Indentification of industrial clusters of oil and gas provides scientific reference for the improvement of the planning of industrial development of oil and gas and the understanding of the difference in development degree of industrial cluster of oil and gas among different regions.Indentification of industrial cluster of oil and gas in this paper includes inentification of geographic boundaries and identification(narrow sense) of industrial clusters of oil and gas.The administrative provinces(municipal cities or autonomous regions) is selected as geographic boundaries for indentification of industrial clusters of oil and gas.Besed on composite location quotient(CLQ),the weighting average of product value-based location quotient,number of business-based location quotient and number of employee-based location quotient,the development of the industrial clusters of oil and gas of 12 provinces with rich oil and gas resources can be divided into three echelons: the first includes Xinjiang,Heilongjiang,Liaoning,Tianjin,Shandong and Gansu,and these regions develop industrial cluster of oil and gas in different degree both at upstream level and at downstream level;the second includes Shaanxi,Jilin,Hebei,Sichuan and Qinghai,and these develop industrial cluster of oil and gas either at upstream level or at downstream level;the third includes Henan Province and it can develop industrial cluster of oil and gas neither at upstream level nor at downstream level.Besides,computing the gap between CLQ at upstream level or at downstream level of 12 provinces,the paper finds that interior development of industrial clusters of oil and gas of the 12 provinces exists at the downstream level than at the downstream level as a whole,displaying an unbalanced pattern of 'excessiveness in the upstream and limited in the downstream' of oil and gas industry.


Summary Complicated and catastrophic fractures in horses have high failure rates. Horses often succumb to bone nonunion or contralateral limb third phalanx rotation as a consequence of long-term lameness of the fractured limb. Molecular therapy has proven useful for the acceleration of bone repair and regeneration. Even a transient local production of osteoinductive growth factor may induce a clinically relevant degree of bone formation. Molecular, or gene, therapy locally delivers a nucleotide sequence that encodes for an effective growth factor to the site of fracture healing to increase the local concentration of this growth factor. Direct gene therapy has shown to be effective for in vitro bone formation and in vivo healing acceleration by using various viral and nonviral gene delivery vectors. Cell-mediated gene therapy has also been successfully performed by using wide range of carrier cells. These cell-mediated and direct gene therapies have provided numerous promising results in recent years and may become as practical alternative solutions for the potential treatments of equine bone repair and regeneration. relative resi-stance to cytotoxicity in these cells compared to a human cell lines. Bone regeneration within equine metatarsal osteotomies and ostectomies in response to delayed percutaneous injection of adenoviral bone morphogenetic protein-2 (Ad-BMP2), Ad-BMP6, or beta-galactosidase protein vector con-trol (Ad-LacZ) administered 14 days after surgery confirmed greater and earlier mineralized callus in the bone defects injected with Ad-BMP2 or Ad-BMP6. Peak torque to failure and torsional stiffness were greater in osteotomies treated with Ad-BMP2 than Ad-BMP6, and both Ad-BMP-2 and Ad-BMP6 treated osteotomies were greater than Ad-LacZ or untreated osteotomies. Gene expression of ostectomy mineralized callus 8 weeks after surgery indicated upregulation of genes related to osteogenesis compared to intact metatarsal bone. These results demonstrated a greater relative potency of Ad-BMP2 over Ad-BMP6 in accelerating osteotomy healing ( Ishihara et al. 2008). Accelerated bone regeneration has also been proven in response to cell delivered BMP2 and BMP6 ( Ishihara et al. 2010a). Equine metacarpal/metatarsal osteotomies responded to percutaneous injection of autologous dermal fibroblasts (DFb) genetically engineered to secrete BMP2 by greater and earlier healing of bone defects treated with DFb with BMP2 gene augumentation. The qCT


Abstract : It has been shown that a-Se films deposited from the vapor onto low temperature substrates, when annealed at or just below their glass temperatures, become indistinguishable, in flow and transformation behavior, from melt-quenched specimens. Photoillumination, in the visible range, of these films (a) sharply increases their rate of approach to configurational equilibrium while not affecting the flow rate of equilibrium, (b) greatly increases the number density of crystals heterogeneously nucleated while not producing measurable homogeneous nucleation, (c) generally increases the rates of growth of crystals within the films. It has been shown that the plastic deformation behavior of glassy metals can be represented satisfactorily by a deformation map of the type presented by Ashby and Frost for various crystalline materials. The available evidence indicates that the temperature dependence of the isoconfigurational creep rate below the glass temperature is relatively much smaller for metallic alloy than for non-metallic glasses. (Author)


Microspheres is multiple dosage unit controlled drug delivery system with the range of a particle size of 1-1000 µm . Chitosan was used as a polymer and metformin hydrochloride (MH) was used as a drug, and non-aqueous solvent evaporation was chosen for the techniques of microspheres preparation. MH is the first line for treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2. It has relatively low bioavailability and short half-life, therefore it is appropriate to be prepared as microspheres. Many factors affect the result of microspheres preparation, such as chitosan concentration and stirring time which used in preparation. Factorial design optimization used to determine the chitosan concentration and stirring time to produce MH-chitosan microspheres with the highest entrapment efficiency (EE). The result of microspheres preparation used 2250 mg of chitosan and 2 hours stirring time produced 81.191 % EE, and drug loading and yield of 22.673 and 89.602 %, respectively. The microspheres had spheres shape and a relatively smooth and bright surface morphology. The particle size was 653.333 μm. FT-IR analysis indicated that there were no changes in the functional groups on MH as an active ingredient. K eywords : metformin hydrochloride-chitosan microspheres, non-aquoeous solvent evaporation, factorial design, chitosan concentration, time stirring


Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates are used in the wide field, because they have excellent properties of specific strength and of specific stiffness. In automobiles, the CFRP has a possibility of weight reduction in automotive structures which can contribute to improve mileage and then to reduce Carbon dioxide. On the other hand, the safety of collision should be also made clear in the case of employing the CFRP to automotive structures. In this paper, the CFRP guarder belt equipped in the automotive door is developed and examined by an experiment and a numerical analysis for replacing the conventional steel door guarder beam. In the numerical analysis, a commercial FEM solver (ANSYS) was employed and the laminated shell element were used in the CFRP guarder belts. The contact element between the impactor and the upper surface of CFRP guarder belt and between the supporters and the inner surface of the belt was Contact element 173 with the Target element 170. The experimental relation of impact load to displacement for CFRP guarder belt agreed well with that of numerical result. From the comparison of both results, the numerical method developed here is quite useful for estimating impact behaviors of CFRP guarder belt.


