This paper proposes an improved simulated annealing particle swarm optimization algorithm for particle swarm optimization, and apply it in solving the scheduling problem of permutation flow shop and no-wait flow shop. In the process of solving the problem of permutation flow shop, given that the simulated annealing algorithm has a strong local Expand the search ability, can jump out of the local optimum, the annealing strategy is embedded in the population particle update process, constitute the simulated annealing particle swarm optimization, by optimizing the population of the optimal solution, the particle swarm optimization is limited by a local optimal In the process of optimization, three kinds of neighborhood search mechanisms of exchange, insertion and reverse order are adopted. The resulting solutions are selected according to the Metropolis acceptance criterion. The improved algorithm is used to solve the mathematical model of the replacement flow shop.


This paper presents a novel CMOS 6-transistorSRAM cell for different purposes including low power embedded SRAM applications and stand-alone SRAM applications. The data is retained by the cell with the help of leakage current and positive feedback, and does not use any refresh cycle. The size of the new cell is comparable to the conventional six-transistor cell of same technology and design rules. Also, the proposed cells uses a single bit-line for both read and write purposes. The cell proposed in this paper consumes less dynamic power and has higher read stability than the standard one. In conventional sixtransistor (6T) SRAM cell, read stability is very low due to the voltage division between the access and driver transistors during read operation. In existing SRAM topologies of 8T, 9T and higher transistor count, the read static noise margin (SNM) is increased but size of the cell and power consumption increases relatively. In the proposed technique, the SRAM cell operates by charging / discharging of a single bit-line (BL) during read and write operation, resulting in reduction of dynamic power consumption to only 40% to 60% (best case / worst case) of that of a conventional 6T SRAM cell. The power consumption is further decreased if the switching operational voltage of the bit-line lies between 0.25VDD to 0.5VDD. All simulations are done using 0.18um Technology. Keywordslow power, read stable, single bit-line, SRAM, SNM, 6T Cell, acess and driver transistors.


Significant concentrations of organic carbon (OC) aerosol are observed at three oceanic surface sites (Amsterdam Island, Azores and Mace Head). Two global chemical transport models (CTMs) underpredict OC concentrations at these sites (normalised mean bias of −67% and −58%). During periods of high biological activity monthly mean concentrations are underpredicted by a factor of 5–20. At Amsterdam Island and Mace Head, observed OC correlates well (R2 = 0.61–0.77) with back‐trajectory weighted chlorophyll‐a, suggesting an oceanic OC source driven by biological activity. We use a combination of remote sensed chlorophyll‐a, back trajectories and observed OC to derive an empirical relation between chlorophyll‐a and the total oceanic OC emission flux. Using the GEOS‐chem CTM we show a global oceanic OC emission, from primary and secondary sources, of ∼8 Tg/year matches observations. This emission is comparable in magnitude to the fossil fuel OC source and increases the simulated global OC burden by 20%.


Bone is a dynamic, mineralized tissue that continuously undergoes modeling and remodeling, and possesses the intrinsic capacity for true structural and functional regeneration in response to injury. Small bone defects may heal through the body's endogenous repair process. However, in certain circumstances, large skeletal defects arising from trauma, infection, osteoporotic fractures, tumor resection, or congenital malformation overwhelm this system and may fail to reach satisfactory structural and functional regeneration. Although autologous bone grafting represents the clinical gold standard for the treatment and management of bone defects, certain cases necessitate alternative techniques due to limited supply of autogenous bone, donor site morbidity, and potential complications...


The present invention provides a method to achieve selective suspend network device, the network device coupled to a network having a specific device driver is not allowed on the host computer operating system has pause characteristics of the selective network device. A method comprising: providing a first driver and the second driver stack in the stack of the operating system kernel space; the first driver stack for the specific network equipment to establish a virtual device driver; as the second driver stack providing separate physical device driver. Wherein coupled to the network used to achieve selective suspend the individual characteristics of the device driver of the network device of the host computer selective suspend the operating system has not been disabled. By using the present invention reduces the power loss of a host computer and the network device.


As current classification systems make cross-sectional diagnosis, they do not take into account family history, longitudinal course features and dimensional approach to symptoms. This approach gives precedence to reliability over validity and it isolates psychiatric disorders from their etiologies. In fact, a spectrum model which includes physical diseases is possible. This continuity is also observed in the family history. Comorbidity of affective disorders, Carney syndrome, Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type I and II, breast and prostate cancers, carcinoid tumors, and vascular diseases may be mediated by metabolic syndrome via the interaction of genetic and environmental factors.


Measurements of the magnetic susceptibility, electrical conductivity and thermo-electric power of liquid Ag–Te and Ag–Se alloys have been extended to the whole composition range. The susceptibility data of liquid Ag–Se alloys near the stoichiometry are very similar to those of liquid Ag–Te alloys. However, the composition dependence of conductivity for liquid Ag–Se and Ag–Te systems exhibits a sharp peak and a deep minimum at the stoichiometry, respectively. The thermopower data of liquid Ag–Te and Ag–Se alloys show a p - n transition at c =0.315 and 0.360, respectively. The conductivity and thermopower of liquid Ag–Se and Ag–Te alloys near the stoichiometry were analyzed by using the equations derived from the Kubo-Greenwood formula.


Following the development of Chinese city,the construction of recreation space in waterfront is positive to people who aspire after beautiful location from the limit space.The needs and measures of the construction were discussed.Some advices to the landscape construction of waterfront were put forward.


A gamma ray therapeutic device includes an exposure arc generator 2 in which is provided a rotatable emitter 3 and a collimator library 4, a treatment couch 8 installed under the exposure arc generator, a power source 1 which is respectively connected with the exposure arc generator 2 and the rotatable emitter. The gamma ray therapeutic device has advantages in that: the device of the gamma ray therapeutic device retains a unique advantage of multi sources rotating space focusing. As a result of a reasonable arrangement of a radioactive source, the device retains the interfacial cut angle of two units of radioactive sources between 90 degree and 110 degree. The arrangement has proved in theory that complicating diseases in radiotherapy can be reduced effectively. By changing space focusing direction and selecting eligible ray incident direction, the device avoids or decreases irradiation to important organs and sensitive tissues. As a result of the adaptation of a changeable ray path (collimator) structure, the device makes treatment more precise.


We report on some results concerning the effects of cubic anisotropy and quenched uncorrelated impurities on multicomponent spin models. The analysis of the six-loop three-dimensional series provides an accurate description of the renormalization-group flow.


High frequency oscillation is a potential biomarker that can be used to locate the onset or epileptogenic regions of epilepsy. The automatic detection method of high frequency oscillation can avoid the disadvantages of time consuming and easily influenced by the subjectivity of the analyst. At present. There are many reports on the optimization of high frequency oscillation automatic detection methods, mainly focusing on how to calculate the dynamic baseline. Because most of the detection algorithms based on fileted signal, the Gibbs phenomenon in the filtering process will lead to abnormal oscillation of the signal, bring false positive judgment, and reduce the detection accuracy. Therefore, this paper proposes an optimization method for Gibbs phenomenon based on the maximum distributed peak points detection algorithm. From the published iEEG data of intracranial epilepsy from the Mayo Clinic, 300 iEEG samples were intercepted, including 193 samples containing high frequency oscillations and 107 samples without high frequency oscillations, each of which was 10 s. First, the algorithm uses the detection algorithm based on the maximum distributed peak points to determine the dynamic baseline identifying the HFOs, To detect the false positive time period, use oscillation matching, differential the signal before and after filtering, to judge the consistency of the amplitude variation trends of them by a parameter, and the consistency of the filtering artifacts caused by Gibbs phenomenon is low, and to discard it. The results show that the new algorithm improves accuracy from 87% to 91.3%. Specificity is Improved reduced from 75.7% to 88.8 %. The study reduces the probability of false positive.


A multifactorial life course perspective on change in body mass index : a longitudinal study with 65 years of follow-up


APPLICATION of y-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to the surface of the mammalian cerebral cortex rapidly and reversibly abolishes negative components of potcntjals evoked by local cortical excitation and stimulation of various afferent pathways (PURPURA, GIRADO and GRUNDFW, 1957~; IWRPUM er al., 1959). Intravcaoudy injected GAB& even in relatively high conoentrations (100 m&), produces n & k electrophysiological alterations similar to those observed following topial appliation (PURPURA, GJRADO and GRUNDFEST, 19576). nor signilicant increments in GABA concentration of brain (ROBERTS and BAXTER. 1957; E L L X ~ and VAN GBLbEN, 1958). It therefore seems that, as with one of its precursors, glutamic acid (Smwmm, BESSMAN and WAELSCH, 1950), under conditions approaching the normal state GABA cannot penetrate the intact blood brain bamer in amounts sufficient to affect the brain physiologically. In contrast. when the cerebral cortex is sprayed with ethyl chloride, not only b the blood brain bamer locally destroyed (as evidenced by penetration of E m blue dye) but under certain conditions an epileptogenic focus is also produced (MOIIIEI~. and FLORENZ, 1958). In such preparations, intravenous injection of GABA produces rapid suppression of spontaneous potentials in the epileptogenic focus (PURFWRA, GI-, SMITH and Go=, 19580,b) and effects entirely similar to those obsand following topical application. The aforementioned results suggest the possibilit). of analysing the metabolic alterations in areas of cortex made epileptogenic by local freezing of its surface. In the present study attempts have been made to correlate biochemical observations with electrophysiological and pharmacological phenomena. The results of h e initial investigation indicate that decreases in concentration of glutamic acid, glu& and glutathione were dependent on the alterations prcduad in the lesion areas but that no significant changes in GABA concentrations were observed.


