Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 317 was devoted to understanding the relative importance of global sea-level (eustasy) versus local tectonic and sedimentary processes in controlling continental margin sedimentary cycles. Drilling in the Canterbury Basin, off the South Island of New Zealand, takes advantage of Plio-Pleistocene samples, which preserves a high-frequency (0.1?0.5 m.y.) record of depositional cyclicity. The Pliocene and Pleistocene periods are characterized by cyclic sea-level changes induced by glacial and inter-glacial climatic shifts. Numerous investigations found cyclic sea-level changes caused by glacio-eustasy from the Plio-Pleistocene sequences. However, it is little known vertical and temporal changes of the paleodepth corresponding to glacial and interglacial cycles through long-term periods of the Plio-Pleistocene. The object of this study is to reveal Plio-Pleistocene sea-level changes and their vertical and temporal distributions on the continental shelf of Canterbury Basin. We used the samples which were collected in sites U1354 (water depth 113.4 m) and U1353 (water depth 84.7 m) on the continental shelf. Samples less than 20 cc were freeze-dried and washed through a 63 micrometer opening sieve. The residues were dried and then divided into aliquot parts containing around 200 specimens using a sample splitter. As a result, 116 fossil ostracode species belonging to 48 genera and 136 species belonging to 57 genera were identified from 81 samples of U1354 and from 40 samples of U1353, respectively. Q-mode factor analysis was proceeded by using total 81 samples of U1354 and 29 samples of U1353. The vertical changes of varimax factor loadings indicate that at least thirteen and eight transgressive-regressive cycles were recorded in sediments of U1354 (3.3 to 0.5 Ma) and U1353 respectively. transgressive-regressive were recognized between due to comparison of both cores based on the biostratigraphy The amplitude of paleodepth changes and the cycles of about 40.000 year reveal that some cycles were induced by glacio-eustasy. In addition, four high stand periods could be compared with MIS G7, G1, 61, and 59.


We explore the impact of the 2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform on spatial price co-movements between the main European Union (EU) wine producer markets (i.e., Spain, France, and Italy). We consider monthly prices from January 2005 to January 2020 and R-Vine copula models, splitting the time period considered in December 2012 to track the changes in (1) the degree of integration, (2) the central markets, and (3) the potential asymmetries after the 2013 CAP reform. The results indicate an increasing overall price dependence from one sub-period to another, with Spain succeeding Italy as the central EU market. We also show asymmetry between Italy and France in the upper tail before 2013 and between Spain and France in the lower tail after 2013.


ABSTRACT
Perinatal mental illnesses occur during pregnancy and up to one year after birth. It is observed that diseases with a wide spectrum such a major depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders and psychosis that are frequently recur in the early postnatal period. Although the underlying psychopatologies are not fully elucidated, multifaceted, multifactorial causes such as hormones during pregnancy, enviromental factors, social support of women and previous disease history, as well as genetic factors and the effects of all these on neurotransmitter levels in the brain are blamed. Clinically, exposure to prenatal depression and anxiety disorders has been associated with cognitive and behavioral problems in children, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism and emotional problems in early and middle childhood. Interventions for the treatment of mental ilnesses that occur in the perinatal period are in the form of pharmacological, psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions these aimed maternal and child health, development and finally healthy families should be planned and applied seriously in the long term by considering the benefit risk balance. Early detection and effective management of perinatal mental ilnesses are critical for the quality of life and welfare of women and their children.


Objective: To compare Healing Effects of an Ayurvedic Preparation and Silver Sulfadiazine on burn wounds in Albino Rats. Methods: Albino rats–30 male / female rats weighing between 150-200g were used in the study. They were individually housed and maintained on normal diet and water ad libitum. Partial thickness burn wounds were inflicted, on overnight-starved animals under pentobarbitone (30mg/kg, i.p.) anesthesia, by pouring hot molten wax at 80C into a plastic cylinder of 300mm circular openings placed on the shaven back of the animal. Apart from the drugs under investigation no local/ systemic chemotherapeutic cover will be provided to animals. All the animals were assessed for the percentage of wound contraction, signs of infection, scab formation and histopathological examination. Results: Percentage of wound healing was significantly better in the test ointment group compared to the standard. Signs of infection were observed in more animals in the test ointment group compared to the standard. Scab formation also took place earlier in the test ointment group compared to standard. Epithelial regeneration and healing profile was better in the test ointment compared to the standard. Moreover the test ointment group did not show any raised margins in the wound or blackish discoloration as was observed in silver sulfadiazine group. Conclusion: The burn wound healing effect of the ayurvedic ointment under study is better in comparison to standard therapy of silver sulfadiazine. The problem of infection encountered with the test ointment can be overcome by changing the concentrations and proportions of the ingredients in the test ointment which constitutes the further plan of the study. Keywords—Ayurvedic test ointment, burn wounds, Silver sulfadiazine.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline. As AD progresses, changes in the electrophysiological brain activity take place. Such changes can be recorded by the electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) techniques. These are the only two neurophysiologic approaches able to directly measure the activity of the brain cortex. Since EEGs and MEGs are considered as the outputs of a nonlinear system (i.e., brain), there has been an interest in nonlinear methods for the analysis of EEGs and MEGs. One of the most powerful nonlinear metrics used to assess the dynamical characteristics of signals is that of entropy. The aim of this thesis is to develop entropy-based approaches for characterization of EEGs and MEGs paying close attention to AD. Recent developments in the field of entropy for the characterization of physiological signals have tried: 1) to improve the stability and reliability of entropy-based results for short and long signals; and 2) to extend the univariate entropy methods to their multivariate cases to be able to reveal the patterns across channels. To enhance the stability of entropy-based values for short univariate signals, refined composite multiscale fuzzy entropy (MFE RCMFE) is developed. To decrease the running time and increase the stability of the existing multivariate MFE (mvMFE) while keeping its benefits, the refined composite mvMFE (RCmvMFE) with a new fuzzy membership function is developed here as well. In spite of the interesting results obtained by these improvements, fuzzy entropy (FuzEn), RCMFE, and RCmvMFE may still lead to unreliable results for short signals and are not fast enough for real-time applications. To address these shortcomings, dispersion entropy (DispEn) and frequency-based DispEn (FDispEn), which are based on our introduced dispersion patterns and the Shannon's definition of entropy, are developed. The computational cost of DispEn and FDispEn is O(N) – where N is the signal length –, compared with the O(N2) for popular sample entropy (SampEn) and FuzEn. DispEn and FDispEn also overcome the problem of iii


US Company Platypus Technologies is currently busy commercialising a series of quick, easy-to-use sensors that contain liquid crystals to monitor exposure to hazardous substances. Their first product based on this technology, a badge which monitors exposure to hydrogen sulphide, came onto the market last September. It consists of a nematic liquid crystal layer inside a permeable membrane with polarisers. When the hydrogen sulphide diffuses through the membrane, it reacts with the surface treatment and changes the alignment of the liquid crystal so that the badge becomes opaque. The company sells a badge and a 'pocket reader' for quick measurements of exposure for US$99 each, as well as a more accurate device that can measure the exposure of the badge more quantitatively [1]. The company is working on another device capable of detecting organophosphates. These are commonly used as pesticides, and exposure is therefore of concern for farm workers, as well as including compounds used as chemical weapons. And, using surfaces functionalised with the relevant antibodies, they may be able to develop quick tests to detect biological contaminants; they have demonstrated the detection of a virus by exposing a solution to a high frequency, in-plane electric field which attracts the virus material to the functionalised surface by electrophoresis. When the solution is replaced with nematic liquid crystal, the alignment depends on the presence of the virus [2].


A great deal of literature exists on the concept of 'action research.' Common among most is the concept that creating dialogue among different groups promotes change through a cycle of evaluation, action and further evaluation, an iterative process. In particular, action research has been described as embracing 'principles of participation and reflection, and empowerment and emancipation of groups seeking to improve their social situation.' The World Bank Institute's (WBI) Governance program applies the methodology described both in the piloting of its new approaches to public sector management issues and its dissemination of lessons learned from such pilots and experiences elsewhere. The program arose from a need to provide assistance to those countries and governments seeking to reform an unsatisfactory governance environment.


Geminiviruses are single-stranded DNA viruses that cause severe disease ([Figure 1][1]) and considerable damage to crops worldwide, including tomato, cotton, maize, bean, and cassava. They have small circular genomes that lack genes for DNA and RNA polymerases, and viral replication and


A computer program for the enumeration either of all the circuits or of all the cutsets of a nonoriented graph is described. It can be easily adapted for use with oriented graphs and for the enumeration of Hamilton circuits.


