The research on the back by the low student learning outcomes in subjects Civics. Teachers tend to still use the conventional learning models, students in learning more saturated. Formulation of the problem of this research is How improving student learning outcomes at the fourth grade Civics subjects using NHT models in SDN 12 Pincuran seven different South Solok District Sangir? The purpose of this study was to describe the improvement of learning outcomes in learning civics Civics using NHT model of class IV in SDN 12 Pincuran seven different South Solok. This research is a classroom action research conducted participants, the study was conducted in two cycles, each cycle consisting of 2 meetings. The subjects were fourth graders are about 20 people. The research instrument used was a student test results, observation sheet student learning, teacher observation sheet activities, field notes. Based on the test results of students in the first cycle mastery learning students 45% to the value of 67 in the second cycle increased to 85% of the number of students 20 people with a value of 85. From these results, the authors suggest that teachers can use NHT models to improve student learning outcomes. Keywords: Learning Outcomes, Civics, Numbered Heads Together (NHT)


This paper describes our demonstration of a network repair problem where a drone places a new sensor node to replace a failed node in order to heal the connectivity for a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). It serves to show the potential of our published solutions for automated network repair when the repairing agent is a drone.


An 80-year-old hypertensive woman underwent primary angioplasty for acute posterior wall myocardial infarction. A total of 150 mL of low-osmolar contrast (Ultravist-370; iopromide 0.769 g/mL, 370 mg iodine/mL) was used. Then, 15 h after the procedure, the patient developed painless swelling of both …


The article presents the results of experimental examination of the wood chip suction system in the existing sliding table saw before and after its modifi cation. The studies focused on the extraction hood of the mentioned system. The methodical experimental research of the pressure distribution inside the hood during wood chip removal for the selected rotational speed of saw blades of 3500 and 6000 min-1 with a diameter of 300 mm and 450 mm were carried out. The analysis of the results allowed estimating the areas with insufficient vacuum pressure
hindering the organized transport of wood chips in the sliding table saw. That pressure was the main factor infl uencing the decision to adjust the hood construction. To achieve the efficient performance, several changes in the hood geometry were implemented. The results obtained from the experiments were used at the stage of shape modifi cation of the extraction hood. As a result, a new design of the chip suction system was obtained, vastly improving the chip extraction from the tool.


This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract In this paper, we give a new symmetry identities for the generalized higher-order (h, q)-Bernoulli polynomials which are derive from the properties of symmetry of Volkenborn integrals on Z p .


Objective To explore the effect of domestic isoflurane(Ningfen) induced learning and memory dysfunction on adult rats.Methods 36(n=6×6)adult male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into 6 groups,control group(group air),positive control group(group O2),anesthesia group(4 subgroups were divided as inhalation of domestic isoflurane).SD rats in anesthesia groups were given 2% isoflurane,recorded breath rate of the preanesthesia,anesthetized for 30min,then repeat the test again after 2 h,1 d,7 d,14 d recover time respectively.Results Compared with group 1 d after anesthesia,the escape latency and path length of group 2 d,3 d,4 d and 5 d after anesthesia have shown significantly statistical differences(P0.01),shortened as time passing on.Conclusion The inhalation of domestic isoflurane(Ningfen) after 1 d might affect the special memorizing ability of SD rats,however,after 1d of post anesthesia recovery,such ability can be restored completely to the original level.


BaGe alloys with two compositions (Ba6Ge25 and Ba8Ge43) around their eutectic point form open framework structures called clathrate structure. The semiconductor materials with the clathrate structure have been interested in the new thermoelectric materials as the concept of "phonon-glass and electron-crystal" (PGEC) proposed by Slack [1], in which PGEC materials should possess the low thermal conductivity of a glass, but maintain the high electronic mobilities of crystalline semiconductors. The PGEC behavior could be seen in clathrate structure with heavy cations "rattling" inside oversized lattice cavities, which could create ideal conditions for extensive thermal phonon scattering that leads to very low thermal conductivity. For Ba8Ge43 clathrate, Ge forms open tetrahedral networks having pentagonal dodecahedra and tetrakaidecahedra. Two different cages are condensed in three dimensions by face sharing. On the other hand, for Ba6Ge25, distorted pentagonal dodecahedra are the only forming blocks. These dodecahedra are helically condensed by sharing three pentagonal faces and are interconnected through external bonds. Ba atoms are found in the center of these polyhedras. However, the formation mechanism of these clathrate structures has not been clarified due to any information of their liquid state structure and properties. This is because molten BaGe is highly reactive to several elements. Therefore, in order to clarify the formation mechanism of the clathrate structure, thermophysical properties of molten BaGe around eutectic composition were measured by using the electrostatic levitation (ESL) technique [2] and also the structure of them was observed by using the highenergy X-ray (113.4keV) diffraction method combined with the ESL in the BL04B2 beamline of SPring-8 in Japan. The ESL technique is most suitable to studying of molten BaGe properties, since the ESL technique is containerless method. We succeeded using ESL technique to measure the density, surface tension and viscosity of molten BaGe with various compositions. We found from the thermophysical properties and the structure analysis that the short range order based on the clathrate structure would exist even in the liquid state at the clathrate forming compositions.


Simple Summary A comparative ultrastructural and flow cytometric analysis of colorectal cancer-derived spheroids and their mouse xenografts showed that they both contain the same cell types but with different ratios, reflecting the interaction of cancer cells, respectively, with the in vitro and in vivo microenvironment. Abstract Spheroids from primary colorectal cancer cells and their mice xenografts have emerged as useful preclinical models for cancer research as they replicate tumor features more faithfully as compared to cell lines. While 3D models provide a reliable system for drug discovery and testing, their structural complexity represents a challenge and their structure-function relationships are only partly understood. Here, we present a comparative ultrastructural and flow citometric analysis of patient colorectal cancer-derived spheroids and their mice xenografts. Ultrastructural observations highlighted that multicellular spheroids and their xenografts contain the same cancer cell types but with different ratios, specifically multicellular spheroids were enriched in cells with a stem-like phenotype, while xenografts had an increased amount of lipid droplets-containing cells. The flow cytometric analysis for stem cell marker and activity showed enrichment of stem-like cells presence and activity in spheroids while xenografts had the inverse response. Our results evidence the effects on cancer cells of different in vitro and in vivo microenvironments. Those differences have to be paid into account in designing innovative experimental models for personalized drug testing.


The Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) is an airborne laser altimeter designed to quickly and extensively map surface topography as well as the relative heights of other reflecting surfaces within the laser footprint. Since 1997, this instrument has primarily been used as the airborne simulator for the Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) mission, a spaceborne mission designed to measure tree height, vertical structure and ground topography (including sub-canopy topography). LVIS is capable of operating from 500 m to 10 km above ground level with footprint sizes from 1 to 60 m. Laser footprints can be randomly spaced within the 7 degree telescope field-of-view, constrained only by the operating frequency of the ND:YAG Q-switched laser (500 Hz). A significant innovation of the LVIS altimeter is that all ranging, waveform recording, and range gating are performed using a single digitizer, clock base, and detector. A portion of the outgoing laser pulse is fiber-optically fed into the detector used to collect the return signal and this entire time history of the outgoing and return pulses is digitized at 500 Msamp/sec. The ground return is then located using software digital signal processing, even in the presence of visibly opaque clouds. The surface height distribution of all reflecting surfaces within the laser footprint can be determined, for example, tree height and ground elevation. To date, the LVIS system has been used to monitor topographic change at Long Valley caldera, CA, as part of NASA's Topography and Surface Change program, and to map tree structure and sub-canopy topography at the La Selva Biological Research Station in Costa Rica, as part of the pre-launch calibration activities for the VCL mission. We present results that show the laser altimeter consistently and accurately maps surface topography, including sub-canopy topography, and vegetation height and structure. These results confirm the measurement concept of VCL and highlight the benefits of airborne prototypes of spaceborne instruments.


The orbits of the GLONASS Satellites are determined by using the SLR data observed from March 28 to April 24, 1999. The seven-day orbital arcs for the GLONASS satellites are computed. The results with the orbits of satellites computed by CODE are compared. The systematic error between SLR orbits and radiometric orbits of GLONASS satellites is confirmed.


Commercial and economic success of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants requires operating at maximum efficiency and capacity whichnecessitatestheuseofmaterialsthatarereliableathightemperatures.ThisstudyinvestigatesthecorrosionbehaviorofstructuralalloysinmoltennitratesaltsatthreetemperaturescommontoCSPplants.Corrosionbehaviorwasevaluatedusinggravimetricandinductively-coupledplasmaopticalemissionspectroscopy(ICP-OES)analysis.SurfaceoxidestructureandchemistrywascharacterizedusingX-raydiffractionandRamanspectroscopy.ElectrochemicalbehaviorofcandidatestructuralalloysAlloy4130,austeniticstainlesssteel316,andsuper-austeniticIncoloy800Hwasevaluatedusingpotentiodynamicpolarizationcharacteristics.GravimetricandICP-OESanalysisindicatedthatAlloy4130exhibitedtheleastcorrosionresistanceat500 ◦ C compared to SS316 and 800H. However, at 300 ◦ C, the three alloys exhibited similar weight gain. Electrochemical evaluation of these candidate materials was observed to correlate well with the corrosion behavior observed from gravimetric and ICP-OES analysis. This study identifies that all three alloys exhibited acceptable corrosion rate in 300 ◦ C molten salt, while elevated salt temperatures require the more corrosion resistant alloys, stainless steel 316 and 800H. Characterization of the sample surfaces revealed the presence of spinels at lower temperatures, while Fe 2 O 3 was the dominant iron oxide at higher temperatures for each alloy.


