Continuous urbanization has led to a significant increase in traffic density in large cities and a concomitant growth of vehicle emissions (Davis et al., 2005; Perugu, 2019). An effective way to protect public health is air quality forecasting through early warning of the concentration of harmful substances in the air (Bai et al., 2016). The authors proposed a hybrid model to predict the concentration of air pollutants. The model is based on combining the empirical mode decomposition method, the sample entropy index, and a bidirectional neural network with long and short-term memory (Teng et al., 2022). In several-days-ahead forecasting tasks, the researchers presented an ensemble system for multi-step PM 2.5 forecasting in urban areas. The authors applied support vector regression based on the least squares method in conjunction with the capabilities of a neural network (LSTM) (Tong et al., 2019; Ahani et al., 2020; Petry et al., 2021). Studies on training parallel artificial networks based on AutoRegressive with eXternal input models (Alkasassbeh et al., 2013) are focused on modelling air pollution parameters (Feng et al., 2019). presents a method for estimating PM 2.5 transfer rates based on complex relationships between air pollutants, urban development, and meteorology. To obtain a highly accurate forecast of changes in the concentration of harmful pollutants, researchers have developed a hybrid model based on Empirical Wavelet Transform and a deep learning neural network (Kim et al., 2021; Zeng et al., 2022). Several researchers focused on the development of highly accurate emission models at the level of individual vehicles due to their diversity, driving conditions, and other factors (Motallebiaraghi et al., 2021; Makarova et al. (2020)). Studies on the development of prediction models are generally focused on the final assessment of the concentration of atmospheric emissions, taking into account all urban pollutants (Deep et al., 2021). Thus, Kleine Deters et al. (2017), Rybarczyk and Zalakeviciute (2016), Ni et al. (2017), Han et al. (2018) propose a machine learning approach to forecast PM 2.5 concentrations based on the analysis of meteorological data, including the average regional precipitation, average daily temperature, average relative humidity, average wind speed, maximum wind speed, and pollution data. At the same time, Li et al. (2015) revealed negative correlations between other meteorological parameters and PM 2.5, with the exception of the average atmospheric pressure. A prediction model built on a dataset of many variables with relatively few observations can cause accuracy issues and restrict the performance of a deep learning model (Choi and Kim, 2021). However, this is still challenging due to limited information on the primary source of emissions (road traffic) and the high uncertainty of dynamic processes (Adams and Kanaroglou, 2016; Shepelev et al., 2021). This study proposes a new hybrid model based on the use of a convolutional (YOLOv4) and recurrent (LSTM) neural network to improve the accuracy of forecasting the changes in the concentration of traffic-related particulate matter. Edited by: Katarzyna Gdowska, AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland


Recent literature has emphasized the central role of populations in biological thought and practice, yet a unified population concept remains elusive. I contend that a more mature framework for populations could be realized by dispensing with arbitrary population bounds which, in turn, will entail recognition that populations exist on multiple spatial scales and that populations are inherently vague. I illustrate this framework by decomposing the population structure of a hypothetical organism distribution using fuzzy classification at multiple scales. Hierarchy and vagueness represent the building blocks of a more inclusive population concept.


Upon passing through the corridor which leads to the Salle des Bronzes in the Louvre Museum, my attention was attracted by a marble head (Plate XXIII.) placed on one of the higher shelves of the case running along the wall, which contains a number of marble fragments of all descriptions. The more I looked at this head, the more did it seem to manifest the peculiarities of style and workmanship as well as the peculiar dimensions (just under life-size) of the metopes of the Parthenon. It was at least evident that none of the remains of ancient art, not as yet identified with the metopes of the Parthenon, that had come to my notice, was so fully possessed of the characteristics marking these metopes. The experience resulting from a careful and scientific comparative study and observation of a great number of identified ancient monuments has shown that the works of the various periods, schools, and artists, are each possessed of marked individual characteristics, and differ very noticeably from one another in conception, style, and workmanship. These differences, however, only become noticeable and useful as guides to the classification and identification of works of ancient art when numerous works, or reproductions from them, are placed side by side, and are subjected to trained observation in all respects similar to the observation which has been so long and profitably in use in the natural sciences. Based upon this experience, the recognition of the characteristics of this head lead me to believe that it could not belong to a period posterior to the time of Pheidias or previous to the Persian wars. In fact, it appeared to me highly probable that the head really belonged to one of the metopes.


Gorleben, situated at the edge of the Elbe und Seege valley and also at the foot of a low sandy elevation, has a rich natural and nearly natural vegetation in its environment. Many plant communities are threatened and with them rare and characteristic species. Local categories of endangerment are given and are compared with regional and national values. In most cases plant communities and species are threatened due to changes in agriculture.


These results indicate that aminoacetonitrile can act directly on bone in tissue culture to cause an alteration in the extractability of collagen similar to that observed in vivo. Since the hydroxyproline in the salt extracts was labeled equally in the control and aminoacetonitrile samples, while the specific activity of hydroxyproline in the residue was depressed by aminoacetonitrile, it seems likely that the latter exerts its action by blocking the normal maturation process whereby newly synthesized collagen is converted to an insoluble matrixL A similar mechanism has been proposed to account for the action in vivo of another lathyrogen fl-aminopropionitrile s-I0.


This paper discusses certain specific aspects and inevitable application of a system- oriented approach to the analysis of road traffic accidents as the basis for advanced analyst commitment. In the area of traffic accidents analysis an essential role is played by statistical processing of data. The accepted practice of statistical processing of RTA data compiled only by means of a Questionnaire cannot meet the requirements and expectations of an advanced analyst operation and commitment, mainly due to lesser reliability and deficiencies of the available data. Therefore the existing system of statistical data processing should be supplemented and advanced by processing of data from other more reliable sources of which the most important is related to the Road Traffic Accidents Data Bank created on the basis of expert verification of road traffic accidents.


@IMAC2 Folks should follow your example more than advice.

Tinker to meet your own NEEDS and you meet those of others = revenue

When you build


This study compared the value of women as perceived in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan; the analysed aspects comprised social behaviour and attitudes, gender awareness, achievement orientation, awareness of the nature of the world, and personal awareness. Although Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam are generally believed to have similar cultures, the results indicate that distinct variations of women's values exist in these three areas. Because of these cultural differences, Taiwanese people should respect all aspects in which married immigrant women differ and allow such immigrants to maintain their native cultural practices in Taiwan. In addition, educators in Taiwan should introduce multicultural perspectives in courses for these immigrants to enhance cross-cultural interactions. When assigned a case, social workers should understand the differences in women's values and respect the choices of female marriage immigrants.


Purpose: According to the International Diabetes Federation the prevalence for diabetes type 2 is expected to grow from 18.7% in 2010 up to 21.4% in 2030 in the UAE. Against this backdrop Daman National Health Insurance Company in Abu Dhabi decided in 2008 to implement a Population Health Management Programme for diabetic type 2 UAE Nationals. Objectives: The aims of the programme are to influence and motivate patients to change their lifestyle, to self-manage their chronic condition in order to prevent complications, to improve the quality of life and to reduce costs in the long run. Methods: The programme combines a telecoaching programme and a face-to-face training. The core element of the telecoaching is a structured supervision of participants via phone by a personal coach. Both programmes have been successfully used and evaluated in Germany and have been adapted for use in accordance with the UAE's cultural environment. The results were evaluated in a prospective longitudinal study. The data were collected from the participants throughout the programme. Results: Twenty-nine thousand insured persons were identified as diabetics. ten thousand and one hundred patients have been contacted so far whereas 4800 of them turned out to be qualified for the programme. Two thousand eight hundred out of this group agreed to participate. One thousand three hundred patients submitted signed consent forms and could be enrolled. One year after programme start, first positive results of those participants are available. The body-mass-index was lowered significantly from a mean value of 31.90 to 31.58 (p<0.05). The HbA1c was lowered from a mean value of 7.55 to 7.29 (%) (p=0.157). Conclusion and outlook: Population Health Management Programmes from Western countries can be transferred to the international market and are particularly interesting for countries with a high prevalence of diabetes.The results indicate that medical parameters such as BMI and HbA 1c can be improved by such programmes.


This paper presents two methods to predict weather-related overhead distribution feeder failures. The first model is based on linear regression, which uses a regression function to determine correlation between the weather factors and overhead feeder failures. The second method is based on a one-layer Bayesian network, which uses conditional probabilities to model the correlation. Both methods are discussed and followed by tests to assess their performance. The results obtained using these methods are discussed and compared.


During the last decades enormous advances have been made in landscape visualization. At present it is possible to create detailed and photorealistic visualizations of virtual landscapes. An increasing number of these visualizations can be classified as geovirtual environments, which are built from geo-referenced data and which can be operated in realtime. A wide variety of research projects in the fields of landscape and urban planning are concerned with construction issues of geovirtual environments and the use of these models in planning processes (e.g., APPLETON & LOVETT 2003; SCHROTH ET AL. 2005; WARRENKRETZSCHMAR & TIEDTKE 2005). Surprisingly few examples exist that apply geovisualization techniques in an urban context on large-scale projects, such as the design of gardens, parks, and open space. In our contribution we introduce an approach for the automated mapping of 2D vectorbased plans to geovirtual environments based on built-in transformation rules. This approach offers an intuitive method for the construction of detailed geovirtual environments usable for large-scale projects. The approach has been implemented on top of LandXplorer, a real-time 3D geovisualization system for complex geovirtual environments (3D Geo 2006). In a case study, we applied the transformation approach to an historic area in the city of Potsdam in the context of an urban redevelopment plan.


