This paper documents the status of the Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ), its distribution, movement, migratory routes, and other elephant and habitat management related information across the administrative ranges of Kalakkad and Mundunthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) in Southern India. The knowledge of range wise elephant status and habitat usage was important as some of the ranges have very crucial elephant habitats, and some ranges report humanelephant conflict. The survey was based on the insights of past elephant sightings and habitat usage pattern and through ground survey of a number of routes (trails) across the ranges. All the 7 ranges of the reserve report elephants and the number of their sightings is more in Kodayar and Mundanthurai. Free movement of elephants across ranges could be noticed and for Kadayam the movement of elephants is not direct but through neighbouring Kerala State due to the steep nature of the terrain.


Managing large collections of business process (BPs) models is increasingly being necessary for organizations.

Configurable BP models can be used for managing these BPs while allowing analysts to understand what these BPs share and what their differences are.

Before the execution of the configurable BP model, a BP model has to be selected from it.

This selection is typically performed by an analyst who manually configures the model in order to address the business requirements.

Unlike existing approaches, we propose a totally automated method to create a questionnaire-based application for guiding a business expert on configuring a model.


Fractal feature can describe the complexity of radar emitter signal. Wavelet transform cannot only observe signal general framework and detail, but also reduce influence of noise. Hence wavelet transform can combine with the fractal theory to study the fractal feature of radar emitter signal. First, signal is decomposed by wavelet transform, and then fractal dimension is computed in different decomposition levels, so the signals with different complexity have different fractal dimensions. In the end the simulation experiments validate that this method is effective to distinguish radar emitter signal


Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disorder commonly seen in females characterized by multisystem inflammation with the production of an array of antibodies. Hematological disturbances are common in SLE specifically autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) which results from the development of autoantibodies directed against antigens on the surface of patient's own red blood cells. Here, we present a rare case of a 50-year-old female patient presenting with cold antibody-mediated AIHA.


This paper examines the process by which owner-occupied housing market transactions take place. The objective is to develop a model which can reproduce the slow build-up of housing chains of connected owner-occupier sales and purchases. The approach here applies stringent discontinuous preferences over house type and location to develop a computer model which will produce these housing chains. The process derived demonstrates that existing owner-occupiers spend longer in housing market search than will first-time buyers or the sellers of new dwellings. The implication that existing owner-occupiers 'lag' in the housing market is tested on U.K. housing price data, with results that clearly support this general hypothesis. Copyright 1997 by Royal Economic Society.


Coastal sites such as Cap D'Agde in Southern France are recognised as sites of overt and transgressive sexual expression. The sexual activity exhibited at these sites is often considered to be deviant, yet this activity continues unfettered by regulation from municipal lawmakers. When viewed as a space of material vitality, the site emerges a material assemblage. Not only this, but Coastal Sexuality emerges as a position of immanence which has the power to disrupt the transcendent construction of sexuality. This position of immanence can be characterised as a moment of openness and tactile receptiveness between material bodies and the seductive eroticism of coastal terrain. This openness can also be considered as an emergence of a materially immanent legal subject.


Summary

The water adsorption isotherms at 30°C of precooked beef previously dried at three different temperature: 30°C, 55°C and 70°C, respectively, were determined. It was found that the higher the drying temperature the lower is the sorption capacity of dried beef. A B.E.T. analysis of the isotherms demonstrated that the quantity of water contained in the monolayer is affected by the temperature of drying. he adsorption and desorption isotherms at 50°C were also determined; no hysteresis was found. A multilayer adsorption equation is used to describe adequately the water sorption behaviour of cooked beef in the rante of water activities studied


12. Femrllxr Marrow.-Paraffin section stained with haemalum and eosin. The main feature is dense cellularity, with very few fat spaces and an absence of the design of normal marrow. The predominant cell is distinctive, 12 to 20 microns, with large nucleus, mostly round, many slightly curved, some more curved or bilobed. The nuclear membrane is thick and prominent; some nuclei have dense large granules of chromatin, many are pale and vesicular; one, two, or three pink nucleoli are frequent. The cytoplasm is faintly basophil, and non-granular. Primitive erythrocytes are very scanty. Normal eosinophil and neutrophil granular cells, both primitive and mature, are moderately plentiful, but typical normal lymphocytes are absent. A few granular aggregations of golden pigment are present outside cells. A fresh film of marrow, stained for oxidase by the Goodpasture technique, shows that most of the large mononuclear cells give a marked positive reaction. In the visceral deposits thelre is m.arked comnpression and distortion of the infiltrating cells by tight packing. Mitoses are frequent among the " chloroma " cells. Coarsely granular eosinophil leuicocytes are present in mnost of the leukaemic deposits.


The past decade has witnessed a revived interest in grammar teaching in foreign and second language learning contexts, as seen in the many publications on the issue, including those demonstrating the importance and benefits of grammar instruction on students' language acquisition (Liu & Jiang, 2009). One side has supported the traditional approach of teaching grammar with rules, while the other has been open to new approaches in teaching grammar that are less explicit and less rule-based. This brings up a question of which strategy is more effective to use when teaching English as a second language, specifically to college students specifically. This question led me to perform a meta-study, which is a collection and analysis of studies that have already been performed. The different studies involved students of different environments, backgrounds, and classroom settings, allowing me to compare strategies and analyze which worked better in different situations, and to look for an explanation as to why that was the case. According to Kim (2014), in the late 1960's, L1 composition theorists presented criticism of the "traditional approach" of teaching English that focused on acquiring formal accuracy. They challenged the assumption that writing is only a matter of arranging sentences and paragraphs into prescribed patterns. They viewed writing as a product of a complex, recursive process, in which the focus is placed on the process rather than on the product. This caused classroom instruction that focused on correctness to be considered ineffective and promoted the belief that studying grammar solely would not lead to improved writing. The topic of the importance of grammar focus in English courses is ongoing both in L1 and L2 writing. Some researchers claim that all students benefit from grammar instruction, while others point out that allowing students to identify their own grammar rules in writing is more beneficial than basing the entire writing instruction on grammar corrections. Kim (2014) states that regardless of the position researchers or teachers take on this debate, all agree that more research is needed. The present meta-analysis of ten research studies provides a place to analyze these confusing and conflicting beliefs all together. The findings lead to the conclusion that certain strategies work better in different environments, and there is no telling which strategy to use or at what time to use it. There is proof that there are benefits to using both strategies, whether more or less explicit.


A double-walled carbon nanotube (DWNT), a coaxial composite of two single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT), provides a unique model to study interactions between the two constituent SWNTs. Combining high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), electron diffraction (ED), and resonant Raman scattering (RRS) experiments on the same individual suspended DWNT is the ultimate way to relate unambiguously its atomic structure, defined by the chiral indices of the coaxial outer/inner SWNTs, and its Raman-active vibration modes. This approach is used to investigate the intertube distance dependence of the G-modes of individual index-identified DWNTs composed of two semiconducting SWNTs. We state the main features of the dependence of the G-mode frequencies on the distance between the inner and outer layers: (i) When the interlayer distance is larger than the nominal van der Waals distance (close to 0.34 nm), a downshift of the inner-layer G-modes with respect to the G-modes in the equivalent SWNTs is mea...


Number of HIV infected children is increasing as the number of the HIV infected pregnants women is also mounting. In most cases, this is caused by the vertical transmission from HIV seropositive mothers during pregnancy, delivery, or breast feeding. Besides, the transmission can also through blood transfusion, using contaminated syringes and needles for medications or drugs, and high-risk unprotected sexual intercourse among adolescents. Incidence of the disease is more in the city than in rural area. One of the parents of many AIDS/HIV-infected children has died because of the HIV/AIDS. So that, the carring and the future of the children is very difficult. The signs and symptoms of HIV/AIDS in children are not specific. More over, the laboratorium tests to diagnose the disease in infants are very complicated. Therefore, the clinical criteria are needed to determine whether the child or infant is infected by HIV. This method is very usefull especially in developing countries or in areas which are lack of facilities. To resolve all of these problems, the comprehenship HIV-infected children management is needed. To be running well, this management should be conducted by cooperation between family and involved health worker, because the treatment must be done for long time. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Child/infant, Management


Work is under way to develop a very high-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) system capable of operating over twisted-pair media at data rates in excess of 10 Mbps. The twisted-pair channel is characterized by both an attenuation and crosstalk susceptibility which increase with frequency and length. The signaling bandwidth for such a channel can be selected to maximize the bit rate. This optimization is carried out for loop lengths in the 1-5 kft range. It is shown that the optimal signal bandwidth is quite sensitive to the loop length. For example, the optimal bandwidth for a 1 kft loop is more than twice that of the 3 kft loop.


Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a new type of device that can convert mechanical energy in the environment into electrical energy. Since its wide range of energy sources, high energy conversion efficiency and wide application range, it has become a hot spot in the energy field. However, the shortcomings of the high internal resistance, the low output current and power density have seriously affected the further applications of TENGs. This review is aimed to introduce the recent advanced methods and applications of controlling the interface contact electrification of TENGs, and identify and discuss the key issues that deserve additional studies. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT IMPACT STATEMENT This paper delineates the advanced methods and applications of enhancing the electrical output of TENG and looks forward to the application prospects of TENG in other fields.


US environmental enforcement agencies have a new target - the maritime industry. Enforcement no longer stops at civil fines. Criminal fines and even jail terms are now added to the penalties being sought.


