Increasingly, universities are developing greenhouse gas emission inventories for universityrelated activities. Microcosms of larger-scale entities, universities offer a unique opportunity to examine emissions in a largely autonomous setting. This paper explores the greenhouse gas inventory conducted for the University Park campus of Penn State University, including a discussion of the calculator developed specifically for the inventory. The inventory spans from 1990-1999 and includes projected emissions for 2000-2012. Following the completion of the inventory, dialogs of mitigation planning emerged in a concerted effort between University stakeholders and researchers to reduce the University's greenhouse gas emissions. We conclude with recommended future actions for Penn State's ongoing effort to curtail greenhouse gas emissions as part of a larger commitment to environmental stewardship. INTRODUCTION International and national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have fallen short of expectations in both the reductions realized and participation commitments from contributing emitters. The Kyoto Protocol put forth targets and timelines for thirty-eight countries of the industrialized north to reduce their emissions (Victor, 2001). The Protocol called for the United States to reduce emissions to seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012. While the United States did sign the Protocol, it was not ratified. The absence of the United States' twenty-four percent of global emissions from the Protocol reduction creates a setback in the global effort to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The literature cites many shortcomings of the Protocol itself as potential causes for its less than successful reception among the global community and recognizes that a more localized approach is necessary (Betsill and Bulkeley 2004; Fleming and Webber 2004; Betsill 2001, 2001; Kates et al. 1998; Kates and Torrie 1998; Collier and Lofstedt 1997). This paper illustrates how the issue of scale plays an instrumental role in emission reductions. We examine GHG emissions at the local scale as opposed to the national or global scale. Exploring emissions from a local perspective offers several benefits: Emissions occur at a local scale (Wilbanks and Kates 1999). For monitoring and inventorying purposes, the local scale is the scale at which data is readily available. It requires little aggregation and offers place-specific information. Every place is unique. Emission mitigation opportunities for any locality differ based on a variety of factors. While larger scale emissions reduction strategies offer blanket approaches to controlling emissions, a localized effort affords flexibility and consideration of place-based characteristics. Social, economic, and environmental factors combine to create unique circumstances for different areas. Local efforts facilitate stakeholder involvement. Just as emission sources operate at local scales in specific places and sectors, so too do the stakeholders who can provide data and perspective on emissions. The Penn State case study relied extensively on close relationships with University stakeholders who supplied activity data, expertise, and other insights into the circumstances surrounding the University's emissions. Universities in particular are excellent laboratories of local places. They operate under similar bureaucratic structures to cities and can contribute substantial emissions. Many large university campuses like University Park are virtually self-sufficient entities, generating their own power, managing wastewater, and providing a living and working environment for thousands of people. University Park, founded as a land grant institution in 1855, is situated in central Pennsylvania (Figure 1). The core campus is home to over 200 major buildings totaling 15.5 million square feet of space, more than 2000 classrooms, two steam plants, a nuclear reactor facility, a football stadium and a wastewater treatment plant. With a student population at just under 45,000 along with almost 14,000 faculty and full time staff members, University Park truly is the size of a modest city. In addition to the aforementioned benefits of examining GHG emissions at a local scale, universities – particularly large research institutions such as Penn State – are laboratories for scientific advancements and provide a unique opportunity for collaboration and innovation in GHG mitigation. This paper outlines the methodologies employed and results found from conducting both an emission inventory and the beginnings of a mitigation plan for the University Park campus of Penn State University. It discusses the process by which an emission calculator, inventory, and projection were developed as well as suggesting shortcomings of data availability and reliability. The discussion of mitigation planning highlights the complexity of University Park's emissions and consequently emission reduction potential. Finally, further action and research for greenhouse gas emissions monitoring and mitigation is offered.


CA MRSA refers to a MRSA infection occurring in the community in an individual without the established risk factors seen in Hospital Acquired MRSA (HA MRSA). CA MRSA sporadically began to appear in the early 1980's. Originally felt to be spread from HA MRSA strains, it has subsequently been determined CA MRSA is microbiologically distinct. These isolates generally carry unique chromosomal alleles including the SCCmecIV and V and the Panton-Valentine leukocidin.. CA MRSA has a propensity for superficial soft tissue infection including abscess formation, necrotizing fasciitis,and necrotizing pneumonia . PVL is considered to be the etiologic component in these aggressive CA MRSA infections. CA MRSA colonization has skyrocketed from virtually nonexistent to as high as 50% of all Staph aureus infections and to over 2% in the healthy U.S. population. There have been several reports in the literature of CA MRSA infections involving the head and neck with inappropriate antibiotic treatment underscoring the need for greater recognition and understanding in the management of CA MRSA. We present a series of patients with head and neck CA MRSA encountered in a 12 month period in the senior author's private suburban practice. Infection characteristics, management techniques and outcomes are discussed. METHODS AND MATERIALS 10 subjects were identified with head and neck CA MRSA infections in a 12 month period from 3/2008 to 3/2009. Patients were included in this study if they had culture proven MRSA without any of the criteria of HA MRSA. All patients with abscesses (7/10) underwent incision and drainage (within 24hrs) When localization was in doubt due to excessive edema, ultrasound was performed utilizing a portable ultrasound. Whenever possible incisions were created in a cosmetically acceptable area. Patient #6 required an open deep biopsy. All patients underwent culture utilizing sterile technique. All abscess cavities were irrigated with Vancomycin solution (2mg/cc) (Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Deerfield, IL) then packed with 1⁄4" gauze soaked in Vancomycin. This packing was changed on a daily basis until the cavity volume had significantly reduced. All patients then received appropriate antibiotics based on sensitivities. The patients with paranasal sinus infections were started on topical nebulized antibiotics. All patents were seen as an out patient 1 day, 1week and 1 month post drainage. RESULTS (Tables I – IV) (Figures 1 -3) Ten subjects were included, 8 males and 2 females. Average age 42.3y (mean 44y; range 21y-75y). No patient met the classic criteria for hospital acquired MRSA . Three patients with CA MRSA infections were predominantly nasal soft tissue (#2,4, and 5); 3 subjects had lower lip involvement (#1,7, and 10); 2 had chronic paranasal sinus infections (#8 and 9); one subject (#6) had diffuse involvement of his entire right lower face and another (#3) had a submental abscess. Only patient (#3) had been cultured prior to referral via an attempted intraoral aspiration performed elsewhere. 4 subjects received empiric therapy prior to referral (#1,2,3, and 7). Of these only half received antibiotics generally considered effective against CA MRSA in our locale (#3 and 7). All subjects with soft tissue abscess (#1-5, 7, and 10) underwent formal operative incision and drainage (I and D) using sterile technique in the operating suite within 24 hours. Four of these subjects (#3,4,7,and 10) had such significant associated edema that a portable ultrasound was employed to help localize the abscess cavity fig. a-d). Antibiotic sensitivities are seen in table 3. All of the patients that underwent soft tissue I and D had packing placed. The packing was to be changed daily. The mean time packing was required was 1 week (range 4 – 21d) . One patient (#7) did not perform daily packing changes. This same individual was the only subject who required a second I and D one week after the first. One patient (#6 with diffuse hemi facial skin involvement with necrosis(fig3a-b)) was initially evaluated by a dermatologic oncologist for suspected skin cancer. When referred to us he underwent deep facial soft tissue biopsy with culture of the biopsied material which was positive for MRSA. All patients received sensitivity directed antibiotics. Most subjects ( #3,4,5,6,7,and 10) received oral Doxycycline . These oral antibiotics were employed for an average of 26 days. Two patients received TMP/SMX (#1 and 6 for 10d and 5wks respectively). The latter received both Doxycycline and TMP/SMX. Both paranasal sinusitis patients underwent topical culture directed nebulized therapy ( #8 and 9 received gentamycin and TMP/SMX respectively). At one month follow up no subject had recurrent infection and all incisions had healed well except #3 who began to have evidence of a depressed scar on her submental drainage site requiring a minor scar revision . DISCUSSION It is likely that Staphylococcus Aureus has been present since the human specie evolved acting as both a commensal and pathologic organism. I There exists a repeating pattern of ingenious human intervention to combat this infective agent followed by equally ingenious modification of the bacterium to resist. reported. Originally sporadic cases, the prevalence of Methicillin Resistant S. Aureus has increased exponentially predominately in the hospital or chronic care setting. In 1975 2.4 % of all hospital S. Aureus cultures were MRSA, this rose to 29% in 1991 and climbed to 40% in 1996. MRSA infections outside of the hospital or chronic care setting were rare. Most of these individuals had prosthetic devices , chronic intravenous drug abusers or frequent antibiotic use. However beginning in the late 1980's increasing reports of community acquired MRSA infections in patients without any associated risk factors began to appear by the mid 1990's CA MRSA was reported to have increased 26 fold and has continued to increase at alarming rate while the incidence of HA MRSA has remained relatively stable. CA MRSA was originally felt to be spread from nosocomial strains of MRSA, however its' disease pattern differed from HA MRSA pathology. A predilectation to superficial soft tissue infection, fasciitis, and abscess formation including life threatening necrotizing pneumonia characterized severe CA MRSA.3-5 Antibiotic resistance pattern also significantly differed. HA MRSA generally was resistant to most antibiotics except vancomycin. CA MRSA tended to be sensitive to many antibiotics. Gottleib et al (1992) who reported the first series otolaryngologic patients with MRSA who did not have nosocomial risk factors. Park et al. noted that the prevalence of CA MRSA in chronic suppurative otitis media rose from 0.7 % in 1998 to 11.4% in 2006 while the proportion of HA MRSA remained stable. Manarey et al reported a 9.22% MRSA infection rate in chronic rhinosinusitis in an outpatient setting.[ A 2.7% MRSA infection rate in acute rhinosinusitis was reported by Huang. Other reports of ENT related community acquired MRSA infections include series on pediatric neck abscesses, facial abscesses, and post rhytidectomy patients. Our small series adds to this growing accumulation of head and neck CA MRSA infections. Despite our series small size several important features are evident. In our series all patients with soft tissue infections started with a red mark and swelling which rapidly increased in size. This is frequently confused with a spider bite. The CDC warns that this presentation should alert the health care professional to possible CA MRSA particularly in an endemic area. Prompt I and D is critical for both therapeutic and diagnostic reasons. We have found the judicious use of ultrasound to be beneficial in helping to direct incision location and discovery of hidden loculations. The head and neck surgeon should drain the abscess in an area to minimize an untoward scar. A through attempt to break all loculations should be performed followed by appropriate antibiotics and packing. Generally continued until all signs of the infection have disappeared, typically around 14 days to 21 days. Standard infection control measures should be employed for all CA MRSA infected patients in outpatient and inpatient healthcare settings. Hand washing with soap and water or alcohol gel even if gloves are employed after contacting contaminated patients. Change gloves when moving from a contaminated site to a clean site in the same patient. Wearing gown and eye protection if there is any chance of body fluid risk. When an inpatient strong consideration should be given to room isolation or at the very least, a private room. Upon discharge counseling should be given to close contacts and household members regarding hand hygiene and wound contact.


