Murine embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent, and may be of potential use for cell replacement and gene therapy. By understanding the mechanism of survival and anti-apoptosis of ES cells, it may be possible to enhance use of ES cells for clinical usage. Our previous studies indicated that undifferentiated ES cells converted into polyploidy instead of apoptosis under the stress. However, differentiated ES cells went through apoptosis in the same manner as mature cells. Oct-4 is a marker for undifferentiated ES cells. We wondered if Oct-4 might be a key player for choosing between polyploidy and apoptosis of ES cells under the stress. To address this question, Oct-4 tetracycline conditional knockout cell line ZHBtc4, received from Dr Austin Smith, was used. To evaluate whether Oct-4 was essential for stress-induced apoptosis of murine ES cells, we used three methods to induce stress: etoposide treatment, heat shock and UV exposure. Four treatment groups were studied, A: Oct-4 knock down ZHBtc4; B: Control ZHBtc4; C: Tetracycline treated CGR8 cell line; D: Control CGR8. CGR8 is the wild type parental cell line for ZHBtc4. These latter two groups were added to eliminate potential effects of tetracycline. After knockdown of Oct-4 for 24 hours, we induced apoptosis by etoposide, heat shock or UV exposure. Apoptosis for Oct-4 knocked down ES cells was significantly increased in response to all stress situations. This suggests that Oct-4 is important for modulating stress-induced apoptosis of ES cells. In order to address potential mechanisms for these effects, we focused on one member of the IAP family—Survivin. Survivin is a well known anti-apoptosis protein. In addition, Oct-4 and survivin are both specifically expressed in embryonic tissue, germ line and tumor tissues (such as breast, pancreatic and colon cancer), but not in other tissues or at low levels in these cells. We hypothesized that the mechanism of Oct-4 related anti-apoptosis may be mediated through Survivin. Towards this possibility, we transfected the Survivin promoter into ES cells after knockdown of Oct-4. Promoter activity of the group with knocked down Oct-4 expression was dramatically decreased, indicating that Oct-4 mediated anti-apoptosis may act through Survivin. Western blots showed that Oct-4 knocked down ES cells had decreased Survivin protein expression. STAT3 is a well known transcription factor. Studies have shown that LIF-induced STAT3 is responsible for ES cell survival. Also, it was reported that STAT3 regulated survivin in breast cancer. We tested whether Oct-4 regulated Survivin through STAT3. Western Blot analysis showed that down regulated Oct-4 induced decreased phosphorylation of STAT3 and expression of total STAT3 protein. This suggests that Oct-4 is essential for anti-apoptosis of ES cells in response to stress, and this effect may be mediated through the STAT3/Survivin pathway.


[1] We present a 2.14-Myr astronomically tuned relative geomagnetic paleointensity record from the western Philippine Sea. Pseudosingle-domain titanomagnetite is the only magnetic mineral identified and variations in titanomagnetite concentration fall well within the accepted limits for relative paleointensity variations. No significant temporally persistent periodicities are observed in wavelet analyses of the paleointensity time series or in the rock magnetic parameters used for relative paleointensity normalization. This suggests that our paleointensity record is largely free of rock magnetic or lithological artefacts and that it represents a reliable record of geomagnetic behavior with no evidence for modulation of the field at Earth orbital periods. The paleointensity record is highly coherent with the Sint-800 global paleointensity stack for the last 800 kyr and with a coeval record from the West Caroline Basin. Our record confirms that it is normal for the geomagnetic field to undergo dynamic changes within polarity intervals, with relatively frequent collapses of the field to low paleointensities and concomitant deviations away from the stable field direction. We do not observe an asymmetrical sawtooth form in our paleointensity record, which might suggest that previously observed asymmetrical sawtooth paleointensities result from rock magnetic artefacts. Also, we do not observe a persistent 100-kyr inclination periodicity, in contrast to the suggestion that geomagnetic field directions are modulated by orbital eccentricity. Good agreement between our paleointensity record and the coeval West Caroline Basin record provides the beginning of a detailed view of geomagnetic field behavior between 0.8 and 2.14 Ma.


To extract viscous bitumen from oil sands reservoirs, steam is injected into the formation to lower the bitumen's viscosity enabling sufficient mobility for its production to the surface. Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is the preferred process for Athabasca oil sands reservoirs but its performance suffers in heterogeneous reservoirs leading to an elevated steam-to-oil ratio (SOR) above that which would be observed in a clean oil sands reservoir. This implies that the SOR could be used as a signature to understand the nature of heterogeneities or other features in reservoirs. In the research reported here, the use of the SOR as a signal to provide information on the heterogeneity of the reservoir is explored. The analysis conducted on prototypical reservoirs reveals that the instantaneous SOR (iSOR) can be used to identify reservoir features. The results show that the iSOR profile exhibits specific signatures that can be used to identify when the steam chamber reaches the top of the formation, a lean zone, a top gas zone, and shale layers.


Using data on 250 Spanish firms, we examine the incidence of high-involvement practices and investigate what variables are associated with the adoption of these practices. Particularly, we analyse the influence of size, age, competitive advantage, activity sector, the existence of a recent crisis, culture, leadership style and the competitiveness of the environment on the adoption of high-involvement work practices. With all this, we try to offer an exploratory view of nature of the contexts that condition the adoption of such practices, with the aim of motivating future research more thoroughly.


The present invention relates to a 4 ply polyester filament internally adhered sewing thread which has improved roughness and wear strength by manufacturing a main yarn by 4 ply, and to a method to manufacture the same, which comprises the steps of: braiding each strand of a polyester multi-filament main yarn and winding around a first bobbin; sharing thread of four strands of the main yarn winding around the first bobbin into a thread of one strand; allowing core yarn wound around a second skein to penetrate one internal hole; allowing the main yarn and the core yarn to penetrate a combiner; providing tension to the core yarn; doubling the main yarn and the core yarn and winding around a second bobbin; winding the conjugated yarn around a third skein; winding the conjugated yarn around a third bobbin; and heating the conjugated yarn.


In this paper, a compact scheme with three time levels is proposed to solve the partial integro-differential equation that governs the option prices in jump-diffusion models. In the proposed compact scheme, the second derivative approximation of the unknowns is approximated using the value of these unknowns and their first derivative approximations, thereby allowing us to obtain a tridiagonal system of linear equations for a fully discrete problem. Moreover, the consistency and stability of the proposed compact scheme are proved. Owing to the low regularity of typical initial conditions, a smoothing operator is employed to ensure the fourth-order convergence rate. Numerical illustrations concerning the pricing of European options under the Merton's and Kou's jump-diffusion models are presented to validate the theoretical results.


Spraying of imidacloprid 0.007% was most effective treatment, closely followed with carbosulfan and thiamethoxam in the year 2000 and carbosulfan, koranda and methyl demeton in 2001 The % of curled leaves ranged from 0.26 to 0 53% during 2000 and 0.00 to 0.20% during 2001 in various treatments as compared to 69 46 and 79.53% in untreated control during first and second year, respectively at 60 days after spraying Similar trend was observed in the case of fruit yield. Maximum increase in yield (21–27 83 kg/tree) due to spraying over control (1.85–2 kg/tree) was recorded.


OBJECTIVE:To investigate the use of antibiotics in 923 inpatients in our hospital for reference of clinical rational use of antibiotics.METHODS:The use of antibiotics in 923 inpatients in our hospital from May to June in 2008 was analyzed using pharmacy software system.RESULTS:The percentage of patients receiving antibiotics was 62.8%.The percentages of antibiotics used in single kind or in two or three kinds concomitantly were 77%,47.1% and 22.1% respectively.Leading the list in respect of DDDs were cephalosporines,followed by quinolones and aminoglycosides.The irrational use of antibiotics manifested itself as frequent change in the kinds of antibiotics,too many kinds used and prolonged course of treatment.CONCLUSION:The proportion for patients receiving antibiotics in our hospital was on the high side,and the irrational use of antibiotics was quite common.


: As the key point of western development and the core area of " The Belt and Road " urbanization in Xinjiang, China has distinct regional characteristics and geographic attributes. Scientific diagnosis and identification of driving factors for green urbanization can provide empirical evidence for overall border development and security planning. According to the theory of green development and spatial structure, using entropy method, geostatistical analysis, and exploratory spatial analysis method, based on the ArcGIS spatial analysis platform, the spatial and temporal differentiation pattern of urbanization green development in 14 prefectures (cities) in Xinjiang of China in 2008 — 2018 has been studied. The mentioned conclusions have been reached: (1) Xinjiang ' s urbanization is characterized by a lack of green development, slow growth, and a lack of spatial dependence and heterogeneity. Furthermore, there is significant core-periphery differentiation between southern and northern Xinjiang, and the development of population, economy, society, and ecological urbanization is not coordinated. The localized and introverted functions of land bridges and resources are more prominent, while the geopolitical functions such as globalization and openness of ports and passages are not obvious. (2) The scale of urban population and ecological endowments are more important in the temporal and spatial differentiation of urbanization green development than economic growth, and social urbanization is lower; moreover, the economic and social functions have increased significantly, and the homogeneity and isomorphism of the temporal and spatial differentiation of urbanization are becoming stronger. (3) The GDP per capita is the core driver of the temporal and spatial differentiation of green development, and quality and efficiency are the most important driving force for the green development of Xinjiang ' s urbanization; investment scale and benefits, education, culture, and medical construction are effective ways of green development. Foreign trade, population agglomeration, and structural upgrading, on the other hand, are weak and growing slowly. The government should concentrate on developing new production capacity and new impetus for green urbanization, actively participating in global and regional economic and trade cooperation, accelerating integration into the domestic and international dual cycle, and improving infrastructure and public service guarantees.