The Human Genome Project (HGP), launched in 1990 and finished in 2004, has not only provided the complete human genome sequence of more than 2.85 billion nucleotides and evidence of 20 000–25 000 protein-coding genes [1], but has also been making huge impacts on biomedical research. One major task of the post-genomic era is to develop the definitive catalog of proteincoding genes, and illustrate proteins' in vivo dynamic localization and physical interaction. In the past decade, with the rapid development of bioinformatics methodologies, increasingly accurate catalog of protein-coding genes is emerging, with the most recent release containing a total of 21 232 [2]. However, the description of protein properties in vivo is still a challenge, especially at a genome-wide scale, mainly due to the difficulties in systematically producing reliable antibodies for the specific recognition of individual proteins. A generic solution to this problem is to genetically label the protein of interest with a tag, including fluorescent tags for in vivo visualization and affinity tags for the identification of interactions. Due to the advantages of efficient homologous recombination in yeast, protein tagging has been very successful and nearly all protein-coding genes have been tagged at their endogenous genomic loci, enabling global analysis of protein expression, localization and complexes using standard tag-based assays in yeast [3–5]. Genome-scale tagging has also been employed in Caenorhabditis elegans to generate a platform containing tagged worms covering about 73% of the proteome using a system called bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) TransgeneOmics, in which the tag-coding sequence is inserted into a fosmid as transgenes that include all the important coding and regulatory sequences of a gene [6]. Similarly, a fly genomewide fosmid library of 10 000 green fluorescent protein-tagged clones was generated recently and used to produce a total of 880 transgenic lines for protein localization analysis [7]. In mammals, BAC TransgeneOmics has also been successfully used in human tissue culture cells and mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) [8]. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to use the high-throughput approach to label protein-coding genes in mammals at the organismal level, such as in the mouse, which is the favored experimental mammal for biomedical studies, restricting large-scale protein analysis just to the cellular level. Moreover, the BAC transgene-based tag strategy may not recapitulate the physiological expression of some proteins due to the random insertion of the transgenes. One potential strategy to endogenously tag every protein inmice is to introduce a tag-coding sequence into the protein-coding gene in ESCs through conventional gene-targeting procedures, followed by the generation of tagged mice via the injection of tagged ESCs into blastocysts for chimera construction and germline transmission. However, chimera formation and germline transmission are always the rate-determining steps of this strategy, thus greatly impeding its large-scale application. Therefore, construction of a genomewide tag-knock-in mouse library is still an unmet need and seems a formidable challenge for the biological research community. Recently, the emergence of two state-of-the-art technologies, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9-based genome editing and the generation of gene-modified semi-cloned (SC) mice from androgenetic haploid ESCs (AG-haESCs), has made the genomewide tagging of protein-coding genes in mice an achievable scientific objective. CRISPR-Cas9 technology, which originated from the bacterial adaptive immunity system, can rapidly edit a genome with high efficiency and specificity through Cas9-mediated DNA cleavage at specific sites guided by single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs), resulting in DNA modifications by endogenous DNA repair systems [9]. With exogenously supplied DNA, CRISPR-Cas9 can induce precise gene editing at the targeted site, thus enabling efficient in-frame insertions of a tag-coding sequence. AG-haESCs are derived from haploid blastocysts with only the paternal genome [10]; after genetic removal of H19-DMR (differentially DNA methylated region) and IG-DMR, these


Summary Clopidogrel (25 mg/kg, p.o.), a potent and selective inhibitor of ADP-induced platelet aggregation, significantly inhibited, in the presence of platelets, ex vivo thrombin generation triggered by low concentrations of tissue factor. Clopidogrel reduced the area under the curve (23%, p <0.05) and the thrombin peak concentration (35%, p <0.05) but did not affect the lag phase of thrombin generation. Under the same experimental conditions, heparin (100 μg/ml) inhibited thrombin generation mostly by delaying and by reducing the burst of thrombin. In a stasis-induced venous thrombosis model in rats under low thrombogenic challenge, clopidogrel inhibited thrombus formation (ED50 = 7.9 ± 1.5 mg/kg, p.o. – n = 10), confirming the existence of a close relationship between platelet activation and thrombin generation leading to blood coagulation and venous thrombosis.


This article discusses the causes of the students injury,which had happened in the authors college gymnastic class. The author also offers some countermeasures


A new model of the roughness correlation function S(r) has been proposed in order to explain the different behavior of high field mobility limited by surface roughness scattering, µSR, between electrons and holes in metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) with oxynitrides. It has been shown, for the first time, that the change in electron and hole µSR associated with NO oxynitridation can be reasonably well explained by the appropriate choice of the form of S(r).


THE MAKING OF BRIQUETTES FROM A MIXTURE OF BETUNG BAMBOOS
AND BINTARO FRUITS BY CARBONIZATION
Jessi Dwi Suda; 54 pages ; 16 table ; 20 pictures ; 4 enclosure ; 2014
Charcoal briquette is a smokeless fuel whichis a type of solid fuel substances made flying
low enough so that the smoke generated in the utilization of health carewill not interfere with
the user's own briquettes. In this study, charcoal briquettes made from betung bamboo and
bintaro fruit using corn flour. This study aims to obtain briquettes bioarang with the best
quality by varying the carbonization temperature and composition of raw materials. The
method used in this studies experiment so rexperimental methods. Variation of carbonization
temperature used was 4000C, 4500C and 5000C, with a ratio of raw material composition of
betung bamboo and bintaro fruit 25%: 75%, 50%: 50%, and 75%: 25%. This briquettemaking
through several stages of the preparation of raw materials, the initial analysis, the
making of briquette and final analysis. The results from this study that the composition of raw
materials bintaro fruit betung bamboo and bintaro fruit carbonization temperature of 5000C
and the composition 75%:25% with Inherent Moisture values obtained for 2.13%, 3.25% ash,
volatile matter content of 22.75%, 71.2% fixed carbon and calorific value 6973.3 cal/g. The
authors conclude that the composition of the raw materialof bintaro fruit and betung bamboo
75%:25% obtained an optimum charcoal briquettes. In this case I suggest to do some research
of betung bamboo and bintaro fruit order to obtain a higher calorific value, so that the
resulting charcoal briquettes have the best quality.
Keywords: Bintaro, Inherent Moisture, Ash, Volatile Matter, Fixed Carbon, Calorific Value


The position of the authors of this article is that local community stakeholder participation is vital for successful community development reform of service delivery. In our view critics of public service delivery in Papua New Guinea (PNG) ought to appreciate that the degree of stakeholder participation in enhancing the delivery of basic services is necessary so that intended government reforms in service delivery may be further developed and justified both within and outside of government so as to attract the financial and skill capacities needed by local governments. Stakeholder participation and local-level government management in PNG under the current reform initiatives need to be evaluated to assess the contribution of citizens to the performance of Local-Level Government (LLG) in Papua New Guinea. Research on seven cases of wards in Wampar LLG in Morobe Province (PNG) using the case study method reveals that stakeholder participation in Local-level Government (LLG) is both present to some degree and is vital for effective community development in PNG and other developing countries with needs similar to Papua New Guinea.


Context: There is a great need in clinical research with imaging to collect, to store, to organize and to process large amount of varied data according to legal requirements and research obligations. In practice, many laboratories or clinical research centers working in imaging domain have to manage innumerous images and their associated data without having sufficient IT (Information Technology) skills and resources to develop and to maintain a robust software solution. Since conventional infrastructure and data storage systems for medical image such as "Picture Archiving and Communication System" (PACS) may not be compatible with research needs, we propose a solution: ArchiMed, a complete storage and visualization solution developed for clinical research. Material and methods: ArchiMed is a service oriented server application written in Java EETM which is integrated into local clinical environments (imaging devices, post-processing workstations, others devices...) and allows to safely collect data from other collaborative centers. It ensures all kinds of imaging data storage with a "study centered" approach, quality control and interfacing with mainstream image analysis research tools. Results: With more than 10 millions of archived files for about 4TB stored with 116 studies, ArchiMed, in function for 5 years at CIC-IT of Nancy-France, is used every day by about 60 persons, among whom are engineers, researchers, clinicians and clinical trial project managers.


The influence of chlorsulfuron on the reproduction of green pea (Pisum sativum) was examined by exposing plants at 3 different stages of development to 3 different exposure levels (46, 92, and 180 mg ha-' ; corresponding to 2 x 10 -3 , 4 x 10 -3 , and 8 x 10 -3 of the recommended field application rates for small grain crops). Reproduction was only influenced by the two higher rates. The most susceptible stage of development was when plants possessed 6 expanded leaves and one visible flower bud. At that stage, an application rate of 180 mg ha-' (0.8% of the recommended field rate) reduced the seed yield of treated plants to 1% of that of the control plants without severely altering the height or appearance of mature plants. When correspondingly low application rates of atrazine, glyphosate, and 2,4-D were administered at this same developmental stage there were no effects on either growth or reproduction. Thus, chlorsulfuron had an influence on plant reproduction that was not produced by other herbicides administered at low levels.


Abstract : This report will examine the use of concrete slipforming techniques to reduce construction costs for particular structures, and discuss the basic equipment and techniques used in the slipforming process. Chapter Two will outline the history of the slipforming technique in America. Chapter Three will discuss the basic equipment and techniques employed in vertical slipforming. Chapter Four will discuss the equipment used in conjunction with horizontal slipforming techniques. Chapter Five will examine the economic and productive aspects involved with slipforming. Chapter Six is a summary of conclusions and recommendations. It is the purpose of this report to acquaint the reader with the advantages and disadvantages of employing slipforming techniques, and to broaden the readers scope of knowledge with respect to the versatility of concrete as a construction material.


Conventional Security have relied on overwriting the saved return pointer on the stack to hijack the path of execution. Under Sun Microsystem's Sparc processor architecture, we were able to implement a kernel modification to transparently and automatically guard application's return pointers.

Our implementation called Stack Ghost Open-BSD 2.8 acts as a ghost in the machine. Stack-Ghost advances exploit prevention in that it protects every application run on the system without their knowledge nor does it require their source or binary modification.

