The argument in this conceptual paper is that the advent of modern type western education has resulted in the dearth of the importance of indigenous forms of knowledge in Africa. The paper unfolds by highlighting some of the areas in which the modern Eurocentric philosophy of education has alienated and affected some of Africa's indigenous education systems. Using the modernization paradigm as the framework, the paper's contention is that following missionary excursions in Africa and the subsequent colonisation, modern forms of schooling were introduced and expanded phenomenally and with it came notions of cultural imperialism, which tended to denigrate many if not all forms of indigenous knowledge education systems. Some indigenous knowledge systems were regarded as primitive, pagan and heathenish. Some forms of such indigenous knowledge were even de-campaigned as non-knowledge. The research question the paper seeks to address is how can indigenous knowledge education systems be used to foster an Afrocentric philosophy of Education? Pursuant to this question, the modernization theory is examined, unpacked and critiqued for equating modernisation with Westernization culminating in the promotion of cultural imperialist sentiments that had an alienating effect on some African institutions and practices.


This paper presents an educational experiment with students of third curse of secondary Spanish education (ESO) with the aim of improving the interest of the student and his academic performance, facilitating the learning of an area of physics and chemistry subject. The idea is that, with everyday materials, such as a mobile phone, at home, they perform an experiment of cinematics in small groups of students. In this way they can access a self-learning of the subject which is expected to increase the motivation and settle the knowledge in a permanent way. To analyze the results obtained in this experiment a statistical a treatment of the academic results before and after the practice is made, by comparing the results of the students who did and did not do the proposed experiment. This report describes the bibliographic background that led to this study, the educational justification that introduces the possible benefits that this practice can provide, and the curricular contents in which it is framed. The results of the work and its final conclusions will be explained after the objectives are presented.


Microgeneration is the small-scale generation of heat or electric power or both, by individuals or buildings to meet their own needs. Recently, microgeneration is being regarded as a means to decentralize the power production of renewable energies, reducing the impacts on the grid caused by unexpected energy demands. Given the increase in microgeneration facilities, determining the quantity of energy produced and the power quality assumes growing importance in low, medium, or high voltage facilities. This paper presents a power quality analysis of two different facilities with photovoltaic generation localized in a rural area of Portugal, describing the voltage and frequency behaviour, the harmonic contents, and the total harmonic distortion. Statistical data are presented regarding the number of voltage events and occurrence of dips and swells in both facilities as a percentage of rated voltage. We conclude that some PV systems can severely affect voltage quality, forcing the grid to work at and even above the maximum voltage standard limit.


The studies on resting eggs of freshwater rotifer were reviewed in this paper.Both the ecological significance of difference for hatching pattern of resting eggs and the effects of environmental conditions (such as temperature,photoperiod,strage condition of resting eggs,and physiological characteristic of mother rotifer) on hatching of freshwater rotifer resting eggs were summarized.The suddenly change of temperature could induce the resting eggs hatched.The effect of light on hatching is different among several species of rotifers.Mother rotifer's diet and resting eggs storing condition influenced the hatching rate of resting eggs.


A bioreactor for treating sewage has a concentric structure, which is composed of the internal anaerobic region consisting of water inlet tube, water distributor, anaerobic reactor, three-phase separator, reflux unit and depositing area, and the external aerobic region comprising water distributor, air distributor, up-flow area, dow-flow area and deposit separating area. Its advantages are less possessed ground and high effect.


A commonly experienced contamination problem in electron microscopes is the growth of electron induced polymer films on the electrodes and specimens in instruments evacuated by oil pumps. Hydrocarbon fluids are generally used in the vacuum pumps and experiments have been made to reduce the contamination rate in a transmission instrument (AEI 802) by using fractional distillates of a new fluorocarbon oxide compound. The rotary pump was replaced by one charged with a fluorocarbon oxide lubricant and the fluid charge in the diffusion pump replaced by a fluorocarbon oxide evaporant. Both specimen and electrode contamination were greatly reduced by the use of the new fluid. Electron micrographs of a gold film are shown comparing contamination levels produced in organic and fluorocarbon oxide atmospheres after prolonged exposure to the electron beam.


In this paper, an orthogonal experiment was designed to fabricate the selective laser melting cobalt-chromium alloy samples. The influence rules of varying process parameters on the samples' relative density was studied. The type and distribution of pore defect in the forming part were observed, and the pore formation mechanism was analysed, then porosity prevention measures were proposed. Experimental results show that: powder thickness affects the density of SLM forming parts most. Pore defect is one of the most important defects that affect the density. Pore defect can be divided into two types: keyhole and gas hole pore. The former is larger and irregular, caused by the underlying part of powder not melting completely due to the spheroidization effect and volume shrinkage effect of uneven powder thickness. The latter is smaller and round, mainly caused by the bubbles of nitrogen and vaporization of low melting point constituents discharging not timely. Reducing the thickness of the powder can effectively eliminate keyhole pore defects, and pre-heating the substrate before forming can reduce the occurrence of gas hole pore defects.


An improved sliding-mode control scheme that consists of continuous adaptive gain feedback and feedforward controls with an equivalent external disturbance observer is developed to achieve accurate (robust) and fast speed control for a DC servomotor powered by a pulsewidth-modulated transistor converter. The proposed control scheme is implemented by a fast digital signal processor. It is confirmed by experiments that the speed trajectories track the desired trajectory accurately.<<ETX>>


Mammalian hibernation initiates dramatic changes in physiology that include large reductions in ventilation (V̇E), heart rate, oxygen consumption rate (V̇o2), and body temperature (Tb) upon entrance into torpor, effects that reverse upon arousal. Several physiologic processes must maintain function throughout a wide range of temperatures. Recent evidence indicates that neuronal synapses loosen and retract in regions of the brain that are silenced during a torpor bout, although little is understood yet about how these connections are regulated during hibernation. Microglia, brain resident immune cells, are potential facilitators of these essential neural homeostatic activities due to their critical roles in neuronal support and synaptic strengthening and pruning. Thus, we hypothesized that microglia are required for maintaining normal ventilatory neural control during hibernation. To test this, we treated 13‐lined ground squirrels with either vehicle or colony‐stimulating factor receptor‐1 (CSF1R) antagonist, PLX3397 (80mg/kg, po), a receptor whose activation is necessary for microglial survival in the adult nervous system, and measured V̇E, V̇o2, and Tb throughout a torpor bout. During entrance, PLX‐treated squirrels took ~1.5 hours longer to reach their minimum torpor temperature (Tb; 12°C) compared to control animals (Tb; 9.3°C) (ambient temperature; 5‐6°C). Similarly, arousal time in microglia‐depleted animals was as much as 1 hour longer relative to controls, despite starting at a higher minimum Tb. In both treatment groups, V̇o2 during entrance fell and spiked periodically. However, in PLX‐treated animals, these spikes were much greater and more frequent. Minimum V̇o2 in torpor was ~3 times greater in PLX‐treated animals compared to control animals. Upon arousal from torpor, V̇o2 remained elevated, longer, in PLX‐treated squirrels. Total V̇E tended to be elevated in PLX‐treated animals through entrance, steady state torpor, and arousal, but it was most striking during steady state torpor, where V̇E in PLX‐treated animals was 15‐fold higher than control animals. The net result in torpor was an elevated air convection requirement, thus microglia‐depleted animals hyperventilated throughout the torpor bout. Together, these results suggest that microglia play an important regulatory role in normal ventilatory and temperature control throughout torpor and influence the rate at which animals enter into and arouse from torpor. Mechanisms whereby microglia contribute to hibernation neurophysiology are currently under investigation.


It is expected that the upcoming DVB-NGH (Digital Video Broadcasting-Next Generation Handheld) shall be based on the existing DVB-T2 technology. Also DVB-NGH enabled Handheld receivers are going to work with the existing DVB infrastructure. In this paper we model the link budget deficits of the Handheld DVB receivers as additional power losses for a typical fixed roof-top DVB-T2 receiver. Because of those additional losses Handhelds get a reduced coverage. The attrition in coverage is especially dramatic for the indoor Handheld receivers. We analyze coverage for two different models of the Population density, i.e. Clark's and Smeed's.


In an effort to arrive at bis(styrylbenzene) derivatives, which are known for their importance in connection to Alzheimer's disease, two bifunctional building blocks that enable a C–C bond formation through a Julia–Kocienski reaction were synthesized. The orthogonal nature of the two functional groups in these building blocks allow the sequential olefination of commercially available aromatic aldehydes and the intermediate stilbene aldehydes to deliver an efficient and new route for bis(styrylbenzenes) with Weinreb amide (WA) functionality for the first time. The successful incorporation of the WA functionality has facilitated convenient access to unknown bis(styrylbenzenes) with acyl and formyl groups as substituents This strategy has also paved the way for highly functionalized bis(styrylbenzenes) with a tetrafluorophenyl core, which have potential as new contrast agents for MRI applications.


Scanning optical second-harmonic generation microscopy has been used to investigate domains in the surface of polycrystalline Al. Strong contrast among the crystalline grains is obtained due to variations in their crystallographic orientations and thus also nonlinear response. The origin of the contrast is discussed in terms of previous theoretical and experimental studies of different faces of Al single crystals. Information about local crystallographic orientations is obtained by probing the rotational anisotropy of individual grains. It is demonstrated that when a probe beam covering several grains is used, effects of incoherent addition of contributions from the individual grains will be seen in the polarization dependence of the signal.