The perception of childhood as a period of dependence and innocence has a long history. Being strongly associated with the Romantic Movement of eighteenth-century Europe it resonates with more recent Western theories of child development, ideas about child rearing and policies relating to the care and education of children. The advent of a global society, however, demands that we examine and reflect on our own belief systems and those which inform our individual and institutional practices with children. This chapter begins with a discussion of globalisation and culture (see Chapter 4) and then sets out reasons why a cross-cultural understanding of childhood, children and


Purpose – The paper seeks to identify the quality characteristics of critical action research and action research theses compared to traditional research thesis writing.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the literature and the authors' experience with supervising and examining action research theses, the paper identifies key problem areas in the literature and suggests effective strategies for meeting these challenges and avoiding pitfalls through reflective practice and questioning insight. The paper includes sets of crucial questions for higher degree students to address.Findings – The paper presents definitions of and checklists for quality action research, a quality thesis, and a quality action research thesis. It also presents two conceptual models that illustrate the differences between the "research" and thesis "writing" activities and processes in general, and the collaborative core action research in the fieldwork and the critical action research thesis that needs to be the candidate's inde...


The correct planning and control of inventories have acquired great importance mainly in manufacturing companies where their highest priority is to ensure the availability of products when the customer requires them. In this project we sought to differentiate service levels in a security inventory model multi-echelon in a company dedicated to the production and marketing of cosmetic products. Differentiation was achieved through an ABCD methodology where the finished products were classified according to the definition of relevant attributes and variables, once the classification was done, adequate service levels were established which were introduced in the Supply Chain Guru software for the new calculation of safety stocks, obtaining as a result the average coverage in days that each product must maintain. It can be concluded that with the change of this parameter it was possible to improve the positioning of security inventories along the chain and the decrease in investment made by 31%.


Economic transformation is related to long-term sustainable economic growth, which is premise and guarantee for China's stepping across middle-income trap. The so-called transformation is changing of the extensive mode of economic growth, also it should abandon the traditional mode that relies solely on the resources input which ignore the efficient use of resources. And this needs the joint efforts of all members of society to complete. We establish a transformation model gradually under the framework of evolutionary game theory which can tell us the conditions and internal mechanism that determine economic actors to achieve transformation together. The Purely economic sphere model shows that when economy has developed to a certain height, the using of resources will be difficult to avoid predatory. However, when the model is extended to social norms, the equilibrium of efficient and rational using of resource will be re-implemented. Further, the initiative to establish and comply with social norms needs a non-predatory politics as premise, and a diversified, equitable, nondiscriminatory environment for market competition is an effective guarantee to restrict government action. Finally, we use Shenzhen Special Economic Zone which is pioneer of reform and opening up as well as relatively sound market economy as an empirical object to point out the strategic path of economic transformation.


A simple and highly sensitive spectrofluorimetric method was developed for the estimation of Rosiglitazone in tablet dosage form. The native fluorescence of the drug in methanol was measured at an excitation wavelength of 297nm and emission wavelength of 311nm. Rosiglitazone was estimated in nanograms and its linearity was found to be 1-5ng/ml. The method was found to be rapid, precise and accurate which can be applied for the routine estimation of rosiglitazone in tablet dosage forms.


[1] Seismic slip inversion is studied by means of singular value decomposition (SVD), with emphasis on the role of singular vectors and regularization of the solution. Because the stable part of the slip inversion result is given in terms of a linear combination of the leading singular vectors (representing directions in the model space most sensitive to data), the performance of the inversion depends simply on how well the real slip model can be expanded into these vectors. The analysis is demonstrated using a synthetic model of a symmetric bilateral rupture with two asperities. Inverting the data yields a persisting false asperity in the middle of the fault, regardless of the inversion scheme used, because such a model cannot be well represented by only the leading singular vectors. The parallel study of the singular vectors from the individual stations and the whole network is suggested in order to understand how to achieve balance between overregularized solutions (with possible slip inversion artifacts) and underregularized solutions (vulnerable to data errors). The ideas are applied to the Mw 6.3 Movri Mountain earthquake, 2008, Greece, showing a weak indication of an asymmetric bilateral rupture. We suggest that inversion methods, not working explicitly with singular vectors, may yield artifacts, the origin of which can be also often explained by the SVD technique. Therefore, practical earthquake studies should be broadly complemented by the analysis of the leading singular vectors, a simple tool to evaluate the efficiency and potential drawbacks of the slip inversion.


This thesis investigates how women who quilt in St. John's, Newfoundland construct and negotiate gendered and middle-class practices. I explore the ways quilters frame complex 'selves' and ideals of womanhood by analyzing their dialogues, performances and interactions. This analysis focuses on themes that emerged from my ethnographic fieldwork such as 'personhoods', 'femininity', 'community', 'middle-classness' , 'power', 'agency' and 'social action'. I analyze how some quilters 'piece' narratives of communication within their creations for the purpose of expressing personal agency. I also include an investigation of the contexts where quilters choose to mobilize personal agency into social action through quilting. This thesis is grounded in the historical context of quilt creators in twentieth century Newfoundland and Labrador where the practice of quilting has developed into an ambiguous act. 'Ibis ambiguity provides quilters a negotiable site to reveal, through narrative and 'performance', values and ideals that construct their individual and collective womanhoods.


The invention silencer with a variable damping characteristic for motor vehicles with internal combustion engine. The silencer housing (20) comprises at least a gas guide tube (1), which ends in the housing (20). The housing (20) further comprises at least one valve whose closing element by means of a spring (8), the end at rest (2) of the tube (1) closes (3). The closing element (3) is a plate which is seated on a guide rod (4) which in turn in a guide bushing (5) is guided. The spring (8) is positioned in a valve housing (10). This is gas-tight and gas-tight manner to the silencer housing (20).