Summary form only given. Plasma propagation in a microplasma channel having the form of a spiral has been studied in the rare gases and gas mixtures. Microchannels having widths of 200–300 µm, and a length-to - width aspect ratio of ∼103∶1, have been fabricated in nanoporous Al 2 O 3 by a sequence of wet chemical and micropowder machining processes, Produced from 125–250 µm thick aluminum foil, these channels are situated in a dielectric barrier structure having Al electrodes straddling the Al 2 O 3 channel. For the experiments reported here, the channels are formed (by photolithographic patterning) into a spiral having an overall diameter of 3 cm.


Alcohol plays a complex role in Australian society, contributing significantly to Australia's burden of death, disease and injury. Most Australians are consumers of alcohol. While many Australians drink at levels associated with few adverse effects, a large proportion of people drink at 'levels that increase their risk of alcohol-related harm'. Regular excessive consumption of alcohol over time places people at increased risk of cancers, hypertension, chronic pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, injuries, violence and brain atrophy. Moreover, alcohol-related harm is not limited to disease or injury of individual drinkers, but 'has relevance for families, bystanders and the broader community'. Research reveals gender differences in alcohol consumption and in associated health concerns. This paper provides an overview of some of those differences, including how alcohol and age of women interact. It also discusses the impact of alcohol on pregnancy, the relationship between alcohol and diverse population groups, and issues related to alcohol. It also provides highlights of research that incorporate gender analysis. The second half of the paper is a section on the alcohol-related policy context in Australia and Victoria.


Abstract Purpose/aim of the study Colposcopy-directed cervical biopsy has played a major role in diagnosing cervical lesions. The precision of colposcopy-guided biopsy has been questioned. We analyzed several factors that may be correlated with the accuracy of biopsy. Methods PubMed, EMBASE were searched from January 1, 1998 to March 1, 2020. Odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Selection criteria Included studies evaluated factors correlated with the accuracy of biopsy and patients' final diagnosis was established by histological examination of the specimen obtained by conization, loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP), or colpohysterectomy. Results A total of 10 studies were selected for the systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled analysis indicated that the diagnostic inaccuracies of colposcopy-directed cervical biopsy were magnified in women who were 50 years of age or older. Postmenopausal status and transformation zone 3 type were also associated with the diagnostic inaccuracies of colposcopy-directed biopsy. High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions had better concordance rates than low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. The number of vaginal deliveries, number of biopsies, and HPV type were associated with biopsy underdiagnosis and biopsy overestimation. Conclusions This meta-analysis found that the correlation between the histological findings at biopsy and after surgical treatment was influenced by women's age, menopausal status, and the transformation zone type. The diagnostic efficacy was also better for high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions than for low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. Further large-scale randomized clinical trials are required to analyze the factors correlated with biopsy underdiagnosis and biopsy overestimation.


The movement and distribution of ecologically important herbivores such as elephants are of great significance to conservation biologist seeking to understand the fundamental triggers that influence their mobility and the extent to which these parameters affect how they utilize their immediate and surrounding resources. The recent advancement in animal tracking technology coupled with the availability of moderate to high-resolution satellite data, permits scientists to develop elephant cognitive maps of their adjacent environment, thus offering novel opportunities for research in the fields of wildlife movement ecology and the wider conservation biology. This research study explored the use of an interactive web GIS application in mapping and visualization of elephant GPS telemetry data alongside other critical variables such a weather, environmental and anthropogenic factors - that are known to have a direct impact in determining presence/absence of elephants in a particular location. The web GIS approach allows for the automated processing, analysis, and visualization of Earth Observation data and the integration of the Elephant GPS Telemetry data, thus, permitting the end user to access, query, and visualize the time series datasets in a simple and intuitive graphical user interface. This web GIS tool leveraged on the existing applications and modules such as: MODIS Reprojection Toolkit, ArcPy, and Python for automated preprocessing of the Earth Observation data; ArcGIS desktop and Movement Ecology Tool for developing customized elephant movement ecology products; PostgreSQL-PostGIS as the database server; Geoserver as the web GIS server and a host of other open source libraries such as HTML, ExtJS, GeoExt, OpenLayers and Python-CGI in the development of the web GIS application. From the web GIS tool, we deduced that NDVI was the main biophysical factor that influenced the immediate movement and distribution of elephant, in comparison to other factors such as temperature and rainfall. The fragmented nature of ecosystem compounded with a high level of encroachment to protected areas also limited free movement of elephant within their home ranges. Female elephant spent more time in protected areas compared to their male counterpart in spite of their periodically visits' to high risk zones at some point in time, most likely in search of vital elements such as salt or clay licks. All the three elephants had their home ranges extending through low elevated areas. There was also evidence of close association between these elephants as a result of their overlapping home ranges and close proximities at various stages such as during the male perennial hyperactivity (musth) episodes which coincided with the wet period. All the three elephants also had their core ranges closely overlapping with the existing riparian zones. (Less)


The article presents a conceptual, historical, anthropological, psychological, and sociological review of cultural perspectives on love: how culture affects our experience and expression of love. The evidence suggests that love is a universal emotion experienced by a majority of people, in various historical eras, and in all the world's cultures, but manifests itself in different ways because culture has an impact on people's conceptions of love and the way they feel, think, and behave in romantic relationships. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. This article is available in Online Readings in Psychology and Culture: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol5/iss4/2


This article offers an analysis of the process of error recovery as observed in the development and use of collections databases in a university museum. It presents results from a longitudinal case study of the development of collaborative systems and practices designed to reduce the number of errors found in the museum's databases as museum employees packed and moved their collections over a period of five years. Drawing on a specific set of eighteen months' worth of records documenting error rates and error management techniques, this article identifies three factors that influenced the ability of museum staff members to recover from errors found in their collections databases. The article concludes by examining the potential impact of these factors on the design of future collections databases in order to shed light on the wider issue of error recovery procedures in all information organizations.


There is a general consensus that the health of the economy depends on the health of the earth's socio-ecological system. Empirical evidence (IPCC, 2007) reveals that the factors causing the biodiversity to be lost and earth's atmosphere to warm are in continuous rise. An understanding of the interdependence and relationship between the environmental, economic and social systems will enable organizations to think strategically and act proactively in order to mitigate their negative impacts on the environment and society through devising new organizational models and alternative solutions for the fulfillment of human needs and the renewal of the biosphere. Sustainable development and CSR are integrated to varying degrees through sets of operational principles identified by companies claiming to be socially responsible and committed to sustainability. This CSR movement will enable a shift towards sustainability by encouraging both scholars and administrators to focus on the problems that occur in the apace between nature and humanity. International organizations like WBCSD, Natural step, Ceres have begun sponsoring certificates and rewards to these socially responsible businesses. There awards are intended to encourage the companies to thoroughly report on sustainability, economic, environmental and social performance


Protein Design
In de novo protein design, creating custom-tailored binding sites is a particular challenge because these sites often involve nonideal backbone structures. For example, curved b sheets are a common ligand binding motif. Marcos et al. investigated the principles that drive β-sheet


This paper proposes a design method of the Generalized Predictive Control (GPC) strategy which can take account of intersample behavior as well as sampled behavior. To this end, a discrete‐time equivalent plant model and cost function for a continuous‐time plant incorporated with zero‐order hold and discrete‐time controller are derived, and the modified discrete‐time GPC is designed. To verify the effectiveness of our proposed method, the controller is applied to a benchmark problem of a hard‐disk drive. Copyright © 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


When the Sirius Star, a Saudi Arabian oil tanker and its $100 million payload were reported hijacked last month by Somali pirates, our society's curious but seemingly innocent obsession with the Disney variety of swashbuckling was dealt a jarring reality test. For the brazen capture of the Sirius Star represented not only the greatest pirate heist in modem history, but the latest in a slew of such daring assaults off the coast of Eastern Africa. According to the Associated Press, Somali pirates have netted more than $30 million in ransom to date, and this year alone have attacked more than 90 ships. And these pirates aren't wearing eyeliner, either. Rather, they navigate the waterways in open skiffs with powerful outboard motors, armed with automatic pistols, machine guns, and, increasingly often, rockets and grenade-launchers. In the case of the Sirius Star, it took just minutes for a team of 12 pirates to board and secure the ship and its 25 crewmen. Weeks later, the hijacking has yet to be resolved, although on Nov. 26 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Sirius Star's owners are "highly likely" to pay a multi-million dollar ransom in order to free the vessel and its crew. COURTESY SOM ALILAND TIM ES


i Preface Web application programmers tend to focus on services when developing networking applications. Numerous services are designed to communicate with each other and are made available through service-oriented architectures. The emphasis on functionality has taken attention away from the production of secure and reliable systems. In this thesis, approaches to secure client-server communication will be presented. The important step is the development of an underlying infrastructure that can provide basic security mechanisms. An example framework in Java will be refined and improved throughout the text to show readers how to implement the concepts discussed. The intended audience for this thesis is students and IT professionals with an understanding of Public Key Infrastructures and Java programming. People with background in just one of these categories will have a harder time following the text, but are encouraged to continue reading. References are included throughout the document, enabling readers to go to the sources for an in-depth presentation. iii Acknowledgments First of all I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Kjell Jørgen Hole, for brilliant guidance throughout this thesis. Our weekly meetings and daily discussions have been invaluable to the quality of my work. I also owe Yngve Espelid my deepest gratitude for his major involvement in reaching the bottom of Java security and the ongoing NIO/SSL project, and for valuable comments on this document. I also thank Thomas Tjøstheim and my uncle Johs for proofreading the thesis. If I were to give these four a beer for every mistake and shortcoming they have corrected, I'd be broke. Both socially and academically, the members of The NoWires Research Group have been very important. Our monthly " excursions " to Onkel Lauritz have meant a lot to me. I would also like to thank my common-law spouse Kristine for her patience and great support. My finances over the last year have been taken care of my poker-playing brother, allowing me to concentrate on research. In closing, I thank my parents, Audun and Kari, for always pushing me beyond the limit of my capabilities.