We will document several of the methods devised to preserve the sanctity of the system and will explore the performance ramifications of Stack Ghost.


Nowadays,our country is in economic transition period and the contradiction of social material benefits distribution has been dominant.The imperfection of the competition mechanism leads to the situation of imbalanced social interests' relations.The ethic criteria can't fully coordinate with the social material benefits in traditional system.In order to coordinate the social benefits' relations,we must establish the core principle of fair competition,aiding the poor and reasonable consumption to realize the common prosperity and development.


The canopy transpiration(T),canopy interception(I) and forest floor evapotranspiration(ETf) in a stand of Larix principis-rupprechtii plantation were continuously measured in the growing season(May-October) of 2009—2011,using the techniques including thermal diffusion probes and micro-lysimeters,in a semi-arid small watershed of Diediegou located at the Liupan Mountains of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,northwest China.Then,the total stand evapotranspiration(ET),the relative contribution of each ET component and their monthly variation were analyzed.The results showed that the total ET in the growing season of 2009,2010 and 2011 was 446,532,426 mm,respectively;this inter-annual difference was influenced firstly by the water condition,then by the air temperature and stand LAI.Within the stand ET,the T amounted to 35%,while the I and ETf amounted to 18% and 47%,respectively.This meant that 53% of the total stand ET was caused by the stand canopy.The monthly T was mainly constrained by the vapor pressure difference(VPD) and solar radiation when soil water was abundant,but showing no significant relation with the meteorological factors under water deficit condition.The monthly ratio of T/ET decreased gradually in the growing season,from the maximum of 51% in May to the minimum of 22% in October.70% of I concentrated in the rainy period(July-September),the variation of monthly I was closely dependent on the monthly precipitation.The monthly ratio of I/ET was lower in May and June with an average of 11%;and higher in the period from July to October with an average of 21%.The monthly ETf in the growing season varied in a pattern of single peak which appeared in August.This was mainly determined by the variation of monthly precipitation.However,the monthly ratio of ETf/ET presented an increasing tendency,from 32% in May to 57% in October.This stand with semi-arid climate studied in this paper is a typical water-limited ecosystem,and the precipitation amount played a key role in controlling the amount and partition of stand ET.However,more detailed studies in finer time scale are needed to understand the impacts of other factors,such as the rainfall types,rainfall distribution and so on.


A heterogeneous chemical model is developed by coupling aerosol, gas-phase and liquid-phase chemical model. SO2 oxidation rates on the aerosol surface are calculated and the influence of some factors is discussed. Model simulations indicate that SOz heterogeneous oxidation rates are sensitive to the mass concentration and chemical composition of aerosols, relative humidity, initial values of SO2 and Hz02. The heterogeneous chemical model is coupled with a Eulerian deposition model. Model results show that oxidation of SO2 on the aerosol surface is found to reduce SO2 levels by 5 % -33 % , to increase SO:concentrations by 8 % -50 % in the surface layer.


At is known that along with many advantages (simplicity, reliability, absence of tanks, valves, etc.) erosion PPT have a considerable disadvantage. It is low efficiency of the operation process. Thus, today thrust efficiency of the dielectric erosion PPT with plane bars and energy of 100 I does not exceed (10-13)%. Now it is difficult to expect of significant raising efficiency PPT because all evident possibilities of its solution are exhausted. That is why the only real possibility of raising specific characteristics of the erosion PPT is to study thoroughly its operating process using various diagnostic methods which promise new level of understanding physical phenomena in the PPT discharge channel. It may allow to increase its efficiency.


Towcester's Southern Urban Extension can begin now officials from South Northamptonshire Council and Persimmon Homes performed the milestone ground-breaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction at the site.


Missing datasets usually exist in many fields such as medical diagnosis, traffic controlling, meteorology, business, industrial process, computer and network telecommunication. This missing data might also decrease the efficiency of results during decision making process. Besides, missing data may lead to difficulties in making decisions. Therefore, an efficient method such as parameterisation is required to deal with these problems. Probability, heuristic, and machine learning are among the approaches that have been proposed in generating an optimised attribute set. However, some of the proposed works only consider certain problems to be solved and failed to analyse certain types of data. The aim of this study is to propose a hybrid parameterisation model that is capable to deal with missing datasets. Experimental results have shown that the proposed model is significant to be implemented in handling missing datasets. It also proves that processing time and memory space could be reduced while assisting the classifier in gaining high performance results.


With the share of machine learning (ML) workloads in data centers rapidly increasing, cloud providers are beginning to incorporate accelerators such as tensor processing units (TPUs) to improve the energy-efficiency of applications. However, without optimizing application parameters, users may underutilize accelerators and end up wasting energy and money. This paper presents TPUPoint to facilitate the development of efficient applications on TPU-based cloud platforms. TPUPoint automatically classifies repetitive patterns into phases and identifies the most timing-critical operations in each phase. Further, TPUPoint can associate phases with checkpoints to allow fast-forwarding in applications, thereby significantly reducing the time and money spent optimizing applications. By running TPUPoint on a wide array of representative ML workloads, we found that computation is no longer the most time-consuming operation; instead, the infeed and reshape operations, which exchange and realign data, become most significant. TPUPoints advantages significantly increase the potential for discovering optimal parameters to quickly balance the complex workload pipeline of feeding data into a system, reformatting the data, and computing results.


Lambs were fed on cows' milk from birth to 21 days and then weaned abruptly on to a pelleted food that had been available to them from 10 days of age. In experiment 1 six lambs were given only sufficient milk to maintain weight for 21 days (0.48 MJ gross energy/day per kg0 73). No lambs survived beyond a few days after weaning at 21 days. In experiment 2 20 lambs were offered milk to provide 1.44 MJ gross energy/day per kg0.73 for 21 days. After weaning, only five lambs survived for more than 4 weeks. Liveweight at weaning was the most important single factor determining the chances of survival after weaning. All lambs that weighed less than 5.2 kg at 21 days died. The energy gain between birth and 21 days was the main factor determining the length of time that lambs survived without food after weaning. It was estimated that all lambs which weighed more than 1.4 kg at birth and gained > 23 MJ in 21 days could survive for 15 days after weaning without eating.


RT‐PCR array is a new technique to study microRNA (miRNA) expression; however, minimal data regarding intra‐ and inter‐assay reproducibility are available. This study examined the variability of the TaqMan MicroRNA Array (Applied Biosystems) in the evaluation of RNA obtained from proliferating murine myoblast C2C12 cells. The same RNA was used for two separate reverse transcription (RT) reactions and the RT products were used in duplicate arrays. The log2 expression levels of most genes (66%) in the four replicates had a standard deviation (SD) below 0.5 with median SD=0.2. When cycle threshold (CT) exceeded 32 there was a significant SD increase from 0.23 to 1.07, thus, genes with an average CT>32 (129/381) were excluded. With CT<32, 82% of miRNA exhibited a SD<0.2. The endogenous control RNA Mammu6 correlated well in the four replicates with a coefficient of variation of 0.5% (SD<0.1) and average CT=19.6. Thus, the variability due to different RT reactions on replicate samples was low and approximately equal. We estimate that the platform can detect a fold change of 2 with 99% power and a type I error rate 0.0005, assuming 4 biological replicates under 2 conditions given the gene has an SD of 0.1. In conclusion, this real‐time PCR based array method provided highly reproducibly estimates of miRNA expression by proliferating myoblasts in culture. Supported by the Veterans Administration and USPHS HL07446 and HL074236.


The dissertation was divided in two chapters. The aim was to determine whether hens immunized with an inactivated suspension of Leptospira and a solution of outer membrane proteins extracted from the serovar Hardjo, could produce specific polyclonal antibodies to Leptospira, detected in ELISA assay. Eight hens White Leghorn race with 25weeks-old were immunized, three with an inactivated suspension of Leptospira, three with a solution of outer membrane proteins (OMP) extracted from the serovar Hardjo and two controls immunized with saline. Blood samples were collected fortnightly and eggs daily. The IgY was purified from the egg yolk using the method for the delipidation of dilution with water acidic and ammonium sulfate precipitation. The ELISA assay was performed to verify the specificity of the IgY, these was possible to observe the production of specific antibody to Leptospira both in serum and purified egg yolk. The specific antibody titers peaked in the fifth week post immunization. The production of polyclonal IgY was effective for producing high titers of specific antibodies. The aim of the second chapter was search to epitopes or mimetops (mimetic sequence of the true epitopes) through technique of phage display using IgY specific to Leptospira, outer membrane proteins the serovar Hardjo and IgY control. To realize the biopanning was used a commercial library of random peptides Ph.D. 12 mer, New England BioLabs®Inc Phage Display Library was first incubated with IgY control, performing a process called negative selection, and then with IgY specific to Leptospira and to OMP Leptospira Hardjo, selected phages were eluted competitively and acid. After three rounds of selection, 288 clones were isolated and sequenced, generating 132 valid sequences. The selected clones were tested in diagnosis by ELISA assay with the antibody used as a biopanning target in order to verify the specificity of these. The results of ELISA testing it was found that nine phage (PMEcomp17, PMEac10, PMEac12, PMEac19, PMEac29, PMEac35, Lep6, Lep7 e Lep20) showed better results. These were aligned with the primary sequence of proteins of Leptospira spp. and Leptospira interrogans serovar Hardjo and insilico analyzes showed that nine peptides has similarity with immunogenic proteins of Leptospira. In this work we selected nine peptides with similarity to proteins of Leptospira interrogans that were considered immunogenic. The peptides were similar to outer membrane proteins, lipoprotein, LipL32, LipL41, LigA, SecY, LenE.