Laboratory-based studies examining fish physiological and behavioural responses to temperature can provide important insight into species-specific habitat preferences and utilisation, and are especially useful in examining vulnerable life stages that are difficult to study in the wild. Here, we couple shuttle box behavioural experiments with respirometry trials to determine the temperature preferences and metabolic thermal sensitivity of juvenile California Horn Shark (Heterodontus francisci) and Leopard Shark (Triakis semifasciata). As juveniles, these two species often occupy similar estuarine habitats, but display contrasting behaviours and activity levels - H. francisci are relatively sedentary, while T. semifasciata are more active and mobile. Our results show that juvenile H. francisci and T. semifasciata have comparable thermal preferences and occupy similar temperature ranges, but H. francisci metabolism is more sensitive to acute changes in temperature as expressed through a higher Q10 (H. francisci = 2.58; T. semifasciata = 1.97; temperature range: 12-24°C). Underlying chronic temperature acclimation to both warm (21°C) and cool (15°C) representative seasonal temperatures did not appear to significantly affect these parameters. We discuss our results in the context of field studies examining known distributions, habitat, and movement patterns of H. francisci and T. semifasciata to better understand the role of temperature in species-specific behaviour. Our results suggest that juvenile H. francisci likely target thermally stable environments such as estuaries that are close to their preferred temperature, while juvenile T. semifasciata metabolism and behaviour appear less dependent on temperature.


The author describes the paintings he has made since 1967. He tells of the influence on his work by his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts at Cracow, Poland, where he now is a teacher. He also describes the development of his approach from realistic nature studies to Abstract Expressionism to geometric nonfigurative paintings. He discusses the procedure he uses for his current series of paintings in which identical geometric shapes are presented but in different color combinations.


For the past five years I have been interested in the taking of moving pictures of nervous and mental diseases until at the present time I have practically completed my work in both these fields, having about 10,000 feet of film of the various diseases to which this particular specialty lends itself. Inasmuch as I have gained considerable knowledge not only in the taking of these pictures, but also in their demonstration and uses, I thought that it would be of some value if I recorded my experiences. I shall first discuss the method of taking these pictures; secondly, the various diseases and subjects which can be photographed; thirdly, their availability for teaching purposes, and lastly, their scientific value. . . .


Glasses of the system K/sub 2/O - Nb/sub 2/O/sub 5/ - GeO/sub 2/ were investigated across three sections. The coordination states of the Nb ion were studied as a function of the concentration of Nb/sub 2/O/sub 5/ and the K/sub 2/O - GeO/sub 2/ ratio in the glass. The structural role of niobium and the interaction between niobate and germanate structural units was examined. A model of the processes which occur with the addition of Nb/sub 2/O/sub 5/ to a glass of a potassium digermanate composition was developed. The emergence of bands characteristic of tetragonal and cubic modifications of KNbO/sub 3/ indicated that the excess (NbO/sub 6/)/sup 7 -/ octahedra and the K/sup +/ ions are deposited as a separate phase, i.e., the onset of processes which precede crystallization.


The relation of governance and firm entry strategic choice is heterogeneous in idiosyncratic environment. Our study examines whether the compositions of boards in terms of the insider and independent representation affect the choice of mode. We advance existing research on FDI by arguing that agency theory (AT) and resource dependent theory (RDT) can be complement to show the rationale of corporate governance mechanisms on FDI decisions. This study explains why and how corporate governance affects the mode choice based on a multi-theory perspective.


Objective To investigate the effects of hyperglycemia on the pathological damages of the diabetic rats.Methods One hundred SD rats were divided into control and experimental groups.Ninety diabetic rats models were made by Streptozotocin injection.Ten rats were used as healthy group.After nine months, the rats were sacrificed and the eyes were excavated.The retinas were studied by means of pathomorphology,light microscope.Results Obvious pathologic changes could be seen in the inner retina of experimental group.The number of ganglion cells decreased.The ganglion cells swelled obviously.But the ganglion cells in control group changed slightly.There was a significant difference between the two groups statistically( P 0.01).Conclusion The outcome implied that hyperglycemia might damage retinal ganglion cells in experimental diabetic rats.


Various medical research work has proven that the glucose fluctuation (GF) connects various diabetes complications, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), stroke, liver cirrhosis, Alzheimer's disease, and parkinsonism. The author defines GF as maximum glucose minus minimum glucose In this article, he uses his collected continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensor postprandial plasma glucose (PPG) data over 4 years from 5/8/2018 to 5/10/2022 as the base. But, he extends his GF definition into a wider range which includes the following 4 components: Max. open PPG (at 0-minute) Max. close PPG (at 180-minutes) Max. minimum PPG Max. average PPG Furthermore, he decides to utilize the viscoelastic or viscoplastic glucose theory (VGT) energy tool to investigate these 4 GF components (4 strains ε) versus two viscosity factors (η), carbohydrates and sugar intake amount (carbs) and post-meal walking steps (steps), to calculate their associated energies. The various energy levels indicate different degrees of impact on internal organs via these 4 GF components. In summary, there are 5 observations as listed below: (1) From the x-axis (strain ε) values of 4 PPG-GF diagrams, the ranking of these 4 GF is: Max-Min (51-68 mg/dL), Max-Open (40-53 mg/dL), Max-Close (31-45 mg/dL), Max-Average (30-39 mg/dL). (2) However, the raking of the averaged strain rate values, i.e. GF change rate over time is: Max-Min (-2.9 mg/dL), Max-Close (-2.4 mg/dL), Max-Open (-2.0 mg/dL), and Max-Average (-1.2 mg/dL). Therefore, the ranking of stresses (σ, both carbs, and steps) is the same as the ranking of strain rates (dε/dt); since "stress=strain rate*viscosity factor (carbs or steps)". (3) As a result, the ranking of the 4 hysteresis loop areas is the same as the ranking of strain rates and the ranking of stresses: the trapezoidal formula for calculating the hysteresis loop area is: Hysteresis Loop Area = (strain-rate)*(stress-height)/2. (4) The degree of contribution on GF between carbs versus steps is approximately 49% vs. 51% or a 50-50 split. (5) The combined area of both carbs and steps for Max-Min occupies 43% of the summation of the 4 GF components. This finding proves that the GF of Max-Min is the most important indicator.


Abstract This study aims to analyse the personal entrepreneurship competencies of students participating in experiential entrepreneurship program. In the theory part, the paper analyses the recent studies done in the entrepreneurship competencies field and discusses the experiential entrepreneurship concept. Research focuses on finding out the level of personal entrepreneurial competencies of participants of experiential entrepreneurship education, also analysing the demographic profile of the respondents, comparing it with the current job status and their entrepreneurial intentions.


Objective To concern air pollution and human health protection of China SEPA 45%-55% VOC regulations and US EPA,CARB and OTC guidelines was reviewed.Innovative and sustainable insecticide aerosol or RTU spray formulations of less than 20% VOC and 2 MIR had been developed with pyrethroid and plant oil combinations for household and industrial applications.Methods According to stable emulsion(o/w) or inverted emulsion(w/o) technology and bioassay related national standard.Results Formulation examples were the combination of d-tetramethrin and α-cypermethrin,cyfluthrin or bifenthrin with natural plant oils.Renewable EPA list 3 and 4 surfactants were employed for making stable emulsion(o/w) or inverted emulsion(w/o) products.LBC-4026A and 4026B sprays had obtained KT502 min and two week residual activity against Blattella germanica,Musca domestica and Aedes albopictus.Their aerosol and RTU formulations had less than 20% and 4% VOC respectively.Conclusion Studies demonstrate that essential oil A and B can be used to replace PBO synergist for improving knockdown activity and insect resistance management in conjunction with bio-diesel solvent.


This study deals with micellar effects on hydrolyses of p-nitrophenyl carboxylic esters(p-NPCE) mediated by 2-alkylbenzimidazole(R-BI) and sodium 2-alkylbenzimidazole-5-sulfonate(R-BISONa) in aqueous and CTABr solutions. The reactions mediated by R-BI and R-BISONa in micellar solutions are obviously slower than those by benzimidazole(BI) and sodium benzimidazole-5-sulfonate(BISONa) respectively, and the reaction rates were decreased with increase of lengths of alkyl groups. This prestents a striking contrast to the reactions in aqueous solutions without added CTABr, of which the reaction rates are on approximately same levels. It seems due to steric effect of alkyl groups for R-BI and R-BISONa in the Stern layer of micelle, and it is supported by measured activation parameters() of the reactions in aqueous and micellar solutions. In addition to nucleophilic ability of benzimidazole(BI) moiety of R-BISONa on the reactions, these compounds with long alkyl groups(nonyl to pentadecyl) which form a micelle of themselves increase the reaction rates due to their micellar catalyses in aqueous solutions, not including CTABr. We measured the isotope effects to elucidate the mechanism of hydrolyses of p-nitrophenyl carboxylic esters, and the relative first order rate constant() are on range of 2.5∼3.2. This range is too high to conclude that the hydrolyses of p-NPA mediated by various R-BISONa proceed by nucleophilic mechanism. In other words, the reactions are assumed to proceed in part by general basic one, as compared with the reaction catalyzed by imidazole(IM) in aqueous solution.


Weighted subspace fitting (WSF) method has superior performance compared to other subspace-based techniques in broadband signal location, but it is a heavy computational task. An adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO) is proposed to solve nonlinear global optimization problem of WSF. The multi-stage Wiener filter is applied to construct the aim function for complexity reduction. Since DOA is estimated without eigen-decomposition and multidimensional search is done in an intelligent way, significant reduction in complexity is achieved. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.


A new order born of chaos value in motion coming to grips with shifting value in business big government's value crisis.