The incidence of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever has increased dramatically in the past 15 years in most urban centers of the tropics. Coincident with this increase has been the emergence of epidemic dengue hemorrhagic fever in the American region. The current changing disease pattern in the Americas is very similar to that which occurred in southeast Asia 30 years ago. The similarities in the evolution of severe disease in the two regions and the possible reasons for the changing disease pattern are discussed.


ABSTRACT: This study investigates whether the professional context of accounting ethical dilemmas influences accounting students' moral reasoning. In a between‐subjects experiment, 101 accounting students from a large public AACSB‐accredited university in the U.S. responded to four ethical dilemmas faced by either auditors or corporate accountants designed to measure their deliberative moral reasoning. As expected, students in the audit condition exhibited significantly higher deliberative moral reasoning than students in the corporate accounting condition. Supplemental analysis indicates this finding is robust to commonly influential demographic characteristics and perceptions about the current business environment. These results are consistent with accounting students having more audit‐based ethical knowledge structures which do not flexibly transfer to resolving ethical issues in the corporate accounting context.


An alternative to conventional techniques for compressing video data of moving objects is described. The method, known as track-based compression (TBC), detects, associates, and tracks moving objects between frames, sending only a small chip or ID around the moving object once the track has been established. The compression ratio achievable depends on scene content, sensor geometry, the degree to which the background can be stabilized, and other factors. Preliminary results range from 1,500:1 for oblique sensing geometries with significant parallax to more than 10,000:1 for near-nadir overhead and fixed ground-based surveillance video.


Around 1955, it was noticed in some Satsuma mandarin orchards of some prefectures that trees show spotting of leaves followed by abnormal defoliation from autumn to winter and the cause is unknown. This abnormal defoliation has so widely spread since about 1960 that it is seen in most Satsuma mandarin growing prefectures and has become an important problem in the cultivation of Satsuma mandarin trees. Under these circumstances, the main fruit tree experimental stations of Satsuma mandarin growing prefectures cooperated to solve the problem for 8 years from 1961 to 1968 and obtained many noticeable results. I also have been studying the abnormal defoliation since 1961 from the viewpoint of the abnormal absorption of minor metallic elements by Satsuma mandarin trees and obtained the results, an outline of which is dealt with in this paper.


A 21-year-old woman with thyroid carcinoma underwent thyroidectomy and lymph-node dissection. Two days later, she had forced extension of the neck, nonrigid opening of the jaw, and deviation of the eyes. Videos show the reaction and the resolution after treatment with biperiden.


We review the exciting field of optical metamaterials and outline the recent progress in developing tunable and active MMs, semiconductor-based and loss-free negative-index MMs. We also discuss a new approach for broadband light bending.


Testate amoebae (TA) are important components of soil ecosystems, where they play an essential role in belowground food webs. In this study, we examined species composition, diversity, and structure of TA assemblages in soils beneath tree crowns (microscale) at three slope positions (mesoscale) in subtropical urban parks in Shenzhen, China. Forty-two species of TA belonging to 18 genera were identified in 81 samples. TA assemblages were the most diverse and abundant in the center of the tree crown comparing with other under-tree habitats. Foot of the hills harbored higher TA abundance and diversity comparing with upper locations along the hillslopes. The distribution of TA was mostly driven by under-crown and hillside positions but not by elementary environmental conditions such as pH, moisture content and thickness of leaf litter layer. None of later factors were sufficient in shaping TA assemblage composition. The findings of our study suggest that in regional studies of soil microbial eukaryotes both micro- (i.e., under-crown) and mesoscale (i.e., the slope position) heterogeneity should be considered.


A two-flavor color-superconducting Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model is introduced at finite temperature T, chemical potential {mu}, and in the presence of a constant magnetic field e-tildeB. The effect of (T,{mu},e-tildeB) on the formation of chiral- and color-symmetry-breaking condensates is studied. The complete phase portrait of the model in T-{mu}, {mu}-e-tildeB, and T-e-tildeB phase spaces for various fixed e-tildeB, T, and {mu} is explored. A threshold magnetic field e-tildeB{sub t}{approx_equal}0.5 GeV{sup 2} is found, above which the dynamics of the system are solely dominated by the lowest Landau level, and the effects of T and {mu} are partly compensated by e-tildeB.


In this research, we study a weakly singular Volterra integro differential equation with Caputo‐type fractional derivative. First, we derive a sufficient condition for the existence and uniqueness of the solution of this problem based on the maximum norm. It is observed that the condition depends on the domain of definition of the problem. Thereafter, we show that this condition will be independent of the domain of definition based on an equivalent weighted maximum norm. In addition, we have also provided a procedure to extend the existence and uniqueness of the solution in its domain of definition by partitioning it. We also derive a sufficient condition under which the model problem will provide an analytic solution. Next, we introduce an operator‐based parameterized method to generate an approximate solution of this problem. Convergence analysis of this approach is established here. Next, we have optimized this solution based on least square method. For this, residual minimization is used to obtain the optimal values of the auxiliary parameter. In addition, we have also provided an error bound based on this technique. Several numerical examples are produced to clarify the effective behavior of the convergence of the present method. Comparison of the standard method and optimized method based on residual minimization signify the better accuracy of modified one. In addition, we also consider an equivalent form of weakly singular integro differential equation of Heat transfer problem to show the high effectiveness of the present approach.


Impact of complete response on outcome is a subject of ongoing debate.

Aim: In this retrospective analysis of all myeloma-ASCT patients transplanted between 1999– 2007 (n: 116) in our center with a minimum 3 mo followup (n: 91) and a disease status available at the time of M (n:66) were analyzed for evaluation of the impact of response at M, preASCT, postASCT; the preASCT use of novel agents ; timing of M (>, ,< 12 mo) on response and survival. 91 patients aged 33–66(med: 52) were included. Induction (VAD/T D/MP: 72/8/10) was given for a median of 8.3 mo pre M. 45 patients received additional chemo (n:3), (V :1, T :17, both:10) or none(n:41) untill ASCT with Melphalan (200 mg/sq.m) within 12 months (54%). For < 90% response, V/T alone or in combination was given during the postASCT period and/or received a second ASCT/NMA. SPSS version 11.0 was used for Kaplan Meier survival and Chi Square analysis.

Results: Patient characteristics between early vs late M or ASCT, novel agent (+) vs (−) were similar .>90% response rates at different time points (M/preASCT/postASCT) were: 54.5%, 59.7% and 61.3%. One third of patients could be mobilized early. Response rates of early and late M were: 73.6% vs 46.6% (p=0.04). Novel agents were used less frequently in early M patients (22% vs 40%). Among all analyzed, only response during M, timing of M and use of V/T were found to be influential on PFS and/or OS. Evaluation of factors (b2mg,ISS,age,chemo line)on response during M revealed only late M to be associated with less response (p=0.05). Among early M patients, amplitude of response (>90% vs others) did not prolong PFS or OS. However, among patients who were mobilized later, achievement of >90% response prolonged PFS at 3 yr (100% vs 85%,p=0.03) at 5 yr (100% vs 44%,p=0.03) (Fig.1). The impact of response to induction, on OS was also observed in all patients irrespective of M time (3 yr: 93% vs 83%, 5 yr: 80% vs 55%, p=0.02). Comparison of patients who had received at least one novel agent during the preASCT, compared to those not, revealed an OS prolongation (3yr:100% vs 81%; 5yr: 81% vs 56%, p=0.03). (Fig. 2). Patients who had received a novel agent were mobilized at similar times but were transplanted later (9/27 vs 28/42, p= 0.01). Although there was a trend, novel agents did not influence PFS or response rate significantly at any time point.

Conclusions: In this retrospective analysis, we were able to demonstrate a benefical effect of response amplitude, earlier (<6 months) mobilization,and pre ASCT use of novel agents. Early M but not late M masks any influence of chemosensitivity to induction. Late M which is associated with less response contributes to the impact of response on survival.

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The necessity for the ecological thinking in the modern society is substantiated. Environmental upbringing and education are analyzed as the components of ecological thinking.


A simple and rapid conversion of β-keto esters and 1,3-diones to β-enamino derivatives is developed using both aliphatic and aromatic amines.


The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative definition of key account management (KAM) at the organizational level through a content analysis of the existing definitions of KAM available in the
business literatures.A representative pool of definitions of key account management was generated through literature review from twenty
three journals that covers the divergence of name variety like global account management, strategic account management, national account management, international key account management, key client
management, major account management, key customers management and key account management. Relating to the definition of key account management various attributes are identified through content analysis and according to the relevance, profile for each attributes are
developed. On the basis of these attributes a diagrammatic and textual definition is proposed that covers the different standpoints and aspects
of key account management approach and captures its essence as well.Eventually, several strategic implications are derived that create the field for further empirical investigation.


The paper compares the personal names appearing in the Viennese humour magazine Figaro and those occurring in some Hungarian humour magazines (Borsszem Jankó ['Tom Thumb'], Az Üstökös ['The Comet']), all published in the 1860s and the 1890s, with the aim of detecting whether surnames and Christian names considered typical of minority groups were identical or different on this and on the other side of the river Lajta. The results show that whilst the Czech and Jewish names quoted in the magazines in the 1860s were rather similar in Vienna and in Pest, in the issues from the end of the 19th century differences were more marked in both the number and the meanings of minority names.


Chili and Whangkeumbae pear were used to examine the fruit firmness,ethylene production rate,soluble pectin content and the expression patterns of seven PcEXPA genes in this paper.During the postharvest storage,the fruit firmness of both Chili and Whangkeumbae pear were decreased,while Chili fruit maintained higher fruit firmness than Whangkeumbae fruit.The soluble pectin content of Whangkeumbae pear was higher than that of Chili pear.The expression of seven PcEXPA genes showed that the expression of PcEXPA2 was consistent with the changes of fruit firmness and the ethylene production rate,and were down-regulated by 1-MCP treatment in the two varieties of pear.PcEXPA2 was closely related to the fruit softening of Chili and Whangkeumbae pear.