Experimental techniques for testing dynamically substructured systems are currently receiving attention in a wide range of structural, aerospace and automotive engineering environments. Dynamic substructuring enables full‐size, critical components to be physically tested within a laboratory (as physical substructures), while the remaining parts are simulated in real‐time (as numerical substructures). High quality control is required to achieve synchronization of variables at the substructuring interfaces and to compensate for additional actuator system(s) dynamics, nonlinearities, uncertainties and time‐varying parameters within the physical substructures. This paper presents the substructuring approach and associated controller designs for performance testing of an aseismic, base‐isolation system, which is comprised of roller‐pendulum isolators and controllable, nonlinear magnetorheological dampers. Roller‐pendulum isolators are typically mounted between the protected structure and its foundation and have a fundamental period of oscillation far‐removed from the predominant periods of any earthquake. Such semi‐active damper systems can ensure safety and performance requirements, whereas the implementation of purely active systems can be problematic in this respect. A linear inverse dynamics compensation and an adaptive controller are tailored for the resulting nonlinear synchronization problem. Implementation results favourably compare the effectiveness of the adaptive substructuring method against a conventional shaking‐table technique. A 1.32% error resulted compared with the shaking‐table response. Ultimately, the accuracy of the substructuring method compared with the response of the shaking‐table is dependent upon the fidelity of the numerical substructure. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This study extends a thick modelling tool for aggregated euro area real private consumption of de Bondt et al. (2019) to the four largest euro area countries. The suite of error correction models performs well in and out of sample. The ranges and averages of estimated elasticities are, however, sensitive to the exact model specification. We also show that decomposing disposable income into labour, property and transfer income is essential for understanding and forecasting consumption. Finally, substantial crosscountry heterogeneity in marginal propensities to consume out of income and wealth components calls for caution when interpreting aggregate euro area developments. JEL Classification: C53, D12, E21, E27


This paper discusses the creation of an online system for plagiarism detection. This is a plagiarism detection system which searches the Internet for evidence of plagiarism within a document. This is achieved using the PHP scripting language in conjunction with the Google Internet search engine and various Linux applications. Two methods contained within the system are explained and their varied methodologies outlined.


Ionizing radiation plays a key role in the damage of genetic material. Activated mechanism of genetic material damage repair may lead to the structural modifications in the genome. Changes related to sequences amplifications or deletions are called Copy Number Variation. Aim: of the study was to identify the patterns of structural changes in genome of radiosensitive and normal sensitive cell lines. Material and methods: Two cell lines of human fibroblasts derived from female donors: CCF71 classified as normal responders to radiation and CCT39 classified as radiosensitive were studied. Affymetrix CytoScan HD microarrays were used for detection of genome modifications. Each cell line was irradiated with 0.5Gy, 1Gy, 2Gy, 3Gy, and 4Gy acute doses. The signal log2 ratios (SLR) referenced to array internal standard and cell line control level (not irradiated cells) were calculated. Their distributions were approximated by Gaussian mixture model and the component representing "no significant response to irradiation" was used in one-versus-sample t-test. The obtained p-values allowed for selection of significant CNVs. Depending on the SLR value every mapped sequence was classified as deletion, insertion or "no response". Each CNV was represented by series of p-values corresponding to its stepwise dose-response. The obtained dose-responses were grouped and cluster specific mean responses were calculated. Hierarchical clustering of mean trends allowed for estimation of the similarity between dose response of analysed cell lines. Results: Response to irradiation significantly differs between cell linee independently of dose. In case of radiosensitive fibroblasts, the dissimilarity to control line response increases with dose, and even low dose irradiation of 0.5 Gy causes its significant CNV modifications. In general, insertions over dominate deletions, independently of cell line radiosensitivity. Higher similarity (autocorrelation) in the cell lines response was observed if two dose shift for normal sensitive cell line was applied. Conclusions: Our results suggest that radiation sensitive phenotype can be related to the efficiency of genome damage repair processes.


Background: Dysregulated long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between lncRNA MEG3 expression and breast cancer (BC) clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. Methods: Expression levels of lncRNA MEG3 in 257 BC specimens were determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), to clarify the clinical significance of lncRNA MEG3 in BC, we further explored the relationship between lncRNA MEG3 expression and overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS). Results: In the present study, we found that lncRNA MEG3 was down-regulated in BC tissues compared to the adjacent non-tumor tissues. In addition, the decreased lncRNA MEG3 expression was significantly associated with the lymph node metastasis, TNM stage and molecular subtypes (P < 0.05). Furthermore, patients with decreased expression of lncRNA MEG3 had poor OS (HR = 3.162, 95% CI = 1.026-9.741, P = 0.045), and RFS rates (HR = 2.730, 95% CI = 1.147-6.497, P = 0.023). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard model analysis demonstrated that high lncRNA MEG3 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for BC patients. Conclusions: Our study suggests that decreased expression of lncRNA MEG3 is related to the prognosis of BC; it may be a new prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target for BC intervention.


A butterfly garden (Figure 1) is a flower garden designed to attract and retain butterflies. A successful butterfly garden must have nectar sources and host food plants. Flowers provide food and water for adult butterflies in the form of nectar, and host plants provide food for growing caterpillars. The garden should contain a variety of flowers that will bloom throughout the season. Remember, the greater the variety of floral colors and plants, the greater the variety of butterflies that will visit your garden. Helpful hints in planning a butterfly garden


Source-sink distribution response to cutting of common mid-maturity('Ningmai5' and 'Longyu4') and late-maturity('Xifeng27' and 'Longyu1') winter wheat cultivars in Longdong region was analyzed in this study.Leaf area index(LAI) at early regrowth stage,dry matter distribution pattern at anthesis and maturity stages of cut wheat with 2 cm stubble and uncut(the control) wheat were analyzed.The results showed that LAI and photosynthetic products of different cut wheat cultivars were different.Compared with the uncut treatment,cut treatment significantly decreased LAI of 'Ningmai5' and 'Lingyu4' mid-maturity cultivars respectively by 27% and 17%,decreased LAI of 'Xifeng27' late-maturity cultivar by 6%,increased LAI of 'Longyu1' late-maturity cultivar by 7%.Aboveground biomass of cut 'Ningmai5' and 'Lingyu4' mid-maturity cultivars decreased respectively by 18% and 11% while that of cut 'Longyu1' late-maturity cultivar increased by 13% at anthesis stage over the uncut ones.Compared with the uncut treatment,the trend of the belowground biomass of the 4 cultivars under cut treatment pointed downwards with the decreasing trend of late-maturity cultivar higher than that of mid-maturity cultivar.However,belowground biomass of late maturity cultivar gradually increased at maturity stage with a significant increase of 26% in 'Longyu1' wheat cultivar.While carbohydrate content of all the parts of mid- and late-maturity cultivars decreased,that of 'Longyu1' late-maturity cultivar increased by 2%-12%.These suggested enhanced distribution of carbohydrate and dry matter to leaf and spike along with redistribution ability and source-sink coordination,which laid the basis for high grain output.Compared with other cultivars,'Longyu1' late-maturity cultivar was more suitable for forage utilization at tillering stage and harvestable grain at maturity.


The ion chromatography instrument is one kind of complex chemical analysis instruments. And the key part that affects analysis results in it is ion chromatographic column. On developing online IC instrument, it is difficult to predict the efficiency of IC column. All the instruments can be referred now are only used in laboratory, and the column efficiency is judged artificially. So it is necessary to use artificial intelligent method to survey the column efficiency automatically. This paper proposes one kind of soft sensing method, which analysis the principle of ion chromatographic column at first, then finds out the key factors affecting column efficiency, synthesizes all kinds of surveying data by AI method, then the convincible results of column efficiency can be available eventually. It is shown by experimental results that this method is convincible and reliable in online surveying of ion chromatographic column efficiency.


Investment is one of the major issues of the middle class families as their small savings of today are to meet the expenses of tomorrow. Women income is also an additional income for the family it will improve the economic status of the family. Women entrepreneurship development is an essential part of human resource development. Women who are engaged in entrepreneurship activity must know about the investment avenues. A variety of investment options are available such as bank, bonds, gold, real estate, postal services, mutual funds, equity and commercial deposits. Investors are investing their money with the different objectives such as for profit, security, appreciation, income stability etc. Researcher has studied the different avenues of investments as well as the factors responsible for investment with the sample size of 40 registered women entrepreneurs by conducting the survey through questionnaire in Vilavancode Taluk, Kanniyakumari district. The data has been analyzed with parentage and Chi-square test with the help of statistical software. Respondent are aware of the investment avenues available in high return and tax benefit.


In a future full of quantum computers, new foundations for asymmetric cryptography are needed. We study the theoretical foundations for lattice-based cryptography as well as the current state on cr ...


In The Lightness That Life Can't Bear, the content and characters that Kundla states are complex. There is even no basic plot chain to run through all the characters. What he cares is the unity of the theme under the great divergence. But anyway, there must be a point to keep. The main rhythm of the novel develops around the emotional problems between Thomas and Teresa, and diffuses with this as a focus. There exist various possibilities for readers to consider.


A bicycle component control device is essentially provided with a communication interface and a controller. The communication interface is configured to communicate with at least one electrical bicycle component and at least one manually operated input member. The controller is electrically coupled to the communication interface and programmed to access an actuation to control the at least one electrical bicycle component based the at least one manually operated input member. The controller is programmed to determine an operation mode of the at least one electrical bicycle component in various ways based on a number of the at least one manually operated input member which is coupled to the controller via the communication interface.


The study investigated entrepreneurship skills and self-reliance among university of Calabar graduates with hearing impairments. Three hypotheses were stated in this study. Literature was reviewed according to the sub variables of the study. The population for the study was all graduates with hearing impairment from University of Calabar. The study adopted a census sampling technique which was used in selecting sixty (60) graduates with hearing impairments in Calabar Metropolis. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire called "Enterpreneurship Skills and Self Reliance among Graduates with Hearing Impairment Questionnaire (ESSAGHI)". The data collected were statistically analyzed using Simple percentage, mean and frequency count and the following results were obtained Technical skills has significant relevance on self-reliance among University graduates with hearing impairment in Calabar; Communication skills has significant influence on self-reliance among University graduates with hearing impairment in Calabar; Ability to relate with others has significant influence on self-reliance among University graduates with hearing impairment in Calabar. Based on the findings it was recommended among others that technical skill training should be an important component of Entrepreneurship training for students with hearing impairment in order to build the needed skills for self-reliance.