Objective To prepare Salmonella enteritidis(SE) lipopolysaccharide(LPS) antigen and analyze its biological characteristics.Methods SE LPS antigen was extracted by hot phenol water and saturated cold phenol methods respectively and used for immunization of BALB/c mice to prepare monoclonal antibody(McAb).The LPS was determined for polysaccharide content by anthrone-sulfuric acid method,for protein content by Coomassie brilliant blue staining,for molecular structure by SDS-PAGE,for reactogenicity by Western blot,and for specificity by indirect ELISA.Results The polysaccharide and protein contents in crude extracts of LPS prepared by hot phenol water method were 3.413 mg/ml and 46 μg/ml,while those by saturated cold phenol method were 2.248 mg/ml and 31 μg/ml,respectively.The prepared LPS showed obvious ladder bands on SDS-PAGE profile.Both prepared McAbs 1D3 and 2E5 showed specific reactions with the extracted LPS.The prepared LPS showed no reactions with any monovalent or polyvalent antisera against other enteric bacteria,except polyvalent antisera against SE types A ~ F.Conclusion The LPS with high activity and purity was prepared by both hot phenol water and saturated cold phenol methods.However,saturated cold phenol method was simpler to handle,by which the extracted sample showed higher purity,specificity and reactogenicity.The method may be used for preparation of specific McAb against SE LPS antigen and immunological determination of SE.


In the process of rendering for large terrain,producing images clearly and accurately are required.This paper puts forward the reasonable solution from the organization of the real-time terrain data,drawing LOD selection standards,LOD optimization and optimization of view frustum culling.The result shows that the method can make full use of GPU draw,which can be applied to rendering for large scale terrain.


To the Editor.— Dr Jack Hirsh's discussion of the management of recurrent venous thrombosis (240:284, 1978) struck a responsive chord by stating that "it is important to establish... recurrence by a repeated phlebogram or, preferably, by leg scanning using fibrinogen labeled with iodine 125." The key word here is "preferably." It is, unequivocally, most appropriate. No other method can offer what the fibrinogen 125 I scan enables one to do, that is, to start the study prospectively. If impending deep-vein thrombosis is suspected, phlebography (either by scintiscanning or by "conventional" radiography) has little to offer, whereas fibrinogen 125 I will localize in the thrombus when and if it forms. (As a matter of fact, preoperative injection of fibrinogen 125 I is recommended in cases where postoperative deep-vein thrombosis is likely to develop, eg, pelvic operations.) It is equally important to recognize that patient cooperation with fibrinogen 125 I scanning is


Let Xi, i ∈ I, and Yj , j ∈ J , be compact convex sets whose sets of extreme points are affinely independent and let φ be an affine homeomorphism of ∏


meets the phenotypes. Neurology 1996;46:4-8. 7. Silveira I, Lopes-Cendes I, Kish S, et al. Frequency of spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, dentatorubropallidoluysian atrophy, and Machado-Joseph disease mutations in a large group of spinocerebellar ataxia patients. Neurology 1996;46:214-218. 8. Ikeda H, Yamaguchi M, Sugai S, Aze Y, Naruyima S, Kakizuka A. Expanded polyglutamine in the Machado-Joseph disease protein induces cell death in vitro and in vivo. Nat Genet 1996;13:196-202. 9. Nikali K, Suomalainen A, Terwilliger J, Koskinen T, Weissenbach J, Peltonen L. Random search for shared chromosomal regions in four affected individuals: the assignment of a new hereditary ataxia locus. Am J Hum Genet 1995;56:1088-1095.


An exact series solution for the scattering from a concaved wedge with longitudinal corrugations is formulated for TM plane wave using the radial mode-matching technique. The scattered and guided fields are represented in terms of an infinite series of radial modes with unknown coefficients. By applying the appropriate boundary conditions, the coefficients of the scattered field are obtained. The diffraction coefficient of a concaved wedge with longitudinal corrugations is subsequently derived from the scattered field.


Cancer patients experience intense symptoms such as pain, dyspnoea, fatigue, anorexia, cachexia, changes in taste and alopecia as a result of the natural course of the illness itself, or also as side effects of treatment such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy (4,5,6,7). Of these symptoms, which cause trouble for patients and their families, pain is one of the most widely seen in palliative care. It is estimated that 30-70% of cancer patients with metastatic disease and 60-95% of patients in the terminal stage suffer pain (8,9,10). Cancer pain is a complex concept which is affected by both medical and psychosocial variables and by many contributing factors such as size of the tumour, treatment/procedure, infection and vascular problems (11,12).


Increasing diversity in patterns of responsibility for the raising of children in families has presented serious challenges for welfare states. More complex family ties raise questions about the types of responsibility and obligation that should follow from different forms of private relationship, and the role the welfare state should play in governing family life. In this article, we compare how family policies in Finland, Norway and Sweden define parental responsibilities for supporting a child when its parents do not live together. We are particularly interested in whether the principle of Nordic family policy, shared parenting, operates when parents do not live together but raise their child together. Do parents have an opportunity, for example, to share family policy benefits, and if they have, what are the conditions under which this can be realised? Comparative examination shows variation between the logistics of Nordic family policies. Norwegian and Swedish family policy systems are flexible, and family policy there enables parents to share benefits in a way that supports shared residential arrangements. In Finland, however, the situation of parents living apart but sharing the daily care of their child has been given insufficient attention and family policy has still not been developed.


Medical tourism has become a catchphrase in the early years of the 21st Century for even the most unlikely of destinations. This chapter outlines the issues and practices involved in an assessment of the status of medical tourism in the emerging economies and destinations of the Asian Region. A selection of countries as case studies covers the region from the Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, South Asia (Sri Lanka), through to Cambodia, Taiwan, Myanmar, and Japan. The growth of medical tourism in the Asian region, and its various economic and social impact on abovementioned countries is under focus in this chapter. It provides a comprehensive view of how different countries should capitalize on their advantage to increase their share of regional or international medical tourism market. Both technological advances and traditional medicine have provided comparative advantage for medical tourism destinations in the Asian region.


The present invention belongs to the field of medicine technology. The Carbazochrome liquid contains Carbazochrome 0.002-0.5 wt%, antioxidant 0-10 wt%, osmotic pressure regulator 0.8-75 wt%, and injection water 20-99.1 wt%. The preparation process of the Carbazochrome liquid includes dissolving osmotic pressure regulator with partial injection water in a compounding tank; adding injection level active carbon through heating and stirring for adsorption for 30 min; filtering and decarbonizing with titanium rod and adding rest injection water to obtain the solution I; dissolving Carbazochrome and antioxidant in solution I, adding injection level active carbon for adsorption for 30 min, filtering and decarbonizing with titanium rod, regulating pH value, fine filtering, detecting, packing in bottle, disinfecting and other steps. The medicine is used in intravenous transfusion for treating various hemorrhage diseases.


The imaging is essential in vascular medicine for diagnosis and treatment. New imaging techniques since the advent of the spiral CT scan, invented by Hounsfield and Mac Cormack in 1972, brought us a revolution in whole medicine. This has been possible thanks to the development of new standards for imaging, particularly DICOM format. The aim of this paper is to explain what is DICOM and how we use it in vascular medicine. DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine standards) is an universal worldwide format used for medical imaging for all vascular investigation techniques: sonography, CT (computed tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). This format allows 3D reconstruction of the patient's anatomy and gives access to quantification of all anatomical structures of the body, in particular of the vessels. It is achieved with dedicated software called DICOM browsers. These new tools of tridimensional (3D) modeling of the vessels bring us more accurate data of vascular anatomy. They make us enter in an era of new endoscopic and surgical techniques fully based on the image data, and so open the way for simulation, training and augmented reality.


We investigate in detail a 2-level algorithm for the computation of 2-point functions of fuzzy Wilson loops in lattice gauge theory. Its performance and the optimization of its parameters are described in the context of 2+1D SU(2) gluodynamics. In realistic calculations of glueball masses, it is found that the reduction in CPU time for given error bars on the correlator at time-separation ~ 0.2 fm, where a mass-plateau sets in, varies between 1.5 and 7 for the lightest glueballs in the non-trivial symmetry channels; only for the lightest glueball is the 2-level algorithm not helpful. For the heavier states, or for larger time-separations, the gain increases as expected exponentially in mt. We present further physics applications in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions and for different gauge groups that confirm these conclusions.


On example of lithium current sources the importance of taking into account the risk of adverse consequences
of electrical products import for the environment is discussed.