From the current researches of deterraining leading industry' s evaluating indexes, this paper points out their drawbacks and selects a series of evaluating indexes from the theory of leading industry. Basing on the factor analysis method and taking Chongqing as example,it estab-lishes a synthetical method of evaluating and deterraining the leading industry.


relationship between blacks and whites is what has made the South distinctive and the substantial scholarly achievements of the last twenty years have insured blacks a significant place in Southern historiography. By comparison, the literature on race in the West lacks the stature of Southern studies. ' Western historians of race relations have, however, accomplished more collectively than the lack of major works in their bibliography might indicate. They may have provided, without fully intending to do so, a new basis for the cherished Western pretensions to distinctiveness which otherwise seem doomed to crumble. Race relations, not usually a matter of local pride in the West, has become one of the few possible foundations on which to base Western regionalism. Hofstadter noted almost twenty years ago in an eloquent and telling criticism of Frederick Jackson Turner, the greatest of the historians of the frontier had hardly responded to the existence of minorities in the West "the pathetic tale of the Indians, anti-Mexican, and anti-Chinese nativism. " Despite Hofstadter's point that the "anguish of history, as well as its romance and charm, is there for the historian who responds to it," long after Turner, leading Western historians responded only to the anguish of those who were white. There is much more to minority history than victimization, but for a reminder of the limited sympathy that historians gave to the victims of oppression, it is only necessary to glance through Walter Prescott Webb's Texas Rangers (1935). Webb's admiration for ranger heroics obscures their daily and often brutal job of keeping those without white skins in their place. In a way Turner, Webb and lesser lights were unintentionally academic rangers themselves; they wrote of minorities only in terms of conquest and control. The history of nonwhites became justification of their subordination and, once thoroughly subordinated, minorities seemed to vanish from the historians' horizon.2 As long as Turner's frontier thesis dominated the study of the West, minorities could not seem significant because the importance of the West was contained in


In this paper, bacterial water quality of bottled water in China was reviewed. National spot-check results revealed that 17.5% of samples were contaminated, 79.3% of which were due to exceeding microbial level. The annual infectious risk of people drinking bottled water everyday exceeded 1:10000 for all ages. Assuming acceptable risk is 10−4 per year, it would be considered safe if annual exposure times are less than 78 days. Strict adherence to principles of good manufacturing practices is essential through process control and personal hygiene should be maintained at the processing facility, to reduce the infection risks. Enforcement of the existing regulations and laws is also necessary to achieve this goal. Further research is needed on relationships between common bacteria and pathogens in drinking water, in order to better understand the ecology of microorganisms, and to perform a better health risk analysis for pathogens in bottled water.


Multi-agent systems technology has generated lots of incitements, because of it used for distributed, intelligent and safety critical system. The failure of some system may cause the loss of human life, severe injuries, loss of money and environmental damages. To get the robust, safe and reliable multi-agent system it requires formal modeling and step by step refinement for its construction and development. Some of the formal specification-based languages, such as, VDM, Object-Z and RAISE have been used for its modeling using abstract modeling approach. However, due to the distributed environment of agents and their communications, both graphical and abstract modeling is required to capture the agent behavior and their communication. In this research we present a formal modeling technique based on communicating stream X-machine and Z notation to formally specify the multi-agent systems. Initially, we decompose the complex system into standalone agents and model it using X-machine. Further, the model is specified using Z-notation. For communication between agents, we specify communication mechanism using communicating X-machine. Moreover, the model is transform to Z-notation to prove its syntax by using Z/EVES tool. The main theme of the paper is to see the visual development of agents using X and stream X-machine and then to transform it to the abstract model for its proof and syntax verification.


The article presents research data for the creation of local, adapted to the conditions of the region of the Aral Sea crisis, i.e. Uzbekistan, high-yielding maize hybrids of different maturity groups and directions of economic use, combining complex resistance to adverse environmental factors, high productivity and improved grain quality. These studies have led to the creation of new maize hybrids for spring and summer sowing.


Reconfiguration technologies have an increasing role in the evolution of mobile system towards heterogeneous ubiquitous infrastructures. The present contribution initially discusses business model aspects for reconfigurable systems and services. Furthermore, it elaborates on advanced reconfigurability functionality, in the form of an innovative Reconfigurability Management Plane, which addresses the coordination of the end-to-end reconfiguration process in next generation wireless networks.


generations and we are getting better at it all the time. And that is why we are the Establishment. The paper by James Vargiu and Naomi Remen ("What Is Health For-Human Priorities in Health Care"), also in the December issue, had more substance. However, the idea is not new. Virtually every day clinicians face the problem of dealing with patients in the total context of their environment and life-style, often making compromises with optimal care to meet the peculiar demands or the situation or the patient. In combat-perhaps the cardinal example-medical officers are obliged to make many medical compromises in order to keep soldiers in condition to meet the impossible demands of warfare. Physicians working with athletes in a game or attending statesmen at a major international conference, or businessmen at a key board meeting, face the same issue of keeping the patients functioning within the circumstances and environment-often at the cost of some compromise with ideal methods of management. These are short-term situations, but much the same thing occurs in long-term management. How does one deal with patients with chronic obstructive airways disease who continue to smoke, or alcoholic patients who cannot seem to stop drinking, or other sick patients who abuse themselves through lack of intellectual discipline or because of emotional instability-which are often anathema to the physician. Yet such persons stand in dire need of our support and service. One does not desert such patients. The physician attempts to do his best to keep the patient functioning, for as long as possible. Quality of life has entered the equation; it stands beside survival. As I have written in other places, the patient is the captain of his body and soul; he may opt for the disciplined life (diet, exercise, avoidance of unhealthful habits-which can represent a sterile, unacceptable life-style for many) or he may elect the short but happy life, taking advantage of all the pleasures of body and spirit, enjoying every hour, willing to accept less time but utilizing it to the fullest. Who is to say who is wrong? And a physician who becomes judgmental is in the wrong business. A physician may elect to avoid having responsibility for the patient who abuses his body or tortures his mind, but it always must be placed in the total context of our mission, as physicians to patients. Holistic MedicineA Personal Approach


Today, most of the innovation in the automotive domain is in the areas of electronics and software. Modern cars have already been transformed, from largely mechanical entities, to complex embedded systems running on four wheels. High-end cars currently have around 100 electronic control units (ECUs), each with one or more, possibly multicore, processors. These ECUs communicate using different communication buses such as CAN, FlexRay, LIN, and more recently also Ethernet, and are connected to various cameras, radars, ultrasonic sensors, and also to a host of actuators. Such architectures are used to run several millions of lines of software code spanning across safety-critical, driver assistance, comfort, and entertainment related applications.


The impact of esterified palm oil (EPO) on the morphological, physical, and mechanical properties of bacterial cellulose (BC) was evaluated. BC was impregnated with 0.5-2.5% (w/v) of EPO in acetone water. The scanning electron microscope exhibited that EPO filling up the cellulose fiber and covered the porous cellulose structure provided the thicker and smoother surface. Subjection of EPO into BC gave rise to inconsiderable change in crystallinity and resulted in reduced tensile strength and Young's modulus but increased the fracture work and elongation at break. A substantial reduction in tensile strength and Young's modulus as well as the increase in fracture work and elongation at break was reached at 2.5% EPO addition. The addition of EPO lead to a BC with less rigid, more ductile, and more toughness properties. EPO expelled water in BC which was indicated by the decline of water absorption capacity.


Сracks of the bedplate and bearing damages with grave consequences took place in operation of 6NVD48A2 auxiliary engine. Measurements of vibration of 6NVD48A2 auxiliary engine and bedplate were made to examine construction rigidity and probability of damages due to resonance vibration. Measurements of vibration were made in three mutually perpendicular directions concerning ship's diametric plain: vertical, horizontal traverse and horizontal fore-and-aft. On the base of vibration records the file of vibration process ordinates was generated. The subsequent calculation was made using harmonic analysis program. The amplitude-time characteristic of bedplate vibration was got. The comparison of frequencies of natural vibrations of constructions on which diesel generator installed with frequencies provoked by diesel generator operation indicates that they are out of resonance ranges. The character of damages, calculations and vibration measurements make allow to assume the damages of diesel generators are result of wrong material for the working surface of journal bearin.


IN RECENT YEARS THE USE OF CRUSHED STONE FINES TO TAKE THE PLACE OF SOME NATURAL QUARTZ SAND HAS INCREASED IN BITUMINOUS CONCRETE WORK. SUCH MIXES OF CRUSHED MATERIALS ARE HARSHER AND MORE DIFFICULT TO COMPACT THAN THOSE CONTAINING PREDOMINANTLY NATURAL SAND FINES. AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THESE CHANGES WAS UNDERTAKEN AND HAD AS ITS DUAL OBJECTIVES: (1) THE DETERMINATION OF RATIONAL STANDARDS OF COMPACTION OF BITUMINOUS CONCRETE, AND (2) THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RELIABLE SYSTEM OF COMPACTION OR DENSITY CONTROL. DATA ARE PRESENTED FROM SEVERAL HUNDRED DENSITY MEASUREMENTS ON CORES TAKEN FROM COMPACTED BITUMINOUS CONCRETE OF ALL TYPES USED BY THE COUNTRY ROADS BOARD WHICH INDICATE THAT CONVENTIONAL STANDARDS OF COMPACTION ARE RARELY ACHIEVED. EXPERIMENTAL WORK IS DESCRIBED WHICH LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF USEFUL EQUATIONS RELATING THE IN-SITU AIR PERMEABILITY OF FRESHLY ROLLED BITUMINOUS CONCRETE WITH THE VOID CONTENT OF CORES TAKEN AFTER COMPLETION OF CONSTRUCTION ROLLING. GOOD AGREEMENT BETWEEN PREDICTED AND LABORATORY MEASURED VOID CONTENTS HAS BEEN OBTAINED. THESE EQUATIONS HAVE BEEN COMBINED IN A SEQUENTIAL SAMPLING SCHEME TO FORM A SIMPLE SYSTEM OF COMPACTION CONTROL WHICH IS BASED ON STATISTICAL PRINCIPLES. /RRL/A/


The main purpose of this thesis project was to develop measuring methods on wood. Methods for static and dynamic measuring of deformation and dimensional change in 300x20x20 mm wooden sticks wer ...