2-month-old boy was evaluated for a subcutaneous mass on the right dorsum of his nose. On physical examination, the mass was rubbery, extended into the nasal cavity, and impinged on the nasal septum. The child underwent surgery, with a preoperative diagnosis of cyst. During surgical exploration, the surgeons noted that the mass deviated the nasal septum to the left and that the right nasal bone was absent. The excised specimen was described as an irregular and rubbery piece of tan-pink soft tissue, which measured 1.5 cm in greatest dimension. Routine hematoxylin-eosin‐stained sections revealed a poorly circumscribed submucosal mass. A subtle interdigitating trabecular pattern was evident, with alternating bundles of dense collagenous tissue and a slightly more cellular and disorganized population of cells with ovoid or irregular nuclei and a fibrillary stroma (Figure, left). The Masson trichrome stain (Figure, right) emphasized this pattern, staining the collagen intensely blue and the intersecting cellular population red. A positive immunohistochemical reaction with glial fibrillary acidic protein (Figure, inset) confirmed the diagnosis of glial heteroto


Gemini has been created using Unreal engine alongside Autodesk Maya, Blender and Adobe Photoshop.

Gemini is a first-person, action-orientated shooter. It's in depth sci-fi setting and story will be its attraction to players. The level design and graphics provided by Unreal engine will be what sets this game apart. Its combination of software has created visually striking level design and innovation 3D characters.

The player will take control of Lynn, a doctor on board a space station orbiting a foreign planet that is over run by an unheard-of alien race. The game will be set in the future where the limits of the worlds technology far exceeds what it would be now. After losing the rest of her crew and escaping the station on a ship, she is left stranded on the surface of an alien planet, this is the setting for the tutorial level. With no experience in fighting, she must return to the space station to uncover the truth behind what has happened and discover the fate of her crew. Consumed by the guilt of leaving them behind she desperately struggles to find and help them. Can she beat back the aliens that have taken everything from her.


This paper presents a novel design and a step-by-step strategy to size distributed energy resources in stand-alone military microgrids deployed in geographical locations with diverse environments. First, design examples are simulated to analyze how the sizing of photovoltaic arrays and energy storage systems are affected by an increased level of resilience. We focus on resilience from the perspective of the number of days of autonomy a microgrid can operate in a scenario after an initial incident and how quickly the microgrid can recover to full operation and energy storage post-incident. Then, a novel purposeful decision support strategy is proposed to assist in the selection of the best configuration based on the trade-offs among the key design parameters such as fuel consumption, resilience, and sizes. The model-based design used to create the microgrid simulations is validated by experimental measurements on a test-bed hybrid microgrid. Results show relevant differences in the chosen configuration in the investigated locations, due to the location and the level of accepted trade-off on the newly identified key performance indicator ${NPV} ^{s}$, the net present value of specific scenarios of interest.


................................................................................................................................................. Until the end of apartheid, White South Africans were solely presented as Christians, with other religious practices all but forbidden to them. Since the negotiated revolution of 1994, the new liberal constitution has guaranteed religious freedom to all, with the global New Religious Movements gaining popularity. Tens of thousands of White South Africans have seized the opportunity to explore charismatic churches, New Age-practices as well as traditional African religions, while the popularity of traditional Christianity has dropped. The informants of this research are White South Africans from Cape Town, neopagans who practice Wiccan witchcraft and sangomas who practice traditional African religion. In South Africa, Whites are seldom regarded as practitioners of witchcraft or magic. Yet there are thousands of Whites who believe in and practice both, and create their own sacred spaces within the urban spaces which were previously subjected to rules and regulations of racialised social engineering. This article examines how witchcraft, magic and new global religions meet in the conjunctions of global and local, where new concerns arise and where new heterotopias and spatial practices are established as answers to White neopagans' anxieties about spiritual insecurity and racial boundaries. The places where these sacred urban spaces are created are at homes, in public spaces, and on the Internet. ................................................................................................................................................. patterned pieces of material hanging from the ceiling, multiple candles, bowls of sand and water and flowers. When the bleak fluorescent light was turned off, incense spread all over. Everyone entering the ritual space were first smudged and then anointed, and suddenly the drills and wire-cutters hanging neatly on the walls no longer mattered. The garage felt like a haven or an island out of time in some other dimension. I felt a real sense of loss when the space was stripped back to a garage after the ritual.


independent predictor and contributed together with age and better eye VA to 37% of variation in reading speed. For each 10-year increase in age, there is a decrease in reading speed of 6.6 words/ min. By an increase of better eye MD for 1 dB, there is a decrease of 1.5 words/min, and by an increase in better eye VA for 0.1 Snellen, there is an increase in reading speed of 8.2 words/min. Patients reported more visual disability with increasing severity of glaucoma, but the relationship between perceived difficulties and visual function were of weak to moderate strength. Better eye MD was shown to have similar relationship with visual disability as the binocular VF MD (Arora et al. 2013). However, better eyeMD is a summarymeasure and does not capture the location of VF loss. The inferior VF may have a greater impact on reading performance. Reading speed decreased with increasing VF loss, but there was a wide intersubject variability. Besides visual factors and age, slower reading is associated with cognitive disorders, lower levels of education, race, skill and reading habits (Ramulu et al. 2009). The individual reading speed was also the main reason of variability among normally sighted readers using the IReST (TrauzettelKlosinski et al. 2012). The study is not without its limitations; the sample size is small, patients with glaucoma were older with reduced VA and subjects with self-reported cognitive disorders were excluded, but cognitive functions were not measured. For future studies, collecting information about social status, level of education and reading habits would be useful to adjust for known possible confounders. In conclusion, patients with severe VF loss without self-reported difficulties for central and near vision tasks demonstrated decreased reading performance.


The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between spectral reflectance and Chla in the lake. The spectral reflectance and upper-layer water sampling was performed from onboard on May 30, August 8, 2013, and March 7, 2014 at the 10 to 11 points in the lake. MS720 (EKO Ltd.) was used for spectral reflectance measurement. The wavelength range of reflectance measurement is 400 to 900 nm. Chla was quantified by the UNESCO method after the filtering of upper-layer water and acetone extraction in the laboratory. The range of Chla is 6 to 145 μg L-1. The spectralreflectance characteristic in the lake is the low reflectance near 670 nm (strong absorption), and the high reflectance near 700 nm (including fluorescence). Such the characteristic is the same as the eutrophic lakes such as Chesapeake Bay in the United States, or Lake District in Germany. A correlation analysis using the two band algorithm for Chla estimation was conducted using 32 obtained datasets. An optimal combination of two bands was the case of 648 nm and 700 nm (R2=0.81). However, the latest earth observation satellites are not observed at these bands. Then, the Chla estimation using Landsat-8 OLI bands which was launched in Feb., 2013 was examined. As a result, it became clear that the technique adapting OC2 and OC3 model of the operational algorithm was comparatively reasonable.


This paper presents a Coloured Petri net based approach for estimating execution time and energy consumption in embedded systems. The aim of this work is to provide, in the design phase, a mechanism that helps the designer informing the energy consumption and the performance of the code in analysis. Experimental results have demonstrated an accuracy of 96% using the proposed formal method in comparison with the values obtained with the hardware platform.


EnglishThird Italy: changes without disposal; or why the "Italia di mezzo" or "Third Italy" should be regarded as part of the Northern Italy Megalopolis - The research questions why the Third Italy was considered part of the Northern Italy Megalopolis when it was first discovered, in spite of its rural and local model of industrialization, and if it's still possible today to consider it so, notwithstanding deep economic and urban changes. The Third Italy have industrialized starting from the Sixties of the XX century and many changes occurred in the region because of technological innovations, the growth of the tertiary sector, the emerging on the international market of newcomers and globalization. But the region continues to constitute a component of the Northern Italy Megalopolis. francaisTroisieme Italie: changements sans dismissions. - En partant des considerations pour lesquelles quand, il y a trente ans, a ete decouverte la formation d'une megalopole dans l'Italie du Nord, on imaginait que la "Troisieme Italie" en faisait partie bien que sa industrialisation etait localiste et rurale; cette recherche se demande si la Troisieme Italie continue a participer a la megalopole apres les grands changements de l'economie et de l'urbanisation. Ces regions ont supporte beaucoup des changements a la suite du progres technologique, de la tertiarisation de l'economie, de l'arrivee sur le marche international de newcomers et de la globalisation. Mais elles restent composants essentiaux de la "megalopole en formation" dans l'Italie du Nord. italianoL'articolo si domanda se trent'anni dopo la scoperta del processo di formazione di una struttura megalopolitana nell'Italia settentrionale persistano le ragioni che vi hanno fatto includere quella parte orientale la cui industrializzazione aveva avuto caratteri del tutto diversi dall'industrializzazione fordista.