A novel method of ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed for the identification and quantification of four potential genotoxic impurities (PGIs) in the active pharmaceutical ingredients of TSD-1, a novel P2Y12 receptor antagonist. Four PGIs were named, 4-nitrobenzenesulfonic acid, methyl 4-nitrobenzenesulfonate, ethyl 4-nitrobenzenesulfonate, and isopropyl 4-nitrobenzenesulfonate. Following the International Conference of Harmonization (ICH) guidelines, this methodology is capable of quantifying four PGIs at 15.0 ppm in samples of 0.5 mg/mL concentration. This validated approach presented very low limits (0.1512–0.3897 ng/mL), excellent linearity (coefficients > 0.9900), and a satisfactory recovery range (94.9–115.5%). The method was sufficient in terms of sensitivity, linearity, precision, accuracy, selectivity, and robustness and, thus, has high practicality in the pharmaceutical quality control of TSD-1.


The aim of this article is to present a Post Keynesian model to describe growth in the Brazilian economy in the 1970s. Despite permanent inflation, the Brazilian economy grew at an accelerated rate throughout the decade, leading some to believe that inflation was not such a bad villain for the development of latecomer economies. During the 1980s, however, stagnation and triple-digit inflation dismantled this belief. This description ofthe Brazilian development process during the 1970s is oriented by the conceptual priorities set by the notion of monetary economy. Eichner's conception of a recursive model where a causal chain is built is applied to explain the dynamics of growth and inflation in the Brazilian economy in the 1970s. In this sense, this paper is in line with the developments of Eichner and Arestis in modeling short-term macroeconomic behavior according to Post Keynesian principles.' (See Eichner, 1979, 1981, 1987; and Arestis et al., 1985-86; Arestis, 1986, 1987-88,1989.)


In order to obtain reliable energy simulation results, it is essential to have accurate climate files corresponding to specific geographical locations. The present work describes a selection process of the Typical Meteorological Months (TMM) that will generate the Typical Meteorological Years (TMY) in eight locations of the Community of Galicia for an analysis period between 2008 and 2017 (10 years). The region of Galicia, located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, due to its particular orography, is prone to the generation of differentiated microclimates in relatively close locations. The process of selecting the typical meteorological months has been carried out following the Sandia Laboratories method. In the present work, data from terrestrial meteorological stations have been combined with solar radiation data obtained from satellite images. Finally, for the validation and comparative study of results, files have been generated in Energy Plus Weather (epw) format. Trends have been checked and typical statistics have been used to analyse the correlations between the files generated with the Sandia method, and the usual reference files (LT, WY, BY). It is observed that with the eight files generated, new differentiated climates are detected, which will affect the improvement of the precision of the energy simulations of buildings that are going to be carried out. For example, in the case of the Campus Lugo and Pedro Murias stations, located in the same climatic zone according to Spanish regulations, differences are observed in the annual averages: DTm (13.7%), WV (41%) or GHI (9%).


A rare case of mucoepidermoid carcinoma arising in a 15-year-old boy is reported. The patient had palatal swelling with tenderness for two years. After a diagnosis of mucoepidermoid carcinoma was obtained by biopsy and CT scan examinations, the patient underwent a partial maxillectomy. Histopathologically, the tumor arising in the palatal mucosa involved the maxillary bone and the base of the right maxillary sinus. The tumor consisted not only of predominantly clear cells and squamous cells in solid nests but also of mucous cells forming various sized cystic cavities. From a review of the literature, mucoepidermoid carcinoma was shown to be the most frequent salivary tumor in children, comprising 3% to 8% of the total numbers of patients with mucoepidermoid carcinoma. When compared with adult cases, childhood cases more frequently involve the parotid gland and less frequently the minor salivary glands.


In this work, we present microneedle fabrication using the mechanism of silicon convex corner undercutting for modified etch masks in aqueous KOH solution (29% KOH, 79 °C). The presented modified mask designs include three different shapes, as well as different compensation structures applied to a square mask shape. We have found that square mask shapes present an optimum needle structure in contrast to circular or diamond shapes. The use of compensation structures facilitates an increase in needle density of 33–50% over that otherwise achieved.


A holder suitable for a cigarette lighter comprises a base unit 2, an attachment means 15, and a leash 5. The attachment means 15 is connected to the base unit 2, and can be used to attach the base unit 2 releasably to a user's clothing. The leash arrangement 5 comprises a flexible leash element which may be extended from, and retracted into, the base unit 2. A holder, preferably in the form of a grip (9, fig.1), is attached to the leash element 5, and is operable to grip and release at least one type of cigarette lighter. Preferably, the attachment means 15 is attached rotatably with respect to the part of the base unit from which the leash protrudes, so that part of the base unit may rotate when the lighter is pulled upwards for use.


Heart failure is a complex clinical syndrome in which the heart cannot pump sufficient blood and nutrients to the organs in the body. Increasingly, alterations in cardiac energetics are being implicated as playing an important role in the pathogenesis of heart failure. An understanding of specific metabolic switches which occur during the development of heart failure in patients would be greatly beneficial as a new diagnostic method and for the development of new therapies for patients with failing hearts. This thesis deals with the non-invasive assessment of metabolism in the heart. New magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for metabolic characterization of the heart using hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI are presented. Spatially resolved images of hyperpolarized 13C substrates and their downstream products can provide insight into real-time metabolic processes occurring in vivo, within minutes of injection of a prepolarized 13C-labeled substrate. Conventional 3D spectroscopic acquisitions require in excess of 100 excitations, making it challenging to acquire full cardiac and respiratorygated, whole-heart metabolic volumes. Each of the developments described in this thesis is intended to advance cardiac hyperpolarized 13C metabolic imaging towards a routine, clinical exam which can be used for prognosis and treatment optimization in patients with cardiovascular disease. The major technical development is a new interleaved-frequency, time-resolved MRI pulse sequence that can provide robust and reliable measurements of cardiac metabolic signals. The technique was applied to several realistic pre-clinical models of cardiac dis-


Abstract In order to improve safety and efficiency in the management of modern railways, several systems for monitoring and control of traffic are being developed. Automatic train protection (ATP) systems command an emergency braking procedure if dangerous situations occur, such as insufficient braking distance to one of the next target positions and target velocities. A novel ATP system named SCMT, to be installed on trains running on Italian railways, is currently being designed. One of the components of SCMT is a module for estimating train speed and positions between fixed balises, which communicate to the on-board system the distance to next targets and the velocity requirements at targets. In this paper algorithms are described for distance to target and velocity estimation, capable of compensating for poor wheel-rail adhesion conditions where conventional odometry algorithms may fail. The algorithms were derived using a variety of methods including neural networks, fuzzy logic and crisp logic. The system was designed and trained using a wide set of experimental data, obtained from test runs carried out with different types of vehicles and conditions (in particular, degraded adhesion conditions were investigated).


: For a very long time, it has been believed that the primary source of supplies for supplying people's basic needs has been agriculture. It is recognised as both a necessary kind of employment and a significant industrial sector in India. In order to maintain a healthy diversity, farmers should engage in traditional naked eye observation and produce healthy crops without using pesticides on their cultivation field or on the animals that eat such products. Farmers are assisted by a variety of machine learning algorithms in their agricultural processes. Systems like soil categorization, crop forecasting, disease detection, and fertilizer recommendation are created to make farming easier. To obtain a high degree of accuracy for the suggested approaches for disease prediction, crops prediction and soil classification, machine learning algorithms like SVM, kNN, and decision trees are utilised. Use of IoT in agriculture includes water sprinklers, drones, robots, livestock management, smart greenhouse, etc.