Sir, The candid reception I met with, when I took the liberty of addressing you in November 1764 by my friend John Ellis, Esq; a case somewhat uncommon, emboldens me, at this time, to communicate part of a letter I have lately received from my son, Fleming Martin, Esq; chief engineer at Bengall, dated 1st october 1765; giving an account of the incredible heat attending that climate, with some other observations, &c.


This paper investigates the interaction of structural change and the labor share. We use a series of thought experiments that combine theoretical assumptions underlying labor markets in Baumol and Lewis with the accounting of a sectoral decomposition of the labor share. The focus lies on a shift of employment from progressive to stagnant activities. To single out this shift, we construct simplified, hypothetical economies of Baumolian and Lewisian type. A thus sharpened Occam's
razor leads to clear and illustrative results: Baumolian structural change is inconsistent with the facts, whereas Lewisian outcomes conform to observed phenomena. A key issue in the relevant Lewisian scenario is that progressive activities take center stage. The details of our contribution are as follows. First, the sectoral decomposition shows that increasing stagnant sector employment shares coincides with downward decoupling in progressive activities, despite the fact that stagnant sector labor shares are higher. Second, we formulate cases based on the most consequential assumptions outlined in Baumol (1967) and Lewis (1954). Key results are that: (i) stagnant sector distribution dominates under Baumolian structural change; (ii) Lewisian structural change entertains the possibility of hysteresis; and (iii) decoupling of wages and productivity growth emerges only
in the Lewis classical model.


Kuwait Social Security Association (SSA) expects to face actuarial deficit by year 2019. The SSA applies a long term investment fund system since 1977. The genero sity of the system so far is not affecting the wealth of this funding plan. However, many studies expect that the SSA will face an actuarial deficit by year 2019. This paper modifies an actuarial model by Beekman and Kabir (1997) to test the possibility of applying pay as you go method in the Kuwaiti system. The paper also modifies a model by Booth et al (1998) to be applied on present Kuwaiti system. The aim is to compare the required contribution by the applied fund system with pay as you go method based on the actual and speculated pay out in Kuwait.


A postmortem human brain collection to study posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is critical for uncovering the molecular mechanisms that contribute to this psychiatric disorder. We describe here the PTSD brain collection at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, Maryland, consisting of postmortem brain donations acquired between 2012 and 2017. Thus far, 87 brains from individuals meeting DSM‐5 criteria for PTSD were collected after consent was obtained from legal next‐of‐kin, and subsequently clinically characterized for molecular studies. PTSD brain donors had high rates of comorbid diagnoses, including depression (62.1%), substance abuse (74.7%), drug‐related death (69.0%), and suicide completion (17.2%). PTSD cases were subdivided into two categories: combat‐related PTSD (n = 24) and noncombat/domestic PTSD (n = 63). The major differences between the combat‐related and domestic PTSD cohorts were sex, drug‐related death, and the prevalence of bipolar disorder (BPD) comorbidity. The combat‐related group was entirely male, with only one BPD subject (4.2%), and had significantly fewer drug‐related deaths (45.8%) in contrast to the domestic group (31.8% male, 36.5% bipolar, and 77.8% drug‐related deaths). Medical examiners' offices, particularly in areas with higher military populations, are an excellent source for PTSD brain donations of both combat‐related and domestic PTSD.


In 2005 the Study Group on the Russian Revolution (SGRR) reached its 30th anniversary. To mark that occasion, a roundtable discussion took place at its XXXIst Annual Conference on the founding, history, present and future of the group. Presented here is a summary of that discussion, together with additional comments and reminiscences that were supplied subsequently by the founders of the group, John Biggart, David Longley and Bob Service, as well as other sometime or long‐time stalwarts of the SGRR. Appended is the Group's launch 'manifesto', a record of the first 29 annual conferences of the SGRR, reproductions of the three issues of its occasional information sheet, Listok, from the 1980s and details of the SGRR's publishing activities.


Abstract : I am interested in the general problems of internal waves and the ocean mixing. Knowledge of these is important for advancing the performance of operational and climate models, as well as for understanding local problems such as pollutant dispersal and biological productivity. In the specific case of this DRI s focus, nonlinear internal waves (NLIW), the waves' currents and displacements are strong enough to impact Navy operations such as diving, ROV operation and mine detection/removal. To understand the generation mechanisms, and predict the arrival times, of large NLIW in the northeastern South China Sea (SCS). To observe NLIW packets and estimate their energy and energy flux in the 2007 South China Sea experiment. To relate these to the energy and energy-flux in the low-mode tide, and to measurements of overturn-inferred turbulence.


FIELD: electrical engineering. SUBSTANCE: drive includes hollow internal and external case made of magnetic material. External case is concentric relative to internal case and radially distanced from it. Internal and external permanent magnets adjacent to external surface of internal case and to inner surface of external case and mounted to maintain specified gap between these magnets, solenoid capable to move linearly axially between internal and external permanent magnets, and nonmagnetic moving element one end of which contains mounted solenoid, and capable to move linearly axially between internal and external permanent magnets under electromagnetic repulsive force generated by interaction of magnetic fields of internal and external permanent magnets and current of solenoid. Switch includes drive and insulating actuating rod connected to another end of moving element and linearly moved by moving element to perform closing and releasing. EFFECT: basic design of electromagnetic circuit breaker. 29 cl, 21 dwg


The methods of step by step synthesis of N-Acetyl-1, 6-diaminohexane (NADAH) onto the diol silica have developed. Hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) and metabolite NADAH are inducers of leukemia cells differentiation. The results show that some calf thymus DNA has stronger hydrophobic interaction since some DNA were eluted out while the ion intensity was decreased very low until below that of the normal physiological conditions, but no notable ion-exchange. These suggested that HMBA and NADAH should exist the hydrophobic interaction with some DNA in the process of their inducing tumor cells differentiation.


The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing pupils when they individually solve problems in mathematics in grades 4-9 in the compulsory school (ages: 10-16 years). The method that has been used is an analyses of the solutions of 25 problems given to each grade. Some of the problems were the same in all grades and about 100 pupils participated in each grade. Through an examination of the errors made by the pupils it has been possible to extract some abilities, which I have called factors, influencing problem solving. The factors have been indirectly described through categories of errors, made by the pupils. 16 factors have been identified, 9 factors belong to the cognitive development, 6 to the mathematical learning in school and one to an individual feature of carelessness. As a result of the extracted factors a model of problemsolving was built including all factors. Of all errors made by the pupils in all problems the cognitive factors contributed with about 60 %, the mathematical factors with 25 % and the individual factor with 15 %. This was valid in all grades. Comparisons between grades show that there is a great distribution of the pupils´ ability in problem solving. On an average 25 % of all pupils in grades 4 and 5 are able to solve a problem which 25 % of all pupils in grade 9 do not manage to work out. Comparisons between girls and boys have also been made concerning the proportion of correct answers in all problems. In grades 4 and 5 there are small differences but in grades 6-9 the boys have about 20 % more correct answers than the girls.


This paper proposes a method to simplify development of a mixed signal test standard by assigning the analog interconnect test to IEEE 1149.1 and the analog measurement test to IEEE P1149.4.


With the arrival of spatial technologies, digital photogrammetric restitution has facilitated the integration of historical flights into GIS, making it possible to analyse historical flights as if it were current data. In this paper we discuss how we have incorporated this technique in a survey project, using photogrammes taken by the USAF in 1956. We have created ortho-images and digital elevation models from a region that was completely flooded in the 1960's.


Acknowledgment I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors Professor Claus Weihs and Professor Mohamed Limam. This thesis would not have been possible without their encouragement, guidance and support. I am deeply indebted to the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) for financing my study and for giving me the chance to conduct my research in such high quality environment. Many thanks go to my DAAD coordinator Mrs Cornelia Hanzlik-Rudolph for her valuable help and advice. I would also like to acknowledge my colleagues Björn Bornkamp and Adrian Wilk for helping me with valuable advice during the start of my study at the University of Dortmund. I am heartily thankful to Mrs Sabine Bell for her great efforts throughout my stay at the university. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their support. I am greatly and forever indebted to my parents for their love and generosity throughout my entire life.


Equality of education opportunity is the important content of beginning educational fairness,but the beginning fairness is not equal to the fairness of education process or result.If we didn't give sufficient consideration to the financial situation and cultural background of students with financial hardship,it would be disadvantageous to the poor college students.This paper analyses the disadvantageous factors that influence educational fairness of poor college students.It also discusses how to promote the educational fairness of poor college students.