28 samples of Cenozoic volcanic rocks collected from Shandong Province have been dated by K-Ar method. They are mainly Neogene with an age range of 4-19 m. y. The basalts from Linqu and Yishui in west Shandong Province are Miocene and those from Penglai and Qixia in east Shandong Province are Miocene and Pliocene in age. The basalts from Wudi in north Shandong Province are Middle-Early Pleistocene in age. In each area the duration of volcanic eruption was estimated at about 2-3 m. y. Pb and Sr isotopic compositions and U, Th, Pb, Rb, Sr, and major elements in most of the samples were determined. The isotopic compositions are: ~(206)Pb/~(204)Pb——16.92-18.48. ~(207)Pb/~(204)Pb——15.30-15.59,~(208)Pb/~(204)Pb——37.83-38.54, and (~(87)Sr/~(86)Sr)_i——0.70327-0.70632. There are some positive or negative linear correlations between ~(206)Pb/~(204)Pb and ~(207)Pb/~(204)Pb, Ph isotopes and Pb content, Pb isotopes and Sr isotopes, and Sr isotopes and other elements. The basaltic rocks from east and west Shandong Province have somewhat differences in isotopic composition and element content. The basalts probably are products of multi-stage evolution of the mantle. They have preserved the primary features of the source, although they were influenced, to some extent, by the contamination of crustal materials.


This paper introduces how wind/hydro complementary power system deals with the parameters of wind power generators, and a load flow calculation model. On the basis of actual example of such calculation, it proves the feasibility and correctness of the method.


Subtitle: Having the right software tools has never been more important for container terminal operators -- and for a variety of reasons.


This article mainly introduces our research group's latest progress in THz camera. Nb5N6 film is a THz sensitive material and has a significant prospect in THz detection. We use this material to fabricate an antenna coupled microbolometer THz detector array at room temperature, and integrated 180 nm CMOS process readout circuit. The THz camera has a resolution of 32×32, pixel size of 250×250 μm, frame rate of 30, working range is 0.25-1 THz. Compared with the type of pyro-electric infrared camera, below 1 THz terahertz spectrum has significant advantages, with a higher response rate and a lower NEP.


The article is devoted to the piano variations of the German pianist, organist and composer I. V. Hesler (1847-1822), a lot of whose works are associated with the Russian folklore. Hesler's creative work is now almost forgotten. Meanwhile, it is of great interest to both the researcher and the performer. The article considers the composer's dramatic variations in the context of combining the traditions of the Russian and Western European music. The principles of Beethoven are particularly important in Hesler's variation cycles in the view of the structure and techniques of development.


Childhood separation anxiety disorder (SepAD) has only recently been recognized as a highly frequent disorder, precursor of panic disorder, and pacemaker of anxiety and other mental disorders. Although cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has proven effective for the treatment of anxiety disorders in children, including SepAD, intensive forms of treatments have been developed recently to further improve treatment efficacy. This brief article describes a rationale for the development of intensive, disorder-specific treatments for SepAD, focusing on extinction learning and parental involvement in the child's therapy. We further provide an overview of three cognitive-behavioral and one psychodynamic intensive treatment programs for SepAD and review the empirical evidence for each of these programs. In conclusion, one promising treatment-intensification strategy is to deliver exposure in high doses and in multiple contexts. Parents can be coached to conduct such exposure in-between treatment sessions. In the light of initial findings from RCTs, the involvement of parents seems to benefit younger children more so than older ones.


New antithrombotic therapies with less effect on bleeding are needed for coronary artery disease. The Btk inhibitor ibrutinib blocks atherosclerotic plaque–mediated thrombus formation. However, it is associated with increased bleeding, possibly due to non–Btk‐mediated effects. Btk‐deficient patients do not have bleeding issues, suggesting selective Btk inhibition as a promising antithrombotic strategy.


Abstract In this paper, we develop the noninformative priors for stress-strength reliabilityfrom the Pareto distributions. We develop the matching priors and the reference pri-ors. It turns out that the second order matching prior does not match the alternativecoverage probabilities, and is not a highest posterior density matching or a cumelativedistribution function matching priors. Also we reveal that the one-at-a-time referenceprior and Je reys' prior are the second order matching prior. We show that the pro-posed reference prior matches the target coverage probabilities in a frequentist sensethrough simulation study, and an example is given.Keywords: Matching prior, Pareto distribution, reference prior, stress-strength reliabil-ity. 1. Introduction The Pareto distribution provides a statistical model which has an extensive variety ofapplications. It has been found in describing distributions of studies of income, propertyvalues, insurance risk, stock prices uctuations, migration, size of cities and rms, wordfrequencies, occurrences of natural resources, business failures, service time in queuing sys-tems, error clustering in communications circuits and lifetime data, etc (Arnold and Press,1983; Fernandez, 2008). In a Bayesian point of view, many authors have studied statisticalinferences on Pareto distribution (e.g., Arnold and Press, 1983, 1989; Geisser, 1984, 1985;Lwin, 1972; Nigm and Hamdy, 1987; Tiwari, Yang and Zalkikar, 1996; Ko and Kim, 1999;Fernandez, 2008; Kim, Kang and Lee, 2009; Kang, 2010).In reliability contexts, inferences about reliabilityR= P(Y


This paper described a new treating method which can obviously weaken the strong interaction between active metal components and alumina and meanwhile restrain generation of non active species during catalyst preparation.


When a notched polymeric material is stressed, the notch opens into a wide crack tip, exposing a region of high stress concentration. The consequences of electron bombardment of the tip of such a stressed material under vacuum are explored here for the first time. Evidence is presented for electron-induced crack growth at stress far below that needed for crack growth due to stress alone. The electron current densities used in these experiments are sufficiently small that thermal heating of the zone near the crack tip is minimal. To provide information on the phenomena involved, we present simultaneous measurements of electron current, gas pressure, and sample load in response to periodic bombardment of the sample. Experiments involving the bombardment of un-notched polymers under stress are also described. Fractography of the unique structures obtained by fracture due to the combination of electron bombardment and stress are presented and interpreted in terms of a crosslinking mechanism.


The spread and danger of coronavirus infection for public health led to the transition of educational organizations to distance learning. The article presents the results of studying the adaptation of the cardiovascular system of students to distance learning during the period of COVID-19. To determine the capabilities of bodies to the conditions of distance learning using ICT, we used the Belgian test. The results of the study showed that the health level of boys is undesirable, while that of girls is average.


surface. Further calculations show that it is possible to discriminate between local (electric dipolar) and non-local (magnetic dipolar and electric quadrupolar) contributions to the chiroptical nonlinear response when playing around with the polarisations of the fundamental and second harmonic beams. We study organic molecules having delocalized electrons to enhance the second order hyperpolarisability. The first one is a polyene with an asymetric carbon and corresponds to a one-electron chirality. Second harmonic generation is performed with a femtosecond Titane-Saphire laser, in a two-photon resonant configuration. When varying the polarization of the incoming beam, we observe some nonlinear circular difference: the second harmonic signals are different for left or right circularly polarized fundamental beams (about 30%). However, for linearly p-polarized fundamental beam, we observe no rotation of the second harmonic polarization, and any difference between second harmonic signals obtained with 2 45" linearly polarized fundamental beams (that is "linear difference") is below the experimental accuracy. These experimental results clearly indicate that the nonlinear optical activity is dominated by magnetic contributions, which is consistent with the theoretical calculations for the one-electron chirality. Experiments with molecules exhibiting an excitonic coupling chirality are now in progress, to fully emphasize the interest of second harmonic generation to access information about the microscopic origin of optical activity in chiral molecules.


Generally, for healthy adults, the entropy of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals gradually decreases from wake to sleep stages N1, N2, to N3, and increases during REM. However, some researchers found that multiscale entropy curves of sleep and wakefulness intercept, a cross-over phenomenon whose origin remains unexplored. The objective of the present work is to trace the origin of the cross-over phenomenon and to propose a workaround strategy. We simulated EEG by generating 1/f broadband signal and chirp signals with continuously varying frequencies. We then retrieved the rhythmic component from simulated EEG and real-world EEG and conducted MSE analysis of the instantaneous frequency variation (IFV) of the rhythmic component. The simulation revealed that this interception was ubiquitous in the MSE analysis of simulated EEG with rhythmic components of different frequencies. The cross-over point moved toward larger scale factors with the increasing sampling rate. We found that the MSE curve of IFV from real-world EEG for the wakefulness group was higher than that for sleep, showing no interception. These results suggest that (1) for a rhythmic signal like EEG, MSE analysis of the raw signal is highly affected by the rhythmic component, presenting artificial cross-over curves in sleep EEG study, (2) frequency variation of rhythmic components are complex signal which differs between wakefulness and sleep, in accordance with the complexity loss theory.


The present invention relates to an intelligent type control and control device of protection switch electric equipment. It includes the following several portions: main body module, current detection module, power supply module and HMI module. It is characterized by that it also includes main program software. The described main body module includes voltage signal input module, current sensor, zero sequence current sensor, optical isolation digital quantity input module, signal conditioning circuit, central microprocessor, output module, temperature protection module, 4-20 mA analog output module and Modbus communication interface. Said invention also provides its working principle and concrete operation method.


Requirements modelling is a highly critical phase in the development of computerised information system. The consequences of errors are difficult to trace in the further development phases. Usually, the price paid for complex information system reengineering activities is relatively too big, compared to the cost of development the completely new version of it. A great variety of problems such as incompleteness, contradictions, ambiguities, over specifications arise during analysis of several specifications of the same information system. The starting point for information systems requirements modelling research are initial requirement statements. These statements express wishes of designers about what the system should do. Initial requirements are usually interpreted as objectives, opportunities and problems, and presented in the form of natural language text. As a matter of fact, these pragmatic representations are often contradictory, ambiguous, incomplete and inconsistent. The objective is to produce the description that it could be suitable for developers of technical system. A great variety of models and languages have been proposed to capture precise, unambiguous, complete and consistent requirements. This process is entitled 'from fuzzy to formal'[F3_94] and schematically could be represented by Fig.1.1.