The extended version of the induced pulsation attackis introduced through modeling and simulation, targeting a closed-loop-controlled architecture of a Brushless DC (BLDC) motor driven by a Kalman filter. Previously, the induced pulsations in the attack were created by a constant gradient linear function of the distortion coefficient employed by the attacker. In the updated version, the attack persists even when interruptions are introduced to the linear growth of the distortion function, followed by resetting it. The objective of the presented study isto assess the potential for enhancing the attack's effectiveness through this modification. The resulted findings confirm thattransforming the constant gradient linear function into a saw-tooth pattern leads to periodic repetitions of induced pulsations. Consequently, the attack can be extended indefinitely. Moreover,the attacker gains greater control over attack outcome by utilizing additional parameters introduced through the saw-like functionality, such as frequency and amplitude of saw-function. The study demonstrates two advantageous synchroniza-tion modes with the saw-function for the attacker: (1) modulatingcurrent, voltage, and angular speed in phase with the saw-function, providing a stronger attack but reduced covertness; (2) synchronizing current and voltage patterns with the first sub-harmonic of the saw-function while maintaining fundamental harmonic pace for angular speed modulation, resulting in improved covertness and consistent mechanical strains. Extended pulsation attack signatures collected in current, voltage, and angular speed domains aid in early detection through pattern recognition methods.


A theoretical analysis of the effect of atmospheric humidity on radio interference of corona is presented. The calculations are based on the effects of humidity on the mechanisms of corona discharge. The charge contents of corona pulses are calculated and are found to increase with humidity. The radio interference is thus correlated to humidity, and the calculations confirm previous experimental findings.


Many studies of sex-related differences in the short and long term outcomes of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have concluded that mortality is higher among women than men. However, ...


Barbecue machine is a kind of barbecue food mechanized equipment,its main function is to make all kinds of barbecue products.The current research situation of barbecue device was introduced,characteristics of different types of barbecue device were compared and existing problems were analyzed. To make the device that is easy to make,energy saving,environmental protection as a whole,combined barbecue craft with barbecue device to promote the intelligent and automation. When designing the new barbecue equipment,it must to avoid environmental pollution in the process of baking and produce the harmful substances,to solve the problem of poor health condition,low degree of automation in the baking process,which provide a favorable reference for the study and design of equipment barbecue device.


Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), Zora Neale Hurston's follow-up to Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), transforms the long-established African American comparison of black freedom struggles to Exodus.1 Hurston's work recapitulates famous biblical scenes from Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and other ancient and modern traditions,2 giving many characters African American Vernacular English speech, and the larger Hebrew community numerous social and cultural features of post-Reconstruction black communities. Yet this instance of the allegory concerns itself not with Emancipation alone, nor with black political and spiritual freedom in general, but with the rise of elite black male leadership. In this novel, a great class and educational divide separates the Egyptian prince Moses from a largely illiterate, often obstreperous body of Hebrews, and much of the narration recounts his constantly checked efforts to impose both personal authority, and an impersonal notion of social and spiritual progress, on people who neither respect him nor particularly want to change. Thus, as scholars including Erica Edwards, Melanie Wright, Michael Lackey, and Joshua Pederson have noted, Hurston's version is unheroic, antitraditionalist, and strongly feminist. Where conventional Exodus allegories use the Pentateuch's implicit and explicit theological assurances—the group coheres, its leaders are good, the text is reliable, God is there—to assert, ideologically, that black community, leaders, history, and values are also


This paper examines the social and political tensions that emerge regarding access, use and management of land and natural resources located in Indigenous lands. Specifically, the paper examines the tensions that emerge in three relations: ethnic, agrarian (land tenure) and environmental (use of natural resources). This article proposes a classification of ethnic, agrarian and environmental conflicts based on the case of the Lacandon Community [Comunidad Zona Lacandona (CZL)] which is located in the Lacandon Forest (Chiapas, Mexico), during the period 1972-2015. Data for this article comes from ethnographic field work conducted in the region in the years 2008 and 2015, interviews, census data (INEGI), and a review of the literature on the case study.


The bottleneck of wireless enabled devices is the limited battery life. The main power consuming components of these devices are CPU, display and the network interface. In this paper, we propose and analyze a new mechanism for improving the energy savings of IEEE 802.11 based wireless network interfaces. The energy consumption of network interface is low when it is in idle state. We propose a mechanism in which we make the device idle for most of the time. We preprocess the multimedia stream to extract the useful information and this information is sent along with the stream. Instead of using a single static buffer, we propose a mechanism in which buffer is equally divided among the clients, based on the preprocessed information. Previously, with single static buffer, the client has to be active even though the packets are not destined to it. But in this approach, the client becomes active only when the packets are destined to it; rest of the time it remains in the idle state. This paper also considers cross traffic estimation using simple packet pair techniques. With this approach we can improve the energy savings of network interfaces with no quality degradation or packet loss.


Since the weighted median in Qm is discontinuous due to the indicator function (Parzen et al., 1994) in Equation (2) in the main text, the approach in Horowitz (1998) is applied to approximate the indicator function I(t > 0) by a smooth function J(t) in the following simulations and case studies. For example, J(t) can be the scaled expit function J (t) = 1/[1+exp(−t/ )], where is a pre-specified small constant, say 10−4. This section presents sensitivity analysis on the choice of . We use the data of the case study in Section 6.1 in the main text. Web Table 1 presents the results based on B = 10000 resampling iterations.


As the publisher at Playwrights Canada Press, I find that there is great variety in the kinds of writing that crosses my desk every day. We mainly publish Canadian-authored plays but also scholarly works about Canadian theatre. One of the limitations of publishing about live theatre is that it is impossible to recreate the entire experience of seeing a play in the book. We do our best, sometimes including photographs and even CDs with recorded music, but in an instance where the staging or casting choices or even lighting has been particularly unique, reading the script simply doesn't have the same impact. The insight that an introduction or companion essay can offer is therefore invaluable when it comes to furthering a reader's understanding of the script before them. In the late 1990s Playwrights Canada Press made its first forays into academic writing with regional collections like Voices from the Landwash: 11 Newfoundland Playwrights (edited by Denyse Lynde) and Staging the North: Twelve Canadian Plays (edited by Sherrill Grace, Eve D'Aeth, and Lisa Chalykoff). These were weighty collections designed to give readers an idea of the breadth and range of work coming out of often-overlooked areas of the country and included introductions that varied in focus, from surveying the development of a regional style to offering a critical analysis of the plays included in the volume. Over the years the Press has published many more of these anthologies; in addition to ones with a regional focus, we've published books on ethnic and cultural groups as well as topics in Canadian theatre. In Staging Coyote's Dream: An Anthology of First Nations Drama in English, Vol. I (2003), Monique Mojica and Ric Knowles's general introduction explains how they selected the content for the anthology; they also feature individual essays to introduce each play, which include a biography of the playwright, information about each play's production history, and notes on the impact of the play itself. In Testifyin': Contemporary African Canadian Drama, Vol. I (2000), Djanet Sears's general introduction gives readers an overview of the history of African Canadian drama; a contributing scholar introduces each play, placing it in a historical context. Past publishers such as Angela Rebeiro saw these collections as important works that supported PCP's efforts to create a Canadian theatre canon, and I continue to hold this perspective. In 2005 we published the first three volumes of the series Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English with Ric Knowles serving as general editor. Over 21 volumes and seven years the series covered everything from Aboriginal Drama and Theatre to Space and the Geographies of Theatre and many other subjects in between. While some volumes incorporated new material, this series set out to make available the best scholarly work on any given topic, so included essays and articles that had previously been published but that were scattered across a wide range of sources. These volumes provide an overview of each topic and arrange the content chronologically so readers can follow the progression of analysis and identify moments when discussions about a particular idea started to take hold. For those of us in the business of publishing plays, it was especially interesting to see the explosion of scholarship on Canadian theatre in the 1980s. It was around this time that our publishing program really began to take flight (Playwrights Canada Press was established as an imprint of the Playwrights Union of Canada in 1984; prior to this we published as the Playwrights Co-op), and publishers like Talonbooks and Coach House Books emerged with strong drama lists as well. I think it's telling that as more Canadian plays were published--and therefore made more widely available than localized productions--more and more writing about Canadian theatre appeared. In 2011, Playwrights Canada Press launched a new series called New Essays on Canadian Theatre (NECT) with Ric Knowles as general editor. …


Objective To explore application value of99Tcm-MDP bone scanning semi-quantitative analysis in monitoring the osteoporosis therapy efficacy in early-stage. Methods From January 2011 to October 2013, in Central Hospital of Jinhua City of Zhejiang Province, 18 women with osteoporotic were chosen, and they were 50-72 years old. Before and 3 months after the Alendronate treatment, they were respectively checked with99Tcm-MDP bone scanning and bone mineral density(BMD) measurement. The regions of interest(ROI) technology was used for obtaining the radioactive counts ratios(ROI ratios) of L1-L4and femoral neck. BMD and ROI ratios of L1-L4and femoral neck before and 3 months after the treatmnet were compared. Results The BMD of L1-L4and femoral neck after 3-month treatment with Alendronate were higher than those before the treatment, and BMD of L3-L4were compared with those before the treatment, the differences were statistically significant(P 0.05). Bone scanning showed that ROI ratios of L1-L4and femoral neck after the treatment were lower than those before the treatment, the differences were statistically significant(P 0.05). Conclusion99Tcm-MDP bone scanning semi-quantitative analysis can accurately reflect the early changes of bone metabolism after therapy, which has a potential application value in monitoring the therapy efficacy.


The article discusses the creation of automated system for correction of negative functional states of production workers on the basis of application equipment USB-6008 and the programming environment LabVIEW National Instruments. The USB-6008 is used for the removal of bioelectric signals worker whose analysis is a virtual instrument used to assess the presence of negative conditions and issue the necessary corrective action. Describes the version of the implementation of the automated system.