Background The treat-to-target concept is currently applied to gout [1] and a composite outcome to measure disease activity may serve as a target in clinical practice. Strategies for achieving the target are still not individualized and the ability to adjust the treatment on an individual basis using prognostic information from predictive models might help practitioners to identify patients with a high or low probability of remission or disease inactivity. Objectives To develop a prediction model for disease inactivity in gouty patients. Methods Data were retrieved from the Kick-off of the Italian Network for Gout (KING) observational cohort multicentre study on behalf of the Italian Society for Rheumatology. The gout activity score (GAS) [2,3] was used as validated outcome to define inactive disease (cut off <2.5) at 12 months in gouty patients with active disease at baseline and receiving the standard of care in two visits 6 months apart. Logistic regression analyses and backwards elimination of baseline predictors with bootstrap resampling were used to develop parsimonious models. Performance and correction for optimism were assessed. Missing data were handled through multiple imputation by chained equations (50 completed datasets). Results Out of 446 patients enrolled from 30 rheumatology centres, 265 (59%) had active disease at baseline (mean age 63±11 years, male 91%, median disease duration 7 years, tophi 23%, urate lowering therapy 82%, mean serum urate [sUA] levels 6.7±1.6 mg/dl) and a 12-month visit. In 34% (65/206) gout was inactive at 12 months. From 20 candidate predictors (complete cases n=150) disease duration, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), number of flares in the previous 12 months, presence of tophi, sUA <6 mg/dl, visual analogue scale (VAS) global patient, and baseline GAS were selected. The performance of the four developed models is shown in table. In the completed case analysis (n = 258) the c-statistics (95% confidence interval [CI]) of models 1 to 4 were 0.79(0.73-0.85), 0.78(0.72-0.84), 0.76(0.70-0.82), and 0.74(0.68-0.81), respectively. MODEL 1 2 3 4 PREDICTORS β 95% CI β 95% CI β 95% CI β 95% CI Disease duration -0.07 -0.11,-0.02 -0.06 -0.11, -0.02 -0.06 -0.11, -0.02 -0.08 -0.12, -0.03 Current NSAIDs -1.14 -2.24,-0.05 -0.96 -2.02, -0.10 -1.09 -2.12, -0.05 -0.85 -1.87, 0.18 Last 12 months flares -0.42 -0.70, -0.13 -0.23 -0.41, -0.06 -0.25 -0.05, -0.06 - - sUA <6 mg/dl 1.68 0.38, 2.98 0.82 0.00, 1.65 0.76 -0.06, 1.57 - - Tophi -1.66 -3.18, -0.14 -0.68 -1.65, 0.29 -0.73 -1.79, 0.32 - - VAS patient disease -0.64 -1.28, 0.00 -0.09 -0.24, 0.06 - - - - Baseline GAS 1.59 -0.20, 3.38 - - - - -0.47 -0.83, -0.12 Intercept -3.50 -8.36, 1.34 0.76 0.00, 1.52 0.60 -0.10, 1.31 2.03 0.64, 3.43 PERFORMANCE C-statistic 0.81 0.73, 0.88 0.81 0.73, 0.88 0.80 0.73, 0.87 0.77 0.69, 0.85 Optimism-corrected 0.77 0.78 0.78 0.77 Hosmer–Lemeshow test 0.64 0.37 0.38 0.49 Conclusion These preliminary prediction models for inactive disease showed good performance in gouty patients from a real-life secondary setting. External validation in ad-hoc studies is required to identify the best model and to search for additional predictors and increase its predictive performance. References [1] Kiltz U, et al. Ann Rheum Dis2017 [2] Sciré CA, et al. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken)2016 [3] La-Crette J, et al. Joint Bone Spine2018 Disclosure of Interests Nicola Ughi Speakers bureau: Pfizer, Grunenthal, Greta Carrara: None declared, Anna Zanetti: None declared, Marco Amedeo Cimmino Grant/research support from: Menarini, Consultant for: Menarini International, Maria Manara: None declared, Marcello Govoni Paid instructor for: Pfizer, Roche, Speakers bureau: Pfizer, Abbvie, MSD, Roche, Eli-Lilly, Celgene, Sanofi, Janssen, Fausto Salaffi Grant/research support from: Abbvie, Roche, Novartis, BMS, Pfizer, Sanofi, Speakers bureau: Abbvie, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, BMS, Leonardo Punzi Consultant for: BMS, Fidia, Grunenthal, Menarini, Speakers bureau: BMS, Fidia, Grunenthal, Menarini, Carlomaurizio Montecucco Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Sanofi, Genzyme, Lilly, MSD, Pfizer, UCB, Marco Matucci-Cerinic Grant/research support from: Actelion, MSD, Pfizer, BMS, Chemomab, Sanipedia, Speakers bureau: Actelion, BMS; MSD, Janssen, giovanni minisola: None declared, Antonella Zambon: None declared, Carlo Alberto Scirè: None declared


Severe type I plasminogen deficiency may cause severe ligneous conjunctivitis, a rare and unusual form of chronic pseudo‐membranous conjunctivitis that usually starts in early infancy, but also pseudo‐membranous lesions of other mucous membranes in the mouth, nasopharynx, trachea and female genital tract, and in rare cases congenital occlusive hydrocephalus.


About 100 groundnut pod and soil samples were collected from different locations of North Gujarat and were tested for soil population of A. flavus, percent seed infection and aflatoxin contamination. The average soil population of A. flavus of Kachchh district (4.93 x 103 cfu g-1soil) was slightly higher than Banaskantha district (4.90 x 103 cfu g-1 soil). Minimum soil population of A. flavus was recorded with the variety J-11 grown as rainfed. Moreover, it was maximum when groundnut crops were grown after groundnut whereas; minimum after pulse crops; and a little difference between the irrigated and the rainfed samples were recorded.
The average of seed infection was higher in the Banaskantha district than the Kachchh. Maximum seed infection was recorded in the variety GG-20 grown as irrigated; whereas minimum in the variety J-11 cultivated in rainfed. Maximum seed infection was recorded when groundnut was grown as previous crop, while minimum when pulses were grown as previous crops. Irrigated crops showed higher seed infection as compared to the rainfed crops.
None of the samples were found free from aflatoxin, but 51.00 per cent of the samples were within the safe limits. The average of Kachchh district was 14.22 ppb whereas in Banaskantha, it was 15.33 ppb .According to variety, the maximum aflatoxin (21.34 ppb) was recorded in the variety GG-2 cultivated in irrigated condition, while the variety J-11 cultivated in rainfed condition recorded minimum aflatoxin (4.55 ppb). Groundnut cultivated after groundnut recorded maximum, whereas it was minimum when pulses where grown as previous crops.


The present study assessed the amount of uptake owing to concrete carbonation through a case study for an apartment building with a principal wall system and an office building with Rahmen system under different exposed environments during use phase and recycling application. The uptake assessment owing to concrete carbonation followed the procedure established by Yang et al. As input data necessary for the case study, actual surveys conducted in 2012 in Korea, which included data about the climate environments, concentration, lifecycle inventory database, life expectancy of structures, and recycling activity scenario, were used. From the comparisons with the emissions from concrete production, the uptake during the lifetime of structures was estimated to be 5.5~5.7% and that during recycling activity after demolition was 10~12%; as a result, the amount of uptake owing to concrete carbonation can be estimated to be 15.5~17% of the emissions from concrete production, which roughly corresponds to 18-21% of the emissions from cement production as well.


Optical polarization effects in an isotropic medium with ultrasonically induced anisotropy are discussed. For parameters in the intermediate diffraction regime, the possibility is shown to change acoustically the state of light polarization in a continuous way from linear to elliptical or circular


The Indian government has agreed a new health policy programme that will introduce free drugs and diagnostic services into public hospitals across the country.

The National Health Policy 2017 will also lead to a phased increase in healthcare spending from the current 1.15% to 2.5% of India's gross domestic product.

The plan, designed to help the country achieve "universal access to good quality healthcare services," will expand existing primary healthcare packages to cover cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, mental health, rehabilitation, and palliative care.

The policy emphasises the need for a "stronger partnership" between the public and private healthcare sectors, and says that the government …


Calcium channels are represented by at least 9 distinct genes (calcium channel classes A-I), corresponding to at least 5 functional and pharmacological "types" (L, N, P/Q, R and T). Selective L-, N-, and T-type channel antagonists are either in clinical use or in late stage clinical trials, while antagonists of P/Q channels are known to be toxic. No selective ligand has been identified for the R-type (class E), and its function and pharmacology are consequently, poorly understood. We review recent work on the discovery and initial characterization of SNX-482, the first known selective antagonist of R-type calcium channels. SNX-482 is a 41 residue acidic peptide with three disulfide bonds that has been isolated from the venom of the African tarantula, Hysterocrates gigas. In cell-based assays, it is a potent and selective inhibitor of the class E or R-type calcium channel. SNX-482 blocks some but not all native R-type currents: it blocks an R-type current in vertebrate neurohypophysis, but it does not block an R-type current in cerebellar granule cells. The peptide blocks oxytocin but not vasopressin release, suggesting a possible utility for SNX-482 as a neuroendocrine modulator. The peptide possesses antiseizure activity in several animal models of epilepsy, suggesting that class E antagonists may have pharmacological use in seizure disorders.


A series of 2-phenylbenzoxazole liquid crystals having intramolecular hydrogen-bonded Schiff's base linkers have been synthesised. All of them exhibit liquid crystalline phase behaviour. They showed only SmC phase transition. The phase is stabilised over a wide temperature range due to the presence of intramolecular H-bonding.


Adaptation Theory systematically studies people's use of language during communicating process;it points out that communicators dynamically choose different language candidates for different factors.Code-switching,which is always used by foreign teachers in class,is the embodiment of the adaptation of class environment.Studies on the reason and function of foreign teacher's code-switching in class can improve the teaching effectiveness and students' English proficiency.


uring more than 40 years of existence, the APL Space Department hascontributed significantly to national security and has greatly advanced our knowledgein space and Earth sciences. A strong system engineering capability and an approachto problem solving that stresses innovation have enabled the Department to advancethe state of the art in space systems design and to provide cost-effective solutions fora variety of problems of national importance. This article summarizes the lasting impactof these accomplishments. Space Department contributions in science range frompioneering work in satellite geodesy to important discoveries about particles and fieldsin space. With its early emphasis on reliability and miniaturization of spaceflightinstruments and spacecraft, the Department has been a leader in developing spacetechnology and innovative mission designs. Today's slogan of "better, faster, cheaper"describes standard practice for the Department. We expect the next 40 years to beequally productive as we prepare to meet the challenges of the next millennium.(Keywords: Satellite navigation, Space mission design, Space science, Space technol-ogy, Spacecraft engineering.)


