occupants and female occupants are more likely to experience injury and death, particularly when navigating curved roadway sections with higher speed limits.


Background: Most undescended testes are palpable, but around 20% of cases are reported as non-palpable, and these represent a major challenge as regards determining the most effective strategy for diagnosis and treatment. About 3% of full-term and 30% of premature infant boys are born with at least one undescended testis; making cryptorchidism the most common birth defect of male genitalia . The aim of work is to evaluate a newly described vessel sparing technique (gradual traction method) for treatment of high impalpable undescended testes and to assess value of laparoscopy in diagnosis and treatment of various types of impalpable undescended testes. Patient and methods: This study included 28 patientswho presented with 30 impalpable testes to the outpatient clinic of fayoum university hospital in July 2013-January 2016, and underwent laparoscopy by the same surgeons. Intra-abdominal testes were managed by standard inguinal orchiopexy if intracanalicular or peeping, laparoscopic orchiopexy if low and staged traction (Shehata technique) if high. Children were evaluated postoperatively to check the location and size of the testicle and to exclude any other complications. Results: Mean age at presentation was 8.90years (range 1-20years). Follow up was 6-18 months (mean 10 months). On follow up, the testes were normal sized and well positioned in the scrotum in all testes in the orchiopexy and traction groups with an overall success rate of 100%. One testis slipped off the traction stitch and was converted to a staged Fowler-Stephens procedure. Conclusion: For high level undescended testis and when one-stage mobilization is difficult, staged traction orchiopexy (Shehata technique) has excellent results.


The amount of the data storage in signal processing systems, whose behavior is described by loop-organized algorithmic specifications, has an important impact on the overall energy consumption, chip area, as well as system performance. This paper presents a non-scalar approach for computing the minimum storage requirements in high-level procedural specifications, where the main data structures are multi-dimensional arrays. This methodology uses both algebraic techniques specific to the data-flow analysis used in modern compilers and, also, more recent advances in the theory of polyhedra. In contrast with all the previous works which are only estimation methods, this approach can perform the exact computation of the minimum data storage even for applications with numerous loop nests and complex array references.


THE TITLE of this presentation might imply that many forms of heart disease were possibly escaping recognition. Perhaps a more hackneyed title, such as "Pitfalls in Diagnosis, "Missed Diagnoses," or "IReflee-tions on Cardiac Diagnosis," would be more appropriate. At the end of the month or semester, one may reflect on his practice and figuratively calculate his diagnostic batting average; the analysis of his errors, minor or major as they mav be, can be a humbling, yet rewarding task. Obviously, all personally unrecognized, or erroneously labeled, forms of heart disease cannot be evaluated during such reflection. It is necessary to have a final diagnosis, obtained either on a subsequent occasion or by a colleague in either a clinical or a pathologic, anatomic setting. General categories of missed diagnloses are: (1) rarities, (2) simulators, (3) complicators, and (4) the emotionally obscured. Rarities These may be unknown to the physician or even yet to be described. Each specialist undoubtedly sees a patient, each week or so, who presents a picture so puzzling that he may wonder if some new syndrome is teasingly waiting to be identified. Are there disease states equivalent in rarity to the carcinoid syndrome, primary aldosteronism, renal artery fibromuscular disease with hypertension, and pheoehromocytoma that are escaping our understanding? Rarities seem to become comnmonplace once accurately described. One must also remember disease states that one may produce ("diseases of medical progress ") of which a neat cardiovascular example is that of the unique type of anemia related to fragmentation of red cells,1' 2 as-sumedly related to their impact on Teflon prostheses surgically placed in the heart. Rarities when recognized can be fun, as illustrated by two recent cases: Hypopara-thvroid hypocaleemic laryngospasm was mistaken for paroxysmal left heart failure, and liqorice-induced hypokalemia was initiallv thought to be aldosteronism.3 Pheochromoeytoma having been mentioned, it is pertinent to remark that the clinical diagnosis may sometimes be most difficult to make, for a patient 's presenting complaints may be bizarre. For instance, nervousness, sweating spells, or transient shock may occur in the absence of hypertension or, or least, when hypertension has been overlooked. The cardiologist, to justify his appellation, must be abreast of the times in regard to eponyms and syndromes that abut his specialty. He must know about such syndromes as pseudoxanthoma elasticum4-7 and angio-keratoma corporis diffusum universale, where vascular disease may be rampant. However, as Hutehison8 said, we must not mistake a …


A three-layer device is proposed which uses temperature-dependent exchange coupling between two magnetic layers. One layer is composed of a magnetically "hard" material, the other is uniaxial Permalloy. The coupling layer is an alloy that has a Curie temperature near room temperature. A brief pulse of heat applied by means of an optical or electron beam can raise the temperature of the device above its lowest Curie temperature, and the film will change its magnetic state under the influence of an external bias field. An energy calculation for the single-domain case leads to a family of critical curves with exchange coupling as a parameter. An alloy of Ni-Fe-Cr is proposed for use in the coupling layer. Measurements of saturation magnetization versus temperature are reported for sputtered films of the alloy. Although the desired properties are observed for some samples, the alloy appears to be metallurgically unstable.


BACKGROUND Core biopsy of vertebral bone is traditionally carried out in the prone position under radiological guidance using a trephine. If biopsy of the intervertebral disc is required, the same technique and instrumentation is used or fine-needle aspiration is performed. The biopsy obtained with the trephine relies on capillary action and the volume of sample tissue is often small. The sensitivity of this technique is poor, with rates ranging between 42% and 62%.1 With a larger sample of tissue, it is probable that the sensitivity of the technique may be improved. We propose a novel technique (using equipment already present in the operating theatre) that increases the volume of sample tissue obtained and could improve the likelihood of an organism being isolated.


In recent years, education–occupation mismatch has become an important area of social research. However, little is known about its impact on the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. This study investigates the possible negative consequences of a specific aspect of parental education–occupation mismatch, also known as overeducation, for high school students. Drawing from a sample of high school students in an Israeli city with a high incidence of overeducation, our analysis suggests that parental education–occupation mismatch does not affect student expectations for progressing to higher education. The results did reveal, however, that maternal education–occupation mismatch is related to school truancy among boys and girls, and that paternal education–occupation mismatch contributes to lower odds of enrollment in advanced science courses, especially among boys.


In this study, we used miTAG approach to analyze the distributional pattern and fine‐scale genetic diversity of the ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) lineages in the global oceans with the metagenomics data sets of the Tara Oceans global expedition (2009–2013). Using the ammonium monooxygenase alpha subunit gene as a biomarker, the AOA communities in the global oceans were recovered with highly diverse operational taxonomic units that affiliated to previously defined clades, including water column A (WCA), water column B (WCB), and SCM1‐like clades. In general, the AOA communities were obviously segregated with depth (except the upwelling regions), and the communities in the euphotic zones were more heterogeneous than in the mesopelagic zones (MPZs). The WCA distributed more evenly and widely in the euphotic zone and MPZs, while WCB and SCM1‐like clade mainly distributed in MPZ and high‐latitude waters, respectively. At fine‐scale genetic diversity, SCM1‐like and 2 WCA subclades showed distinctive niche separations of distributional pattern. We further divided the AOA subclades into ecological significant taxonomic units (ESTUs), which were delineated from the distribution pattern of their corresponding subclades. For example, ESTUs of WCA have different correlations with depth, nitrate to silicate ratio, and salinity; SCM1‐like A was negatively correlated with irradiation, whereas other SCM1‐like ESTUs preferred low‐temperature and high‐nutrient conditions. Our result showed that the previously defined AOA clades and ecotypes consist of highly diverse sublineages, whose diversity might be overlooked in the past. The distribution patterns of different ESTUs imply their ecophysiological characteristics and potential roles in biogeochemical cycling.