A lot. Using data on startup loan applicants from a U.S. lender that employed an automated algorithm in its application review, we implement a regression discontinuity design assessing the causal impact of receiving a loan on entrepreneurial success. Obtaining a loan has a strong effect on the future financial position of startups. Startups receiving funding are dramatically more likely to survive, enjoy higher revenues and create more jobs. Loans are more consequential for survival among entrepreneurs with more education and less managerial experience. Access to credit creates a skewed firm size distribution by enabling quite small firms to succeed. We would like to thank Catherine Meyrat, Nelly Rojas-Moreno, and Duangkamol Phuengpanyalert for their guidance about institutional details. We also thank Rosy Manzanarez, Alejandra Garcia, and Siddharth Subramanian for their research support. We are grateful for comments from seminar participants at Instituto de Empresa, NYU Stern, Rutgers, UCLA and Wharton. Garmaise gratefully acknowledges support from the Harold and Pauline Price Center. Contact information: email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com. Small entrepreneurial firms represent a strikingly large portion of the American economy. Basic indicators such as GDP growth, job creation, innovation rate, and wealth accumulation all depend to a great extent on the success of newly founded organizations constantly revitalizing U.S. markets. Given the collective size and dynamism of this sector of the economy, the role of financial institutions in funding nascent firms has become a central area of research and debate. In this paper we consider two main questions. First, to what extent do formal loans matter for entrepreneurial success in the U.S.? Second, what types of entrepreneurs experience the greatest benefits from receiving this credit? On the first issue of the importance of credit, consider a potential loan to a small firm from a given lender. It may be argued that this funding will have a large impact on the firm's success, as loans constitute a major source of entrepreneurial financing (Robb and Robinson (2012)), and early-stage credit may enable entrepreneurial ventures to invest in value-creating opportunities and achieve necessary scale. On the other hand, there are reasons to suggest that the effect of the loan will be minimal. Specifically, there is evidence that entrepreneurs who cannot obtain bank financing are of relatively low quality (Kerr and Nanda (2009), Cetorelli (2009) and Andersen and Nielsen (2012)). In that case, good firms that are rejected by this one lender will find financing elsewhere, while poor firms that do receive a loan will be unlikely to succeed in any event. Moreover, there are indications that liquidity constraints do not matter much for entrepreneurial firm creation (Hurst and Lusardi (2004)) and some surveys suggest that small firms are unlikely to be financially constrained (Angelini and Generale (2008)). Further, there has been considerable debate on whether financial constraints matter for small-firm growth trajectories in developed economies, as financial capital may be substituted for by other available factors (e.g., Carpenter and Petersen (2002) and Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Maksimovic (2005)) and entrepreneurs may For example, the U.S. Census reports that there were 22.6 million nonfarm sole proprietorships and 3.1 million partnerships in 2008, together accounting for 42.4% of all business net income in that year.


A man aged 63 years was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type 1 (also known as von Recklinghausen disease) at the age of 16. Over the years, he developed multiple plexiform neurofibromas throughout his skin, more expressive in the trunk (figure 1) as well as deep inside the body (figure 2). He was admitted to our yard with severe lumbar pain, weakness of both legs and faecal and urinary incontinence. On examination, he …


For a geographic area to become successful as a tourist destination, it is crucially important to recognise the tourist destination's perceived images since they effect the individual's subjective perception and consequent behaviour and destination choice. This importance has led to a growing body of research on tourism destination image. In this research, image differences of three competing Mediterranean destinations – Italy, France and Morocco – were examined in terms of how they are perceived by university students. Research data were analysed by stepwise discriminant analysis. According to research results it was found that perceived images of the three destinations are significantly different. Also, results showed that, potential customers for Italy, France and Morocco destinations could be predicted by using a discriminant function.


Most of the items in the collection are maps of individual Caribbean islands, dating from the late 16th to the early 19th centuries. The bulk of the maps are from the 1700s. Seventeen maps cover groups of Caribbean islands, focusing on islands in different parts of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The collection also includes a number of prints of engravings, often based on drawings by military artists, depicting a variety of Caribbean locales.

All of the documents were selected and purchased during personal research visits to libraries and other outlets. The copies of maps (printed and manuscript) and prints were obtained from the following libraries: Biblioteque Nationale de France, British Library, Harvard University, McGill University, National Archives and National Library of The Netherlands, National Library of Jamaica, National Maritime Museum (Greenwich), Royal Geographical Society (London), Royal Tropical Institute (Amsterdam), Uppsalla University, University of Amsterdam, University of Florida, University of Leiden, and the University of Utrecht. The facsimile copies of maps and engravings were all purchased in the Caribbean islands at a variety of outlets in several Caribbean countries. A number of items were acquired at the shops of the Brimstone Hill Fortress Museum (St. Kitts), the National Museum of Barbados, and the St. Eustatius Historical Society Museum. 2 The largest single source within libraries is the King's Topographic Collection at the British Library, a magnificent collection of maps and engravings collected by King George III. This collection, eventually donated to the British Museum by King George IV, forms an important core of the British Library's map section.


The application of swarm intelligence algorithms to wireless sensor networks (WSNs) deployment has been the focus of research community for past few years. One such algorithm is ant colony optimization (ACO), whose application in reducing the cost of WSNs in terms of deployed sensor nodes has recently attracted attention of the researchers. In this letter, we propose an ACO-based framework for WSN deployment in a realistic 3-D environment, by making modifications to the standard ACO algorithm. The simulation results lead to the conclusion that the proposed framework achieves better performance compared with the state-of-the-art ACO-based algorithms in terms of size of the solution for node deployment. In addition, in a 3-D environment, time overhead problem arises in standard ACO-based algorithms since they require a large number of iterations to achieve better solutions. In contrast, the performance of the proposed approach does not degrade with reduction in number of iterations, which enables the algorithm to achieve quick convergence.


A strain-gauge-type precision displacement sensor, which is developed for a usage of micro-XY stage, is described in this paper. A thin-film strain-gauge element, which is made by Cr-N alloy, is directly fabricated on the base of the strain gauge. The direct fabrication and using the Cr-N element are expected to achieve higher sensitivity for displacement detection and better stability against the change of ambient temperature. In this study, several designs of the thin-film strain gauge, including both of two-gauge-type and four-gauge-type, are prepared to compare sensor performances such as sensitivity, stability and so on. The designed patterns of the strain-gauge element are directly fabricated on zirconia plates by using photolithography processes. The fabricated strain gauges are then evaluated as precision displacement sensors. At first, stability of the fabricated Cr-N strain-gauge-type displacement sensor was confirmed by comparing with the one made by a conventional strain gauge. Resolution of the fabricated Cr-N strain-gauge-type displacement sensors was then evaluated by comparing with a commercially-available laser displacement sensor, while giving sub-micrometer-order deformation to the strain-gauge-type displacement sensor. Details of the design, fabrication and evaluation results of the Cr-N strain-gauge-type displacement sensor are described.


In the 1930s and 1940s, Australian women writers published novels, poems, and short
stories that pushed the boundaries of their national literary culture. From their position in
the Pacific, they entered into a dialogue with a European modernism that they reworked
to invigorate their own writing and to make cross-continental connections. My interest in
the work of Australian women prose writers of this period stems from an appreciation of
the extent of their engagement with interwar modernism (an engagement that is generally
under-acknowledged) and the realization that there are commonalities of approach with
the ways in which contemporaneous Chinese authors negotiated this transnational
cultural traffic. China and Australia, it has been argued, share an imaginative and literal
association of many centuries, and this psychic history produces a situation in which
'Australians feel drawn towards China: they cannot leave it alone.'1 Equally, Chinese
exploration of the great southern land began in the fifteenth century, prior to European
contact. In recent times, the intensity of Australia's cultural and commercial connections
with Asia has led to a repositioning of the Australian sense of regionalism in general and,
in particular, has activated yet another stage in the history of its relationship with China.
In this context, the association of Australian and Chinese writing is instructive
because the commonalities of approach and areas of interest between certain authors
indicate that Australian writers were not alone in either the content or style of their
response to European modernism. This recognition, in turn, advances discussions of
modernism in Australia and reveals an alternative way of looking at the world from the
Pacific Rim through literature. The intent is to examine selective Australian and Chinese authors who are part of this continuous history and whose writing demonstrates common
thematic and stylistic features via the vector of modernism. I focus on the 1930s and
1940s because these are the decades in which Australia and China experienced wideranging
conflict in the Pacific, and it is significant that war, both forthcoming and actual,
features as an ominous soundtrack in the writing of Chinese and Australian women.
I argue that, given the immensity of cultural difference between Australia and
China, there is an especially interesting juncture in the ways in which the authors
interrogate modernist practices and the challenge of modernism. The process in which
writing from the Pacific Rim jointly negotiates the twin desires of engaging with
European literary form and representing one's own culture may be seen as what Jessica
Berman identifies as a geomodernism, one of the 'new possible geographies' of
modernism.2 My discussion centres on the work of the Australian women, to which the
Chinese material serves as a point of reference, albeit a critical one. The Chinese writing
examined here is restricted to authors who wrote at least some material in English and
whose work is available in translation.


The shape and feature extraction in Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data is the most addressed application in present underground object identification technique. The problem of automatically detecting the shape and feature in GPR data is in analysing and fitting the hyperbola features from GPR data objects. To address these, we propose a hyperbole fitting method to extract the shape and features of synthetic and real GPR data objects. The proposed method is successfully implemented on different GPR data sets and comparatively proved better method for GPR data objects feature extraction. Our proposed method can be used in detecting the underground pipe identification technique.