Observer studies are frequently performed to test new modalities. Correct study design is important to generate reliable results. Two most frequently used observer study designs are the sequential and the independent reading design. We investigated the effect of different observer study designs on reader performance results and statistical power. The study included multiple assessments of chest radiographs (CXR) with bone suppression images (BSI) for the detection of lung nodules. In a fully crossed study design 8 observers assessed first radiographs without and with BSI sequentially. Secondly they scored radiographs independently having BSI available from the beginning. Five months later, the same readers scored the same cases again in an independent reading session, completing the three scorings for CXRs with BSI. Observer performance was compared using multi reader multi case (MRMC) receiver operating characteristics (ROC). To estimate reader variance, Dorfman, Berbaum, Metz (DBM) variance component estimates were calculated. No significant difference between the sequential and the independent reading sessions could be found (p=0.51; p=0.61). Both reading designs showed increased performance with BSI, with a significant increase for the sequential and the independent reading session after five months (p=0.002; p=0.007). Total observer variance between sequential and independent reading design remained the same. A strong increase of uncorrelated components was found in the independent reading sessions, masking the ability to demonstrate differences in observer performance across modalities. In conclusion, results of the sequential and the independent study design did not show a significant difference. The independent study design had less power compared to the sequential study design due to a strong increase of uncorrelated variance components.


Recently, the researches to discovery drug candidates from natural herbs have received considerable attention. In human body, enzyme mostly metabolize the compounds of natural herbs. In this study, we analysis the enzyme interactions using assoication mining. We get this data from BRENDA(: BRaunschweig ENzyme DAtabase) system. Based on enzyme interaction model, we divide the metabolites into substrate metabolites, product metabolites, inhibitor metabolites, and activating metabolites. We then compose substrate metabolite transaction, product metabolite transaction with each metabolites and enzyme interaction transaction with all metabolites. Also we take account of organism for each transactions. We mine frequent metabolites and patterns from six transactions using association rule mining. And we analysis the relationship among metabolites. As a result, we identify the distributions and patterns of metabolites consist in enzyme interactions. We found that metabolites include in only substrate are identified and have very low supports. This results can be useful to develop the effective metabolism prediction model for compounds of natural herbs.


Olefin oligomer/organic ester blends were selected as the synthesized base stocks for the two synthesized commercial engine oils discussed in this paper. These two fluids were selected for extensive evaluation after screening countless other possibilities. The first oil (Syn A) is an SAE 10W-30 product formulated without a VI improver to provide absolute shear stability. The second oil (Syn B) is an SAE 5W-30 product formulated to achieve significant fuel economy benefits. This oil contains a small quantity of a highly shear stable VI improver. A variety of standard and extended duration diesel performance tests were conducted, including API and CD tests. Findings show Syn B to be superior to Syn A in terms of fuel economy benefits and cold-temperature starts, but both synthetics are better than most widely used mineral oils. Extended drain capability and high temperature stability and compatability with current lubricants and engine seals are characteristics of both synthetics.


The motivation for this work is based on two recognized research issues for digital libraries. One is the need for interlinked and semantically rich information spaces where relationship informatio ...


In this paper, we have investigated the reconstruction of the polarization states (degree of polarization (DoP) and angle of polarization (AoP)) of the incident light which passed through a 10 km atmospheric medium between the satellite and the Earth. Here, we proposed a more practical atmospheric model in which the 10 km atmospheric medium is divided into ten layers to be appropriate for the Monte Carlo simulation algorithm. Based on this model, the polarization retrieve (PR) method can be used for reconstructing the initial polarization information effectively, and the simulated results demonstrate that the mean errors of the retrieved DoP and AoP are very close to zero. Moreover, the results also show that although the atmospheric medium system is fixed, the Mueller matrices for the downlink and uplink are completely different, which shows that the light transmissions in the two links are irreversible in the layered atmospheric medium system.


A tube bomb microautoclave reactor system and a continuous delayed coke unit have been constructed, in which both basic research and process experiments have been done for heavy coal liquid coking. The key problem of heavy coal liquid coking in the preheaters have been solved successfully. The optimum run conditions and the ideal delayed coke products have been obtained.


This research outlined how the nursing education of patients grew from the end of World War II to the 1980s, and examined its various implications using documentary research methodologies centered on collecting, interpreting, and analyzing archives. From the standpoint of patient education, I aimed to establish a more effective setup within continuing practice, emphasizing the basic principle of moving from a nurse-centered to a patient-centered approach and incorporating an interdisciplinary methodology combined with practical thinking centered on behavioral sciences and self-care. This is the process of moving from the provision of abstract and generalized to specific and individualized information; teacher-taught to mutually supportiveand generalized to specific and individualized information; teacher-taught to mutually supportive relationship; unidirectional leadership to practice based on behavioral science; and issue resolution to clarification. By adapting to practical action in this way, patient education has grown methodologically both from an interdisciplinary perspective and as an independent field of study.


Web Application is a kind of complex software systems.Current development tools focus primarily on implementation, while little consideration of the maintenance and evolution of software.During the process of development,developers are often faced with a puzzle,that is,when maintaining and evolving a Web application, they can often only get the implementation code,it's hard for them to gain a better understanding of the application architecture.In this paper,the problem which exists in the Web Application developing process is analyzed from the point of Web engineering,and a XMLbased and objectorientation technologybased Web Application Component Description Language (WACDL)is put forward.The essential idea of WACDL is introduced in brief,and an example is presented.


The utility model relates to a surface adhering grounded elastic sheet which comprises a first curve part, a second curve part and a third curve part, wherein the first curve part and the third curve part respectively extend outward from two arms of the second curve part; the first curve part and the third curve part are respectively provided with cantilevers which are welded with a circuit board or contacted with earthing contacts; the cantilevers of the first curve part and the third curve part respectively extend out of the first curve part and the third curve part along the direction which is opposite to the direction to which the two arms of the second curve part extend; the two arms of the second curve part are opposite and have certain slant. The sum of a first gap between the cantilever of the first curve part and the second curve part and a second gap between the cantilever of the third curve part and the second curve part is equal to a third gap between the first curve part and the third curve part.


First published in the English language in a slightly different form under the title Blonde bad and beautiful, September 1957. Published as Hong Kong caper in Australia October 1962. Horwitz IE71


[Objective]To investigate the clinical efficacy of eye-acupuncture plus scalp acupuncture for migraine patients. [Methods]Using randomized controlled methods,100 cases clinic patients according to number were randomly divided into two groups.control group50 scalp acupuncture,"huatuopai" filiform needle Choose the Sitting or lying position, After the normal degermation of acupoints,select the point of frontal medium belt, Lateral Line 1 of Forehead front1/3,middle1/3,posterior1/3.each three point Relay acupuncture,oblique acupuncture fast,needle with scalp skin showed 25°~ 45°angle,depth of needle insertion was 20 mm,needle-retained time 30 min,once/day.Treatment group 40 cases,Use of eyeacupuncture,Taking point according to Pengjinshan'yanzhenliaofa':double side area of shangjiao,renal,liver,The same time,view the eyes to know disease,take the most obvious choroid and deeply color area;take the method of porch skin cross needing:to be used of orbital outer,find the limit of the meridian area,all the point distance between orbital about,2mm,porch skin needling,prick into subcutis,not deeply;one hand hold the needle,another hand press eyelid,right thumb finger pinching needle handle pierce into quickly;not take manipulations of lifting thruting and twirling rotating,if not deqi can scraping the needle stalk;retaining needle for 30-minute,once/day;The scalp acupuncture group is the same to treatment group。Continuous 7days of one treatment。Continuous 4 courses(28d)of treatment,the curative effect Observed clinical symptoms 、headache index、Integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes、Adverse Reaction。[Results] Treatment group:20 had been cured,16 displayed apparent improvement,and 11 had effectiveness,3cases got evidently effect,the total effective rate was 94.00%。Control group: 16 had been cured,10 displayed apparent improvement,and 10 had effectiveness,14 cases got evidently effect,the total effective rate was 72.00%。Treatment group is better than control group(P0.05)[Conclusion]Eyeacupuncture combined with scalp in the treatment of migraine has satisfied clinical curative effect,and better than the control group,it deserves further research and promotion.


With the becoming of the age of data science, data as a primary resource requires protection, not only with respect to privacy. Still, many data driven technologies ask for the sharing of data with external experts, labs and other collaborators. Data fingerprinting and watermarking describes a set of techniques in order to protect the ownership of data even after sharing and enabling the identification of so-called data leaks, i.e. they make it possible to identify the leaking data recipient of a data set. In this work we provide a novel approach for watermarking whole databases based on steganographic methods that are robust against changes in the stored data set.


'Who art thou that comest before thy time?' And I to him: 'If I come, I remain not; but thou, who art thou, that hast become so foul?' He answered: 'Thou seest that I am one who weep.' And I to him: 'With weeping, and with sorrow, accursed spirit, remain thou! for I know thee, all filthy as thou art.' Then he stretched both hands to the boat, whereat he wary master thrust him off, saying: 'Away there with the other dogs!' And he put his arms around my neck, kissed my face, and said: 'Indignant soul! blessed be she that bore thee. In your world that was an arrogant personage; good there is none to ornament the memory of him: so is his shadow here in rage. How many above there now think themselves great kings, that shall lie here like swine in mire, leaving behind them horrible reproaches!' And I: 'Master, I should be glad to see him dipped in this swill, ere we quit the lake.' And he to me: 'Before the shore comes to thy view, thou shalt be satisfied; it is fitting that thou shouldst be gratified in such a wish!' A little after this, I saw the muddy people make such rending of him that even now I praise and thank God for it. All cried: 'At Filippo Argenti!' The passionate Florentine spirit urned with his teeth upon himself. Here we left him, so that of him I tell no more.