The original coupled azimuthal potential (CAP) formulation utilized two continuous potentials to represent the Fourier azimuthal modes of the vector field components in inhomogeneous axisymmetric material media. This formulation has since been used as the basis for finite-element solutions of radiation, scattering, and penetration problems. A generalization of the CAP formulation is presented that removes the restriction to axisymmetry of the inhomogeneous media while retaining the advantage of vector field generation in terms of only two scalar potentials. The discrete form of this generating relation is cast into a matrix transport equation, which is solved by the use of natural basis function. Variational and Galerkin approaches are considered for the solution of the given potentials. Computational examples, using finite elements, are given for the case of a simple three-dimensional boundary-value problem. >


Cardanol, a renewable raw material, well known byproduct of the cashew industry, has been used as a starting material for the synthesis of vinyl ester resin. Vinyl ester resins were prepared from cardanol-based epoxidized novolac resin (CNE) and methacrylic acid (MA), with CNE-to-MA mole ratio of 1:0.9 catalyzed by triphenylphosphine at a temperature of 90°C. Six samples of vinyl ester resins containing different concentrations of styrene viz. 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% (w/w) were prepared. These samples were cured using 2% benzoyl peroxide at 120 ± 2°C for 1 h. The decomposition behaviour of all these samples was studied by dynamic thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) at 10°Cmin -1 . The TG/DTG thermograms showed single step decomposition behaviour in all the blend samples of vinyl ester resin/styrene. The order of decomposition reaction was found to be 1.5. This value was calculated by using Coats-Redfern equation in accordance with the best-fit analysis and further confirmed by linear regression analysis. From this, the kinetic parameters, viz., activation energy (E), pre- exponential factor (Z) and rate decomposition constant (k), for the decomposition of the cardanol-based epoxidised novolac vinyl ester resin (CNEVER) samples were calculated.


Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective effects of Cheongsimondam-tang(COT) on the animal model of depression induced immobilization stress. Method 1) Male rats were used for this experiment. The subject were divided into 4 groups(1. normal 2. saline solution administered during immobilization stress treatment 3. COT of 100mg/kg administered 4. COT of 400mg/kg administered). 2) Immobilization stress was treated for 1 hours on day. During 2 days of immobilization stress treatment, they were executed forced swimming test, passive avoidance test, elevated plus maze test. Corticosterone in blood were measured Results 1) In EPM test, stress group showed significantly increased anxiety, COT groups showed significantly decreased anxiety. 2) In forced swimming test, COT groups did not show significantly decreased immobilization. 3) In passive avoidance test, stress group showed significantly decreased learning execution, COT groups showed significantly increased learning execution. 4) Stress group showed significantly increase in serum level of corticosterone, COT of 400mg/kg group showed significantly decreased serum level of corticosterone. Conclusion : These results suggest that Cheongsimondam-tang(COT) is effective in the treatment of depression.


Mathematicians have been fascinated with the theory of error-correcting codes since the publication of Shannon's classic papers fifty years ago. With the proliferation of communications systems, computers, and digital audio devices that employ error-correcting codes, the theory has taken on practical importance in the solution of coding problems. This solution process requires the use of a wide variety of mathematical tools and an understanding of how to find mathematical techniques to solve applied problems.


Cogongrass [Imperata cylindrica (L.) Beauv.] was introduced into the Mobile Bay area of Alabama in 1911 or 1912. During the ensuing 60 years this rhizomatous weedy grass has spread into most of the southern portion of the state. Cogongrass has become a problem in agronomic and horticultural crops which are not intensively cultivated. Several currently available herbicides show promise of control.


Abstract— 1 The incorporation of radioactivity from [3H]lysine into acid‐insoluble material in vitro in mixed cell suspensions and isolated neuronal and neuropil fractions has been followed. 2 In the mixed cell suspension, incorporation was linear in fresh preparations for up to 60 min. In cold stored preparations, incorporation began to fall off after 30 min. Incorporation, at 4‐11 pmol/mg protein/h, was intermediate between that in the tissue slice and in a cell‐free preparation. Addition of a mixture of non‐labelled amino acids at 1 mM produced a 30‐40 per cent inhibition of incorporation. Molar rates of incorporation of glutamate and tryptophan into the mixed cell fractions were respectively 73 and 1‐4 times that of lysine. 3 Only 8 per cent of the incorporated radioactivity could be recovered in soluble as opposed to particulate material. After hydrolysis of the protein, followed by paper chromatography and autoradiography, radioactivity was detected only in the position corresponding to lysine. 4 Incorporation in the separated cell fractions was not markedly reduced by the centri‐fugation procedure. Incorporation into the neuronal fraction was 2‐2‐6 times that into the neuropil fraction, depending on the amino acid used. Incorporation into both was reduced by some 40 per cent by addition of an amino acid mixture. 5 Comparison of in vivo and in vitro data suggest that the differences in rate of incorporation are characteristic of neurons and neuropil in situ.


In this mini-review, recent advances and developments in the decarboxylative, denitrogenative, and desulfidative Hiyama-type cross-coupling reaction from 2011 up present are studied. This review focused mainly on mechanistic aspects of Hiyama cross-coupling reactions


Abstract Fault diagnosis in variable speed drives under inverter faults has been widely addressed in the literature. However, research activities in this field have been always focused only on sensored motor drives. This paper deals with a mixed model-based and signal-based approach for both insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) open-circuit fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control in sensorless speed-controlled induction motor (IM) drive. Sliding mode observer (SMO) is used for speed and stator currents estimation and simultaneously open-switch fault diagnosis. Unlike the classical sensored drive systems, this structure presents particular dynamics under faulty operation-mode which can be taken into account for fault detection and identification (FDI) process designing. The proposed diagnostic algorithm is based on similarity test between measured and estimated currents to define the FDI index in the inverter. The proposed method allows detection and localization of single and multiple IGBT open-switch faults. To improve the reliability of the motor drive, the ability of the SMO to reconstitute the motor state estimation after the disturbance stage of the FTC application is verified. The proposed FDI and FTC schemes are implemented on a dSPACE DS1104 controller board for a 3-kW IM drive system. Several experiments are displayed to show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.


This work improves the performance of LDPC decoders that implement iterative algorithms dominated by oscillatory behavior - such as offset Min-Sum algorithm - in cases of unsuccessful decoding of received words. The proposed LDPC decoder is applied on the decoding procedure of an LDPC algorithm by selecting the one of the N different estimated codewords (each produced at an iteration of the decoder) that corresponds to the syndrome with the minimum number of unsatisfied check constraints, as the output of the decoder. This method provides a decoder that achieves a notable performance improvement in the error floor region of operation for the offset Min-Sum decoding algorithm, with an insignificant increase of the hardware complexity.


Aluminum in excess could cause diseases, affecting bones, brain, liver, heart, spleen, as well as muscles. Aluminum in higher concentrations is found in tap water since aluminum compounds are used for water treatment before being supplied. Furthermore, aluminum foils and coatings are used in the processes of cans and boxes packaging, especially for foods and beverages, taking into account its capacities as efficient barrier. The aim of the present studies was represented by the comparison of aluminum packaging waste generation in two areas from Iasi county, a rural and an urban one. Meanwhile, we compared the ratio of aluminum packaging waste and total packaging waste generation, as well as the ratio of aluminum packaging waste and total waste generation in the studied areas. We found a statistical significant difference of 71.31 % (as average) between the aluminum packaging waste quantities in urban and rural zones. Aluminum packaging waste was considered to be any packaging coated by or including aluminum. We were not able to differentiate the aluminum foil wrap from other parts of packaging. Moreover, it seems to exist a small difference of the ratios of aluminum packaging waste and total packaging waste generation in urban area and rural one, but not statistically significant. The selective recycling is almost impossible in rural zones, the lack of education and of means representing the major challenges. The difficulties in managing the waste having as an important component the aluminum packaging could increase the risks for human health.


A variant of balancing domain decomposition method by constraints (BDDC) is proposed for solving a class of indefinite systems of linear equations of the form (K−σ2M)u=f, which arise from solving eigenvalue problems when an inverse shifted method is used and also from the finite element discretization of Helmholtz equations. Here, both K and M are symmetric positive definite. The proposed BDDC method is closely related to the previous dual–primal finite element tearing and interconnecting method (FETI‐DP) for solving this type of problems (Appl. Numer. Math. 2005; 54:150–166), where a coarse level problem containing certain free‐space solutions of the inherent homogeneous partial differential equation is used in the algorithm to accelerate the convergence. Under the condition that the diameters of the subdomains are small enough, the convergence rate of the proposed algorithm is established, which depends polylogarithmically on the dimension of the individual subdomain problems and which improves with a decrease of the subdomain diameters. These results are supported by numerical experiments of solving a two‐dimensional problem. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Discusses the recent controversy over whether a Christian Law School in Canada should be allowed to require students and faculty to agree to adhere to Biblical morality in their behaviour; and whether this should preclude graduates from being admitted as lawyers.


Sales incentives are frequently used by marketers to launch new products or boost the sale of existing products. Two of the major decisions concerning the use of sales incentive are what size and what form of incentive to offer. While the objective is to influence overt purchasing behaviour, the underlying processes are of interest in explaining and predicting the magnitude of response. Attribution theory is used to provide a framework for these decisions and in understanding the process that leads to overt behaviour.


The energetics, structures, and properties of lattice defects in semiconductors are discussed on the basis of predictions using first-principles calculations. New insights into the atomistic and electronic structure of point defects are obtained, including significant off-centering of Ti antisite defects and local octahedral rotation around O vacancies in SrTiO3, both of which are accompanied by electron localization. Another example is the formation of a luminous dopant-vacancy complex in cubic BN. Band alignment at semiconductor surfaces and heterointerfaces is also discussed, with a focus on approximation dependence.


