The capabilities of off-nadir satellite observing directional variations in terrestrial surface reflectance, not yet sufficiently present in operational satellite series, are expected to be developed in the near future. The main objective of the paper is to study and modeling the atmospheric effects on the typical angular reflectance characteristics of vegetation surfaces in the visible and near-infrared regions. For the evaluation of the atmospheric contribution to the satellite data, radiative transfer model simulations, with ground radiometric measurements have been performed. The paper discusses the signatures that the atmosphere imposes on the angular distribution of the emerging solar radiation above aerosol-loaded atmosphere. The model calculations have also showed that some atmospheric-invariant features of the angular reflectance distribution, like the aerosol forward scattering peak or the hot spot in the antisolar direction, may be used as discriminant surface reflectance characteristics in the case of low aerosol- loaded atmosphere.


Objective:There is escalating interest in the therapeutic use of vasopressin in septic shock. However, little attention has focused on mechanisms underlying its pressor hypersensitivity, which contrasts with the vascular hyporesponsiveness to catecholamines. We investigated whether a long-term rodent model of sepsis would produce changes in endogenous levels and pressor reactivity to exogenous norepinephrine and vasopressin comparable with those seen in septic patients. Design:In vivo and ex vivo animal study. Setting:University research laboratory. Subjects:Male adult Wistar rats. Interventions and Measurements:Fecal peritonitis was induced in conscious, fluid-resuscitated rats. Biochemical and hormonal profiles were measured at time points up to 48 hrs. Pressor responses to intravenous norepinephrine, vasopressin, and F-180, a selective V1 receptor agonist, were measured at 24 hrs. Contractile responses to these drugs were assessed in mesenteric arteries taken from animals at 24 hrs using wire myography. Comparisons were made against sham operation controls. Main Results:Septic rats became unwell and hypotensive, with a mortality of 64% at 48 hrs (0% in controls). Plasma norepinephrine levels were elevated in septic animals at 24 hrs (1968 ± 490 vs. 492 ± 90 pg/mL in controls, p = .003), whereas vasopressin levels were similar in the two groups (4.5 ± 0.8 vs. 3.0 ± 0.5 pg/mL, p = not significant). In vivo, the pressor response to norepinephrine was markedly reduced in the septic animals, but responses to vasopressin and F-180 were relatively preserved. In arteries from septic animals, norepinephrine contractions were decreased (efficacy as measured by maximum contractile response, Emax: 3.0 ± 0.3 vs. 4.7 ± 0.2 mN, p < .001). In contrast, the potency of vasopressin (expressed as the negative log of the concentration required to produce 50% of the maximum tension, pD2: 9.1 ± 0.04 vs. 8.7 ± 0.05, p < .001) and F-180 (pD2 8.2 ± 0.04 vs. 7.6 ± 0.02, p < .001) was enhanced (n ≥ 6 for all groups). Conclusions:This long-term animal model demonstrates changes in circulating vasoactive hormones similar to prolonged human sepsis, and decreased pressor sensitivity to norepinephrine. Ex vivo sensitivity to vasopressin agonists was heightened. This model is therefore appropriate for the further investigation of mechanisms underlying vasopressin hypersensitivity, which may include receptor or calcium-handling alterations within the vasculature.


The main objectives of this study were to use the statistical model (ANUSPLIN) to calculate the updated norms Mongolia of air temperature and precipitation (average for 1991-2020 according to the World Meteorological Organization) with high spatial accuracy for any grid, and to perform objective analysis in observation data. GTOPO30 (global digital elevation model, DEM) elevation grid data with 30-arc seconds (1 km) accuracy for estimating the mountain and orographic conditions of Mongolia, and monthly climate data of 137 meteorological stations of the National Agency of Meteorological and Environment of Mongolia (NAMEM), as well as monthly data of 3 automatic weather stations for glacial melting and accumulation research, were used to generate a series of data from 1991 to 2020 using climate statistical processing and comparison methods (linear regression equations). The data were used as peripheral and initial condition data for the statistical model (ANUSPLIN). The average spatial resolution of the data is ~ 0.75 ° or ~ 83.2 km for 137 meteorological stations, and ~ 0.87 ° or ~ 96.2 km for 3 automatic meteorological stations for ice melting and accumulation research. Hence, it can be considered that the hydro-meteorological and environmental research stations of Mongolia are relatively distributed sparsely. As a result of the statistical downscaling analysis, monthly air temperature and precipitation norms of Mongolia as an average of 1991-2020 were calculated for each grid with a spatial resolution of 0.0125° × 0.0125° (~ 1.4 × 1.4 km). The spatial correlation coefficients (SPC) were 0.97-1.00 and 0.88-1.00 for air temperature and precipitation, respectively, while the mean square error (DCA) was 0.24 °C to 1.03 °C for temperature and 0.02 mm to 3.61 mm for precipitation. For spatial average, the air temperature from the model was warmer by 1.1-1.4 °C in winter (December to January) and 0.2-0.6 °C in spring and autumn (March to May, and September to November) than for observation data, while it was very similar for the summer (June-August). But model precipitation was reduced by 0.5-2.9 mm during the warm season (May-October) than observation data. The monthly correlation coefficients between the statistical model and observation data were 99% or higher. Therefore, this high-resolution spatial data for air temperature and precipitation norms of Mongolia for grid points calculated using the statistical model ANUSPLIN can be used as fundamental data for various scientific studies such as environment, agriculture and biology.


The establishment of Industrial Enterprise Alliance plays important role in enterprise information.In the paper,the requirements of the industrial Enterprise Alliance are analyzed.The architecture of Common Data Center is presented.As an application of industrial Enterprise Alliance,Common Data Center for machine tool is developed.Therefore,its advantage of the development of industrial information.


Using the prox-regularity notion, we introduce a system of nonconvex general variational inequalities and a general three step algorithm for approximate solvability of this system. We establish the convergence of three-step projection method for a general system of nonconvex variational inequality problem. We obtain as a particular case some known results.


Conventional one-class learning models perform poorly when data are multi-modal or multidensity.To address this problem,ensemble clustering and clustering stability analysis for one class learning are introduced.Firstly,identifying the number of clusters and their distributions are unified in one enhancing framework.Then multiple one-class learning models are constructed to describe clusters of the target class.Lastly these one-class learning models are fused following the maximum fusion volume method.Using classic support vector data description(SVDD)as an instance of one-class learning algorithm,an ensemble cluster based stable SVDD,ECS-SVDD,is proposed.Experimental results on UCI benchmark datasets and a real-world malware detection dataset show that the ECS-SVDD outperforms the single SVDD and some other related one-class learning algorithms.Besides,the method proposed can also enhance the abilities of handling multi-modal and multi-density data of other one-class learning algorithms that follow the volume set minimizing scheme.


Here, band gap-tunable oxygen-doped graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) with outstanding "two-channel" photocatalytic H2O2 production ability was prepared via hydrothermal treatment assisted by dissolution–precipitation process. XRD, N2 adsorption, UV–Vis, Fourier-transform infrared spectra, SEM, electrochemical impedance spectra, XPS and photoluminescence were used to characterize the obtained catalysts. The photocatalytic H2O2 production ability of as-prepared catalyst was investigated. The results show that oxygen doping not only changes the morphology of catalyst, decreases the band gap energy and promotes the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes, but also tunes the CB and VB potentials. As-prepared oxygen-doped g-C3N4 displays a H2O2 concentration of 3.8[Formula: see text]mmol[Formula: see text]L[Formula: see text], more than 7.6 times higher than that of neat g-C3N4. Because of the shift of CB and VB potentials, not only the CB electrons of oxygen-doped g-C3N4 reduce O2 to form H2O2, but also the VB holes can oxidize OH− to form [Formula: see text]OH, which subsequently react with each other to form H2O2. Such "two-channel pathway" causes the remarkably promoted H2O2 production ability.


This paper describes the labor mobility of a group of Mexican migrant workers that are permanent legal residents in the city of Calexico, Ca. USA. Since the beginnings of the XX century, this city has been a settlement of immigrants from different countries, among them stands out the Mexican immigrant group that, legally or illegally, has arrived to work temporal or permanently. In order to have and approach to the study of the labor milility of the immigrant workers and identify some situations that made it possible, this paper presents an overview of the historic events that favored the immigration of Mexican workers to this city as well as their participation in the labor market.


To understand perfectly of programmed cell death mechanisms is quite important in determining the drugs and treatment approaches to be developed against diseases that may occur as a result of any disorder in these mechanisms. Recently, autophagy which is an interesting programmed death mechanism, has attracted the attention of scientists and was emphasized the need to clarify this mechanism. The male reproductive system is a complex system which keeps many molecular mechanisms and recently, it has been added to the literature that aims to demonstrate the effects and the underlying mechanisms of autophagy on spermatogenic cells, including spermatogenic stem cells, spermatogonium, spermatocytes and spermatozoa under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. In this study, we aimed to research the relationship between male reproductive system and autophagy mechanism.


According to this study:

* The risk of clinically relevant adverse cardiac events in adults with chest pain but negative ED findings is low.

* Outpatient monitoring may be preferable to hospital admission in such patients.