ANALYSIS OF SIGNAL DETECTABILITY IN STATISTICALLY RECONSTRUCTED TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGES by Anastasia Yendiki Chair: Jeffrey A. Fessler Imaging in general, and emission tomography in particular, has become an important tool in many areas of medical diagnosis. Several common applications of emission tomography, such as the diagnosis of lung tumors or myocardial perfusion defects, involve the detection of a spatially localized target signal in an image reconstructed from noisy data. Such detection tasks are affected by various design parameters of the imaging system and reconstruction algorithm. This thesis is concerned with optimizing regularized image reconstruction methods for emission tomography with respect to the detectability of a spatially localized target signal in the reconstructed images. We first consider the task of detecting a statistically varying signal of known location on a statistically varying background in a reconstructed tomographic image. We show that a broad family of linear observer models can achieve exactly optimal detection performance in this task if one chooses a suitable reconstruction method. This conclusion encompasses several well-known models from the literature, including those with a frequency-selective channel mechanism. Interestingly, the "optimal" linear reconstruction methods for many


We describe the design, implementation and performance of a Sparse Hybrid Automatic Parallelization Environment (SHAPE). SHAPE partitions and schedules sparse matrix computations for Cholesky factorization with the goal of achieving good performance at low cost, while providing exibility for use as an experimental tool. It employs e cient parallelization algorithms which reduce the communication cost without adversely a ecting the load balance by using a hybrid mixture of column and block partitions. Through several parameters, SHAPE aims for portability across a diverse range of sparse matrix structures and message-passing multiprocessors with di erent communication cost parameters. We present preliminary timing results on the iPSC/860 and compare the performance of SHAPE with that of a commonly used column-based method. The results show that SHAPE signi cantly reduces computation time, number of messages, and overall communication time for a variety of test matrices.


The aim of this study is to highlight the potential relationship between blood groups and diabetes for the local population of the city of SuqAl-Shuyukh in Thi-Qar, Iraq. The study included the identification of blood groups to 276 diabetes patients for the period from December 2018 to March 2018. ABO blood groups of all subjects were determined by slide agglutination method. Chi- square statistical analysis among different blood groups between non-diabetic (n= 100) and diabetic population (n= 276) revealed no significant relationship of any blood group with diabetes mellitus (p ˃ 0.05). But relative risk (RR) were calculated in reference to blood group O, it has been observed that slight increase of risk of developing diabetes mellitus among AB (RR 1.111 ), a (1.045) and B (1.025). Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus (DM), ABO Blood Groups, A, B, AB, O.


Objective:To study the expression of cytotoxic molecules(CM:TIA-1,granzyme B)in peripheral T-cell lymphoma-unspecified(PTCL-U) and to investigate their significance in PTCL-U category.Methods:From January 2005 to January 2008,51 patients were diagnosed PTCL-U in tangshan people's hospital and tangshan xiehe hospital,which were studied for the expression of the cytotoxic molecules(TIA-1,granzyme B)by immunohistochemical staining.The relationship between CM and Ki-67,clinical charateristics,treatment response and prognosis was analysed.Results:Thirty-three percent(17/51) was positive for at least 1 CM,patients which CM-positive PTCL-U were significantly assosciated with higher expression of Ki-67(88.2% vs.50.0%,P=0.007 8),poor performance(64.7% vs.32.4%,P=0.027 9),more frequent B-syndrome(70.6% vs.35.3%,P=0.017 3),higher serum lactate dehydrogenase(LDH)level(82.4% vs.52.9%,P=0.040 6).Overall survival of CM-positive PTCL-U was significantly lower than that of CM-negative patients(P=0.001 5).Multivariate analysis showed CM,poor performance and higher Ki-67 was an independent prognostic factor for PTCL-U.Conclusion:Expression of CM in PTCL-U was not only related to poor prognosis,but also could play an important role in PTCL-U categorization.


The study of fuzzy time series has attracted great interest and is expected to expand rapidly. Various forecasting models including high-order models have been proposed to improve forecasting accuracy or reducing computational cost. However, there exist two important issues, namely, rule redundancy and high-order redundancy that have not yet been investigated. This article proposes a novel forecasting model to tackle such issues. It overcomes the major hurdle of determining the k-order in high-order models and is enhanced to allow the handling of multi-factor forecasting problems by removing the overhead of deriving all fuzzy logic relationships beforehand. Two novel performance evaluation metrics are also formally derived for comparing performances of related forecasting models. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed forecasting model outperforms the existing models in efficiency.


Among the synthetic fibers, the glass fibers are most popularly used in fiber for reinforced in engineering polymers matrix, as they offer excellent stiffness and strength, impact resistance and thermal stability at a low price to manufacture various assistive devices. The carbon fibers were applied as an alternative of glass fibers, where maximum stiffness is required. The aim of this article is, to give an overview of an experimental comparison between popular assistive devices manufacturing polymer pristine polyethylene, pristine polypropylene with epoxy based composites reinforced with carbon and hybrid of glass/carbon fibers. The various filler concentration loaded epoxy composites were manufactured, compared and tested under tensile, flexural and fatigue test condition to improve the mechanical properties, increase the lifetime of the assistive devices, reduce the cost to the patient. The results showed that the hybrid carbon/glass fiber reinforced polyurethane composites achieve a generous increment in mechanical properties as compared with pristine polypropylene and polyethylene, respectively. The fatigue life was sharply increased in both of the glass fiber and hybrid carbon/glass fiber reinforced composites. A summary of established methods for characterization of fibers, polymers and composites completes this article.


Abstract We study several combinatorial identities that arise naturally from the structure of finite cyclic groups and finite extensions of finite fields. We are particularly interested in interconnections between the identities.


The generalized matrix chain problem considers how to efficiently compute a series of matrix multiplications where some of the operands may be inverted, transposed, or have mathematical properties that can be used to increase performance. Solutions to this problem often involve series of calls to high-performance implementations of matrix multiplication (gemm). We introduce a primitive, gemm3, which multiplies three general matrices, to aid in solving this problem. By taking advantage of the structure of modern algorithms for gemm, we derive an algorithm for gemm3 which can multiply three matrices using only a constant amount of additional memory. Current approaches to such multiplications require a temporary buffer than can be arbitrarily large. We present experimental results which show that our algorithm retains performance comparable to that of current methods.