We establish existence of travelling waves to the gradient system ut = uzz − ∇W(u) connecting two minima of W when u : R ×(0, ∞) −→ R N , that is, we establish existence of a pair (U, c) ∈ (C 2 (R)) N × (0, ∞), satisfying  Uxx − ∇W(U) = −c Ux U(±∞) = a ± , where a ± are local minima of the potential W ∈ C 2(R N ) with W(a ) < W(a + ) = 0 and N ≥ 1. Our method is variational and based on the mini- mization of the functional Ec(U) = R R n 1 2 |Ux| 2 + W(U) o e cx dx in the appro- priate space setup. Following Alikakos-Fusco (A-F), we introduce an artificial constraint to restore compactness and force the desired asymptotic behavior, which we later remove. We provide variational characterizations of the travel- ling wave and the speed. In particular, we show that Ec(U) = 0.


Sensors are currently available and used to monitor structural performance and loads incurred by bridges already in service. However, there has been limited research concerning the stresses that steel bridge girders endure during transport from the manufacturer to the job site and during the installation process. This paper reports the measured stresses on steel bridge girders during transportation from Lancaster, PA to Hanover, NH and during construction of the Ledyard Bridge on the New Hampshire - Vermont border. Two different monitoring system were developed for this data acquisition in a mobile environment. The first, a fiber optic strain monitoring system, utilizing Bragg grating technology. The second utilized an electrical- resistive foil strain gage network, in conjunction with wireless telemetry equipment. Together, these two systems formed a smart structure system for monitoring bridge girders while confirming the accuracy of data gathered through redundancy. Result conclusively demonstrated for the first time, that stresses in beams during transportation are significant and approach the factor of safety margin in girder design.


A summary about the DLR, German Aerospace Center, results from the fourth AIAA
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Drag Prediction Workshop (DPW) is presented.
Compared to the investigations in the previous three workshops the latest workshop had a
stronger focus on drag and trim drag predictions as well as pitching moment calculations.
Therefore the new Common Research Model (CRM) developed by NASA's Subsonic Fixed
Wing Aerodynamics Technical Working Group is applied. It represents a state of the art
transonic transport aircraft configuration and in contrast to the configurations previously
used it includes a horizontal tail plane (HTP) with three different tail settings.


The invention discloses a device and a method for adjusting the data transmission rate. The device comprises a drive module and a control module, wherein the drive module performs preset calculation according to a transmission rate request, so as to generate a divisor value; the control module makes a reference frequency divided by the divisor value, so as to generate a first transmission rate, then a data receiving end can receive data transmitted by a data transmitting end with the first transmission rate through the drive module; and the drive module monitors the transmission error rate ofthe received date, automatically adjusts the divisor value if the transmission error rate exceeds a default value so as to generate a second transmission rate, and provides the second transmission rate to the data receiving end instead of the first transmission rate. Therefore, the data transmission rate can be adjusted by the device so as to guarantee that the data transmitting end and the data receiving end transmit and receive data with the same transmission rate, consequently data transmission is guaranteed to be correct and the data transmission error rate is reduced.


With the advance of education informationization and higher education reform,the institutions of educational technology in colleges and universities are faced with new orientation of functions.Taking the construction and development of modern educational technology center in Nantong University as the example,this essay summarizes that the institutions of modern educational technology in colleges and universities should be the comprehensive teaching and administration agencies with five functions.They are construction,service,management,research and teaching.Among these functions,construction and service are the basis just like the body;teaching and research are the impetus just like the two wings;management is the traction just like the brain.These five functions are Interrelated and in the balanced development.They are unified and each one can not be neglected.


This study investigated the effect of cooperative and individualized learning strategies age, gender and school-location on Students' achievement in chemistry. 370 Senior Secondary, SS II students from six public secondary schools participated in this study. The study adopted the 3x2x2x2 factorial pretest posttest quasi-experimental and control design. The topic of instruction was thermochemistry on which a 35-item multiple choice chemistry achievement test, CAT instrument was developed with a cronbach alpha reliability value of 0.78 and used for data collection. Mean, ANOVA, t-test and regression were the statistical tools for data analyses. Learning strategies was found to have significant effect on students' achievement in chemistry. The treatment strategies were found to be better strategies for higher achievement in chemistry as confirmed by the Scheffe's multiple comparison ad-hoc analysis in the following trend of cooperative > Individualized > conventional learning strategies . They are therefore; recommend for adoption and implementation to school heads and science teachers in particular at the beginning on trial basis and subsequent incorporation into the system. Age, gender and school-location were individually at very close average mean margins and combined, found to have significant effect on students' achievement in chemistry. Relatively, the trend of effect was as follows; learning strategies>school-location>gender>age. However, age relatively did not significant effect. Keywords: Learning strategies, Age, Gender, School-location, and Chemistry Achievement.


DNA damage in cardiac myocytes resulting from increased oxidative stress is an important factor in the pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Although DNA repair machinery has been described in the cardiac myocyte, the regulation of oxidative DNA damage repair has been incompletely investigated. Moreover, in hyperglycemia the O‐GlcNAc post‐translational protein modification has been reported to interfere with the regular intracellular activity of metabolically relevant proteins in either an adaptive or a maladaptive manner. The enzyme 8‐oxoguanosine DNA glycosylase (OGG1) is key in DNA repair. Thus, the objective of this work was to investigate the influence of O‐GlcNAcylation of OGG1 in excessive glucose concentrations, simulating the levels observed in diabetic animals or humans. Neonatal cardiac myocytes (NCM) were isolated and cultured for 72 h in either normal glucose (NG; 5.5 mM glucose, 19.5 mM mannitol) or high glucose (HG; 25 mM glucose). The relationship between OGG1 O‐GlcNAcylation levels, enzymatic functionality and subcellular localization was analyzed. OGG1 was found to be up‐regulated and highly O‐GlcNAcylated in HG cultured NCM and was associated with increased 8‐OHdG (8‐hydroxy‐deoxyguanosine) levels, a common oxidative stress biomarker targeted by OGG1. In addition, decreased DNA quality and mitochondrial function were observed. Interestingly, OGG1 enzymatic activity in cell lysates was lower in HG compared to NG. Furthermore, in vitro experiments with recombinant OGG1 and O‐GlcNac transferase (OGT) demonstrated that O‐GlcNAcylation of OGG1 diminishes enzyme activity. We performed rescue experiments in NCM in HG by either rectifying OGG1 levels or reducing OGG1 O‐GlcNAcylation. NCM were either transduced with adenoviral particles (Adv) carrying OGG1 (Adv‐OGG1) or co‐transduced with Adv‐OGG1 and a dominant negative OGT (Adv‐dnOGT). Co‐transduced NCM showed improved OGG1 enzymatic activity compared to controls cells in spite of HG. These results were associated with lower 8‐OHdG levels. Finally, a different sub‐cellular enzyme distribution and an improvement in mitochondrial function were also detected. In conclusion, these results suggest that O‐GlcNAcylation of OGG1 could be considered a maladaptive phenomenon caused by hyperglycemia, which directly interferes with DNA repair by altering OGG1 activity and translocation, and indirectly leads to mitochondrial dysfunction.


In the post-evaluation era, colleges and universities have been trying to improve the quality of the practical teaching quality assurance system. Taking Nanjing University of Finance and Economics as an example, the advanced practical teaching quality assurance system is constructed. The authors argue that the new assurance system should extend the function of monitoring. The new system should emphasize on the guidance of auditing and evaluation system index for changing practical teaching concept, improve practical teaching system, strengthen the construction of practical teaching bases, train experienced teacher staff, and build optimized practical teaching management and evaluation system.


Shannon's formula C = 12log(1+P/N) is the emblematic expression for the information capacity of a communication channel. Hartley's name is often associated with it, owing to Hartley's rule: counting the highest possible number of distinguishable values for a given amplitude A and precision ±Δ yields a similar expression C′ = log(1+A/Δ). In the information theory community, the following "historical" statements are generally well accepted: (1) Hartley put forth his rule twenty years before Shannon; (2) Shannon's formula as a fundamental tradeoff between transmission rate, bandwidth, and signal-to-noise ratio came unexpected in 1948; (3) Hartley's rule is an imprecise relation while Shannon's formula is exact; (4) Hartley's expression is not an appropriate formula for the capacity of a communication channel. We show that all these four statements are questionable, if not wrong.


Fifteen cowpea accessions native to Botswana were evaluated for growth, productivity and forage quality over 3 growing seasons. Marked differences (P < 0.05; P < 0.01) were recorded for spread of vegetative growth past the edge of the plot (63‐137 cm), nodulation (71‐165 nodules/plant; 7.8‐14.8 g/plant DM), time to 50% flowering (45‐93 days), forage production (2.7‐ 4.3 t/ha) and seed yield (141‐691 kg/ha). Differences in nutritive value of dry matter were recorded for K (1.3‐3.2%) and Ca (0.9‐1.6%) concentrations but not for N (2.4‐3.1%) and P (0.05‐0.07%) concentrations, fibre nitrogen (0.5‐ 0.9%) and forage digestibility (65‐69%). Accessions B052C, B108 and B366 were the most promising as sources of fodder. They consistently produced high yields of good quality fodder and ample amounts of seed. The mineral concentrations and forage digestibility could support cattle requirements for medium to high levels of ruminant animal production with the exception of the P levels. The low P levels were also compounded by high Ca concentrations.