The stimuli-sensitive diblock copolymer poly(N-acroyloxysuccinimide)-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNAS-b-PNIPAAm) was synthesized via reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. By using the terminal carboxyl group of the diblock copolymer to initiate the ring-opening polymerization of e-caprolactone (CL), the amphiphilic PNAS-b-PNIPAAm-b-PCL triblock copolymer was further synthesized. The triblock copolymer was characterized by NMR, IR, and SEC-MALLS. To enhance the internalization to tumor cells, biotin was introduced into the triblock copolymer. The LCST of biotinylated PNAS-b-PNIPAAm-b-PCL was about 35.3 °C. The formation of micellar aggregates (MAs) self-assembled from biotinylated PNAS-b-PNIPAAm-b-PCL was confirmed by CMC and TEM. The cell viability study demonstrated that the MAs have a low cytotoxicity. The antitumor drug doxorubicin (Dox) was loaded in the MAs, and in vitro release behavior of Dox showed the MAs exhibited thermo-sensitive drug release. The confocal m...


The plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) is a promising technique to produce high quality metal and nitride thin films at low growth temperature. In this study, very thin low resistivity cubic TaN Cu diffusion barrier (< 10 nm) were deposited by PE-ALD from TaCl5 and hydrogen and nitrogen plasma. The physical properties of TaN thin films including microstructure, conformality, roughness, and thermal stability were investigated by various analysis techniques including medium energy ion scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Especially, the Cu diffusion barrier properties of PE-ALD TaN thin films were studied by in situ analysis technique including synchrotron X-ray diffraction, optical scattering, and sheet resistance measurements during thermal annealing of the test structures. The failure temperatures of PE-ALD TaN films were comparable to those of PVD counterpart. The film structures and diffusion barrier failure mechanisms are discussed.


A follow-up to the successful and sensible "Building the Successful Veterinary Practice" series, this new volume provides the business know-how needed to make today's emerging practices tomorrow's established practices. Author and consultant Thomas Catanzaro reveals his secret to building a business for the future: a strong succession plan. This book will help readers incorporate a defined leadership structure; address the internal and external legal issues of a practice; and understand the economic factors of owning and selling a practice.


In this study, an efficient, simple and rapid protocol is described for high quality DNA isolation from leaves and seeds of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). The protocol gives highly reproducible results and can be carried out easily. Young leaves and seeds of fennel were kept at -80o C for 20 min to freeze the tissues and make the grinding easy without any tissue damage. This protocol eliminates the use of liquid nitrogen. The protocol is inspired by the CTAB method and Sambrook principles.


The government is actively pursuing a financial subsidy policy to assist new energy companies in strengthening their ability to innovate independently, but the impact of government subsidies has been contentious. Using 142 new energy listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-stocks from 2012 to 2018, a fixed-effect model was used to examine the impact of government subsidies on new energy companies' R&D investment, as well as the changes in the relationship between the two under conditions of economic policy uncertainty and enterprise heterogeneity. The results indicate that government subsidies have an inverted U-shaped effect on enterprise R&D investment; that is, while appropriate subsidies promote enterprise R&D investment, excessive subsidies suffocate other funds invested by the company in R&D and exacerbate the company's proclivity to invest in fixed assets. Furthermore, economic policy uncertainty has a more substantial negative adjustment effect on the relationship between government subsidies and corporate R&D investment than fixed-asset investment. Additionally, research indicates that in China's eastern coastal regions, the impact of government subsidies on R&D investment is more remarkable for high-risk preference enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises than in the central and western regions, where the negative adjustment effect of economic policy uncertainty is more remarkable for low-risk-preference and non-state-owned enterprises. It is recommended that government departments ensure economic policy stability and continuity and that subsidy selection be more targeted and precise in determining subsidy funds.


This paper deals with a cognitive approach used to reduce the co-channel interference arising from the coexistence of an LTE macrocell and an LTE femtocell sharing the same frequency band. Multiple-antennas technology is considered to exploit the angle dimension as a new spectrum opportunity: femtocell acts as a secondary system and inserts nulls in the directions of the UE connected to the macrocell thus protecting the downlink transmission of the primary base station. MuSiC algorithm is used to detect the DOA of the UE signal replicas in an indoor environment assuming a variable number of multipath components characterized by a very large angle spread. The proposed scheme permits to increase the signal to interference ratio at the UE side thus reducing the achieved error rate on the downlink connection even when the number of resolvable paths is higher than the number of antennas. Finally the UE mobility is considered to take into account the effect of variable DOAs.


I am pleased to debate the nature of social studies of technology (SST) with a scholar who has helped pioneer important advances in our understanding the social epistemology of the laboratory sciences. Woolgar and Grint's comments give me an interesting opportunity to articulate some implicit assumptions of "Computerization and Social Transformation" (Kling 1991). Here I respond to Woolgar and Grint's (1991) commentary and also to Woolgar's (1991) closely related critique of SST.


The article showed the features of clostridiosis course, caused by Clostridium perfringens, in children of different age groups taking into account the dose of pathogen in feces and pathogenetically grounded possibilities of etiological therapy.


In the field of digital testing, the capacity of test data sets has grown rapidly. It is difficult for a single data generating device to take into account various test requirements. The large capacity data sets that are made up of multiple data source devices is becoming the development mainstream. In the integrated system, the key to improving test efficiency of the system is to efficiently and quickly generate the large-capacity data sets. Based on the Huffman algorithm and command transmission, the author proposes a software processing method, which achieves the goal of collaborative editing and data synthesis of multiple data generators, and it successfully applies to the efficient synthesis and processing of 96-channel and 5Gbits ultra-large capacity data sets.


Projection-microstereolithography is an additive manufacturing technique based on the spatially controlled solidification of a liquid photopolymer on exposure to digitally manipulated light patterns. This study presents a methodology to evaluate the effect of a type-I photoinitiator on the reaction kinetics in the process and the cytocompatibility of the produced components. While the reaction speed and degree of conversion were heavily dependent on the applied amount of the initiator, a clear toxic effect was observed with all tested concentrations, and a post-processing step of 7 days was required to leach out the initiator residues. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Professor Mamoru Mitsuishi and Professor Paulo Bartolo


Recent empirical evidence suggests that the updated DeLone and McLean's information systems (D&M IS) model can identify the determinants of success of online communities in terms of member loyalty (Lin and Lee 2006). This study is similarly concerned with the challenge of identifying the determinants of success of online communities, but it explores the problem in terms of members' perceived professional development. A qualitative case study was adopted in this study to gather rich and naturalistic data. Online observation and interview data were gathered from three online communities: nurses, web developers and literacy educators. Results reveal seven determinants of success: a willingness to share knowledge, high-quality content, diversity of views, technology, relevant discussions, a respectful environment and rapid response to members' queries. Contributing factors that lead to some of the identified determinants were also found. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are provided.


After the failures of many humanitarian missions around the world such as in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina and others, the search for 'coherence' between political and humanitarian responses to complex emergencies has been urgently sought. Recalling my own experiences and lessons learnt while working in the fields as well as for several national and international organizations in the past, the same question always comes and goes. Is the world indeed serious about committing itself to prevent genocide and related human tragedies? In addition, such thoughts also make me re-examine my own identity as Japanese, on what sort of particular contribution Japan could do and, more to say, should do. While thinking of my own country, it now faces some sort of turning point. The end of the World War II had a devastating impact on Japan—its people, land and the relations with the surrounding countries. But today Japan has become one of the biggest financial donors in terms of multilateral and bilateral assistances to conflict prevention as well as to peace-building initiatives. However, does it have any clear vision or diplomatic strategies as a whole to identify its role in the international society? Or will it only be standing still when the world gets together and seriously deals with difficult challenges to prevent human tragedies including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide? Some may say Japan could do as it does now through providing funds to wherever the world is necessary. Yet, the others may contest to the proposition and say that the country should make more operational contribution by exhibiting more physical presence in the fields. Needless to say, there are many types and forms of international cooperation Japan may well be involved. The environment surrounding the world's efforts to genocide prevention is changing. In this regard, this paper shall focus on the field of genocide prevention and examine which direction the country's aspiration to play a more active role, if any, may proceed. Yet, the country today faces a number of challenges and dilemmas and requires going beyond 'good intention'. Therefore, I shall conclude with some practical policy recommendations for Japan to do more for genocide prevention.


Phage display antibody library has been proven to be a powerful technique used in development of antibodies. Since it was established in 1990, the technology has made enormous improvement and played more and more important role in basic research of biology, immunology, oncology, protein engineering, ligand-receptor studies and proteomics among others in last two decades while there is no report about the application of it in aquaculture so far. It is a success implication of phage display technique in antibody engineering in which antibodies or antibody fragments are displayed on the surface of filamentous bacteriophage by genetic fusion to a coat protein of phage. Cooperating with the effective screening technique, affinity panning, these form the principle of phage display antibody library. The most characteristic of it is a direct physical link between phenotype and genotype. So, the technology makes it practicable to improve characteristic of selected antibodies by genetic manipulation. In the present work, the background, principle and advantages of the powerful tool over traditional hybridroma technolgy are summarized. In addition, several key problems possible to face in the course of application of the technology, including improving the diversity of library, augmentation of library size, generation of high affinity antibody and effective screening of specific antibody were dissertated. At last the possible implication prospect of phage display antibody technique in aquaculture was discussed, especially in elucidating the immune system of fish and producing large amount antibodies with important diagnostic and therapeutic value in fish diseases.