It was shown by Burchard and Fortier that the expected $L^1$ distance between $f^*$ and $n$ random polarizations of an essentially bounded function $f$ with support in a ball of radius $L$ is bounded by $2dm(B_{2L})||f||_{\infty}n^{-1}$. The purpose of this note is to expand on that result. It is shown that the same expected $L^1$ distance is bounded by $c_nn^{-1}$ with $\limsup_{n\rightarrow \infty}c_n \leq 2^{d+1}||\nabla f||_1$ for every $f \in W_{1,1}(B_L) \cap L^{\infty}(B_L)$. Furthermore, the aforementioned expected $L^1$ distance is $O(n^{-1/q})$ for $f \in L^p(B_L)$ with $p>1$ and $\frac{1}{p} + \frac{1}{q} = 1$. An exponential lower bound is provided for the expected measure of the symmetric difference between the random polarizations of measurable sets and their Schwarz symmetrization. Finally, the rate $n^{-1}$ is shown to be, in a sense, best possible for the random polarizations of measurable sets: the expected symmetric difference between the random polarization of a ball and its corresponding Schwarz symmetrization decays at the rate $n^{-1}$.


This article gives fiber dimensions and derived values obtained for 23 bamboo species, besides similar data for 4 species previously reported by the authors. The average fiber dimensions found for the 27 bamboo species ranged as follows (in milimeters): length, from 1.325 for Bambusa beecheyana to 2.744 for Gigantcchloa apus; width, from 0.00839 for Pleioblastus simoni to 0.02090 for Bambusa beecheyana. The length diameter ratio ranged from 63:1 to 264:1, the shortest ratio being that of Bambusa beecheyana and the highest one of Bambusa vulgaris. The coefficient of variation for fiber length ranged from 26.50% to 42.32% and for fiber width from 17.80% to 60.09%. Considering the ease of bamboo cultivation, the high and rapid production per area, and the quality of the fiber, bamboos areunquestionably the most promising source for cellulose production in the tropical and subtropical regions. As in many other countries where bamboo is being used on a large scale for the pulp and paper industry, it seems likely that in Brazil this plant as a commercial crop will be, in very near future, an important source of long-fibered pulp for blending with short-fibered pulps in papermaking.


Characterisation of chloride ingress rate is crucial for service life predictions in reinforced concrete. In this study, the time-dependent chloride diffusion coefficient (DCl(t)) was determined us...


The evolution of senescence is often explained by arguing that, in nature, few individuals survive to be old and that therefore it is evolutionarily unimportant what happens to organisms when they are old. A corollary to this explanation is that extrinsically imposed mortality, because it reduces the chance of living to be old, favors the evolution of senescence. These ideas, although incorrect, are widespread. We show that selection gradients are not proportional to survivorship, but to the stable age-distribution, and we highlight the difference. We also show that selection gradients decline with age even in the hypothetical case of zero mortality. We analyze age-independent perturbations of mortality, and show that they affect neither selection gradients nor the solution of optimal life history models. We propose correct verbal explanations of the reason that selection gradients decline with age, and discuss other relevant factors such as density effects and interaction mortality. 65 | Declining selection gradients


Over the last decade, several studies and researches showed the importance and the necessity to use mobile learning during the learning/teaching process. Mobile Learning (ML), nowadays gains more attention technically and pedagogically. This review of literature deals with the personalization issue in mobile learning, and how agents can be used to support solving this issue, the main objective of this study is to review recent and up to date studies on personalization in mobile learning and find if there are any gaps in the existing literature. The review process started with a primary search which resulted (200)articles, then preparing a checklist(Aims, Research Design, framework, and Justification of the findings), after that selecting the most relevant articles (27) according to some general questions, then the analysis process started and resulted some gaps in the existing literature. Results shows that most of the studies concentrate on one issue of the personalization such as (Device Capabilities, Student Level, Student"s Preferences, Network Issues, Course "Subject", Device Operating System, and Location), also most of them assure that agents are a solution for personalization in mobile learning. So there is a need for more investigating on how to deploy agents more effectively to support more personalization in mobile learning.


1Department of Town Planning, National Advanced School of Public Works Yaounde, P.O. Box 510, Yaounde, Cameroon 2Department of Civil Engineering, National Advanced School of Public Works Yaounde, P.O. Box 510, Yaounde, Cameroon 3Deputy Director in charge of studies of the National Advanced School of Public Works Yaounde, P.O. Box 510, Yaounde, Cameroon 4Director of the National Advanced School of Public Works Yaounde, P.O. Box 510, Yaounde, Cameroon


Peanut is a species belonging to the Fabaceae family and genus Arachis. It's a dicot plant, herbaceous, annual, highlighting the Arachis hypogea L. as the most important among the cultivated species .The straight planting promotes to the ground several benefits, as protection against the straight impact of the drops of rain, reduction of the water loss for superficial drainage, favoring the infiltration, and the ground loss and nutritious for erosion. The experiment was conducted in the experimental area of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology Goias - Campus Rio Verde, in order to verify the effect of three varieties: BRS Havana, Tatu, BR1 and the lineage 283 AM, grown by direct seeding and conventional. The experimental design was randomized blocks with eight treatments in a factorial 4 x 2 and 4 replications. It was found only in weight of 100 pods and grain weight of 100 pods significant difference between the types of planting, which stands out BRS Havana, in tillage for grain weight of 100 pods. Weight of 100 pods in conventional tillage BRS Havana system showed the worst performance. Productivity was estimated according to the yield of pods in the floor area of each plot All treatments had statistically similar yields, with more than 1400 kg ha-1 yields, observing the following order: Tatu> 283 MB> BR1> BRS Havana.


Using nonlinear time series analysis, along with surrogate data analysis, it is shown that the various types of long-term variability exhibited by the black hole system GRS 1915+105 can be explained in terms of a deterministic nonlinear system with some inherent stochastic noise. Evidence is provided for a nonlinear limit cycle origin of one of the low-frequency QPOs detected in the source, while some other types of variability could be due to an underlying low-dimensional chaotic system. These results imply that the partial differential equations that govern the magnetohydrodynamic flow of the inner accretion disk can be approximated by a small number (≈3-5) of nonlinear but ordinary differential equations. While this analysis does not reveal the exact nature of these approximate equations, they may be obtained in the future, after results of magnetohydrodynamic simulation of realistic accretion disks become available.


A Smart Transformer (ST) can cover an important managing role in the future electrical distribution grid. For the moment, the reliability and cost are not competitive with traditional transformers and create a barrier for its application. This work conduct detail designs and analysis for a promising modular ST solution, which is composed of Modular Multi-level converter, Quad Active Bridge DC-DC converters, and two-level voltage source converters. The focus is put on the loading conditions and thermal stress of power semiconductor devices in order to discover critical parts of the whole system when performing various mission profiles in the realistic distribution grid. It is concluded that the thermal stress for all stages is low during normal operation and especially the isolation stage is stressed least.


ABSTRACT CRISPR-Cas systems are a highly effective immune mechanism for prokaryotes, providing defense against invading foreign DNA. By definition, all CRISPR-Cas systems have short repeats interspersing their spacers. These repeats play a key role in preventing cleavage of self DNA and in the integration of new spacers. Here we focus on the phenomenon of repeat modularity, namely the unexpectedly high degree of repeat conservation across different systems within a genome or between different species. We hypothesize that modularity can be beneficial for CRISPR-Cas containing organisms, because it facilitates horizontal acquisition of 'pre-immunized' CRISPR arrays and allows the utilization of spacers acquired by one system for use by other systems within the same cell.


The article describes the strategic orientations of environmental and economic regulation of sustainable agroforestry under the conditions of anthropogenic and agro-natural environment formation. The necessity to determine the territorial agroforestry potential for further formation of the agroforestry natural capital and the forest reclamation planning of agricultural landscapes is discussed. The system and mechanisms of the forest environment and economic regulation of sustainable spatial agroforestry in terms of the motive factors' formation and creating linear-type forest shelterbelts by agribusiness entities require the agroforestry reclamation cadaster. The methodology of environment and economic assessment of creating forest shelterbelts from the perspectives of the ecosystem service economy has been improved. Some features of determining the 'total economic value' of forest protective belts have been considered in this article. A system of strategic targets (production, economic, environmental, and social) for environmental and economic regulation of the spatial agroforestry has been proposed.


Objective: Describe secular changes in food security (FS) and severe food insecurity (FI) in Brazil. Design: We analyzed four national surveys that assessed FI with the Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale (EBIA), and estimated the percentage changes of FS/FI levels between 2004 and 2013 (1st period) and between 2013 and 2018 (2nd period) by sociodemographic variables. Setting: Data from the cross-sectional Brazilian National Households Sample Surveys (2004, 2009 and 2013) and Household Budget Survey (2018). Participants: Nationally representative samples of household surveys (2004=112,530; 2009=120,910;2013=116,196; and 2018=57,920). Results: The 1st period was marked by a significant increase in FS (+18.9%) and by a reduction in severe FI (-53.6%). The 2nd period showed a decrease in FS (-18.2%) and an increase of severe FI (+43.8%). The greater increase FS in the 1st period was in the Northeast (+33.4%), among households with more than 7 residents (+40.8%), and in households were the reference person self-identified as black or mulatto (+27.6%). In the 2nd period, the lower increase in severe FI was observed among households with children under 4 years old (+ 6.3%) and with members over 65 years old (+12.5%). Conclusions: After a significant reduction in FS from 2004 to 2013, FS was strongly compromised from 2014 to 2018 likely as result of disruptions in access to foods in all regions, intensified by the sociodemographic inequality in Brazil. Hunger in Brazil has re-emerged as a national concern.


A greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory is estimated at the household level from disaggregated trip data considering all emitting modes. Trip-level GHG emissions are estimated by combining data sources (e.g., origin–destination surveys, vehicle fleet characteristics, transit rider ship data) and by using modeling tools (traffic assignment and GHG models) developed for Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A simultaneous equation model framework is implemented to investigate links between urban form, transit supply, sociodemographics, and travel GHGs, taking into account the issue of residential self-selection. The potential impacts of land use and transit supply strategies with emerging green technology scenarios are then compared with each other. Findings are consistent with the literature; built environment attributes are statistically significant (10% increase in density, transit accessibility, and land use mix results in 3.5%, 5.8%, and 2.5% GHG reductions, respectively), and the number of workers and retirees make important contributions to GHG emissions at the household level (102% increase from adding one worker and 51% decrease from adding one retiree). Also, if the current transit fleet were replaced with electric trains and hybrid buses, transit GHGs would decrease by 32%. If current trends persist in the private motor vehicle fleet, continued improvements in car fuel economy are estimated to reduce car GHGs 7% by 2020. The two most effective strategies for reducing regional and household GHGs appear to be to improve the fuel efficiency of the private motor vehicle fleet and to increase transit accessibility.


Submitted May 31, 1971. The neoplasm was approximately 1 cm in diameter and was located in the posterior portion of the left kidney. The surface was ulcerated and had ruptured the renal capsule. The cut surface of the neoplasm was whitish-grey and was dissected by irregular dark reddish areas. Histologically, the neoplasm was noncapsulated, was highly cellular, had compressed the adjacent renal parenchyma and had invaded the capsule of the kidney (Fig. 1). Near the surface of the neoplasm, hemorrhages of different ages were common and, in some areas, cholesterol clefts and macrophages were seen. In portions of the neoplasm, cells were arranged in sheetlike fashion (Fig. 2a), while in other areas the cells had formed tubular-like structures (Fig. 2b) with periodic-acid-Schiff (PAS) positive basement membranes. The tumor cells had indistinct cell borders and abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm. Nuclei were oval with fine chromatin stippling and distinct nuclear membranes. Occasionally, a single nucleolus was visible in some cells. Scattered throughout the neoplasm were clusters of cells with intranuclear inclusions (Fig. 3). Inclusions were homologous eosinophilic structures and were generally surrounded by halos. Occasionally, inclusions with a groundglass appearance completely filled the nuclei. Mitotic figures were present in small numbers. Neither neoplastic cells nor inclusion bodies were seen in histological


We report in this paper on research in progress concerning the integration of different security techniques. A main purpose of the project is to integrate as many security functionality as possible into the firewall. We will report in this paper on the concept of an intelligent firewall that contains a smart detection engine for potentially malicious data packets.


A technique for generating consistent, reproducible traces with about an order of magnitude better compression than standard general-purpose compression programs is described. With this approach, the trace is read once, an intermediate form is generated and then read as the input to the second pass over the address stream. No program source code is required, and this technique will work on address streams that include OS calls. As a result of the way the address trace is encoded and processed, representing each reference requires only a fraction of a bit, between 0.00114 to 0.878 bits per reference. For example, the roughly 1.6 billion references generated by the xlisp benchmark from the SPEC92 suite can be stored using only about 48.6 million bytes. Depending on the benchmarks, more or less bits per references may be needed.


The origin of magnetization and polarization in the Evans field theory is traced to the spin connection term in the first Maurer Cartan structure equation of differential geometry. The spin connection term originates in the spinning or swirling of spacetime, which sets up a spacetime magnetization around for example a visible laser beam. Spacetime magnetization is not visible but is detectable experimentally in the electromagnetic (and other) Aharonov Bohm effects and in non-local phenomena in general. Magnetization and polarization in material matter is then a change in the spacetime magnetization, i.e a change in the spin connection of the Evans unified field theory.


OsABCG36 localized at the plasma membrane functions as an efflux transporter for Cd or Cd conjugates in the roots, and is involved in Cd tolerance in rice.


A truncated variant of TPK1, the yeast cAMP-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit, was overexpressed in an engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, purified by liquid chromatography, and crystallized from solutions of 2-propanol and magnesium at alkaline pH. The crystals are hexagonal dipyramids, space group P6(1)22 (P6(5)22), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 61 A, c = 320 A. Large single crystals suitable for diffraction analysis are obtainable by microseeding, and diffract beyond 2.8-A resolution. Crystal density measurements reveal 12 kinase monomers per unit cell with a single kinase monomer per asymmetric unit.


Probably the best (or at least the most widely acclaimed) classical method for solving nonsingular linear systems on a computer is Gaussian elimination with pivoting and iterative refinements. This procedure is discussed in great detail in Forsythe and Moler's book Computer Solution of Linear Algebraic Systems [ 1 ], and Wilkinson has given extensive treatments of the error analysis of the method in a paper in 1961 [ 2 ] and in his book Rounding Errors in Algebraic Processes [ 3 ]. The method is fast, and if the matrix of the system is not too ill-conditioned, it gives correctly rounded approximations to the true solution. By an ill-conditioned system, we mean a system Ax b = (A.3.1) such that small relative changes in the matrix A or in the right-hand-side vector b make very large relative changes in the solution vector x. There might be inherent uncertainties in the elements of b, if, as in case of lithographic imaging, the quantities are measured data. Whatever the source of the errors is, their presence makes it impossible to obtain a meaningful solution by simply applying one of the classical methods to the system by itself. In this sense it is good to keep in mind the statement by Lanczos that " a lack of information cannot be remedied by


The total soluble protein and the concentration of the contractile protein actomyosin were estimated in the human placenta at varying stages of gestation. As maturity and differentiation of the placenta occurred the proteins increased in concentration. The actomyosin was thought to be present in the smooth muscle fibres in the chorionic plate, and related to the placental vessel walls. The contractile property of the smooth muscle and the demonstration of contractile protein suggested that they play an active role in the dynamics of placental circulation.


High dietary calcium (Ca) in the context of a dairy food matrix has been shown to reduce obesity development and associated inflammation in diet‐induced obese (DIO) rodents. The influence of Ca and dairy on these phenotypes in the context of preexisting obesity is not known. Furthermore, interpretations have been confounded historically by differences in body weight gain among DIO animals fed dairy‐based protein or high Ca.


Author(s): Marrone, Federico; Canale, Domenica Emanuela | Abstract: The occurrence of the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana in the inland waters of Sicily has been lately overlooked. In the present note, the occurrence and distribution of this species is reviewed based both on the review of the available literature data and field collecting. Although a noteworthy reduction in the distribution range of the species seems to have taken place in Sicily in the course of the XX century, Hirudo verbana was confirmed to be still present in several sites located both within and out of Natura2000 sites. The Sicilian populations of the species should be included in the frame of the monitoring activities established by the Article 17 of the EU Council Directive 92/43/EEC ("Habitats Directive").


This paper presents WikiNer, a snapshot of the Catalan Wikipedia processed with different NLP tools (POS tagger, NERC, dependency parsers). The article focuses on the analysis of different NERC annotations using 3 taggers: JNET, YamCha and SST. Although Wikipedia text (specially in tables, lists, references) differs significantly in distributional properties from the corpora used to train the taggers, we believe that results of automatically annotating the semantic space of the Catalan Wikipedia point to the quick availability of a resource containing massive text annotated with a degree of reliability that is enough for some research tasks as well as for applications, such as simple Q&A, ontology enrichment and semantic search.


The article deals with the organization of the educational process in the conditions of distance learning for students with disabilities and persons with visual disabilities in connection with the introduction of self-isolation during the period of the incidence of Covid19. Special emphasis is placed on teaching computer and mathematical cycle disciplines to students with visual impairment, as these disciplines have their own specifics.


Autonomic nervous system disorders have many causes, and thus, no effective remedy for these disorders has been established. In this study, we conducted animal experiments with essential oil from Pelargonium graveolens (EOPG, geranium essential oil), which may regulate the autonomic nervous system. EOPG was administered to awake mice by inhalation. Heart rate variability (HRV) was analyzed from the pulse wave of the mice on an elevated platform, and the ratio of sympathetic to parasympathetic nerve activity was determined. The results showed that inhalation of EOPG did not affect the heart rate but made activity of the parasympathetic nervous system dominant. This effect was thought to be due to linalool, a component of EOPG that was transferred into the brain and body.


The more female line Q03 of bitter gourd was bred by directional selection of the middle materials of backcross breeding,and its female flower rate was stable and over 90%.Chuanku 77,which took Q03 as female parent,possessed higher early yield and total yield,and its heterosis was obvious.The results showed that,combined with appropriate parents,F1 hybrids of Q03 had positive heterosis of subgynoecious,and it was convenient for the production of hybrid seeds.


Summary In the Baveno "Seula" quarry, in North-West of Italy, the mining in the area has three aspects: 1) quarrying the pink granite for the production of ornamental stone blocks; 2) recycling of the debris and of the production scraps from previous mining for the production of cliff's boulder and smashed inert material; 3) mining the k-feldspar mineral from the mining landfill. In this context, the aim of the geophysical survey was to map the bedrock topography and evaluate the volume of the debris (overburden), which would be used for the processing of feldspar mineral. Secondly, we want roughly to characterize the debris (granulometry) and the quality of the underlying stone. We used the ERT methodology, since we expect a significant resistivity contrast between debris (more conductive due to the presence of water in voids and at the interface with the bedrock) and the compact stone (more resistive). The geophysical survey allowed the identification of different layers, and the top of the granite to be mapped. The excavation operations in some portions of the investigated area reached the bedrock: the electrical resistivity sections clearly show the coincidence between the estimated bedrock location from the ERT results and the real position.