The utility model discloses a high precision temperature measuring apparatus consuming low energy which belongs to the temperature measuring in industrial field. The apparatus comprises one-chip microcomputer, a power supply module, an AD converting module, a display module, and a temperature signal acquiring module. The temperature signal acquiring module comprises a temperature sensor and a bridge temperature compensating circuit. The output end of the temperature sensor is connected with the input end of the bridge temperature compensating circuit. The output end of the bridge temperature compensating circuit is connected with the input end of the AD converting module. The output end of the AD converting module is connected with the input end of the one-chip microcomputer. The display module is also connected with the one-chip microcomputer. The power supply module is for providing electricity to the one-chip microcomputer, the AD converting module, the temperature signal acquiring module and the display module. The measuring apparatus of the utility model is convenient to use and rapid to correspond. It also achieves high precision and consumes low energy to measure the temperature of liquid on an industrial spot.


Abstract. The greatest genetic diversity of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in terms of fruit quality characteristics such as flavor, aroma, color, and lycopene and b-carotene contents is found in wild species. This study evaluated the agronomic characteristics and fruit quality of 30 cherry tomato introductions of the germplasm bank of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Palmira in trials conducted at the Montelindo experimental farm of the Universidad de Caldas (1010 m above sea level, average temperature 22.8 °C, average annual rainfall 2200 mm, 76% relative humidity). A 5 x 6 rectangular lattice experimental design was used with 30 treatments (introductions) and a commercial control (Sweet Million), 4 replicates/treatment, and 5 plants/replicate as experimental unit. The descriptors used were those suggested by the former International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, now Bioversity International. Data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and Duncan's means test using the SAS program. In addition, principal component and cluster dendrogram analyses using the SAS Princom and Cluster procedure (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) were performed. Six principal components accounted for 80.39% of the morphological variability of the introductions evaluated. The most promising materials in terms of average fruit weight, yield per plant and per hectare, and soluble solids, vitamin C and lycopene contents were IAC1624, IAC391, IAC3652, LA2131, IAC424, IAC1621, IAC426, LA1480 and IAC1688. The broad phenotypic variability observed in the evaluated introductions favors the potential selection and breeding of tomato for traits associated with fruit production and quality.


By using the cone theory and the coupling upper and lower solution method,it is studied the existence uniqueness of solutions of nonlinear binary operator equations without monotone and continuity and compactness conditionsin Banach spaces.And the iterative sequences which converge to solution of operator equations and the error estimates are also given.The results presented here improve and generalize some corresponding results for mixed monotone operator equations.


The one advantage of ecommerce during this age of digitalization and global technological advancement is that more companies from every industry are shifting towards adopting digital processes, pieces of kit, and solutions in their business operations by the day. This trend is growing continuously at speed and is inclusive of not only the large players but also small businesses and startups. The general market is equally influenced further, where now consumer behavior isn't any longer a similar because it was decades back. Ecommerce, the web of things (IOT), cashless transaction, crypto currency, and AI, among many other tech developments, aren't any longer out of reach from the tip consumers. Now that everybody can have access, it's born to a digitally literate society on a world scale. The increase of movable usage, as an example, shows how consumers are increasingly becoming digital in their day-to-day tasks. In 2019, the quantity of movable users is forecast to achieve 4.68 billion in line with Static.


We investigated three methods of transient flow experiments ( Onestep, Multistep, Smooth) with regard to their suitability for the determination of hydraulic properties of large undisturbed soil samples. The methods differ in the way how a pressure gradient is applied which induces the flow of water out of or back into the soil core. The instantaneous application of one large pressure step is called Onest p, the application of several smaller increments is called Multistep, and the smooth continuous change of the pressure gradient is called Smooth. The three methods were compared with regard to the uniqueness, identifiability and stability of the estimated parameters of the hydraulic functions. The functions used were able to represent unimodal or bimodal pore systems, with or without hysteresis. The results for a sandy forest soil show that the Onestep method yields nonunique solutions. Further, since the method does not represent conditions that occur in nature, it appears not suitable for estimating the soil hydraulic parameters. In contrast, the Multistep and Smooth methods lead to a unique parameter identification. Both methods yield the same soil water retention curves θ(ψ) for the respective soil core. However, the parameter for the saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ksat, is insensitive to the optimization of the outflow data of the Smooth flow experiments. The optimized Ksat values are in some cases one order of magnitude smaller than those obtained by the Multistep method. This in turn yields different K(θ) relationships for the two methods. A further result is that he use of hydraulic functions which can represent bimodal pore systems gives in most cases a better match between simulated and measured data. The hysteretic properties of the analyzed soils could not be adequately described by the Kool and Parker (1987) hysteresis model. With the present level of information it can be concluded that the Multistep and Smooth method are equally suitable in the estimation of the soil hydraulic functions of soil cores.


Big data projects can fail due to the lack of alignment between the big data project strategy and the overall business strategy. This research considers organizational culture as an enabler of a better alignment between the two. To test the research hypothesis, a questionnaire was collected from several dozen IT decision-makers in Saudi organizations who have implemented big data projects. Statistical analysis using PLS indicates that the alignment of big data projects and overall business strategy is highly influenced by the five dimensions of organizational culture identified by Smit et al. (2008), namely strategy, leadership, adaptability, coordination, and team relationships