While speakers of English as an additional language are more common than native English speakers, most English teachers do not know how to teach plurilingual learners in their classrooms. Though studies have looked at the effect of teacher education on praxis, there is a dearth of studies in South Africa that have examined teachers' perceptions of their praxis after a course on bilingual education models and practices. This study investigates whether in-service teachers feel that the 'Paradigms and Methods in Applied English Language Studies' course helped them to further develop their praxis. Students' weekly reflection pieces were examined for evidence of critical reflection before interviews were conducted with three students who have taught, or are currently teaching in under-resourced areas. All participants reported that they had developed a more bilingual teaching praxis, but they often felt unsure of how to practically implement their learning from the course. Based on this finding two recommendations to lecturers and course coordinators of AELS courses are provided. Teacher praxis could be strengthened by 1) referring students to articles on bilingual education models and practices that mirror their teaching contexts and 2) explicitly teaching students how to reflect on implementing the theories that they have learned during the course within their classrooms.


The performance of a three-phase electromagnetic interference filter will be degraded due to noise-mode conversions. This article reveals these conversions are mainly induced by the unbalanced parameters of the filter's components. Moreover, the pulsewidth modulation strategies worsen this problem further. In order to evaluate the conversion contaminations, the unbalanced capacitors cases are addressed in detail, and a criterion on capacitor tolerance is then proposed. Furthermore, the impact of differential-mode components on this criterion is also highlighted. Finally, a common-mode LC filter is taken as an example to verify the proposed criterion, and the experimental results fit the prediction made by the criterion very well.


Epothilones belong to a class of novel microtubule stabilizing and anti-mitotic agents, which have a paclitaxel-like mechanism of action. A three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) model was built for epothilones by the method of comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) combined with the flexible docking technology. The docking CoMFA model gave a good cross-validated value of q2=0.784 with an optimized component of 6 and the conventional correlation coefficient of r2=0.985. The statistical results show that the model has good ability to predict the activity of the studied compounds. At last, the docking CoMFA model was analyzed through contour maps complemented with MOLCAD-generated active site potential surface in the α,β-tubulin receptor, which can provide important information for the structure-based drug design.


www.sciencemag.org (this information is current as of January 5, 2008 ): The following resources related to this article are available online at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;309/5741/1677b A correction has been published for this article at: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5723/838 version of this article at: including high-resolution figures, can be found in the online Updated information and services, found at: can be related to this article A list of selected additional articles on the Science Web sites http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5723/838#related-content http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5723/838#otherarticles , 6 of which can be accessed for free: cites 19 articles This article 147 article(s) on the ISI Web of Science. cited by This article has been http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5723/838#otherarticles 3 articles hosted by HighWire Press; see: cited by This article has been http://www.sciencemag.org/about/permissions.dtl in whole or in part can be found at: this article permission to reproduce of this article or about obtaining reprints Information about obtaining


Objective: To report the first known case of a lithium-exacerbated stutter in a pediatric patient. Case Summary: A 10-year-old male with a history of developmental stuttering, bipolar disorder not otherwise specified (NOS), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder was admitted to the psychiatric hospital because of recurrent suicidal ideations and increased physical aggression toward staff at his residential facility. The patient was being treated with lithium at initial dose of 150 mg/day at bedtime for bipolar disorder NOS. When the lithium dose was increased to 900 mg twice daily to better control the bipolar symptoms, his developmental stutter worsened intensely. When the lithium dose was reduced to 60 mg in the morning and 900 mg at night, the stutter returned to baseline. No other medication changes were made during this interval. His serum lithium concentration was 0.62 mEq/L at baseline, 1.24 mEq/L during the height of his exacerbated stutter, and returned to 0.64 mEq/L after dose reduction. Discussion: To our knowledge, only 1 case lithium-exacerbated stutter has been reported to the literature, and this was in an adult. The developmental stutter of our pediatric patient worsened when he was treated with higher doses of lithium. He was on stable doses of his other medications during the adjustments to the lithium dose, malding it less likely that the stutter was due to one of these medications. However, it is possible that the exacerbation involved an interaction between lithium and one or several of the other medications. Based on the Naranjo probability scale, this case represents a probable adverse drug reaction. Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware that an additional adverse effect of lithium may be an exacerbation of stutter.


Phishers have been continually changed their tricks and emerged novel variants for more security violations and causes of monetary losses in business organizations. The lack of existing anti-phishing solutions considered as an optimum anti-phishing is because of detection incapability specifically against novel phishes. This paper classifies the existing anti-phishing tools, identifies their detection incapability against several kinds of novel phishes and underscores the issues behind this problem. Further it suggests next wave of research to solve it. Targeting academic and industry researchers, this paper provide a valuable source of information to contribute the cyberspace with new products and fulfill the security flaws.


The use of simulation as an upgrading tool has been tested on real wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Currently, the new WWTP have the possibility to monitor some process variables as the flows, oxygen concentrations and, some physical properties as temperature or pH. This thesis has been divided in two main sections: i) the use of the GPS-X software as an upgrading tool for real WWTP and ii) the use of the wavelet filter for the analysis of the online data


In the agrarian pastoral society of northwest Tuscany intervillage relations were dominated by campanilismo or local chauvinism. Following the suppression by the Tuscan state of the open use of violence to settle boundary disputes, village communities developed ritual oppositions, making use of collective nicknames, prejudices, and religious symbols and rites to express local identity. The campanilismo complex demonstrates that verbal aggression and ritual defence strengthen the ties people have with their communities. [Italy, intervillage relations, nicknames, religious symbols, identity]


Aylin Orbasli, Tourists in Historic Towns: Urban Conservation and Heritage Management, London and New York: E. & F.N. Spon, 2000, ix + 210 pp., 89 figs, 1 table. ISBN 0-419-25930-9. Over the last decade we have witnessed numerous books being written on the subject of urban tourism, including several which focus on tourism management. Orbasli's book is unique, however, in that it is the first to concentrate on aspects of urban conservation as a result of tourism. Another point to this book's credit is the fact that, for the first time, the issue of tourism in cities that are located in developing countries is being seriously addressed, as opposed to case studies mainly from Europe and North America. This provides a refreshing and important new approach from the research perspective. However, it should be stated that despite its title, the book does not deal with tourists in historic towns, but with tourism in historic towns and its impact on the urban environment. The book contains almost ninety good-quality black-and-white photographs, which contribute a great deal to the book since they highlight several of the issues under discussion. Maps and diagrams, however, are missing. This is a great pity since maps of the cities under discussion, as well as updated empirical data presented in tables, could have contributed considerably to this book. Despite the advantages of this interesting book, a series of problems affect its overall quality, principally:


Introduction Password authentication has been around since the  epoch time. A system can authenticate its users in so many ways; " The quest to replace passwords " [1] compares these mechanisms looking at three major factors: usability, deployability and security. For instance, a system enhanced with a twofactor authentication (2FA) requires its users to carry a physical proof to login. While this may increase system security, it decreases usability and on deployability. In addition, the security of the system will now also depend on the security of the token's provider. In order to address these issues, we propose introducing an alternative system that, if necessary, can resort to 2FA. This system analyzes the users' keystroke time inputs, essentially using muscle memory as an additional physical proof. We conducted preliminary analyses to better understand the relationship between users and their password inputs and to assess the feasibility of such a system. The plots below show results from 2 trials of 2 users each. In each trial, there is one " user " and one " imposter, " both entering the same password. The axes in these plot are the first two principal components of the typing timing sequences. Here the boundary denotes a quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) applied on the first two principal components. Even with this reduced information, we are able to obtain fairly good sensitivity as well as specificity in our classification. The intuition for using QDA is that the method utilizes differences in both mean and variance for classification  a user and an imposter will enter the password at different typing speeds, meaning the mean of the data will likely be different; and a user will tend to develop familiarity with the password, making the variance of his/her time sequence data low, while the variance in an imposter's data will be high.


Echocardiography is useful and reliable in the diagnosis and management of children with dilated cardiomyopathy. M‐mode echocardiography provides quantitative information of left ventricular and left atrial dimensions and left ventricular wall thickness. Left ventricular function including shortening fraction, mean velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (Vd), systolic time intervals, left ventricular wall thickening and thinning rate, isovolumic contraction time, and wall stress can be derived from M‐mode study. Left ventricular and left atrial dimensions are usually 1.5 times normal. Left ventricular systolic function is markedly reduced. Shortening fraction can be easily obtained and is the most informative index for assessing the severity of illness. Very low shortening fraction at presentation and follow‐up (12–15%) is a poor prognostic sign. Two‐dimensional echocardiography is valuable for excluding valvular lesion or coronary artery anomaly and detection of intracardiac thrombus. The left ventricular free wall is usually more severely affected than the ventricular septum as seen by two‐dimensional echocardiography. (ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Volume 8, March 1991)


If you don't understand baseball's Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, then you can't understand why the Maryland city exploded this week. If you don't understand Oriole Park at Camden Yards then you can't understand why what happened in Baltimore can replicate itself in other cities around the United States.


Organic C, N, P, and S contents in soil are thought to be the result of interactions among soil-forming processes, which occur in all soils but to different degrees. To test this hypothesis, the effect of climate, vegetation and topography on the organic matter composition in cultivated soil profiles was examined along an environmental gradient, from semiarid to subhumid regions in Saskatchewan. This transect encompasses a narrow environmental gradient of decreasing evapotranspiration and increasing precipitation (350–450 mm). Representative catenas selected from Brown, Dark Brown, Black and Gray Luvisol soil zones showed changes in the quantity and composition of organic matter. Concentrations of organic C, N, P and S progressively increased from the Brown to the Black soils and then decreased substantially in the Gray soils. Nutrient concentrations also increased from the upper to the lower slope positions of the catenas and decreased with depth in the soil profile. However, the distribution of organic ...