Current study was designed to investigate the frequency of the incidence of type A personality and high levels of neuroticism in groups of healthy young men and women with a family history of coronary artery disease (CAD) and diabetes mellitus (DM). The study was performed using psychological questionnaires of Jenkins and Aizenk. The high frequency of type A behavior, high levels of neuroticism, as well as the combination of the two, was established in the groups of healthy men with family history of CAD and DM. Women's groups were characterized by a lower frequency of type A personality and also lower incidence of the combination of type A personality with high levels of neuroticism. Thus, among the groups of healthy young men with a family history of CAD and DM, a sufficient number of individuals with a high risk of CAD, who need preventive measures with involvement of professional psychologists was found.


Emerging evidence points to monocarboxylates as key players in the pathophysiology of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with hippocampal sclerosis (mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, MTLE). Monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) 1 and 2, which are abundantly present on brain endothelial cells and perivascular astrocyte endfeet, respectively, facilitate the transport of monocarboxylates and protons across cell membranes. Recently, we reported that the density of MCT1 protein is reduced on endothelial cells and increased on astrocyte plasma membranes in the hippocampal formation in patients with MTLE and in several animal models of the disorder. Because the perivascular astrocyte endfeet comprise an important part of the neurovascular unit, we now assessed the distribution of the MCT2 in hippocampal formations in TLE patients with (MTLE) or without hippocampal sclerosis (non‐MTLE). Light microscopic immunohistochemistry revealed significantly less perivascular MCT2 immunoreactivity in the hippocampal formation in MTLE (n = 6) than in non‐MTLE (n = 6) patients, and to a lesser degree in non‐MTLE than in nonepilepsy patients (n = 4). Immunogold electron microscopy indicated that the loss of MCT2 protein occurred on perivascular astrocyte endfeet. Interestingly, the loss of MCT2 on astrocyte endfeet in MTLE (n = 3) was accompanied by an upregulation of the protein on astrocyte membranes facing synapses in the neuropil, when compared with non‐MTLE (n = 3). We propose that the altered distribution of MCT1 and MCT2 in TLE (especially MTLE) limits the flux of monocarboxylates across the blood–brain barrier and enhances the exchange of monocarboxylates within the brain parenchyma. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Salient object detection (SOD) is a task that involves identifying and segmenting the most visually prominent object in an image. Existing solutions can accomplish this use a multi-scale feature fusion mechanism to detect the global context of an image. However, as there is no consideration of the structures in the image nor the relations between distant pixels, conventional methods cannot deal with complex scenes effectively. In this paper, we propose an adaptive graph convolution module (AGCM) to overcome these limitations. Prototype features are initially extracted from the input image using a learnable region generation layer that spatially groups features in the image. The prototype features are then refined by propagating information between them based on a graph architecture, where each feature is regarded as a node. Experimental results show that the proposed AGCM dramatically improves the SOD performance both quantitatively and quantitatively.


Aim: We examined evidence on infective and non-infective endocarditis obtained from a database of 50,403 clinical autopsies performed at an Italian general hospital between January 1983 and December 2006. Materials and Methods: Out of 814 endocarditis cases, 409 were of infective endocarditis (IE) and 405 non-infective (NIE). The median age at the time of death was 78 years for those with IE and 83 for those with NIE. Data were collected on gender, clinical history, comorbidities, kind of affected valve (non-prosthetic/mechanical/biological), pathological features of endocarditis, endocarditis complications and microbiological agents. Results: The diagnosis of IE was frequently missed and these conditions were often complicated by cardiovascular events. IE was more common among patients with prior valve infection or cardiovascular surgery, while malignancies were frequent comorbidities of NIE. Conclusion: In general, we found several data that differ from those generally present in the scientific literature, and this could be explained by the fact that data on IE and NIE are generally obtained from surgical and clinical databases, while we analysed only autoptic cases.


It is always misunderstood that the flooding velocity could be reduced through taking the measures of push with dead slow ahead after collision between ships.This article analyses two consequences after collision between ships: the flooding velocity is more than the draining velocity or reversely,and gives some new opinions about how to minimize the total loss of the ships


Strategic management research overlooks dynamic capabilities generated from the "humanistic side" of organizational life, such as relationships, compassion, virtuous actions, and honorable behavior. However, exploring these dynamic capabilities can provide the field of strategic management with a different viewpoint of how organizations create value through human processes. To examine this issue, the article presents results from a case study of a nurse-midwife practice within a large research hospital. The study explores how the humanistic work ideology of the nurse-midwife practice creates dynamic capabilities. Through theoretical analysis of the case study data, the authors develop a framework to explain the humanistic work ideology of the midwives and its linkages to human resource management and patient service capabilities. Last, the authors conclude with a discussion proposing that institutional pressures legitimize the humanistic work ideology of the midwifery practice.


The rate of emergence and rate of reservation are key for cultivating seedlings of needleleaved tree species. Picea Dietr. is a kind of cultivating seedling with difficulty in needleleaved trees. After emergence, the seedlings of Picea pungens can be easily damaged by germs and dead continuously without good treatment. 9 kinds of treatment methods have been adopted in this experiment. After soaking seeds in 0.5% K2MNO4 water solution for 15 minutes, wash them with cold water for 3 to 4 times, suck water in nature cold water for 24 hours, force bud by deposition at room temperature, spray 10% disinfectant. And then wash them for 3 to 4 times after 15 minutes, soak seeds in cold water for 24 hours, force buds by deposition at room temperature, both the rate of emergence and rate of reservation can reach up to 80%.


Electrical stimulation for of both the nucleus of the horizontal limb (HDB) and the nucleus of the vertical limb (VDB) of the diagonal band of Broca evoked marked increases in plasma corticosterone levels. The overall change in plasma corticosterone levels following HBD and VDB stimulation was 29% and 11% respectively and maximal increases occurred at 30 min


This thesis explores how the merging of ubiquitous consumer electronics and the sociable web improve the user experience of these devices, increase the functionality of both, and help distribute content in a more sociable way. The project will consist of one well fleshed out principal application: a digital video recorder (manufactured by Motorola, running OCAP) connected to the Facebook social network. By connecting these two technologies, the user can now automatically watch the shows her friends like and are willing to report to the social network; in return, the user transmits her viewing data back to the social network. Thesis Supervisor: Henry Holtzman Title: Chief Knowledge Officer, Research Scientist, Media Laboratory Television meets Facebook: Social Networking Through Consumer Electronics Mariana Cristina Baca Del Rosario ... Thesis Advisor Henry Holtzman Chief Knowledge Officer, Research Scientist Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning Television meets Facebook: Through Consumer Electronics Mariana Cristina Baca Del Rosario Thesis Reader Judith Donath Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning Social Networking Television meets Facebook: Social Networking Through Consumer Electronics Mariana Cristina Baca Del Rosario -1 Thesis Reader John Maeda E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning Television meets Facebook: Social Networking Through Consumer Electronics Mariana Cristina Baca Del Rosario Thesis Reader David P. Reed Adjunct Professor Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning


In perovskite solar cells, the morphology of perovskite active layers is one of important factors for obtaining high energy conversion efficiency (PCE). We investigate the morphology of the crystals and grains of perovskite layer fabricated by a 1-step method incorporated with the air-flow and solvent annealing. Although the crystal and grain sizes of perovskite layer became smaller than the as-grown perovskite layer, the former film quality advanced because of less pinhole. In addition, after the solvent annealing, the crystals and grains of perovskite layer grew promptly in the air-flow treated perovskite layer. The crystal and grain sizes in the air-flow treated perovskite layer were twice larger than those in the as-grown perovskite layer. Finally we fabricated the higher PCE perovskite solar cells by incorporating the air-flow and solvent annealing processes.


In this work we present an experimental study of deviations from the classical Landau-Levich law in the problem of dip coating. Among the examined causes leading to deviations are the nature of the liquid-gas and liquid-solid interfaces. The thickness of the coating film created by withdrawal of a plate from a bath was measured gravimetrically over a wide range of capillary numbers for both smooth and well-characterized rough substrates, and for clean and surfactant interface cases. In view of the dependence of the lifetime of a film on the type of liquid and substrate, and liquid-gas and liquid-solid interfaces, we characterized the range of measurability of the film thickness in the parameter space defined by the withdrawal capillary number, the surfactant concentration, and substrate roughness size. We then study experimentally the effect of a film thickening due to the presence of surfactants. Our recent theory based on a purely hydrodynamic role of the surface active substance suggests that there is a sorption-controlled coating regime in which Marangoni effects should lead to film thinning. However, our experiments conducted in this regime demonstrate film thickening, calling into question the conventional wisdom, which is that Marangoni stresses (as accounted by the conventional interfacial boundary conditions) lead to film thickening. Next we examine the effect of well-characterized substrate roughness on the coated film thickness, which also reveals its influence on wetting-related processes and an effective boundary condition at the wall. In particular, it is found that roughness results in a significant thickening of the film relative to that on a smooth substrate and a different power of capillary number than the classical Landau-Levich law.