A display device (18) includes a display controller (68) and displays the contents based on the display control means (68) output display signals. The display control means (68) includes: a meter value converter (61) of the measurements of several devices which are displayed in a predetermined unit, is reacted in measuring values with the same scale, and determining means (62) for the maximum measuring value, the maximum value of the meter by the meter value converter (61) implemented gauge values are determined so that the by said determining means (62) is displayed for the maximum value measuring instrument certain value.


Dielectric absorption studies have been carried out on solutions of tetrahydrofuran, thiacyclopentane and cyclopentanone in cyclohexane at five microwave frequencies. An appreciable discrepancy between the dipole moments evaluated by the microwave and heterodyne beat approaches may be accounted for by high atomic polarization contributions. The dielectric data for each molecule have been analyzed in terms of two processes, one of which is identified as re-orientation about a principal axis. Possible processes for the other relaxation time have been considered.


Today science, engineering and technology permeate every aspect of our society. As students understand the human-built world, they must also get acculturated to the practices associated with science and engineering. The recent National Research Council (NRC) report calls for a focus on practices traditionally under-emphasized in the context of science education. These include practices such as modeling, developing explanations, and engaging in critique and evaluation (NRC, 2012). The insights gained from engaging in these practices should help students see how science and engineering are instrumental in addressing challenges such as generating energy, treating diseases, and maintaining supplies of clean water (NRC, 2012). Thus, we decided to focus on these under-emphasized practices and used the challenge of maintaining supplies of clean water to a house as the context for engaging with these practices. We reasoned that every student would be familiar with this context because everyone was used to getting clean water in his or her home. As a first step, we wanted to collect baseline data about students' understanding about the concept of how water was supplied/drained to/from a house by having them make physical models of the concept. We have designed an activity that facilitates student interaction with Antecedent models – models intended to represent plausible prior points on their learning trajectories. Our hypothesis is that the Antecedent models have value as a prompts for helping students develop and represent a scientifically accurate understanding of the concept. Our first step, through this pilot study, is to investigate students' appropriation of Antecedent models as resources for constructing their own "Informed" model. We seek to understand – (a) How Antecendent models inform students' designs and (b) In what ways do the Informed models differ from their Antecedents. For this study, third graders constructed models that served as Antecedent models for fifth graders. Fifth graders constructed Informed models after critiquing the Antecedent models.


Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of pain in the calcaneus, near the origin in the median tuberosity. It is estimated that 11% to 15% of all foot complaints requiring medical attention can be attributed to this condition.1,2 The literature explains its pathophysiology through a process where mechanical overload and excessive stress produce intrasubstantial microruptures in the plantar fascia, which leads to an inflammatory response.3In high-performance athletes (elite), involved in running and jumping, repeated daily heel trauma without the recommended interval may hinder normal healing, resulting in chronic inflammation followed by degeneration.4 Plantar fascia rupture resulting from chronic local inflammation or previous corticosteroid infiltration may occur spontaneously during elite athletic activity.5,6 Therefore, the purpose of this case report is to document the diagnosis, propose a treatment and time of return to sports activity after acute plantar fascia rupture in a high-performance (elite) athlete without previous corticosteroid infiltrations, an entity rarely described in the literature.6,7


Non-Gaussian signals (e.g. speech signal, electrocar-diograms) are commonly faced with in real-life. However, most of the signals estimation methods developed so far are based on the linear approach, which is appropriate for Gaussian signals which are not optimal, or adequate, for real-life non-Gaussian signals. Such signals should be approached with nonlinear estimation methods which can significantly improve estimation results. As the nonlinear processing of non-Gaussian signals is a key to enhance the existing as well as to introduce new technologies, in this paper we focus on verifying directions in which increasing number of the linear and nonlinear Schur coefficients results with better estimation results.


In various applications, a wider area needs to be covered by fiduciary markers but a large marker cannot be used because only a fraction of the area is to be viewed by the camera. Such an area can be covered by a number of small markers with unique identifiers. However, with the camera freely moving in the scene and with occluders present, it is difficult to ensure that at least one of the individual markers is completely visible, unless the markers are small and numerous. In that case, the markers are not recognizable from larger distances. In this paper we introduce the concept of Marker Fields which overcome this limitation. The Marker Field covers a large-scale planar (or non-planar) area and it is composed of mutually overlapping partial markers. We propose a particular arrangement of the Marker Field: a Uniform Checker-Board Marker Field, which is a black- and-white checkerboard whose square modules are defined by aperiodic 4-orientable binary n2-window arrays (De Bruijn tori). We propose a genetic algorithm for construction of 4-orientable n2window arrays. We used a supercomputer to synthesize large 4-orientable 42window arrays and offer them publicly for downloading. We prototyped an algorithm for detection of the checkerboard marker fields and measured its performance. When processing input video from a cellphone camera, the algorithm visits only about 5 % of image pixels for reliable detection and the processing time is about 1 ms on a mid-range PC processor. The Uniform Marker Field increases freedom of camera movement, especially with occluders present in the scene. The detection algorithm is efficient and real-time marker field detection will be feasible on ultramobile devices.


is research collection o ers a comprehensive investigation into ecological approaches into environmental law. It brings together a kaleidoscope of di erent articles to examine the critique of environmental law, the ethical dimensions, and methodology before exploring the key issues focusing on rights and responsibilities, property and the commons, governance and constitutionalism. It also presents work that looks into the theory of Earth Jurisprudence. Together with an original introduction, this collection is an indispensable reference for anyone interested in ecological approaches to environmental law.


The purpose of the research is to determine the feasibility of starting a dating company, which focuses specifically on the South African market. Further sub problems were defined as follow: • Which South Africans would use a dating service, that is, who will be the main customers? • Is there specifically identifiable information that can help to recognise customers? Or can a profile be created for to identify customers? • How much are the customers willing to pay? • Does or can technology play a role in in courtship? The role of technology was investigated, in which it was found that globalisation affects everyone. One of the core factors that caused many other technologies to evolve from it, is the Internet. The intranet was a natural evolution from the Internet, which is normally specific to a company. A further literature survey was conducted to gain an understanding of dating companies globally and locally, to gain an understanding of the subject, which was used to create a questionnaire. The questionnaire reached a 120 participants, with 52 participants responding, which relates to a response rate of 43.3 percent. The questionnaire produces 37 variables, which were correlated, and as a result it was recommended that it is feasible to start a dating company in South Africa.


Some of the great enterprises of Colombia, leaders in research, development and innovation, are located in the city of Medellin. However, to date, few studie...


In order to understand and grasp the rule of remaining oil distribution,the field uses a variety of methods in the analysis and description of remaining oil distribution.Among these methods,permeability-saturation curve method and gray correlation method can be combined with the dynamic and static data to determine the remaining oil distribution conveniently and are widely used in the field.But the two methods' accuracy and applicability has not been validated.Therefore,this article,exemplified by the tracer monitoring well group of ShiNan 21 wellblock,based on the dynamic and static data,uses permeability-saturation curve method and gray correlation method to predict the remaining oil distribution of the well group,and analyzes the results with tracer monitoring results to verify the accuracy and determine the adaptability.The results show that the above two methods to forecast remaining oil distribution is consistent with the tracer monitoring results,and they have certain applicability for low permeability reservoir at high water cut stage.