Simple Summary Polar bears are threatened by habitat loss, decreased food availability, and reduced reproductive success due to climate change. Zoo populations can support species survival through preservation of genetic diversity and maintenance of insurance populations, but in the US, the zoo polar bear population is currently not sustainable. The development of sperm collection and cryopreservation can help to support the population by providing the biomaterial needed for assisted reproductive techniques, such as artificial insemination. However, these procedures are not well described for polar bears. Data from 38 opportunistic sperm collections, that were conducted between 2011 and 2021, were assessed to establish best practices to date for collecting and preserving polar bear sperm. The information gathered demonstrates that urethral catheterization is an efficient method of sperm collection, sperm can be rescued postmortem from the vasa deferentia and epididymides, and polar bear sperm collection appears to be most effective during the breeding season. Furthermore, polar bear sperm can survive cryopreservation. Further studies will optimize these techniques, but this summary provides information that is immediately applicable to enhancing sample collection and cryopreservation success that could support the long-term genetic management of polar bears in zoos. Abstract Assisted reproductive technologies can aid conservation efforts via support of ex situ population management and preservation of genetic material. Data from 38 sperm collection attempts from 17 polar bears (1–5 procedures/bear) were evaluated. Sample collections were attempted via electroejaculation (EEJ; n = 6), urethral catheterization (UC; n = 25), or sperm rescue (SR; n = 7) during the breeding season (Jan. 1-May 21; n = 27) and nonbreeding season (May 22-Dec. 31; n = 11). Sperm retrieval was successful in 1 EEJ (16.7%), 18 UC (72.0%) and 4 SR (57.1%) collections. Initial sperm motility and viability were 50.0% and 77.0% for EEJ, 64.3 ± 7.4% and 80.9 ± 3.8% for UC, and 56.7 ± 8.8% and 80.5 ± 0.5% for SR. UC and SR were more likely to be successful during the breeding season (84.2–100%) than the nonbreeding season (25.0–33.3%). Testicular tumors were observed in four males (57%) during SR. In total, 13 samples were cryopreserved (n = 1 EEJ, 9 UC, and 3 SR) with egg-yolk-based equine extender (EQ) or OptiXcell (OP). For both extenders, post-thaw motility and viability were reduced by 20–60% and 30–65%, respectively. Further efforts to optimize procedures are warranted, but this summary provides data useful for enhancing the success of polar bear sperm collection and cryopreservation.


Despite South Africa's middle-income status, half its citizens lack adequate nutrition, water, energy, shelter, healthcare and education. In order to address this 'dismal shame of poverty' (Mbeki, 1996) the new constitution requires that local authorities 'give priority to the basic needs of... and promote the social and economic development of the community'. The challenges municipalities face – segregation, institutional weakness, service backlogs and lack of finance – are to be overcome, according to the Local Government White Paper (RSA, 1998a) by establishing 'Developmental Local Government', which will 'work together with local communities to find sustainable ways to meet their needs and improve the quality of their lives'. This chapter considers the prospects for developmental local government to play a leading role in reducing poverty. The first section outlines the context in which South Africa's post-apartheid local government system is evolving. The second sets out some of the central elements of the municipal policy developed during the mid-1990s and crystallised in the 1998 Local Government White Paper. It presents an analysis, developed at the time of the white papers' launch,1 of the progressive potential in this policy to address the apartheid legacy of poverty and inequality. The analysis reveals certain contradictions and limitations. The final section locates the limitations within a broader theoretical context, and suggest that the contradictions result from the assimilation in the white paper of several conflicting approaches rooted in the South African liberation struggle and transition. It concludes that a pro-poor orientation in the local state is likely to require political alliances beyond the state and at a scale beyond the local.


Small satellite networks, with the advantage of remarkably less development cost and energy consumption with respect to geostationary relay platforms, are playing an increased role in nowadays earth observation. However, small satellites have limited transponders and energy budget, which makes it necessary to design efficient contact plans to improve the network throughput. This paper addresses such an issue of joint management of the energy and transponder resource to well match the mission demand and network resources. We adopt an extended time-evolving graph to characterize network resources and then, formulate the contact plan design problem with the goal of maximizing the throughput as a mixed-integer linear programming. Since the computational complexity of this problem coupling multiple time slots is prohibitive, we further propose two heuristic algorithms which operate on a slot-by-slot basis to achieve high throughput. Simulation results present the impact of different factors on the network performance and moreover, demonstrate that both our contact plan approaches can achieve high throughput with low complexity.


Elementary particle physics has demonstrated the complete symmetry between particles and antiparticles. From this follows the equivalence between matter and antimatter. It is very unsatisfactory that current cosmological theories are not symmetric with respect to matter and antimatter.


Purpose – Recent US reforms aimed at strengthening audit committees and their structure grant independent audit committees the responsibility to appoint, dismiss, and compensate auditors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between audit committee characteristics and auditors' compensation and dismissals following the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX).Design/methodology/approach – A series of linear and logistic regression models were employed in a unique sample comprising of 2,393 observations.Findings – It was observed that stronger audit committees demand a higher level of assurance and are less likely to dismiss their auditors. Further, an increase was found in auditor independence as measured by reduced board involvement and less dismissals following an unfavorable audit opinion. Overall results suggest that increased audit committee roles and independence after SOX contribute to auditor independence and audit quality.Practical implications – This research has implications...


Isothermal membrane-based air dehumidification (IMAD) is much more energy-efficient and economical than traditional air-dehumidification technologies. There are, however, no practical IMAD process technologies currently available mainly due to limitations of current membranes. Ionic liquids (ILs) are a promising air-dehumidification membrane material. Current supported IL membranes suffer from poor stability, limiting their performances. Herein, we propose new stable IL membranes, encapsulated IL membranes (EILMs) by encapsulating 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([C4MIM][Br]) into ultrathin polycrystalline UiO-66-NH2 metal–organic framework membranes via a ship-in-a-bottle method. The stability of IL membranes is significantly enhanced due to the IL entrapped in the pore cages of UiO-66-NH2. The EILMs show unprecedentedly high H2O permeance (∼2.36 × 10−4 mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1), an order of magnitude greater than that of the most permeable air-dehumidification membranes reported so far. Furthermore, the encapsulated [C4MIM][Br] drastically increases the H2O/N2 separation factor to ∼1560, satisfying the minimally required H2O/N2 separation performance for commercially viable air-dehumidification.


Projection welding is a welding which works on the principal of Resistance Welding, in which current flow is concentrated at the point of contact with a local geometric extension of the parts being welded. The extensions or projections are used to concentrate heat generation at the point of contact. Heating is facilitated by resistance heating and is highly influenced by the contact area resulting from the amount of deformation, which is also temperature dependent due to material softening and frictional conditions. This research investigates the principle of projection welding based on the parameters (current and time) on Rod and Housing of stabilizer link assembly which are made up from material AISI 1018. The purpose of this research is to improve the mechanical properties of the material by using the process of degreasing and to study its influence on the joint strength between steel bar and housing. The fatigue, yield and Tensile tests are used to evaluate the joint strength comparable to the joint made from unprocessed mild steel.