We present a spectral condition for the exponential stabilization of nonlinear control systems with constrained control range at singular points. The spectral approach in particular allows us to formulate an equivalence result between exponential null controllability and exponential stabilization by means of a discrete feedback law. The key tool used is a discounted optimal control problem for the corresponding projected semilinear system, which also admits a numerical solution.


Imagery appears to be associated with higher levels of anxiety than does worry. Borkovec has argued that worry could be a way of avoiding distressing imagery and the associated affect. Thus worry could suppress emotional activation, interfere with emotional processing, and contribute to the maintenance of anxiety. This hypothesis suggests that short and long-term effects of worrying after experiencing a distressing stimulus should differ from the effects of engaging in imagery. In the short term, imagery should maintain anxiety while worry should not do so, or should do so less. In the longer term, worry should be a less successful way of reducing anxiety associated with the stimulus than imagery, and should be followed by a greater number of intrusive cognitions (indicating the relative failure of emotional processing). These predictions were tested by asking subjects to worry, engage in imagery or "settle down" after watching a distressing video. The results were broadly consistent with the hypothesis. Other interpretations are also considered.


Sponsoring Organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in consultation with members of the Advisory Council for the Elimination of


In this paper,we discuss the pinching problems on the compact submanifolds with parallel mean curvature vector in a local symmetric space, and improve two known results in abstract[3],[5].


The B-spline basis set method is used to study the properties of helium confined endohedrally at thegeometrical centre of a fullerene. The boundary conditions of the wavefunctions can be simply satisfied with thismethod. From our results, the phenomenon of "mirror collapse" is found in the case of confining helium. The interestingbehaviors of confining helium are also discussed.


Classical regression assumptions are not valid in count models. Therefore, Poisson and negative binom distribution are the most common methods for count data. The Poisson model can be used in case of equal spread, while negative binom distributions in case of overdispersion. In practice, data is often over dispersed. If there are too many zero values in the count data, zero-inflated Poisson models in case of equal spread, zero-inflated negative binom models, Poisson Hurdle and negative binom Hurdle models or their generalized models can be preferred in case of overdispersion. These models generally focus on modeling the conditional average of the dependent variable. However, conditional average regression models may be sensitive to outliers of the dependent variable or provide no information about other conditional distribution properties. In this case, quantile regression, which is one of the robust methods for count data, can be used. The quantile regression has the advantages of robust prediction in the presence of outliers. In this study, count data was taken to show the dependent variable number of articles. Independent variables include of gender, marital status, number of children under the age of 5, prestige of the doctorate, and the number of articles by the consultant in the last 3 years. After applying Poisson and negative binom distribution in the study, 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% quantile regression estimates were obtained.


The penile prosthesis is the gold standard surgical treatment for erectile dysfunction refractory to medical treatment, but a subset of individuals require device revision for mechanical failure, pain, erosion or infection. Clinical cultures have been used to demonstrate that both infected and non-infected explanted devices harbor bacteria. We hypothesized that penile prostheses generate complex adherent biological structures called biofilms that consistently harbor microbes, even in the absence of infection, and that their composition would differ by device type and infection status.

 Using shotgun metagenomics, we sought to determine the biofilm composition of indwelling penile prostheses and compare them by device type and infection status.

 Approval for this study was obtained from our institutional IRB, and informed consent was provided by all participants who underwent removal and replacement of a penile prosthesis for any indication. Prior to access of the device, the dartos fascia was swabbed as a control. Upon access of the device, instruments and gloves from the surgical team were changed to minimize contamination from the surrounding tissue. The device was explanted, and each component was analyzed in parallel. Device components were subjected to sonication, DNA extraction, and shotgun metagenomics. The curated reads were then compared to annotated databases of known bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoal species. Metabolic pathway genes were identified and compared to KEGG pathways to generate a functional metabolic analysis.

 19 devices (16 Boston Scientific; 3 Coloplast) were included in the study. Indications for removal were infection (n=4), pain (n=2), mechanical failure (n=11), and impending erosion (n=2). Of non-host derived reads, approximately 65% were prokaryotic, 15% viral, 15% protozoan, and no fungal in origin (Figure, left). Beta-diversity of bacteria (p=0.046, Figure, right), virus (p=0.04), non-human genes (p=0.02), and gene pathways differed by device type (p=0.04). Interestingly, none of these differed by infection status (p>0.05). Sulfur metabolism was commonly enriched throughout devices, indicative of anaerobic growth conditions. Sphingobacterium hotanense, and the flavin mononucleotide metabolism pathway, were enriched in the context of infection. After exclusion of the 4 devices explanted for infection, there were 16 differentially abundant prokaryotic taxa by device type including 4 Pseudomonas species. Biofilm and antibiotic resistance genes were commonly represented independent of device type or infection status.

 Both non-infected and infected devices consistently harbored microbiota in the form of biofilms, which were rich in prokaryotic, viral, and protozoal taxa. Device type was a greater driver of variability than infection status. Our data suggest that different device types harbor variable affinity for microbiota. Mechanistic studies are needed to understand whether the identified microbiota might protect against or contribute to the risk of infection, pain or erosion.

 No


Analysis of time-to-event ('survival') data requires two pieces of data that are taken into account simultaneously: the time period for which follow-up was available, and the status at the end of the follow-up. The former variable is continuous (time) and the latter categorical, specifying whether the endpoint was the event of interest, such as death or relapse had occurred, or whether it had yet to occur when follow-up ended. Follow-up times often vary between individuals because study recruitment typically occurs over time but status may be later assessed for all individuals up to the same point in time. A Kaplan–Meier curve is often used to visually summarize time-to-event data (such as time from diagnosis to death or time from treatment to relapse). Censored patients contribute information that no event occurred up to the point of censoring, avoiding discarding this useful information. The time period is broken down into intervals and the survival rate estimated (by calculating the Kaplan–Meier estimate) based on those at risk during each interval (those who had not had the event by the start of the interval and were not censored before or during the time interval). The estimates are presented as a curve where the y axis indicates the proportion of individuals under risk of an event, and the x axis indicates time. The curve is characterized by steps, each representing the occurrence of one or more events. Kaplan–Meier curves are often presented with 95 per cent confidence intervals and a difference between curves can be tested statistically, most commonly using the log rank test. The curve can be presented upside down (by swapping the event and non-event). Two issues are particularly important when interpreting Kaplan–Meier curves. First, the validity of the Kaplan–Meier curve depends on the assumption that all participants in the analysis (including censored and uncensored) run the same risk of an event. This assumption is not fulfilled when censoring occurs owing to an external event that precludes the event of interest (for example recurrence of the disease of interest). The Kaplan–Meier curve will then be, to some degree, a biased representation of the true survival curve. For example, the use of Kaplan–Meier analysis of implant survival in an arthroplasty registry will tend to overestimate the revision risk because death precludes the revision of an implant thereby artificially inflating the apparent event risk1. Methods that seek to account for such competing risks are available but not without additional assumptions. Second, the statistical precision diminishes as follow-up increases and the number of individuals contributing reduces owing to either the event occurring or censoring. The impact of this can be dramatic. A single event therefore produces a much greater step in the curve the later during follow-up it occurs. This is usually also reflected by the width of the curve's confidence intervals. It is therefore vitally important for interpreting a curve that the number at risk is reported at key time points over the follow-up period.


A new constant of motion for helically symmetric equilibria in the vicinity of the magnetic axis is obtained in the framework of Vlasov theory. In view of this constant of motion the Vlasov theory is compared with drift kinetic and gyrokinetic theories near axis. It turns out that as in the case of axisymmetric equilibria [H. Tasso and G. N. Throumoulopoulos, Phys. Plasmas 18, 064507 (2011)] the Vlasov current density thereon can differ appreciably from the drift kinetic and gyrokinetic current densities. This indicates some limitation on the implications of reduced kinetic theories, in particular as concerns the physics of energetic particles in the central region of magnetically confined plasmas.


The overall structure and functions of the studied on-line voltage stability assessment visualization and intelligent alarm system were elaborated.The method and principle of the outage scanning of this system were presented.The technical performance of this system on the aspects of visualization display and intelligent alarm as well as the hardware performance of the system was explained in detail.The characteristics of the system were pointed out.


The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between self-leadership, psychological empowerment and job satisfaction in dental hygienists, who form major manpower directly affecting dental care service, and to develop a plan for good-quality intra-organizational personal improvement. To collect data, convenience sampling was performed from May 1 to June 10, 2017 among clinical dental hygienists working at dental hospitals and clinics in Chungcheong and Jeolla Provinces and a self-administered questionnaire was used. Self-leadership was positively correlated with psychological empowerment and job satisfaction; psychological empowerment was positively correlated with job satisfaction. The factors for job satisfaction included psychological empowerment, dental system and self-conformity, and self-leadership. It has been confirmed that there is correlation among self-leadership, psychological empowerment, and job satisfaction in clinical dental hygienists; therefore, it is necessary to use positive psychological empowerment, establish a proactive self-leadership convergence program, and pay attention to the good direction and management of dental organizations with the objective of improving job satisfaction in dental hygienists.