This study aimed to expand the trouble-free, quick, cost-effective and sensitive 1st Order derivative spectroscopy method for bendamustine hydrochloride. The aliquot was scanned from 200-400 nm using blank methanol as a solvent and the absorption was recorded. The stored spectrum was modified into the first derivative spectrum by using UV probe software and the detection wavelength was selected as 269 nm in methanol. The linearity was considered more at the concentration range bearing 10-80 µg mL-1 with the regression equation established to be y = 0.001x+0.005 (R2 =0.998).The % RSD for intraday precision study was found to be 1.6043% and inter-day precision was found to be 1.3274%. System and method precision were determined to be less than 2%. LOD and LOQ were found to be 0.6435 µg and 1.9501 µg, respectively. The assay of the marketed formulations was found to be 99.78%. All of the validation parameters were found to be below 2% RSD. Hence, the method can be used for the estimation of bendamustine hydrochloride in bulk dosage forms and the method was validated as per ICH guidelines Q2(R1 ).


The Joint Relay Selection and Power Allocation (JRSPA) for Amplify-and-Forward (AF) relaying (JRSPA-AF) combines Power Allocation (PA) and Relay Selection (RS) very well in Two-Way Relaying (TWR) system. In order to explore the system performance of JRSPA-AF protocol, the outage probability and Diversity-Multiplexing Trade-off (DMT) of JRSPA-AF protocol are analysed. One upper bound, two lower bounds and approximate expressions of outage probability along with the DMT are derived. Based on this, the idea of JRSPA is introduced into Decode-and-Forward (DF) relaying TWR system, and the JRSPA-DF protocol is proposed. Moreover, the exact expressions of outage probability and DMT for JRSPA-DF are derived. Simulations are developed to validate the analytical results, the results show that the approximation outage probability of JRSPA-AF can be used well to evaluate system outage probability over the entire transmission SNR region, and the analysis results of outage probability of JRSPA-DF are consistent with its simulation results. In addition, the simulation results indicate that JRSPA-DF can achieve lower outage probability than JRSPA-AF and other protocols.


Eighteen instances of sibling aggression were seen in six of eight osprey nests under intensive observation. Aggression primarily occurred during the last 3 weeks of the nestling period. Most encou...


This two-part study is devoted to the analysis of the so-called exact augmented Lagrangians, introduced by Di Pillo and Grippo for finite dimensional optimization problems, in the case of optimization problems in Hilbert spaces. In the second part of our study we present applications of the general theory of exact augmented Lagrangians to several constrained variational problems and optimal control problems, including variational problems with additional constraints at the boundary, isoperimetric problems, problems with nonholonomic equality constraints (PDE constraints), and optimal control problems for linear evolution equations. We provide sufficient conditions for augmented Lagrangians for these problems to be globally/completely exact, that is, conditions under which a constrained variational problem/optimal control problem becomes equivalent to the problem of unconstrained minimization of the corresponding exact augmented Lagrangian in primal and dual variables simultaneously.


ABSTRACT Objectives/Background Although much research has investigated the associations between children's sleep and their temperament, the direction of these associations remains unclear, largely due to a lack of longitudinal studies with repeated assessments of both sleep and temperament. Aiming to clarify the temporal precedence of these two constructs, the current study investigated reciprocal associations between toddlers' sleep and temperament with a longitudinal design. Participants The sample consisted of 82 toddlers (39 girls) assessed twice. Methods At both 2 (M = 25.23 months; SD = 1.11) and 3 years of age (M = 36.81 months; SD = 0.91), toddlers' sleep duration and quality were assessed using actigraphy and their temperament was reported by their mothers with the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire. Results Shorter nighttime sleep duration (ß = − .28, p = .03) and lower sleep efficiency (ß = − .33, p = .01) at 2 years predicted more temperamental proneness to anger at 3 years, while greater temperamental social fear at 2 years was predictive of shorter 24-hour (ß = − .44, p = .02) and nighttime (ß = − .36, p = .04) sleep duration at 3 years. Associations between temperamental activity level and sleep variables were non-significant. Conclusion The direction of the associations between toddlers' sleep and their temperament may vary according to which dimension of temperament is considered. These findings should encourage practitioners to identify the beginning of the causal chain leading to sleep or temperamental difficulties so as to develop well-tailored intervention plans.


Beijing's winning bid to host the Olympics will bring tremendous economic benefits to the city.And sometimes,after holding the Olympics,the host city shows a certain stage of the "Valley Effect".Research shows that the development of Beijing's economy due to endogenous growth,and there is a clear path dependence.Olympics can not change the original path of development.Through empirical analysis on the trends of investment,consumption and Olympic-related industries' development,we find that endogenous growth is the basic pattern of economic growth in Beijing,and there will not be "Valley Effect" of economy,and Beijing's economy will be maintain the original path of economic development.


An electrolytic ZrO/sub 2/ gel has been coated on ASTM F-75 Co-Cr-Mo alloy specimens in 0.1 M ZrO(NO/sub 3/)/sub 2/ solution at pH 2.2 and a current density of 2 mA/cm/sup 2/. The electrolytic ZrO/sub 2/ gel coating was annealed at 623-973 K for 120 min. in air, then evaluated by electrochemical polarization in Hank's solution, wear tests with UHMWPE (ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene) under a load stress of 50 Mpa, scratch tests, and morphology observations. The crystal structures of cobalt oxide and ZrO/sub 2/ were analyzed by XRD (X-ray diffraction). The ZrO/sub 2/-coated specimen annealed at 773 K for 120 min shows a good adhesion of 610 MPa on Co-Cr-Mo substrate, a lower wear loss of UHMWPE and a higher protection potential than the uncoated specimen in Hank's solution. A monoclinic structure with (1~11) preferred orientation parallel to the sheet plane was observed at 623 K/spl les/T/spl les/673 K while a tetragonal structure of ZrO/sub 2/ was detected at T/spl ges/773 K. For T/spl ges/973 K, a more stable monoclinic structure with random orientation mixed with a tetragonal structure was observed.


Abstract We prospectively surveyed for rectal colonization with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus among 93 high-risk pediatric patients who were hospitalized at least 5 (median, 20) days. Fifty-two patients (56%) had enterococcal colonization; none had active infection with Enterococcus. All enterococci were vancomycin-susceptible (minimum inhibitory concentration ≤4 μg/mL). Associated exposures included recent antibiotics (50, 96%), surgical procedures (26, 58%), and immunosuppression (15, 29%).


Experimental cross sections for single-electron capture for medium- to high-energy, highly charged oxygen and gold ions colliding with helium atoms are presented. Simple estimates based on the classical cross sections introduced by Bohr and Lindhard for multiply charged ions are shown to lead to good first approximations of the absolute magnitude of the cross sections for any target atom. Furthermore, these estimates suggest a universal scaling of the capture cross sections with ion and target-atom parameters. The experimental results of this work as well as those obtained by other groups are shown to be in accordance with the suggested scaling laws, which are also supported by the results of the few more-refined theoretical treatments that have been published.


Chapter 6 deals with the transactions of the Crawford Commission. Examined here are the juridical investigations that the commission made into the question of the guilt or innocence of Arthur Travers Crawford. The focus here is on possible ways in which the commissioners may have erred. There is no formal analysis of the very long tribunal held in Poona. Nor is there any effort here to uphold or deny the commission's verdict about Crawford. Rather, the purpose of this chapter is to clarify some issues that the work and outcome of the Crawford Commission may not have addressed adequately.


Based on the introduction and the analysis of present listening and speaking teaching mode,this article tries to explore a new mode for lots of people learning together in English listening and speaking teaching to improve students 'communicative competence.


Flow-forming is a forming process by large deformations during which a roller tool applies a force on a sheet metal that is local and evolving during the whole process. The FORGE® software is used in this study to model this process. Complex loading conditions, resulting from local roller-workpiece contact conditions and high rotation speed, make the modelling of this process difficult with high computation time. This requires making choices concerning the mesh size in order to reduce the computation time. The analysis of the loading path during this process shows that the stress states are complex, depending on the position into the sheet. These complex stress states must be considered to determine the characterization techniques used to calibrate the constitutive law of the material and the damage model. Mots clefs : fluotournage, procédé incrémental, simulation par éléments finis, rupture ductile, trajet de chargement complexe.


Placement and routing (P&R) are two important stages in the physical design flow. After circuit components are assigned locations by a placer, routing will take place to make the connections. Defined as two separate problems, placement and routing aim to optimize different objectives. For instance, placement usually focuses on optimizing the half-perimeter wire length (HPWL) and estimated congestion while routing will try to minimize the routed wire length and the number of overflows. The misalignment between the objectives will inevitably lead to a significant degradation in solution quality. Therefore, in this paper, we present Starfish, an efficient P&R co-optimization engine that bridges the gap between placement and routing. To incrementally optimize the routed wire length, Starfish conducts cell movements and reconnects broken nets by A*-based partial rerouting. Experimental results on the ICCAD 2020 contest benchmark suites [1] show that our co-optimizer outperforms all the contestants with better solution quality and much shorter runtime.


In this paper we study the interval computation for the solutions of the Burgers equation. For the initial-boundary value problems of the Burgers equation by using the technique of the Green function, a new kind of interval method is proposed. Both algorithm and computational examples are given. Convergence is proved. From the results we see that this interval method can get a better solution with our corroboration.


Simple cost-effective sequential injection lab at valve (SI-LAV) with remote control employing everyday communication technology, and including a webcam camera detector, was developed for the determination of iron and phosphate as model analytes. The use of a webcam as a detector allowed recording of color data and monitoring flow behavior simultaneously. The remotely controlled system was operated via the internet using readily available software. The utility of the proposed system was investigated for the iron and phosphate reactions, representing fast and slow reaction models, respectively. The system performance was also demonstrated for the assay of phosphate in real samples.


Abstract As in other academic libraries, LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) Library does not meet student expectations for access to core readings despite increasing provision. We used user experience research to gather evidence of student experience, behaviours, and preferences for taught course content with the aim of making improvements. We found that convenience is the deciding factor for students in choosing what and how to read due the necessity of keeping up with weekly reading. They prefer PDF journal articles due to their structure and functionality and dislike e-books. This suggests that for book chapters we should offer accessible scans where possible while advocating for improved e-book functionality and licencing. Our research underlines the role of liaison librarians in encouraging appropriate use of reading lists so that they scaffold rather than spoon-feed, as students appreciate well-structured and signposted reading lists, but approach their reading instrumentally. Our next step is to engage with teaching staff.