Sodium bentonite was subjected to the effect of two new homologue series of chlorides (alcoxymethyl) dimethyloctyloamonium chlorides and 3-alcoxymethyl-1-octylimidazole chlorides with the hydrophobic substituents of the same length. Morphology of the obtained modified bentonite was studied under scanning electron microscope [SEM] and the degree of adsorption of the ammonium salts was determined by two-phase titration. The results allowed an assessment of the influence of the length of the hydrophobic substituents and the site of the quaternary nitrogen atom on the adsorption of chlorides.


OBJECTIVE
A noninvasive test for shunt function would be beneficial in the management of patients with CSF shunting. We present our method to diagnose shunt function using MRI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We performed two experiments. In the first we simultaneously performed MRI of two tubes, one with water flowing inside at various flow speeds and the other with static water inside, and compared the signal intensity inside each lumen. In the second we took four MR images of the actual shunt tubes in three patients at different states of shunt function, each having a tube containing static water pasted side by side with the actual subcutaneous shunt tube.

RESULTS
In the first experiment we could detect the enhancement effect of slow flow. The minimal detectable flow speed using this method was approximately 1.7 ml/h. The result obtained in actual patients matched the clinical status of the shunt function.

CONCLUSION
This method would be useful as a qualitative test for shunt function.


Colon cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in the United States, causing approximately 60,000 deaths each year. Ideal screening would identify high risk patients and screen them with sensitive tests.


Abstruct: Hyper-Paint is a software-toy that is a mix of a block-toy and a drawing-toy. A 3D figure is constructed by combination of single shaped block-toys. A linear tangent line can be drawn directly to a box applied to a shape or a base. Curiosity of children is aroused by its mysterious aspects: even if something is drawn considering twodimensions (2D), it is rendered by the program as a three-dimensional (3D) object. It is expected that construction ability for the 3D figure and expression ability for drawings, among others, will be improved by expressions mixing a block-toy and a drawing-toy. This paper first respectively describes a block-toy, a drawing-toy and a drawing-toy look, which are features of Hyper-Paint. Next, it describes an implementation method to express these features effectively. Finally, effects of the play that is possible using Hyper-Paint are considered and discussed based on users' evaluations. Prototype of software-toy "Hyper-Paint"


Microfinance rating that is based on microfinance is the product of microfinance development to a certain stage.The particularity of microfinance determines the special features of microfinance ratings in terms of rating objects,the rating subjects,rating methodology and the rating function,etc.With the rapid development of microfinance,it's necessary for China to gradually build microfinance rating system,and conduct microfinance rating with the help of the existing institutions and the standardized methods so as to promote the development of microfinance rating in China.


Mathematical and physical simulation of fluid flow had been carried out for a scaled down model of a gas stirred 300 T ladle of Bokaro Steel Plant, Steel Authority of India Ltd. The existing ladle is equipped with two porous plugs located in adjacent quadrant at the bottom of ladle. Comparison of fluid flow and mixing efficiency of the existing arrangement is made with a modified arrangement of porous plugs located diagonally across to each other. Simulation study reveal that the modified arrangement of porous plug leads to improved mixing efficiency in the ladle. Based on the results from the simulations, the operating parameters like argon pressure and flow rate were modified. Plant trials with optimized ladle furnace (LF) operating parameters were carried out in a modified ladle having porous plugs located diagonally across. While the desulphurization efficiency improved, aluminium loss from the melt was reduced by 8.2%. Redistribution of the gas plumes from adjacent quadrant to diagonal quadrant led to uniform wear of refractory walls of the ladle, which led to increase in the lining life of the ladle. Improved mixing of the melt at lower argon pressure and flow rate also led to reduction in hood jamming of the LF.


As was stated in Report I, in the application of iron powder method to the cutting of cast iron, the cutting efficiency is greatly influenced by the grain size, carbon content and quantity of sprayed iron powder.This is attributed to the facts that different grain sizes and carbon contents of the iron powder make differences in ignition temperature and combustion velocity and that the efficiency therefore depends upon the appropriate spraying of the powder into the part of the flame at the highest temperature.The present paper reports of an investigation carried out to obtain the most desirable iron powder as flux by heating iron powders of different sizes and carbon contents in electric furnace and by checking the temperateres of ignition due to oxygen flow and combustion velocity.Further study was made to know the most desirable mixing rate of potassium chloride and aluminum powders with iron powder through investigation of the influence of mixing upon the cutting efficiency.


Mixed pixel in hyperspectral image is actually nonlinear mixing of endmembers,which is caused by multiple reflectance and scattering.Since traditional endmember extraction algorithms are based on linear spectral mixture model,they perform poorly in finding the correct endmembers.Considering the physical characters of hyperspectral imagery,a new method is proposed to introduce image Euclidean distance into local tangent space alignment for nonlinear dimension reduction.The proposed methods can discard efficiently the redundant information from both the spectral and spatial dimensions.Endmembers are extracted by looking for the largest simplex volume from low-dimensional space.The experimental results of real image scenes demonstrated that the method outperformed the PCA and LTSA algorithm.


Street mishaps are most likely the most important reason influencing unexpected interaction of people and monetary resulting in property exploitation. Street well-being is associated with the preparation and execution of certain techniques to combat street and vehicle collisions. Examining street mishap data is an important way to separate several variables associated with street mishaps that contribute to lowering the mishap rate. The collection of street mishap data is a significant challenge in street safety study. On another street mishap data, this research study uses latent class clustering (LCC) and the k-modes grouping approach in our assessment. The goal of employing both strategies is to determine which strategy works better. The standards created for each cluster will not demonstrate any group examination method better. Nonetheless, it is sure that the two strategies are appropriate to eliminate heterogeneity of street mishap information. This research study uses LCC, k-means clustering procedure in processing the street mishap information and shape various groups. Further, Frequent Pattern (FP) development procedure is applied on the clusters shaped and entire data processing system (EDS). The standards created in groups and EDS demonstrates that the diversity exist in whole informational index and clustering before investigation, which unquestionably lessens heterogeneity from the informational collection and gives better arrangements.


An experimental investigation was carried out to determine the pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics for spirally fluted tubes in laminar, transitional and turbulent flow of air. It is established that, in the laminar, transitional and turbulent regimes, the friction factor for the spirally fluted tube is generally higher than that for a smooth tube. The values for the critical Reynolds number at the onset of transition to turbulent flow are lower, while the corresponding critical friction factors are higher, than those for a smooth tube. Consistent with the expected effect of transition on heat transfer, the experimentally determined Nusselt numbers are generally higher than the smooth tube values. The results indicate that there is a definite connection between transition and the heat transfer enhancement. 10 refs., 11 figs.


The design of a through-flow laser opto-thermal (OT) detector intended for operation
as a selective chromatographic detector in combination with capillary columns is
described. The main advantage of such a detector is its relative simplicity and high
spatial resolution. A new differential scheme of OT detector which can reduce the
background signals of scattered radiation by about 102 times is suggested. The threshold
sensitivity of OT detector is experimentally estimated to be equal to about 7 ng (ethanol).
The higher selectivity of the developed system "gas capillary chromatograph


s:With thirty years' reform and opening to the outside world,Chinese administrative culture has stepped into a key phase of violent change and rebirth.The process of revolution contains the leading trend of a brilliant future in accordance with the movement of history,accompanied by inharmonious notes against the trend.Different new features due to revolutionizing the administrative culture represent the trend of development.However,the existence of imbalance and negative effects shows the embarrassment of what to do and how to do during the decomposition of old administrative culture and the negative new integration.This embarrassment will be in conflict with the rapid economic development and will interfere with the integration of society and culture.Development challenges the new integration of administrative culture.Any form of integrated administrative culture always communicates with the environment and always absorbs and melts heterogeneous factors and with the penetration of those heterogeneous factors it will reform itself potentially and slowly.


Building on the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in the service context and drawing on internal and external service profit chain literature, we explore the role of throughput orientation at the manager-employee-customer triad level. Controlling for archival performance data at the branch level of banks, in a sample of 136 triads of managers-frontline employees-customers at 37 branches from a bank in a northern state in India, we find that throughput orientation is positively associated with external service profit chain; and this association is further strengthened under stronger internal service profit chain. By integrating a service-operations based perspective of service employees at a triadic level, we demonstrate the importance of throughput orientation in service profit chains.


There are several examples of pelagic fisheries that have experiencedfishing collapse when facing downward abundance cycles. Improvingunderstanding about pelagic catch's stock dependence can help avoid newcases of fishing collapse. This paper analyses the possible endogeneity ofthe fish stock variable in a pelagic fishery harvest function. The harvestfunction is estimated using panel data and 'El Nino' episodes as instrumentalvariable for the Chilean jack mackerel biomass. This strategy producesconsistent estimates of the fish biomass coefficient. The paper makes two contributions. First, it corrects for endogeneity of the fish stock variable,an issue often underestimated in empirical fishery economics. Secondly,it shows that 'El Nino' episodes have negative effects on the Chilean jackmackerel biomass.


Synopsis We obtain lower bounds for the number of common systems of distinct representatives of two families of sets and the number of symmetric chain decompositions of certain ranked partially ordered sets.


The purpose of this study was to investigate how low-intensity exercise and silymarin administration effect into a gene on the MyoD, Myostatin and PEPCK in skeletal muscle. Subjects of investigation were classified into two groups in Sprage-Dawley rats. One group of subjects was performed with only exercise which was divided exercise group(EX), and the other group was performed with both silymarin administration and exercise(SIL+EX). Treadmill was used for training by rats which were given silymarin administration (50㎎/g/day) 30 minutes before exercising, and they were trained a low-intensity exercise (8m/min, 60min/day, 5 times a week). After analyzing with Real time-PCR, this experiment showed us that the revelation of mRNA of PEPCK at soleus muscle (SOL) was significantly increased more in SIL+EX than in EX. But, there was not significant difference between the two groups in Gastrocnemius muscle(GA). A mRNA revelation of Myostatin was not significant difference between EX and SIL+EX in SOL and GA. In MyoD, the revelation of mRNA at SOL was increased more in SIL+EX than in EX. But, there was not significant difference between the two groups in Gastrocnemius muscle(GA). As a result, SIL+EX in SOL are considered to be an improvement for exercising capabilities as they SIL+EX effect into a gene of MyoD, Myostatin and PEPCK which involves exercising capabilities.