The present invention provides a amplification method for an integrated Doherty type amplifier and such devices, the input signal of the main and peak amplifier stages (20, 30, 40) in and maldistribution ratio with a predetermined phase shift with lumped element hybrid power divider (12) is provided for dispensing, in order to apply and predetermined phase shift to receive the first amplified signal the first amplified signal and its higher harmonics at least one wideband lumped element pseudo line combined with wideband compensation circuit (Z1, Z2) is provided, to the amplification method for an integrated Doherty type amplifier and such devices. Thus, a low gain of the peak amplifier is compensated by performing the unequal power distribution at the input. Further, by using the lumped elements hybrid power divider, improved isolation between the input ports of the main and peak amplifier, whereby the final distortion of the output signal is reduced.


THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LITERACY CURRICULUM FOR ADULT LIBERIAN REFUGEES Kristen M. Kohler Department of Linguistics and English Language Master of Arts From 2003 to 2006, Tucson, Arizona became the new home of many Liberian refugees. Because of civil war in their homeland and ensuing years spent in refugee camps, these refugees had not had many opportunities for literacy development. Tucson had several literacy and ESL programs available; however, none of these programs was meeting the Liberians' particular needs. For my project, I designed and implemented a literacy curriculum for the Liberian refugees in Tucson. In preparation for developing my curriculum, I not only took coursework but also thoroughly reviewed the literature on literacy learning and instruction for first language learners, second language learners, and adult learners. I then followed the curriculum development model described by Richards (2001): conducting a needs analysis and a situation analysis, developing goals and learning outcomes, planning the course scope and content, designing the syllabus, deciding the role and design of instructional materials, building in opportunities for evaluation, and considering larger factors that may affect the adoption of the curriculum. In addition to the curriculum development process, I had to attend to the more practical concerns of finding students, finding volunteers, finding a classroom and finding materials. I taught my literacy class from September 2006 to December 2006 at the Martha Cooper Branch of the Tucson Pima Public Library. I had 12 students whose literacy abilities varied dramatically, with the most advanced student reading at approximately a seventh grade level and the most beginning student working on letter names, sounds, and formation. I also had close to 20 volunteers who helped with transportation, childcare, and tutoring. We met twice a week for thirteen weeks for two hours each time. I used an interactive approach to teaching reading that incorporated both top-down and bottom-up approaches. I found that while a balanced instructional approach is certainly the most effective, the instruction needs to be modified to include more bottom-up work for the lowest level students. Others interested in developing similar programs may benefit from and build on my experience. For this reason, I included in this report a description of the lessons I learned and the implications I see for other programs. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would never have been possible without the help of many people. I would like to thank the refugee organizations in Tucson for answering my questions and helping to advertise the class. I would especially like to thank the International Rescue Committee in Tucson for their help. IRC staff answered countless questions and prepared a letter of support that I could send to my department in Provo. Janet Rabin also explained the resettlement process and the challenges facing the refugees in Tucson, and Tracey Wren spent a great deal of time helping me find and interview potential students. Tracey also helped me to coordinate the in-class childcare. Once classes started, Jenn Pierson volunteered as a reading tutor and kept the IRC up to date on developments. I am truly grateful to them for sharing their time, expertise, and experience. I would also like to thank the library staff and administrators at the Martha Cooper Branch Library, especially Sharla Darby, the head librarian, and Matt Landon, the youth librarian. Sharla Darby and Matt Landon helped me to get approval to hold the class in one of the meeting rooms. They continued to provide support and understanding when the classes started, even when it was inconvenient (i.e. Playdough® in the new carpet from the childcare, noisy students interrupting the other patrons, etc.). I am grateful for their vision and for their efforts to keep the class going once my project was finished. I am also grateful for the support of the Tucson Area Reading Council, especially to Dr. Bob Wortman who delivered my grant proposal to the committee. The Creative Classroom grant I received enabled me to buy supplies for the class without needing to charge the students. The Tucson Area Reading Council was kind enough to allow me to apply for the grant outside of the normal application cycle and deadlines, and their promptness in answering my request allowed me to receive the money before classes started. I would also like to acknowledge several individuals in Tucson who helped me during the planning stages of the class. Cherie Gray and Maime Spillaine, both of whom have experience working with refugees in Tucson, offered advice on finding a site for the class and answered my various questions. Sharon Hendersen, an elementary school teacher with many years of experience teaching beginning literacy, met with me and showed me materials and teaching strategies for use with beginning learners. Barbara Eiswerth, a member of several organizations that assist refugees, helped me to spread the word to the community and led me to some helpful materials. This class would not have been possible without the help of many wonderful volunteers. I thank them for their time, patience, and enthusiasm. I would especially like to thank the Law Women's Association at the James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona. I would also like to thank the staff of the Linguistics and English Language department at Brigham Young University, especially Phyllis Daniel. They helped me to keep track of my progress, turn in the right papers at the right times, and finish my project while living in another state. I would like to thank my teachers at Brigham Young University and at the University of Arizona for giving me such an excellent education. Their high standards in both their personal and academic lives were inspiring, and I am honored to have learned from the best and the brightest. I would especially like to thank Maya Eagleton at the University of Arizona for her assistance during the needs analysis stage of my curriculum development. I would also like to express sincere thanks to Dr. Patricia Anders, the head of the Language, Reading, and Culture department at the University of Arizona. Without her willingness to be an unofficial member of my project committee, I would never have been able to finish my degree long distance. Dr. Anders generously donated her time and considerable experience first to answer my many questions about adult literacy and then to help me find a grant and plan my class. I am truly grateful for her kindness and her support. I am also grateful to my committee members at Brigham Young University, Dr. Lynn E. Henrichsen (chair), Dr. Dallin E. Oaks, and Dr. Dee I. Gardner. I am amazed at how well they know the field and the research. Their experience intimidated me at first, but their humility and willingness to help quickly reassured me. I am truly grateful for their feedback and ideas, which have shaped and informed the design, implementation, and write-up of my curriculum. I am also grateful that they were willing to make special accommodations for me to communicate and even take a class long-distance. It was not always convenient for them, and I am grateful that they were so supportive. I am especially grateful to Dr. Henrichsen, who has spent almost as much time on this project as I have! He has helped me from the very beginning, when I was still trying to refine the idea for the project and figure out how to finish my degree long distance. He offered valuable advice and insight through countless phone calls and emails. He worked very hard to find ways for me to finish my degree from another state, even traveling to Tucson to see my class first-hand. He provided constant guidance and encouragement. I am grateful for his kind, good humor and for his inspired mentoring. I also would like to thank my students for their dedication and support. I am impressed by their enthusiasm for learning, even in the face of great obstacles and other responsibilities. I am a better person for knowing them, and I am grateful that they were willing to make the sacrifices and have the faith to come to class. Finally, I am grateful to my wonderful family for their love and encouragement. I would especially like to thank my husband Tom for his faith in me and for the sacrifices he has made to help me reach my goal.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between stereotypes, in-group favoritism, and in-group bolstering effects across generations.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the trends found in a qualitative study on generational stereotypes, questions on work ethic, work-life balance, and use of technology were administered to 255 participants identified as Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers. Hypotheses predicted that with a strong stereotype, traditional in-group favoritism will not be found; however, an in-group bolstering effect will emerge. In the absence of a strong stereotype, traditional in-group favoritism is expected.

Findings

Generally, there was a strong stereotype that Baby Boomers are worse at technology than Generation X and Generation X is worse than Millennials. There was also a strong stereotype that Millennials do not do what it takes to get the job done as much as other generations. In the presence of these stereotypes, traditional in-group favoritism was not found, but in-groups bolstered themselves by rating themselves more favorably than other groups rated them. Although these findings did not hold for every item studied, there was moderate support for all three hypotheses.

Practical implications

As employees become aware of their biases, they can collaborate better with employees who are different than they are. Practical recommendations are suggested.

Originality/value

The paper applies theory of in-group favoritism to the perceptions of generational cohorts.


A brand new design concept is proposed in this paper. In order to increase the efficiency of light emission, a series of diffusion plates with different hollowed triangular prism structure is designed to guide the light toward to dark region. Tracepro software is used and the results of simulation show that the uniformity of such diffusion plate can be improved as high as 91%. Moreover, the efficiency and the brightness of the backlight module could also be obtained to be about 80% and 255 nits, respectively.


Synthesis of diisopropyl phosphorodithioic acid from isopropanol and phosphorus pentasulfide on toluene-p-sulfonic acid catalyst, then react with dibutyl fumarate, lube oil ashless additive of diisopropyl phosphorodithioic acid dibutyl fumarate was obtained, and then discussed the synthesis technology, the result showed that the optimum condition are as follows: the mole ratio of phosphorus pentasulfide to isopropanol is (1.05~1.1)∶1, temperature is 60~70℃, the quality of product is good. The optimum condition of synthesis(Ⅱ) are: the mole ratio of I to dibutyl fumarate is 1∶(1.05~110),the amount of toluene-p-sulfonic acid is 0.8%~1.0% of reactants, reaction temperature is 130~140℃,the yield may up to 98%, acid value and tint is good.


This article introduces SWOT method and radar diagram method into analyzing the situation of ecological construction. It can improve the traditional analysis method. The analysis method of the construction of the status of ecological county is developed from qualitative analysis to combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The authors took ecological county construction of Yiwu county in Hami area as an example,combined the internal conditions and external environment of the county to identify the direction of ecological county construction and corresponding countermeasures,by using the SWOT analysis method. The results provided theoretical support for the sustainable development of the county. The analysis of ecological county construction index used the radar map which made the Yiwu ecological county construction index standard clear,and provided the theoretical basis of major project.