The silver produced by indigenous mine workers in Potosi´, Bolivia, helped fuel early modern global trade. While historiography has analyzed the structure of the labor force, one important question has not been addressed: how workers themselves acted on and changed the conditions imposed on their lives. this article argues that they fundamentally shaped Potosi´'s labor system. I analyze, then, the interaction between coerced and free labor—mitayos and mingas—and emphasize their interconnection with k'ajchas (selfemployed workers) and the rudimentary ore mills known as trapiches. The article demonstrates how k'ajchas and trapiches contested the property rights of the traditional Spanish mine- and millowners in Potosi´. I also highlight the key role of women in refining and trading ores, which challenges standard gender assumptions about mining labor. By the eighteenth century a heterogeneous popular economy broke the monopoly over production once held by Spanish mine- and millowners.


Herbage quantity and quality response of Gliricidia sepium to pruning intervals (1.0 to 6.0 months) was evaluated. Chemical composition of coppice re-growth was estimated and herbage was incubated in three rumen fistulated Friesian steers for 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h. Herbage dry matter yield tended to follow linear response (P= 0.0689) with increasing coppice re-growth maturity and ranged between 36.2 tones/ha/year to 49.1 tones/ha/year. Protein content (291 g/ kg DM to 220 g/kg DM) decreased following a quadratic trend. However, fibre content increased following a curvilinear trend as herbage matured but levels of lignification increased linearly with delayed harvesting. Additionally, fraction 'b' of dry matter degradability (548 to 716 g/kg DM) decreased linearly with herbage maturity. Herbage potential degradability (a+b) (926 to 785 g/kg CP) was indicative of high protein solubility and rumen degradable protein (RDP) decreased with increasing maturity. Consequently, microbial protein synthesis and net energy of lactation (NEL) decreased linearly while rumen undegradable protein (RUP) and digestible undegradable protein (DUP) increased linearly with increasing herbage maturity. These results are interpreted to mean that G. sepium herbage quantity and quality is influenced by pruning management.


The export of toxic waste to less-industrialised countries has developed into a thriving business for waste traders over the past decade. As costs for disposal of hazardous wastes rose dramatically across the industrialised world in the 1980s, the developing world was seen as an inexpensive place to off-load toxic industrial by-products. While developing countries were in need of the income to be gained from accepting toxic waste from the West, in nearly all cases they were not equipped to handle those wastes in such a way as to protect peoples' health and the environment. In response to the rising incidence of hazardous waste exports from the industrialised to the less-industrialised world over the past decade, environmental NGOs and developing countries have allied themselves to call for an end to this trade. After seven years of campaigning, this 'Third World-NGo alliance' was successful in early 1994 in bringing about a ban on the waste trade with less-industrialised countries within the context of the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste and its Disposal. This article seeks to show that the international trade in hazardous waste with less-industrialised countries is a striking example of two important aspects of global environmental affairs today. These are first, the inextricable links between the world economy and the global environment and, second, the important role played by non-state actors such as NGOS in global environmental politics. The first section of this article outlines how international trade, production, and financial relationships have determined the direction and extent of the toxic waste trade with less-industrialised countries. It also shows that the waste trade in turn has not only negatively affected the environments of many of these countries, but also threatens their future economic prospects. Section two discusses the important role NGOs have played in the negotiation of the Basel Convention on the international toxic waste trade. It argues that by linking up with Third World states to fight for a waste trade ban, NGOS were able to exert a great deal of influence over the outcome of that treaty. Section three then looks at the subsequent expansion of the alliance between Third World states and NGOS, and their recent success in bringing about a ban on the waste trade with less-industrialised countries within the context of the Basel Convention.


With the growth of electronic commerce, businesses must meet customers′ communication needs by offering diverse multimedia interactions for complete convenience, choice and ease of use. Offering Web based services is critical to provide better communications means. In this paper, we present an account of current research efforts on Internet call center, and discuss the concept,implementation about VoIP,Collaboration browsing,Real E mail handling and Text chatting.


This paper propose a method to calculate locating errors for 4-2-1 locating. Two condition is considered. Firstly, there is no interference between locators and workpiece. Secondly, workpiece is resting stability. According to these conditions, the calculation of locating errors for over-constrained workpiece is divided into five steps. Finally, a example is presented to demonstrate the usefulness the proposed method.


In this paper, with the concept of rescaled-range(R/S) analysis of fractal theory ,we analyzed the fractal feature on the time series of gas emission in coal mine, and computed the Hurst exponent H,fractal dimension of probability distribution and the curve on the time series and discussed the theoretical significance in prediction of gas emission. According to the result of the analysis above, we can predict the variable tendency of gas emission when system is in normal state. But it is difficult because the system is more complex in fire state than in normal state. But probability distribution satisfies fractal distribution and the curve is a fractal in two states.


Chinese diplomacy envoy A kedun who had been to Korea for four times in Qing Dynasty drew the Picture of Mission by Order was about the Korean nature and society, which provided the precious data about social culture, politics, diplomatic manner, folk custom and so on in ancient Korea , it had important historical value, and it was the crystallization of the culture exchange between Qing Dynasty and Korea.


The paper considers the issue of accessibility of higher education for adults – the people of various ages and social status. The author analyzes the educational policy of the European Union and its different members,  and demonstrates the priority of the given issue. The Bologna agreement involves the reforms aimed at guaranteeing the lifelong education at any level. The interest to the adults education in the European Union results from the rising education requirements in the labor market; tough demographic situation and aging of professionals; redistribution of young people's educational preferences; prolonged educational programs; flexible and consistent adult education policies in the European Union. Various approaches to interpreting a definition of the adult student are analyzed; classification according to students' motivation and social status is given.


Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators have broad application prospects in many fields, but due to the nonlinearity of inherent hysteresis of SMA, the precise position control has become the biggest obstacle for the wide application of SMA actuators in the fields of smart structures. Therefore, research on the control technology of push-pull type SMA actuators is rather important for extending the application of SMA actuators. A thermomechanical hysteresis model of push-pull type SMA actuators based on the one-dimensional constitutive laws developed by Tanaka-Liang et al. is presented. The Fuzzy-PID composite controller and the adaptive Fuzzy-tuned-PID controller are applied to the control of nonlinear hysteresis of push-pull type SMA actuators system. The movement characteristic and the control effect of push-pull type SMA actuators are simulated and the advantages and disadvantages of different controllers are analyzed. The results of simulation and analysis provide theoretical reference for the precise control of push-pull type SMA actuator systems.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


The commercial banks need identify exceptional client in their large number of customers to prevent abnormal customer's risk. In this paper, four types of abnormal data detection method is introduced, present a new method - the k-medoids clustering algorithm combining genetic algorithm to detect the outlier. Finally, apply the algorithm to analysis credit data sets, detect outlier and identify abnormal customer


Customer satisfaction is a key of profitability and it implies the retention of the customers for the long term which is better than attracting the new customer. Now a day's banks have realized that cost of attracting a new customer is much more than retaining existing customers. So banks are emphasizing more upon customer satisfaction. These days customers demand for top quality services and products served with minimum wait time. On seeing today's age of banking revolution, in terms of financial services provided by banks the current research paper attempts to make a comparative analysis of the level of customer satisfaction towards financial services. This paper attempts a comparison of financial services among two categories of banks-Public and Private sector banks (only domestic) in Ambala district during December 2011. Simple random sampling technique is adopted and 200 respondents, 50 customers from each Public Sector banks and 50 customers from each Private Sector Banks constitute the sample for the survey. The findings show that Private Sector banks (ICICI & HDFC banks) performed significantly by satisfying its customers with good services and they have been successful in retaining their customers by providing better facilities in terms of communication, employee's behavior and infrastructure than Public sector Banks. On the other hand respondents of Private Banks were not satisfied with high charges and accessibility. The paper reveals that new financial products and services have to be continuously introduced in order to stay competent and that Public sector banks have to build long term strategic relationships with its customers. Public sector banks have to revive more in order to cope up with competitors.


Abstract : This thesis is a study of the difference in first-term personnel attrition between the Positive Motivation Unit (PMU), RTC Great Lakes, Ill. and a sample of the U.S. Navy male recruit population (control), for a period covering January 1977 through September 1979. Eleven cohorts, of 90 days each, for the PMU and control groups were tracked over the period (1977-1979) and their attrition rates were compared. Cross-tabulation, discriminant, and multiple regression analysis were performed to examine PMU and control groupings and their observed attrition. The traditional biographic/demographic variables explained only a small portion of the variance in the dependent variable (survival), while the inclusion of certain situational variables, such as initial duty assignment, greatly increased the accuracy of the prediction of survival, for both the PMU and the control groups. The results of this study indicate that attrition has some determinants that are somewhat controllable by the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Manpower, Personnel, and Training). These determinants should aid Navy managers in preparing initiatives to combat attrition. (Author)


This article explains how the UK rail infrastructure company Railtrack intends to meet the new growth in demand for rail freight and passenger services in the UK. Passenger numbers have already increased by 20% since 1995, due to the strong British economy, real price reductions in fares, innovation by train operators, and growing road congestion. Rail freight tonne-km have risen by 40% since 1995 and 12% during the last year alone. Further growth in rail freight is expected in four main sectors: international, deep sea intermodal freight, new business, and freight resulting from increased network capacity and improved loading gauge. Since 1996, Railtrack's investment programme has doubled to #1450M per year, mostly on renewing track and signalling, and reducing the previous investment backlog. However, over 1000 extra daily services have been introduced during the last two years, leading to more delays to trains. Therefore, Railtrack announced an even larger rail investment of #27 billion in its 1999 Network Management Statement (NMS), compared with #17 billion in its 1998 NMS. #11 billion of this will be devoted to network enhancement, including the Thameslink 2000 project and the upgrading of the West and East Coast Main Lines. There are plans to relieve 30 bottlenecks, and improve and extend freight routes.


A new high step-up dc-dc converter suitable for fuel cell power interface is presented in this paper. The proposed converter features multi-resonant tank for achieving high-step up ratio under zero current soft switching without any snubber circuits. The simple and minimized-component topology contributes for Mega-hertz driving of Gallium Nitride (GaN) under the condition of reduced switching loss, electromagnetic emission interference (EMI) noise, and ripple-free dc input current. Mode-transitional power stages are described by in-depth manner, after which the high step-up principle is revealed in a frequency-domain analysis. The essential performances of the proposed topology are demonstrated by simulation and experiment of 1.8 MHz-120 W prototype, whereby the effectiveness of snubberless and multi-resonant topology are verified from the practical point of view..


Micropiles composite control of landslides is now in the stage of experiment.In the practice of landslide control,the software ANSYS is applied to simulate the effects of piles space and anchor depth change on pile soil interaction,finding out that the micropiles space increases in some scale,the transfomation of the piles decreases and the stress decreases little,but the structure will be no longer in force if the space surpasses some scale;the displacement of the pile roof decreases with the increase of the anchor depth,but when the anchor depth increases to some scale,the transformation will not be obvious if the stress to micropiles increases.


Reverse logistics, that is, all operations related to the reuse of used products, excess inventory and packaging materials, gain increasing attention globally both for their promising financial potentials, the sustainable growth alternative they offer and the environmental positive impact they have. In this paper, we introduce reverse logistics and we explain how the adoption of e-commerce provides new possibilities to existing business models and what are the new e-business models in reverse logistics that have emerged. We compare these three new e-business models, namely, returns aggregators, specialty locators and integrated solution providers on a number of aspects and identify keys for their competitive advantage. Finally, we discuss conceptual and actual opportunities for these e-business models to thrive and advance and present some e-commerce tools that are being developed with the aim to address the distributed, dynamic and knowledge-intensive aspects of applications that contribute to the advancement of e-businesses in the field of reverse logistics.