Background: Missed injuries occur in 9%–65% of trauma patients. Studies have demonstrated the benefit of a trauma tertiary survey (TS) in reducing medical errors. Our trauma service implemented a TS form, and we wanted to know if the beneficial effect of a TS was maintained. Methods: Trauma patients with missed injuries were identified by the BC Trauma Registry over 3 periods. Separate chart reviews were performed to determine clinical significance of error and compliance with the TS form. Results: A significant reduction in diagnostic delay and unacceptable errors was identified before and after implementation of a TS (see Table). Implementation of a TS form did not further reduce the error rate despite a 77% compliance rate. The 2 unacceptable errors in 2007 occurred when trauma patients were admitted to a nontrauma service and a TS was not completed. Conclusion: A TS reduces clinically significant diagnostic errors. Background: Trauma patients are particularly susceptible to the development of hypothermia, which can cause increased metabolic demand, coagulation derangements and cardiac arrhyth-mias. During the resuscitation of trauma patients, temperature monitoring is imperative to prevent/treat hypothermia, potentially increasing survival. Methods: Information was collected on all adult major trauma (ISS (cid:0) 12) patients admitted to the University of Alberta Hospital from January to March 2008. Data were analyzed to determine the incidence and severity of hypothermia and how patient temperature acquisition changes throughout the emergency department evaluation. Results: Of 126 patients, 78 met inclusion criteria. About 50% of these patients had only 1 or 2 temperatures recorded during resuscitation, and 6% had none. Of the patients who had temperatures monitored, most were nor-mothermic (61/70), and 9 were mildly hypothermic at presenta-tion. In each of these 2 groups, 2 patients had temperature decreases during resuscitation. Subgroup analysis of hypothermic patients was attempted to determine when the temperature decreases occurred. However, this analysis was incomplete because of the lack of temperature monitoring. Conclusion: Consecutive temperature monitoring of major trauma patients at the University of Alberta hospital occurs infrequently. Owing to the lack of data available, it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding how patient temperature changes during emergency department evaluation. In light of the infrequent monitoring, new Foley catheters with temperature probes are being phased in to use for trauma patients. With additional data, future analysis will determine when temperature changes occur and how they correlate to patient outcomes. Background: to 20% of trauma patients unit from their injuries. End-of-life decision-making is a variable process that involves prognosis, predicted functional outcomes, personal beliefs, institutional resources, societal norms and clinician experience. The purpose of this study was to better understand end-of-life processes following injury by comparing clinician viewpoints from various countries and cul-tures. Methods: A qualitative, physician-based, 38-question international survey was used to characterize the effects of medical, religious, social and system factors on end-of-life care following trauma. Results: A total of 419 clinicians from the United States (49%), Canada (19%), South Africa (11%), Europe (9%), Background: Trauma is a leading cause of morbidity, potential of life lost and health care expenditure in Canada and around the world. Trauma systems have been established across North America to provide comprehensive injury care and to lead injury control efforts. This study describes the current status of trauma systems in Canada and examines Canadians' access to acute, multidisciplinary trauma care. Methods: A national survey was used to identify the locations and capabilities of trauma centres across Canada and to identify the catchment populations they serve. Geographic information science methods were used to map the locations of level 1 and level 2 trauma centres, and to define 1-hour road travel times around each trauma centre. Data from the 2006 Canadian census were used to estimate populations and Background: More than 90% of injury-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Injury surveillance is rare in LMIC; thus, little is known about its causes, the spatial context or the populations at risk. Two traditional barriers to data collection and analysis are access to software and availability of trained personnel. With free and easy-to-use Web 2.0 technol -ogies, there is the potential to develop injury surveillance systems that can be managed by existing staff in low-resource settings. Methods: A pilot study was conducted in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2008 to assess the feasibility of using Web 2.0 tools for injury surveillance. Epidemiological data were collected at a major hospital's trauma unit. Free and simple Web 2.0 tools were used for all aspects of the study, including Google Spreadsheet for data entry and management and Google Earth for basic spatial analysis and visualization. Results: Google Spreadsheet was useful for managing the collected data, particularly because it allows for multiple people to refine, edit and access the data set from any Web-enabled computer at anytime. Free online geocoding tools proved to be easy to use and reasonably accurate. Google Earth was useful for developing a basic geospatial analysis system for Cape Town. Conclusion: The findings of the study suggest that Web 2.0 can facilitate streamlined data collection, management and visual analysis. This presents the possibility for hospitals with constrained resources to engage in injury surveillance. Overall, this exploratory study presents a step toward the development of injury surveillance systems that are appropriate for low-resource settings. Background: Injury is a major public health issue, responsible for 5 million deaths each year worldwide, equivalent to the total mortality caused by HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. The World Health Organization estimates that of the total worldwide deaths due to injury, more than 90% occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Despite the burden of injury sustained by LMIC, there are few, if any, continuing injury surveillance systems designed to collect and analyze injury data. Methods: We developed a hospital-based trauma registry form, known as the Cape Town Trauma Registry (CTTR). A data capture pilot study at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town was conducted for the month of October 2008 to demonstrate the utility and feasibility of systematic data collection and analysis and to explore challenges of implementing a trauma registry in a low-resource environment. Results: Information collected during the pilot study included patient demographic details, spatial and temporal information, injury mechanism and type, patient vital signs, diagnostic and treatment information and patient outcome. A high rate of data capture was possible for most of the fields, although data capture rates for a small number was poor. Locations where injuries were sustained were aggregated to postal code areas to provide a simple visualization of areas with a high number of incidents. The cartographic evidence clearly pointed to the need for geographic ally specific intervention. Conclusion: Evidence-based injury control, established by rigorous data collection, is urgently needed in LMIC. The CTTR, a trauma unit–based injury database, is a feasible strategy to describe the distribution and consequences of injury in a high-trauma volume, low-resource environment. triage; no standard. The Kampala Trauma Score (KTS) a simplified score created for use in under-resourced areas. It accu-rately predicts death and hospitalization at 2 weeks in both low-and high-income countries. There are no studies looking at the KTS as a triage tool in resource-rich environments; however, one it was not useful for triage in Uganda. We sought to determine if the KTS could be a useful triage tool in North America. Methods: Patients older than 16 with ISS scores of 16– from blunt trauma at a Canadian urban centre from November 2005 to July 2008 were identified using a prospective database. Outcomes measured were mortality and hospitalization status at 2 weeks. The sensitivities and specificities of the KTS were calculated for all cutoff values using a receiveroperator curve analysis. Results: A KTS cutoff of 13 was associated with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 58% for predicting mortality. For hospitalization status, the KTS had a 69% sensitivity and 74% specificity. Higher cutoff values resulted in unacceptably low specificities, whereas lower cutoffs were associated with unacceptably low sensitivities. The KTS is not an effective triage tool for North American. It is, however, a useful, simple method for gathering data for quality control and injury prevention efforts in under-resourced areas. head scores 3 and greater were included. Patients with lower extremity or spine fractures were excluded. Demographics, admission Glasgow Coma Scale, ISS and AIS scores, type of intracranial hemorrhage, details on timing and modality of thromboprophylaxis, and proven VTE were gathered. We assessed possible predictive factors in patients with and without VTE. Results: Among the 522 patients with isolated TBI, 17 (3.3%) developed symptomatic VTE during their acute hospitalization. Higher ISS ( p = 0.005, OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02–1.12) and older age ( p = 0.017, OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00–1.05) were independent predictors of VTE. Severity of the head injury (AIS head), type of intracranial bleed and admission GCS were not predictive. Thromboprophylaxis use was similar in both groups: most patients were prescribed throm-boembolic deterrent stockings on admission (77% in VTE group v. 92% in non-VTE group). Low-mole


Community old-age education is an effective way to realize community pension and lifelong education. The continuous innovation of "Internet +" education industry has injected new vitality into the community's old-age education. Strengthening the digitalization and informatization construction of community old-age education and promoting the long-distance education program for the elderly is a strategic choice for China to actively cope with the problem of aging society and solve the problem of education for the elderly. This paper starts from the status quo of community old-age education, and combines successful practice cases to explore the application of mobile Internet technology in community old-age education. The community old-age education model innovates the form and carrier of the old-age education. Through the network information service platform, the combination of online learning and offline experience is adopted to make the choice of learning pathways, learning content and learning forms of older learners more diversified. Is a new type of education model for the elderly. This personalized teaching program can reduce operating costs, rationally allocate resources, expand funding sources, absorb social forces, and optimize teaching methods and content.


In the upcoming 5G heterogeneous networks, leveraging multiple radio access technologies (RATs) shows to be a crucial issue in achieving RAT multiplexing gain to meet the explosive traffic demand. For always best connection (ABC), users tend to activate parallel transmission across all available RATs. However from a system-wide perspective, this might not be optimal given the context of network load, interference and diverse service requirements. To intelligently determine how to use these multi-RAT access resources concurrently, this paper proposes a joint multi-RAT user association and resource allocation strategy with triple decision and integrated context awareness of users and networks. A dynamic game based ant colony algorithm (GACA) is designed to simultaneously maximize the system utility and the fairness of resource allocation. Simulation results show that it's more reasonable to make multi-RAT association decision from a system-wide view-point than from an individual one. Compared to max-SNR based and ABC based strategies, the proposed method alleviates network congestion and optimizes resource allocation. It obtains 39%~70% performance improvement.


Realization of the concept for a high-power ribbonbeam klystron (RBK) requires a novel large-aspect ratio elliptic electron beam instead of a conventional circular electron beam. In this paper, a cold-fluid equilibrium theory of a nearly non-twisting intense elliptic chargedparticle beam is presented. The equilibrium theory is applied in designs of elliptic electron beams for highpower RBKs. Results of the design and simulation of a 20:1 elliptic electron beam for a 10 MW, 1.3 GHz International Linear Collider (ILC) RBK are discussed.


1 Copies of the booklet, Whatever happened to that Kid? are available from: Grassmere Youth Services, PO Box 125, DOVETON VIC 3177. In many of these discussions the term 'Early School Leaver' plays a major role. The term is used as though we already have a shared understanding of its meaning. It is assumed that all early school leaving is related to factors such as poverty, failure at school, lack of parental education or concern, and negative peer influences. At the same time, the legacy of the 'self-made man' remains and there are still those who consider all early school leavers to be potential 'Alan Bonds'. Despite some confusion and lack of information, early school leaving is an issue of concern. Most people would agree that young people without access to schooling do not have the same life opportunities as students who can be maintained within the educational system. Lack of education is seen to affect employment options, and access to services such as health, accommodation and further training. This lack of access is often further accentuated by the limited availability of youth services in certain geographical areas. It is against this background that Grassmere decided to support research into early school leaving in the local area. This paper, based on the booklet from this research has three main components: school based research, research results and case studies.