This study was carried out in Delta State, Nigeria to determine the factors that influence farmers to subscribe to farmers' groups. One hundred and fifty farmers were randomly selected and data were collected from them with the application of a questionnaire and interview schedule. The data were treated with the use of description statistics and Tobit regression Analysis. Subscription to membership of farmers' groups was found to be poor as evidenced in the subscription index (0.427). The marital status of farmers, educational level, household size, farm size, farming experience, extension visit and contact with other farmers were discovered to be correlates of the propensity of farmers to subscribe to self-help groups. It was recommended that extension agencies sensitize the leadership of such groups to satisfy members first; organize leadership training for such leaders; and re-orient farmers on the benefits of farmers' self-help groups.


Various types of single-crystalline α-Al2O3 have been investigated on bleaching and cracking effects of keV electron beams using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements. These electron-irradiation-induced effects observed at room temperature were different among four types of sapphires examined, namely, Be-diffusion-treated natural, untreated natural, synthetic orange, and synthetic red sapphires. The bleaching phenomenon occurred at electron dosages and the surface cracking phenomenon was subsequently observed at substantially higher dosages. The former was reversible so that an appropriate annealing in an oxygen atmosphere completely removed the bleached areas whereas the latter was a permanent change in structure that was not able to be recovered at all by such a treatment. It is found from these evidences that the crystalline quality of each specimen was well correlated with its beam-dose dependences of the electron-beam-induced phenomena observed. It should be noted that such electron-induced effects were almost completely reduced by the presence of a thin conductive layer on the insulating specimen surfaces.


This paper presents results of the dynamic mechanical response of for two structural woods, i.e. birch and sequoia. Monotonic and cyclic compression testing at room temperature of these materials was performed using a modified Kolsky method; a 20‐mm diameter split‐Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB). The birch and sequoia specimens were loaded parallel and orthogonal to the grain of the wood, as well as, at other angles relative to the wood grain. The dynamic mechanical behavior of the two woods was measured as a function of loading orientation under a uniaxial stress state as well as under circumferential confinement using a collar surrounding the sample to quantify the effect of lateral confinement on mechanical behavior. The loading and unloading responses of both woods were found to exhibit nonlinear behavior and a strong dependency on the strain rate of loading. The dynamic stress‐strain responses of the birch and sequoia showed a strong influence of grain orientation of the flow stress and fracture behavi...


Surface somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP) collected from conscious subjects usually presents poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), requiring several hundreds ensembles averaging to provide a meaningful waveform. A FPGA based adaptive filtering is proposed to perform fast and accurate SSEP extraction by fixed-point adaptive noise canceller (ANC). In 6 normal subjects and 1 neurological abnormal patient, the latency and the peak-to-peak amplitude in SSEP by FPGA based ANC technique were compared with that measured by ensemble averaging. Using 100 trials ANC processed SSEP was sufficient to extract a waveform in equivalent to that extracted by 1000 trials ensemble averaging. The use of fixed-point ANC based on FPGA proved to shorten SSEP measurement time and provide varying information underlying SSEP.


MEMS and LIGA technologies have been used for fabricating microstructures, but their shape is not 3D because of difficulty for preparation of many masks. To fabricate 3D microstructures, micro stereo lithography technology based on Digital Micromirror Device(DMD™) was introduced. It has no need of masks and is capable of fabricating high aspect ratio microstructures. In this technology, STL file is the standard format as the same of conventional rapid prototyping system, and 3D parts are fabricated by layer-by-layer according to 2D section sliced from STL file. The UV light source is illuminated to DMD which makes bitmap images of2D section, and they are transferred and focused on resin surface. In this paper, we addressed optical design of microstereolithography system in consideration of light path according to DMD operation and image-forming on the resin surface using optical design program. To verify the performance of implemented microstereolithography system, 3D microstructures with complexity and high aspect ratio were fabricated.


PURPOSE: A laser scanning device is provided to reduce errors caused of inertia by operating a low mass reflecting mirror with a substrate and layer fixed. CONSTITUTION: A laser scanning device comprises a vibrator(110), a scanner(150), an optical system and a controller(180). The vibrator generates laser. The scanner includes a drive motor and moves the location of X and Y plane surface of a substrate(170). The optical system comprises a beam extension unit controlling the beam width of the laser emitted from the laser generator. The controller controls the output of the scanner, laser and optical system.


Aim: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is usually seen in the aged patients in postoperative
period. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of melatonin on cognitive and synaptic
dysfunction and oxidative stress in POCD model constructed by abdominal surgery in aged rats.
Material and Methods: Twenty months old male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into the control
group, melatonin treated-control group, surgery group and melatonin treated-surgery group. The novel
object recognition test (NORT) was used to assess the postoperative cognitive ability of rats at the
end of the experiments. The contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were
evaluated in the synaptosomes of hippocampus by spectrophotometric methods. The protein levels of
calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95)
were measured by using ELISA. .
Results: Animals in surgery group showed significant an impairment of novel object recognition memory
in NORT. Surgery group also exhibited increased content of MDA (21.05±3.96) and decreased levels
of GSH (5.86±0.26) and PSD95 (156.04±2.56) in the hippocampus (respectively p=0.012, p


Abstract A general synthesis of tropolone ethers employing the reaction of tropolone with potassium carbonate, an alkyl halide and dicyclohexyl-18-crown-6 in acetonitrile solvent is described.


Free radicals are intricately woven into the fabric of oxidative stress and are significant in the development of neurodegenerative disorders (NDs). This chapter examines free radicals in the context of neurodegeneration and provides overview of the multiple roles they play in the pathophysiology and clinical progression of varying NDs including Pick's disease (PiD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), prion diseases (PrD), traumatic brain injury, and aging. The molecular mechanisms of degeneration in Huntington's disease (HD) are also examined with respect to free radicals. Different antioxidant systems and their mechanisms of action are briefly reviewed in addition to the role of diet in aging. The effectiveness of selected synthetic drugs and natural products used in oxidative stress is also reviewed. Lastly, the chapter examines challenges associated with the use of antioxidants and how promising future directions like the endocannabinoid system is being pursued in the race to effectively manage NDs.


In this study, a differentiation of self scale was created applicable to two domains—intrapsychic and interpersonal, and was named the Differentiation of Self Scale in Two Domains (DSS-2D). A preliminary study was then performed on its reliability and validity. A questionnaire survey was conducted with university students (n = 273). Exploratory factor analysis results were used to divide DSS-2D into 4 subscales. The intrapsychic differentiation scale corresponded to intrapsychic differentiation, while 3 subscales—the interpersonal differentiation togetherness scale, interpersonal differentiation individuality scale, and adaptive interpersonal relationship scale—corresponded to the interpersonal domain. The reliability coefficients for each subscale were sufficient. In all subscales, there was a significant correlation with trait anxiety, as was theoretically anticipated, and criterion-related validity was confirmed. These results support the future utility of DSS-2D.


The same hip public that revels in genderfuck also lauds Eminem, convinced by critics that there's something heroic about his harangues, something playful in the standing ovation he gets for shouting: "Hate fags? The answer's yes!" Here, the feelings liberals have taught themselves to deny are fully exercised. Whatever guilt might attend that release is defused by the queer who attests to its harmlessness. -Richard Goldstein, The Attack Queers


Under the background of financial crisis and facing huge flourishing market in China, how should luxury enterprises cope with the essential differences between Chinese and western consumers in consumption behaviors and concepts? How do luxury enterprises launch marketing activities according to Chinese consumers' consumption psychology? Based on luxuries' definition in the minds of Chinese consumers, an analysis on existing luxury marketing strategies is done in combination with luxuries' characteristics through an analysis about luxury consumption purpose, what's more, the paper summarizes it advantages and disadvantages for existence and makes several feasible innovation suggestions including classified channel management, rational channel resource allocation and effective network marketing utilization based on disadvantages existing in luxury enterprises' existing marketing channels.


The European Network for LIGht ion Hadron Therapy aims at a coordinated effort towards ion beam research in Europe. ENLIGHT network is formed by the European Hadron Therapy Community which consists of more than 150 researchers and specialists, belonging to more than fifty European Universities and research Institutes from sixteen European countries. ENLIGHT has demonstrated the advantages of regular and organised exchanges of data, information, best practices as well as information on treatment procedures, protocols and strategies. A major success of ENLIGHT has been the creation of a multidisciplinary platform, uniting traditionally separate communities so that clinicians, physicists, biologists and engineers with experience and interest in particle therapy work together.


Evolution of elemental binaries and single‐phase copper indium diselenide, CuInSe2 (CIS) during Se vapor selenization of evaporated Cu/In bilayer metal precursors at pressures of 0.3–10 mbar and temperatures in the range of 260–400 °C has been investigated. At low pressures, the relative kinetics of selenization of Cu and In are changed resulting in the formation of single‐phase CIS even at very low temperatures (260 °C). Optical, Auger, and x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy investigations are employed to characterize the chalcopyrite absorber layer. At higher pressures (≊7–10 mbar), simultaneous formation of the equilibrium binaries, CuSe and In2Se3 at low temperatures leads to the formation of CIS through a diffusion limited reaction of the binaries at higher temperatures. The availability of Se reacting species varies significantly in the pressure regime. At low reactor pressures and Se availability, the reaction CuSe+In(l)+Se→CIS, proceeds to completion even at low temperatures. The detailed study of t...