DURING the Disraeli ministry of 1874-80, Conservative leaders, in a determined but unsuccessful effort to overcome the debility of Scottish conservatism, were uncommonly attentive to Scottish affairs in both parliament and party organization. Among the Disraeli manuscripts at Hughenden are two diagnoses of Scottish conservatism written in 1876 by two Scottish party workers-Alexander Mackie and Horace Skeete-that illustrate and in part explain this development.' These hitherto unpublished documents, which form the basis of this article, offer a unique glimpse behind the scenes at the structure, operation, and problems of the' Conservative party in Scotland at a time when party managers were grappling with the unfamiliar task of organizing the new mass electorate created by the Reform Act of 1867. The subject of these reports-the state of health of Scottish conservatism-was indeed worth Disraeli's attention. Not since 1830 had his party carried Scotland. In 1873 he had summoned the Scottish electorate to "leave off mumbling the dry bones of political economy, and munching the remainder biscuit of an effete Liberalism, "2 but in the election of the following year, despite its sweeping victory in England, his party won only nineteen of the sixty Scottish seats. This was indeed an improvement over the seven Scottish Conservatives returned in 1868, but it indicated that unless something was done Scottish conservatism was condemned to remain a permanent minority. That the new Conservative ministry was aware of this was apparent during the parliamentary sessions of 1874 and 1875, when it included Scotland'in its program of social legislation on such matters as public housing for work-


We conducted an experiment to understand the influence of ecological factors (desiccation, predation threat and density) on two major metamorphic traits, larval period and size at metamorphosis, in the Indian bronze frog, Hylarana temporalis . Tadpoles were reared in groups of 15 (low), 30 (medium) and 60 (high) densities. We created the threat of desiccation by removing 0.5 l water at 10 days intervals until the water quantity reached 0.5 l. Caged dragonfly larvae ( Pantala flavescens ) provided the predation threat. Results show that each ecological factor independently influenced metamorphic traits but not in an interactive way. Under desiccation threat the tadpoles metamorphosed earlier and at smaller sizes compared to those reared in constant water (at corresponding densities) regardless of presence/absence of predator. In contrast, under predation threat, tadpoles metamorphosed early and at a bigger size than those reared without predator regardless of density of rearing, and desiccation threat. Alternatively, an increase in density of rearing delayed metamorphosis with smaller metamorphic size in constant water and also under threat of desiccation regardless of whether predation threat existed or not. Thus, our study revealed that H. temporalis tadpoles can modify their response to each ecological factor regardless of what other factors operate simultaneously; the threat of desiccation shortens larval period at the cost of growth. Whereas, predator pressure shortens larval period along with increased growth; while greater density increases larval period and slows down growth in H. temporalis .


The teams of Escola de Florestas de Curitiba (EFC) and Museu Botânico Municipal (MBM) herbaria, Curitiba, Brazil, made field expeditions between the years 2017 and 2019 to increase the knowledge of the flora of Paraná state, southern Brazil. Four new records of tree species are reported: Cinnamodendron occhionianum F.Barros & J.Salazar (Canellaceae), Cryptocarya botelhensis P.L.R.Moraes (Lauraceae), Henriettea glabra (Vell.) Penneys, Michelang., Judd et Almeda (Melastomataceae) and Virola gardneri (A.DC.) Warb. (Myristicaceae). The genus Henriettea is recorded from the state of Paraná for the first time. All four species occur in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil.


Abstract. Previous studies of the Serpent Mound impact crater in southern Ohio have identified only two of the three important landforms associated with complex impact craters: the central peak and the surrounding graben (the latter coinciding with area beneath the crater floor). The third landform, the crater rim, was never identified. The diameter (7 to 8 km) of the area that encompasses both the central peak and ring graben was previously offered as the diameter of the crater, which was not representative of the full extent of this crater. Morphometric analysis, a reexamination of the local morphology, and delineation of structural deformation using subsurface data have provided new insight concerning the actual size of the Serpent Mound impact crater. Results suggest that the Serpent Mound impact crater is approximately 14 km in diameter and that surficial remnants of a crater rim still exist along the eastern half of the crater.


The concept of sustainable development has certain scientific characteristics, in the social and economic level gradually increased, the concept can penetrate into various fields. Especially in China's forest protection work, its protection and utilization period, to promote sustainable construction, to achieve forest protection and management, to ensure the effective use of resources.


The article substantiates the relevance of assessing the quality of professional activity of the teaching staff of higher educational institutions in the context of the transformation of the educational process. A study of theoretical and methodological aspects of assessing the quality of work of teaching staff has been conducted. The key components of the category "quality of professional activity of the teaching staff" are identified and a definition based on the essential aspects of the selected components is formulated. The main trends characterizing the modern system of higher education (elements of the transformation of the higher education system) are also highlighted, their impact on the activities of teaching staff of higher educational institutions is analyzed and the emerging demands of the external environment for the qualification of teaching staff are highlighted. As a result of the study, the authors identified inconsistencies in the theoretical and methodological provisions of the assessment of the quality of teaching staff, in particular, inconsistencies between the normative and actual qualification and competence requirements for teaching staff in the conditions of transformation of the educational system.


Thank you for reading obstacles report of the special committee on the disabled and the handicapped. As you may know, people have search numerous times for their chosen novels like this obstacles report of the special committee on the disabled and the handicapped, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they cope with some infectious bugs inside their laptop.


Alpha-Beta is a well known optimized algorithm used to ompute the values of lassi al ombinatorial games, like hess and go. The known proofs of orre tion of Alpha-Beta do rely on very spe i properties of the values used in the lassi al ontext (integers or reals), and on the niteness of the game tree. In this paper we prove that Alpha-Beta orre tly omputes the value of a game tree even when these values are hosen in a mu h wider set of partially ordered domains, whi h an be pretty far apart from integer and reals, like in the ase of the latti e of idempotent substitutions or ex-equations used in logi programming. We do so in a more general setting that allows in nite games, and we a tually prove that for potentially in nite games Alpha-Beta orre tly omputes the value of the game whenever it terminates. This orre tness proofs allows to apply Alpha-Beta to new domains, like onstaint logi programming.


Considered as a means of recreation, the square aims to provide people not only a place for leisure, but also for quality of life, prevention of diseases, and also as a form of socialization.This article aims to make an analysis of current situation of Belmar Plaza Hidalgo in the city of Campo Grande-MS, to evaluate their characteristics and use. So we can address the function of public squares in the urban environment, it is necessary, we also urban quality of life. The squares as public space, play important roles in the urban environment, including the integration of the community and the improvement of environmental quality. Today, it is observed that the squares are no longer enjoyed as in times past. The squares have contributed to respect for the environment and heritage, as well as assist in the control of solar radiation, air humidity and wind action. What you realize is that a construction of nature built on squares we can confirm if the square of the Belmar Fidalgo.


The utility model discloses a variable-diameter water turbine overhaul bent which comprises a #-shaped framework, a peripheral edge frame and a connecting device arranged on the periphery of the framework. The peripheral edge frame is movably connected with the framework through the connecting devices and is in an arc shape. The variable-diameter water turbine overhaul bent has the advantages of being convenient to carry and applied to water turbine overhaul bents with variable diameters.


Gas-assisted co-extrusion molding(shortened as GACEM) is a new multiphase-polymer molding technique.The basic mechanism of GACEM is that the gas-assisted extrusion is applied to the polymer co-extrusion,which will exert the advantages of both gas-assisted extrusion and co-extrusion.It introduces the mechanism and the actual states of gas-assisted extrusion,polymers co-extrusion and gas-assisted co-extrusion.