If the combined retirement income, provided by public and private defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, falls below socially acceptable standards, there is a political risk that consensus seeker policymakers could yield to pressures to commit future fiscal revenues. These contingent liabilities, when incorporated in markets' expectations, are bound to create spillovers on sovereign risk, with negative feedback loops on the capital adequacy of banks and of other intermediaries, owing to losses on their government paper. Among the causes of reduced annuities out of the final assets in DC pension funds is an equity risk premium much lower than the commonly values advertised by the industry and by policymakers. From a macroprudential perspective, this political risk should be taken into account in stress tests assessing banks' resilience to financial shocks.


help but feel that Grushin was worried about her novel being seen as formless and so tried to fit its series of beautiful passages together on a scaffolding of incidents. One hopes that in her next work, Grushin will allow her art to define itself in its piercing particularity and through her primary virtue: the intensity of her language. These concerns, however, are small and should in no way shadow the accomplishments of this novel, which are deep and wondrous and which announce the arrival of a brilliant new voice. (NO)


Objective To investigate the effect of filling gauze in vaginal in patients after vaginal hysterectomy. Methods A total of 78 patients with vaginal hysterectomy were randomly divided two groups. The control group patients were filled a piece of gauze in vagina after vaginal hysterectomy, and the experiment group patients were no filled gauze in vaginal. Results There were no significant difference of vaginal bleeding, got fever, the first intestinal exhaust time, time to get off bed, constipation and duration of hospitalization between experimental and control group (P > 0. 05). But the GCQ score of the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group' s (P < 0. 05). Conclusions It is better to patients' recovery without vaginal dressing after vaginal hysterectomy.

Key words:
Vaginal hysterectomy; Operation; Filling gauze; Nursing


To reveal the genetic diversity and its distribution law in local pig breeds from Sichuan province,a method of taking mitochondrial DNA D- loop( mt DNA D- loop) as a marker was used to analyze the 436 bp nucleotide sequences of the D- loop hypervariable region in seven local pig populations from Sichuan province,including Aba Tibetan pig,Ganzi Tibetan pig,Chenghua pig,Neijiang pig,Penzhou pig,Rongchang pig and Yanan pig. The results showed that 20 variable sites were detected in 392 individuals from seven local pig populations,and the variable rate was 5. 10%,and thus 28 haplotypes were defined. The overall haplotype diversity( Hd),nucleotide diversity( Pi) and the average number of nucleotide variation( k) of local pig breeds from Sichuan province were 0. 784,0. 003 03 and 1. 316,respectively. The Hd,Pi,and k of Neijiang pig were the lowest among seven local pig populations,which were 0. 161,0. 000 38 and 0. 166,respectively; while the Hd,Pi,and K of Aba Tibetan pig were the highest,which were 0. 839,0. 003 59 and 1. 563,respectively. However,the analysis results for genetic contribution rate showed that the overall genetic contribution rate( RT( k)) of Ganzi Tibetan pig to local pig breeds from Sichuan province was the highest,which was 12. 342 8; but that of Chenghua pig was the lowest,which was 0. 509 5. And Ganzi Tibetan pig on the effect of total haplotype richness( CRT( k)) in local pig breeds from Sichuan province showed the strongest positive effect( 29. 718 2),but that of Chenghua pig showed the strongest negative effect(- 12. 543 6).


In this article some problems of the megapolis development are analyzed. The author considers socio-political subject of the megapolises in the 21 st century. The dependence of the megalopolis' political success from its inhabitants' public participation is postulated.


Objective To elevate the effect of intravascular low level laser irradiation (ILLLI) on T cell subpopulations in patients with psoriasis. Methods There were 176 cases of psoriasis patients, 86 patients treated with ILLLI(wave length 632.8 nm, power 3.5 mW, once daily for 60 minutes, 10 times for one treatment, 7 days later began the second treatment) and topically used calcipotriol; 90 patients only topically used calcipotriol. Two groups were all with psoriasis vulgaris and the sex, age and, disease conditions(psoriasis area and severity index, PASI) were comparable. T cell subpopulations in the peripheral blood were examined before treatment and one month after treatment. Results It was found that CD + 4 and CD + 4/CD + 8 were apparently declined(P0.01) and CD 8 + was prominently increased (P0.01)in both groups before treatment. After treatment CD + 4 and CD + 4/CD + 8 were apparently increased, but no change was seen in the control group. Conclusions The ILLLI may exert a modulating effect on T lymphocyte subpopulations in psoriasis patients.


Core competencies essential for effective teaching were identified via a literature review and a review of standards for teacher education, and vetted by state groups with interests in teacher education. Survey items based on these competencies asked teacher candidates, graduates, and teacher education program faculty how well the program prepared teachers. The 41 items common to surveys of the three groups were submitted to Rasch analysis to determine dimensionality, scale use, targeting, reliability, and, of particular interest, invariance. Results suggested two dimensions were captured by the 41 items, entitled "knowledge, skills and behavior in promoting student achievement," and "resource use, academic language, and numeracy," with reliability of person separation of .94 and .73, respectively. Use of the 0-4 response scale was appropriate for both dimensions. Items were relatively easy to agree with for both scales, with person means of 1.24 and 0.57. Differential item functioning was found for respondent group and also for extent of program involvement but not for sex or for route to certification. The paper provides a discussion of implications of results for program evaluation.


The aim of this note is to report results on the stability of a class of polynomials from the small gain theorem point of view. The authors consider families of polynomials whose coefficients lie in closed circular disks around their nominal values. Various measures of variation of polynomial coefficients around their nominal value are considered and in each case necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for stability of the resulting family of polynomials. The stability region could be any closed region of the complex plane. Based on similar ideas of small gain, the authors also provide sufficient conditions for testing the stability of systems with commensurate time delays, and for two-dimensional type systems. These conditions become both necessary and sufficient in some special cases. All tests are easy to implement and require checking the stability of a matrix (or equivalently checking the stability of the central polynomial) and evaluation of a norm. >


An optical transmission system comprises a metropolitan core network (MET) operated in a wavelength division multiplexing mode and connected via metro connection devices (MAP) to access connections (AC1, AC2, ) to optical network terminals (ONU) connected by means of a passive optical splitter (SPL). The metro connection devices (MAP) contain regenerators and wavelength converters, so that data regeneration takes place between the network terminals (ONU) and the central management and switching unit (ZEN). This makes it possible to cover distances around 100 km.


The use of nitinol (shape memory alloy) tubing for an LHP condenser allows a passive, self deploying heat rejection radiator for small spacecraft. The tubing is "trained" to its deployed configuration, then compactly coiled for launch. When the payload is energized and the condenser heats up, the shape memory alloy changes phase and returns to its trained shape. This paper reports on a NASA sponsored SBIR Phase I program that established the feasibility of the concept. Nitinol tubing was made from available material which had a phase change temperature much higher than desired. It was trained to a simple deployed shape. Since the ends of the LHP condenser are constrained, there are a limited number of basic, possible coiling arrangements. Early experiments used a loop thermosyphon with water working fluid to provide condensing vapor to heat the tubing internally and actuate the shape change. The later experiments used an ammonia loop heat pipe to successfully demonstrate deployment that was actuated by the heat being rejected. BACKGROUND NITINOL Nitinol is a near equi-atomic (49.0 to 50.7 at.% Ti) nickel-titanium intermetallic compound. Below the transformation temperature it is Martensite with a twinned monoclinic structure. Above the transformation temperature it is Austenite with a cubic B2 structure. Austenite can change to the Martensite structure under stress, and will then be able to accommodate up to 8% strain by an unconventional de-twinning mechanism. When the stress is removed, it returns to austenite and its original shape. This is the property that enables the amazingly flexible eyeglass frames that spring back to shape. It also enables its widespread use in the medical field for stents and catheter guide wires. When Austenite is cooled below the transition temperature it becomes Martensite. It this state it is very flexible, and readily deformed. When the deformed Martensite is heated above its transformation temperature, it changes back into Austenite, and also changes back into the shape to which it was "trained" in the austenitic phase. It can exert significant force during this transformation and this enables its use as an actuator to deploy panels in spacecraft The transformation temperature can be adjusted within the range of -100°C to +100°C by varying the composition and processing history.


Nitrogen supply of soils is an important factor in the successful cultivation of agricultural crops. Nowadays, in the Central Black Earth region there are planted orchards with high density of trees, with installed systems of drip irrigation and fertigation. Such orchards are relatively new, particularly in this region. Fertigation ambiguous effects on soil structure and its content of nutrients, especially hydrolysable nitrogen. Therefore, the study of the distribution of hydrolysable nitrogen in the soil under the influence of fertigation and drip irrigation is important. The aim of our research was to investigate the distribution hydrolysable nitrogen in the root soil layers 0-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 cm. Investigations were carried out according to conventional methods. In these layers of the soil, we have determined the content of hydrolysable nitrogen and yield. As a result, we have found that in variants with fertigation were the highest yield. In addition, with fertigation it was noted higher content of hydrolysable nitrogen in the soil as compared with the control without irrigation, especially in the deep layers 21-40; 41-60 and 61-80 cm. It was also noted increase of hydrolysable nitrogen in the soil along the periphery of the wetting


The topic of green manufacturing has got more and more attention from governments,enterprisers and academic researchers.However,in China there's still paucity on the level of green manufacturing strategy adopted as well as the benefits received in firms.The present study aimed to investigate whether green manufacturing strategy was adopted in industry,and to make it clear whether the extent that green manufacturing strategy deployed by firm is related with its organizational performance.We find that even there is a direct,positive correlation between green manufacturing strategy and the firm's performance,this strategy is not generally deployed by Chinese firms.