We study the competition and the evolution of nodes embedded in Euclidean restricted spaces. The population evolves by a branching process in which new nodes are generated when up to two new nodes are attached to the previous ones at each time unit. The competition in the population is introduced by considering the effect of overcrowding of nodes in the embedding space. The branching process is suppressed if the newborn node is closer than a distance ξ to the previous nodes. This rule may be relevant to describe a competition for resources, limiting the density of individuals and therefore the total population. This results in an exponential growth in the initial period, and, after some crossover time, approaching some limiting value. Our results show that the competition among the nodes associated with geometric restrictions can even, for certain conditions, lead the entire population to extinction.


Seismic data compression must be done with few losses, so that the useful information is accuarately retained for later processing and interpretation. This paper discusses some key factors that affect the performance of seismic data compression based on wavelet transforms, such as the distribution of wavelet transform factors, proper levels of decomposition and the effect of boundaries. Practical experiment results indicate that seismic data compression considering the distribution characteristics of their wavelet coefficients and using zero tree quantization coding satisfies the engineering demands of improved compression ratio with minimal distortion. The energy loss in the experiment was about 0.2% after compressing 10 times and the loss was mainly undesired noise. Our analysis showed that three layer wavelet decomposition can satisfy engineering demands with good processing speed. For large sections, an efficient block partition method is proposed with both good compression performance and speed. Practical experiments showed that the proposed method works well.


An environmentally friendly method for producing chlorinated isotactic polypropylene (CIPP) with chlorine percentage of 28–35, by weight is proposed, in which a reactive solvent, paraffin, is used to replace the commonly used inert solvent of carbon tetrachloride (CTC), an ozone depleting substance being phased out under the Montreal Protocol. This method utilizes the principle that paraffin can dissolve isotactic polypropylene (IPP) at about 150°C and the resulting solution can be chlorinated concurrently, forming two useful products, viz. chlorinated paraffin (CP) and CIPP, which are mutually soluble even at lower temperature, e.g., 70°C. The present method is superior to the conventional CTC solvent method because it can reduce the solvent emission dramatically, enhance the volume efficiency of reactor, and achieve a unified production of CIPP and CP under atmospheric pressure. The structure and properties of CIPP produced by two different methods are determined by differential scanning calorimetry, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, proton magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), and 13C-NMR. The results indicate that IPP chain can be homogeneously chlorinated in paraffin as in CTC solvent via a radical mechanism. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers


Solid cone spray nozzle is primarily used in chemical reaction equipments; its atomization performance directly affects the reaction efficiency. In order to optimize the structure of solid cone nozzle, an experimental study on 3 different types of spaying nozzle was conducted by using high speed camera and laser particle analyzer, then got the injection pressure, spray angle, droplet size and distribution of droplet size of each nozzle under different flow rate. Experimental results indicate that the injection pressure of each nozzle is directly proportional to the square of flow rate; the droplet size decreases with the increasing flow rate; the spray angle of spiral nozzle and solid X type nozzle is relatively larger. Comprehensive comparison, spiral nozzle has good atomization performance with low pressure, high flow rate, small and well-distributed particle size.


This invention relates to a panel display with doped-polysilicon field emission cathode array structure and its process technology, in which, the display includes a sealed vacuum cavity composed of a cathode panel, an anode panel and surrounding glasses, anode conduction strips etched on the anode panel and fluorescence powder layer on the conduction strips, a supporting wall and getter attached elements, in which, a doped polysilicon field emission cathode array structure is prepared on the cathode panel to reduce the distance between the cathode and the grating, control the working voltage of the grating and reduce the current of the control grating.


Fluorescence is the result of a three-stage process that occurs in certain molecules (generally polyaromatic hydrocarbons or heterocycles) called fluorophores or fluorescent dyes. A fluorescent probe is a fluorophore designed to localize within a specific region of a biological specimen or to respond to a specific stimulus. The process responsible for the fluorescence of fluorescent probes and other fluorophores is illustrated by the simple electronic-state diagram (Jablonski diagram) shown in Figure 1.


The common γ chain receptor family of cytokines have been associated with T cell homeostasis, development and survival. In this study, we assessed the therapeutic effects of adoptively transferred CD4 T cells and their affects on endogenous expression of such cytokines in patients with ovarian cancer. Using MUC1 peptide and IL-2 for ex vivo CD4 effector cell generation, we show that 3 monthly treatment cycles of autologous T cell restimulation and local intraperitoneal reinfusion resulted in diminished serum CA125 tumor marker levels and enhanced patient survival. One patient remains disease free, another patient experienced prolonged survival for nearly 16 months with recurrent disease and two patients expired within 3-5 months following treatment. Prolonged survivors showed lower levels of systemic memory (CD8+CD45RO+)/naïve (CD8+CD45RA+) CD8 T cell ratios when compared to that of short-term survivors. Such subpopulations among prolonged survivors were predominantly FoxP3-NEG and at relatively greater levels when compared to that of corresponding pre-treatment conditions. Lastly, peptide-restimulated PBMCs from these patients showed variable gene expression levels of pre- and post-treatment IL-15, IL-21 and IL-9 that were further associated with prolonged and/or disease-free survival. This suggests that CD4 cell transfer may induce levels of endogenous cytokines associated with CD8 survival and/or homeostasis that may contribute to enhanced CD4 therapeutic potentials


The large IPv6 address space enables the study on network addresses in a network environment, which ensures the construction of a secured and trusted China Next Generation Internet (CNGI), it is a tested for Next Generation Internet (NGI) applications. This paper describes two of the major transition technology and discusses their applicability and uses. The intra-site automatic tunnel addressing protocol (ISATAP) connects IPv6 hosts/routers over IPv4 networks. The 6to4 tunnel addressing Protocol connects IPv4 hosts/routers over IPv6 networks. With a useful set of these tools in place, IPv6 could be deployed at a much greater speed and with ever-greater confidence for us.


ii – DECLARATION – I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any university for a degree. Date iii – Acknowledgements – First of all I have to thank my mother for always supporting my choices, her guidance and unconditional love. I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr Jan Van Vuuren, for his guidance, insight, motivation and believing in me. I am also very fortunate to have good friends who often motivated me and helped me financially. I am very grateful to Prof André Weideman at the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Stellenbosch for acting as my internal examiner and Prof Michael Henning at the University of Natal and Prof Kieka Mynhardt at the University of South Africa for acting as my external examiners. This thesis would not have been possible if it was not for the Applied Mathematics Department at the University of Stellenbosch for allowing me the use of their computing facilities. I would like to thank Prof Prieur du Plessis for making this research project possible by taking care of administrative & financial issues and Mrs Hester Uys for administrating the binding of this thesis. iv – ABSTRACT – The notion of a classical graph theoretic Ramsey number is generalized by assuming that both the original graph whose edges are arbitrarily bicoloured and the monochromatic subgraphs to be forced are complete, balanced, multipartite graphs, instead of complete graphs as in the standard definition. Some small multipartite Ramsey numbers are found, while upper-and lower bounds are established for others. Analytic arguments as well as computer searches are used. – OPSOMMING – Die klassieke grafiek-teoretiese definisie van 'n Ramsey getal word veralgemeen deur te aanvaar dat beide die oorspronklike grafiek, waarvan die lyne willekeurig met twee kleure gekleur word en die gesogte subgrafieke almal volledige, gebalanseerde, veelledige grafieke is, anders as in die standaard definisie. Klein veelledige Ramsey getalle word gevind, terwyl bo-en ondergrense vir ander daargestel word. Analitiese argumente en rekenaar-soektogte word gebruik.


PURPOSE: To provide a new gene useful for producing a polypeptide product in the host/vector system of yeasts. CONSTITUTION: The gene is a gene encoding genetic information for producing an alcohol oxidase, its sub-unit, an equivalent of the gene or the sub-unit of the equivalent, for example, a nucleotide sequence of the formula. The exemplified sequence is obtained from a plasmid pPG4.8 in Escherichia coli host LE 392-pPG4.8 (NRRL B-15869). COPYRIGHT: (C)1994,JPO


The 21st century will be "Quality Century". Quality authentication in terms of ISO will be adopted in tertiary industry in more and more counties all over the world. In order for China's education to attain advanced world standard at an early date, and to meet the needs of a great demands for personnel in economic and social development we should conduct propaganda, enforce the international standard of ISO 9001:2000, and establish a scientific, effective system of educational service quality and a supporting system of educational quality control in terms of ISO.


Summary Cell sap must be passed through Sephadex G-25 and then dialyzed to remove all of the amino acids. The cell-free system for protein synthesis has an optimal amino acid requirement which is approximately the same level as that observed in normal cell sap and the absence or excess of amino acids can markedly inhibit the rate of protein synthesis in the ribosomal-dependent system. In the nonribosomal system, the incorporation rate as well as the amino acid requirement are low.


Somongari Village, located in Purworejo District, Central Java Province, is well-known as a producer of durian and mangosteen fruits. The income of Somongari Villagers depends on this commodity, however because of durian and mangosteen can only be harvested during a specific season, the villager plans to build vegetable houses for their daily needs. Based on the data obtained through Forum Group Discussion (FGD) with representatives of the villager and farmer group, the villager had not used organic fertilizers and pesticides. The practicality and fast yield of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides are the reasons villagers use them more. In contrast, the application of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides can hurt the environment and human health. Therefore, education was carried out for the Somongari villagers to increase the knowledge and awareness of environmental sustainability and health, primarily due to inorganic fertilizer and pesticide impact. The method used in this event was include preparation (coordination and problem identification through FGD), implementation (delivery of material), evaluation, and follow-up plans. After this activity, public knowledge of the impact of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides has increased. It can be seen from the pretest and post-test scores, respectively, before and after the material's presentation. In addition, the success of this program can also be seen from the awareness of the villager to make follow-up plans related to the production of organic fertilizers and pesticides.