Researches on the development of personal digital library at home and abroad are presently at the initial stage.Personal digital library is the extension of public digital library services.It takes information and knowledge sharing as its principle,and it aims at the transformation from information management to knowledge management.The paper discusses some research areas such as definition,essence,function,model,information organization,knowledge organization,retrieval,knowledge management etc.The research of personal digital library is related to many disciplinaries such as psychology,cognitive science,behavior science,computer science,information science,semantics etc.


FIELD: radio engineering, communication. SUBSTANCE: symbols from an arriving information sequence are combined pairwise, and every of which is multiplied by an expanding pseudo-random sequence, produced pair signals with expanded spectrum are multiplied by harmonic signals with frequency f, phase-shifted by 90 degrees around each other, and then summed up, at the same time produced pair signals with expanded spectrum prior to summation are multiplied by signals of meander type with period T=1/f , having a phase shift of 90 degrees relative to each other, and then summed. EFFECT: possibility of quadrature generation of a broadband phase-manipulated radio signals of high frequency in digital form without necessity to calculate values of trigonometric functions.


From the *Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, **Department of Radiology, ?Department of Pathology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA Address correspondence to J.P. Dormans, MD, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Thirty-Fourth Street and Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA, 19104. or other symptoms. His medical history was unremarkable. Physical examination identified a firm, mildly tender fullness in the region of the manubrium. There was no fluctuance, and the mass was not pulsatile. No other visible or palpable lesions were identified in the trunk or extremities. Laboratory studies included a normal complete blood count and sedimentation rate. Radiographs (Fig 1) and computed tomography (CT) scans (Figs 2, 3) were done.


This article seeks to synthesise aspects of recent research on the Augustan age and consider the longevity of the interpretations of the period provided in the late 1960s by Geoffrey Holmes and Jack Plumb. More particularly, it reconsiders the nature of political and social instability in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and examines the arguments historians now offer to account for the diminution of the strife and discord that characterised the rage of party under Queen Anne and the difference between that late Stuart polity and the seemingly more stable and politically placid Georgian period. Furthermore, it considers the broader social and economic conditions of the Augustan age and seeks to show the importance contemporary debates over moral reform, poverty and poor relief had for social stability in the decades after the Glorious Revolution.


High-resolution laser excitation spectra of the bands of the bromo- and deuterobromoacetylene cations have been recorded and rotationally analyzed. The new data are compared with those for the neutral molecule and discussed in terms of electronic structure.


We cannot overstate the importance of Shannon's contribution to modern science. His introduction of the field of information theory and his solutions to its two main theorems demonstrate that his ideas on communication were far beyond the other prevailing ideas in this domain around 1948. In this chapter, our aim is to discuss Shannon's two main contributions in a descriptive fashion. The goal of this high-level discussion is to build up the intuition for the problem domain of information theory and to understand the main concepts before we delve into the analogous quantum information-theoretic ideas. We avoid going into deep technical detail in this chapter, leaving such details for later chapters where we formally prove both classical and quantum Shannon-theoretic coding theorems. We do use some mathematics from probability theory, namely, the law of large numbers. We will be delving into the technical details of this chapter's material in later chapters (specifically, Chapters 10, 12, and 13). Once you have reached later chapters that develop some more technical details, it might be helpful to turn back to this chapter to get an overall flavor for the motivation of the development. Data Compression We first discuss the problem of data compression. Those who are familiar with the Internet have used several popular data formats such as JPEG, MPEG, ZIP, GIF, etc. All of these file formats have corresponding algorithms for compressing the output of an information source.


The subject of the article is an analysis of the realisation of the right to access to administrative records in public administration authorities. This right is the most important manifestation of the right of access to the records, which a party to administrative proceedings is entitled to. The right to access the administrative records is limited by the fact that the party has access to incomplete, unstructured, unnumbered records or unavailable records without issuing a refusal of access to the records, as well as access to the records in places not adapted for that purpose. The right of access is also limited by the following restrictions which do not exist in the Code of Administrative Procedure but are applied by the authorities: the hours of visitors and the queuing system. A party should be able to review his or her personal records during the office's working hours in a room adapted for that purpose. I propose that the party should be able to access the records in the body's information and communication system at on-line remote.


Abstract Since Pierre de Coubertin's revival of the modern Olympic games, the state of California has hosted the Olympics three times and is currently preparing for the games in Los Angeles in 2028. This paper attempts to add to the history of California's Olympic legacy by examining the period prior to 1896 and demonstrating that the Olympic idea had been firmly rooted in California long before the revival of the modern Olympic games and the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Themes alluding to the Olympic idea had been exploited in California as early as the mid-nineteenth century, i.e. the time of the US annexation. In 1893 the Olympic Club in San Francisco organized the Ancient Greco-Roman Games with a statewide impact. The association of those spectacles with ancient Greek art or games attests to Californians' awareness of ancient athletics and to the significant role of the San Francisco events in a historical perspective. As the years passed the knowledge about sports with Olympic associations increased among Californians, and the 1893 Ancient Greco-Roman Games in San Francisco can be successfully considered the largest pseudo-Olympic sports event before the 1896 Summer Olympics.


The invention belongs to the field of mechanical equipment and particularly relates to a positioning and supporting device for large thin-walled box body annular seam stirring friction welding. The positioning and supporting device is composed of a rotation base, multiple positioning and supporting units and multiple corresponding connection units. The positioning and supporting units and the corresponding connection units are evenly distributed on the rotation base and the rotation base is of an annular structure. Multiple bosses are evenly distributed on the rotation base. Each boss is provided with the corresponding positioning and supporting unit. According to the positioning and supporting device for large thin-walled box body annular seam stirring friction welding, the assembling quality before large thin-walled box body annular seam stirring friction welding can be effectively improved, positioning errors can be effectively reduced, the requirement for the welding tolerance is met, deformation in the time of welding is relieved, the welding quality of the large thin-walled box body annular seam stirring friction welding is improved and unloading and loading are convenient.


Abstract : The U.S. Army Biomedical Research and Development Laboratory defined an extensive research program to address the generation of potentially toxic propellant combustion products in crew compartments of armored vehicles during weapons firing. The major objectives of the research were (1) to determine the presence and concentration of propellant combustion products, (2) to determine potential crew exposure to these combustion products, and (3) to assess the efficacy of field monitoring in armored vehicles. To achieve these goals, air monitoring was conducted in selected armored vehicle types, i.e., M109, M60, M3, M1, at several Army installations. Auxiliary information concerning the specific munitions fired and the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) or Forces Command (FORSCOM) firing scenarios was collected so that a comparison of pollutant concentrations generated by specific weapons both within vehicle types and between vehicle types could be made.


The aim of this study was the assessment of water quality at the landward periphery in a broadacre coastal acid sulfate soil area in tropical Queensland, Australia, as influenced by remediation by lime assisted re3 introduction of tidal exchange. Focus lay on characterising alkalinity import to and acidity release from individual drains on the investigation site. The parameters determined were water level, pH, electrical conductivity, measured net alkalinity/net acidity, ferrous ion and total dissolved iron, aluminium and manganese. The parameters displayed gradients which could largely be attributed to the tidal influence. With increasing distance from the ocean, water level fluctuations in the drains became less pronounced, and the onset of the turning of the tides occurred later, as did the saline or brackish water influence. Net acidity and the metal concentrations decreased with increasing water levels during flood tide and then increased with decreasing water levels during ebb tide. Net alkalinity behaved in the opposite manner. While water quality in the lower to middle reaches of a drain clearly responded to the incoming water via neutralization, dilution, or flocculation, the water in the upper reaches was merely pushed back and forth by the tidally induced water level changes.


An optical controller includes: a transparent lower substrate with a first electrode pattern; a transparent upper substrate with a transparent electrode; a plurality of divided regions separated by partitions on the transparent lower substrate; a medium containing charged particles at less than 5 wt% is in the plurality of divided regions and between the first electrode pattern and the transparent electrode; and a seal surrounding the plurality of divided regions and bonded to the first and second substrates.


We explore student performance on True-False assessments with statements in the conditional form "If P then Q" in order to see whether logical misconceptions impede students' ability to demonstrate mathematical knowledge in the context of this kind of assessment. We administered an online assessment to a population of Calculus II students. Half of these students were given a standard True-False assessment, and half were given an experimental assessment with three choices. We find that students do make logical errors on True-False items of a certain logical form, and that these errors are unrelated to their calculus knowledge. However, this effect is eliminated by the experimental three-choice assessment. We believe that this provides an easy and practical alternative to True-False items in the problematic logical form for early undergraduate mathematics students.


This article examines the role of community as an antidote to bullying and incivility. The question we ask our readers to consider is: Does cultivating a culture of belonging for all acknowledge a most basic human need that members of organizations seek to meet during their day-to-day work lives? Belonging can serve as an antidote to feeling othered, which sows the seeds of separateness, isolation, absence of community, bullying, and incivility. Examples of othering behavior operate along a continuum that normalizes bullying, incivility and can escalate to include racism, sexism, classism, and a range of other non-inclusive behaviors. This conceptual article draws on our collective experience as educators in leadership. With humility, we rely on our efforts to amplify values-based leadership, community belonging, and ways of knowing from long ago wisdom. We seek to cultivate communities of belonging among leaders in education and ultimately in organizations and communities that exist beyond the classroom. We advocate belonging as an antidote to othering behaviors that can include bullying and incivility and draw on literature to support our approach.