It is now clear that the origin of structure in the Universe is a primordial density perturbation, existing already when cosmological scales start to enter the horizon. Observation is consistent with the hypothesis that the density perturbation is perfectly adiabatic, Gaussian and scale–independent, but significant departures from this state of affairs is still allowed by the data. In particular it is not excluded that the adiabatic density perturbation may be accompanied by a significant isocurvature density perturbation [1,2]. Inflation provides a natural origin for the perturbation, since it converts the vacuum fluctuation of each light free scalar field into a classical scale–independent perturbation. One or more of these field perturbations may cause the primordial density perturbation. It is usually assumed that inflation involves a slowlyrolling field, dubbed the inflaton, whose value determines the end of inflation. The perturbation in the inflaton field cannot cause an isocurvature perturbation, but does inevitably cause at some level an adiabatic perturbation. The usual hypothesis [3] is that the inflaton is solely responsible for the observed adiabatic density perturbation. Under this 'inflaton hypothesis' significant nonGaussianity is excluded in the usual one–field models [4,5]. In multi–field models, where there is a family of possible inflaton trajectories curved in field space, significant non-Gaussianity is possible [6,7] but apparently only at the expense of extreme fine–tuning of the initial condition that specifies the inflaton trajectory. Any isocurvature density perturbation must be caused by the perturbation of some non–inflaton field. Under the inflaton hypothesis this means that the isocurvature density perturbation (if present) depends on different physical parameters from the adiabatic density perturbation. As a result, an isocurvature perturbation of observable magnitude would require fine-tuning of the physical parameters, or else some as-yet unforseen connection between them. An alternative hypothesis [8–11] is that the adiabatic density perturbation originates from the perturbation in some 'curvaton' field different from the inflaton. In this scenario the adiabatic density perturbation is generated only after inflation, from an initial condition which corresponds to a purely isocurvature perturbation [12]. 1 The object of the present paper is to explore the nature of the primordial density perturbation under this hypothesis. In the curvaton scenario, significant non-Gaussianity may easily be present because the curvaton density is proportional to the square of the curvaton field. Also, the curvaton density perturbation can lead, after curvaton decay, to isocurvature perturbations in the densities of the various components of the cosmic fluid. These, which we term 'residual' isocurvature components, are either fully correlated or fully anti-correlated with the adiabatic density perturbation, with a calculable and generally significant relative magnitude. The paper is organized as follows. We deal in Section II with the adiabatic perturbation and its possible nonGaussianity. In Section III we formulate the description of isocurvature perturbations, in a way which will allow us to analyse CDM, baryon and neutrino perturbations in a unified manner. In Section IV we calculate the residual isocurvature perturbations of cold dark matter (CDM) and baryons. In Section V we give a general formalism for describing the primordial neutrino isocurvature perturbation, taking into account for the first time the crucial issue of lepton number. Then we use it to calculate the residual isocurvature neutrino perturbation. Our conclusions are summarised in Section VI.


In this paper, it is proposed to use group communication cryptographic protocols as a new security paradigm. This new paradigm aims at redesigning the security of small cell communications over an insecure mobile backhaul. The Heterogeneous Networks are positioned and a review of the current security mechanisms and their flaws is provided. A security and performance comparison between the current mechanisms and our proposition is developed, and this comparison leads to new development opportunities to increase the security of the overall backhauling.


A numerical method has been developed to simulate the flowfield of the helicopter rotor,fuselage and the combination of them in forward flight.In this method,unstructured embedded grid technique was used to simulate the position transformation relationship between the rotor and its fuselage,the three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes(N-S) equations were discretized by a second-order upwind finite-volume scheme and the lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel(LU-SGS) scheme was employed in time-stepping.A new method was given to solve the problem of the "donor searching" when the space between the rotor and its fuselage was too narrow.Based on this model,the flowfield of the single rotor,fuselage and the combination of them were calculated,the comparisons of the calculated results with the experimental data indicate that the present method is very effective to analyze the helicopter flowfield in forward flight.


Two versions of continuous-time feedback nonlinear predictive control laws with a fixed end point prediction and a finite horizon prediction are presented. They are applied in a cascade structure to induction motor. Both speed and torque/flux tracking objectives are achieved in matched and mismatched parameters case. The rotor flux is estimated by the Kalman filter. The derived nonlinear predictive laws minimize a quadratic performance index of the predicted tracking error. Its implementation does not need to perform an on line optimization and asymptotic tracking of smooth reference signal is guaranteed. Simulations show that the proposed controllers are suitable for high dynamic performance applications.


T•xs volume is an a. dmirxbly prepared and carefully edited series of letters v•hich mig•ht well serve as a model f. or similar volumes in ,the future. William Davies (1831-1921), was art Englishman who settled i•n Toronto in 1854 and w•ho made a great success of the meat-packing busirtess. His company, William Davies and .Company, was l•er the largest si.ngle unit of •h.ose which amalgamated ,to ,f, orm Canada Packers. T.he prirmi,pal par,t of the volume consists of a series of letters from Davies t.o his brother, James who was in the meat business at Wallingf,ord-on-T•hames, Berkshire, England. These letters cover the period ,from 1854 •to 1861. Three letters fr.om Davies to the Reverend Carey Tyso written in 1875, 1876, and 1880 are also ,appended. The volume is introduced by a 4•orward by Professor H. A. Innis, and by a preface and an excellent biogral•hical sketch .of Davies 'both wri•.en by Dr. Sherwood Fox, the editor of ,the volume.


Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is part of Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) that facilitates communication between group of vehicles to provide driver safety, traffic updates, entertainment, data sharing etc. Clustering is an efficient method to handle the frequent change in the topology of VANET by means of local co-ordination. We present multi agent based stable clustering to provide stability, which in turn enhance the cluster life time. Proposed approach make use of multi-agent interaction method consists of static and mobile agents to establish the communication between vehicles and RSU. RSU agent responsible to decide the cluster size and select the suitable cluster head based on vehicle speed and connectivity with neighboring nodes. Here we vary the cluster size depending upon vehicle speed, which in turn increases the cluster life time and reduces the routing overhead. After formation of cluster maintenance of cluster is hand over to cluster head agent. The proposed method is simulated in NS2 by considering some of the performance parameters such as vehicle speed, node density, cluster formation time, cluster head selection time, communication range etc.


The invention discloses a method of mobile subscriber management and function screening. The method comprises the following steps: 1) setting the function configuration information recording the function that a subscriber has access to in the mobile phone according to the subscriber ID; 2) when the mobile is powered on or logged in again, inputting the subscriber ID required by the mobile; 3) according to the input subscriber ID, reading the function configuration information corresponding to the subscriber ID by the mobile; and 4) according to the function configuration information, carrying out the system configuration, loading the function recorded in the function configuration information, and then entering the standby mode. By adopting the method, when different subscribers use the same mobile or the mobile subscriber lends the mobile phone to others, partial function of the mobile phone can be screened, so that the others cannot get to and use the screened function of the mobile phone.