An automatic speech recognition system for syntactically acceptable units of continuous speech has been implemented on a digital computer. The input speech to the system is carefully spoken by a single cooperative male speaker. A primary segmentation is attempted by delineating the boundaries of fricatives, stops, and nasals. The remaining vocalic sections are subsegmented on the basis of short‐time phoneme identification. The principle identification procedure uses cepstrum matching; however, auxilliary use is made of zero crossing and slope change rates for fricatives, and apparent place of articulation for stops. Three phoneme choices are assigned to each segment. In order to recognize the utterance, successive phoneme strings are generated from these choices until one is found which satisfies the lexical and syntactic constraints. The lexical constraint requires that the phoneme string consist only of "phonemicon" (phonetic dictionary) entries and the syntactic constraint requires that the word string...


The computer graphics community has successfully exploited our knowledge about the human visual system and its limitations for years. The perceptual computer graphics domain is a rich research area, and the understanding of human vision mechanisms and their integration in the computer graphics processes are becoming increasingly crucial in most applications. This special issue represents a good sample of the huge diversity of challenges in the perceptual computer graphics area: aesthetics evaluation, user gaze analysis, shape perception, and the wide scope of targeted applications.


This paper presents procedures for compact design of non-standard spur gear sets with the objective of minimizing the gear size. The procedures are for long and short addendum system gear pairs that have an equal but opposite amount of hob cutter offset applied to the pinion and gear in order to maintain the standard center distance. Hob offset has shown to be an effective way to balance the dynamic tooth stress of the pinion and the gear to increase load capacity. The allowable tooth stress and dynamic response are incorporated in the process to obtain a feasible design region. Various dynamic rating factors were investigated and evaluated. The constraints of contact stress limits and involute interference combined with the tooth bending strength provide the main criteria for this investigation. A three-dimensional design space involving the gear size, diametral pitch, and operating speed was developed to illustrate the optimal design of the non-standard spur gear pairs. Operating gears over a range of speeds creates variations in the dynamic response and changes the required gear size in a trend that parallels the dynamic factor. The dynamic factors are strongly affected by the system natural frequencies. The peak values of the dynamic factor within the operating speed range significantly influence the optimal gear designs. The refined dynamic factor introduced in this study yields more compact designs than those produced by AGMA dynamic factors.


In certain circumstances, the calculated arc flash potential for components downstream of a circuit breaker can be extraordinarily high, due to the worst case condition for arc flash falling in an area of the breaker trip curve where instantaneous protection is not assured. In certain cases, addition of fuses that are rated significantly above the circuit breaker trip value in series with the circuit breaker can reduce the arc flash potential significantly. These fuses do not significantly affect the trip coordination of the system, since they will only actuate when there is a severe fault, such as a bolted short circuit fault or a fault sufficiently severe as to present an arc flash hazard. This paper examines an applicable case, using trip curves to analyze the arc flash potential, and reducing arc flash from above 15 cal/cm2 to below 1.2 cal/cm2 by addition of fuses.


Disclosed are user equipment, network side equipment and a DPCCH (Dedicated Physical Control Channel) transmission method, aiming to realize periodic DPCCH transmission in which the transmission time of the network side equipment for DPCCH is known, wherein the method comprises: receiving, through the user equipment, indicating information transmitted by the network side equipment; activating a secondary carrier of DC-HSUPA (Dual Cell High Speed Uplink Packet Access) according to the indicating information; obtaining an uplink DTX (Discontinuous Transmission) parameter; and periodically transmitting uplink DPCCH on the secondary carrier of DC-HSUPA according to the indicating information and the uplink DTX parameter.


In this paper, the UML (unified modeling language) is applied to establish a new design methodology for AUV operating systems, which is subdivided by three frameworks. Each framework contains component classes, which shall be interwoven to activate the prescribed function of the framework. A frame work with design patterns is developed in order to accommodate any changes and reuses in the manner of a plug-in. Thus the UML-based design with the help of the frameworks makes the operating system for AUV flexible and reusable.


This essay give a brief introduction of current situation of marine envirenmetal montoring in Japan,which was first started in early-middle 1970s.and covers estuaries,coastal areas,parts,and offshore waters up to 200 seamiles of exclusive economic zone.The marine environmental monitoring mainly includes marine environmental monitoring survey,public water quality survey large scale comprehersive water quality survey,environmental survey of chemicals,marine pullution survey and radioactitity survey.


This note reports on three species of Pseudothelphusidae crabs, Microthelphusa simoni from Venezuela, Hypolobocera rathbuni from Ecuador and Epithelphusa chiapensis from Mexico, that were found in the collection of the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sao Paulo. Illustrations of the gonopods are given.


The woodworking band saw blades had complex forces when it worked.In order to ensure its cutting precision and efficiency,its vibration property of the structure system was studied in this paper.The natural frequency pn of the woodworking band saw blades system was computed using chordal vibration theory.The approximate values of the system's natural frequency were obtained through finite element methods.The values through the random frequency spectrum method were measured and analysed.The results showed that the maximum difference between the test results and the theoretical values doesn't exceed 10% and between the approximate values and theoretical the error values is less than 3% at the low-frequency stage tests.


X-ray energies of multiplet transitions in helium-like sulphur projectiles passing through thin foils have been measured with high resolution. Small lineshifts have been found which can be attributed to the effect of dynamical screening of the projectiles by the target electron gas.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and clinical effects of superior mesenteric artery (SMA) Doppler indices such as the systole diastole ratio (S/D), Pulsatility (PI), and resistance index (RI) in the diagnosis of hyperechogenic bowel.


In this article, we theoretically investigate the multimode self-similar pulse compression (MM-SSPC) in tapered photonic crystal fibers. To expand the self-similar theory beyond single-mode scenarios, we have discovered through analytical analysis that the width of the input pulse has a significant impact on perturbing the MM-SSPC process. We proceed to solve the multimode generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation using numerical methods for various input pulse widths, which leads to the observation of three distinct types of multimode pulse compression. MM-SSPC only takes place when the input pulse width is comparatively longer. Our numerical results are consistent with the predictions of analytical calculations. Our results demonstrate that by using input pulses of 2.5 ps in duration, three modes can be compressed in a self-similar manner to 200 fs, which corresponds to a compression factor of 12.5. Finally, We establish the minimum input pulse width required to enable the MM-SSPC to function for the three specific modes of interest. Our findings provide an effective guidance to design pulse compressor for the generation of pedestal-free, high-energy femtosecond pulses.


During basketball game players frequently perform sporting movements such as running in various directions and jumping. Wherefore, these movements should be considered as a main part of physical performance batteries in basketball. The reliability and ability to detect the minimal detectable changes (MDC) of performance tests in basketball was rarely reported. The objective of our study was to evaluate reliability and MDC for physical performance tests often used among basketball players in Cadet category. Fourteen (14.) youth basketball players (mean age was: 15.3 ±1.04) were participated in the study. The jumping, sprint running and change of directions tests were conducted. The reactive strength index (RSI), sprint momentum (MOM) and eccentric utilization ratio (EUR) were also calculated. The results have shown the highest reliability for averaged values of second and third trials. Except of EUR, the ability for detect minimal change was acceptable for all physical performance tests. This study provides important measurement considerations to assess changes in physical performance among youth basketball players.


Soybean plants inoculated Bradrhizobium japonicum MN 110 were grown in outdoor perlite pots with nitrogen free nutrient solution containing 1.0 mM-P(control) and 0.05 mM-P(stress) and harvested at 28, 35, 42 and 49 days after transplanting (DAT) to examine the effect of phosphorus deficiency on ureide concentration of and distribution to diffrent plant organ in nitrogen fixing soybean plant during the vegetative growth. Total dry mass of control plants increased 8.9 fold and that of phosphorus deficient plant increased 2.7 fold during the experimental period. Phosphorus deficiency reduced total phosphorus and nitrogen accumulation by 80%,40% respectively, at 28 DAT and 93%, 84%, respectively, at 49 DAT. Nitrogen concentration was reduced by phosphorus deficiency in all tissues with leaf and stem tissues affected to a greater degree than nodule and root tissues at every sampling date. Phosphorus deficiency significantly reduced soluble reduced-N and ureide-N concentration in leaf and stem but did not affect those in root. The proportion of soluble reduced-N in leaf was reduced from 60% to 50% but increased from 10% to 20% in the roots. The proportion of ureide-N in leaf of control plants was higher than that in phosphorus deficient plants, whereas, roots of phosphorus deficient plants contained a higher propotion of ureide-N than those of control plants. These indicated that phosphorus deficiency not only inhibit nitrogen fixation of nodules but also restrict the translocation of fixed nitrogen out of the root system into the xylem.(Received April 4, 1997; accepted May 2, 1997)


Abstract The oils obtained from the aerial shrubs of Momordica charantia L. and Phyllanthus amarus Sch. et Thonn from Nigeria, were analyzed for their constituents by means of gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Sixty-three different compounds, amounting to 88.8% of the total oil contents, were identified in the oil of M. charantia. It comprised of (Z)-3-hexenol (34.7%), (E)-2-hexenol (10.1%), and phytol (8.3%) as the major compounds. Linalool (5.8%) was the only monoterpenoid identified in a significant amount. Results from analysis of the oil of P. amarus revealed that eighty-two identified compounds were responsible for 87.6% of the oil content. The "stone-breaker" shrub oil was characterized by the dominance of linalool (36.4%) and phytol (13.0%). Moreover, compounds such as hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (3.4%), pentacosane (2.5%), and naphthalene (2.4%) occurred above 1%.