The motor imagery-based brain-computer interface (BCI) using electroencephalography (EEG) has been receiving attention from neural engineering researchers and is being applied to various rehabilitation applications. However, the performance degradation caused by motor imagery EEG with very low single-to-noise ratio faces several application issues with the use of a BCI system. In this paper, we propose a novel motor imagery classification scheme based on the continuous wavelet transform and the convolutional neural network. Continuous wavelet transform with three mother wavelets is used to capture a highly informative EEG image by combining time-frequency and electrode location. A convolutional neural network is then designed to both classify motor imagery tasks and reduce computation complexity. The proposed method was validated using two public BCI datasets, BCI competition IV dataset 2b and BCI competition II dataset III. The proposed methods were found to achieve improved classification performance compared with the existing methods, thus showcasing the feasibility of motor imagery BCI.


The authors have recently been involved with ABET (formerly the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) and multiple professional societies, educational institutions and industry to develop program criteria for the accreditation of optical and photonic engineering programs at the undergraduate and masters level. These collaborative efforts have resulted in the first published criteria for university programs in optics and photonics. We will discuss the motivation for seeking membership in ABET, who ABET is and what it does, the process used to develop program criteria and the value of accreditation to both students and industry. This presentation will also include a segment addressing the steps involved for those optics and photonics engineering programs seeking ABET accreditation and resources that are available to assist them. ABET has a long history of global engagement with the overarching goal of promoting and improving the quality of technical education worldwide. We will also discuss ABET's international activities and how they support ABET's mission of providing world leadership in assuring quality in applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology education.


This paper reviews the relationship between citizenship and the environment in Latin America. It hinges on the classical view of citizenship that emphasizes the rights in which the environment is incorporated as a third generation right. However, this approach has limitations that lead to problems like weak coverage of environmental quality rights, while at the same time explaining many environmental conflicts. Some of these problems are derived from market reforms that promoted the minimal citizenship concept and from market-driven environmental management. Today, the idea of environmental citizenship still meets with resistance, its territorial coverage is incomplete, and its multicultural approach is limited. The concept of ecological meta-citizenships is introduced to cover alternative citizenship proposals bearing stronger interaction with the environment. Two examples illustrate the diversity of these metacitizenships. First, ecological citizenship based on obligations derived from the unequal use of the global environmental space and second, the so-called "florestania" (forestship) proposed in Amazonian Brazil as ecosystem-specific socio-environmental bonding. Ecological meta-citizenships include a critical reaction to Modernity, have a multidimensional approach with strong territorial components, and require the adoption of the relational ontologies concept, if other social-environmental interactions are to be accepted in order to overcome the Man-Nature duality. The review ends by emphasizing the importance of the classical environmental citizenship idea, particularly its role in current environmental policies and politics in Latin America, but also warning that it should allow, and encourage, the emergence and strengthening of new ecological meta-citizenships. Key-words: citizenship, environmental citizenship, ecological citizenship, environmental conflicts, biocentrism, relational ontologies.


To advance the non-ideality of RF in the OFDM high-order quadrature amplitude modulation(QAM),I/Q imbalance and so-lutions are studied.An I/Q imbalance compensation circuit in IEEE802.11a baseband OFDM zero intermediate frequency(zero-IF) re-ceiver is proposed.A low complexity time-domain compensation algorithm is used to replace the traditional high-order equalizer.Matlab is used to simulate the whole transceiver including the channel model.Results of the simulation indicated the proposed methods could contribute to a very robust and easily implemented OFDM WLAN receiver.


Amana Investments was established in 1997 as the first Islamic bank in Sri Lanka. Islamic Finance is Sharia compliant finance because and is based on the teachings in the Holy Quran and sacred scripture of the religion of Islam. The aim of this research is to provide an overview on the Islamic Finance Industry of Sri Lanka by identifying the factors that affect the profitability of the industry. The profitability of Islamic banks is measured by three dimensions, i.e. return on assets, and return on equity, earnings per share. Internal explanatory variables include bank size, gearing ratio, asset management, deposit ratio, non-performing loans ratio, asset composition, capital adequacy ratio and operating efficiency, whereas external explanatory variables include gross domestic product (GDP) and consumer price index (CPI). Since Islamic Banking is a relatively new industry within Sri Lanka, there is a high potential to make profits by considering the components of the ratios used as independent variables in the study. Although some components indicated to be profitable, the risk associated with those variables and the other factors such as liquidity and profitability also have to be considered. Results were similar to the other researches done for other countries


Guarded recursive data types (GRDTs) are a new language feature which allows to type check the different branches of case expressions under different type assumptions. We observe that GRDTs are pretty close in their typing behavior to type classes with existential types (TCET). We give a translation scheme from GRDTs to TCET. The translation to TCET might be ambiguous in the sense that common implementations such as the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) fail to accept the translated program. Hence, we provide for another translation from TCET to existential types (ET) which is accepted by GHC. To achieve this goal we combine an existing constraint solving procedure with a novel proof term construction method.


Background The COVID-19 pandemic posed unique challenges to healthcare workers, who were required to adapt to a changing environment. This crisis put the spotlight on leadership qualities to provide safe, high-quality care. Furthermore, the NHS adapted from a divisional to 'command and control' based leadership that risked staff disengagement and exclusion. Aim To understand how leadership and management across three teaching hospitals in London were handled during the pandemic, and how lessons learnt can be applied to improve future healthcare leadership. Methods A survey was sent to all anaesthetic trainees across three teaching hospitals in London. This contained 10 questions concerning the quality of leadership and care observed during the pandemic. Results 68% of trainees felt more valued during the pandemic. 63% felt more listened to and better able to express concerns. 50% felt less included in decisions made. Only 23% thought NHS England and 14% thought Public Health England exhibited good leadership and communication on how to prepare for and manage the crisis. Locally, 91% reported good leadership within their teams, and 91% agreed that patient care was sufficiently prioritised. Leadership qualities identified during the pandemic included compassion (reported by 86%), difficult decision making (reported by 82%) and staff engagement (reported by 68%). Conclusions The results suggest participants felt more valued and listened to than previously, and suggest compassionate leadership was exhibited on a local level. The pressure on leaders during the pandemic highlighted the need for developing leadership and management skills. However the majority of trainees (68%) are not considering a career in leadership and management. We suggest implementing the NHS Leadership Academy's Healthcare Leadership Model App into anaesthetic training as a platform to engage trainees in developing their leadership skills, and provide the NHS with future healthcare leaders.


In the paper energy management system is presented for application in low voltage microgrids operating in connection with the supplying network. The microgrid integrates renewable and controllable energy sources, loads and storage devices. The management system determines set-points for controllable sources and storages with the aim to optimize the microgrid operation by minimizing the costs of energy in the time horizon. In formulating the objective function constraints regarding the network capacity are taken into account, i.e. voltage limits in the network nodes and load carrying capacity limits of lines and the supplying transformer. Thus, the implementation of the proposed management system enables the integration of energy sources into existing networks without their re-designing. In the paper the authors have taken up an attempt to assess the effectiveness of the system. The case study is presented in which the microgrid operation with and without the management system are compared.


We analyze laser cooling of two-electron atoms with three-level cascade transitions, involving the usual 1S0–1P1 cooling transition coupled to either 1S0 or 1D2 states. We numerically calculate minimum temperatures for the most abundant even isotopes of group II atoms and ytterbium (which lack hyperfine structure), derive general analytical expressions from a perturbative approach, and discuss the experimental implementation of the technique. Considered as an alternative 2nd stage technique to intercombination line cooling, three-level cooling is clearly advantageous for light elements, such as Mg and Ca, while for all elements provides much higher capture ranges, increasing the transfer efficiency from the 1st stage cooling, with faster cooling times and sub-Doppler temperatures.


Results are presented from analyses of primary squeal-mode vibration in aircraft brake systems. System stability is investigated by determining the eigenvalues of linearized perturbation equations at each steady-state operating point of the nonlinear system. Time-history responses are obtained by integrating the complete set of nonlinear dynamic equations. Results are given from analyses conducted using two versions of the nonlinear squeal model, a single-wheel model representing a typical dynamometer configuration, and a fore-aft wheel pair model representing one side of a main landing-gear truck. In general, the model predicts system instability at low braking pressures and stability at high braking pressures. The effects on stability of variations in brake pressure, friction coefficient, and torsional stiffness are shown. The nonlinear squeal model indicates that system instability can occur with a constant friction coefficient and that system stability decreases with increasing brake-friction coefficient. It is shown that proper selection of brake heat stack mechanical properties and design geometry can produce a stable system. Results indicate that a fore-aft brake pair will be more unstable than a single brake, which is in agreement with dynamometer and airplane test data.