The Business and Economic Research Center (BERC), Middle Tennessee State University, under the sponsorship of Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, has produced this assessment of the organization's contribution to the regional economy.


In this paper we study the connections between cyclic presentations of groups and cyclic branched coverings of (1;1)- knots. In particular, we prove that every n-fold strongly-cyclic branched covering of a (1;1)-knot admits a cyclic presentation for the fundamental group encoded by a Heegaard diagram of genus n.


Today, over 50% of the global population lives near water. Due to population growth, ongoing economic development, and extreme weather events, urban areas are growing more susceptible to flood risks, and the costs of inaction of failing to manage flood risks are high. Research into the benefits of pluvial flood-risk management is needed to spread awareness and motivate investments in pluvial flood-risk reduction. So far, such research is lacking. This research therefore assesses pluvial flood damage from a single 60mm/1-hour rainfall event in the cities of Rotterdam and Leicester using 3Di flood modelling and the flood damage estimation tool (waterschadeschatter; WSS). The results demonstrate that potential pluvial flood damages exceed €10 million in each city. From this research, inhabitants and authorities of Leicester and Rotterdam can learn that preparing for upcoming pluvial floods can save millions of euros resulting from future damages. The application of these tools also makes clear that data availability is a highly relevant bottleneck to the pluvial flood damage assessment process. By addressing data shortages, flood damage estimates can be strengthened, which improves decision support and enhances the chance actions are taken in reducing pluvial flood risks.


Real-world implementations of semantic services that could enable seamless integration of heterogeneous systems on the fly are deficient. This could be attributed to the complexity of heavy-weight semantic technologies, which mostly have a steep learning curve. As a consequence, the evolvement of modern approaches that purport to simplify the engineering of such services is a necessity. In this short paper, we present a work-in-progress model-driven approach that seeks to simplify and speed up the process of engineering RESTful semantic services. The suggested approach promotes automatic transformation of platform independent service models to partial service implementation and semantic descriptions to realize functional RESTful semantic services. The proposed solution is demonstrated and evaluated through a simple use-case scenario.


Assessment of food insecurity is important to establish validity in development of measures. The construct & criterion –related validity was assess ed based on measurements, concepts & methods & items for Radimer/Cornell measures of hunger and food insecurity. This study aims to validate food security measurement tool using the 2003 Food Consumption Survey Data. A total of 786 enumeration areas were covered with a total of 3,568 0-10 year–old children. Data on household demographics, nutritional status and household food security were collected. Food insecurity was assessed using the 10 items adapted from Radimer/Cornell measures. Cronbach's alpha was employed to measure internal consistency, confirming the validity of this measure and criterion-related validity was used using nutrient intake. Cronbach's Alpha shows that the measuring tool shows internal consistency. Likewise, criterion-related validity was shown using the nutrient adequacy of households and nutrition status of children variables. The Radimer/Cornel measure was found to be consistent and valid based on the criterion -related validity and internal consistency tests. A good method of screening for efficient items is to run an exploratory factor analysis on all the items to weed out those variables that failed to show high correlation.


The purpose of this study is to determine and explain whether there is an influence between the variables of communication, work discipline and work environment on the performance of UD Tenun Ikat Kodok Ngorek employees. Several factors including communication, work discipline and work environment at UD Kodok Ngorek have an influence on employee performance using the sampling method with a saturated sampling approach. The data analysis technique is using the instrument test of validity and reliability, multiple linear test, classical assumption test, t test and F test of the coefficient of determination (R2). The number of samples is 30 employees. The results obtained include a partially significant effect of communication on work performance with the value of Sig. 0.000 < 0.05. The partial effect of work discipline on employee performance has a value of Sig. 0.037 <0.05 which means that it has a significant effect then the influence of the work environment on employee performance partially also has a significant effect on the value of Sig. 0.002 < 0.05. The simultaneous influence of the variables of communication, work discipline and work environment on employee performance has a Sig value result. 0.000 <0.05 indicates that communication, work discipline, and work environment have a positive influence in improving employee performance at UD Tenun Ikat Kodok Ngorek.


It is shown how Schrenk's empirical method of estimating the lift distribution over straight wings can be adapted to swept wings by replacing the elliptical distribution by a new "ideal" distribution which varies with sweep.The application of the method is discussed in detail and several comparisons are made to show the agreement of the proposed method with more rigorous ones. It is shown how first-order compressibility corrections applicable to subcritical speeds may be included in this method.


We classify all possible four-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric UV-complete gauge theories composed of semi-simple gauge groups and hypermultiplets. We also give appropriate references for all theories with known Seiberg-Witten solutions.


This article aimed to do research on the economic empowerment of rural women using Participatory Action Research approach. PAR required performing research to define a problem or implement information as solutions to problems that have been defined. PAR is "research by, with, and for people" as opposed to "research on person." Participatory action research is participatory in the sense that it is a necessary condition that people play a key role and have relevant information about the existing social system (community) under review, and that they participate in the design and implementation of the action plan based on the findings of the research. This research was preceded in the search for problems faced by women in Jatisari Village, Lampung Province. The solutions obtained were in the form of providing knowledge, entrepreneurial skills, and examples of how to produce innovative products by utilizing the natural resources around them. Empowerment activities include three stages, namely: (1) Providing counseling about the possible benefits of natural resources in the environment as products for women's needs by providing examples of the use of plants that are easy to obtain and grow, for example aloe vera which is easily found in the yard to produce a product; (2) Provide counseling on how to become a woman entrepreneur and analyze household products with high demand for daily needs (eg liquid dish soap); and (3) Demonstrating how to use aloe vera as a component in the manufacture of liquid dish soap.


A capillary and venous phase blush in the region of the distal branches of the internal pudendal artery that simulates bleeding can sometimes be seen on arteriograms of male patients who are not bleeding. We describe five such cases. Correct identification of this pooling of contrast material is important to avoid unnecessary treatment by transcatheter embolization or by infusion of vasoactive drugs.


The aim of the special issue is to contribute to the debate on collaborative innovation. To achieve this, we have selected nine papers that look into particular issues that will enable further development of knowledge in this area. The criteria we set for this special issue was to look for papers that clearly focus on the needs of industry and provide robust theoretical foundations integrated with empirical studies. We believe that the articles included in this issue reflect this criteria well.


This study will model the satisfaction of health conditions in Java on 2014 using Multilevel Structural Equation Model (SEM) with Gifi transformed variables. Multilevel SEM chosen in order to see the effects of healthcare facilities to the satisfaction of health conditions. Two data sources are used: Health Indicators of Happiness Level Measurement Survey held by Statistics Indonesia in 2014, to explain individual level; and health facilities in 2014 based on records of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, to explain the provincial level. Gifi system chosen in order to handle data transformation. The results obtained Gifi transformed variables showed improved performance on SEM, especially on the efficiency of the time needed for computation. It helps to reduce the complexity in Multilevel SEM. Through the result of Multilevel SEM, it can be seen that the satisfaction of health conditions is also influenced by the health facilities that received, in addition to what is perceived by the respondents. Satisfaction of health conditions at the individual level is determined by healthcare behavior (1,000), and at the provincial level is determined by the health facilities (1,024).


The previously assumed "inert" organics measured by respirometric method has been reported to be hydrolysable under long sludge retention time (SRT) configuration such as membrane bioreactor(MBR). The sludge production under long SRT has also shown to be lower than the standard activated sludge model (ASM) prediction. The hydrolysis of "inert" organics can provide the extra carbon source for denitrification. The current modeling approach has not yet included this aspect. In this study, a modified ASM3 was developed to account for the hydrolysis of "inert" organics and subsequent effect on the denitrification process under long SRT.