Will the US retain its preeminence in biotechnology, or will products and services created by biotechnology be more successfully commercialized in other nations That question is posed and addressed in a document recently issued by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). A definitive answer is not forthcoming, but a wealth of relevant information is provided. Topics considered include the status of the innovative, dedicated biotechnology companies and their newly created pharmaceutical products, of agricultural research, and of use of the new technologies in the chemical industry and bioremediation. The report also deals with matters affecting competition such as patents, fair trade practices, protection of intellectual property, regularity climate, and tax policies. For many scientists the most interesting portions of the document will be those dealing with the experience of the many biotechnology companies that were established to exploit opportunities created by recombinant DNA techniques and development of monoclonal antibodies. Although the biotechnology companies were founded with great resources of human capital, they had limited numbers of dollars. Only a small fraction of the companies obtained funds from stock offerings. The OTA report names 46 companies listed on the various securities exchanges. All of the companies have experienced a big drainmore » of funds as they worked to develop new products. As a result, the companies have been forced to scramble four funds to stay alive.« less


The 7th Workshop on Pervasive Urban Applications (PURBA 2018) aims to build on the success of the previous workshops organized in conjunction with the Pervasive (2011-12) and UbiComp (2013, 2015--17) to continue to disseminate the results of the latest research outcomes and developments of ubiquitous computing technologies for urban applications. All workshop contributions are published in supplemental proceedings of the UbiComp 2018 conference and included in the ACM Digital Library.


The invention belongs to the technical field of recovering and recycling of resources and particularly relates to a dry-process electric-separation governing system for red mud. The governing system comprises a stirrer, a granulation device, a calcination device, a grinding device, an electric separation device and a sorting device, wherein the stirrer, the granulation device, the calcination device, the grinding device, the electric separation device and the sorting device are sequentially connected. The governing system has the beneficial effects that iron minium (Fe2O3), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), titanium dioxide (TiO2), sodium oxide (Na2O), calcium oxide (CaO), rare earths and trace elements in the red mud can be recycled. According to the dry-process electric-separation governing system for the red mud, provided by the invention, hundred-percent dry-process recovery is realized, management and optimization are facilitated, red-mud pollution is effectively solved, substances in the red mud are fully utilized, and high-value output is realized.


Repeat-Accumulate code has been widely used in various practical communication systems due to its special structure that can be encoded with a low complexity turbo-like encoder and decoded with a high-speed parallel algorithm. However, the construction of RA codes with large girth is still a challenging problem. In this paper, the girth upper bound of RA codes is analyzed and a novel RA code construction scheme is proposed. This scheme generates the parity-check matrix with superimposed structured interleavers, guaranteeing the resulting matrix to be globally optimized. Compared with the RA codes constructed with traditional structured interleavers such as π-rotation interleavers, pseudo-random interleavers, combinatorial interleavers, and modified L-type interleavers, the codes constructed with the proposed method exhibit better error-correcting performance. Moreover, a parallel VLSI codec architecture is proposed for the RA codes generated with the proposed method in this paper. Modifying the conventional RA encoder architecture, the codec for RA codes from our proposed method may have the same hardware implementation complexity as that for traditional RA codes, while the data throughput of our codec may achieve up to 450Mbps, which may be of great value for practical applications.


During the chemisorption and subsequent metal film growth of Al, Ga and In atoms on (111) surfaces of Si, Ge, and GaAs we observed a large decrease in the signals from both occupied and unoccupied intrinsic surface states. Extrinsic surface states, which were coverage dependent, were observed in the range 0–2 eV below the valence‐band maximum EV. The change in the surface potential and band bending were monitored using uv photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) of bulk direct transitions. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the change in band bending occurred during the first monolayer of metal chemisorption. Unoccupied surface states in the energy band gap were monitored using electron energy‐loss spectroscopy (ELS) from core levels to empty surface and conduction‐band states. This technique is essentially the same measurement as the photoelectron‐yield spectroscopy reported by Eastman but has lower energy resolution and greater surface sensitivity. On all (111) surfaces we observe a decrease in intrinsic surface states with m...


(1) Biosystems Physics Unit, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege, Gembloux, Belgium (firstname.lastname@example.com), (2) Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium, (3) Research Group Environmental Organic Chemistry and Technology (EnVOC), Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, (4) Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium


We study the historical roots of social unrest in China. In particular, we investigate whether the incidence of social unrest against local government officials under the Qing dynasty period (1644-1912) has a persistent effect on the incidence of anti-government protests in present-day China. To generate plausibly exogenous variation in the incidence of past protests, we exploit differences in the visibility and magnitude of solar eclipses across Chinese counties during the Qing dynasty period. In the Confucianism tradition, solar eclipses are considered a negative divine signal on the legitimacy of the ruler, and can thus facilitate the coordination of protest actions. We test this hypothesis using detailed data on the timing and location of anti-government rebellions extracted from local chronicles. We show that counties within the totality zone of an eclipse were significantly more likely to experience a rebellion in the eclipse year. We find that plausibly exogenous variation in past rebellions generated by the incidence of solar eclipses has a positive effect on the incidence of social protests in present-day China. Leaders of early anti-Qing rebellions were recorded in popular culture and celebrated in temples, favoring the transmission of the memory of their actions across generations. The persistent effect of past protests is stronger in counties with such temples and memorials, consistent with a long-term memory of revolutions.


The purpose of this article is to explore a newly defined concept of distributed cognition in a spatial domain and to propose how this conceptualization may be applied to how architectural space is organized. A novel view of distributed cognition is presented, which is concerned with the purposive behaviour of an organism-in-its-environment. We term this concept teleonomic distributed cognition. Teleonomic distributed cognition is the ability of an organism (including humans) to interact with its environment for the purpose of satisfying its physiological (internal and external) and social needs in order to survive and sustain itself. An implication of this approach is that the sensory capabilities that drive the teleonomic distributed cognition of the organism define its spatial domain.


Modern structural linguistics attempted to approach language in its "pure" or abstract form by discarding all elements perceived as external to language itself. On the other hand, linguistic schools attempting to understand language in the social context have also been formed. However, in all those language theories language itself can remain an ideological notion if those theories fail to engage in the necessary critique of social relations that generate representations about language or, more precisely, about language practice. This paper wishes to point out this kind of ideological overlook in the case of linguistic deliberations of Tokieda Motoki ( 時枝誠記 1900–1967), who attempted to justify the colonial language policy of Japanese Empire in Taiwan and Korea.


The study states application of multi-modality and meta-cognitive strategy in listening comprehension teaching.The author aims to testify whether there exists relationship between multi-modality and meta-cognitive strategy. The results indicate that there is a strong interaction between multi-modality and meta-cognitive strategy,which can improve listening comprehension more effectively than multi-modality and meta-cognitive strategy respectively.


The paper presents a method for classification of the parallel user's requests in addition to the existing one represented by the resource rectangles. The proposed classification is considered as more fundamental as it serves to highlight the classes of comparative and incomparable resource rectangles. For the arrays of the incomparable requests, the method allows us to analyze the quality of polynomial algorithms for packing with the non-Euclidean heuristic measure that considers the form of the enclosing rectangle along with its area. Based on the test benchmarks for the optimal tiling in a non-empty square, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed polynomial algorithms for dispatching of the incomparable user's requests in the GRID systems.


This report documents the planning phase of a proposed four-phase project for creating computer software to provide energy expertise in a manageable form to architects and engineers - thereby decreasing energy use in new buildings. The government sponsored software would be integrated with commercially developed software for use in the design of buildings. The result would be an integrated software package to aid the designer in the building design process and to provide expert insight into the energy related implications of a proposed design.


Purpose

The purpose of the study is to find out the budgetary allocation for books and journals (Print and Electronic) and growth of resources during 2003-2004 to 2012-2013. The study also explored the significant/non-significant relationship for budget allocated for books and journals (Print and Electronic) as well as growth of resources across the libraries. This will help the librarians of such universities to build their collection accordingly.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. Moreover, information was obtained from the primary library records such as annual reports, budget estimates, ledgers and also the staff involved in the acquisition section. The hypotheses were tested using chi-square test. The relationship between budgetary allocation and growth of resources amongst the five university libraries during 2003-2004 to 2012-2013 were analysed and discussed.

Findings

Maharishi Dayanand University library had the highest budget for purchase of books (Rs.125 lakh), whereas Panjab University library had the highest budget (Rs.208 lakh) for purchase of journals (Print and Electronic) during 2012-2013. Panjab University library allocated Rs.18 lakh for purchase of books and Rs.208 lakh for purchase of journals (Print and Electronic) during 2012-2013. Punjabi University library allocated 16 lakh for purchase of books and 45 lakh for purchase of journals (Print and Electronic) during 2012-2013. Guru Nanak Dev University library allocated Rs.16.80 lakh as the budget for purchase of books and Rs.8.30 lakh for purchase of journals (Print and Electronic) from 2007-2008 to 2012-2013. Kurukshetra University library allocated Rs.9 lakh for purchase of books during 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, whereas it had allocated Rs.79.20 lakh for purchase of journals (Print and Electronic) during 2008-2009. Maharishi Dayanand University library allocated Rs.125 lakh for purchase of books during 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, whereas it allocated Rs.125 lakh for purchase of journals (Print and Electronic) during 2012-2013.