The fundamental importance of understanding the origins of life has encouraged searching for extra-terrestrial organic molecules. Methane (CH4) is the simplest organic molecule and has been sought on Mars for many years1. Additionally, the recent developments in ambient ionization techniques enable the ionization of samples in their native environment, without sample preparation or separation, providing sensitive, selective, rapid, direct, and high throughput analysis technique for a wide range of compounds2. Interestingly, intrinsic conditions of the Martian atmosphere provide favorable conditions for the formation of plasmas at ambient conditions. The Martian atmosphere consists of 95.32% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and trace amounts of other constituents such as oxygen, carbon mono oxide, water vapor and methane. The atmospheric pressure on Mars varies from around ∼0.2 Torr on Olympus Mons's peak to over ∼8.7 Torr in the depths of Hellas Planitia, with a mean surface level pressure of ∼4.5 Torr.


Insulin, a polypeptide hormone produced by the beta-cells of the pancreas, is essential in many metabolic pathways for carbohydrates, proteins, and fats; in the absence of normal insulin secretion, body fuel homeostasis is deranged. Diabetes mellitus is characterized by a relative or an absolute insulin deficiency manifested by loss of control of the circulating blood glucose levels, and by other metabolic abnormalities. Diabetes is a common disease in affluent societies, affecting from one to three per cent of the population, and often five to ten per cent of those over 40 years of age (Hamman 1983). Where systematic surveys have been performed in the developing nations, rates of one to two per cent of the total population prevail (Bennett 1983). Thus, diabetes is a major worldwide health problem with a great social and economic impact due largely to its later complications. Albisser and Spencer (1982) referring to the Report of the National Commission on Diabetes to the Congress of the United States (1976) suggest that, in that country, diabetics are 25 times more prone to blindness than non-diabetics, 17 times more prone to kidney disease, 5 times more prone to gangrene, twice as prone to heart disease, and have a life expectancy of approximately one-third less than the general population. Diabetes mellitus is an heterogeneous disease and only a minority of patients, representing however 3 per 1000 of the general population, are so severely insulinopenic as to require insulin therapy. Since its introduction in the early twenties up to the last years of the seventies, insulin therapy was possible only through discontinuous insulin administration, by one, two, or occasionally, several daily insulin injections. The search for better methods for treating insulin-dependent diabetes and its complications has led to the development of new devices for insulin therapy in the last decade. Infusion systems for continuous insulin delivery (insulin pump), including a reservoir, a pump, and a power supply packed into a portable single unit, have been made available to clinicians and diabetic patients. Efforts to develop a portable self-regulated system, associating an...


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a catheter having a catheter shaft that has a more uniform construction throughout its length and is able to provide more than one deflection curvature.SOLUTION: The catheter shaft 12 includes a flexible outer tubular member, and a less flexible inner tubular member extending through the outer tubular member in a proximal section of the catheter shaft, the inner tubular member being afforded longitudinal movement relative to the outer tubular member. The catheter 10 also includes at least one puller wire extending through the inner tubular member to deflect a distal deflection section 12D of the catheter shaft, where the longitudinal movement of the inner tubular member relative to the outer tubular member enables an operator to select and set a deflection curvature of the distal deflection section.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1


Multiphase flow metering has significant potential in a number of industries; particularly in the oil and gas industry in terms of assisting the development of marginal fields and monitoring subsea processing. We demonstrate the novel use of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) multiphase flow meter consisting of a pre-polarising permanent magnet upstream of an Earth's magnetic field NMR detection coil. The application of appropriate signal analysis in interpreting the H NMR signal acquired from a flowing stream allows determination of the relevant velocity probability distribution. The accuracy of such velocity distributions are verified using superficial velocity measurements obtained from an in-line rotameter. The ability to quantify multi-modal velocity distributions via regularisation is also demonstrated by applying the measurement methodology to a two pipe system. The flow metering system has also been successfully applied to two phase air/water flows in order to simultaneously track both liquid holdup and liquid velocity with time in both the stratified and slug flow regimes.


This information recording medium (100) includes a substrate (1), and a recording layer which is provided upon the substrate (1) and for which optical properties are capable of varying as a result of irradiation of a laser beam. The recording layer is formed by arrangement of a plurality of minute recording areas (for example, phase-change particles (2)). A portion or all of the recording areas comprise a recording material that includes Te and O. The lengths of the recording areas along the information recording direction are less than or equal to 30 nm. The recording material preferably additionally includes an element M (M is at least one element selected from a group comprising Pd, Au, and Pt).


With a limited equity market in a socialist PRC, the financial instrument is dominated by the government debt market either issued by the central government or by provincial and local governments of state-owned banks and enterprises. There is no incentive for SOEs to issue equities and bonds because of the availability of loans from state-owned banks with low interest rates and low risks. Are there string institutional investors, such as the insurance industry and pension funds, to absorb government debts? The trust of the international community on government debt of the PRC is dependent on its macroeconomic policies in maintaining low inflation sustainable public debt and stability of the RMB. Under the fixed exchange rate system, the sole objective of the monetary policy is to maintain stability of the exchange rate. Sustainability of the public debt is affected by fiscal and debt rules of various levels of the government.


The Detection of road boundaries in an urban driving scenario has been an active area of research as perception of the surrounding environment is critical for vehicle's navigation and maneuverings. Most of the approaches in the literature deal with perception in the day light conditions only. This paper proposes an end-to-end method to extract road boundaries in both daylight and night driving conditions using conditional generative adversarial networks (CGANs). This is achieved by using input data only from 3D LIDAR which is not dependent on external light sources. The point cloud data obtained from a LIDAR was pre-processed by selecting the region of interest and deleting noise points resulting in data size reduction. From the pre-processed point cloud, top view images are generated, thus converting data into 2D image space. These images are fed as input to train a CGAN to segment road boundaries. Experimental results demonstrate that in different road scenarios the proposed method has achieved good performance with Structural Similarity index (SSIM) above 96%.


This research paper is aimed at describing the implementation of Scientific Approach in English Teaching through Inquiry-based Learning at the first year of SMP N 1 Purwodadi in 2014/2015 academic year. This study describes to the implementation of Scientific Approach in English Teaching through Inquiry Based Learning and the problems faced by the teacher in applying this approach at the first year of SMP N 1 Purwodadi in 2014/2015 academic year. The type of this research is general qualitative, using descriptive qulitative method the data obtained are from event, informant and document. The techniques of collecting data were observation, interview and document analysis of teaching and learning activities in English teaching to clarify the implementation of Scientific Approach through Inquiry-based Learning and problem faced by the teacher. The result of this study shows the of procedures of Inquiry-based Learning are of: 1) observing, 2)asking, 3)experimenting, 4) associating and 5) communicating. The problems faced by the teacher are: 1) the limitation of time, 2) lack of teaching media, 3) low ability and activeness of the students.


Extensive spine surgery is associated with postsurgical pain. Epidural pain therapy may reduce postoperative stress responses and thereby influence immune functions. In a randomized, controlled, double-blinded prospective trial, 54 patients received either conventional patient-controlled IV analgesia (PCIA; morphine 3 mg/15 min) or patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA; 0.125% ropivacaine plus sufentanil 1 &mgr;g/mL at a base rate of 12 mL/h and bolus application of 5 mL/15 min). Circulating cytokines, C-reactive protein (CRP), cortisol, and cell-surface receptor expression of immune cells (cluster of differentiation [CD]14, human leukocyte antigen-DR, CD86, CD71, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD16, and CD19) were measured perioperatively to characterize immunological functions. PCEA, compared with PCIA, had no influence on altered levels of circulating cytokines (interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and macrophage inhibitory factor) or indicators of the stress response (CRP and cortisol). Also, no significant difference was found in monocyte numbers or their human leukocyte antigen-DR, CD86, or CD71 expression. In contrast, the postoperative decrease in B lymphocytes and T-helper cells was significant in the PCEA group. Natural killer cells decreased significantly in patients receiving PCEA compared with PCIA. Therefore, postoperative epidural pain therapy has no influence on monocyte functions but reduces natural killer cells and preserves B-cell and T-helper cell populations. Epidural analgesia thus influences the specific rather than the innate immune system and potentially blunts the postsurgical lymphocyte depression, which is relevant for infectious resistance.


We propose a method for detecting nerve fiber bundles in white matter using diffusion tensor maps and apply the method to practical data. We can calculate diffusion tensor maps by combining several diffusion weighted images (DWI) that correspond to the mobility of water protons in 3D spaces. The intensity of DWI depends on the respective orientation of fiber bundles and the gradient direction at each different imaging slice. Specifically in white matter, we see a wide variation in diffusion. There are still qualitative analyses about DWI and few quantitative analyses about diffusion tensor maps. This report is essentially dedicated to make structural brain maps about white matter fiber bundles and suggest the usefulness for analyses of brain function.