Pasteuria thornei, a novel biological seed treatment for root lesion nematode control in soybean and maize The Pasteuria genus comprises gram-positive bacteria that are obligate parasites of arthropods and nematodes. Species of this genus are ubiquitous, being present in both aquatic and terrestrial environments all around the world. Pasteuria was first described as a genus at the end of the 19th century and has undergone considerable reclassification regarding its member species. Starting in the 1980s, a more meticulous classification effort regarding the identification of Pasteuria spp., and its parasitic habits began. These studies were strongly motivated by the ability of individuals of this genus to parasitize phytopathogenic nematodes of several plant species. Each species of the genus Pasteuria establishes a strict parasitic relationship with a specific genus of phytonematode. As an example of this interaction, Pasteuria thornei is a parasite restricted to the genus Pratylenchus, which comprises the nematodes popularly known as root-lesion-nematodes, a pest of several agronomically important crops. Considering the current relevance of studies involving the biological control of phytonematodes, in the present work three experiments were carried out, each one containing a replicate, totaling, therefore, six experiments. Two experiments were intended to verify the efficacy of P. thornei as a biological control agent (BCA) of Pratylenchus brachyurus in soybean. The remaining four experiments had a similar objective in the scope of the Pratylenchus zeae maize pathosystem. Two experiments were carried out to verify the efficacy of P. thornei as a biological control agent for P. zeae in maize, and afterwards, two additional experiments were performed in order to verify the capacity of the BCA to reduce productivity losses in corn plants due to the parasitism of this nematode. For the soybean experiments, the following treatments were added to the seeds of the cultivar SYN1080: three different concentrations of P.thornei endospores per seed (5x10, 10 e 1,5x10), a commercial control group for comparison containing abamectin (0.58mg/seed) and a mixed treatment containing abamectin (0.58 mg / seed) and 10 P. thornei endospores. Untreated seeds were used as a control group. The treatments were sown in 500 cm3 plastic cups containing soil inoculated with 1000 nematodes (experiment 1) and 600 nematodes (experiment 2). Fresh root mass and nematodes extracted from the roots of each plant were used as parameters of evaluation, taking place 60 and 90 days after inoculation (DAI). Only the treatment with the highest concentration of P. thornei (1.5x10) reduced the final population of nematodes significantly, reaching 30-50% of reduction compared to the untreated seeds. However, treatments containing the commercial control abamectin were superior in reducing the final population of nematodes in all experiments evaluated. Regarding the maize efficacy experiments, CELERON hybrid seeds were treated as described: four concentrations of P. thornei endospores per seed (5x10, 10, 1,5x10, 2x10), a commercial control group for comparison containing abamectin (0.58 mg / seed) and a mixed treatment containing abamectin (0.58 mg / seed) and 10 P. thornei endospores. Untreated seeds were used as a control group. The treated maize seeds were planted in 500 cm3 plastic cups containing soil inoculated with 4000 and 1000 individuals for the efficacy experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Evaluations occurred at 60 and 90 DAI. For the productivity assays, the experiments 3 and 4 were carried out under a screened greenhouse, with experimental plots consisting of 9L pots filled with artificially infested soil. Seeds of the CELERON hybrid received the following treatments: abamectin (0.58mg / seed), P. thornei (10 endospores / seed) and mixed treatment containing both abamectin (0.58mg / seed) and P. thornei (10 endospores / seed). Two additional treatments containing untreated seeds served as controls, with and without the presence of Pratylenchus zeae. The evaluation measured several agronomic traits, such as dry weight of the aerial parts, fresh mass of roots at harvest and total weight of grains. In addition, the nematode population was measured in fresh roots at 45, 90 days and at the time of harvest. Efficacy trials showed that the highest concentrations of P. thornei (1.5x10 and 2x10) have


Registering terrestrial LiDAR data points faces many challenges. Limited overlap between data sets, occlusions, and data density divergence greatly affect the registration performance. In this paper, we propose a method to identify the homologous points in different LiDAR acquisitions and join small but related primitives to maximize the correspondence between two data sets. Experiments were conducted with data sets collected using a Riegl VZ-400 terrestrial laser scanner. Our method greatly reduces the matching complexity from raw point measurements to planar primitives to clusters of spatially related structure features. The automatic registration method is able to achieve satisfactory results that put sets of LiDAR point clouds into correspondence with great accuracy.


The basic operation principle of hydrodynamometer is introduced,and the equation of hydrodynamometer brake torque is deduced,and influencing factor of hydrodynamometer brake torque is summarized.


Religion is one of the most important themes in Robert Browning's poetry, and it has attracted many readers, whose goal is to re-examine the truth about the poet's attitude towards religion. The purpose of this research is to explore the poet's concept of religion and demonstrate how this is reflected in his poetry. This paper demonstrates that Browning fluctuates between faith and doubt, and yet he is clearer and more confident of his faith than his doubt. In general, Browning's faith mainly stems from his personal conviction, while his doubts spring from his surroundings in the Victorian society.


LEARNING OBJECTIVES In this chapter, you will:
 Understand the concepts of privacy and confidentiality, and be able to differentiate them Understand the nurse's legal and moral responsibilities in relation to privacy and confidentiality Understand the legal requirements of mandatory reporting Ross was admitted through emergency services with chest pain and was found to have had a myocardial infarction. He was admitted to the Cardiac Unit and placed on bed rest with cardiac monitoring. On admission, Kate, his nurse, gathered information from him about his condition and lifestyle to help plan his recovery and rehabilitation. When collecting this information, Ross told her that he was married and had three teenage sons. He added that he also had a long-term and loving relationship with Gill and together they had a daughter who was seven years old. His wife did not know about his relationship with Gill or about his daughter, and he asked Kate to promise that this would not be disclosed to her. He said, 'I know I can trust you with this information.' He was most concerned that Kate arrange for Gill and his daughter to visit as well as notify his wife what had happened to him. Kate briefly described this unusual family situation in his notes and suggested that discreet management of visitors was required as part of his nursing care. The next day, as she entered the unit, she noticed several nurses – one of them from the neighbouring renal unit – huddled around Ross's case notes. They were whispering and giggling, apparently about her notation regarding his family situation. This chapter introduces the concepts of privacy and confidentiality in relation to the management of patient information, and outlines legal requirements for reporting harmful conduct of health professionals and others. The above case demonstrates how easily private and sensitive information recorded about a patient can result in a breach of confidentiality and unprofessional conduct. Kate appropriately recorded very personal information Ross had disclosed to her because she judged that it was relevant to his care. Yet other nurses perceived this to be a source of curiosity and gossip, and in sharing this with a nurse not involved in his care, had breached Ross's confidentiality. Their conduct was therefore unprofessional and disciplinary action should have been taken (see the section on mandatory reporting below).


The structure from Motion (SfM) algorithm is an established method of shape recovery from a single video sequence. However, limitation of the method is the accuracy of the recovery due to poor texture of a recovered plane or a large scale object. We propose a technique for improving the precision of the recovery by applying the Manhattan-world constraint to the SfM algorithm, which assumes that the buildings are composed of vertical and horizontal planes. We show its effectiveness by the experiments performed in a real-life environment.


An In-Vehicle Information System Software Development Kit (IVIS SDK) enables rapid software product development. The IVIS SDK generates code into a production vehicle platform while providing user interface designers with drag and drop auto-generation support. By using an In-Vehicle Information System (IVIS) software framework, applications move from experimentation to production-ready, while compressing the development time. This lowering of development time and cost frees the system designer to study the impact of IVIS applications on safe and effective vehicle operation. During the simulation stages of a new vehicle system, experiments with a range of graphical user interfaces are now possible. By replacing a simulation cabin's standard instrumentation with LCD panels, the IVIS SDK provides wide experimentation with safety and usability. In addition, the IVIS software framework architecture is designed for the integration of real-time data into trigger conditions. These trigger conditions comprise logical combinations of data sources (such as road speed, location, engine temperature, proximity to vehicles, etc). The application designer does not care if these data values are from a simulator or actual vehicle sensors. The designer uses this data source abstraction to ensure that the important data conditions are presented to the vehicle operator at the proper point in time. Control of devices is also a fundamental part of the IVIS framework. Example devices include CD players, cellular phones, wireless modems, user feedback indicators, etc. These devices are either controlled autonomously or through user interaction. Incorporating the IVIS SDK into a simulation environment adds flexibility and speed to experimentation. The underlying software framework abstracts the vehicle and its environment. The interface designer quickly moves new techniques for user information presentation or control into simulation experiments.


ABSTRACT Jean-François Lyotard famously described the task of philosophy as "bearing witness to the differend", a differend being a conflict that cannot be equitably solved due to the lack of a rule applicable to all parties involved. Lyotard expanded the notion of differend in his later works. With the name of "the differend itself", Lyotard seeks to signal a more radical conflict: between articulate meaning and affect. This development changes the task of philosophy. In this article, bearing witness to the differend itself is conceptualized as a twofold process, consisting of a negative and a positive aspect. On the one hand, the differend itself cannot as such be written into language. On the other hand, however, philosophizing presupposes affect as its impetus. To signal this, an openness to affect and a freedom with regard to style are required, thereby showing that reason and affect are not opposed but presuppose each other.


This paper considers 2D insect wing motion in which the flow field does not change in the out-of-plane direction. When modelling complex phenomena, simpler, but not overly simple, analysis techniques become imperative. We achieve the balance of simplicity and accuracy by a technique based on the vortex. The wing is represented by its chord, described by a line in 2D. During the unsteady flapping, a time-dependent circulation pattern is developed over the wing, modelled by the distribution of discrete line vortices. The magnitudes of the bound vortices on the wing are determined by the non-penetration condition. Two vortices at the wing's leading and trailing edges are shed. The velocity is determined by the bound and wake vortices using 2D Biot–Savart law, which is also used to convect wake vortices. The entire cycle is repeated as the time progresses. While establishing a simple affordable numerical method for flapping wing analysis and highlighting its remarkable performance, the limitation of the method is delineated and recommendations made in comparison with more accurate solutions obtained by a Navier–Stokes solver. This will ensure the proper use of the method and avoid its misuse in the unsteady aerodynamics analysis.


Objective To explore the effects of mindfulness training combined with regular exercise on quality of life and the cognitive functioning of elderly nursing home residents.Methods Eighty elderly persons with cognitive impairments in a Tangshan nursing home were divided into a control group (40 cases) and a treatment group (40 cases) using a random number table.The control group only took regular exercise; the treatment group also received mindfulness training twice a week,60 min per time,for a total of 12 successive weeks.Cognitive functioning was evaluated with Loewenstein's occupational therapy cognitive assessment battery (LOTCA) ; quality of life was evaluated with a 36 item questionnaire (SF-36); mindfulness was evaluated using the mindful attention awareness scale (MAAS) and mood with a self-rated anxiety scale (SAS).The two groups were tested before treatment and after 12 weeks of treatment.Results After treatment,the scores on each item of the LOTCA and the total LOTCA,MAAS and SAS scores had improved significantly more in the treatment group than in the control group(P <0.05).Conclusion Mindfulness training can supplement the effects of regular exercise in improving the quality of life and cognition of elderly nursing home residents.