Introduction: The new technology has increased the importance of intellectual property. This new technology may be in the field of Patent, trade mark, Copyright etc. When we talk about copyright protection it comes in our mind that it is generally granted to original literary, musical, dramatic or artistic works. But the growth of new technology has given rise to new concepts like computer programs, computer database, computer layouts, various works on web, etc. So it is very necessary to know more about copyright with regard to computer programs/software, computer databases and various work in cyber space. Copyright is key issue in intellectual property rights in digital era. This paper aims to show that the work related to computer can be protected under copyright law. While discussing the issue, this paper has been divided into three parts based on various types of computer related works i.e. computer program, computer software, computer databases and works on internet. Chapter I discusses about meaning, history of databases and how it is protected under copyright. Chapter II throws light upon software and computer program and its protection under different copyright law regimes. Chapter III discusses about internet and its protection. Chapter IV contains the observation of the author and concluding remarks.


Current deep neural networks (DNNs) are overparameterized and use most of their neuronal connections during inference for each task. The human brain, however, developed specialized regions for different tasks and performs inference with a small fraction of its neuronal connections. We propose an iterative pruning strategy introducing a simple importance-score metric that deactivates unimportant connections, tackling overparameterization in DNNs and modulating the firing patterns. The aim is to find the smallest number of connections that is still capable of solving a given task with comparable accuracy, i.e. a simpler subnetwork. We achieve comparable performance for LeNet architectures on MNIST, and significantly higher parameter compression than state-of-the-art algorithms for VGG and ResNet architectures on CIFAR-10/100 and Tiny-ImageNet 2 . Our approach also performs well for the two different optimizers considered – Adam and SGD. The algorithm is not designed to minimize FLOPs when considering current hardware and software implementations, although it performs reasonably when compared to the state of the art.


bcss displays graphs examining the impact of varying the amount of prospective/retrospective baseline data collection on the number of clusters required in a cluster randomised trial with different cluster autocorrelation and intra-cluster correlation values.


A person can perceive a place from different angles with different senses. The sense of smell produces permanent information in human memory depending on certain temporal and spatial factors. Place-making can be considered alert physical and mental relationships established with space, containing habits and subjectivities. In the context of place-making practices, experiencing a part of the city via smell-walking creates a smell topography. Even if the smells are the same, the smell topographies of the users produce subjective information for the same space. Questioning the subjective contribution of smell topographies to place-making constitutes the main issue of this study. Within the scope of the study, smell walks were carried out by different participants in Kadıköy Pier and Bazaar. One of the study results is that while smell topographies are the object of the place, it is also the subject of the place-making.


Abstract : The problem considered is that of determining the inviscid, nonadiabatic flow field which results when energy loss by radiation becomes significant. The approach taken is to include the radiation term in the energy equation and solve the resulting conservation equations for the flow past a blunt body. The direct blunt-body problem is solved using an integral method of solution. The flow field is determined in an iterative manner in which the shock shape from the previous iteration is used in the current iteration. Hence, in the final analysis, no a priori information about the shock shape is required. Results have been obtained for the flow about a sphere and a hemispherecone under conditions where large energy loss from the shock layer occurs. The nonadiabatic nature of such a flow was found to significantly reduce the shock layer thickness about the body and alter the enthalpy profiles within the shock layer. As expected, the radiative heating is reduced considerably from the adiabatic value for cases where large nonadiabatic effects are present.


When reading an English article,Chinese students are usually concentrated on understanding the meaning of the words,phrases and sentences,neglecting the implications in the article beyond the sentence level. Based on the pragmatic notions of presupposition and context,the essay suggests some pragmatic strategies for the students to properly comprehend the main ideas of the arvicle and the real intention and attitude of the author.


To predict the settlement of foundations is an important issue in geotechnical engineering and one of the main concerns in design. The mechanism of particle swarm optimization (PSO) is inspired from the complex social behavior shown by the nature species. The advantage of PSO over many other optimization algorithms is its simplicity in implementation and its ability to converge to a reasonably good solution quickly. In this paper, PSO is used in an attempt to obtain accurate settlement prediction. The predicted settlements obtained by PSO are compared with those predicted by the least squares fitting method, Asaoka method and GA. The results show that PSO is a useful technique for predicting the settlement of foundations.


Numbers of silicon (Si) sources have been reported in terms of their effec-tiveness to improve rice growth and yield. Moreover, it is very critical to un-derstand the efficiency of different silicon sources and their levels for satis-factory plant uptake and its performances in various types of soils. In this point of view, field experiments were conducted during kharif season of 2017-18 and 2018-19 to assess the effect of different silicon sources and levels on growth parameters of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under lateritic soil of Jharkhand, India. Silica was applied at the rate of 0, 50 and 100 kg Si ha−1 through Calcium Silicate, Fly Ash and Paddy Straw. The results indicated that the growth parameters were significantly affected by the sources and levels of Silicon. Application of calcium silicate @ 150 kg Si ha-1 was found most effective followed by Paddy Straw @ 150 kg Si ha-1 followed by Fly Ash @ 150 kg Si ha-1 compared to control (RDF). The highest growth parameters were found with calcium silicate @ 150 kg Si ha-1 in combination with RDF. Accordingly different treatments could be arranged in the order T4>T10>T7>T3>T9> T6>T2>T8>T5>T1. Si application at the level 150 kg Si ha-1 along with RDF would help in the sustainable production of rice in the later-itic soil of Jharkhand.


The vector analyzing power iT/sub 11/ has been measured for the ..pi..d..-->..pp reaction at an incident pion energy of 65 MeV, using a vector polarized deuteron target. The data are compared with predictions from coupled channels, Faddeev, and perturbation theory calculations.


This paper explores the tensions between the praise of the visiting monarch and the defence of the rights and prerogatives of the towns welcoming him at the heart of early modern French ceremonial.


BACKGROUND
Altered consciousness (AC) is a common presenting problem in the Emergency Department (ED), the causes of which can be either intracranial or extracranial in origin.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the common etiologies of AC among patients in the ED of a medical teaching hospital and to build up a proper differential diagnosis.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A retrospective review of the medical records of patients who presented with AC in the ED between January and August 2004 was conducted Patient characteristics and demographic data as well as the etiologies of AC were presented in descriptive pattern.

RESULTS
There were 350 patients, of whom 67 (19.1%) were admitted, 38(10.9%) were transferred to other hospitals due to full occupancy, 35 (10%) died in the ED, and the rest (60%) were discharged and re-evaluated The mean age was 60.3 years old with 57.1% males and 42.9% females. The etiologies included neurological disorders (29.1%), endocrine/metabolic derangement (20.8%), infectious diseases and sepsis (18.8%), cardiovascular disorders (10%), psychiatric illness (8.8%), pulmonary (7.1%), and toxicological causes (5.1%).

CONCLUSION
Though neurological disorders or intracranial causes were the most common etiology of AC in the ED, they accounted for only one-third of all cases in the ED. The larger proportion of AC cases was extracranial abnormalities including adverse effects from current medications.


This study investigates whether the observed reduction in energy intensity in Nigeria between 1970 and 2014 will be sustainable, given a possible tie between energy and output and whether de-intensification or de-carbonisation will be a more sustainable approach to ensuring greener growth in Nigeria. Using time series data on real GDP, energy use, and carbon emission obtained from the Global Economic Monitor (GEM) from 1970 to 2014, results of correlation, copula, cointegration, and Granger causality as well as impulse response analyses show evidence of a weak positive tie between energy and growth for Nigeria, and that de-carbonisation is more sustainable in the short term while de-intensification is more sustainable in the longer term. This study concludes that de-carbonisation and de-intensification policies should be adopted in the short term and in the longer term, respectively, in pursuing greener growth in Nigeria.


Background: Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has become more intensive, thereby raising concerns regarding toxicities, including leucopenia. The objective was to analyse cell counts obtained as routine surveillance for adverse effects to assess the effect of intensive treatment and treatment dosage and to examine correlations to disease activity scores.


The final article in our series focusing on drama sessions for early years children explores the topic of parties and celebrations by using warm-ups, circle games, mime, physical drama and small world play.


In the quest to build a practical quantum computer, it is important to use efficient schemes for enacting the elementary quantum operations from which quantum computer programs are constructed. The opposing requirements of well-protected quantum data and fast quantum operations must be balanced to maintain the integrity of the quantum information throughout the computation. One important approach to quantum operations is to use an extra quantum system – an ancilla – to interact with the quantum data register. Ancillas can mediate interactions between separated quantum registers, and by using fresh ancillas for each quantum operation, data integrity can be preserved for longer. This review provides an overview of the basic concepts of the gate model quantum computer architecture, including the different possible forms of information encodings – from base two up to continuous variables – and a more detailed description of how the main types of ancilla-mediated quantum operations provide efficient quantum gates.


Summary The chloroform extract of leaves of Piper sarmentosum, a traditional medicinal plant, have shown promising antiangiogenic activity, IC50 45 µg/ml. Therefore, present study aimed to investigate the extract to rule out the probability of the involvement of cell death in the activity, and characterize the extract using colorimetry, gas chromatography time of the flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Different concentrations of the extract were evaluated by MTT cell-viability assay using human hepatic carcinoma cell line (HepG2) and human umbilical vascular endothelial cell line (HUVEC). Vincristine sulphate (IC50 0.016 µg/ml) was used as a positive control. The extract exhibited IC50 76.24 µg/ml for HepG2 cells and 64.43 µg/ml for HUVEC. These IC50 values were found to be higher than IC50 (45 µg/ml) of the extract for antiangiogenic activity. The extract was analyzed for total amide content using colorimetric method and to characterize two main peaks by GC-TOFMS which were found to be pellitorine and sarmentine. In HPLC analysis, the extract was found to have pellitorine (0.020 mg/g) and sarmentine (0.006 mg/g). Both of these markers exhibited 30 % antiangiogenic activity. The results of this study indicate that the extract inhibits angiogenesis without changing morphology and viability of vascular endothelial cells.