"A Novel Floating Gate Spacer Polysilicon TFT Zhao et al. Center for Integrated Systems, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305; 1993 IEEE pp. 15.4.1-15.4.4. No month given. "A Novel Submicron LDD Transistor With Inverst-T Gate Structure', Huang et al., Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 1986 IEEE, 31.7. No month given. Ghandi, Sorab K., "VLSI Fabrication Principles Silicon and Gallium Arsenide', Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 630-634, 1994. No month given.


factors, domestic as well as external, affecting it, in the beginning, before branching out to deal with particular aspects of it and that too mostly in terms of relations with particular states or conglomerations of states. Similarly, a chapter at the end summing up the achievements and failures, or the strong and weak points, of India's foreign policy between 1947 and 1967, would have added to the value of the book. Of course, the third chapter entitled &dquo;Non-Alignment and Its Practice&dquo; deals with some of the mainsprings of India's foreign policy, but this chapter cannot be described as one giving a portrayal of India's foreign policy as a whole. Instead of such a portrayal the authors have selected India's foreign relations in the inter-war period as the theme of their first chapter. It is, of course, possible to think of a chapter dealing with British India's role in world politics in broad terms


Background Racism impacts the health and wellbeing of racial minorities across the lifespan. Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) has been suggested as a protective factor against adversity on racial minorities' wellbeing, however, findings vary between ethnic-racial groups. Research in the Aboriginal Australian context is still limited. The present study tests ERI affirmation as an effect-modifier of the longitudinal association between racism and Aboriginal Australian children's socio-emotional wellbeing (SEWB). Effect-sizes are hypothesized to be smaller among children with higher ERI affirmation. Methods Children (n=408) from the K-Cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) were included in the analysis. Data were collected through questionnaire-guided interviews in two time points, when children were 7–10 years and 9–12 years. Children's racism experience, SEWB (assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), and confounders were reported by caregivers. Information on ERI affirmation was provided through child self-report. Analyses were conducted in Stata 14. Multiple imputation with chained equations was used to address potential bias due to missing data. Poisson regression with robust errors estimated adjusted Risk Ratios (RRa) for the longitudinal effect of racism on different domains of child SEWB. For the effect-measure modification analysis, RRa were obtained for the different stratum of the exposure (racism) and the effect-modifier (ERI affirmation). The direction of the modification was indicated by the Relative Excess Risk due to Interaction (RERI) on the additive scale. Results Children exposed to racism and with low ERI affirmation were at increased risk of increased socio-emotional difficulties, especially for hyperactive behaviour (RRa 2.16, 95% CI 1.00, 4.67), conduct problems (RRa 1.76, 95% CI 0.71, 3.83), and total difficulties (RRa 1.94, 95% CI 0.92, 4.11), although the 95% confidence intervals were wide. Positive effect-measure modification was found in these domains, with respective RERIs of 1.08, 1.39, and 1.14. Contrary to our hypothesis, children with high ERI affirmation were at increased risk of peer problems (RRa 1.80, 95% CI 0.83, 3.90). A negative effect-measure modification was found in this domain (RERI: -0.75). Conclusion Results indicate that promoting ERI affirmation among Aboriginal Australian children might assist to mitigate the effects of racism on specific domains of child SEWB. Higher effects for peer problems observed for children with higher ERI affirmation suggests the role of ERI among Australian Aboriginal children might differ according to the aspects of ERI and outcomes being considered. ERI could be the target of future interventions in Aboriginal children to offset effects of racism.


Chair of Nursing, Women's & Children's Hospital, University of South Australia and Flinders University,Department of Nursing & Midwifery Research & Practice Development, Women's & Children's Hospital, Adelaide, South1AustraliaThe notions of 'family-centred care' and 'parental participa-tion', in relation to child health care in general and children'shospitalization in particular, continue to be the incantationsthat promise to transform our paediatric services – if only werepeat them earnestly and often enough. The problem of nosmall import is, of course, that unless we have a much moredetailed and sophisticated understanding of what thesesecurity-blanket terms might actually look like in practice,thentheyaredoomedtoalifeofvacuousutilityspentpaddingout the mission, vision and philosophy of care statements ofanypaediatricfacilityanywherethatwantstobeseentomakeall of the right noises. Hallstro¨m and Elander are to becommended for their sustained research that has consistentlysought to explore the intricacies of 'parental participation'and helped us to understand the practices, perceptions,experiences and subtleties that comprise parents', children'sand nurses' experiences of hospitalization and care.In this paper they ask a variant of the crucial question,'participation in what?' and focus on how both the everydayand more clinical decisions are reached in the context of achild's hospitalization. They are correct to highlight thesignificance of this issue for it impacts on children's sense ofself and autonomy, parents' and children's satisfaction withcommunication, reactions to treatment and doubtless more(McCabe 1996). If we think ourselves momentarily into ananxious parent's shoes it is not hard to imagine howunsettling and distressing it would be to feel that we were'losing control' of our child to the hospital. We would berightly concerned if we felt swept along by an army ofprofessionals who 'knew best' and who seemed unable orunwilling to listen to us, talk with us and at the very least, askus what we thought of possible or particular courses oftreatment for our sick child. Conversely, it may be no morereassuring to be in the hands of professionals who seemedincapable of advising or suggesting possible best options andwhose stock response to any question was that it was 'yourdecision' (at a time when your decision-making abilities maywell not be at their sharpest).However I do have some qualms about various aspects ofthis paper. I should say at the outset that these concerns donot apply only to this paper but that they have a widerapplicability across much qualitative research and indeed Iand many other interpretive researchers have probably falleninto similar traps. The paper reveals a structural issue forqualitative researchers and that is how to get the balanceright between the various necessary aspects of a researchreport. My sense is that less than two pages of a nine pagepaper devoted to findings or results is probably inadequateand leaves the authors open to the criticism that such findingsare likely to be thin or inconsequential.The paper's central issue – decision-making, seems to havebeen introduced into the study as if it were largely self-explanatory and almost unproblematic. The nature of whatconstitutes 'decisions' seems unexplored as we move straightintolookingathowthesearemade.Aproblemhereisthatthismay lead us to see decisions as a fairly one-dimensionalconcept and simply something that is made or not made bysomeone or other. A more critical and questioning approachto the analysis of decisions might suggest that decision-making is much more of a complex perceptual social processthanitisaneventtobeobservedandcountedoff.'Unpacking'this phenomena more closely would surely reveal otherdimensionsofdecision-makingthatseemtohavebeenglossedover or assumed here (see e.g. Young et al. 2003).


Creating shared value (CSV) has been predicted as the next evolution of corporate social responsibility. Companies that follow the CSV approach integrate economic, societal, and environmental objectives in their strategy to pursue sustainability and competitive advantages. This study investigates the effects of CSV contributions (which are framed as economic, social, and environmental contributions) on brand attitude, and then the effects of brand attitude on consumer purchase and recommendation intentions. This research also examines the moderating role of perceived personal relevance on the relationships between economic, social, and environmental contributions and brand attitude. The proposed model was empirically tested on a sample of 234 consumers in a metropolitan city in Vietnam. The results confirm that positive links exist between the three CSV contributions and brand attitude as well as between brand attitude and consumer intentions of purchasing and recommending. The study also finds that perceived personal relevance moderates the effect of environmental contribution on brand attitude. These effects help us better understand previous findings in the literature regarding the influence of CSV on consumer intentions and enrich the limited CSV research. Moreover, this study also provides managerial suggestions for companies in making their CSV decisions.


Mixed metal oxides viz. ferrites, ferrochromites and chromites have been studied with a view to investigating a correlation between bulk physical properties and catalytic performance over decomposition of alcohols. We could observe a satisfactory relationship between lattice parameter, electronic activation energy, nature and mobility of charge carriers and Curie temperature with reference to catalytic activity of various spinel ferrites.


Objective To explore the clinical effect of thymosin α1in the treatment of acute viral hepatitis B. Methods Clinical recorded data from 72 patients with acute viral hepatitis B from June 2013 to September 2014 admitted into our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.They were evenly divided into two groups.In the treatment group(n=36),thymosin α1was applied,while in the control group(n=36),conventional therapy was provided.Virus replications like hepatitis B virus(HBV)-DNA negative conversion,hepatitis E antigen(HBe Ag) negative conversion,and hepatitis B surface antigen(HBs Ag) negative conversion in the 4th and 8th weeks during treatment.The changes of liver function indexes containing total bilirubin(TBi L),aspartic transaminase(AST),and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) before and after therapy were compared in the two groups. Results In the treatment group,HBV-DNA negative conversion rate,HBe Ag negative conversion rate,and HBs Ag negative conversion rate were 88.89%,91.67%,and 47.22% in the 4-week treatment,and100.00%,100.00%,and 61.11% in the 8-week treatment,which were all higher than those in the control group correspondingly(63.89%,69.44%,22.22% and 77.78%,86.11%,36.11%).The values of TBi L,AST,and ALT in the treatment group were(15.92±5.74) μmol/L,(29.96±6.03) U/L,(35.02±7.18) U/L after therapy,which were all lower than those in the control group[(29.63±8.05) μmol/L,(52.86±9.51) U/L,(67.76±13.47) U/L] with statistical differences(P0.05).There was no statistical difference in incidence of adverse reactions(P0.05). Conclusion Thymosin α1can obtain a remarkable clinical effect on treating acute virus hepatitis B,and has a clinical value for promotion.


On 12 January 1987, the Abbey Gardens on the Isle of Tresco (Figure 1) in the Scilly Isles experienced a temperature of −7°C. Although such a temperature is not particularly low by UK standards, on Tresco it had a devastating impact, killing over 100 trees, not to mention scores of other sub-tropical plants that had been thriving there for generations. The 30-year climatology of minimum January temperatures on the Isles of Scilly indicates that the temperature should only dip below +5°C six times during a typical January, with the coldest day usually not dropping below +2°C. Such a climate, during what is usually the coldest month of the year in the United Kingdom, has allowed horticulturists to establish such sub-tropical plants that cannot be contemplated at virtually all other locations within the United Kingdom. Climatic differences do not appear to be determined by geographical location and orography alone; a comparison with nearby sites reveals that the special climate in Scilly is not simply a function of its low-lying, southerly, coastal location. Just 47 miles northeast of Scilly is another synoptic station, located at the RAF base of Culdrose near the Cornish town of Helston. Apart from its obvious near-geographical location, this site bears two more similarities to the site at St Mary's on the Isle of Scilly: it is located close to the coast, and it has a similar elevation (76m compared with 51m). However, pilots stationed here should expect the temperature to dip below +1°C approximately six times each January with the coldest day typically dropping to −3°C. Therefore, some additional factors beyond geographical location and height are instrumental in determining site-specific, longterm climatological extremes.