Key words:
Mindfulness training;  Exercise;  Nursing homes;  Elderly;  Cognition;  Quality of life


The present immunohistochemical study was designed to investigate the manner of the myenteric nerve regeneration and expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and its signaling receptor (Ret) in nerves after transection of the muscle coat in the rat small intestine. The enteric neurons and enteroglial cells were immunohistochemically determined using antibodies against protein gene product 9.5 and S-100 protein, respectively. The neuronal sprouts issued from the severed nerve stumps 12 h after the operation, and thereafter extended into the lesion. The proximal portions of outgrowing neuronal fibers were gradually enveloped by regenerating enteroglial cells to become thick nerve bundles. The regrowing neurons and their associated enteroglial cells developed into an irregular network in the myectomized area on postoperative day 5. The elongation of the regrowing nerves was conspicuously accelerated from postoperative day 3 in accordance with the regrowing neurons started to associate with the enteroglial cells. Under normal conditions, faint immunoreactivity for GDNF and Ret was selectively localized in the enteroglial cells and neurons within the myenteric ganglia, respectively. Following myectomy, the both immunoreactivities were significantly intensified in the nerve stumps and ganglia proximal to the lesion. The regenerating enteroglial cells closely associated with the regrowing neurons in the lesion exhibiting a dense immunoreaction to GDNF, whereas the neuronal fibers were richly supplied with reaction products of Ret in their entire course. The present findings suggest that the enteroglial cells, contacting with regrowing neurons, may promote the myenteric nerve regeneration in the rat small intestine, via the GDNF-Ret signaling system.


Axisymmetric motions of suspended spheres and dumbbells through sinusoidally corrugated capillaries are considered as an illustrative model of particulate or macromolecular transport in porous media. Numerical simulations are carried out using a least-squares singularity method, which is well suited to simulating creeping flows in the complicated, time-evolving geometries associated with particle motion through nonrectilinear pores. The numerical method is applied to a representative closure problem, whose solution yields effective transport coefficients describing particulate flow in porous media. With reference to polymer-induced mobility control in enhanced oil recovery, a hydrodynamic mechanism of mobility reduction is studied using a rigid dumbbell polymer model.


This study explores the effectiveness of language assistant (LA) training in Madrid's bilingual programs. LAs rated their preparedness and enthusiasm at the beginning of the academic year, and reported on their training and its applicability to future tasks. It was found that LAs perceived deficiencies in their training despite feelings of enthusiasm and usefulness when taking on responsibilities. LAs reported discrepancies between their training and their duties which resulted in them feeling ill-prepared. Therefore, it is recommended that bilingual programs examine the role of the LA and create a comprehensive training plan that efficiently prepares the diverse body of LAs.


Despite its long history, the Belgian web is currently not systematically archived. Without a Belgian web archive there is a significant risk that essential born digital resources for historians will be lost forever. This chapter traces the history of the web in Belgium, from the establishment of the. be domain in 1988 to the present day, situating it within the Belgian historical, political, and legal context. PROMISE, a research project, which investigates the feasibility of developing a sustainable web archiving service for Belgium, is introduced. The results of two web archive pilots are presented and the importance of research use of the future Belgian web archive is stressed.


The Atlantic Wall was a series of fortifications built by the German Army, Navy and Air Force during World War 2 to prevent the Allied landing in continental Europe. Today, these structures may serve as markers and evidence of coastal changes during the last 60 years. The study is based new investigations of German fortifications in Bretagne Nord (North Brittany) between Cancale and Brest.


This paper offers a contextually inflected discussion of the extensive investment Paul Valery makes in going beyond formal understandings of time. To this end it takes the processual work Cahiers as both a repository of insights, and a practical motor of conceptual creation for new time concepts through its very writing and production. In a speculative engagement with Valerian concepts such as phase, prolongation as well as reconfigured relations between central categorical pairings such as quality-quantity and succession-simultaneity, the paper situates Valery's writings on time with regard to their ambiguously critical attitude to a given image of philosophy as a form of verbal exercise ungrounded in empirical observation of local systems.


The media history and the relationship between media and history find in relationship between cinema and history one of their most significant areas. But: where is the deepest nature of the relationship between cinema and history? Frezza's essay develops an articulate reasoning around the most significant elements of film communication, and how, from that perspective, the relationship between cinema and history is related to the mediological identity of cinema.


Breast cancer is a type of cancer that has high incidence and mortality. Cancer therapies that exist today cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and alopecia. It encourages researchers to utilize natural sources as a treatment to minimize these side effects. Wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum) is one of the natural ingredients that has been studied to have cytotoxic activity against some cancer cells, such as MCF-7 breast cancer cells, HL60 leukemia cells and HeLa cervix cancer cells. This study aimed to find out the IC50 value of hexane, chloroform and ethanol wheatgrass extracts against T47D breast cancer cells, and identify the class of compounds contained in hexane, chloroform and ethanol wheatgrass extract. The extraction was done by maceration method using hexane, chloroform and 96% ethanol. The cytotoxic test performed by MTT assay method and the concentrasions of extracts was 1.000, 500, 250, 125, dan 62,5 µg/mL. The classes of compounds in the extract were analyzed by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) method and by using spray reagent. The results showed that the hexane, chloroform and ethanol wheatgrass extracts had IC50 values of >1,000 μg/mL; 416,87 μg/mL and >1,000 μg/mL respectively and the IC50 of doxorubicin is 85,11 μg/mL. TLC results show that hexane, chloroform, and ethanol wheatgrass extracts contains the same secondary metabolite substances that are alkaloid, terpenoid, steroid, phenolic and tannin.

Keywords: Triticum aestivum, cytotoxic, MTT assay, T47D cells.


Describes an enterprise architecture for LAN-based office applications developed for the IBM Corporation. The LAN-based office applications include Lotus Notes, E-Mail gateways to the host, a host to LAN calendar system, word processors, graphics applications, and spreadsheet applications. The focus of the article is on the architecture of this LAN-based office system over IBM's wide area networks. The connection of the LAN office over the enterprise has brought up requirements for the distribution of databases, connections to LAN office systems outside of IBM, naming standards, a company-wide LAN address book, address book synchronization, remote monitoring, and remote management.<<ETX>>


Abstract Fuzzy and probability-box (p-box) variables exit widely in aerospace engineering. To evaluate the reliability of turbine discs under the mixture of these two types of variables and guarantee safety, the critical point lies in how to deal with the fuzzy variables. In this paper, a novel method based on equivalent transformation of entropy and saddlepoint approximation (SPA) is proposed to estimate the reliability of turbine discs with the mixture of fuzzy and p-box variables. The advantage of the proposed method is that it can transform fuzzy variables whose memberships are non-normal into normal random variables through entropy invariability; meanwhile, using the SPA, the required sample size and corresponding computational cost decreases greatly. An example is used to illustrate the proposed method and a comparison is also made with the interval Monte Carlo simulation (IMCS). The results indicate that the proposed method is promising and has higher efficiency with almost the same accuracy.


Abstract Purpose: This article explores how anthropomorphized service robots shape consumer risk perceptions and risk behavior via uncanniness as a function of individual differences in banking. Methodology: An online between-subjects experiment (N = 293), set in a fictitious bank, featuring four levels of service robot anthropomorphism (low, medium, high, human), measured risk perceptions (psychological, functional, privacy, time), and risk behavior as DVs, uncanniness as mediator, technology readiness, and behavioral inhibition as moderators. Findings: Risk perceptions are the lowest for medium (vs. high) anthropomorphism and are mediated by uncanniness. Risk behavior remains unaffected by the manipulation. Technology readiness overall attenuates the main effect on time risk perception but amplifies it for high anthropomorphism, whereas high behavioral inhibition increases risk behavior under the exposure of low anthropomorphism. Implication: Banks who plan to place robots in service functions should be mostly concerned about experiential rather than behavioral consequences and are advised to use medium anthropomorphism robots since they appear to qualify as viable substitutes for human bank tellers. Value: We contribute to the service robot and anthropomorphism literature by (1) distinguishing between dimensions of risk perceptions, (2) measuring actual risk behavior, and (3) setting our study in a business and marketing relevant context: banking.


Linguistic analysis is an analysis of language study which include language form, language meaning, and language in context. Study of linguistic can learn the kind of approaches in language. For example, grammar, language and culture, like the study of cultural discourses and dialects is the domain of sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures. Language is one of human characteristics because people living with language. Indonesia is well known of one thousand islands country and as 1000 languages country. So, in Indonesia, there are many vernaculars from each ethnicity in every region of Indonesia. Javanese language has the most speakers of the existing another language speakers. As a language that has a lot of speakers, Javanese language has a lot of kinds or dialect forms as a result of the space and time process. One of the examples is Selogudig-an language which is found in Probolinggo district, especially in Selogudig village, Pajarakan sub-district, Probolinggo district. From the linguistic aspects, Selogudig-an language is a dialect of the Javanese language. To analyze this research, the researcher used descriptive qualitative research design. It is intended to describe about how Javanese language Selogudig-an dialect is formed, the phonological, lexical and accent differences of Javanese language Selogudig-an dialect.


In the present report evidence is presented for the existence of antibody activities in each of six canine immunoglobulin classes. Among nine precipitating canine antisera to hemocyanin, bovine serum albumin or rabbit thyroglobulin, antibodies were evidenced in γ2a, γ2b and 7S γ1-immunoglobulins by radioimmunoelectrophoresis. An electrophoretically fast migrating non-precipitating canine anti-BSA antibody previously reported by Patterson et al. was found to consist entirely of 7S γ1. Among 15 canine anti-A sera, isohemagglutinins were found which reacted with each of the specific anti-immunoglobulins. In one serum from a lupus dog, anti-nuclear antibody was demonstrated among γ2a-, γ2b-, 7S γ1- and γM-immunoglobulins.