Wireless networking is one of the most challenging networking domains with unique features that can provide connectivity in situations where it is difficult to use wired networking, or when node mobility is required. However, the working environment usually imposes various constrains, where wireless devices face various challenges when sharing the communication media. Furthermore, the problem becomes worse when the number of nodes increase. Different solutions were introduced to cope with highly dense networks. On the other hand, a very low density can create a poor connectivity problem and may lead to have isolated nodes with no connection to the network. It is common to define network density according to the number of direct neighboring nodes within the node transmission range. However, we believe that such metric is not enough. Thus, we propose a new metric that encompasses the number of direct neighbors and the network performance. In this way, the network response, due to the increasing number of nodes, is considered when deciding the density level. Moreover, we defined two terms, self-organization and self-configuration, which are usually used interchangeably in the literature through highlighting the difference between them. We believe that having a clear definition for terminology can eliminate a lot of ambiguity and help to present the research concepts more clearly. Some applications, such as In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) systems inside the aircraft cabin, can be considered as wirelessly high dense even if relatively few nodes are present. To solve this problem, we propose a heterogeneous architecture of different technologies to overcome the inherited constrains inside the cabin. Each technology aims at solving a part of the problem. We held various experimentation and simulations to show the feasibility of the proposed architecture. Furthermore, we introduced a new self-organizing identification protocol that uses smart antennas to help the Display Units and their Remote Controls, of the IFE system, to identify each other without any preliminary configuration. The protocol was firstly designed and verified using UML language, then, a NS2 module was created to experiment with different scenarios. The experimentation and simulation results proved that such heterogeneous architecture can provide a solution for the constrained wireless communication inside the cabin.


Bleaching of vinylon-milk fiber knitted fabric was discussed.The bleaching processes of hydro-gen peroxide(H2O2) and thiourea dioxide(TD) were optimized using whiteness and bursting strength of fabric as evaluating indicator.The results showed that the optimum bleaching technic of H2O2 was: 25 g/L of H2O2(30%),60 min,80 ℃;the TD second bleaching technic was: 2 g/L of TD,60 min,80 ℃.The whiteness of bleached fabric was distinctly improved.The K/S value of dyed fabric after TD second bleaching increased,and the soaping and light fastness met the demands of clothes use.


Nowadays, online communication is more convenient and popular than face-to-face conversation. Therefore, people prefer online communication over face-to-face meetings. Enormous people use online chatting systems to speak with their loved ones at any given time throughout the world. People create massive quantities of conversation every second because of their online engagement. People's feelings during the conversation period can be gleaned as useful information from these conversations. Text analysis and conclusion of any material as summarization can be done using sentiment analysis by natural language processing. The use of communication for customer service portals in various e-commerce platforms and crime investigations based on digital evidence is increasing the need for sentiment analysis of a conversation. Other languages, such as English, have well-developed libraries and resources for natural language processing, yet there are few studies conducted on Bangla. It is more challenging to extract sentiments from Bangla conversational data due to the language's grammatical complexity. As a result, it opens vast study opportunities. So, support vector machine, multinomial naïve Bayes, k-nearest neighbors, logistic regression, decision tree, and random forest was used. From the dataset, extracted information was labeled as positive and negative.


This thesis aims to fill the gap in the SRI fund literature by examining the role of fund families in the flow and investment strategy of individual SRI funds. It examines spillovers in cash flow resulting from the existence of superior (poor) performing SRI funds and investigates the existence of cross-subsidization between SRI family members. It provides evidence of positive spillover effect from having star SRI funds on the monthly cash flow of their SRI siblings. It also finds evidence of cross-subsidization where the performance of winning funds is more likely to be subsidized by their peer losing funds.


EN-2028, Introduction to Literature, Disney Tales with Prof. Michael Stamps These DVDs are on Dr. Stamps' reserve. Just ask for them at the circulation desk!


ABSTRACT How do cultural norms, ideologies, and beliefs shape public opinion and media framing of race-based athletic activism? This paper uses media coverage of and commentary on the 1968 American 'revolt of the Black athlete' to explicate the deep cultural structures that help explain both support and opposition. The paper begins with a brief, schematic overview of the proposal for a Black Olympic boycott that was the centrepiece of 1968 organising and how it was reported by sports journalists and in the mainstream media. The second section identifies the reasons American reporters were, on the whole, so opposed to the proposed boycott: the inherent lack of support for the athletes' racial change agenda and the far-more-familiar arguments that sports were not the proper venue for activism. The third section argues that a whole constellation of cultural norms and beliefs—about sport culture, colour-blind visions of racial justice, and liberal democratic ideals about politics and social change—coalesced to make race-based sport protest appear both unnecessary and inappropriate. The conclusion summarises the implications for understanding both public reception of and media responses to contemporary, race-based athletic activism as well as for tracking institutional changes and cultural shifts unfolding in the Black Lives Matter era.


Properties of L555 (API X80) pipeline steels manufactured with application of thermomechanical treatment as well as the influence of molybdenum and niobium content on their mechanical properties and weldability are described. The effect of changes of Mo and Nb content beyond of the control and the carbon equivalent on L555 steel's weldability is analysed.


The basic technical characteristics of the advanced ultrasonic scanners, ways of its optimum adjustment for maintenance of high quality images and diagnostics are considered. The necessary sets and technological possibilities of modern ultrasonic transducers are defined. Optimal methods of ultrasonic image postprocessing in real time, in «freeze» mode and on the saved films and pictures are discussed.


Abstract The effect of competition from other metal ions on the complexation of Ni with isosaccharinic acid, gluconic acid and picolinic acid, at high pH, is described. The competing metal ions used were divalent Co, trivalent Eu and tetravalent Th. In the majority of cases, competition from these metal ions followed the predicted pattern, with most anomalies seeming to be caused by sorption of Ni to the many different solid phases formed in presence of the competing ions. The Ni solid phase was shown to change with time during the course of the study. No major unexplained competition effects were found.


The objective of this study is to interpret a typical Korean traditional settlement for searching for planning criteria of ecological friendly housing estates. The interpreting framework is three environmental ecological ideas as the adaptation to the eco-space in house, to the cycling of material and the reasonable energy system, prevention of environment pollution and reduction of wastes. Through the interpretation, it has been found out that Yangdong and Oeamri villages have been developed to an environmental ecological rational setting and has the meaningful elements for environmental friendly housing estates. Particularly, the spatial components of Yangdong and Oeamri are characterized by the concept of multi-function, and diversity, which are worth of being considered as important planning of ecological friendly housing estates.


Error Analysis has been an important research area in the study of second language acquisition.A study of learners' errors is part of the systematic study of the learners' language which is necessary to an understanding of the process of second language acquisition.Furthermore,a good understanding of the nature of errors is necessary to find means to correct them.We also need to have such knowledge if we are to make any well-founded proposals for the development and improvement of the materials and techniques of language teaching.The paper presents a review of the previous work of Error Analysis,identifying what it aims to achieve and what are its significance in having a good understanding of the sources of learners' errors and the reasons behind their continued occurrence year after year with different groups of learners,in order to help determine the sequence and emphasis of instruction in our future teaching.


brought up to date with an account of current conflicts, particularly attempts by European states to regulate the movement and settlement of Gypsies, the disruption caused by the collapse of communist regimes, and with reference to the largely unsuccessful attempts by Gypsies to create a pan-European political movement. The book does not deal in much depth with Gypsy culture. Economic life and social behaviour, for example, are given a rather superficial treatment. Fraser's study is essentially a detailed survey of Gypsies in different parts of Europe, one which is very effective in conveying the diversity of the Gypsy population and the similarities in their relationships with the dominant society. Fraser is clearly very knowledgeable, particularly in regard to Gypsy dialects and linguistics generally, but he makes no use of the many ethnographies which convey the distinctiveness of Gypsy world-views. The text has a range of good illustrations, including mediaeval manuscripts and Fred Shaw's remarkable photographs of Kalderash Gypsies in Wandsworth in 1911.