Research limitations/implications

The study was limited to five universities of Northern India, which comprised Panjab University, Chandigarh (PU); Punjabi University, Patiala (PbiU); Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (GNDU); Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (KU); and Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak (MDU). The data related to budgetary allocation for resources and growth and cumulative growth of books and journals (print and electronic) during 2003-2004 to 2012-2013 were collected and analysed.

Originality/value

This is the first of its kind of study in these universities, which provides an overview of how much budget was allocated for collection development in these university libraries. The relation between budget allocation and growth of resources were compared, and their significant/non-significant relationship in five university libraries in North India was found.


Objective To investigated the core competencies of emergency nurses so as to provide a basis for specialized nurse training.Methods Ninety-five emergency nurses took a written test and a skills examination regarding emergency practice.Moreover,they were investigated using a self-designed questionnaire based on the evaluation system of core competencies for emergency nurses.Results The score of written test was ranged from 39 to 78(56.21±7.94),the score of skills examination was ranged from 70 to 99(88.75±5.68).Regarding the self-reported core competencies,planning ability got the highest score and research ability got the lowest score.Conclusion It is urgent to establish a training base for systematic specialized nurse training as soon as possible to strengthen emergency nurses' professional knowledge and skills,critical thinking,communication skills and self-directed learning capability.


Introduction: The literature to date has failed to establish a consensus concerning the relationship between postoperative pain and the number of treatment appointments. Some authors, support single-visit treatments, while others indicate that the use of such procedures can produce more discomfort for the patient and would therefore be less desirable under most circumstances. Objectives: This study aims to compare the incidence of post-obturation pain at one, two and seven days after single-visit and multiple-visit non-surgical endodontic treatments. Methods: 198 subjects have participated in the present study from the total sample size of 346. The sample was divided into two groups i.e Group-I with 93 subjects underwent the single sitting endodontic procedure and Group-II with 105 subjects underwent two sitting endodontic procedure, who reported back with the VAS reporting form. Pain score was recorded by using a HeftParker visual analogue scale (VAS) method. Each patient was assigned a value between 0 and 170 on the VAS scale. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 20 for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) using Chisquare test at p< 0.005. Results: There was no change in postoperative pain among subjects treated in one appointment and those treated in two appointments. Most of the patients in both groups conveyed no pain or only slight pain within 24 to 48 hours of treatment. Conclusion: Post-obturation pain after non-surgical endodontic therapy was not uncommon after one day, the second day but there was less pain or no pain after seven days. Among the teeth with post-obturation pain, the single-visit group had lowerintensity pain, after one day, two days and after seven days, then the multiple-visit group had.


Expensive black-box combinatorial optimization problems arise in practice when the objective function is evaluated by means of a simulator or a real-world experiment. Since each fitness evaluation is expensive in terms of time or resources, the number of possible evaluations is typically several orders of magnitude smaller than in non-expensive problems. Classical optimization methods are not useful in this scenario. In this paper, we propose and analyze UMM, an estimation-of-distribution (EDA) algorithm based on a Mallows probabilistic model and unbalanced rank aggregation (uBorda). Experimental results on black-box versions of LOP and PFSP show that UMM outperforms the solutions obtained by CEGO, a Bayesian optimization algorithm for combinatorial optimization. Nevertheless, a slight modification to CEGO, based on the different interpretations for rankings and orderings, significantly improves its performance, thus producing solutions that are slightly better than those of UMM and dramatically better than the original version. Another benefit of UMM is that its computational complexity increases linearly with both the number of function evaluations and the permutation size, which results in computation times an order of magnitude shorter than CEGO, making it specially useful when both computation time and number of evaluations are limited.


The Jie society is patrilineal and there is at least some preference for male children. For many of the smaller extended families the birth of male children can ensure that the family will continue for at least another generation. Male children are also an important part of the Jie labor force. Female children are also desired by Jie families and make a tremendous contribution in the areas of domestic and agricultural work. At marriage however daughters leave their families. Many Jie clans have certain observances to be followed during pregnancy many of which appear clearly to be aimed at preventing a miscarriage or any damage to the fetus. It is not clear whether there is any definitely stated spacing to be followed between the births of children. A married woman is supposed to become pregnant as often as possible. It does not appear that a woman who might desire only a few children or a woman who might prefer to remain childless exists among the Jie. Women begin bearing children at about 18 years and continue until they are about 40 or 45. Jie men marry for the 1st time at about 30 years of age and continue to marry wives whenever they are able to throughout their lives. As with a woman a man is expected to have as many children as possible during his lifetime. A childless man is very often equated with a pauper. It is doubtful whether a Jie couple ever considers the number of children they will have; the assumption is that they will have as many as possible.


The ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by Ukrainian nationalists in the 1940s still remains, as Norman Davies put it, "one of the . . . lost stories" of World War II.2 For a few decades following the war, the communist government of Poland allowed virtually no publication on the topic.3 The Warsaw leadership, almost entirely dependent on Moscow's backing, was very anxious not to offend the Soviets, who in 1939 had invaded and incorporated these then Polish territories, and were now more than likely to regard any such publication as fostering revanchist sentiments and meddling in the Soviet Union's internal affairs. As a result, the assertions, made repeatedly by the Poles in the West, that a significant part of the rural Polish population of what is now western Ukraine had been exterminated, were as a rule ignored or dismissed by Ukrainians as not backed


Nation-states form from the unification of disparate groups which feel such a configuration maximizes the protection of their values. Once formed, however, the state exists in dialectic opposition to further group formation, governing elites jealously preserving their existence against the formation of groups which do not find the state supportive of their needs. Usually some accommodation is reached, but at times dissident communities demand independence or some other status which the governing elite refuses to recognize. Such demands are frequently articulated under the rubric of self-determination and raise issues of human rights which cannot be ignored. Self-determination has not, however, traditionally been defined in this manner. Historically, international law allowed state elites to treat citizens as they saw fit. But in an interdependent world, this view has become anachronistic. There is a growing auareness that any state activity that deprives a segment of its population of its human rights is a matter of international concern.1 Even where no danger of international conflict exists, ignoring one national subgroup's brutality toward another offends basic ideas of civilization. The crematoria of Auschwitz stand as a vivid reminder of the end result of ignoring a state's actions within its own borders. At the turn of this century, the term self-determination had some symbolic importance but lacked normative content. However, as different groups began utilizing the symbol of self-determination, the world community evolved prescriptions to deal with these growing demands.2 As new and different demands were made, some prescriptions were terminated while others, taking account of changing expectations, came to the fore.3 These new prescriptions have con-


A systematic framework for exploring the long-term dynamics of a reaction network is applied to a minimal model of ERK regulation that distinguishes both monophosphorylated forms and allows for nonzero enzyme processivity. Bistability and oscillations can be observed at high levels of processivity.


We consider the task of learning a classifier for semantic segmentation using weak supervision, in this case, image labels specifying the objects within the image. Our method uses deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and adopts an Expectation-Maximization (EM) based approach maintaining the uncertainty on pixel labels. We focus on the following three crucial aspects of the EM based approach: (i) initialization; (ii) latent posterior estimation (E step) and (iii) the parameter update (M step). We show that saliency and attention maps provide good cues to learn an initialization model and allows us to skip the bad local maximum to which EM methods are otherwise traditionally prone. In order to update the parameters, we propose minimizing the combination of the standard softmax loss and the KL divergence between the true latent posterior and the likelihood given by the CNN. We argue that this combination is more robust to wrong predictions made by the expectation step of the EM method. We support this argument with empirical and visual results. We additionally incorporate an approximate intersection-over-union (IoU) term into the loss function for better parameter estimation. Extensive experiments and discussions show that: (i) our method is very simple and intuitive; (ii) requires only image-level labels; and (iii) consistently outperforms other weakly/semi supervised state-of-the-art methods with a very high margin on the PASCAL VOC 2012 dataset.


In this paper an infinite horizon predictive control algorithm, for which closed loop stability is guaranteed, is developed in the framework of multivariable linear input-output models. The original infinite dimensional optimisation problem is transformed into a finite dimensional one with a penalty term. In the unconstrained case the stabilising control law, using a numerically reliable SVD decomposition, is derived as an analytical formula, calculated off-line. Considering constraints needs solving on-line a quadratic programming problem. Additionally, it is shown how free and forced responses can be calculated without the necessity of solving a matrix Diophantine equation.


In this paper the standard discrete-time H control problem is considered under the constraint imposed upon the controller to be strictly proper. The necessary and eta sufficient conditions for the existence of a-suboptimal controller are derived and the set of all linear time-invariant controllers, which solve the problem, is parametrized. In contrast with the unconstrained case, the state-space solution obtained is very transparent and actually is not more complex than the solution of the continuous-time H problem.


This study illustrates how Asian American youth participate in the ongoing formation of linguistic and racial ideologies in the USA through the metapragmatic regimentation of racist discourse (Silverstein, 1993). After presenting examples of crying 'racist' in US politics and entertainment, this article examines ethnographic and discourse data in which Korean American boys 'decode' (Hill, 2009) certain uses of the term 'black' as 'racist'.The analysis illustrates how the regimentation of racist discourse relies on the indexical construal of broader oppositions that link 'black' to negative racialized qualities, including deviance, violence, and insults. This article argues that 'racist' cries by Asian American youth challenge language ideologies of referentialism and personalism and racial ideologies of colorblindness and postrace. Crying 'racist' becomes a rich resource for achieving a number of interactional effects that renegotiate the position of Asian American youth with respect to the range of racial categories that circulate throughout US society.