Fungi K10,K11 and K18 derived from the surface of tartary buckwheat seed were used to prepare the elicitors.These fungal elicitors were used to induce the germination of tartary buckwheat to produce flavonoids.The results show that the activities of phenylalanine ammonialyase increased by the treatment of elicitors K11 and K18.The production of flavonoids was stimulated during the germination.The optimal concentration of elicitors K11 and K18 was 200 and 50 mg/L,respectively.After 6 days of germination,the content of flavonoids reached 5.13% and 4.39%,which was 24.5% and 6.6% higer,respectively than that of CK.


With the development of economy, the international financial market has been moving towards a diversified structure. Shadow Banking as a product of financial innovation and financial globalization, it is one of the financial intermediaries and activities, and it is far away from the existing regulatory system. In 2008, the United States had liquidity crisis, then it gave rise to global financial crisis. This financial crisis brought heavy losses and social unrest around the world. It also made seriously influence to the financial stability. Reflection of this financial crisis, both governments and academia think the development of shadow bank is one of the most important reasons for this crisis. Therefore, the shadow banking regulatory issues began to become global financial focus. In the shadow banking of the developed countries, such as America, shadow banking has the function of credit creation, and it makes the securitization activity. Compared with the development countries, such as China, shadow banking is still in the beginning stage of simple financing, Chinese shadow banking develop quickly with the risk increasing. Therefore, this paper takes the shadow banking as the research object, analyzing the shadow banking regulatory comparison between the China and the Occident. According to the advanced supervision experiences of the developed countries, this paper made specialized shadow banking regulatory suggestions for China. Keywords—project schedule management; critical chain method; buffering area


213 Background: The presence and the impact of metabolic syndrome (MS) in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) men treated with novel hormonal therapies, as abiraterone, has not still been studied. The study aims to assess the impact of MS on progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) from time starting abiraterone. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated a consecutive series of metastatic CRPC patients treated with abiraterone after docetaxel failure. MS, as defined by modified Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III criteria, was assessed at the time of initiation of abiraterone, during treatment and follow-up. Cox regression model was used to evaluate the role of MS on the two end-points. Results: One hundred seventy eight patients had sufficient data to assess the presence of MS. Mean age (± SD) at start of abiraterone was 74.0 ± 7.7 years. Seventy out of 178 patients (39.5%) met MS criteria at baseline, before abiraterone initiation, whereas for eleven patients this occurred during treatm...


This paper will explore the use of postmodern picture books to address the aims of English in the Australian Curriculum. It examines a project carried out in a Brisbane primary school with students from Years 3 and 5. The study found that postmodern picture books, by their very nature and the devices they contain, offer students a portal into the complexity of reading and viewing in the three strands of language, literature and literacy in the Australian Curriculum: English.


The two methods, which enable us to observe changes in concentration of heavy elements in living plants and to perform quantitative analysis of all elements heavier than aluminum in in-air PIXE with two detectors, simultaneously, were successfully applied to studies on movement of light elements in plants. It was found that light elements including silicone, phosphorus and sulfur in leaves of living plants can be quantitatively analyzed. Accuracy of the method for light elements could be confirmed by comparing the results with those obtained by an internal-standard method. It was also confirmed that changes in elemental concentration with elapsed time after starting irradiation could be observed for silicone, phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine together with heavier elements at the same time. Interesting changes in elemental concentration with elapsed time were observed for phosphorus and sulfur together with heavier elements such as potassium, calcium and manganese. Moreover, quite interesting changes of concentration of some light elements were clearly observed after supplying water-soluble manure containing phosphorus acid and potassium to the plant.


Abstract

This study investigates the dynamics of supervisor-subordinate relationship, commonly referred in leadership literature as leader-member exchange (LMX), in the context of envy, and its associated consequences. Building on the affective events theory, we hypothesize that employees who do not share a good relationship with their supervisors (low-quality LMX) will be envious of the peers that maintain great relationship (high-quality LMX) with the supervisor. As a result, they will restrict knowledge sharing, and engage in uncivil behaviors. Hierarchical regression was used to test hypotheses on data derived from a sample of 204 software engineers working across various information technology firms in India. The study found support for all of the proposed hypotheses and extends research in the field by demonstrating negative consequences of envy in the workplace.


This report is a brief introduction to complex networks. It describes the most important models for random, small world, and scale-free networks, and discusses their properties. Measures such as the clustering coefficient and the local efficiency are defined, and dynamical properties such as network searchability and synchronization are briefly discussed. The report provides necessary background material for further studies on how the networks in a network-based defence should be designed in order to facilitate information spreading and synchronization.


The usability and expansibility is an important problem in information integration.The virtual data view used the advanced technology of XML and XML schema to accomplish the virtual information integration level,which is the basic part of information in-tegration based on XML.The research thought about the performance of system and text data resources which can't be supported in most systems,and the basic architecture and the method of its implementation are expounded with some design codes.


Introduces a wireless distributed childbirth guardianship and diagnoses systemand,designs a high standard and advanced diagnoses service mode,analyses the critical issues of the system.The system is especially suitable to be used to monitor the status of pregnant women in real practice.


SUMMARY The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions formulated for injectable administration, comprising a testosterone ester, particularly testosterone undecanoate in a vehicle comprising castor oil and a co-solvent. Upon injecting the compositions according to a particular administration scheme, reliable levels of testosterone in serum in the normal physiological range for long periods, this permits the use of the compositions in hormone replacement therapy and male contraception without simultaneous monitoring by a physician of testosterone levels in serum.


In many domestic enterprises, the high floating rate of new staff remains a serious problem, which holds back the development of the enterprises and chills the enthusiasm of the employees, leading to a waste of time, human resources and financial resources. This essay focuses on how to transform the new staff into master of their enterprises, the new staff's contribution period to enterprises and the quantification model. The author puts forward some tactics to make these staff satisfied with their enterprises in their different stages of their contribution life circle. In this way, the expected contribution period will coexist with the new staff's own life circle.


This review of the clinical characteristics and prognoses of 161 patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis observed during a 20 year period indicates low incidence of severe systemic involvement and a more favorable prognosis for the disease, in general, than is usually assumed. Conservative therapy, with emphasis on bed rest, was found satisfactory although hormone therapy apparently improved the prognosis of patients with visceral lesions.

Iste revista del characteristicas clinic e del prognoses de 161 casos de juvenil arthritis rheumatoide, vidite in le curso de un period de 20 annos, indica un basse incidentia de sever affectiones systemic e in general un prospecto plus favorabile que es usualmente supponite. Esseva trovnte que un therapia conservatori, con emphase concentrate super allectation, esseva satisfactori, ben que therapia a hormones pareva meliorar le prognose de patientes con lesiones visceral.


With the adoption of the 2008 Framework Decision, the EU has awarded 'the furthering of social rehabilitation' a new position in the context of the transfer of prisoners. The novelty consists of it being the guiding principle for the "unconsented" transfer of prisoners. Unconsented
transfer of prisoners to their home state is now possible if the sending state has satisfied itself that such transfer furthers the social rehabilitation of the prisoners involved. This research looks into the legal and practical functioning of transfers conducted for the furtherance
of the social rehabilitation. Drawing upon case law in relation to similar transfer mechanisms in asylum cases, it is established that Member States that use the 2008 Framework Decision and transfer non-consenting prisoners are vulnerable to state responsibility claims not only in relation to Art. 3 ECHR violations, but possibly also in relation to the social rehabilitation programmes available in the receiving state. In practice it is not possible to adequately substantiate that a transfer would further social rehabilitation and therefore it is not possible to avoid state responsibility. Therefore, it is argued that in order to avoid a deadlock, the proper functioning of the Framework Decision on the transfer of prisoners requires flanking measures specifically targeting the social rehabilitation of prisoners.


This paper is concerned with the natural vibrations of a rubber-like, thick-walled tube which is prestressed by an initial finite twist about the axis of the tube. The analysis is based on a rigorous theory of finite elasticity and the extended theory of small displacements superposed on large elastic deformations. Numerical results are obtained for tubes made of a neo-Hookean material. The fundamental frequency of the vibrations is found to depend on the prestressed state of the tube. In particular, when the tube becomes unstable under the initial twist, then the corresponding fundamental frequency ceases to be real-valued. When this happens, the problem becomes identical with that of torsional instability of similar tubes which was investigated earlier both analytically and experimentally.


Possible involvement of cAMP-dependent mechanisms in the development of both phasic and tonic contractions induced by oxytocin OT (25 nM and 25 ttM, respectively), as well as of KCt-induced contraclure, was studied on the myometrium of estradiol-dominated rats using the myometriat strips with suppressed spontaneous mechanical activity. The inlracellular cAMP level was modulated by furosemide that had been previously shown to decrease cAMP content in the rat myometrium tissue. When added to the medium in Ihe pulse mode together' with 25 nM 0 % furosemide (0.02 raM) increased contraction amplitude by 224%, whereas higher, 0.2 and 20 raM, furosemide concentrations suppressed the response by 286% or totally removed it, respectively. Being present in the bath permanently, 0.2 mM furosemide progressively decreased the amplitude of OT-induced phasic contractions. Under such conditions, 0.02 mM furosemide exerted biphasic effect on the responses, so that the initial enhancement was replaced by the progressive inhibition. Dibulyryl-cAMP (ObcAMP) at a proper concentration restored the responsiveness of the tissue to OT in the presence of furosemide in the saturating concentration. Comractile responses induced by 25 ,uM OT comprised both phasic and tonic components. In a Ca2+-free medium, the OT-induced contractions seemed to be associated with Ca 2+ release from intracellular stores. Permanent presence of furosemide in the CaCl2-containing medium inhibited OT-induced responses in the same manner as omission of Ca 2÷ from the medium, i.e., furosemide did not affect the responses caused by' Ca 2÷ release but inhibited those mediated via acceleration of the Ca 2+ influx. The furosemide-sensitive component of responses to OT was combined with a persistent contraction caused by KCI depolarization; there was a moderate decrease in amplitude of the KCl-induced contracture due to furosemide action. The decrease could be prevented by dbcAMP addition. It is suggested that both voltage-gated and receptor-operated Ca 2+ entries induced by OT are regulated by cAMP-dependent protein kinases, while Ca 2+ extrusion into the extracelhdar space does not depend on the intracellular cAMP.