INTRODUCING an auxiliary variable to simplify a problem is a procedure famil iar to beginning calculus students. For example, when we evaluate the integral je2x~9dx, it is useful to let t = 2x 9. Then dt = 2dx, dx = \/2dt, and by substitution the problem becomes 1/2 $eldt, which is readily evaluated. Integration by parts and the chain rule for derivatives are other top ics where an auxiliary variable allows stu dents to see the forest as well as the trees. As they acquire confidence with practice, they may use a more intuitive approach, bypassing the formal definition of t. An analogous approach?first in troducing t, then, with practice, skipping over this step?can be quite helpful with a wide variety of graphing problems. (By a "graphing problem," we mean one in which some specified relation is to be de picted as a set of points, usually to obtain insight into the overall structure of the rela tion.) For example, suppose we wish to graph y = e2x~9. In the method about to be presented, it is important to describe the graph formally, as {(x, y) : y = e2x~9}. Now verbalizing the set-builder notation ("the set of points . . . such that") is something we do rather infrequently. Readers are asked to make a conscious effort, in what follows, to hear these words in their minds; this has turned out to be crucial in teaching the method to both students and teachers. In this example, we let t = 2x ? 9 and


The discovery of the ability of RNA to act as an enzyme has led to a significant interest in understanding the catalytic strategies used by RNA enzymes, or ribozymes, and in comparing these strategies to those used by the more extensively investigated protein enzymes. 1À3 Studies of several ribozymes have shown that, like protein enzymes, ribozymes bind and position substrates within active sites and use specific interactions to stabilize the reaction's transition state. 1À6 Further, structural studies have provided evidence of extensive networks of interactions within ribozyme actives sites, suggesting that ribozymes may be able to use these networks for catalysis. 1 Specifically, these networks might aid the precise positioning of substrates and of the functional groups needed for catalysis. However, structural inspection alone is insufficient to define the role of these RNA interaction networks in catalysis, especially considering that RNA has limited ability to pack and is known to adopt alternative structures. Further, mutations that remove interactions observed in RNA structures can have small or negligible energetic effects, presumably due to formation of near isoenergetic alternative interactions. 3,7À9 To test the role of networks in RNA catalysis, determination of the energetic consequences of perturbation of both single and multiple interactions within these networks is needed. We have accomplished this for a network adjoining the active site of the Tetrahymena group I ribozyme. The Tetrahymena group I ribozyme has served as a powerful system for uncovering the properties of catalytic RNA. This ribozyme catalyzes a site-specific attack of a guanosine molecule (G) on an oligonucleotide substrate (S), as shown in Figure 1 (for a review of the reaction, see ref 4). In this reaction the oligonucleotide substrate S binds in two steps (Figure 1a). First, S binds to the ribozyme by base-pairing interactions, 10 forming the 'open complex' denoted by the subscript 'o' in Figure 1a. Subsequently, the duplex formed by S and the ribozyme docks in the ribozyme's core to form the 'closed complex' denoted by the subscript 'c' in Figure 1a. 11,12 The closed complex involves tertiary contacts between the substrateÀribozyme duplex (referred to as the P1 helix) and the ribozyme's core. Guanosine can bind to the free enzyme, the open complex, or the closed complex (Figure 1a). The affinities of G for the free enzyme and the open complex are the same, 13 and this and other observations 14 suggest that the environment around the ABSTRACT: Protein …


This chapter takes a walk through a politicized sonorous landscape to analyze the blurred sound of protest aimed against globalization amidst a background of active consumerism. Using a temporal, physical, and geographically shifting figure such as a walk, I aim to identify varying stages of proximity relating to the words that are shouted or sung by a protesting crowd, and particularly how these proximities affect the symbolic identity of these words of protest. The essay is part of the book The Tigers Mind by Beatrice Gibson.


An attempt to model a true vocal tract shape is presented. The base data were articulatory data taken from the cineradiographic recordings and the speech signal simultaneously registered (Bolla, Foldi, 1987). Moreover, information concerning distances between the reference points, labiograms, photopalatograms and photolinguograms were used. A non-uniform three-dimensional vocal tract model was applied. The most difficult problem was how to evaluate the varations of the lateral dimensions along the longitudinal axis of the vocal tract. Only the lip opening dimensions for each speech sound were the objects of direct measurements. After the photo of the subject's hard palate one of the several plaster casts made for other male subjects was chosen as the most similar one. On its basis the dimensions in this region were reconstructed and assume to be constant. The lateral dimensions in other parts of the vocal tract were reconstructed after the formant frequencies measured for each Polish vowel spoken by the subject whose vocal tract was modelled. These dimensions were adjusted in such way that they were common for all vowels and the corresponding formant frequencies were obtained by varying vertical dimensions according to the X-ray data. This model was applied to study the relationship between the shape variation of the vocal tract and its acoustic output, especially in the case of study of transient sounds spoken with vocalic neighbourhood.


Wastewater-based epidemiology has proved useful for monitoring the COVID-19 infection dynamics in communities. However, in some countries, low concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater make this difficult. Getting meaningful information from wastewater-based epidemiology in regions of low prevalence remains a key challenge. Here we used real-time reverse-transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) to monitor SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater from October 2020 to February 2021 during the third wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan. Viral RNA was below the limit of quantification in all samples. However, by counting the positive reactions in repeated qPCR of each sample, we found that the ratio of positive reactions to all tests in wastewater was significantly correlated with the number of clinically confirmed cases by the date of symptom onset during periods of both increasing and decreasing infection. Time-step analysis indicated that COVID-19 patients excreted large amounts of virus in their feces 2 days either side of symptom onset, which wastewater surveillance could detect. The positive count method is thus useful for tracing COVID-19 dynamics in regions of low prevalence.


By analysis of the relationship between GUI element and methods of class in object-oriented software, using program slic-ing technology, a solution of software system regression testing was given.After the modification of a system, a tester according to the relationship between objects of software system to go to the effect ,then by program slicing technology, select or design effective re-gression testing case to test.


Abstract The Turkish Donaciinae are reviewed based on recently collected material, several museum collections, and the available literature data. In total, 21 species of Donaciinae are known from Turkey. Donacia aequidorsis Jacobson, 1894, D. polita Kunze, 1818, and Plateumaris rustica (Kunze, 1818) are reported for the first time for the Turkish reed beetle fauna. Local distributions are updated, and distribution maps are provided for 19 species of which exact localities are known.


Purpose: MSEs and SME's have always been the backbone and impetus for growth of an economy. To ensure their continued vitality in an increasingly competitive and globalized world, their growth must be ensured. This study therefore set out to evaluate the determinants of firm growth in an integrated way, and to identify the most important determinants of firm growth. Methodology: The study adopted descriptive research design. A sample size of 134 respondents out of a target population of 7 corporate members listed by PIEA was drawn. The  study  used primary data  which  was  largely  quantitative  and  descriptive  in nature. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Results: Findings reveal that whereas a majority of MSEs have considerably grown over the last five years in all respects including the number of employees, number of stations, gross sales and net profit, the growth has been largely slow and unstable characterized by declines in between the years, as regards gross sales and net profits. It was also found that a majority of the MSEs surveyed are driven by entrepreneurship skills among their management. The study also found that franchise holding significantly influences firm growth through a variety of attributes including earning the firm competitive advantage; increasing the respective firms' business opportunities. Profit margin was further found to have considerably influenced the established firm growth across a majority of the MSEs surveyed, most notably through increased profitability, increased return on investment and increased sales among others. Finally, it was found that cost of capital moderately influences growth across a majority of MSEs reached most notably through service tax, irregular cash flows, interest charges, prepayment charges, loan size, asset base and mismatch of funds. Contribution to theory, practice and policy recommendations: The impact of the rising petrol price study on the cash flow and profitability of service stations must be addressed as an urgent matter; otherwise it might lead to some service stations being closed in the near future. It will be advisable in future to form one unity body for service station retailers. The Kenyan government should look into the possibility of introducing deregulation of the petrol price.