We report on the development of a high-current microbeam system for wavelength-dispersive X-ray micro particle-induced X-ray emission (WDX-μ-PIXE) for chemical state mapping. The microbeam system is composed of two slits and a quadrupole doublet lens mounted on a heavy rigid support. The microbeam system is installed immediately after a switching magnet. A beam brightness of 2.4 pA⋅μm−2⋅mrad−2⋅MeV−1 is obtained at a half-divergence of 0.1 mrad. A beam current of more than 300 pA is obtained for object sizes of 40×10 μm2 with a half-divergence of 0.2 mrad, which corresponds to a beam spot size of 1×1 μm2. The calculated spot size of the beam was 1×1 μm2 and the measured spot size was 1×1.5 μm2. The WDX-μ-PIXE system with the microbeam system is now operational.


The thermal reactions of 1-methylpyrrole were investigated by the flow method over the temperature range of 475 to 700/sup 0/. In the temperature interval of 475 to 575/sup 0/ the reaction was found to be a homogeneous first-order isomerization that may be represented as shown: 1-methylpyrrole yields 2-methylpyrrole reverse arrow 3-methylpyrrole. The Arrhenius equation for this reaction, based on the disappearance of 1-methylpyrrole, is k = (2.39 +- 0.11) x 10/sup 12/e/sup -(54,800 +- 100)/RT/. Above 575/sup 0/ there was decomposition to give a complex mixture of reaction products.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current landscape of training strategies being implemented and a view of the future.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper was written based on the findings and observations from our consulting work with organizational clients, placing them in an historical perspective.

Findings

While technologies change, how we learn does not. If you want to be strategic about the technologies you use, look for the underlying principles of learning upon which they are built.

Originality/value

This paper can help an organization be more thoughtful and intentional about the training/learning strategies they use rather than be drawn to the new shining object or latest fad of trend.


Cooperation among users only takes place if they are willing to share data among themselves. As users tend to easily exchange information with others they have some sort of social relationship (i.e., belong to the same community, share similar interests), we discuss on this paper how information about users' relationships and communities they belong to can be used to increase social capital and, consequently, improve cooperation within the sensing context.


Fuzzy clustering is a powerful unsupervised method for the analysis of data and construction of models.In the Fuzzy c-Means algorithm,considering the particular contributions of different feature,an optimization feature weighted fuzzy clustering algorithm is introduced in this paper.By principal component analysis extracting main features and distributing corresponding weight to main features in accordance with their contribution to variance,clustering analysis is implemented by optimization feature weighted fuzzy C clustering algorithm.


This guide has resources for special education students in grade 7-12, as well as information for their parents/guardians/caregivers and teachers.


foundation of communist power in Poland by occupying factories and staging strikes. Now, martial law had been imposed, and Solidarity was looking down the gun barrel of defeat. But when he was taken away, Walesa challenged his captors. "At this moment, you lost," he told them. "We are arrested, but you have driven a nail into your communist coffin .... You'll come back to us on your knees" (1998). If violence is power, and if repression has no answer, then Walesa's words were foolish. But he knew that Solidarity had already defined the course of the conflict by depriving the regime of the Polish people's consent. When the state had run out of


Abstract. This paper deals with very weak solutions of the A-harmonic equationdivA(x,5u) = 0 (∗)with the operator A : Ω × R n → R n satisfies some coercivity and controllable growthconditions with Muckenhoupt weight. By using the Hodge decomposition with weight, aregularity property is proved: There exists an integrable exponent r 1 = r 1 (λ,n,p) < p,such that every very weak solution u ∈ W 1,rloc (Ω,w) with r 1 < r < p belongs to W 1,ploc (Ω,w).That is, u is a weak solution to (∗) in the usual sense. 1. Introduction and statement of resultLet w be a locally integrable, nonnegative function in R n . Then a Radonmeasure µ is canonically associated with the weight w,(1.1) µ(E) =Z E w(x)dx.Thus dµ(x) = w(x)dx, where dx is the n-dimensional Lebesgue measure. In whatfollows, the weight w and the measure µ are identified via (1.1). Let Ω be an opensubset of R n , n ≥ 2. Consider the following second order divergence type elliptic ∗ Corresponding author.Received 18 January 2007; accepted 26 December 2008.2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 35J60.Key words and phrases: A-harmonic equation, Muckenhoupt weight, regularity, Hodgedecomposition.The first author is supported by NSF of Hebei Province (07M003). The third author issupported by NSFC (60850005), NSF of Zhejiang Province (Y607128).


Abstract The RF ion source is the most promising ion source, which can be operated with steady state. When the Radio Frequency (RF) ion source works, the key point is how to transmit and couple the RF power to the plasma with the RF power transmission unit. In this technical note, the principle of RF matching network was analyzed and designed. The RF power transmission unit was tested on RF ion source test bed. Based on the experimental data, the function of each components of impedance-matching network is analyzed and optimized. The results show that matching network can keep high RF coupling efficiency with variable plasma parameters and decreases the reflected RF power.


Accurate prediction of the self-propulsion performance is one of the most important factors for the energy-efficient design of a ship. In general, the hydrodynamic performance of a full-scale ship could be achieved by model-scale simulation or towing tank tests with extrapolations. With the development of CFD methods and computing power, directly predict ship performance with full-scale CFD is an important approach. In this article, a numerical study on the full-scale self-propulsion performance with propeller operating behind ship at model- and full-scale is presented. The study includes numerical simulations using the RANS method with a double-model and VOF (Volume-of-Fluid) model respectively and scale effect analysis based on overall performance, local flow fields and detailed vortex identification. The verification study on grid convergence is also performed for full-scale simulation with global and local mesh refinements. A series of sea trail tests were performed to collect reliable data for the validation of CFD predictions. The analysis of scale effect on hull-propeller interaction shows that the difference of hull boundary layer and flow separation is the main source of scale effect on ship wake. The results of the fluctuations of propeller thrust and torque along with circulation distribution and local flow field show that the propeller's loading is significantly higher for model-scale ship. It is suggested that the difference of vortex evolution and interaction is more pronounced and has larger effects on the ship's powering performance at model-scale than full-scale according to the simulation results. From the study on self-propulsion prediction, it could be concluded that the simplification on free surface treatment does not only affect the wave-making resistance for bare hull but also the propeller performance and propeller induced ship resistance which can be produced up to 5% uncertainty to the power prediction. Roughness is another important factor in full-scale simulation because it has up to an approximately 7% effect on the delivery power. As a result of the validation study, the numerical simulations of full-scale ship self-propulsion shows good agreement with the sea trail data especially for cases that have considered both roughness and free surface effects. This result will largely enhance our confidence to apply full-scale simulation in the prediction of ship's self-propulsion performance in the future ship designs.


In current time, it is necessary for teachers to introduce the skills that students need to have in order to deal with challenges in the real world. The teaching of the "4Cs of the 21st century" communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity has become increasingly popular in the twenty-first century as a result of all the changes that have happened to the educational system. The current study aims to look into how instructors, who teach EFL students utilize the 4Cs Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity in university classrooms. To determine whether university instructors actually use these vital skills in the classroom, all four Cs are examined. The major tool was an observation checklist. It was used to determine whether teachers were actually putting the 4Cs into practice in their classes. The data was collected by using a checklist after the researcher observed nine modules in three separate stages, and the SPSS v.25 statistical program was used to analyze the data from the observation checklist. Anova one-way was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between teaching the 4C skills in EFL classrooms in different levels and modules. The main results of this study showed that all of the 4C skills are taught and practiced equally in the classrooms, particularly in modules like Diversity Education, Entrepreneurship, and Language Testing.


Objective:To evaluate the effect and safety of oxaliplatin(OXA) combined with calcium folinate(CF) and fluorouracil(5-Fu) regimen for patients with advanced gastric cancer.Methods:OXA 130 mg/m~2 (2 hours infusion on the first day),CF 200 mg/m~2 (1 hour infusion for 5 days) and 5-Fu 350 mg/m~2(4 hours infusion on the first day) were administered and the regimen was repeated every 3 weeks.The efficacy was evaluated after two repeated cycles were completed.Results:Twenty-eight patients were included in the study.One patient achieved CR,11 PR,10 SD and 6 PD.The overall response rate was 42.9%.The main adverse effects were bone marrow suppression,nausea,vomiting and neurosensory toxicity.Conclusions:OXA-CF-5-Fu regimen is highly effective for treatment of advanced gastric cancer with mild toxicity.


Network Information Security includes context security and the anonymous property of Network Communication.Dining Cryptographer (DC net) Protocol is a famous anonymous communication protocol based on mathematicsally non solved property.Its main characteristic focuses on that it can avoid being maliciously attacked by providing anonymous information service.After introducing basic DC net protocol principle,we discuss some problems from engineering view point like how to construct distributed security information service based on DC net protocol and analyze its run time problems.


The rain rate distributions deduced from rapid response rain gauge measurements over different locations in India are presented in this paper from the point of view microwave attenuation by rain. Based on the simultaneous observations of rain fall rate measured by rain gauges having integration times 10 seconds and 15 minutes, a power law has been obtained. The extension of rain cells deduced from radiowave attenuation data is found to be dependent on rain rate.


Up to 50% saturation of ammonium sulfate enabled to separate lectin from pigeonpea seeds completely. Each of the lectin from all the 10 pigeonpea varieties is agglutination for rabbit erythrocytes, but not for rat, mouse, or guinea pig erythrocytes. Some of the lectin is also agglutination for chicken, duck, or human erythrocytes, respectively.