The same survey of a self-administered questionnaire was handed out to introductory macroeconomics students in Spring 2014 and Spring 2015 at the University of Macedonia in Greece, to determine students' perceptions of how including the Greek financial crisis (GFC) in the teaching of introductory macroeconomics benefits students. The methodology of the survey is quantitative in nature based on descriptive statistics and t-tests were carried out for each variable of interest. The research questions under examination are: 1) Did the incorporation of the GFC in the teaching of introductory macroeconomies influence university students' perceptions about the course?; 2) Did the evaluations of the course by the two cohorts of students change as the crisis intensifies in a statistically significant manner? The innovation of the study is determining students' perceptions of the value of incorporating the GFC in the teaching of macroeconomics and the statistical evaluation of responses of two cohorts of students as the crisis intensifies. Overall, students evaluated positively the incorporation of the GFC in their learning in the introductory macroeconomics course. From 2014 to 2015, the student level of understanding of the GFC incorporated in the teaching of introductory economics increases. Nevertheless, students are not interested in employment as economists.


OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge of osteoporosis among middle-aged and elderly in a community in Guangzhou City and to analyze the relevant factors influencing their levels of knowledge, so to provide a reference for the training on improving osteoporosis-related knowledge in communities. METHODS 210 middle-aged and elderly in a community in Guangzhou were randomly selected and surveyed on their knowledge of osteoporosis using a questionnaire translated and revised by Yuan Qiulan, et al. RESULTS Score of the middle-aged and elderly on the knowledge of osteoporosis was 13.95 ± 2.95 and the correct rate was 53.65%, with the highest being 84.62% and lowest being 0%; more specifically, score on the risk factors was 5.24 ± 2.38 and the correct rate was 47.64%, with the highest being 100% and lowest being 0%; score on sports-related knowledge was 3.46 ± 1.34 and the correct rate was 49.43%, with the highest being 100%and lowest being 0%; and score on calcium-related knowledge was 5.07 ± 1.59 and the correct rate was 63.38%, with the highest being 100% and lowest being 0%. As for the risk factors for osteoporosis, the surveyed subjects had the highest correct rate on questions related to low-calcium diet(92.4%) and lack of exercises(71.2%) and the lowest correct rate on questions on long-term use of steroid hormone(12.2%) and insufficient vitamin intake(16.7%). As for the specific knowledge of osteoporosis, awareness rate on the facts that jogging and running can reduce the incidence of osteoporosis and that shrimp is the best source of calcium were 82.8% and 91.1%, respectively; and awareness rate on the facts that the intensity of exercise should be high enough to increase breathing rate but low enough to allow normal speaking and that broccoli is also the best source of calcium were 22.2% and 12.8%, respectively. A significant difference in the level of osteoporosis-related knowledge existed between individuals with different educational levels(F = 2.993, P = 0.020); that is, the higher the educational level of the middle-aged and elderly, the higher the score on osteoporosis-related knowledge. CONCLUSION Middle-aged and elderly in the community possess insufficient knowledge of osteoporosis, and difference in the level of osteoporosis-related knowledge is large between different individuals. The higher the education level, the more comprehensive knowledge of osteoporosis the individual possesses.


Modernist novelists in the West usually have deliberate intentions to make formal innovations, of which verbal originality and linguistic foregroundings permeate their fictional texts. Therefore, in the eyes of the modernist novelists, language is the very home of fiction and writing fiction means writing language. By employing a closereading approach the present paper aims to offer a textual interpretation of as well as a critical review on Dubliners, the first literary work by James Joyce, a worldfamous 20th century novelist of Ireland. It concludes that language, which plays a significant role in the artistic making of the organic unity of the 15 short stories in Dubliners, has markedly been an indispensable element in the 20th century fiction. Without its verbal uniqueness a novel or a short story would likely undermine its aesthetic values.


Micro Wire Electro Discharge Machining (μ-WEDM) is a non-conventional promising machining process which is
used mainly to machine complex shaped parts for research and industrial applications. However, for machining
semiconductor material with high resistivity like silicon (Si) requires some special techniques to produce better
machining stability during the μ-WEDM operation process. One of such ways is to coat Si temporarily with a
conductive coating (such as gold or copper) that enhances the discharge current flow through Si workpiece. In
this study, temporarily gold coated silicon wafer has been machined by μ-WEDM where workpieces were
submerged into the nano powder mixed dielectric medium. This causes the dielectric strength of the medium to
be lowered and machining can be carried out more smoothly. The main aim of this work is to identify the effects
of nano powder assisted μ-WEDM operation on gold coated silicon wafer. The machining efficiency of the gold
(Au) coated Si wafer were determined by the average surface roughness (ASR), material removal rate (MRR)
and spark gap (SG). Based on the experimental observation, it has been found that for most of the experiments,
the MRR of Si were higher for nanopowder assisted WEDM operation (almost 39% improved). The SG was
however, increased (from 2% to159% range) when nanopowder was used in the dielectric medium. Finally, the
ASR of the WEDMed surface were observed to be significantly lower (from 4% to 121% maximum) for the nano
powder mixed dielectric medium than pure dielectric medium.


signals with phase speeds of O(10) and O(100 to 300) km day −1 and time scales of 2 to 3 weeks. The signals with slow phase speed are only observed in southern California. It is hypothesized that they are scattered and reflected by shoreline curvature and bathymetry change and do not penetrate north of Point Conception. The seasonal transition of alongshore surfacecirculationforcedbyupwelling‐favorablewindsandtheirrelaxationiscapturedinfine detail.Submesoscaleeddies,identifiedusingflowgeometry,haveRossbynumbersof0.1to3, diameters in the range of 10 to 60 km, and persistence for 2 to 12 days. The HFR surface currents resolve coastal surface ocean variability continuously across scales from


The HMM application for manager's profile management uses a natural language development environment and for that goal the authors propose to use the holistic profile management system (HPMS) that can be used, for example, by the enterprise's human resources. The HPMS activities are supported by a central decision-making system (DMS), knowledge management system (KMS), and an enterprise architecture project (EAP). The proof of concept (PoC) is based on a business case from the insurance domain, where the central point is the capacity of the selected manager profile to successfully start and finalize a BTP or an EAP (or simply a project).


Partial discharge (PD) diagnostic tests plays an important role on condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of power equipment insulation. With the very low frequency (VLF) diagnostic test widely used in the power system, the power capacity can be remarkably reduced by lowering the applied frequency. However, simulating the corona discharge process in insulating oil from power frequency to very low frequency is difficult because the corona discharge process in insulating oil at different frequencies takes much longer than a single corona discharge in insulating oil. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the simulation and experiment of corona discharge in insulating oil from power frequency to very low frequency for this problem. A simulation model of corona discharge in insulating oil from power frequency to very low frequency based on the finite element method is proposed in this paper, in which needle-plate electrode model based on CIGRE Method II was selected. Then making the dielectric constant of materials at frequencies from 50 Hz to 0.1 Hz was measured from experiments as parameter variable. Finally, with simulation model based on the Poisson equation and hydrodynamic continuity equations performed in COMSOL Multiphysics, the current intensity, the distribution of electric field intensity, and the development of streamer in corona discharge in insulating oil were analyzed. According to the simulation results, with the decrease of frequency, the electric field in insulating oil increased slightly at first and then decreased sharply. Simulation results were in good agreement with experiments, in which the maximum discharge, average discharge, and pulse repetition rate decreased significantly at low frequencies. This paper shows the characteristics of corona discharge in insulating oil from power frequency to very low frequency by simulation and experiment, providing the reference for insulation diagnosis of power equipment with PD test at very low frequency and studying the mechanism of frequency effect on corona discharge.


Introduction - The Genealogy of the Soviet Conception of Sovereignty - Sovereignty and Stalin's Policy Towards Eastern Europe - Early Post-War Soviet Theories of Socialist International Relations - Marxist-Leninist Doctrine and the Soviet Theory of Sovereignty - The Ideological Dimension - Challenges to Soviet Regional Hegemony in the 1950s and the Soviet Response - Socialist Internationalism and the Warsaw Pact Intervention in Czechoslovakia - Soviet 'Correlation of Forces' Analysis and Afghanistan - The Soviet Proxy Intervention in Poland - Superpower Doctrines of Intervention: Comparisons and Contrasts - Challenges to Soviet Doctrines of Sovereignty in the 1980s - Conclusion - Footnotes - Bibliography - Index


The invention relates to a dwarfing and pest-killing corn plant core-removing agent, which comprises the following raw material medicaments in percentage by weight: diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate 0.05-2.5, ethephon or paclobutrazol 0.1-3, chlorpyrifos 0.3-3, imidacloprid 0.01-0.09, pirimor 0.1-2.5 and auxiliary the balance. The medicament can complete pest prevention and control and growth regulation by one time of core-removing medicament application, wherein in one time of core-removing medicament application, various corn pests such as ostrinia nubilalis and aphid are prevented and controlled; the average corn plant height is reduced by 20 to 50 centimeters; the prevention and control rate of the ostrinia nubilalis and core-eating worms is over 80 percent; the prevention and control rateof the aphid is over 95 percent; and the corn yield is increased by more than 20 to 50 percent. The medicament is simple convenient in application, labor-saving, medicament-saving and safe, prevents harm caused by the ostrinia nubilalis and aphid in a whole period of growth of corns and completely solves the problem of pest prevention and control in a post-period of corns, thereby increasing cornyield and harvest, reducing environmental pollution and being worthy to be promoted and used.


. The two young pulsars PSR J0537-6910 and PSRB1706-44 have been recently observed with the NTT and the VLT. Although both pulsars turned out to be undetected (V > 23.4 and V > 27.5 respectively) the observations provided interesting constraints on the evolution of the optical luminosity of young pulsars.