Sexual identity development among gay men and lesbians consists an important component of coming out. Coming out is considered a vital component in the sexual identity development among gay men and lesbians. This paper explores the experiences of gay men and lesbians with respect to sexual identity development particularly in issues relating to sexual fluidity. Purposively selected 20 gay men and lesbians were involved in an in-depth semi structured interviews. The results found that 90% of male and 30% of female respondents came out to self in their teens. Male compared to female respondents seemed to portray an earlier age of coming out. Coming out to self and others was regardless of one's age with the 40s as the latest age found in this study. Half of the respondents agreed that sexual fluidity could happen or indicated that they had heard of or witnessed sexual identity changes in someone. Some implications for better practice by mental health professionals in ensuring gay men and lesbians well being are provided.


For pt.I see ibid., vol.10, no.4, p. 689-699 (2003). Microdischarge spots appearing on surfaces of dielectric barriers in sandwiched electrode systems have been studied. The study has been focused on streamer microdischarges which are a subject of continual interest not only in plasma physics (dielectric barrier discharges) but also in HV technology (partial discharges). The microdischarge spots have been visualized using photographic films that have played the role of dielectric barriers in experiments. The digitized pictures of microdischarge spots have been subjected to multifractal analysis. An inner structure of spots has been revealed and ascribed to streamer heads. The monofractal nature of the overall sets of microdischarge spots as well as the monofractality of the borders of the dark spot centers has been indicated. The inner structure of the dark centers has been classified as a non-fractal planar object. The study represents a first attempt to analyze microdischarge spots on dielectric barriers using general multifractal formalism.


The strategy of identification for M1 and M2 macrophages both in vivo and in vitro would help to predict the health condition of the individual. Here, we introduced a solution to this problem with the advantage of both the phagocytic nature of macrophages and the scattering effect of gold nanorods (GNRs). The internalized GNRs, relating to their extent of intake, caused a conspicuous scattering profile at the red channel in flow cytometry, overruling the contribution of the cellular side scatters. This internalization is solely governed by the surface chemistry of GNRs. The PAH-GNRs showed maximum intake potency followed by Cit-, PSS-, and PEG-GNRs. On a substantial note, PAH-GNRs lead to differential uptake between M1 and M2 cells, with three times higher intake in M2 cells over M1. This is the first report of employing the scattering of unlabeled GNRs to discriminate M1 and M2 cell types using a flow cytometer.


The present invention provides a method and apparatus for distributing information to be collected of a target object. The method comprises the following steps of: generating the information to be collected, which is related to the target object; and according to a collection condition of a target user, distributing the information to be collected to the target user. According to the scheme of the present invention, the information to be collected of the target object in an application or a website is distributed to the target user, so that by means of collecting the information to be collected, the interest of the user in the application or the website is improved and the application or the website can receive continuing attention from the user.


The electronic transmission and conductance produced by Dirac electrons in an armchair graphene nanoribbon under an external voltage are investigated with the transfer matrix method. We investigate the velocity and voltage of nanoribbons in the presence of single and multiple barriers and show that the transmission coefficients can be controlled by varying the order of the mode, the number of carbon atoms, and the barrier velocities. In particular, we find that the nanoribbon appears to be fully transparent when the barrier and Fermi velocities are equal. Our numerical results show that the electronic conductance is sensitive to the applied external voltage and number of carbon atoms, which can be used to tailor the electronic properties of graphene-based devices.


Target tracking in a wireless sensor network (WSN) has become a relatively standard problem. The WSN typically consists of a collection of sensor nodes, which acquire physical data related to the target dynamics, and a fusion center (FC) where the available data are processed together to sequentially estimate the target state (its instantaneous location and velocity). Very often, tracking algorithms are designed under the assumption that the network is synchronous, i.e., that the local clocks of the sensor nodes and the FC are perfectly aligned or, at least, that their offsets are known. In this paper, we consider an asynchronous WSN, in which the local clocks of the sensors are misaligned and the corresponding offsets are unknown, and aim at designing recursive algorithms for optimal (Bayesian) tracking. In particular, we propose sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) techniques that enable the approximation of the joint posterior probability distribution of the target state and the set of local clock offsets by means of a discrete probability measure with a random support. From this approximation, estimates of the target position and velocity, as well as of the clock offsets, can be readily derived. We illustrate the validity of the proposed approach and assess the performance of the resulting algorithms by means of computer simulations.


The results o f digital orthophoto generation with different output pixel size using three different softcopy photogrammetric workstations: ImageStation 6487 INTERGRAPH, PRPSM/VPSTA o f PS, Softplotter o f Vision International are presented. Aerial photographs taken by RC-IO Wild camera in the scale o f approx. 1:5800 in the Wieliczka hilly region in Poland were scanned on the P SI PhotoScan ZEISS/INTERGRAPH fla t bed scanner with aperture size 30 цт in IGiK. D EM was generated semi-automatically using different software including MATCH-T. Planimetrie accuracy o f digital orthophotos has been calculated on the basis o f a set o f check points measured on the analytical plotter Planicomp P -l ZEISS in IGiK. Orthophotos in the scales 1:2 000 and 1:1 000 have been produced digitally with 0.3 m output pixel size with accuracy mp < 0 .3 mm in the orthophotomap scale.


The present invention relates to post-translational modification of the phage-displayed polypeptide. By these displayed polypeptide is to use in vivo orthogonal translation systems, comprising a suitable orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase and a suitable orthogonal tRNA species, at least one incorporated in a selected position of phage-displayed fusion polypeptide comprising a non-natural amino acids (propargyloxy alkynylamino acids phenylalanine such as for example p- azido -L- aryl phenylalanine, etc. - - azido amino acid or para). These unnatural amino acids azido - an advantage that alkyne [3 + 2] can be used to post-translational modification of the target, such as cycloaddition reactions and Staudinger modifications.


Early diagnosis of cancer is the most important measure in the struggle for the life of patient. In the work is proposed a new method and technical means for early detection in oncology, based on biological object presentation in the system with the time-variable parameters (STVP).


The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants be fed only breast milk for the first six months of life. However, in the United States, far from all parents breastfeed their infants. Previous studies have shown that parents who spend more time in physical contact with their infants are more likely to detect early hunger cues and breastfeed more frequently than parents who spend less time in physical contact. This brief by Emily Little, executive director of Nurturely, PRC faculty scholar Cristine Legare, and colleagues, reports on a randomized controlled trial in which pregnant parents were randomly assigned to receive an infant carrier before birth or put on a waitlist to receive the carrier when their child was six months old. They found that, compared to parents in the control group, parents who received an infant carrier were more likely to feed their six-month-old breast milk, either partially or exclusively. To improve lactation, they argue that healthcare and workplace policies must take physical proximity between parents and infants into account.


A wideband microstrip series-fed magnetic dipole array antenna is proposed. The five-element dipole array antenna is designed to achieve both wide bandwidth and high gain because of its microstrip series feeding structure. The low-profile low-cost array is suitable for applications such as wideband high-gain wireless communications. Measured and simulated results are in good agreement. The measured impedance bandwidth of the array is enhanced up to 28.6% (5.0–6.7 GHz). The radiation patterns show its advantages of high gain (about 10 dBi), endfire radiation and vertical polarisation.


Automated testing tools helps the testers to quantify the quality of software by testing the software .To quantify the quality of software there is always a requirement of good testing tools, which satisfy the testing requirement as per the project. Although there is a wide range of testing tools available in the market and they vary in approach, quality, usability and other characteristics. Selecting the appropriate testing tool there is a requirement of a way to prioritize them on the basis of characteristics. This project will propose a set of metrics for measuring the characteristics of the testing tools for examination and selection of automated testing tools. Metrics for evaluating automatic software testing tools were previously proposed by James B Michal, B B Synder and B J Bossuyt .A new extended model for Black Box Testing which is proposed provides the metrics to calculate the effectiveness of any tool on the basis of functionality and operability. The industry will also be benefited, they can use the metrics to evaluate any tool and make the priority on the basis of analysis they can further make selection of tool for their software to be tested and reduce the testing effort hence effort hence saving time and gaining maximum monetary benefit.


(57) Abstract: ion detector used in the time-of-flight mass spectrometer (1) (27) is disclosed. Ion detector (27) has an extended dynamic range, collecting electrodes of different surface areas; comprises (36, 38 39). In one embodiment, these collection electrodes (36,38; 39) are formed in an array form consisting more and larger the plate-like collecting electrode (36, 38) and the smaller the plate-like collecting electrode (39). Microchannel intensifier plate (31, 32) These collecting electrodes; may be arranged in front of (36, 38 39). In an alternative embodiment, the collection electrode grid disposed in front of the plate-like electrode (43) (42), more preferably consists of a wire electrode (50).