The effect of B 2 O 3 additions on the sintering behaviour of BaO-P 2 O 5 -B 2 O 3 (BPB) glass powders has been studied. The sintering temperature and time were optimised for the densification of BPB powder compacts. The factors affecting the optical transmittance in the visible region for BPB sintered compacts are discussed in terms of microstructure.


Skeletal muscle protein and function decline with advancing age but the underlying pathophysiology is poorly understood. To test the hypothesis that the catabolic cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) contributes to this process, we studied the effects of aging and resistance exercise on TNF‐α expression in human muscle. Using in situ hybridization, TNF‐α message was localized to myocytes in sections of skeletal muscle from elderly humans. Both TNF‐α mRNA and protein levels were elevated in skeletal muscle from frail elderly (81±1 year) as compared to healthy young (23±1 year) men and women. To determine whether resistance exercise affects TNF‐α expression, frail elderly men and women were randomly assigned to a training group or to a nonexercising control group. Muscle biopsies were performed before and after 3 months. Muscle TNF‐α mRNA and protein levels decreased in the exercise group but did not change in the control group. Muscle protein synthesis rate in the exercise group was inversely related to levels of TNF‐α protein. These data suggest that TNF‐α contributes to age‐associated muscle wasting and that resistance exercise may attenuate this process by suppressing skeletal muscle TNF‐α expression.—Greiwe, J. S., Cheng, B., Rubin, D. C., Yarasheski, K. E., Semenkovich, C. F. Resistance exercise decreases skeletal muscle tumor necrosis factor α in frail elderly humans. FASEB J. 15, 475‐482 (2001)


In this paper, we have developed a phase-domain model to analyze a nonlinear fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) system theoretically, and use it to obtain an optimal-designed system. System's design including details of signal processing is described here and used to improve system's sensitivity and precision. From computer's simulation and experimental results, we know that 1. The experimental results coincide with the analytic results, with error less than 4% in the respects of rise time, overshooting, and steady state error; that is proved by the computer simulation for the time domain response of a step and a ramp input tests. 2. Using the phase-domain model, one can build up one's optimal FOG system with zero steady state error, 6% overshooting, high stability, and short rise time about one of system's natural frequency, i.e. 1spl omegasub n/.<<ETX>>


SUMMARY

The chrysanthemum eelworm moved in sand and in a clay soil at much the same rate as other eelworm species so far studied. Leaf washing and soil examination in infested chrysanthemum plots showed that the eelworm never spread laterally through the soil or from leaf to leaf more than to the second row of plants from the source of infestation, a maximum distance of about 30 in. At Rothamsted and in the National Chrysanthemum Society's variety trial the number of infested varieties increased greatly in September, during periods of heavy mists. Experiments with isolated leaves, artificially infested and kept under either dry or humid conditions suggested that eelworms were more active in humid conditions. They invaded isolated leaves within 15–30 min. In pot experiments, eelworms added to soil invaded chrysanthemum plants inducing symptoms in 18 days: 26 days after such inoculations no eelworms could be detected in the soil. Few eelworms persisted in fallow soil in pots after 32 days. No eelworms were found after the end of November in soil taken from an infested field plot at intervals between August 1959 to January 1960. Attempts to infest plants with eelworms from stored soil taken from highly infested plots failed. Examination of stools during the winter showed that many eelworms were present in the green tissues. It is concluded that infestation from eelworms which persist over the winter in soil is slight and that the main source of the pest is the chrysanthemum stool.


In this paper, a new active current-mode (CM) minimal component, cascaded current differencing unit (CCDU) and a CM nth-order filter based on the CCDU have been presented. The proposed CCDU simplif...


The enchytraeids Of western and north-westa given locality can be obtained during a single visit. A era Europe are fairly well known from the sample consisted of ca °-5 ke soik humus and mter taken .... T, , . with a small spade in several batches in order to obtain systematic point Of View. Knowledge of their the Ml variety offered by the site. The samples were trans ecology in different biotopes has also been inported in plastic bags and extracted by means of a simpli creasing in recent times. By contrast, comparison fied version of O'Connor's (1955) wet funnel technique, Of the constituents Of the enchytraeid fauna in subdivided into several portions. Thus it can be claimed ..... . ,. . . ...... . r with some certainty that most of the enchytraeid species certain biotopes has attracted little interest. In were recovere(L taxonomic papers typical biotopes Of many speThe material consists of 443 samples. Data concerning cies have been reported, but few attempts have about half of them has been published before in other been made to describe the enchytraeid communconnexions (Nurminen opp. cit.). Eight samples from the " , .... х-, л vicinity of Bergen, Western Norway, were kindly taken ities of different types of localities. Reference fop me by Miss Rai]i Koskinen> Mag. phil > and 22 more can be made to V. BULOW (1957) and BlLIO samples were taken from the Aland Islands by Mr. Ari (1966), who, in their studies Of the animal Valpas, Mag. phil. The data derived from the samples taken communities of the Baltic and North Sea coasts, trom Suomussalml ьу MrKauri Mikkoia, Lie. phil. and . .. . . . . . . . . .... , . from Taivalkoski by Mr. Yrio Jalava, bank manager, are also listed enchytraeids typical of different coastalso mostly unpubljshed. al habitats. The vegetation regions of NW Europe in the sense of Ahti et al. (1964) have been used in the description of The material for this study has been collected during the sampling localities. The classification of the north-boreal my journeys in Fennoscandia and Spitsbergen. Treatment birch forests is that of Hamet-Ahti (1963), while the Fin of the samples was qualitative only, because no reliable nish coniferous forests are classified according to Cajander information on the real abundance of the enchytraeids of (1925) and Kalela (1961).


STUDY OBJECTIVES
We aimed to quantify the symptoms of autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction in a large online cohort of patients with IH, and to determine how the severity of these symptoms interacts with sleepiness, fatigue, and quality of life.

METHODS
One hundred thirty-eight IH patients and 81 age- and sex-matched controls were recruited through the website of the Hypersomnia Foundation, a U.S.-based patient advocacy group. Twenty-four confirmed IH patients were selected by the study investigators as a comparison group. All participants completed a battery of online sleep, autonomic, and quality of life questionnaires including the composite autonomic symptom score-31 (COMPASS-31).

RESULTS
Online and confirmed patients reported significantly higher COMPASS-31 scores (43.6 [33.6-52.7] & 32.9 [21.7- 46.8] vs. 17.6 [11.7-27.9], p<0.001), with the greatest symptom burden in the orthostatic and vasomotor domains. Online and confirmed patients reported more sleepiness (ESS), whereas only online patients reported more fatigue (CFQ). Both the ESS and CFQ positively correlated with COMPASS-31 scores. Patients reported lower quality of life as reflected by lower scores across all domains of the RAND-36, which was negatively correlated with COMPASS-31 scores.

CONCLUSIONS
Symptoms of ANS dysfunction are common in IH. In addition, ANS symptom burden was positively correlated with sleepiness and negatively correlated with quality of life.


According to the situation that intelligent traffic has integrated with the wireless communication technology,the mobility performance and handover principle of WLAN were analyzed.Through experiments,the actual performance of WLAN network and its handover process in road traffic use were also tested.Finally,the direct correspondence between the up-layer parameters and the handover was presented.Some advices of WLAN in road traffic use of network were also introduced.The results provide helpful information for designing the seamless WLAN communication system used in intelligent road traffic.


A few previous studies have illustrated the potentials of compact polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (CP SAR) in ship detection. In this paper, we design a ship detection algorithm of CP SAR from the perspective of computer vision. A ship detection algorithm using the pulsed cosine transform (PCT) visual attention model is proposed to suppress background clutter and highlight conspicuous ship targets. It is the first time that a visual attention model is introduced to CP SAR application. The proposed algorithm is a quick and complete framework for practical use. Polarimetric features—the relative phase δ and volume scattering component—are extracted from m-δ decomposition to eliminate false alarms and modify the PCT model. The constant false alarm rate (CFAR) algorithm based on lognormal distribution is adopted to detect ship targets, after a clutter distribution fitting procedure of the modified saliency map. The proposed method is then tested on three simulated circular-transmit-linear-receive (CTLR) mode images, which covering East Sea of China. Compared with the detection results of SPAN and the saliency map with only single-channel amplitude, the proposed method achieves the highest detection rates and the lowest misidentification rate and highest figure of merit, proving the effectiveness of polarimetric information of compact polarimetric SAR ship detection and the enhancement from the visual attention model.


The socio-hydrology community has been very successful in promoting the need for taking the human factor into account in the mainstream hydrology literature since 2012. However, the interest in studying and modeling human-water systems is not new and pre-existed the post-2012 socio-hydrology. So, it is critical to ask what socio-hydrology has been able to offer that would have been unachievable using the existing methods, tools, and analysis frameworks. Thus far, the socio-hydrology studies show a strong overlap with what has already been in the literature, especially in the water resources systems and coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) areas. Nevertheless, the work in these areas has been generally dismissed by the socio-hydrology literature. This paper overviews some of the general concerns about originality, practicality, and contributions of socio-hydrology. It is argued that while in theory, a common sense about the need for considering humans as an integral component of water resources systems models can strengthen our coupled human-water systems research, the current approaches and trends in socio-hydrology can make this interest area less inclusive and interdisciplinary.