For centuries, indigenous communities from Northern Chile managed natural resources and environment on a sustainable basis. Their holistic understanding and knowledge is noteworthy, specially in regard to the northern wetlands of Chile called Bofedales. Due to pressure to get water rights for nonagricultural uses (mining, water consumption, etc.) over these wetlands, people started to drain them with the consequent loss of associated flora and wild fauna as well as reducing the power of ancestral rights of indigenous communities on natural resources (included water), putting at risk the sustainability and survival of both local populations and wetlands on which they depend. In 1992 the Water Law of 1981was changed to prohibit any groundwater exploration and exploitation of aquifers feeding these wetlands. Since 1996, the northern wetlands are thus legally protected: 303 wetlands and their 176 aquifers, covering a total surface of 3500 km 2 . Studies are going on and more wetlands are likely to be protected in the near future.


One of the challenges in the successful implementation of deep neural networks (DNN) lies on the determination of its architecture, in terms of the number of hidden layers and neurons for each hidden layer. In this research, a new approach is proposed to determine the neural networks architecture especially in the form of Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) which will later be used as a machine learning method to classify data with large number of attribute. The new approach is proposed since the previous approaches are no longer applicable as general guidelines to determine the architecture of neural networks. Thus, the proposed approach aims to determine the number of hidden layers by using principal component analysis (PCA), while the number of neurons for each hidden layer is determined by using K-Means clustering. The determined neural network architecture is utilized to classify data with large number of attribute, such as the Gas Sensor Array Drift dataset which has 128 input attributes and six output classes and the Parkinson's Disease Classification dataset which has 754 output attributes and two output classes. The results indicate that the best-performing architecture for the first dataset is the one that uses one hidden layer, with a PCA cumulative variance of 69.7%, while for the second dataset is the one that uses three hidden layers, with a PCA cumulative variance of 38.9%. Increasing the number of hidden layers does not always improve the performance of neural networks. Therefore, it is essential to determine the number of hidden layers and neurons that are appropriate to achieve good performance in neural networks. The use of PCA and K-Means clustering is expected to provide guidelines in determining neural networks architectures with good performance.


Abstract A diagnostic/prognostic sounding analysis package is presented to aid operational forecasters. First, a diagnostic sounding analysis is shown which computes standard thermodynamic parameters while including a scheme to estimate the maximum hail diameter based on the positive areas above the convective condensation level (CCL) and the level of free convection (LFC). The hail algorithm basically uses the Anthes' one-dimensional cloud model to estimate vertical motion which then is used to compute the hail diameter. A melting scheme is also presented to account for the inciting of hailstones in deep, warm wet-bulb temperature layers. Compared to the traditional Fawbush-Miller approach, the Pino-Moore hail algorithm showed improvement, significant at the 0.5% level when tested during actual hail events. A forecast-sounding algorithm based on a technique described by McGinley is used to modify the morning sounding to account for insulation. For soundings without inversions mixing is also permitted to ...


Rudi Meir, MA, CSCS; Paul Colla, BHMS; and Cynthia Milligan, BHMSSchool of Exercise Science and Sport ManagementSouthern Cross UniversityKeywords: rugby league; time and motion analysis; training.WHEN DEVELOPING A SPORT-specific training program for ateam, the strength and condition-ing coach needs a detailed knowl-edge and understanding of the de-mands placed on participantsduring competition. Observationusing time and motion analysis isa practical alternative to more so-phisticated procedures that canprovide details relating to the typeof match play activities performed,how often they are performed, andfor what period of time. In addi-tion, the frequency and ratio ofwork to rest, overall distance cov-ered, and intensity of effort—andtherefore the dominant energysystems used—can be identifiedand estimated.Rugby league football is ateam sport played over two 40-minute halves separated by a 10-minute half-time interval. A teamcomprises 13 players with teampositions broadly defined as eitherforwards (i.e., all players involvedin the scrum,


The emergence of the Kingdom of Hungary and the creation of more stable political and economic circumstances led to the development of royal seats, later fortified, near Buda (at Obuda) or in Esztergom, Szekesfehervar and Veszprem. The economic and military agenda of Hungarian kings led them to provide incentives for Western and Central-European settlers in the 12th century. The 13th century was a true economic boom for the entire Europe. Farther up north, Poland saw an increase in urbanization, similar to that in Hungary. The population in towns was not numerous, with even the largest urban centers having only several thousand inhabitants. Aside from mining settlements and several fortified towns, which had a certain degree of autonomy, the rest of the towns were unfortified and acted as mere trading posts.Keywords: Central-European settlers; Hungarian kings; Kingdom of Hungary; Szekesfehervar


The present work features the evaluation of curve fitting models for the estimation of attenuation over distance and excess path loss, on the basis of extensive measurements performed in a large-area indoor commercial topology at 2.4 GHz. The case study is the departures level of Athens International Airport, including up to three Access Points. The basic propagation mechanisms in this scenario are free space propagation with direct Line-of-Sight, reflection and multipath. Hence, a shadow fading based methodology for the calculation of excess path loss and attenuation over distance is not applicable in this case. For this purpose, an alternate method has been developed, featuring various models which have been employed and fit to the experimental data. Their fitting robustness has been compared in terms of Goodness-of-Fit metrics such as the R-Square and the Adjusted R-Square. Coefficients with 95% confidence bounds have been calculated and put to the test. The excess path loss has been estimated in relation to the distance and the logarithm of the distance. Results vary as to their precision according to the nature of each case study, in terms of propagation mechanisms, and the efficiency of each curve fitting model.


In order to study the chaos complexity degree and bandwidth of mutually coupled semiconductor lasers, numerical analysis was carried out based on their rate equations.The results indicate that the chaotic bandwidth enhances with the increase of injection coefficient,and chaos turns more complicated.The higher the current biases,the larger chaotic bandwidth turns and the more complex the chaos wave is.These results provide theoretic guidance to realize broad bandwidth complex chaos.


Multiagent systems with agent-based adjustable autonomy are ones in which agents are provided with the ability to reason about adjusting their autonomy level depending on the situation [1]. One promising approach for the design of these systems is that of Electric Elves (E-Elves) [2]: a model for agents to reason about whether to retain autonomy or fully transfer decision-making control to another entity (user or agent).


Macrosomia is one of the important causes of fetal and maternal morbidity and mortality. Data from the Aceh Health Office in 2018 showed that the incidence of macrosomia was 7.7%. In Aceh Besar district the prevalence of obese children was 2.9%. The purpose of this study was to determine the risk factors of macrosomia birth in the work area of Blang Bintang Community Health Center, Aceh Besar in 2018. This study used a quantitative method with an analytical survey approach with a case-control design and was retrospective. Population in this study consisted of all infants who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A sample of 40 infants was selected by purposive sampling. The results showed that there was a risk of pregnant mothers who suffered diabetes mellitus and a history of previous macrosomia births with the incidence of macrosomia birth. While pregnant mothers who consume junk food and parity did not have the risk of macrosomia birth.

Keywords: Macrosomia, Diabetes Mellitus, Junk food, Parity, Macrosomia history


Abstract : The composition of the equilibrium mixtures obtained on mixing known amounts of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and reduced FMN (FMNH2) were studied by spectrophotometry, fluorimetry, and E.S.R. spectrometry. The major component of the mixtures containing more than 2mM total flavin is a species absorbing at 900 millimicrons which we regard as a charge transfer complex between FMNH2 and FMN. Comparison of the spectrophotometric and E.S.R. data show a close correlation between the extinction at 570 millimicron and the concentration of free radical. When the radical concentration is plotted against total percentage of reduced flavin at constant flavin concentration, a strongly asymmetric curve is obtained, peaking at about 70% reduction. Evidence is presented that this asymmetry is due to the presence of another radical species, a complex between the semiquinone and FMNH2. The formation of the complex between semiquinone and FMNH2 is inhibited in the presence of solutes such as caffeine and urea and in various organic solvents. (Author)


an average radial extension of the thumb of 29.2 degrees and an average palmar abduction of the thumb of 65.7 degrees. On evaluation with the


For the circuit pulse frequency detection,based on the contrast between direct frequency measurement and equal-precision frequency measurement,it proposes an implementation of equal-precision frequency measurement device based on virtual instrument. This article not only analyzes the advantages of equal-precision frequency measurement,but also uses virtual instrument software development platform LabWindows / CVI to complete equal-precision frequency measurement through hardware and software design. Experimental results show that the relative error is less than that of the direct frequency measurement,and the system has better stability and higher precision.


This is a short, and in some respects idiosyncratic, book, which aims at introducing the undergraduate student with some background in the area of computers to a number of important currents in generative and postgenerative phonology, including distinctive features, rule formalisms, syllable structure, autosegmental structure and metrical structure. In each case Kaye attempts to give a sense of the theoretical heart of the matter with considerable success, I think, though many important details are, not unreasonably, left out. This is a THEMATIC introduction to current work in phonology, not the detailed one that a student aiming to be a working phonologist might need. On the whole, I quite like the book, though I found a few things to disagree with. I was rather less successful in getting a judgement from the students who served as guinea pigs in my first effort to use it as a text. In all fairness to my reader, I must admit that by and large I find Kaye's theoretical idiosyncrasies congenial, but it is easy to see how many readers of this journal (or any other) may not share those leanings. In general, Kaye emphasizes those areas of phonological research where he has himself done considerable work, and the effect of this is entirely for the good. One of the consequences is that the theory of tone is emphasized, and developed in a way that would hardly have been possible without Kaye's intimate familiarity with West African tone systems.


Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding process is a common welding process for carbon steels. During the cooling after welding, non-uniform cooling cause tensile residual stress on the surface of welded joint and, in most cases, in Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) also. The tensile residual stress is undesirable because it affects the strength and shorten the workpiece fatigue life. In order to convert the tensile residual stresses to desirable compressive residual stresses, the mechanical surface treatment like deep rolling process was used in this research. The surface residual stresses were measured by XRD machine with the sin2ψ method. For statistical analysis of significant factors used in deep rolling process, there are three factors each factor has two levels: rolling pressure, rolling speed and number of passes. Taguchi experimental design was used in conjunction with a deep rolling process to determine factors affected the surface residual stresses and surface microhardness. The results of the research showed that the most significant factors that affect the surface residual stress and surface microhardness were the number of passes, followed by the rolling pressure and the rolling speed, respectively. The maximum compressive residual stress measured at the welded joint was -521.5 MPa. The highest measured surface microhardness was 266.2 HV at the welded joint. The appropriated factors of deep rolling process for JIS SS400 MIG welding were rolling pressure 270 MPa, rolling speed 1,500 mm/min and number of passes 3 times.


In the gas-phase hydrodechlorination of chlorobenzene to benzene over Ni/SiO2, a pretreatment of the catalyst with HCl or HBr gas induced the growth of highly ordered carbon filaments from the catalyst surface. This filamentous growth was observed to occur at 553 K, i.e., at least 150 K less than that reported previously in the literature for the catalytic formation of graphitic carbon. The hydrogen halide pretreatment also resulted in an appreciable increase in the average nickel particle size and a suppression of hydrodechlorination activity. In the absence of this pretreatment the catalyst exhibited stable hydrodechlorination activity and there was no evidence of any filamentous carbon growth. Analysis of the halide-treated samples revealed the presence of potassium that was not evident in the freshly activated catalyst but was introduced as a result of a corrosive attack of the hydrogen halide gas on the microreactor unit. The source of our low-temperature ordered carbon growth must be electronic in n...


We hope you were all pleased with your first issue of Obstetric Medicine: the Medicine of Pregnancy, and that you share with us a feeling that the launch of the journal represents an important milestone in the development of our small specialty. It was fitting that the journal was launched at the 4th Scientific meeting of the International Society of Obstetric Medicine in Washington DC. It is our aim to apply for the journal to be on Medline by the time of the next Scientific meeting, which will take place in Melbourne, Australia in October 2010. The HighWire website for Obstetric Medicine is also now live… take a look at www.obmed.rsmjournals.com and bookmark it; all subscribers to the journal will have free access to the site. This is your journal and we welcome your feedback. You will find a feedback tab on the website or, if you prefer, you can email the editorial office or one of the editors directly.


The purpose of the work is to reveal the peculiarities of teaching church singing in religious schools in Podillya eparchy. The importance of church singing teaching in church schools and its influence on religious education is determined. The main principles of the church singing teaching based on the provisions by S. Myropolskyi are analyzed. The methodology of the research is to apply the source-study method, used in studying the system of church choir singing teaching on the basis of archival materials. When studying the singing characteristics of the church schools of the Podillya eparchy, the didactic method was used, making it possible to carry out a more detailed analysis of the subject's teaching programs. The scientific novelty is the publication of materials from archival funds, the systematization of research and the generalization of the main principles choir singing upbringing on the basis of studying programs of church singing in religious schools for boys (Sharhorod, Tulchyn, Tyvriv, and Pryvorotsk), as well as Kamianets-Podilsk and Tulchyn women church schools. Conclusions. The results of the study of church choir singing programs, their practical application value allow us to conclude that the level of choral performance in male and female religious educational establishments was quite high, since the college choirs should accompany worship, and graduates of these institutions should independently teach and lead school choir collectives. The basis of their repertoire was also composed of liturgical works, including paretesses. The Tulchyn Diocesan School for Girls can serve as an example of vocational training for choir singing and fruitful functioning of the choir collective.


Introduction Vau expressions can be simply defined as functions which do not evaluate their argument expressions when called, but instead provide access to a reification of the calling environment to explicitly evaluate arguments later, and are a form of statically-scoped fexpr (Shutt, 2010). Control over when and if arguments are evaluated allows vau expressions to be used to simulate any evaluation strategy. Additionally, the ability to choose not to evaluate certain arguments to inspect the syntactic structure of unevaluated arguments allows vau expressions to simulate macros at run-time and to replace many syntactic constructs that otherwise have to be built-in to a language implementation. In principle, this allows for significant simplification of the interpreter for vau expressions; compared to McCarthy's original LISP definition (McCarthy, 1960), vau's eval function removes all references to built-in functions or syntactic forms, and alters function calls to skip argument evaluation and add an implicit env


Convection in porous media is a highly active subject of research as it has very important applications in real life situations such as food processing, underground energy transport, cooling of nuclear reactors, geothermal reservoir engineering, solar power converters and oil extraction etc. Modelling these physical phenomena forms the main motivation behind the extensive research in this field and leads to the mathematical idealization of the stability of flows through the use of partial differential equations.


Socio-economic rights are the subject of much debate in South Africa and elsewhere. At first they were simply denied the status of any rights at all. Lately, there is a fair amount of recognition for them as rights. The tendency is, however, to relegate them to paper rights and invest very little effort in bringing about their actual realisation. In this thesis I inquire into the question of what a human right, properly so called, is, and then whether, in the light of that inquiry, there is a basis for the reluctance to embrace socio-economic rights. South Africa is uniquely fortunate in having a constitution that gives recognition to socio-economic rights and requiring the Human Rights Commission to monitor their implementation. But again there is a risk that the recognition of socioeconomic rights is left as a constitutional matter, and nothing or little is done for their practical implementation. Therefore I inquire into the manner in which the Human Rights Commission monitors the implementation of these rights. The inquiry into the Human Rights Commission's monitoring role is largely a question of methodology. Whether, in other words, the methods of the Commission are such as to yield reliable information on the subject. I also inquire whether the government's budgetary allocations indicate a serious approach to these rights. The budgetary allocations that are brought under the microscope relate to the seven core rights enshrined in the constitution, namely, housing, health care, food, water, social security, education, and environmental rights. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


The presented study explores the characteristics of signal processing for software radio on heterogeneous x86/GPU system architectures. Special attention is set on the question whether the use of the GPU as a signal coprocessor helps to reduce the actual load of the x86 host processor. We focus on low-cost platforms with a chipset-integrated GPU next to the application processor, since they are coming close to embedded needs. As a case-study, we evaluate a complete software defined radio being capable of standard-conform, real-timed on-air radio reception of Digital Audio Broadcasting. We present the obtained benchmark results for the compute kernels which were ported to the GPU subsystem, but also compare them to an implementation optimized solely to the x86 host processor. When outsourcing the DAB SDR kernels to the GPU coprocessor, it becomes apparent that GPU housekeeping overhead today introduces more load to the host CPU than the CPU would spent for actually computing SDR kernels by itself. This is verified by a detailed system-wide analysis, treating also all use case related aspects beside the actual signal processing kernels.


The properties of the benzodiazepines (BZ), as a group, include the ability to reduce anxiety, to antagonise eonvul sions, to sedate, to induee ataxia through muscle relaxation, and under eertain eonditions to induee amnesia. While the meehanism of action of the benzodiazepines remained un known during the last two deeades, it was not clear whether these properties were separable, or whether, at the mol eeular level, they were due to several different aetions of the BZs. Although we still eannot answer this question


Semi-variance parameters about spatial distribution of soil salinity in a typical arid area was researched with different lags,the accuracy was compared and the best lag was chose,the spatial distribution of soil salinity was researched.Mobile EM survey was operated with enough information of ECa,which could be calibrated into salinity information.A semi-variance model with different lags was fitted,and the best lag length was selected by comparing error parameters.The research result showed,15 m was the best lag length with a favorable best-fit accuracy,and the prediction of soil salinization had a good accuracy.


Although many 3D structures have been solved for proteins to date, functions of some proteins remain unknown. To predict protein functions, comparison of local structures of proteins with predefined model structures, whose functions have been elucidated, is widely performed. For the comparison, the root mean square deviation (RMSD) has been used as a conventional index. In this work, adaptive deviation was incorporated, along with Bregmann Divergence Regularized Machine, in order to detect analogous local structures with such model structures more effectively than the conventional index. key words: machine learning, Bregmann divergence, molecular structures, local structure comparison.


The hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is defined as wide spectrum neuropsychiatric alterations potentially reversible. Objectives: to know applicability of the modified West-Haven Scale (WHS), to correlate with neuropsychiatric signs in HE. Materials and methods: thirty three cases of HE were selected; the variables were: age, sex, type of hepatopathy, signs and symptoms (jaundice, fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea and headache). Neurological signs were classified with WHS. Results: pre school children (45%). Etiology, non specific hepatitis and hepatitis A virus were predominant the neurological sign was asterixis. While correlating neurological signs and WHS, the Pearson's X2 test was P=0.0006, the coefficient of determination R2 0.5382, equivalent to a correlation coefficient > 72%. While comparing WHS and mortality, it was associated to higher grades of the scale, Fisher's test P=0.495. The mortality was 71.8%. Conclusion: the WHS has adequate correlation with the neurological signs in children and grades of the scale are also related to mortality. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○


The thesis numerically explores the use and behavior of Active Hydraulic Devices (AHDs), creating a new capability to simulate and control a pipe system's transient performance.Automatic control valves are the first type of AHDs studied in this research. Due to the challenges inherent in the design of a pressure relief valve (PRV), the general principles of PRV use and selection are studied along with the system's response to the PRV parameters. A new application of PID (proportional, integral and derivative) control valve is envisioned that combines a remote sensor at the upstream end of a pipeline to create a non- or semi- reflective boundary at the downstream end. Case studies show that, with such a boundary, the reflection and resonance of pressure waves within the pipeline are sometimes eliminated and invariably limited. The second type of AHDs studied in this research is the governed hydro turbine, the most complicated hydraulic component in terms of transient analysis and waterhammer control. A complete numerical model is developed for the turbine installations in either urban water networks or conventional hydropower generation systems. Using the model, transient simulations for several realistic hydro projects are presented along with various transient control measures.