Migraine headaches are often precipitated by stress and seem to involve neurogenic inflammation (NI) of the dura mater associated with the sensation of throbbing pain. Trigeminal nerve stimulation had been reported to activate rat dura mast cells and increase vascular permeability, effects inhibited by neonatal pretreatment with capsaicin implicating sensory neuropeptides, such as substance P (SP). The 99 aim of the present study was to investigate NI, assessed by extravasation of 99-Technetium-gluceptate ( Tc-G), as well as the role of mast cells, SP and its receptor (NK-1R) in dura mater of mice in response to acute stress. Restraint stress for thirty min significantly 99 v increased Tc-G extravasation in the dura mater of C57BL mice. This effect was absent in W/W mast cell-deficient mice and NK-1 receptor knockout mice (NK-1R 2 /2), but was unaltered in SP knockout mice (SP 2 /2). Acute restraint stress also resulted in increased dura mast cell activation in C57BL mice, but not in NK-1R 2 /2 mice. These data demonstrate for the first time that acute stress triggers NI and mast cell activation in mouse dura mater through the activation of NK-1 receptors. The fact that SP 2 /2 mice had intact vascular permeability response to stress indicates that some other NK-1 receptor agonist may substitute for SP. These results may help explain initial events in pathogenesis of stress-induced migraines.  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Theme: Neural basis of behaviour


Error control mechanisms are widely used in video communications over wireless channels. However for improving end-to-end video quality; they consume extra bandwidth and reduce effective system throughput. In this paper, considering the parameters of system throughput and playable frame rate as evaluating metrics, we investigate the efficiency of different error control mechanisms. We develop a throughput analytical model to present system effective throughput for different error control mechanisms under different conditions. For a given packet loss probability, both optimal retransmission times in adaptive ARQ and optimal number of redundant packets in adaptive FEC for each type of frames are derived by keeping the system throughput as a constant value. Also, end to end playable frame rates for the two schemes are computed. Then which error control scheme is the most suitable for which application condition is concluded. Finally empirical simulation experimental results with various data analysis are demonstrated.


In order to ensure thermal reliability and adaptability to temperature change of the internal electronic components and equipment with multi-functional structure,the thermal analysis module was used in ANSYS software to make the analysis of heat conduction and thermal stress analysis for RTU of prototype with multi-functional structure used on cartridge,and the rationality of the structure design was verified,which laying the design foundation for thermal design of electronic equipment in theory.Through research on prototypes about circulation experiment in power and the temperature burn-in test,it is known that the prototype works steadily and the structural design is reasonable.


The human resource is the strategic resources of the enterprise, therefore, the human resource management of the enterprise also has the strategic meaning to the development of the enterprise.How carry out the talented person in the electric power enterprise strategy, use the each link that the strategic taste holds the good human resource, and in accordance with the development of the enterprise the strategy tightly tightly, and affect the development of the electric power enterprise.


As satellite positioning has shortcomings such as susceptibility to multipath interference, we look forward to using a new algorithm to solve these problems. The method of derivative dynamic time regularization is used as the matching method of geomagnetic navigation. Due to the factors of the inertial device itself, a certain cumulative error will occur in the positioning solution of the inertial navigation (INS). Therefore, an outdoor error model needs to be established, and the positioning error is corrected by filtering technology. To solve this problem, the Unscented Kalman Filter is used to fuse the positioning results of the two to obtain a more accurate positioning, with an average accuracy within 1.5 meters.


For any non-negative, quasi-convex Hamiltonian H ∈ C 2(R n ), we consider the L ∞-functional F(u, ·) = ‖H(∇ u)‖ L ∞(·) over . We introduce the notion of comparison with generalized cones (abbreviated CGC) and prove that CGC, viscosity solutions of the Aronsson equation, and absolute minimizers of F(·) are equivalent. This extends an earlier result by Crandall et al. (2001).


Aim The codons of the rabbit defensin NP1 gene were modified to eliminate the E coli rear codons The coding region of the defensin NP1 was cloned in the plasmid pGEX-4T-1,and the fusion protein was expressed in E coli JM109 Preliminary.Study showed that after affinity chromatography there was only one protein band of expected size on the SDS-PAGE gel The fusion protein could be expressed up to 27 7% of total bacterial protein


In this paper, an evidence based decision fusion cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) schemes has been considered for overcoming the hidden terminal problem, improving reliability, and increasing SU agility. Under practical conditions, the combination of conflicting evidences with the classical Dempster Shafer theory (DS theory) rule may produce counter-intuitive results when combining the secondary users (SUs) sensing data evidence leading to poor CSS performance. In order to overcome and minimise the effect of conflicting data, and to enhance performance of the CSS system, a novel efficient evidence-based decision fusion scheme CSS is proposed. The approach is based on the credibility of evidence from the SUs sensing decision, which represents the similarity or the relation among the different SUs sensing data evidence, and a dissociability degree measure which indicates the quality or clarity of the SUs sensing data evidence. Furthermore, a weighted averaging factor determined by the credibility and dissociability of the SU sensing data evidence is proposed. Simulation results presented show that under practical conditions the proposed scheme enhances the performance of the CSS system when compared to traditional fusion rules that do not take into account the difference in local sensing reliability between the SUs. INDEX TERMS Cognitive radio, cooperative spectrum sensing, data fusion, Dempter-Shafter theory, credibility, ambiguity measure.


In Indian Railways everyday some of crime activity is happening. Security of passengers and their belongings is of paramount importance for Indian Railways. In case of any untoward incident of crime against passengers and their belongings matter can be reported to railway police station. In the proposed work, the working model of train based on solar power and automatic control by micro controller is implemented. By using solar power, environmental pollution can be reduced and train fuel consumption can reduced. If any mischievous activity happens against the passengers, they can send information to nearest railway police station by pressing a button located at each compartment. By using GPS we can track the current location of the train


It is shown that conformal anomaly is connected with the topological properties of the Liouville field theory which arises out of the quantum geometry necessary for the quantization procedure. As in the particle picture, the quantization of a Fermi field can be achieved through the introduction of an anisotropic feature in the internal space so that it gives rise to two internal helicities corresponding to particle and antiparticle, in case of a string, also, this specific quantum geometry gives rise to two vortex lines at the endpoints of an open string which is manifested in the Liouville field theory. This helps one to represent a Polyakov string with a nonlinear σ model with the Wess–Zumino term, and the topological aspects of this Wess–Zumino term is found to be associated with those of a Liouville field. When in the Lagrangian formulation this specific quantum geometry is taken into account, it is found that anomaly vanishes.


In many cases, earthquake loss estimation (ELE) studies are conducted by selecting existing seismic vulnerability models (fragility/vulnerability functions) that had been originally derived for similar building typologies in other parts of the world rather than to develop customized functions that address the peculiar structural and non-structural characteristics of the respective building stock. The reasons for this are either to reduce the calculation efforts, especially when studies are conducted for large portions of the building stock, lack of available resources, or lack of information that would allow a detailed survey and data acquisition. The present work illustrates the strength of the fragility/vulnerability functions' representativeness on the outcomes of ELE studies. Based on a test bed located in a seismically exposed region a comparison study between existing (collected, assigned) and user-defined (generated, customized) vulnerability functions is conducted.


The invention discloses a preparation process of a rammer head with a structure of being strong in outside and tough in inside. The preparation process comprises the following steps: 1, feeding TiC alloy powder into a ball mill, and uniformly mixing with sodium silicate, a fluxing agent and alcohol to form a paste type mixture; 2, uniformly applying the prepared paste type mixture into a casting mold cavity, and igniting the paste type mixture; 3, roasting a casting mold coated with the mixture in a thermal treatment furnace; 4, charging argon into the casting mold in step 3, and then pouring; 5, heating a casting in the thermal treatment furnace, and then performing water-cooling quenching to obtain a TiC rammer head; 6, placing the TiC rammer head into a roller polishing machine for polishing, so as to obtain the finished TiC rammer head. According to the preparation process, a special cast infiltration agent, an optimized cast infiltration process and the polishing treatment are utilized and carried out to enable the structure of being strong in outside and tough in inside of the rammer head, so that various performances of the rammer head can be improved, the service cycle of the rammer head can be prolonged, and the product molding quality can be improved; the rammer head has high market popularization.


In this article,the author introduces a practical building inclination rectification and strengthening project in which engineers adopted the sinking\|well inclination rectification method to correct inclination of the building,and used anchor static pressure piles to strengthen rectification effects.


Does any form of social security make sense in emergent economies, such as those in Asia and the Pacific, where most of the labour force is involved in the informal sector? This article explores various options. Though there are structural obstacles, such as the increasing casualization of labour, the inability of low paid employees to save for the future and widespread corruption, the state is not devoid of policy opportunities. A bottom-up approach engaging local community organizations to provide suitable security measures is one important option. However, this needs to be achieved in the context of a multifaceted approach to create an environment of decent work and training that increases individuals' employability.


We argue that expectations about future energy use affect the transition from fossil to renewables, because of an interaction between innovation and resource scarcity. The paper presents a model of directed technical change to study this interaction. We find that fossil-saving technical change erodes the incentives to implement the renewables. Conversely, the anticipation of a transition to renewables diminishes the incentives to invest in fossil technology. As a result, two equilibria may arise, one with a transition to renewables and with low fossil efficiency, and one without renewables and with high fossil efficiency. Expectations determine which equilibrium arises in equilibrium.