We have derived an analytical expression in the wavenumber domain for calculating the gravity anomaly caused by an exponential density contrast model for an interface (Xia and Sprowl, 1990), above which the density contrast changes exponentially with depth. Constant density contrast and a linear density contrast are specific cases of the exponential density contrast model. The formula should be more efficient than vertical prism methods for linear or exponential density contrast. The formula is tested using synthetic data. We employ the approach presented by Xia and Sprowl (1992) to invert the regional gravity anomaly of Kansas to determine depth to the Moho discontinuity with an exponential density contrast model. The inversion is constrained by seismic refraction along the twodimensional profile from Concordia, Kansas to Agate, Colorado (Steeples and Miller, 1989). The average density model in the crust of Kansas is also determined.


The production of high-performance carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) involves the draping of the carbon fiber fabrics to a 3D shape, a process which changes the orientation of the load-bearing fibers in the fabric and therefore has a high impact on the strength of the final composite part. This paper investigates the change in yarn orientation during the 3D-draping process of biaxial carbon-fiber non-crimp fabrics to a hemispherical shape. The draping process is partitioned in several steps, after each of which the yarn orientation in the fabric is measured by a robot-guided eddy current scanning system. The results show that the greatest change in yarn orientation occurs in the final stages of the draping. Furthermore, the yarn orientation change is not linear – in some regions, later draping steps reverse the yarn orientation change from earlier steps. These results are of high importance for a better controlling of the textile draping process.


This type of cancer is peculiar to this region as the people of all age groups are accustomed to warm their bodies by the use of Kangri Baskets. This is seen mostly among the "not well‐to‐do classes" who have no other means of fighting the extreme cold during the winter. The ulcers are the result of continuous constant contact of the hot pot, made of mud, enclosed in a basket made of willow. The author has studied quite a number of cases in all age groups during his stay in the valley, and has noticed that the precancerous condition of pigmentation and rough skin in the users of this "Kangri pot" has certain manifestations. In due course, by further irritation by heat, the ulcer breaks down with secondary infection and malignant transformation. The squamous type of carcinoma of the skin at the site of the constant heat application exists at times without involving the adjacent lymph glands. The prognosis of the disease is worse when the infiltration of cancer involves the lumph glands. It is also clearly brought out that this type of cancer is entirely due to the environmental causes, which could be prevented. The victims, in addition, are anemic due to worm infestations in their system (round and hookworms). The secondary infection of ulcer and glands is accentuated by the poor hygience which also increases the morbidity and mortality of these cases. The treatment of this condition has to be done first to combat the anemia due to worms by deworming the patients, combating the secondary infection by antibiotics, and, finally, by certain herbs, chemotherapeutic drugs, and radioactive isotopes. The surface application of radioactive isotopes in early ulcers is useful. Deep x‐ray therapy also has been tried. The intra‐lymphatic perfusion of radioactive isotopes combined with cehmotherapeutic drugs for those cases involving the lymph glands have shown good results.


The evolution law of {111} recrystallization textures during annealing and its forming mechanism were investigated using X-ray diffraction (ODF analysis), electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) and optical microscopy (OM). The results show that both the quantity of recrystallization texture and the density of the recrystallization texture increase with the increase of annealing temperature, and the intensity of the recrystallization texture decreases at the same time. the recrystallization texture mainly forms during the recrystallization process and grows up depending on consuming other textures [mainly {100} texture]. Furthermore, the {111} textures including {111} 112 and{111} 110 have mutual transformation in γ fiber texture during recrystallization process. The cold-rolled Ti-IF steel has a strong γ fiber texture after annealing mainly due to the conjunct of the oriented nucleation mechanism and the oriented growth mechanism. The Σ coincidence site lattice (CLS) of grain boundaries plays an important role in the formation of {111} fiber recrystallization texture in the steel.


Layered geological formations with large seismic velocity contrasts can effectively create channel waves in cross‐borehole seismic data. The existence of channel waves for such waveguides can be confirmed by ray tracing, wave equation modeling, and modal analysis. Channel wave arrivals are identified in cross‐borehole data recorded at Conoco's Newkirk test facility. For these data, where velocity contrasts are about 2 to 1, tomography based on first arrival traveltimes, is limited due to problems with extreme ray bending and seismic shadow zones. However, it may be possible to extract geological information using channel wave information. The seismometer differencing method appears to be a promising approach for detecting waveguide boundaries by use of cross‐borehole data.


UDK: 630*9(497.6 Unsko-sanski kanton)"2003/2013"
Investments in forest sector represent an important issue that is regulated by legislation. Legislative framework that regulate forest sector in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been changing recently - from the Law on Forests of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002 – 2009), Forest Regulation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2009 – 2012) and finally cantonal Laws on Forests (2012 to date). Cantonal laws currently represent the only valid legislative documents that regulate forest sector in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper analyse the investments in the public forests at the territory of Una-Sana Canton, managed by forest management enterprises "Unsko-sanske šume", within the period 2003-2013 in dependence of the valid legislative frameworks. Having in mind the various regulations that prescribed the financing of the biological investments, scope and structure of the performed activities together with the amount of invested funds have varied between particular periods. The biggest share in total investments to forest sector belongs to the silvicultural measures (66%) and forest road construction (17%). The analysis included the trend of realised biological investments and invested funds. It reveals the mutual incompatibility that causes the differences in unit costs of biological investments in various periods. This implies the need for creation and implementation of unique methodology for cost calculation respecting the basic principles of econometrics. Conducted analysis indicated that previous legislative frameworks did not prescribe appropriate financing model. One should bare in mind this fact during the prescription of new financing model in the ongoing proposal of new Law on Forests of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.


the article is devoted to one of the most interesting and important problem of the post-soviet space development. The author analyzes the resources and the direction of improvement of the integration processes and estimates the existing risks and the prospects of development of the Commonwealth of Independent States.


Local governments in Nigeria are saddled with the responsibility of providing social services to local people. The surest development of rural areas has been constitutionally placed on Local Governments. In order to achieve these statutory functions, 20% of revenue from Federation Accounts has been distributed to Local Government Councils since 1991 fiscal year. Despite enhanced revenue during the review period, there are reoccurring questions as to how and whether Local Governments have fully utilized revenues earmarked for socio-economic services. There are arguments that low tax structure and fluctuations in Local Government revenues have impacted negatively on the provision of socio-economic services. Many other researchers and political analysts have attributed the poor performance of Local Government Councils in the provision of social service as a result of lopsidedness of 1999 Constitution, in particular section 164 where the autonomy of the Local Government Councils was eroded. Others attributed the problems from endemic corruption and lack of fiscal accountability at local government level. This paper has examined revenue allocations for social service provision at local government level. Secondary data from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) annual and financial statements of accounts (19972011) were used. Both descriptive and regress analytical statistics were applied. The results of statistics indicate that the Nigerian Fiscal system has gone through rapid decentralization. This decentralization was driven primarily by changes in the revenue sharing arrangement from shares of Federation Account (FA) allocations introduced since 1981. This has led to rapid spending by the Local Government Councils. Rapid expenditure decentralization has created both new opportunities and challenges for public service in Nigeria. Given that sub-national governments are mainly responsible for financing basic public services such as primary health and education, decentralization creates the potential for further improvements in the financing of these primary sectors. The paper therefore recommended for upward review of capital spending by 70% and should come from share of Federation Account. The paper also recommended that recurrent expenditure in particular personnel cost should be met through local government's internal revenue generation efforts. This would increase Local Governments fiscal autonomy and made them more prudent in their public expenditure management.


The effect of the location of particles within the plasma volume on the LIBS signal for single-particle measurements is investigated. Three methods of collecting plasma emission are compared to determine the influence of plasma imaging on particle hit detection rates and signal precision. Imaging larger regions of the plasma volume improves particle detection rates. Spatial integration of the signal from the entire plasma volume tends to reduce uncertainty in the signal caused by variability in the location of particles within the plasma. Additionally, the use of spatially resolved measurements is found to maximize the particle detection efficiency. The use of spatially resolved measurements gives information about the location of particles within the plasma, which


This paper presents a composite measurement approach that capitalizes on complimentary strengths of 3 different test beds to significantly reduce uncertainty in I- V parameters for secondary module calibration. This approach addresses PV manufacturers' need for reduced uncertainty in the calibration modules that provide the basis for their module power ratings. This new method enables NREL to reduce uncertainty for secondary module calibration in commercial c-Si modules from $\pm 3.2\%$ to $\pm 0.7\%$ for $\mathbf{I}_{\mathrm{SC}}$ and from $\pm 3.3\%$ to $\pm 1.1\%$ for $\mathbf{P}_{\mathrm{MAX}}$ . This new module self-reference, or MSR procedure is based on the sensitivity of module voltage to temperature plus the uniformity of outdoor sunlight. By calibrating module $\mathbf{v}_{\mathrm{oc}}$ in thermal equilibrium on a flash simulator we provide an accurate gauge of junction temperature for subsequent measurements. By calibrating $\mathbf{I}_{\mathrm{SC}}$ outdoors in natural sunlight we enable the module to serve as its own reference device in setting the intensity of a continuous simulator, effectively eliminating the impact of spatial non-uniformity and spectral mismatch on the I-V measurement. These procedures significantly reduce measurement errors due to temperature uncertainty, spatial non-uniformity, and spectral mismatch.


Parameterized line-by-line calculations are often used to interpret accurate radiometric measurements. These require line parameters with temperature dependencies, line shapes and other information.


In the title compound, polymeric (100) sheets consisting of [Cd(SO4)(H2O)] units are linked by H2bmtz [H2bmtz is 3,6-bis(pyrimidin-2-yl)-1,4-dihydro-1,2,4,5-tetrazine] into a three-dimensional structure.