Although several new therapies may hold the potential for a breakthrough in the management of sepsis and multiple organ failure, their use in clinical practice will likely be dependent on a rigorous appraisal, not only of their effects, but also of their costs. This has important implications for the practicing intensivist, not the least of which is the need to better understand the conduct and design of economic evaluations, including their strengths and weaknesses. This article reviews the rationale behind economic evaluations of new sepsis therapies and the alternative economic approaches available, and discusses the elements contained in a cost-effectiveness analysis, the preferred approach to economic evaluation today.


This bachelor thesis deal with oral history as one of the research methods in the field of historiography, its purpose and possibilities. The aim of this thesis is to bring the oral history and virtually represent its function in a literary or pseudoliterary text through the use of Bernt Engelmann and Harald Welzera publications. The practical part focuses on the analysis of specific statements of eyewitnesses during the Second World War by the help of the two publications as well as on comparing them with the concept of the topic of today's generations. Emphasis is placed on the principles of selective memory which means affect the transmission of stories from one generation to another. The conclusion summarizes the findings about the concept of eyewitnesses telling by younger generation from the analytical part.


As the informatization level increases in China, the application of the new media in the social development and civil life also have increased. The emergence of new media provides chances for the development of advertisement design. With the spreading of advertisements, the creativity and visual presentation of the advertisements have new mode, which fully makes up for the disadvantages of traditional print media advertising. This paper described the visual dynamic design first, analyzed the design methods of the visual dynamic design in the new media advertising, studied the main points of the visual dynamic design of new media advertising and finally analyzed the application value of the visual dynamic design of new media advertising. It is hoped this study would have its reference significance. Keywords—new media; advertising creativity; visual dynamic design; visual presentation


The performance of a time‐division‐multiplexed fiber Bragg grating sensor array that uses a tunable laser source has been investigated. It was found that the wavelength detection accuracy is affected by the extinction ratio of the optical pulse modulator used for input pulse generation. Experiments with a 4‐FBG sensor array demonstrated a strain resolution of 0.7 με with an optical pulse modulator of −24‐dB extinction ratio. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 33: 435–437, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.10343


Many problems of practical importance involve ductile materials that undergo very large strains, in many cases to the point of failure. Examples include structures subjected to impact or blast loads, energy absorbing devices subjected to significant crushing, cold-forming manufacturing processes and others. One of the most fundamental pieces of data that is required in the analysis of this kind of problems is the fit of the uniaxial stress-strain curve of the material. A series of experiments where mild steel plates were punctured with a conical indenter provided a motivation to characterize the true stress-strain curve until the point of failure of this material, which displayed significant ductility. The hardening curve was obtained using a finite element model of the tensile specimens that included a geometric imperfection in the form of a small reduction in the specimen width to initiate necking. An automated procedure iteratively adjusted the true stress-strain curve fit used as input until the predicted engineering stress-strain curve matched experimental measurements. Whereas the fitting is relatively trivial prior to reaching the ultimate engineering stress, the fit of the softening part of the engineering stress-stain curve is highly dependent on the finite element parameters such as element formulation and initialmore » geometry. Results by two hexahedral elements are compared. The first is a standard, under-integrated, uniform-strain element with hourglass control. The second is a modified selectively-reduced-integration element. In addition, the effects of element size, aspect ratio and hourglass control characteristics are investigated. The effect of adaptively refining the mesh based on the aspect ratio of the deformed elements is also considered. The results of the study indicate that for the plate puncture problem, characterizing the material with the same element formulation and size as used in the plate models is beneficial. On the other hand, using different element formulations, sizes or initial aspect ratios can lead to unreliable results.« less


Plectranthus edulis (Vatke) Agnew is a tuber-bearing food crop in Ethiopia. However, its productivity is hampered by shortage of pathogen-free planting materials. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop micropropagation protocol for this plant using meristem to produce clean planting materials. Mersitems were collected from apical and axillary shoots from Holeta and Welayta areas and cultured on MS medium containing gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) (1.0 mg l -1 ), α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (0.1 mg l -1 ) in combination with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) (0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 mg l -1 ). Shoots were multiplied on MS medium containing 0.1, 0.5, or 1.0 mg l -1 of BAP or 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 mg l -1 of Kinetin alone or their combination with 0.05 or 0.1 mg l -1 NAA. In vitro and ex vitro rooting was performed using different types of auxins followed by acclimatization. The highest percentage of shoots initiated from collected mersitem at Holeta (73%) was obtained on MS medium containing 1.0 mg l -1 BAP, 1.0 mg l -1 GA 3 and 0.1 mg l -1 NAA. The highest shoot number explants -1 (7.2) was obtained on MS medium containing 1.0 mg l -1 Kinetin and 0.1 mg l -1 NAA, whereas the highest root number shoot -1 (6.2) was obtained from ex vitro . All plants derived from Holeta and 96.7% of those from the Welayta survived after acclimatization. These results provided rapid and reproducible conditions for propagation of relatively pathogen-free planting material of this plant. Keywords: In vitro propagation, meristem culture, micropropagation, Plectranthus edulis (Vatke) Agnew, shoots multiplication African Journal of Biotechnology , Vol 13(31) 3682-3688


Stud anchors represent a mature and saturated market segment characterized by tough competition and highly optimized production, in a market environment that is heavily driven by approvals and safety regulations. Internal analysis has shown the latent need in specific markets and applications for feedback to the customer during and after the setting process about the correct setting of the anchor. The exact customer demand was unclear, but a product feature setting control has the potential to increase differentiation. This latent need was picked up by the Application Driven Development group in the mechanical anchor development department. Within this thesis the "Application driven development" methodology was analyzed through comparison to a variety of other modern value oriented development approaches. The identified points where combined into a process approach that was optimized for reaching the target of the project, which was: 'Optimizing the Application Driven Development approach to develop a setting control for the Hilti stud anchors and to formulate a strategy for market introduction' To fulfill this target, the focus was on these three issues: - Establishing technical feasibility for a setting control for stud anchors, that provides: (1)A clear feedback when setting the stud anchor that it has been set correctly. (2) An 'inspectability' of the anchor after it has been set, to check if it was set correctly. - Expanding the latent need for a setting control in a clear customer demand with a clear Value Proposition for the customer. - Composing a Duty Description usable for implementation of the project in the next phase of development. By carefully managing the interaction between the technical feasibility for a setting control and expanding the market research towards a clear Value Proposition for the customer, a setting control concept and a framework for a marketing fit were found. This was done by doing several development loops from the technical feasibility side and performing several interviews with both Hilti colleagues from market organizations, as well as external customer interviews and concept tests. The concept answering to the project target is a setting control system, that is built up out of a modified stud anchor, containing a different nut with a colored surface on the top, and out of a special socket, that limits the installation torque that can be applied to the anchor and leaves a marking in the colored surface of the nut of the anchor for inspectability purposes. This report shows the literature study and analysis for the optimized process, the development process that yielded a concept, a market introduction strategy and several conclusions and recommendations regarding the process and the continuation of this project within Hilti.


Sir, I read with interest the study by Nwosu et al.[1] published in July–December 2019 issue of the Indian Journal Respiratory Care. The authors studied the role of spirometry in the diagnostic evaluation of bronchial asthma (BA) and defined the ventilatory patterns of patients with a presumptive diagnosis of BA using spirometry and the proportion of those who showed positive reversibility test (RT). They found that normal, obstructive, restrictive, and mixed ventilatory patterns were found in 43.8%, 34.8%, 11.2%, and 10.1% of participants, respectively. Moreover, RT test was positive in 53.6% of the studied cohort with a prebronchodilator obstructive pattern of 47.4% and mixed ventilatory pattern of 66.7%.[1] They concluded that spirometry is useful in confirming the diagnosis of asthma, but clinicians must be aware that normal spirometry does not exclude asthma and that follow-up spirometry might be in need to further assess asthmatic patients with normal spirometric findings.[1] Apart from a few study limitations addressed by the authors, I assume that the following methodological limitation might cast further suspicions on the study results. In the methodology, the authors mentioned that spirometry maneuver and interpretation were performed according to the Global Initiative on Chronic Lung Disease and American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society (ERS) guidelines. Ventilatory functions were accordingly classified as normal, obstructive, and restrictive patterns. The ERS reference values were employed, and a correction factor of 10% was considered to adjust for the African study population.[1] It is obvious that interpreting ventilatory patterns requires reference values obtained from healthy subjects of the same ethnic origin for that particular population. Actually, the guidelines employed by the authors were constructed for the Caucasian population. They are not suitable to be employed for the Nigerian population as applying prediction formula derived for the Caucasian population was noticed to overestimate the values for African ethnic population.[2] It is worthy to mention that spirometric standards for healthy general adult Nigerian populations have been already constructed to be employed in the researches and clinical settings.[3] I assume that employing these national standards in the study methodology could yield a more precise idea on the role of spirometry in the diagnostic assessment of BA.