Constraint programming is used to solve hard combinatorial problems in a variety of domains, such as scheduling, networks and bioinformatics. Search for solving these problems in constraint programming is brittle and even slight variations in the problem data or search heuristic used can dramatically affect the runtime. But using portfolios of search engines on several variants of a problem by adding randomness to the heuristic used has been proved to counter this problem. A portfolio is defined as a collection of assets that combined gives it a desired return and risk. Unfortunately not all constraint programming systems have implementations of portfolio search, such as Gecode. Therefore were two portfolio search prototypes, sequential and parallel, designed and implemented for Gecode. The design is not system dependent and could easily be implemented in other constraint programming systems. The design and implementation is tested by both validity and performance tests to ensure its soundness. Validity is tested by finding all possible solutions on a moderately difficult combinatorial problem known as the N-Queens problem. Performance is tested by finding the first solution on a very difficult combinatorial problem known as the Latin Square Completion problem with different numbers of search engines. To compare against the same validity and performance tests were run with just one search engine. Results show that the design and implementation of portfolio search is sound. The parallel variant of portfolio search finds solutions faster with more search engines and outperforms the sequential variant. The sequential variant finds solutions about as fast as running with just one search engine. Successfully designing and implementing portfolio search in Gecode will help researchers and companies who use Gecode to save both time and money as they are now able to find better solutions faster by using this portfolio search. It may also contribute to the research within this area and the continued development of Gecode


To investigate the potential immunogenicity of fibrin sealant and its main component figrinogen,the fibrinogen protein was separated from the major component of fibrin sealant by SDS-PAGE and identified by Western blotting,indirect ELISA was used for the detection of specific antibodies in sera,and the immunogenicity of fibrin sealant and fibrinogen was investigated by means of the injury experiment in New Zealand rabbits and the medication experiment in BALB/c mice。It was found that anti-fibrinogen antibody could be detected,when 0.5 μg/ml of the main component in fibrin sealant was used as the coating antigen. In case of the injury experiment in New Zealand rabbits,the specific antibodies appeared after one week,significantly rose up after 2 weeks,and dropped 6 weeks later,with dynamic tendency of initial rising and later dropping. In the medication experiment on BALB/c mice,no positive cell with dark blue formazan could be found in NBT test and the MTT test showed a weakly proliferative ability of T cells in mice. In a word,these results indicate that fibrinogen in the main components of fibrin sealant only induces a temporary rise of specific antibodies in rabbits and no apparent immunogenicity can be found in mice.


THE BRISTOL Royal Infirmary inquiry has highlighted areas of major development in the nursing profession and hospital management, according to the RCN observer of proceedings Jo Stockley.


Mr. Thomas E. Marston, Curator of the Classical Collection in the Yale University Library, having already been the owner of three 15th-century manuscripts of Juvenal and Persius, which he donated in 1936 to the Yale University Library, acquired in 1953 a much older copy of Juvenal alone. This manuscript, having remained for five hundred years in private collections in Italy, first at Osimo, then at Iesi, had never been collated. Now, with Mr. Marston's generous permission, it has at length been studied and it is the findings of this study that this paper presents. It seemed best, inasmuch as the manuscript affords little new light on the tradition of the text, to restrict this report to sample readings, sufficient to establish the character of the manuscript; a complete collation, however, will be deposited for use in the Yale University Library, as well as with Mr. Marston.


In South Yakutia, in the Aldansky district, at the end of July, more than 50 deer fell to the reindeer herd No. 7 of OAO KMNS "Khatystyr". Earlier in Central Yakutia, in 2008, an outbreak of pyroplasmosis was recorded for the first time in domestic reindeer of the farm of JSC NAOK "Taba" at the Tomtor site of the Gorny district and the YaGSHA Tabsylyn educational and production farm at the Kangkeme site of the Yakutsk city district. There was a mass death of the main deer population in the "Kangkeme" section up to 90% and "Tomtor" up to 30%. During laboratory studies, a parasitic disease, pyroplasmosis, was registered. Pyroplasmosis is one of the most severe and acute parasitic diseases of animals. Especially in the abnormal summer heat, blood parasites multiply very quickly, piroplasmids destroy red blood cells in the body of deer, the process of oxidation and intoxication occurs, bilirubin is formed from the released hemoglobin by complex transformations, 2-3 days after infection, in the absence of medical care, a lethal outcome is observed. Carriers of parasites can be ticks (Ixodidea, Ixodes ricinus) and other blood-sucking. Blood parasitic diseases (hemosporidiosis) of animals in Yakutia have not been previously recorded, a case of infection of domestic reindeer in 2008 in Central Yakutia is known. Isolated cases of tick attacks on people have been recorded in the Aldan, Neryungrinsky, Olekminsky and Suntarsky districts. A case of tick attack, infection and disease with tick-borne borreliosis of one person was registered. In the warm season, a distinctive feature of the temperature regime in most of the territory of Yakutia is a rapid increase in average daily temperatures in spring, and the maximum summer temperature can reach +38 ° C. At this time, there is a massive flight of blood-sucking insects and an attack of ticks on animals and people on the territory of Yakutia.


Two birds including the 1 case of a 2-month old male parrot and 2 case a male duckling aged 3 weeks were presented to the Referral Veterinary Polyclinic, IVRI Izatnagar with extended, stiffed limb and curled toes and the complaint of inappetence, weakness, ataxia, difficult object grasping capacity. Skin scraping and fecal examination were found negative for any parasite. Both, the birds were successfully treated using riboflavin along with multivitamins therapy.


The optimal robust control with a fuzzy approach is applied to design the electric helicopter tail reduction system in this article. Firstly, the fuzzy dynamical model of the electric helicopter tail reduction system with uncertainties and external disturbances is established, which may be time varying. Then, we propose a deterministic robust controller (differing from IF-THEN rules in traditional fuzzy control) to solve the uncertain problem in electric helicopter tail reduction systems. The electromechanical system with the proposed controller is proved to be stable via the Lyapunov function. The control gain with an optimal design is considered, which minimizes a fuzzy performance index associated with both the control error and the control cost. Furthermore, simulations compared with linear-matrix-inequality control are made to validate the effectiveness and stability of the optimal robust controller. All results show that the performance of the fuzzy electric helicopter tail reduction system can be always guaranteed by this optimal robust control approach.


The most complicated problems to solve in science are multidisciplinary problems, which include the problem of explaining of physical reality and physical essenceofimaginary numbers discovered more than five hundred years ago. However, the authors of the special relativity theory created more than a hundred years ago, were trying to unprovenly claim that they have solved this problem and that the imaginary numbers are not physically real with a principle of non-exceeding the speed of light. And physical experiments MINOS at the Tevatron collider and OPERA at the Large Hadron Collider were even seem to confirm such an assertion, since they could not refute the principle of non-exceeding the speed of light. However, since mathematics is the universal language of all exact sciences, the principle of the physical reality of imaginary numbers was still proven, but proven otherwise—with the theoretical and experimental studies of the vibrational processes in linear electric circuits that can be repeated and verified in any radioelectronic and electrical laboratory. And that is why they are definitely reliable and conclusive. Using the very general scientific principle of the physical reality of imaginary numbers allowed to correct the relativistic formula of special relativity theory and on this basis to cre-ate a theory of hidden Multiverse containing more than two mutually invisible parallel universes. The nature of their invisibility is explained. It is proven that the existence of these unseen parallel universes explains the phenomenon of dark matter and dark energy. Using data obtained by the spacecrafts WMAP and Planck led to the discovery of quaternion structure of the hidden Multiverse and show that our hidden Multiverse is not the only one in nature.


Abstract. Long-term measurements of permafrost temperatures do not provide a complete picture of the Arctic subsurface thermal regime. Regions with warmer
permafrost often show little to no long-term change in ground temperature due to the uptake and release of latent heat during freezing and
thawing. Thus, regions where the least warming is observed may also be the most vulnerable to permafrost degradation. Since direct measurements of
ice and liquid water contents in the permafrost layer are not widely available, thermal modeling of the subsurface plays a crucial role in
understanding how permafrost responds to changes in the local energy balance. In this work, we first analyze trends in observed air and permafrost
temperatures at four sites within the continuous permafrost zone, where we find substantial variation in the apparent relationship between long-term
changes in permafrost temperatures (0.02–0.16 K yr−1) and air temperature (0.09–0.11 K yr−1). We then apply recently
developed Bayesian inversion methods to link observed changes in borehole temperatures to unobserved changes in latent heat and active layer
thickness using a transient model of heat conduction with phase change. Our results suggest that the degree to which recent warming trends correlate
with permafrost thaw depends strongly on both soil freezing characteristics and historical climatology. At the warmest site, a 9 m
borehole near Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, modeled active layer thickness increases by an average of 13 ± 1 cm K−1 rise in mean
annual ground temperature. In stark contrast, modeled rates of thaw at one of the colder sites, a borehole on Samoylov Island in the Lena River
delta, appear far less sensitive to temperature change, with a negligible effect of 1 ± 1 cm K−1. Although our study is limited to
just four sites, the results urge caution in the interpretation and comparison of warming trends in Arctic boreholes, indicating significant
uncertainty in their implications for the current and future thermal state of permafrost.


The unsteady and dynamic stall aerodynamic behavior of airfoil at low Mach number was investigated,and the modified Leishman-Beddoes(L-B) model was modeled from the viewpoint of the convection of the flow on the airfoil surface.Based on the modified L-B model,the flutter analysis model of a two-dimensional wing with aerodynamic and structural nonlinearity at low Mach number was presented.The modification to L-B is effective by comparing with experimental airfoil airload results,and the wing flutter experimental results also verify the analysis model of the two-dimensional wing aeroelastic system.Results demonstrates that the stall flutter of airfoil aeroelastic system is closely related to the initial pitch angle and the inflow velocity,and the quasi-periodical oscillation motion of the two-dimensional wing aeroelastic system mainly caused by the coupled cubic nonlinear stiffness in pitch and plunge.