Considering the popularity of Web-based instruction (WBI), the research on instructional design and pedagogy for WBI is limited. Specifically, further research on developing learning strategies to improve interaction, cognitive engagement, and motivation for WBI is needed. To enhance complex problem solving in WBI, this study used collaborative groups and guided questions in a hybrid web-enhanced learning environment in which students attended class face-to-face and online. A Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach was used to design a complex problem scenario for the students. PBL uses authentic, complex problems as the impetus for learning and fosters the acquisition of both disciplinary knowledge and problem-solving skills (Edens, 2000; Flynn & Klein, 2001; Levin, 1995).
The participants were pre-service teachers enrolled in an introductory educational technology course in the College of Education at a large university in the southeastern United States. Students voluntarily participated in the study as an optional part of class activities. The study was designed as a 2 × 2 factorial design. The independent variables used were collaborative groups (presence vs. absence), and guided questions (present vs. absent). The dependent variables of this study were (a) learning outcomes that were determined by measuring students' final products with scoring rubrics, (b) learning processes that were evaluated by observation and review of discussion board postings, and (c) attitudes toward problem solving that were measured by questionnaires and the Instructional Material Motivation Survey (IMMS). Students were engaged in solving a scenario for three weeks and participated in both classroom and online discussion activities. A mixed method study design was applied, which combined an experimental study and qualitative data analysis that included interviews, discussion board message analysis, and observations.
The result of this experimental study showed that the students working individually with guided questions (IQ) significantly outperformed the other treatment groups. It appeared that guided questions were an effective learning strategy for solving complex problems. There were no significant differences for problem-solving attitude among the four groups. The high mean score and the analysis of interviews suggested a ceiling effect for their problem solving attitude. The result from the discussion board message analysis showed a positive relationship between a high level of group discussion engagement and the problem solving outcome. The study implied that, in order for students to gain the full benefits from collaborative group work, the group discussion process should be moderated, especially when students are novice learners in problem solving. Additionally, using guided questions was effective when students worked individually and used the questions as a guideline or checklist. Findings from this study will inform future research efforts on collaborative learning and complex problem solving in web-enhanced educational environments.


In the late of the 1980's, the scanning electron microscopy was used in the research of the quartz sand surface textures on the Qinhuangdao intertidal zone. The research shows that the coast is under marine erosin and the trensgression is tend to grow and also, this conclosion is totally identical with the research of geomorphology and Quaternary.


We present interferometric switching experiments using femtosecond pulses with an InGaAs semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Our measurements reveal significant refractive index changes occurring within a few picoseconds. The timescale and power dependence of this ultrafast feature, together with the predictions of a phenomenological model, strongly suggest carrier heating as responsible.


Recently, the energy crisis in the world has led to the rise in use of renewable energy sources. With the advancement in power electronics technology, the solar photovoltaic energy has been recognized as an important renewable energy resource because it is clean, abundant and pollution free. The two stage grid interactive PV system described in this paper supplies active power as well as provides harmonic and reactive power compensation. This additional feature increases the effective utilization of PV inverter and increases the overall efficiency of the system. The current paper proposes an intelligent control method for the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of a photovoltaic system under variable insolation conditions. Here in this paper, intelligent control method uses a Fuzzy Logic Controller applied to a DC-DC converter device as well as Dc Link Controller to achieve the DC Link Voltage Constant.


Global climate change is leading to asymmetric atmospheric warming with reduced temperature differences between day and night. This has an increasing influence on crop plants. However, little is known about the physiology of high night temperature (HNT) effects and natural variation in HNT susceptibility. Twelve rice cultivars were investigated under HNT (30°C day/28°C night) and control (28°C day/21°C night) conditions. Chlorosis was observed under HNT and used to classify relative sensitivity of cultivars. The resulting mean sensitivity rank correlated significantly with seed yield under HNT (r=-0.547). Wide variability in HNT tolerance led to an increase in shoot FW and DW in tolerant, but decreased plant growth in sensitive cultivars. Growth parameters correlated negatively with HNT sensitivity. Respiration rate was significantly increased under HNT at the end of night for several cultivars 34 DAS and 41 DAS and for all cultivars 66 DAS whereas photosynthetic quantum yield was not influenced. Negative correlations of sensitivity rank with respiration rate at two time points under HNT (r=-0.305; r=-0.265) exclude higher respiration rates in sensitive cultivars as a primary cause for HNT sensitivity. Monosaccharide and starch concentrations of leaves were increased after 16 days of HNT, while sucrose was not affected. Additionally tolerant cultivars showed a higher increase of monosaccharide concentrations during the day under HNT compared with control conditions. While HNT did not lead to carbon depletion in rice leaves, tolerant cultivars coped better with HNT, enabling them to accumulate more carbohydrates than sensitive cultivars with leaves affected by chlorosis.


Factors that govern chemical and optical yields of methyl γ-hydroxy-α,β-unsaturated esters 1 formed in reactions of optically active sulfinylacetates 2 with aldehydes (the «SPAC» reaction) are defined. Racemic samples of these chirons (1) can be resolved via acylations mediated by crude preparations of the lipase Pseudomonas K-10 in organic solvents. Combinations of asymmetric SPAC reactions with these biocatalytic resolutions provide routes to highly optically active esters 1 in good yields. This methodology is applied in a completely asymmetric synthesis of (4S-cis)-5-(cyclohexylmethyl)-4-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidinone (15), a cyclic derivative of (3S,4S)-4-amino-5-cyclohexyl-3-hydroxypentanoic acid (ACHPA)


BACKGROUND
Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) is a virus that infects cucurbits and has been identified as a major limiting factor in cucurbit production. The purpose of this study was to create copper oxide nanostructures (CONS) to control ZYMV in squash plants. The protection of squash against ZYMV was assessed in terms of virus severity, ZYMV concentration, transcription of pathogenesis-related genes and growth enhancement of treated squash.

RESULTS
The findings revealed that squash plants treated with CONS had a significant reduction in disease severity when compared to untreated plants. In squash plants treated with CONS, the defensive genes associated with the salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway were strongly expressed compared to untreated plants. CONS's structural characteristics, such as its small size and appropriate shape, added to its excellent anti-ZYMV efficacy. CONS-treated squash plants have significantly improved growth traits when compared to untreated squash plants.

CONCLUSION
Based on the results obtained from this study, CONS may be a new strategy for the control of ZYMV in squash. This represents an unconventional solution to control this virus, especially that there are no chemical pesticides that can control viral diseases. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) scheme for certain ecosystem services is being used as a mechanism to provide incentive to suppliers of the services by the beneficiaries. In Nepal, PES like schemes is in practice since a long time, though the discussions on formal PES schemes have recently been started. This study has been carried out at Begnas Lake Watershed (BWS), a Ramsar site, at Pokhara-Lekhnath Metropolitan of Nepal. It aims to understand the perception of local residents towards the implementation of PES scheme in BWS. Furthermore, it also identifies key actors for PES implementation at BWS, their role in PES design and implementation as well as potential payment mechanism for the ecosystem services within the PES scheme at BWS. Finally, institutional structure for PES design and implementation is also presented. The study finds positive perception of local people towards initiating payment mechanism for the use of ecosystem services to ensure environmental conservation and sustainable management of the resources. Both upstream and downstream population favors mix of public/private PES scheme while upstream population favors cash-payment type scheme and downstream population favors the capacity building of upstream communities in conservation efforts. It is also noted that upstream people favor input-based mode of payment and downstream people are inclined towards output-based payments. The study found some 'PES-like' practices operational in the watershed. The study recommends the formation of 'Begnas Watershed PES Advisory and Coordination Committee' with due participation of identified stakeholders to initiate and institutionalize formal PES mechanism at BWS.


In this paper, a Metamaterial-based bowtie antenna is proposed and designed for microwave applications. The Metamaterial antenna is modulated with numerical method WCIP: Wave Concept Iterative Process, to increase the simulation time and to ensure the speed. Because of its simplicity and precision, the WCIP approach has been seen as a very appealing approach to solving electromagnetic problems. This method shows a good agreement comparing to the Three Dimensional simulator ANSY-SHFSS with a minimum computing time, which proves the efficiency and accuracy of WCIP.


The design and construction of Aviation Boulevard, built under under the auspices of the Los Angeles County Road Department, is discussed. A main advantage of the location of Aviation Boulevard was its close proximity to an asphalt plant that had equipment and controls for collecting data to be used for testing and evaluating asphalt paving materials produced at the plant. The paving grade asphalt used in the project was closely checked, and samples were regularly secured from both the tank truck and the underground asphalt storage tanks. The equipment and processes utilized in mixing the hot aggregate and paving grade asphalt and laying these materials in the various courses are detailed.


Environmental pollution caused by the development of industry and the rapid increase in the number of vehicles currently requires restrictions on the use of lubricants. Used lubricants contain complex mixtures of hydrocarbons that adversely affect plants by creating conditions that make essential nutrients such as nitrogen and oxygen needed for plant growth unavailable and cause severe problems in soil ecosystems and the rhizosphere. The accumulation of these spills can complicate the degradation process by microorganisms in the soil. Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides) can grow at various levels of nutrients and insufficient abiotic conditions, so it is used in multiple studies as a hyperaccumulator plant. Preliminary research in determining the concentration of used lubricant handled by the vetiver can be determined through the Range Finding Test (RFT) stage. RFT is the stage of observing the plant's ability to maintain its life while degrading pollutants. Physical observations and laboratory analysis determine how strong the plants live in media contaminated with used lubricant pollutants. The results showed that vetiver could live in an environment contaminated with used lubricants with a concentration of up to 4% of the total mass of the media (40 ppm). Sample C2 had an average growth rate of 0.481 cm/day with a root elongation ratio of 0.333. The average dry fraction of plant leaves is 0.602 and the root is 0.372.