The ALICE data on light flavor hadron production obtained in p − Pb collisions at sNN = 5.02 TeV are studied in the thermal model using the canonical approach with exact strangeness conservation. The chemical freeze-out temperature is independent of centrality except for the lowest multiplicity bin, with values close to 160 MeV but consistent with those obtained in Pb−Pb collisions at √ sNN = 2.76 TeV. The value of the strangeness non-equilibrium factor γs is slowly increasing with multiplicity from 0.9 to 0.96, i.e. it is always very close to full chemical equilibrium. PACS numbers: 25.75.-q, 25.75.Dw, 13.85.N


Background : Few studies have investigated the interaction between exercise order and periodized resistance training. Research Question : The purpose of this study was to examine the effects and interaction of exercise order and periodization training on maximum strength and muscle thickness (MT) after 12 weeks of resistance training. Type of study : Randomised controlled trial. Methods : The participants were randomly assigned to one of five groups. Group one (n = 11) trained using large muscle group exercises progressing toward small muscle group exercises in ondulatory periodization (LG-OP). Group two (n = 10) trained using small muscle group exercises progressing toward large muscle group exercises in ondulatory periodization (SM-OP). Group three (n = 10) trained using large muscle group exercises progressing toward small muscle group exercises in linear periodization model (LG-LP). Group four (n = 13) trained using small muscle group exercises progressing toward large muscle group exercises in linear periodization (SM-LP). Group five (n = 9) served as a control group (CG). Training frequency was two sessions per week with at least 72 hours of recovery between sessions. MT and one repetition maximum strength (1RM) for all exercises were assessed at baseline and after 12 weeks of training. Results : No significant interaction was demonstrated between periodization models and exercise order. There were no significant differences between training groups in either 1RM or MT assessments after 12 weeks. Effect size data presented interesting findings regarding strength and MT improvements. For bench press, LG-OP presented greater magnitude strength gains than the other trained groups. For biceps curl, SM-OP presented greater magnitude strength gains than the other trained groups. For triceps extension, SM-OP and SM-LP presented large magnitude strength gains, LG-OP presented moderate magnitude and LG-LP presented small magnitude strength gains. The biceps and triceps MT effect sizes presented greater magnitudes of muscle accretion in SM-OP and SM-LP. Conclusions : In conclusion, greater strength and MT increases were observed for the muscle groups trained at the beginning of the sessions and the ondulatory periodization seems to maximize these improvements.


Higher-order-modes of a 70-µm core-diameter, Er-doped-fiber are characterized over a broad wavelength range using a supercontinuum with spatially and spectrally resolved imaging. Pumping the Er-doped-fiber with 1480-nm in the fundamental mode decreases the higher-order-mode content.


Most of the fossil fuel needs for India has been met for many years from other countries. India imports around 83% of fossil fuel as of 2017 (1) . When BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) came into power in 2015, there was a clear mandate made to make India free from fossil fuel dependency. In 2018 India made headlines, when Petroleum Minister of India, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan had announced that the country could serve their complete energy need for the next 300 years. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas (MoP&NG), Government of India had conducted National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02(NGHP-02) from 03-03-2015 to 28-07-2015 in the eastern coast of India where they have discovered several gas hydrate accumulations. These data were backed by US Geological Survey which has reported that India's gas hydrate reserve would just be in second place to United States which has the world's largest gas hydrate reserve. Significant quantities of Natural gas hydrates (NGH) have been found in Kerala-Konkan Basin of the west coast, Krishna-Godavari basin of east coast, the Mahanadi basin, Cauvery basin. These basins unaided contribute around 95 – 125 trillion cubic feet of estimated reserves.


ABSTRACT The perils of population growth with regards to food security have long been studied by scholars such as Malthus (1798) and Meadows (1972). At the core of the debate are the current levels of global population growth and resource consumption, and its effects on living standards in the foreseeable future. While this is well explored in a global context, little research has been done to explore the long-term relationship between population growth and food security in the context of a particular developing economy, such as South Africa. This paper explores long-term trends in population growth and agricultural output in a South African context. Similar measures are also considered for various Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries, as well as various top countries in the 2015 Global Food Security Index, to explore the relative position of South Africa (a developing economy). This paper shows that the South African per capita cereal production has steadily declined since the 1970s, while the opposite is true for the top countries in the 2015 Global Food Security Index, as well as the world on average. It also demonstrates the need to consider the state of food security of individual countries or regions (as opposed to a global view). Aggregate global data may obscure cases where a food security crisis is closer than anticipated and imported grains may become an increasingly volatile alternative.


Some papers regarding frequency selective surface (FSS) for improving antenna performances have been reported, but it is formed into a plane form, and there are few reports about FSS formed into a cylindrical form. In this paper, we carry out simulation and examination about pipe-formed FSS which cross section consists of two semicircles and straight lines. We confirmed that we can arrange an antenna radiation pattern inside pipe-formed FSS by changing the unit cell shape to the circumference direction.


Sclerotinia stem rot caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum( Lib.) de Bary has a wide host range. Genetic diversity of 32 isolates of S. sclerotiorum collected from different geographical regions and host plants were detected by SSR markers. A total of 69 alleles were observed using 17 pairs of primers with an average of 4. 06 alleles for each pair of primers. The alleles with the largest numbers( 8) were found in 2 pairs of primers( AF377908- 1 / AF377908- 2 and AF377922- 1 / AF377922- 2),and the least number of alleles( 2) occurred in the other 2 primer pairs( AF377903- 1 / AF377903- 2 and AF377925- 1 / AF377925- 2). The mean value of DNA polymorphic information content( PIC) was 0. 56. The highest PIC value was 0. 78 detected with AF377922- 1 / AF377922- 2. In cluster analysis,32 isolates were divided into 5 groups. Most isolates from the same region were grouped in the same or a close population,suggesting that Sclerotinia genetic loci within populations were relatively consistent but significantly different among populations.


The parties may, at any time in the course of proceedings, conclude their case by way of settlement, which shall be confirmed by a decision of the Court. A patent may not be revoked or limited by way of settlement.


Most experimental systems for measuring the permeability of microperforated polymeric films are static, mainly because in dynamic systems the small differences in pressure on both sides of the perforation may result in serious errors in the measurements. The O2 and CO2 transmission rate through microperforations of different sizes (from 40 × 30 to 350 × 110 µm) were determined in a static and in a dynamic system. In the latter case, rather than the diffusive flow, the hydrodynamic flow generated by the difference in pressure was measured (between 5 and 90 mbar). This was determined by applying Bernouilli's theorem and an experimental equation potentially relating the area of the microperforation with the transmission rate. A comparison of the transmission rates obtained in both cases gives coefficients of determination close to one (>0.993). This means that measuring the hydrodynamic flow can be considered as an alternative for the quantification of the diffusive flow through a microperforation. This is a simple and quick methodology that does not require expensive equipment. Furthermore, this feature enables commercial leak detection equipment to be used to quantify diffusive transmission rates through microperforations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


After a few decades' evolution of wireless communication systems, to ensure reliable highspeed communication over unreliable wireless channels is still one of the major challenges facing researchers and engineers. The use of multiple antennas at transmitter and receiver, known as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications, is one promising technology delivering desired wireless services. The main goal of this thesis is to study two important issues in wireless MIMO communication systems: receiver design for coded MIMO systems, and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff analysis in general fading channels. In the first part of this thesis, we decompose the receiver design problem into two subproblems: MIMO channel estimation and MIMO detection. For the MIMO channel estimation, we develop an expectation-maximization (EM) based semi-blind channel and noise covariance matrix estimation algorithm for space-time coding systems under spatially correlated noise. By incorporating the proposed channel estimator into the iterative receiver structure, both the channel estimation and the error-control decoding are improved significantly. We also derive the modified Cramer-Rao bounds (MCRB) for the unknown parameters as the channel estimation performance metric, and demonstrate that the proposed channel estimation algorithm can achieve the MCRB after several iterations. For the MIMO detection, we propose a novel lowcomplexity MIMO detection algorithm, which has only cubic order computational complexity, but with near-optimal performance. For a 4×4 turbo-coded system, we show that the proposed detector had the same performance as the maximum a posteriori (MAP) detector for BPSK modulation, and 0.1 dB advantage over the approximated MAP detector (list sphere decoding algorithm) for 16-QAM modulation at BER = 10−4. In the second part of this thesis, we derive the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff for


Superconducting aluminum electrodes have typically been used to measure the spin polarization of tunneling current using superconducting tunneling spectroscopy but at temperatures well below 1K. Using NbN superconducting electrodes we show that measurements at elevated temperatures (∼1.2K) are possible, thereby eliminating the need for the He3 dilution refrigerators. Tunneling spin polarization values can be extracted from the experimental data by fits using a strong coupling theory of the quasiparticle density of states of NbN. Nb and Ta electrodes were also explored but NbN, with its much lower spin-orbit scattering rate, yet higher superconducting transition temperature, is the most attractive.


The numbers of predorsal,ano-dorsal,preanal,abdominal,caudal,and total vertebrae in and shortly after the elver stage of 9 species and subspecies of eels from the various areas in the world were counted.The numbers of vertebrae in such sections are useful for the specific identification when the ranges of variations do not overlap between the respective species. A key to the species was given based on the sectional counts of vertebrae.Moreover,the graphic representations of the correlation between the number of vertebrae in respective sections facilitate the identification of most species. Although Ege(1939)reported the number of vertebrae of 19 species and subspecies of eels around the world,he counted only prehemal and total vertebrae.The present authors examined the numbers of the predorsal,anodorsal,and preanal vertebrae,as well as those of abdominal,caudal,and total.It was found that such sectional counts of vertebrae are more useful in identifying the species than count of total vertebrae only.The correlation between each of the sectional counts and the total number of vertebrae is represented in a graphic form to facilitate the specific identification. Materials and methods The materials examined in the present investigation are about 230 specimens obtained from the various areas in Asia,Europe,Canada, and New Zealand(Table 1).The samples are in and shortly after the elver stage.Among the samples,there exist distinct differences in development of pigmentation,as indicated in Table 1 according to the definition given by Bertin(1956)and Egusa(1972).Besides these samples,the young eels from Borneo were also examined.Following observation and measurements on the external morphology of the preserved specimens,the elvers were stained with alizarin,and predorsal,ano-dorsal,preanal, abdominal,caudal,and total vertebrae were counte(Fig.1).In some specimens the vertebral number was counted from X-ray photographs.The number of ano-dorsal vertebrae is defined as the number of vertebral centra between verticals through the anus and origin Fig.1.Diagram showing measurement of total length,and sectional counts of vertebrae. A•`B,predorsal vertebrae;B•`C,anodorsal vertebrae;A•`C,preanal vertebrae; A•`D,abdominal vertebrae;D E,caudal vertebrae;A•`E,total vertebrae. of the dorsal fin,excluding the centra which were cut by the verticals,as was defined by Jespersen(1942)in the anguillid leptocephali. The centra which were cut by the verticals through origin of the dorsal fin and the anus are also excluded in counting the number of predorsal and preanal vertebrae,respectively. The first vertebral centrum with closed hemal arch or hemal spine is defined as the first caudal vertebra(Ege,1939).The terminal and preterminal centra,which are known to fuse in young stage(Bertin,1956),are counted as one vertebra,even though they are not yet fused in the elver stage.