The biochemical substances in protoscolex of Echinococcus granulosus were investigated systematically by histochemical techniques.It was showed that glycogen,RNA,DNA,protein bound α-amino groups,tyrosine,tryptophan,histidine,alkaline protein,acid mucopolysaccharides,collagenous fibers,reticular fibers,activities of AKP,ACP and ATPase were detected at various levels in protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus.The content of glycogen was rich in parenchymal tissue of larva.RNA and DNA were mainly located in cytoplasm and cell nucleus,respectively.The content of protein bound α-amino groups,tyrosine,tryptophan,histidine and alkaline protein were very rich in tegument and small parenchymal cells.Both the activities of AKP and ATPase were very strong in tegument of protoscoleces.The hooks were contained heavy acid mucopolysaccharides and reticular fiber element and moderate contents of protein bound tyrosine,tryptophan and histidine.The collagenous fibers were noly presented in parenchymal tissue of larva.Some content of PAS positive material,RNA,DNA,protein bound α-amino groups,tyrosine,tryptophan and histidine,alkaline protein,acid mucopolysaccharides,collagenous and reticular fiber elcment,AKP,ACP and ATPase were found in calcareous corpuscles of protoscoleces.The physiological significance of biochemical substances presented in protoscoleces obtaincd from sheep was discussed briefly.


Phytoremediation is a green emerging technology used to remove and degrade pollutants from soil and water. In this study, plants of B. vulgaris were grown in the soils, which are artificially contaminated by lead below the WHO level (12 mg/kg) and above the WHO level (72 mg/kg). After 3 months, accumulations of the lead metal were analysed in roots, leaves, and stem with the help of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Perkin Elmer analyst 400). Significant decrease in level of Pb has been noted in both the treatments. Decrease in Pb level was 3.6% and 18.7% of control (0.09 and 0.43 mg/kg). It was concluded that the plant B. vulgaris is a very good phytoremediation tool to remove Pb metal from the soil


Reported rates of oral cancer recurrence range from 25 % to 48 %. Improving the treatment outcomes of these cases would lead to a better prognosis of oral cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate prognostic factors and the outcomes after salvage surgery in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. We analyzed 110 patients who underwent primary radical surgery(primary cases)and 77 previously treated patients who underwent salvage surgery(secondary cases)between March 1985 and March 2000. A 5-year survival curve was constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Statistical significance was evaluated with the logrank test. A Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to identify prognostic factors. Recurrence rates in primary/secondary cases were 17.3 %/9.1 % for delayed neck metastasis, 10.0 %/15.6 % for local recurrences, 5.5 %/10.4 % for regional recurrences, and 3.6 %/2.6 % for locoregional recurrences. Overall 5-year survival rates were 78.9 % for primary cases and 67.5 % for secondary cases. Survival rates differed significantly between rN −(82.9 %)and rN +(54.8 %)secondary cases treated by salvage surgery. Significant prognostic factors on multivariate analysis were the extracapsular spread of cervical lymph node metastasis in both primary and secondary cases and the pN category in secondary cases. In conclusion, extracapsular spread was a significant predictor of survival. Salvage surgery cases with neck recurrence had poor outcomes.


Most private schools in India fall under the category of Affordable Private School (APS). The paper tries to state, that with growing privatization of education, APS is likely to grow further. But the APS sector has certain problems. The problems are mostly associated with staff-management relationship. The paper opines that if these problems are not addressed properly then the sector may face sustainability problems and may not even grow in spite of huge scope. At the end, the paper tries to suggest some remedies that can help the sector to overcome its problems.


In this DOE sponsored program, 3M achieved the critical UBT features to enable durable flexible high efficiency modules to be produced by a range of customers who have now certified the 3M UBT and are actively developing said flexible modules. The specific objectives and accomplishments of the work under this program were; Scale-up the current Generation-1 UBT from 12" width, as made on 3M's pilot line, to 1+meter width full-scale manufacturing, while maintaining baseline performance metrics (see table below); This objective was fully met; Validate service life of Generation-1 UBT for the 25+ year lifetime demanded by the photovoltaic market; Aggressive testing revealed potential failure modes in the Gen 1 UBT. Deficiencies were identified and corrective action taken in the Gen 2 UBT; Develop a Generation-2 UBT on the pilot line, targeting improved performance relative to baseline, including higher %T (percent transmission), lower water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) with targets based on what the technology needs for 25 year lifetime, proven lifetime of 25 years in solar module construction in the field, and lower cost; Testing of UBT Gen 2 under a wide range of conditions presented in this report failed to reveal any failure mode. Therefore UBT Gen 2more » is known to be highly durable. 3M will continue to test towards statistically validating a 25 year lifetime under 3M funding; Transfer Generation-2 UBT from the pilot line to the full-scale manufacturing line within three years; and This objective was fully met.« less


Depth video contains depth and disparity information of a scene, which is critical for 3D video systems. In this paper, a convolutional neural network (CNN) based block upsampling method is proposed to improve the efficiency of depth video intra coding. For each largest coding tree in a depth map, it is down-sampled before sent into encoder and recovered into the original size in an intelligent way after low-resolution coding. A novel texture-assisted CNN (TACNN) is presented to handle the depth block up-sampling. The network is made up of several residual coding units and the features of texture block are extracted to assist the reconstruction of the corresponding depth block. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves competitive rate-distortion performance compared with the state-of-the-art approaches.


The editor of JAMA , the Journal of the American Medical Association, has said that the journal would continue its efforts, begun in 1985, to make readers aware of the financial ties of authors.

In an editorial published online ahead of print on 8 August, JAMA 's editor, Catherine DeAngelis, states, "Peer-reviewed medical journals must always place the interests of patients above all else" (http://www.jama-assn.org/, doi:10.1001/jama.296.8.jed60051).

"I think it's very important now. At least in the United States, the vast majority of clinical research is paid for by drug companies. There's nothing wrong with that. Somebody's got to pay for research," Dr DeAngelis told the BMJ …


Spray and combustion characteristics of an oxidantcentered liquid oxygen/liquid methane (LOX/LCH4) pintle injector under different momentum ratio control modes are studied by numerical simulation. Results show a high total momentum ratio (TMR) can be good for boosting overall combustion efficiency. Either an increase in LOX injection pressure drop or a reduction in LCH4 pressure drop can increase the TMR and pro‐ mote the diffusion of the high-temperature zone along the length direction of the combustion chamber, and in engineering applications, the flame distribution can be changed by adjusting the TMR. LCH4 atomizes faster, the contact area of oxygen on the combustion chamber wall is larger, and the range of the lowtemperature zone in front of the pintle tip is smaller when the TMR is 1.37, compared with TMR of 0.62. Four high-temperature peaks are formed on the central line passing through the apex of the pintle tip in the combustion chamber width direction since an arcshaped shear flame develops. Vortices can promote flame stability by extending the mixing time of the gases, thus preventing the development of high tem‐ perature in the combustion chamber head and at the pintle tip. Also a 3D spray structure of the pintle in‐ jector contributes to its good combustion stability. It is a key technology to realize thrust control of a liquid rocket engine through throttling (Zhang, 1984; Preclik et al., 2005; Casiano et al., 2010). A variable area injector, namely the pintle injector, has received extensive attention in recent years due to its deep throttling capability (Fang and Shen, 2017; Zhou et al., 2020). Parameter design of a pintle injector mainly in‐ cludes the width of the annular slit, the hole structure, the block factor (BF), the ratio of the diameter of radial holes to the pintle tip circumference, the skip distance, the distance from the axial film injection area to the impinging point, and the TMR. TMR is the ratio of the momentum of the radial jet to the momentum of the axial film (Dressler and Baue, 2000; Dressler, 2006). At present, there are studies on pintle injectors with different propellant combinations. Austin and Heister (2002) and Austin et al. (2005) studied a 666.67 N thrust class pintle engine with hydrogen peroxide and a nontoxic, hypergolic miscible fuel, and concluded that a fuel-center pintle was preferred and that a hemispherical pintle structure can allow fuel flowing through the pintle to alleviate heat energy accumu‐ lation. Bedard et al. (2012) designed a LOX/LCH4 pintle injector. Their study introduced a novel sys‐ tem for natural gas liquefaction to supply cryogenic fuel, and a fuel film cooling method was used to keep the chamber walls at a low temperature. Payri et al. (2016) used a pintle injector for a diesel engine as a way of conducting injection rate shaping strategy, and the results showed that the spray velocity was less impacted. Son et al. (2017) conducted a nu‐ merical simulation study on a fuel-centered LOX/ methane pintle injector and found that a wide flame cone angle can contribute to forming a pair of large vortices at the pintle tip, which effectively enhance combustion performance. Lee et al. (2021) used water Correspondence https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.A2100402


Text normalization is an important component in text-to-speech system and the difficulty in text normalization is to disambiguate the non-standard words (NSWs). This paper develops a taxonomy of NSWs on the basis of a large scale Chinese corpus, and proposes a two-stage NSWs disambiguation strategy, finite state automata (FSA) for initial classification and maximum entropy (ME) classifiers for subclass disambiguation. Based on the above NSWs taxonomy, the two-stage approach achieves an F-score of 98.53% in open test, 5.23% higher than that of FSA based approach. Experiments show that the NSWs taxonomy ensures FSA a high baseline performance and ME classifiers make considerable improvement, and the two-stage approach adapts well to new domains.


In order to realize the shore power access for the ships to be released at the Three Gorges anchorage and mitigate the discharge of vessels in the Three Gorges anchorage, and based on the analysis of the electricity demand of the ships to be released at the Three Gorges anchorage, a set of photovoltaic - shore power complementary power supply system built on the platform of pontoon catamaran has proved the social benefits of the design, providing the basis for the design and application of solar energy in the field of marine shore power.