The present work is an improvement of a close-spaced vapor transport method to deposit CuInSe2 thin films in a closed vertical reactor. The study concerns two points: (i) the determination of the actual source (Ts) and substrate (Td) temperatures from experimental values measured in accessible points. For that, the equivalent thermal circuit of the reactor was established, and the equations were written to deduce Ts and Td. (ii) The determination of the process governing the mass transfer, from experimental values of the deposition rate measured as a function of Ts and Td. In our experimental conditions, the transport is limited by the reaction kinetics, not by the diffusion.


reform and participation in that process. Though beyond the scope of this book, contention about Protestant laity also informs late Tudor wariness toward English Catholics. In a significant study that sharpens and nuances definitions and categories for historical analysis, Kaufman's world of English reform is one of ambiguity, ambivalence, contention, and surprise. RENEE BRICKER Wayne State University


The concept of 2D computer simulation of microwave radiometric images (MIs) of the ocean surface is developed. The oceanic scene is modeled by a statistical ensemble of the microwave contributions from different hydrophysical factors (HF). In particular, the physically-based electromagnetic models of surface roughness and foam/whitecap are used. As a result, simulated MIs represent multi-gradational compositional images, containing a set of local and/or extended bright objects and fields. So-called "flat" and "thin" structures occur on the images. The features may be associated with wind wave-generated processes. Some examples of the image modeling are presented. The computer tool can be applied for analysis of high-resolution microwave aircraft imagery.


A novel poly(vinyl phosphate) ligand was synthesized as a model of biopolymer ligands containing the OH···O hydrogen bonds and CaHPO4·2H2O (brushite) composites with the polymer ligands were also p...


ABSTRACT Salinity is one of the most severe abiotic stresses that affects plant growth in many parts of the world. One of the major stresses that limits the growth and yield of crops is considered by affecting several important plant mechanisms such as water relations, photosynthesis, and enzyme activity and may impart specific ion toxicities to plants. Plants under stress of salinity produce of a variety of reactive oxygen species that cause oxidative damage to lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Various antioxidant compounds in plants sweep reactive oxygen species and include ascorbate, glutathione, alpha tocopherol, carotenoids, and antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase. Due to the effect of salinity stress in medicinal plants, the concentration of essential oil in most medicinal plants increases. The physiology of plant response to salinity and its relationship with salinity resistance in different plants has been studied. Nevertheless, there are no comprehensive studies or thorough review of salinity stress in medicinal and aromatic plants. Thus, the current review was conducted to discuss the formation of secondary metabolites and physiological responses in these plants under salinity stress.


The synthesis of self-complementary oligodeoxyribonucleotides (14-16, 18) incorporating the L-related isodeoxynucleotides, isodA (1) and/or isodT (2), is described. For this purpose, the fully protected phosphoramidite building blocks 10 and 12 were synthesized. The conceptually new oligomers exhibit high resistance towards exonucleases. Temperature- and concentration-dependent CD spectral data and accompanying thermodynamic parameters of the oligomers show that isodA-isodT or mixed dA-isodT/isodA-dT base pairs participate in duplex stabilization.


In this paper, we focus on firmware design for flash memory cards that have scarce resources such as small amount of SRAM and low performance processors. Our design goals include devising practical, commercial grade features required for commercial flash memory cards and minimizing memory requirements to support these features. To this end, we propose TinyFTL (Flash Translation Layer) that has low memory requirements for implementing full features such as efficient garbage collection, mapping, caching, and fast boot-up. Through implementation and experiments, we show that even with smaller memory footprints TinyFTL performs better in terms of performance and boot-up time than implementations of state-of-the-art FTLs.


Parents are also a leader of a child so they too must have a leadership at home. Since good parents are not just born but made, in order to be good parents one must be a good leader so this study aims to find a bigger capability of parents and the necessary principles of parental leadership. Journal of Digital Convergence. This space is for the abstract of your study in English.


The proper strategy on the blockade of cancer cell proliferation is highly desirable in cancer therapy. In this study, we have developed a novel strategy to destroy the membrane of cancer cells following treatment with the recombinant growth hormone (rGH)‐conjugated nanodiamond (ND) by triggering the explosion of ND with pulse laser. The cytotoxicity analysis indicated that the ND alone did not induce the cell death and altered the protein expression profiles in the A549 lung carcinoma cells. Moreover, the rGHND increased the cell proliferation in the A549 cells. We have found that the rGHND complex was located on the surface of A549 cells. Interestingly, the cells contained the rGHND that were destroyed by exposing with the high energy of pulse laser from the ND explosion. In contrast, the cells without rGHND were not altered after the laser treatment. Accordingly, we designate this novel technique as nano‐surgery, which may contribute to the novel therapeutic strategies in the cancer therapy or other biomedical applications.


Different radiation formulas are compared for the case of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna, either on an infinite substrate (Fig. la) or on an infinite ground plane with the substrate truncated at the boundary of the patch (Fig. lb). For both the infinite and truncated substrate cases the electric current model is compared with the magnetic current model using the dominant-mode assumption. A more exact radiation model is then developed which accounts for radiation from the probe and higher-order modes, and this is compared with the simpler dominant-mode models. A comparison will also made with measured results.


Introduction: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most frequent head and neck cancer. The metastatic dissemination of these tumours usually occurs through the lymphatic system. The presence of occult lymph node metastasis is the most important prognostic factor. The high incidence of occult lymph nodal metastasis is a strong argument for the indication of elective neck dissection. However, there is a high percentage of patients who do not have metastasis in the pathological exam (pN0). Taking a homogenous group of patients all of whom received primary surgical treatment, at the same institution without prior radiotherapy or chemotherapy, applying stringent patient selection criteria, and standard pathological evaluation methods across the group, this study aims to establish predictors of cervical node metastasis in squamous carcinomas of the oral tongue. Result: During the study period, a total of 112 patients (98 males and 14 females; Mean age 49.7 years (range 15-70)) underwent resection of the primary tumor with SOND for N0 lymph node status of neck. A total of 1489 lymph nodes were analyzed in this study. Occult metastasis was found in 26 patients (23.2%). T-stage 4 was found to be a statistically significant predictor of occult lymph node metastasis in a cN0 neck. (95% CI, p-value 0.02). There was no correlation between gender, tumor thickness, and tumor differentiation and occurrence of occult metastasis. Discussion: Controversy exists over management of the neck in patients with cN0 oral SCC. As is evident there is no consistent statistically significant factor that can be attributed as a predictor of occult metastasis in head and neck cancer of the oral cavity. The search to identify reliable and accurate predictor(s) of occult metastases, or approaches to the management of patients with cN0 oral SCC, must continue. In absence of such predictors, keeping the high incidence of occult metastasis in mind, we recommend END in all cases of N0 OSCC.


Structural characterization of Li2–xMP2O7 (M = Fe, Co) was carried out using neutron diffraction (ND) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses to elucidate structural information and structural changes during an electrochemical reaction. The crystal system and space group were determined to be monoclinic P21/c for both materials with a = 11.0192 (4) A, b = 9.7488 (3) A, c = 9.8057 (4) A, and β = 101.569 (3)° for Li2–xFeP2O7 and a = 10.9574 (3), b = 9.6921 (3), c = 9.7611 (3), and β = 101.776 (2)° for Li2–xCoP2O7. XRD analysis revealed partial occupancy of iron and cobalt in the structures of Li2–xFeP2O7 and Li2–xCoP2O7, respectively. Also, ND identified lithium positions and partial occupancies in five different Li sites of Li2–xMP2O7 (M = Fe, Co). Further ex situ XRD showed that the charging/discharging of Li2–xFeP2O7 occurred primarily via a two-phase reaction with a slight solid solution behavior. We also demonstrated for the first time that Li2–xCoP2O7 electrodes are electrochemically active, with a redox...


We extend methodologies for tractography methods based on a partial differential equation (PDE). We propose a whole class of diffusion-convection equations whose solution for an initial condition localised at some starting point covers the whole brain. The formalism is extended to include both a diffusion term and a convection term. This allows a wide range of possibilities, from simply using the principal eigenvector to a combination of tensor and vector contributions. Inclusion of a convection term can he justified from physiology.


Cyber security alludes to an assemblage of advancements, procedures and practices intended to forestall an assault, harm or unapproved access to systems, gadgets, projects and information. It is likewise can be alluded to as Information security. Clients must comprehend and follow the essential standards of information security, for example, email connections watchfulness, solid passwords, and information reinforcement. Today is particularly testing to implement fruitful cyber security activities since a greater number of gadgets than individuals are available and more imaginative attackers. Data science is a subset of AI, and it alludes more to the covering regions of statistics, scientific methods, and data analysis—which are all used to remove significance and bits of knowledge from information. This paper analyses the role of Data science in Cyber Security.


The Orange Basin is a Late Jurassic to present day basin located on the volcanic-rifted passive margin of SW Africa. 2D seismic data and structural restoration techniques were used to develop a tectonostratigraphic model of the basin consisting of a syn-rift and a post-rift megasequences separated by an Early Cretaceous break-up unconformity. The post-rift megasequence is characterised by gravity tectonics where extensional faults transferred displacement downdip into a deep water fold and thrust belt (DWFTB). Gravity gliding tectonics occurred through a combination of cratonic uplift and ther- mal subsidence and stopped via deltaic progradation and associated differential sedimentary loading.