Projects, Creating Projects CPU instruction set architectures can be classified according to where the operands come from in ALU operations. PIC24/dsPIC implement a hybrid ISA architecture, supporting both Register-Memory and GOTO instructions, New Compare-Branch (CPBxx) instructions (PIC24E/dsPIC33E). ISA is the abbreviation for Instruction Set Architecture. a 21-bit offset, full set of signed & unsigned conditional branches compare between two registers (eg.


We present a novel approach to hot-carrier degradation (HCD) simulation, which for the first time considers and incorporates mechanisms crucial for HCD. First, two main pathways of Si-H bond dissociation, namely bond-breakage triggered by a single hot carrier and induced by multivibrational bond excitation, are combined and considered consistently. Second, we show how drastically electron-electron scattering affects the whole HCD picture. Furthermore, dispersion of the activation energy of bond dissociation substantially changes defect generation rates. Finally, the interaction between the electric field and the dipole moment of the bond leads to interface states created near the source end of the channel. To demonstrate the importance of all these peculiarities we use ultra-scaled n-MOSFETs with a channel gate of 65 nm.


Low fluid flow rates and energy consumption, provides a non-contact transfer device that can maintain high accuracy the flying height. By the rear surface of the ring-shaped member having a through-hole (1) of the cross-sectional circle that passes through the back from the surface having a fluid outlet (1d), and ejecting a fluid from a fluid ejection port, a direction away from the surface on the front side of the ring-shaped member causing a swirling flow toward the box and, at the same time, if the opening vicinity of the front through-hole of the ring-shaped members to the swirl flow forming member for causing fluid flow in the direction of the transport surface of the substrate (2) having two or more a non-contact conveying device 40. Because of ejecting a fluid from a fluid ejection port to the injury the transported material, it is possible the conveying of a low fluid flow rate. When the opening portion near the ring-shaped member the front surface of the through hole can be obtained the same effects as those in the vacuum suction for holding the flying height accuracy by causing a fluid flow in a direction. Installing a porous pallet for a fluid taken out to the periphery of the swirl flow forming member on the transport surface of the substrate, and can be controlled with high accuracy according to the flying height of the transported material.


Mountain rescue missions are often operated with the aim of helicopters. The capability of these machines to perform hovering and close to ground operations is many a time vital for granting the success of extreme and delicate operations. The un-accessibility of many tracks to to any kind of vehicle and in some times also to men, requires well trained helicopter pilots and rescue operators who are many times facing unconventional scenarios with any kind of weather and light. Sometimes, moreover, the rescue mission compels the recovering of severely injured persons who are unable to move due to accidents. Given these premises, the helicopter is turned into a fully equipped flying ambulance, where pilots and rescue operators work in team with medical staff. The injured man thus is recovered by the helicopter and loaded inside the cabin with the help of a powered winch. This part of the rescue mission, in particular, is the most delicate because the patient, who is tightly tied to a special stretcher, is loaded inside the cabin by an operator placed inside helicopter cabin who is operating a powered winch. Such an operation takes some time and during this transient the patient is accompanied by a medic or by a rescue operator who is hanging mid air connected to the same cable which is loading the stretcher. During this operation the stretcher is directly invested by the helicopter rotor downwash and swirl, which generates a rotation attitude of the stretcher itself. This situation often occurs in some particular working conditions, especially when the stretcher is hanging downstream from the helicopter at a quite close distance, ranging between 40 to 10m. After a very short transient the stretcher, which rotates around the sustaining cable, reaches high rotational speed (which when measured showed to be high as 2 rev/s), hence resulting harmful at first to the patient itself, and also dangerous for the medic and or the operator who is following the patient. Operational manuals and protocols, because of this happening, in fact do prescribe to adopt two operators during this specific phase: at first a medic, who is following the patient ascent to the helicopter, and a second person, who is staying on the ground, holding a rope connected to the stretcher, preventing the above mentioned rotation attitude. As it can be easily perceived, usage of two persons in stead ACTIVE STRETCHER CONTROL DEVICE FOR IMPROVING MOUNTAIN S.A.R. HELICOPTER MISSIONS


CONTEXT
It has been proposed that altered dynamic-control strategies during functional activity such as jump landings may partially explain recurrent instability in individuals with functional ankle instability (FAI).

OBJECTIVE
To capture jump-landing time to stabilization (TTS) and ankle motion using a multisegment foot model among FAI, coper, and healthy control individuals.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SETTING
Laboratory.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Participants were 23 individuals with a history of at least 1 ankle sprain and at least 2 episodes of giving way in the past year (FAI), 23 individuals with a history of a single ankle sprain and no subsequent episodes of instability (copers), and 23 individuals with no history of ankle sprain or instability in their lifetime (controls). Participants were matched for age, height, and weight (age = 23.3 ± 3.8 years, height = 1.71 ± 0.09 m, weight = 69.0 ± 13.7 kg).

INTERVENTION(S)
Ten single-legged drop jumps were recorded using a 12-camera Vicon MX motion-capture system and a strain-gauge force plate.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Mediolateral (ML) and anteroposterior (AP) TTS in seconds, as well as forefoot and hindfoot sagittal- and frontal-plane angles at jump-landing initial contact and at the point of maximum vertical ground reaction force were calculated.

RESULTS
For the forefoot and hindfoot in the sagittal plane, group differences were present at initial contact (forefoot: P = .043, hindfoot: P = .004). At the hindfoot, individuals with FAI displayed more dorsiflexion than the control and coper groups. Time to stabilization differed among groups (AP TTS: P < .001; ML TTS: P = .040). Anteroposterior TTS was longer in the coper group than in the FAI or control groups, and ML TTS was longer in the FAI group than in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS
During jump landings, copers showed differences in sagittal-plane control, including less plantar flexion at initial contact and increased AP sway during stabilization, which may contribute to increased dynamic stability.


Background: Bordetella pertussis, a highly contagious respiratory. Notably, the resurgence of pertussis has recently been associated with the lacking production of vaccine virulence factors. This study aimed to screen pertactin (Prn) and filamentous hemagglutinin (Fha) production in Iran with 50 years' whole cell vaccine (WCV) immunization program. Methods: Overall, 130 B. pertussis isolates collected from Pertussis Reference Laboratory of Iran during 2005–2018. Real-time PCR was performed by targeting IS481, ptxP, IS1001 and IS1002 for species confirmation of B. pertussis. Western-blot was used to evaluate the expression of virulence factors (pertactin and filamentous hemagglutinin). Results: All tested B. pertussis isolates expressed Prn and all except two isolates expressed Fha. We have sequenced genomes of these strains and identified differences compared with genome reference B. pertussis Tohama I. Conclusion: Many countries reporting Prn and Fha-deficiency due to acellular vaccine (ACV) pressure. Our results demonstrate in a country with WCV history, Fha-deficient isolates may rise independently. However, Prn-deficient isolates are more under the ACV pressure in B. pertussis isolates. Continues surveillance will provide a better understanding of the effect of WCV on the evolution of the pathogen deficiency.


A new tobacco control (TC) national health plan has been approved in Portugal, a country with medium/low level TC activities. Awareness and public support is crucial to effective implementation of tobacco control policies (TCPs). Aim: To access support for tobacco control policies (TCPs) in Portugal and factors associated, at a population level. Methods: In June-July 2012, a computer-assisted telephone interview population-based survey was carried out (national continental representative sample). Descriptive analysis and multiple logistic regression were performed to assess factors associated with TCPs' support. Results: Participation rate was 96%. Participants: 1002; 48% male; 22.2% smokers; mean age 46.4±17.9 years. Most of respondents, agreed with TCPs, in descending order: ban smoking in cars with children (90%), 100% smoke-free policy in all public indoors settings without exemptions (86.0%), price policy (66%), pictorials warnings (65%), ban on point-of-sales display (62%) and plain package (57%), p


The invention discloses a poly(methyl)acrylamide cationic polymer modified by natural arginine on a side chain, a preparation method and an application. The (methyl)acrylamide polymer with tert-butyloxycarbonyl (Boc) protected amino group on the side chain is synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization; arginine containing a protection group is linked to a poly(methyl)acrylamide molecule by using the amino group with the protection group on the side chain removed; and the cationic functional polymer is obtained after the protection group is removed. The preparation method is simple and mild in conditions. The poly(methyl)acrylamide cationic polymer modified by natural arginine on the side chain has low cytotoxicity and high biocompatibility, can combine genes efficiently, has high gene transfection efficiency, is an effective non-viral gene vector, and is used for in-vitro gene transfection reagent.


We experimentally investigate the behavior of the mode instability (MI) threshold in the double cladding Yb‐doped fiber amplifier when the amplifier is pumped by broad linewidth laser diodes and narrow linewidth laser diodes respectively. It is found that the MI threshold increases by 26% when the amplifier is pumped by the broad linewidth laser diodes. Experiment results show that the MI threshold is affected by the local heat load rather than the average or the total heat load. The calculation shows that the local heat deposit actually plays the key role to stimulate the MI behaviour. At the MI threshold position in the fiber, the local heat deposit also changes dramatically. The effect of the thermal conductivity on the MI threshold is also studied. Our investigation shows that the MI threshold increases from 1269 W to 1950 W when the thermal conductivity of the fiber amplifier is increased from 0.3 W/(m·K) to 5 W/(m·K) . Through optimizing the pump linewidth and the cooling efficiency of the gain fiber, the MI threshold is doubled in our experiment.