Results in the eld of precedence-constrained scheduling can take the form of complexity proofs, heuristics to obtain near-optimal schedules and exact algorithms for special cases. In considering the application of such results it is important to note that they embody models that may be simpli cations of a given real system. For example, they may assume that the tasks have unit execution time and that there is a uniform delay for interprocessor communication. One unwanted side e ect of the use of such simplifying models is that they implicitly limit the number of processors that can participate in the schedule. For several scheduling models, we prove upper bounds on processors in terms of a property of the set of precedence constraints, namely width, and the delay associated with interprocessor communication. Introduction Scheduling has been the subject of considerable analysis over a number of decades. Reviews are to be found in Graham et al. [1979], Conway et al. [1967], Co man [1976], Gonzalez [1977], Blazewicz et al.[1991] and Chen and Sin [1990]. In this paper we consider precedence constrained scheduling of uniprocessor tasks to processors which are identical according to the de nition of Graham et al. [1979]. However, in common with a number of recent authors and as reviewed by Veltman et al. [1990], we consider that there may be some delay associated with interprocessor communication between tasks which are mapped to di erent processors. For a variety of such models we consider bounds beyond which there are no performance gains from adding processors to the model. These bounds are of relevance in considering the work of Yang and Gerasoulis [1992] and Papadimitriou and Yannakakis [1990], who assume an unbounded number of processors. Our work can be considered as de ning the maximum number of processors that could possibly be required in order to achieve optimal makespan. Related work by Fern andez and Bussell [1973] and Al-Mouhammed [1990] considers the minimum number of identical processors which are required to achieve an optimal makespan. 1 Formulation of Models Our scheduling models consist of directed acyclic graphs (dags) which encode tasks and the precedence relationship between them, processors which are assumed to be identical, and functions which encode the costs associated with tasks and the communications implied by precedence edges. 1.1 Dags We use standard notation for dags as given by Swamy and Thulasiram [1981]. In addition we de ne the following. De nition 1 Predecessors; Successors. 2 Let = ( ; ) be a dag. Let 2 . The predecessor set, pred( ; ), of is de ned to be the set f : there is a directed path from to in g. The successor set succ( ; ) is de ned similarly. De nition 2 Antichain. An antichain of a dag = ( ; ) is a set 0 of vertices such that for each pair of vertices ; 2 0; 6= , there is neither a directed path from to nor a directed path from to in . De nition 3 Width. The width,W( ) of a dag = ( ; ) is the cardinality of a maximal-size antichain in . 1.2 Scheduling Models The most general scheduling model that we use is referred to as a General Delay scheduling model. In addition we de ne various special cases of it. As we will see the special cases lead to di erent bounds on the number of processors beyond which no performance gains can be achieved. De nition 4 General Delay Scheduling Model. An instance of a General Delay scheduling model is a 4-Tuple (P; ; f; d) where P is a set of n processors, = ( ; ) is a dag such that is a set of tasks and is a partial order on the tasks, represented as a set of ordered pairs, f : ! Z+ 1 is a function returning the time that a task requires for execution, and d : P P ! Z+ 0 is a function where d(( ; ); p; q) returns the delay associated with communication if task is mapped to processor p and task is mapped to processor q. We will be considering the following restricted versions of the General Delay scheduling model. De nition 5 UET Scheduling Model. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. A is said to be an instance of a Unit Execution Time (UET) model i the range of f is f1g. De nition 6 No Communication Scheduling Model. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. A is said to be an instance of a No Communication model i = fg. De nition 7 No Delay Scheduling Model. 3 Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. A is said to be an instance of a No Delay model i the range of d is f0g. De nition 8 Unit Delay Scheduling Model. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. A is said to be an instance of a Unit Delay model i for all p 2 P , for all 2 , d( ; p; p) = 0, and for all p; q 2 P where p 6= q, for all 2 , d( ; p; q) = 1. De nition 9 Fixed Delay Scheduling Model. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. A is said to be an instance of a Fixed Delay model i for all p 2 P , for all 2 , d( ; p; p) = 0, and there exists some non-negative integer such that for all p; q 2 P where p 6= q, for all 2 , d( ; p; q) = . De nition 10 Uniform Delay Scheduling Model. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. A is said to be an instance of a Uniform Delay model i for all p 2 P for all 2 , d( ; p; p) = 0, and for each 2 there exists some non-negative integer such that for all p; q 2 P , p 6= q, d( ; p; q) = . 1.3 Schedules The NP completeness result of Rayward-Smith [1987], for makespan minimisation problems in scheduling models which incorporate delay is independent of whether repeated execution of a task is allowed or disallowed in the model. However Jung, Kirousis and Spirakis [1989] have shown that in such models repeated execution of a task can gain more than a constant factor in performance. Accordingly, in common with, for example, Papadimitriou and Yannakakis [1990], and Chretienne and Picouleau [1992], we de ne a schedule as a set of tuples, where a tuple refers to the execution of a particular task on a particular processor at a particular time. Note that at the point of de nition, we are not interested in the validity or otherwise of schedules. De nition 11 Schedule. We de ne a schedule of a set of tasks onto a set of processors P , as a nite set of 3-tuples fx1; x2; : : :xng where for i = 1; 2; : : : ; n, xi = ( i 2 ; pi 2 P; ti 2 Z+ 0 ). The tuple xi indicates that task i is executed on processor pi at time ti. For notational convenience we will often wish to refer only to certain tuples within a schedule, such as those which specify a particular processor. The following notation is widely used in the thesis to describe a subset of a schedule. Note that, according to the above de nition, the resulting subset is also a schedule. De nition 12 Matching Subset of Schedule.4 Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. Let s be a schedule for A. We use the notation X(s; 0; P 0; T 0) as shorthand for f( ; p; t)2 s : 2 0; p 2 P 0; t 2 T 0g; where it is understood that 0 ,P 0 P and T 0 Z+ 0 . De nition 13 Makespan. Let s be a schedule. We de ne its makespan, denoted M(s), as the lowest value of time beyond which no tuple is being executed in s. More formally we de ne M(s) = max ( ;p;t)2s t+ f( ): De nition 14 Idle Processor, Busy Processor. In a schedule s of a task set onto a processor set P , a processor p 2 P is said to be idle i X(s; ; fpg; Z+ 0 ) = fg. Otherwise it is said to be busy. De nition 15 Processor Utilization. The processor utilization, denoted P(s), of a schedule s of an instance (P; = ( ; ); f; d) of a scheduling model is the number of busy processors. More formally, P(s) = jfp 2 P : X(s; ; fpg; Z+ 0 ) 6= fggj: De nition 16 Active Task Set. We de ne the active task set, denoted A(s; x), of a schedule s of an instance (P; = ( ; ); f; d) of a scheduling model, at time x as A(s; x) = f( ; p; t)2 s : t x < t+ f( )g: 1.4 Validity of Schedules Now we are in a position to de ne the validity or otherwise of a schedule of a particular instance of a scheduling model. A schedule is valid i the following three conditions are satis ed. 1. All tasks are executed. (This property is formalised below as the Completeness property of De nition 17.) 2. No processor is executing more than one task at a time (that is, it is not Overbooked as stated in De nition 18 below.) 3. The tasks that are de ned to precede a given task have nished executing before that task is started (that is, it is not Temporally Compromised as stated in De nition 19 below.) 5 De nition 17 (In)Complete Schedule. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. Let s be a schedule for A. s is said to be Complete for A i every task is executed. More formally this means that for all tasks 2 X(s; f g; P; Z+ 0 ) 6= fg. If a schedule is not complete it is referred to as incomplete. De nition 18 Overbooked Schedule. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model. Let s be a schedule for A. s is said to be overbooked if any processor is executing more than one task at any one time. More formally this means that there exists a tuple ( ; p; t) 2 s such thatX(s f( ; p; t)g; ; fpg; ft; t+1; : : : ; t+f( ) 1g) 6= fg. De nition 19 Temporally Compromised Schedule. Let A = (P; = ( ; ); f; d) be an instance of a General Delay scheduling model, and s be a schedule for A. s is said to be temporally compromised i there exists a tuple ( ; q; t0) 2 s and an edge ( ; ) 2 such that min ( ;p;t)2X(s;f g;P;Z+ 0 ) t + f( ) + d(( ; ); p; q)> t0 De nition 20 Valid Schedule. A schedule will be said to be valid i it is complete and neither overbooked nor temporally compromised. Finally we de ne a few properties of schedules and relationships between schedules which are of use in later proofs. De nition 21 Pruning. A schedule s0 is de ned to be a pruning of a schedule s i s0 s. De nition 22 Fully Pruned. A