We consider the synthetic dataset constructed by (Tsipras et al., 2018) In this dataset, adversarial examples are constructed analytically (without gradients) such that one feature is adversarially robust but all others are not. Tsipras et al. prove that any classifier that achieves arbitrarily high standard accuracy on this dataset necessarily has poor adversarial accuracy. See the original work for a detailed discussion. The dataset is constructed as a binary classification problem over y with input features x such that


Pakistan's population growth is the highest in Asia, yet savings is the lowest. By looking at the concept and meaning of development, this paper analyzes how population growth, along with problems of bad governance, inter-provincial and intra-provincial economic disparities, and poor–rich divides have affected Pakistan's economic development. The study focuses on the relationship between population growth and economic development by looking at the Malthusian population trap theory, taking Pakistan as a contemporary case study. Also discussed is whether population growth is an actual problem behind poverty and underdevelopment, or whether the problem is caused by something else, such as unequal distribution of wealth between developed and developing nations or poor–rich divides. The paper addresses the political Left's point of view and looks at inter-provincial economic disparity in Pakistan. Having discussed the problems of population growth and inter-provincial economic disparity in Pakistan through comparative study of Punjab, the most populated and highly developed province, with other provinces of Pakistan, specifically Balochistan, through analyzing the merger of Balochistan with Pakistan to the emergence of the Baloch separatist movement, this paper shows possible ways to resolve these issues in light of social, political, and religious issues prevailing in Pakistani society today.


In the Space-Ground integrated network (SGIN), with the help of satellites, it can quickly respond to the resource requests for real-time services, which improves users' satisfaction. With the increasing diversification of users' requirement and frequent change of the satellite network topology, the diversity and time variability of resources make existing resource allocation strategy not flexible enough, and the algorithm stability is poor. Aiming at solving above problems, this paper proposed a multi-dimensional time-varying resource allocation algorithm based on SGIN. First, the architecture of the resources and services in the SGIN and establish multi-layer structure of SGIN was designed. Moreover, Real-time services waiting queue was extracted from the multi-layer structure, and real-time services and corresponding parameters were collected, which calculated resource demand of services. Then, four resource modules, including resource occupation, remaining resource, reserved resource, and resource request were obtained though analyzing and modeling, which were turned into resource coordinate graph, and finally calculated the resource capacity of each dimension. At the end, this algorithm used different resource allocation methods for different service. The simulation results showed that the algorithm could improve resource utilization and the number of completed services.


Gakahbekong. That's the name our old ones call the city, what it means from ways back when it started as a trading village. Although driveways and houses, concrete parking garages and business stores cover the city's scape, that same land is hunched underneath. There are times, like now, I get this sense of the temporary. It could all blow off. And yet the sheer land would be left underneath. Sand, rock, the Indian black seashell-bearing earth. Louise Erdrich, The Antelope Wife


Asset allocation is an important task in wealth management. In this paper, reinforcement learning(RL) is applied in asset allocation task. Firstly, we propose an Advanced Proximal Policy Optimization(Ad-PPO) algorithm and compare its performance with other algorithms. The empirical results show that Ad-PPO algorithm has a better performance in asset allocation than PG algorithm, PPO algorithm, and equal-weight policy. Secondly, we find the RL algorithms may overfit easily in asset allocation task. To solve this problem, we control the training episodes, simplify the policy network structure and take random initialization on the environment. By these treatments, RL algorithms can be applied in asset allocation tasks effectively.


Enterprise Product Data Management(EPDM) is a comprehensive technology which manages allinformation and process related to the product, and it lays emphasis on the management of the product data onenterprise level. Thoughts of Concurrent Engieering(CE) provide a scientific theory for the product development.Enterprise Product Data Management(EPDM) offers a tool to realize the theory of Concurrent Engieering (CE).The best combination of the theory and the technology results in an integrated environment for product development.


tends to creep into economists' assessment of foreign aid. In a respectable journal one reads that "our discipline seems of little use, our theories unrevealing or even irrelevant, and our evidence fragmentary and inadequate" [10, Griffin, 1970, p. 313]. Similar statements abound. Their authors appear to regard aid as a political instrument to influence people and they claim that in the realm of political calculus scores need not be measured the way economists like to quantify entries into a balance sheet. One may wonder if the interdisciplinary character of the subject induces regression toward the lowest common platform? Do economists put aside their analytical techniques for the sake of facilitating communication with a larger audience, or do they simply acknowledge the inadequacy of their tool kit? Whatever the reasons, results usually lack the sophistication so characteristic of other branches of international economics, e.g., trade theory and policy. The articles touching upon foreign economic aid in the International encyclopedia of the social sciences [32, 1968] break only partially this execration. By and large, the overly simplistic presentation tends to lag behind the proficiency evident in the treatment of other economic topics elsewhere throughout the volumes. In this review I propose to follow the authors' coverage of the field, assessing exposition and filling gaps. Also, I shall abstract recent developments in the analysis of international grants. At the outset let us note that in the 17 volumes of the Encyclopedia there appear four contributions which discuss at some length foreign economic aid in one context or another. "Foreign Aid: Economic Aspects" by Gerald M. Meier [32, Vol. V, pp. 521-29] is the broadest in scope. "Technical Assistance" by Francis X. Sutton [32, Vol. XV, pp. 565-76] delves substantively into a more narrowly defined subject. This article in fact focuses only on the above two pieces. Still, it must be acknowledged that the essay on "Social Overhead Capital" by Henry J. Bruton [32, Vol. II, pp. 287-89) offers a good balanced exposition of the topic. Further, "Community Development" [32, Vol. III, pp. 169-73) is treated quite clearly by Irwin T. Sanders as the road toward ". . . conscious acceleration of economic, technological, and social change" [p. 169]. Gerald Meier organizes his essay on the economic aspects of foreign aid under the following sections: evolution of aid programs, objectives and magnitude of aid, forms of aid, use of aid, burden of aid, and need for further research. The choice of these particular subheadings, however, fails as a guide to consistent presentation. The author accumulates a wide range of information and does probe relevant issues; nevertheless, the recurrent overlaps and ill-focused labels result in something like the transcript of a casual fireside chat at the World Affairs Club of Middletown. I agree with the author about 90 percent of the time, but that remaining 10 percent causes considerable concern; truly, what he does not say is more the problem. The evolution of aid programs is traced primarily through the actions of the donor countries after World War II. In the United States the Export-Import Bank of Washington has turned increasingly to development loans, the Marshall Plan supported European recovery,


Data compression can efficiently reduce the memory and persistence storage cost, which is highly desirable in modern computing systems, such as enterprise, cloud, and High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments. However, the main challenges of existing data compressors are the insufficient compression ratio and low throughput. This paper focuses on improving the compression ratio of state-of-the-art lossy compression algorithms from the view of applications. Besides, we also use the characteristics of the applications to reduce the runtime overhead. To this end, we explore the idea with Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR), which is widely adopted as a computational technique to reduce the amount of computation and memory required in scientific simulations. We propose Level Associated Mapping-based Preconditioning (LAMP) to improve the storage efficiency of AMR applications. The main idea is twofold. First, we utilize the high similarities among the adjacent AMR levels to precondition the data prior to compression. Second, AMR has a unique characteristic of grid structures. We utilize grid structures to rebuild a level associated mapping table, which significantly reduces the runtime overhead of LAMP. Thanks to the optimization techniques of General Matrix Multiplication (GEMM), we further accelerate the process of rebuilding AMR hierarchy for LAMP. Besides, we also block multiple adjacent coordinates within a box and further improve cache locality. The experimental results show that the compression ratios of LAMP are improved up to 63.8% compared to directly compressing the data.


Molecular compositions of shale oils differ widely among deposits and retort technologies. Shale oils invariably contain high concentrations of heteroatom-containing compounds, and these characteristics will strongly influence approaches to processing of shale oil to marketable products. An advanced analytical method for identifying and quantifying molecular composition of shale oil, the Z-BaSIC™, method is illustrated and results are given. Results show that like conventional petroleum, compound types can be readily described by a limited number of homologous series. Detailed knowledge of composition will assist in the development of effective process steps needed to assimilate vast shale oil resources into the market-place.


This article takes an analytical look at the political experience of the human rights group h.i.j.o.s. in Argentina. It also looks into the relationship between the tasks of human rights organizations and the construction of narratives and social consensuses about the last military dictatorship the country lived through (1976-1983) and its consequences today. In addition, the author fundamentally analyzes aspects of emerging political practices, outstanding among which is the escrache, a mobilization in which demonstrators go to the home or workplace of someone they want to denounce, using a qualitative perspective and the tools offered by the sociology of politics and culture. KeY words: h.i.j.o.s., human rights, memory, political practices, justice, Argentina. 1 Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Argentina. Correo electronico: nbravo@ mendoza-conicet.gob.ar Sociologica, ano 27, numero 76, mayo-agosto de 2012, pp. 231-248 Fecha de recepcion: 22/05/2012. Fecha de aceptacion: 24/07/2012


Loss of excitation (LOE) protection is one of the important generator protection scheme used to detect abnormal operating condition resulting from loss of field voltage. The conventional protection scheme is prone to incorrect operation during stable swings. Several enhancements to the conventional protection scheme are discussed in literature to improve the reliability of LOE protection scheme. This paper discusses the implementation aspects of one of the enhanced loss of excitation and power swing blocking scheme, to identify stable power swings (SPS). The performance of the enhanced scheme is validated by implementing it on a Numerical Relay Development Environment. The simulation results suggest that the modified scheme along with power swing blocking scheme does not add significant burden on the existing numerical hardware and the scheme can be implemented with modifications only in the firmware of the relay.


The main purpose of this paper is to study positioning and navigation of mobile robot with integrated magnetic sensor and RFID. With the use of RFID and the proposed progressive polling algorithm, process the data access and identification for each Tag in order to prevent conflicts between read of Tag and ID number to improve efficiency. Through actual experiment results, mobile robot will move stably along a magnetic stripe. When one's position offset, it will be corrected immediately. At this moment, RFID can exclude conflict between reads of Tags using progressive polling algorithm to keep the robot arrive accurately at the next station. Therefore, it provides a stability of platform to move the route, flexibility of the real-time correction of system platform, a high accuracy of positioning and navigation, and a high efficiency of Tag's recognition.