The feature point is an important local feature in the image,and it is also the important information in the image comprehension and pattern recognition,so the feature point extraction technology becomes a powerful tool of image processing.A method that based on scale-interaction of Mexican-hat wavelets is presented,and the method could extract close number of feature points corresponding to the same location in the images distorted by rotation,brightness,blur and noise.For the problem that the feature points extracted by scale-interaction of Mexican-hat wavelets are corresponding to the different locations in images of different scales,the method that resizes the Mexican-hat wavelets by the scale factors is presented.Finally,the algorithm is proved by simulation experiments.


There is little doubt that the frequency of selfreported developmental trauma is increased in individuals with psychotic disorder (Read et al. 2005). However, until recently the literature could provide little information as to the causality of the relationship between trauma and psychosis. All evidence was based on small studies, the majority using a correlational design and lacking adequate control for potential mediating variables. This has changed with the publication of seven large and well-controlled population-based studies (Bebbington et al. 2004 ; Janssen et al. 2004 ; Spataro et al. 2004 ; Whitfield et al. 2005 ; Spauwen et al. 2006 ; Scott et al. 2007; Shevlin et al. 2007a), six of which provided support for a role of developmental trauma in the development of psychotic symptoms (Bebbington et al. 2004 ; Janssen et al. 2004 ; Whitfield et al. 2005 ; Spauwen et al. 2006 ; Scott et al. 2007 ; Shevlin et al. 2007a).


Erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber sources(SFS) in double-pass backward(DPB) configuration are characterized in output power,spectrum linewidth and mean wavelength through theoretical simulation.The results indicate that DPB SFSs mean wavelength can be adjusted insenstitive to pump power by properly adjusting the erbium-doped fiber(EDF) length,SFS with double-pass backward configuration made by us is also reported.


Among various formulations to integrate rotational motions numerically, we recommend the integration of the combination of Euler parameters and the angular velocity components referred to the body-fixed reference frame with the renormalization of the Euler parameters at every integration step. This is because the formulation proposed is not only simple and regular, but also stable and precise in studying rotational motions numerically. Its efficiency is not degraded even for almost uniform rotations if their nominal uniform part is separated by Encke's method.


During exploitation, the engine oil undergoes the irreversible aging process that is – degradation. The speed of this process is affected by many factors such as high temperature, pressure, power output, oxygen from the air, mechanical shear forces, type, structure, and technical condition of the engine, time and conditions of work and also used fuel. In the article, the author shows that also the purpose of the engine influences the degradation of the engine oil. Using the method of optical emission spectrometry in accordance with ASTM D 6595 standard, the concentration of trace elements like: Ag, Al, B, Ba, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Si, Ti, V, Zn, was determined. The samples of engine oil – Marinol RG 1240 were checked after various periods of use in three different engine types Cegielski – Sulzer.


Today most of diesel engine-vehicle are getting concentrating on vibration reduction process but some material contain elastic & many other molecular properties which causes vibration. Hence we can't reduce total vibration of mechanical system, so there is a take place of energy wastage due to vibration only, hence here in this work we are going to use the phenomenon of vibration resonance effect & increases the amplitude of vibration of vibrating model system. Using proper energy conservation we can   harvest the vibrational energy by using electromagnetic system for different applications.


Buck converters using D-CAP2TM mode control scheme are used in applications such as personal electronics and industrial and automotive systems. D-CAP2 mode supports superior load transient response with high system bandwidth (Fco). Its internal ripple injector block allows for low equivalent series resistance (ESR)-type output capacitor usage and reinforces loop stability. Although D-CAP2 mode ensures stability without external compensation components, optimizing the output filter in the design stage maximizes stability results to meet local specifications. This application report shows how to visually interpret D-CAP2 mode control to improve stability.


Drought is an important environmental stress that limits crop production in the world. Its importance has increased with global warming and it has become one of the most important factors limiting plant production. Soybean is the more source of obtaining and cheaper protein per unit area. Soybean has a widespread use in livestock because it contains valuable amino acids as well as high protein quality. The aim of this research is to diminish negative effect of drought stress in the forage soybean with indole acetic acid application. The experiment was carried out in the growth chamber according to a randomized block design with 4 doses (0-5-10-20 μM IAA) of indole acetic acid, 2 drought levels (0 and -0.5 MPa PEG-6000) and 3 replicate. Leaf length and width, leaf proportional water content, cell membrane damage and malondialdehyde (MDA) content of the plants were determined. The data were evaluated by analysis of variance using a statistical package program. According to the analysis of variance, all parameters were found to be statistically significant in drought x indole acetic acid interaction. Indole acetic acid applied to the forage soybean plant alleviated the damage caused by drought. For this reason, it is thought that it may be important to ensure less damage to plants grown under stress.


Today`s highly competitive global economy is being driven by increasingly rapid technological development. This paper explores the problems of math and science illiteracy in the United States and the potential impact on our economic survival in this environment during the next century. Established educational methods that reward task performance, emphasize passive lecture, and fail to demonstrate relevance to real life are partly to blame. Social norms, stereotypes, and race and gender bias also have an impact. To address this crisis, we need to question the philosophy of an educational system that values task over concept. Many schools have already initiated programs at all grade levels to make math and science learning more relevant, stimulating, and fun. Teaching methods that integrate math and science learning with teamwork, social context, and other academic subjects promote the development of higher-order thinking skills and help students see math and science as necessary skills.


Photo aesthetic quality evaluation is a challenging task in artificial intelligence systems. In this paper, we propose a biologically inspired aesthetic descriptor that mimicks humans sequentially perceiving visually/semantically salientIn general, visually salient regions are perceived by low-level visual features, such as the high contrast between the foreground and the background objects; while semantically salient regions are perceived by high-level visual features such as human faces.regions in a photo. In particular, a weakly supervised learning paradigm is developed to project the local image descriptors into a low-dimensional semantic space. Then, each graphlet can be described by multiple types of visual features, both in low-level and in high-level. Since humans usually perceive only a few salient regions in a photo, a sparsity-constrained graphlet ranking algorithm is proposed that seamlessly integrates both the low-level and the high-level visual cues. Top-ranked graphlets are those visually/semantically prominent local aesthetic descriptors in a photo. They are sequentially linked into a path that simulates humans actively viewing process. Finally, we learn a probabilistic aesthetic measure based on such actively viewing paths (AVPs) from the training photos. Experimental results show that: 1) the AVPs are 87.65% consistent with real human gaze shifting paths, as verified by the eye-tracking data and 2) our aesthetic measure outperforms many of its competitors.


It is important to bring engineering to young people, and it is better to do so at an early age. In this case, the goal is to show children aged 10-15 years how electromagnetism works, and how we can find it in common tools that surround us. To do so, we are developing a remote laboratory that will be used in the sessions of science and technology in a school. Concept of electromagnetic crane has been chosen because a crane is a common tool. It is an object used in construction and in factories. Using electromagnet power to move metal objects is also a common concept that children can understand. Using these tools as an example, we seek to bring science to everyday life and promote the interests of children and young people in engineering and technology. The aim is to encourage them to seek education in engineering programs in the future, and teach them to understand and appreciate how important technology is. Initially, the laboratory will move left and right in a circumference of 350 degrees and permit up and down different preselected masses. Also, students can increase or decrease the voltage of the electromagnet to raise masses. The entire system will be accessible remotely by the student who will be able to move the crane, activate or deactivate the electromagnet, and lift or take down the masses. At the same time, the user interface displays the image of the laboratory and a graph showing the relationship between the power and its capacity to lift the mass every time the student applies voltage to the solenoid. All of this will allow us to see the effect that the applied voltage has over lifting the mass. This work in progress is associated with different learning environments to adjust the experience at different ages which range between 10 and 15 years. The students will interact with the remote laboratory from their homes, but also, the laboratory can be used in the classroom taking advantage of the data displayed through the user interface. Another objective is to show how engineering and science allow us to control remote objects and measure their effects through technology. Planting in students the seed of curiosity may be a good way to arouse the interest of future engineers.