In this paper, we research an E RG rule execution model in Active Databases. The E RG rule contains the control structure of the corresponding CA rule, and the rule model have advantages of supporting CA rule parallel execution and easiness of controlling behaviors of the rule sets. Based on the correctness criteria of the extended nested transaction model, we give the locking protocol, in order to guarantee that the parallel execution of nested transactions is island and atomic, and we provide a scheduling algorithm to implement the temporal relation between CA rules.


Background: Populations of the Liverpool Epidemic Strain (LES) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa undergo extensive diversification in the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung during long-term chronic infections. Methods: We analyzed sets of 40 isolates from the sputa of five CF patients, each chronically infected with a different non-LES strain of P. aeruginosa. For each sample (two per patient), diversity was assessed by characterizing nine phenotypic traits. Results: All P. aeruginosa populations were highly diverse, with the majority of phenotypic variation being due to within-sample diversity. Conclusions: Maintenance of diverse populations in the CF lung is a common feature of P. aeruginosa infections. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of European Cystic Fibrosis Society.


In Power v. State of Florida , 992 So.2d 218 (Fla. 2008), and Hall v. Brannan , 670 S.E.2d 871 (Ga. 2008), the Supreme Courts of Florida and Georgia each reaffirmed and held that the mere presence of mental illness does not provide one with an Eighth Amendment exemption for execution.

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Neural networks have been used in the development of intelligent systems that simulate pattern recognition and object identification. Coin identification by machines relies currently on the assessment of the physical parameters of a coin. An intelligent coin identification system that uses coin patterns for identification helps preventing confusion between different coins of similar physical dimensions. This paper represents algorithm for recognition of the coins of different denomination. Based on the radius of the coin, the coins of different denomination are classified.


In this work, we address the problem of having i-vectors that have been produced in different channel conditions. Traditionally, this problem has been handled training the LDA covariance matrices pooling the data of all the conditions or averaging the covariance matrices of each condition in different ways. We present a PLDA variant that we call, multi-channel SPLDA, where the speaker space distribution is common to all i-vectors and the channel space distribution depends on the type of channel where the segment has been recorded. We test our approach on the telephone part of the NIST SRE10 extended condition where we added some additive noises to the test segments. We compare results of a SPLDA model trained only with clean data, SPLDA trained with pooled noisy and clean data and our MCSPLDA model.


That work aimed at the geoprocessing application in the hidrologic analysis and environmental of the Stream Duas Aguas watershed Botucatu (SP) through the Geographical Information System Selva, seeking to the preservation, rationalization of his use and environmental recovery. The watershed presents an area of 4007.19ha and it is located among the parallel ones 22 o 43' 49" to 22 o 49' 29" of latitude S and 48 o 17' 53" to 48 o 22' 03" of longitude W Gr. The results showed that the low value of the drainage density, they facilitate the infiltration of the water in the soil, reducing the superficial drainage and the erosion risk and of the environmental degradation, as well as the low value of the form factor (0.58) aided by the circular index (0.52) it indicates that the watershed tends to be more prolonged with smaller susceptible to the occurrence of inundations more accentuated, and consequently a tendency of smaller risk of the silting of the courses of water and of the environmental degradation of the drainage net.


Drinking more than two alcoholic drinks each day in middle age is associated with a greater increase in stroke risk than traditional risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes, warns a study published in the latest edition of Stroke that followed up twins for more than 40 years.1

Researchers followed up all 11 644 same sex twins listed in the Swedish Twin Registry who were born from 1886 to …


Microwave imaging has been proposed for monitoring breast health and cancer treatment. Consistency of the images collected from volunteers over time is crucial, as this enables detecting changes in the breast for monitoring applications. In this paper, the stability of the permittivity reconstruction for left and right breasts of a healthy volunteer during successive scans and at three different time points is examined.


Bioethanol production from unbeaten pulp, beaten pulp, non-printed paper and laser printed paper by the use of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) method was carried out in the this research. The yeast used was Saccharomyces cerevisiae which was applied in various concentrations (10 5, 15%, and 20%) and incubation times (3, 4, and 5 days). Gas chromatography was used to quantity ethanol concentration and this was used to calculate ethanol yield and cellulose conversion. Carbohydrate contents of samples were relatively high (over 70%) indicating that the pulps have good potential for bioethanol production. The highest cellulose conversion (8.24%) and ethanol production (5.4%) were obtained from beaten pulp fermented at 15 % yeast concentration and incubated for 3 days. Beating treatment was assumed beneficial to increase ethanol yield, however chemical and mineral additives in paper appeared to inhibit enzymatic hydrolysis processes and ink inhibited fermentation of simple sugar.


Background: Despite the use of modern instruments in total knee arthroplasty, component malalignment remains a problem. Whether a computer-assisted implantation technique can improve the accuracy of the spatial positioning of an implant is a matter of debate. The objective of this study was to determine whether computer-assisted total knee arthroplasty is superior to the conventional surgical method with regard to the precision of implant positioning.


Single-walled conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) nanotubes containing alternative phenylene and ethynylene units were described computationally for the first time in this work. The electronic structures and adsorption properties were studied by the density-functional tight-binding method augmented with a van der Waals dispersion term. Our calculations show that the morphology of CMP influences the benzene-adsorption performance significantly. The tubes show smaller binding energies to benzene molecule than the film counterparts, consistent with the observation of low adsorption capacities of tubular materials in our experiments. Enlarging the linker or adding substituents in the node can both reduce the tube's band gap. The introduction of OH or NH2 substituents in the tube node increases the binding strength between the adsorbent and the adsorbate, which is energetically favorable to enhance the adsorption capacity. Our results are expected to provide theoretical insights into the rational design of novel CMP nanotubes with improved adsorption capacities for organics.


The three grinding methods of a conical involute gear are described and it is proved that a conical involute gear can be ground practically. Niles-Type Taper Grinding, in which a Niles-Type gear grinding machine is used, is based on the principle of generating the gear by the generating rack and is the best method to grind a gear with a small cone angle. Table Sliding Taper Grinding, which is based on the principle of Table Sliding Taper Hobbing, is useful for grinding a gear with an arbitrary cone angle. Inclining Work-Arbor Taper Grinding, which is based on the principle of Inclining Work-Arbor Taper Hobbing, is the most useful method for grinding a gear with a constant cone angle.


This paper introduces a new energy function, as a maximum a posteriori(MAP) estimate of binocular dispariry, thar can deal with both random dot stereo-gram(RDS) and natural scenes. The energy function uses phase-magnitude as features to detect only the shift for a pair of corrupted conjugate images. Also we adopted Fleet singularity that effectively detects unstable areas of image plane and thus eliminates in advance error-prone stereo matching. The multi-scale concept is applied to the multi layer architecture that can search the solutions systematically from coarse to fine details and thereby avoids drastically the local minima. Using mean field approximation, we obtained a compact representation that is suitable for fast computation. In this manner, the energy function satisfies major natural constraints and requirements for implementing parallel relaxation. As an experiment, the proposed algorithm is applied to RDS and natural stereo images. As a result we will see that it reveals good performance in terms of recognition errors, parallel implementation, and noise characteristics.


The invention relates to an accurate positioning method for a cable-stayed bridge pylon cable guide pipe, which comprises the following steps of: processing a steel inner die firstly and carrying out trial assembly on a cable guide pipe on the processed steel inner die; after the cable guide pipe reaches preset installation accuracy, calibrating the installation position of the cable guide pipe on the steel inner die and then disassembling the cable guide pipe; when a pylon cable area is constructed, lifting and fixing the steel inner die in place; and then mounting the cable guide pipe on the fixed steel inner die according to the position calibrated during trial assembly and welding and fixing the cable guide pipe. The invention converts the air positioning of a complicated cable guide pipe pylon into land factory positioning, can ensure the positioning accuracy of the cable guide pipe, simplifies the working procedure and shortens the construction period.


e22085Background: Guidelines recommend that breast cancer survivors maintain a healthy body weight as obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m2) predicts worse survival outcomes. We sought to identify patient characte...


We demonstrate an external‐cavity GaAs/GaAlAs single quantum well diode laser that produces 1.6 W of cw power with 32% overall efficiency in a spectral band of 0.02 nm. Over 0.1 W is measured in a single‐frequency, diffraction‐limited beam.


As the importance of satellite readings grows in fields as varied as meteorology, urban planning and climate change science so has the importance of satellite reading accuracy. This has in turn lead to an increased need for accurate cloud masking algorithms given the large impact that clouds have on the accuracy of these readings. At the moment there are some automatic cloud masking algorithms, including one based on Bayesian statistics. However, they all suffer from precision issues as well as issues with misclassifying normal natural phenomena such as ocean sun glint, sea ice and dust plumes as clouds. Given that these natural phenomena tend to be concentrated in certain regions, this also implies that the precision of most algorithms tends to vary from region to region.

This has led to eyes increasingly turning to machine learning and image segmentation techniques to perform cloud masking. In this presentation it will be described how and with what result these techniques can be applied to Sentinel-3 SLSTR data with the main focus being techniques that are variations of the so called fully convolutional networks (FCNs) originally proposed by Long and Shelhamer in 2015. Given that FCNs have performed well in areas such as medical imaging, facial detection, navigation systems for self-driving cars etc., there should be a large potential for them within cloud detection.

The presentation will also look into the regional variability of these machine learning techniques and whether one can improve the overall cloud masking accuracy by developing models specifically for a region. Furthermore, it will aim to demonstrate how one can, by performing simple perturbation techniques, increase the interpretability of the model predictions something that is a salient issue given the somewhat black box-like nature of many machine learning models.