Sphingosine-1-phosphate is one of the important components of a biologically active membrane and sphingolipid metabolites. It is important signaling molecules which regulates many biological functions in intracellular and extracellular. S1P combining with five kinds of G protein-coupled receptor subtypes (S1PR1-S1PR5) have different biological functions, including the regulation of cell proliferation, survival, apoptosis, inflammation and angiogenesis. Recent studies show that S1P and S1PR/SPHK play the important role in the development of lung disease, especially in bronchial asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, pneumonia, bronchiectasis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer. These studies may provide a new approach for the treatment of lung diseases.


Aim To investigate the protective effect of PCF on the oxidative damages induced by single UVA in HaCaT keratinocytes. Methods Polypeptide from Chlamys farreri (PCF,Mr=879) was isolated from Chlamys farreri using marine enzymetically engineering technique. The cells were randomly divided into seven groups. The intracellular SOD, GSH-px, MDA and ROS were measured using biochemical methods.The ultrastructures of HaCaT keratinocytes were observed under transmission electron microscope. In situ hybridization was used to examine the changes of p21mRNA expression. Results PCF markedly increased the activities of SOD and GSH-px, decreased the amounts of MDA and ROS. PCF greatly decreased UVA-induced damage, especially membrane injuries. p21mRNA expression was inhibited in PCF groups. All results were in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion PCF could reduce UVA-induced oxidative damage on HaCaT keratinocytes. The mechanism were due to its abilities to scavenge oxygen free radical, inhibit lipid peroxidation, increase anti-oxidative enzymes, protect the membrane structure, and block the expression of p21mRNA.


This contribution is aimed to show the Mayn results recently obtained by our group in the framework of the COST Plasma and Ion Surface Engineering (PISE) ACTION 515. Two plasma-modification processes are briefly described, namely: the deposition of thin SiO x C y H z gas-barrier coatings on polyethylenetherephtalate and the modification of polyethylene aimed to the surface-immobilization of anti-thrombotic molecules. Particular attention is devoted to describe how the two processes can be controlled by means of plasma- and surface-diagnostic techniques.


Phasor examination technique is widely used in testing the polar and the wiring of current transformer while the 35kV side chopper of the main transformer is changed.The testing principle and method are introduced in this paper. Moreover,the data result is analyzed. The result shows that the examination technique is important in the replaceing chopper.


Nowadays, the high-Andean and paramo ecosystems from Colombia are threatened as a result of habitat degradation, which has caused that some groups, like amphibians and reptiles, are under some threat category. It was done the first analysis of species richness in the Fuquene river basin, in the department of Cundinamarca, in different habitats in transects between 2600 and 3100 m a.s.l. It was performed a systematic sampling, during the day and at night, looking for amphibians and reptiles in three characteristic habitats: paramo, riparian forest and high-Andean forest. There were found two species of frogs and five of reptiles in the study area, It was reached a sample representation of 100% in each habitat. Although there are not previous records of amphibian and reptiles in the study area, the results were compared with a check list for near localities in similar elevations. The habitat degradation and contamination, caused by agricultural activity and livestock, may be related with the low diversity of amphibians and reptiles in the region.


In ICU or during surgery, blood glucose samples are often obtained from arterial catheters and glycaemia measured by pH meter. Does a significant difference exist between the values measured in these different conditions? And if there is one, what explanation may exist? What consequences might it have, taking into account the discussions about hyperand hypoglycaemia in acute situations and their treatment.1-7


A study of a stand-alone photovoltaic./batteries/fuel cell power system has been presented in this paper to produce energy continuously. A management control circuit (PMC) has been designed to obtain the different control signals that allow supervising power flow of the hybrid system. The application has been made to a stand-alone system for four days at Bejaia region. Fuzzy logic Control (FLC) is used to optimize power The structures PV/Battery/Fuel cells system have been investigated. A modelisation of each component has been made. A supervisor control circuit has been designed to obtain the various control signals needed to control the overall system. A simulation study has been done in Matlab. The different results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed strategy


Hippocampal extracellular levels of noradrenaline (NA), 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT), and 5‐hydroxyindole‐acetic acid (5‐HIAA) were monitored with the microdialysis technique in freely moving rats. In one experiment 30 min samples were collected during 24 h of continuous perfusion, and the monoamine output was compared to the behavioural activity state, as arbitrarily classified in three categories: sleep/rest, drowsiness and full alertness associated with complex behaviours. In the individual animal the hippocampal NA and 5‐HT output showed pronounced fluctuations during the 24 h period, but the 30 min sampling times did not allow for a clear‐cut correlation to behavioural activity state. However, the mean NA and 5‐HT output for all animals during the dark period of the day was 43 and 38% higher, respectively, than during the light period, and the average NA and 5‐HT levels in samples collected during periods of high behavioural activity was 34 and 45% higher, respectively, than during periods of rest or sleep. In contrast, there were no detectable changes in extracellular 5‐HIAA. The selective serotonin uptake blocker indalpine, added to the perfusion fluid at 1 μM, increased the extracellular 5‐HT levels 6‐fold, with a similar correlation to behavioural activity state as without indalpine.


Heart diseases are common congenital anomalies, with a prevalence of 8–12 per 1000 live births. Several genetic syndromes are associated with specific cardiac anomalies and Char was the first to describe a syndrome associated with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and various features, including a short philtrum, duck bill lips, ptosis, low set ears, and short fifth digits in both hands and feet. Here, we report a case of a 20-year-old male who presented with the triad of char syndrome, that is, a PDA with a shunt reversal, facial dysmorphism, and skeletal abnormalities. Additionally, he had congenital deafness and both eyes iris coloboma, a rare association which has never been reported so far. Char syndrome is rare; only a few cases have been reported worldwide, and almost none from our region.


This paper discusses the use of choppers with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors in conjunction with non-controlled diode rectifiers, to generate large controlled currents. These converters are known as Chopper Rectifiers and are a new possibility in the generation of currents in the kiloamperes range. The paper presents the basic principles, the main characteristics and a comparison to phase controlled rectifiers with thyristors. Chopper rectifiers generate a load current with reduced ripple and they operate with a high and constant power factor. In addition, they generate few input current harmonics and operate without passive filters. The paper also includes an efficiency assessment versus thyristor rectifiers and presents a reference list of units installed by two major manufacturers. The main conclusion of the paper is that these new rectifiers are very attractive from a technical point of view.


Relevant suggestion on the application of new version of GMP was presented according to the rules of new version of GMP and the problems met during the process of application of GMP to pharmaceutical Enterprises.In order to successfully propel the application of new version of GMP,it needed to realize rules of GMP deeply,and combine it to the practice during manufacturing.Besides,it was also useful to construct quality management system,which emphasized on control of process and self inspection.


Recently, National Bureau of Statistics of China has released macro-economic climate index of China from 2009-02 to 2010-05.Based on these indices, we establish an information system. In this information system, monitoring signal is taken as a decision attribute and coincident index, leading index, lagging index are taken as condition attributes. We use rough-set theory to investigate the importance of each condition attribute with respective to decision attribute and the strength of each condition attribute supporting decision attribute. Results of this investigation will be helpful for Chinese government to make active macro-economic policy and to maintain the steady and relatively fast development of Chinese economy.


The article analyzes the situation of keeping occuptional secret of the lawyer nowadays. With the development of society, it has disadvantage to protect the right of the parties and to develop the business of the lawyer. In order to ensure the good operation of the lawyer system and the litigation system, it is nec-cessary for lawyer to keep absolutely occupational secret.


S>Atomic collisions in the radiation damage of solids can be described by repulsive potentials for which the scattering integrals cannot generally be evaluated in closed form. However, the evaluation becomes possible when the actual interatomic potential is replaced by certain truncated power potentials that match the actual potential in value and in slope at the minimum distance. The usefulness and accuracy of such matching potentials are discussed and numerical examples are given for the scattering angle, the time integral,'' and the energy transfer in the cases of an exponential and of an exponentially screened Coulomb potential. The agreement with the exact numerical solutions is surprisingly good. (auth)


Lead dioxide catalyzed cathode (PbO2) which has high overpotential and electrode potential with low cost was tested in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for sulfide removal in this study, compared with traditional platinum based carbon cathode (Pt/C). The maximum power density of 997.26±±20.20 mW/m2 was realized, with sulfide removal efficiency as high as 88.73±±4.37%, both showing advantage to Pt/C cathode. The products of sulfide oxidation were examined and elemental sulfur was found to be generated during energy recovery. The MFC with PbO2 cathode got higher elemental sulfur generation than that with Pt/C cathode. Pb(II) was not detected in cathodic electrolyte during operation, indicating that PbO2 was an effective and environmental-friendly cathodic catalyst to Pt in MFCs for electricity generation and sulfide removal.


The article discusses various types of monitoring of forest fires, studied and analyzed satellites that are used by the space monitoring system of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for remote sensing of the Earth. The statistical data of the Forestry Department on forest fires over the past 15 years in the territory of the Voronezh region are given. The dependence of the number of forest fires on meteorological conditions, in particular on the amount of precipitation, wind gusts and air temperature, was studied using the example of 2010 and 2020. The municipalities that are most prone to forest fires are identified. The monitoring systems of the forest fire situation on the territory of the Voronezh region, which are used in the crisis management center of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Voronezh region, are analyzed. The program "Forest Fires" has also been developed to predict the spread of forest fires based on the Methodology for assessing the consequences of forest fires, developed by the All-Russian Research Institute of Civil Defense and Emergency Situations in 1994 and put into effect by the order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia dated 14.04.1995. No. 194. A comparative analysis of the solution of the same problem with the same initial data in the developed program "Forest Fires" and in the risk analysis and management system (SAUR) of the automated information control system of the unified state system for the prevention and elimination of emergencies (AIUS RSChS) is presented.