The Nafion -117 (H+ form) was converted to Ag+ form by ion exchange. The silver nanoparticles were formed in the membrane by reduction of Ag+ (of Ag+ form membrane) using an ionic reducing agent, NaBH4, and a neutral reducing agent, formamide. The free volume hole sizes in the nanoparticle doped and undoped Nafion were measured by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). The surface modifications in the membrane by incorporation of nanoparticles were investigated using slow positron beam. The changes in the bulk free volume of Nafion with presence of nanoparticles were found to be nominal. In contrast, the surface microstructure appears to have undergone significant change.


The standardization and validation of a multiplex assay requires the combination of important parameters such as sensitivity and specificity, acceptable levels of performance, robustness, and reproducibility. We standardized a multiparametric Dot-blot aimed at the serological screening of paracoccidioidomycosis, histoplasmosis, and aspergillosis. A total of 148 serum were evaluated: 10 from healthy subjects, 36 from patients with paracoccidioidomycosis, 62 from patients with histoplasmosis, and 40 from patients with aspergillosis. It was found that the multiparametric Dot-blot showed a high percentage of cross-reactivity. However, when evaluated individually, in the serological screening of histoplasmosis, a good performance was observed when compared to the double immunodiffusion assay, considered the gold standard test, with 100% co-positivity and 83.3% co-negativity. The performance of serological screening for aspergillosis was not satisfactory when compared to double immunodiffusion, showing 71.4% co-positivity and 100% co-negativity. The evaluation of the stability of nitrocellulose membranes showed that membranes sensitized with H. capsulatum antigen remained stable for 90 days and those sensitized with A. fumigatus antigen for 30 days. We conclude that the use of crude antigens was not suitable for the standardization of the multiparametric Dot-blot assay, due to the high cross-reactivity, and that further tests should be performed with purified proteins.


Every power converter needs a precise synchronization method to be able to connect to the utility grid. The synchronization impacts directly on the performance of the converter. Synchronization algorithms are often based on the well known Synchronous Reference Frame Phase Locked Loop (SRF-PLL). These are usually implemented in software on Digital signal Processors (DSP) or Microcontrollers and the maximum sample rate that can be achieved is limited by the hardware used. In this paper a simple and highly effective Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation of a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) algorithm based on a Second Order Generalized Integrator PLL (SOGI-PLL) with a high sampling frequency of 500 kHz and 16 bit resolution is presented in detail. Design time is drastically reduced by the use of a fast-prototype high-level synthesis tool without the need of any Hardware Description Language (HDL) code. Both simulation and experimental results on a Xilinx FPGA show an excellent behavior even against severe distortion and frequency or phase steps in the input voltage.


Superthin-SiO_2 powder were prepared by deposition.The influence of different contents KH-560 and SiO_2 on the mechanical properties of PVC were studied.The results show that the surfacial handled superthin-SiO_2 can efficiently improve the mechanical properties of PVC.


The use of multi-agent systems for classification tasks has been proposed in order to overcome some drawbacks of multi-classifier systems and, as a consequence, to improve performance of such systems. As a result, the NeurAge system was proposed. This system is composed by several neural agents which communicate and negotiate a common result for the testing patterns. In the NeurAge system, a negotiation method is very important to the overall performance of the system since the agents need to reach and agreement about a problem when there is a conflict among the agents. This thesis presents an extensive analysis of the NeurAge System where it is used all kind of classifiers. This systems is now named ClassAge System. It is aimed to analyze the reaction of this system to some modifications in its topology and configuration. Area of Concentration: Computational Intelligence


ABSTRACT Viruses of the Paramyxoviridae family, such as the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), suppress cellular innate immunity represented by type I interferon (IFN) for optimal growth in their hosts. The two unique nonstructural (NS) proteins, NS1 and NS2, of RSV suppress IFN synthesis, as well as IFN function, but their exact targets are still uncharacterized. Here, we investigate if either or both of the NS proteins affect the steady-state levels of key members of the IFN pathway. We found that both NS1 and NS2 decreased the levels of TRAF3, a strategic integrator of multiple IFN-inducing signals, although NS1 was more efficient. Only NS1 reduced IKKε, a key protein kinase that specifically phosphorylates and activates IFN regulatory factor 3. Loss of the TRAF3 and IKKε proteins appeared to involve a nonproteasomal mechanism. Interestingly, NS2 modestly increased IKKε levels. In the IFN response pathway, NS2 decreased the levels of STAT2, the essential transcription factor for IFN-inducible antiviral genes. Preliminary mapping revealed that the C-terminal 10 residues of NS1 were essential for reducing IKKε levels and the C-terminal 10 residues of NS2 were essential for increasing and reducing IKKε and STAT2, respectively. In contrast, deletion of up to 20 residues of the C termini of NS1 and NS2 did not diminish their TRAF3-reducing activity. Coimmunoprecipitation studies revealed that NS1 and NS2 form a heterodimer. Clearly, the NS proteins of RSV, working individually and together, regulate key signaling molecules of both the IFN activation and response pathways.


—The world's ecosystem and environment are rapidly deteriorating with an increase in the depletion of forest conditions due to forest fires. In recent past years, wildfire incidents in Sikkim have increased due to severe climatic changes such as turbulent rainfall, untimely summers, extreme droughts in winters, and a reduction in the percentage of yearly rainfall. Forest fires are one of the numerous kinds of disasters that impose disastrous changes on the entire environment and disrupt the complex correspondence of the flora and fauna. The research's goal is to examine the vegetation indices based on different climates to know why forest vegetation is decreasing day by day from 2000 to 2023. The frequent changes in forest vegetation are extensively studied by using satellite images. This data has been collected by three satellites Landsat-5, Landsat-8, and Landsat-9 on different vegetation indices NDVI, EVI, and NDWI. East Sikkim area is chosen to compute forest vegetation indices based on the heap's landmass this region is unexplored yet and also studied about the forest changes by using different spatial temporal indices in the range of the entire district in the future. The authors of this paper have used Landsat multi-spectral data to assess changes in the area of vegetation in a sub-tropical region like a dense forest region in east Sikkim. The analysis depicts space images, computes vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, NDWI), and accomplishes mathematical computation of findings. The proposed method will be helpful to discuss the variance of vegetation in the entire East Sikkim region at the time span of 2000–2023. In the analysis, we find that mean and standard deviation values change over the years in all indices. Later, we also calculated changes by using a classification model and find a total 10% change in forest areas in approximately 22 years.


The effectiveness of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is well established. However, ACS complicated by an orthopedic limitation, poses greater challenges to early mobilization. Thus, there is a need for an alternative rehabilitation approach to improving exercise capacity and in preventing and reducing associated complications during convalescence. This case report highlights the value and utility of using low level resistance exercises to the upper limb with theraband exercise during an inpatient or phase-1 CR program. A low intensity theraband regimen for the upper limb was administered based on the number of repetitions performed to fatigue. The functional improvements observed and the ability of the patient to tolerate the therapy suggests a potential role for theraband exercises in phase-1 CR in ACS patients with selected orthopedic limitations.