Theorizing flows of community practices implicates three interrelated themes: (1) theorizing practices rather than practicing theories, (2) theorizing our stories, and (3) research as responsibility to the communities in which we work. One way to claim literacy research as a principled epistemological stance is to confront the real-life effects of literacy theorizing and the practicing of our theories. We must challenge analyses that disadvantage youth from nondominant populations by deconstructing the categories that devalue communities and educational possibilities. To keep our insights, only within the domain of theory and not the practice of theory can allow the reproduction of symbolic violence. Theories like the "culture of poverty" and the language gap promise a facile explanatory power for complex multilayered issues. By engaging with multilingualism, transnational literacies, and community communicative flows, we can theorize communicative practices as part of an array of the multiple and multimodal semiotic systems and resources that flow in and through communities. It is argued that we all translanguage across the ecologies of our everyday practices through the full and ample use of our linguistic repertoires. In that sense, we are all translingual. If we think of moving across language and literacy borders as a space for pedagogical potential, we can underscore that learning is about engagement with diverse voices and conceptualizations. Students can develop a translingual awareness that perceives languages as plural and fluid, and this awareness can help students succeed outside of monolingual norms.


Some may say that the differences between Cuba and the rest of the region are so large that this experience is of little relevance for Cuba. But I submit that in spite of some very obvious differences, there is significant common ground, and that Cuba can draw important lessons from the experience of other countries of the region. More specifically, I believe that in the early 1980s Latin America and the Caribbean faced a sudden reversal in its external circumstances that is in many ways similar to that faced by Cuba in the 1990s: economies that were relatively closed and heavily regulated had to cope with an abrupt deterioration in their terms of trade and a sudden drying up of external finance. This led to a period of protracted financial instability and weak economic growth that many have labeled as "the lost decade" for Latin America and the Caribbean.


This study aims to analyze the relationship between anime Naruto's text and creative and cultural industries in the creative industry products derived from anime Naruto. The method in this study is an informal method. There are three theories used, namely the storynomics theory proposed by Mckee (2018), the intertextual theory proposed by Kristeva (1980), and the semiotic theory proposed by Barthes (1957). Based on the results of the study, it is found that the word Naruto and Konoha village symbols are widely used in promoting a product. In addition, the psychological influence of the Naruto character affects the audience's interest in buying the product. Intertext also plays an important influence in product creation because the products sold are modified items that appear in the anime. Furthermore, the objects in the anime have existed since ancient times, one of which is hitaiate. In Japanese society, hitaiate is more popularly known as hachimaki. This hachimaki is often used by students, craftsmen and supporters of sports competitions. AbstrakPenelitian ini berjudul "Storynomics: Hubungan Intertekstual AnimeNaruto dengan BrandingSebuah Produk Industri Kreatif". Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui mengetahui hubungan antara teks anime Naruto dengan industri kreatif dan budaya yang terkadung dalam produk industri kreatif yang berasal dari animeNaruto. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode informal. Teori yang digunakan ada tiga yaitu teori storynomicsyang dikemukakan oleh Mckee (2018), teori intertekstual yang dikemukakan oleh Kristeva (1980), dan teori semiotika yang dikemukakan oleh Barthes (1957). Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, didapatkan bahwa banyaknya kata Naruto dan simbol desa Konoha yang digunakan dalam mempromosikan sebuah produk. Selain itu pengaruh psikologi tokoh Naruto mempengaruhi minat audiens untuk membeli produk tersebut. Interteks juga memegang pengaruh penting dalam penciptaan produk karena produk yang dijual merupakan hasil modifikasi dari barang-barang yang muncul dalam anime. Selanjutnya, benda-benda yang terdapat dalam animepada kenyataannya benda tersebut sudah ada sejak zaman dahulu salah satunya adalah hitaiate. Dalam masyarakat Jepang hitaiatelebih populer dengan sebutan hachimaki. Hachimakiini sering digunakan oleh para pelajar, pengerajin kayu dan para pendukung perlombaan olahraga.


This article calls attention to our differential neglect of state-sponsored reinsurance for health care when viewed in light of the robust backstopping of risk that the U.S. government undertakes in other domains. For all our vaunted aversion to entitlements, whenever we as a nation we have deemed a material interest to be vital--from housing, food crops, higher education, or even banking--we have provided state guarantees. These guarantees, however, have not necessarily backed the individual beneficiary, but rather the primary private insurer or financier who bridges beneficiary access to that good or service. These commitments suggest an American conception of the government's role as reinsurer of last resort. In these arenas and more, correlated or high-magnitude catastrophic losses are shed onto the state in order to smooth-out and shore-up the underlying private risk market. Health care risks should be given at least equal consideration.


he aim of this paper is to study a nonlinear scalar field equation on a surface Σ via a Morse-theoretical approach, based on some of the methods in [25]. Employing these ingredients, we derive an alternative and direct proof (plus a clear interpretation) of a degree formula obtained in [18], which used refined blow-up estimates from [34] and [17]. Related results are derived for the prescribed Q-curvature equation on four manifolds.


A word w of letters on edges of underlying graph Gamma of deterministic finite automaton (DFA) is called the synchronizing word if w sends all states of the automaton to a unique state. J. Cerny discovered in 1964 a sequence of n-state complete DFA possessing a minimal synchronizing word of length (n-1)^2. The hypothesis, well known today as the Cerny conjecture, claims that it is also precise upper bound on the length of such a word for a complete DFA. This simple-looking conjecture is arguably the most fascinating and longstanding open problem in the combinatorial theory of finite automata.
An attempt to prove the Cerny conjecture is wrong.


Cyanide addition to cyclopentadienyliron complexes of substituted nitroarenes produced nitrile adducts where the cyano group added in the ortho position with respect to the nitro group. Cleavage of the cyclopentadienyliron moiety via oxidative demetalation with DDQ led to the isolation of functionalized aromatic nitriles in good yields.


The traditional theory thinks that there is an ultimate existence with physical characteristics in Shao Yong's thought,which is not true.Shao Yong's thought more likely has the characteristic of pure being in the view of ontology of the modern western philosophy,that is,a realm of ultimate insight.Taiji is not the entity-oriented ultimate being,but a pure being of bipolar's mutual reliance.If people can comprehend the realm of the ultimate existence,the Heart of Heaven and Earthwill will reveal itself.What's more,Shao Yong extends his thought of being from the perspectives of Tao and Shen.


Blood pressure increases will increase heart rate in intact chick embryos, prior to the development of neural control. Similarly, in surgically isolated hearts, increases in intraventricular fluid pressure will increase the rate of beat. However, fluid pressure applied equally to both interior and exterior surfaces of the isolated heart does not result in increased heart rate. Therefore, we conclude that the increased pressure stretches the heart muscle and that this stretch stimulates the increased heart rate. While heart rate is clearly influenced by blood pressure, the reverse is not true. Propranolol reduces the heart rate to about half normal in intact embryos but does not significantly alter the blood pressure.


Ethereum blockchain has shown great potential in providing the next generation of the decentralized platform beyond crypto payments. Recently, it has attracted researchers and industry players to experiment with developing various Web3 applications for the Internet of Things (IoT), Defi, Metaverse and many more. Although Ethereum provides a secure platform for developing decentralized applications, it is not immune to security risks and has been a victim of numerous cyber attacks. Adversarial attacks are a new cyber threat to systems that have been rising. Adversarial attacks can disrupt and exploit decentralized applications running on the Ethereum platform by creating fake accounts and transactions. Detecting adversarial attacks is challenging because the fake materials (e.g., accounts and transactions) as malicious payloads are similar to benign data. This paper proposes a model using Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) and Deep Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) for cyber threat hunting in the Ethereum blockchain. Firstly, we employ GAN to generate fake transactions using genuine Ethereum transactions as the first phase of the proposed model. Then in the second phase, we utilize bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to identify adversarial transactions in a hunting exercise. The results of the first phase evaluation show that the GAN can generate transactions identical to the actual Ethereum transactions with an accuracy of 82.51%. Also, the results of the second phase show 99.98% accuracy in identifying adversarial transactions.


Herein, we propose a one-pot solvothermal method for a series of single-atom catalysts (SACs) anchoring on mildly reduced graphene oxide (mrG) with defined moieties of -CO3M, -CO2M and -COOM (M:...


The article "Is induction response negatively correlated with constitutive resistance in black mustard?" by Brian Traw (Evolution 56:2196–2205) was incorrect in concluding that significant tradeoffs between induction response and constitutive resistance were present in that dataset. Bill Morris, Joy Bergelson, and I have suggested improved tests of these relationships in a recent paper (Morris et al. 2006, Oikos 112:102–110). A Monte Carlo procedure is preferable because it accounts for sampling variation, measurement error, and induced susceptibility. The Monte Carlo test results for 10,000 randomizations of the data reveal a strong negative distribution of correlation coefficients, even in the absence of a true relationship (Fig. 1). The observed correlations between induction response and constitutive resistance for trichome density (r = −0.394, Fig. 1A), sinigrin (r = −0.283, Fig. 1B) and glucobrassicin (r = −0.142, Fig. 1C) are clearly within the distribution of the randomly generated values, given that correlations equal or more negative than the observed value occur in 22.5%, 56.8%, and 78.5% of the randomization trials, respectively. Thus, the null model of no relationship between induction response and constitutive resistance cannot be rejected for any of the three traits. I regret the error and thank Bill Morris, Joy Bergelson, and Dolph Schluter for helpful discussion of these issues. A