The evaporative cooling system concepts proposed over the past century for engine thermal management in automotive applications are examined and critically reviewed. The purposes of this review are to establish the evident system shortcomings and to identify the remaining research questions that need to be addressed to enable this important technology to be adopted by vehicle manufacturers. Initially, the benefits of the evaporative cooling systems are restated in terms of the improved engine efficiency, the reduced carbon dioxide emissions and the improved fuel economy. This is followed by a historical coverage of the proposed concepts dating back to 1918. Possible evaporative cooling concepts are then classified into four distinct classes and critically reviewed. This culminates in an assessment of the available evidence to establish the reasons why no system has yet been approved for serial production commercially. Then, by systematic examination of the critical areas in evaporative cooling systems for application to automotive engine cooling, the remaining research challenges are identified.


Superselective angiography of mandibular preparations from 72 dogs has revealed that the inferior alveolar artery, tied up by a routine method, does not take part in the transplant revascularization. Binding of an intraosseous or transplanted facial artery stump with a heparin plug has revealed recanalizing vessels in the transplant, that speed up its restructuring.


High quality AlGaN/GaN HEMT material was grown on the 4-inch GaN substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). An alternation gas model of ammonia/hydrogen (NH3/H2) mixed gas and H2 gas was employed for the thermal treatment of GaN substrate. Atomic force microscope (AFM) shows straight-step morphology on the surface of the material. The high-resolution X-ray diffractometer (HRXRD) indicates that the full widths at half maximum (FWHM) values of AlGaN/GaN HEMT material for (002) and (102) planes are 48.9 arcsecs and 43.5 arcsecs in the center, respectively. The contactless Hall test results show that the AlGaN/GaN HEMT material has a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) mobility of 2159 cm2/ V. s and 2DEG density of 8.89 ×1012cm−2, indicating that the homo-epitaxial AlGaN/GaN HEMT material has high quality and good electrical performance.


In this interactive demonstration we show the basics of Stochastic Computing (SC) using a remote reconfigurable logic laboratory. A very simple web based approach is used to enable a remote access to a development board hosting a FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). The board switches and keys are virtualised with an online web form, and a webcam is used to provide feedback to the user. Recently, SC has been revisited and evaluated as a possible way of performing approximate probabilistic computations for artificial perception systems. Therefore, we provide the basic stochastic computing modules, so that any user can use them to build a stochastic computing circuit and go beyond software simulations, providing a remote hardware device to test real circuits at high clock speeds.


The use of microbicides and the number of applications for microbicidal products in a wide range of fields have increased substantially over the last few years. Unfortunately, information on the activity of such microbicidal products in practice or following conditions mimicking their field application is not always available. This has led to situations where bacteria less susceptible or more resistant to microbicides have sometime been recovered from cases of human infections. There is now a better understanding of the mechanisms conferring bacterial resistance to microbicides and it is clear that bacteria have evolved and have the capability to withstand and survive exposure to high concentration of certain types of microbicides common in the healthcare industry in particular. This chapter aims to review the incidence of bacterial resistance, the mechanisms conferring resistance and questions the methods available to measure such resistance in bacteria. Important issues such as the dissemination of resistance and cross-resistance to chemotherapeutic antibiotics are also discussed.


Most of houses/industries usually have their own over-head water tanks (OHT) associated with, either well/tube-well or underground water tanks (UGT). OHT is filled up by pumping set driven by an induction motor (IM). Many process-industries require large consumption of water, hence maintenance of water head is of prime importance to these industries. Here, a scheme is presented with a view to maintain the water level in OHT between two settable points. This scheme envisages automatic maintaining the water level in OHT without requiring human attendance. Further, this avoids overflow of water from OHT as well as avoids unnecessary running of IM, in the case, water in UGT is below low-level probe.


Objective:To separate and identify the related substances in salidroside bulk drug.Method:The related substances were concentrated by silica gel column chromatography and isolated by preparative HPLC.The obtained compounds were characterized by UV,IR,MS,and NMR spectroscopy.Result:Three related substances were characterized as icariside D2,4-acetylphenol-β-D-glucopyranoside and picein.Conclusion:Three compounds were isolated from the salidroside bulk drug for the first time.


Synthesis of ethyl lactate new technology of catalytic distillation, the organic solvent belongs to the field of synthesis and purification. In order to solve ethyl lactate low yield, complicated routing problems existing in the presence of lactate production process, the present invention discloses a new process, comprising the following steps: First, lactic acid and ethanol in a catalytic distillation column generating ethyl lactate the resin catalyzed reaction catalyzed by the strongly acidic ion-exchange section; simultaneously in the above esterification reaction, the reaction solution generated ethanol and water is vaporized into the rectifying section of the distillation column enriched catalyst; and ethanol after the water condensed by the condenser, returns a portion of the intermediate liquid feed tank, the other part back into the catalytic distillation column; less volatile lactic acid, ethyl lactate, and ethanol and unreacted water after the stripping section of a catalytic distillation column kettle reboiler into the column; then a catalytic distillation column bottoms product into the flash column, the removal of impurities in the bottoms product via flash process, ethyl lactate to obtain a food grade product.


A three-dimensional single-input single-output Mobile-to-Mobile wireless channel model is developed in this paper by considering the underlying physics of free space wave propagation. Based on this channel model, the temporal correlation function for a general three dimensional scattering environment is derived. The temporal correlation function is characterized by the joint angular power distribution at the transmitter and receiver antennas and the speed of transmitter and receiver antennas. Using a von Mises-Fisher distribution as the angular power distribution, the usefulness of the derived temporal correlation function is discussed.


At its June 1 annual meeting, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) announced its first clinical trial. The trial aims to offer advanced cancer patients off-label access to approved targeted drugs based on genetic driver mutations and to gather information on efficacy and toxicity across cancer types. ASCO stated that it seeks to broaden access to drugs for patients in community settings who have exhausted standard-of-care therapies and to collect "real world" outcomes data in a prospective registry. The study, called TAPUR (Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry), will include patients with advanced solid cancers, multiple myeloma, and nonHodgkin lymphoma whose tumors have a genomic variation or mutation known to be a drug target, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor and B-RAF. Five companies are supplying at least 13 drugs, free to participants, which target more than 15 genomic variants. ASCO is writing the protocol for the study and hopes to begin patient enrollment in January 2016. It is not yet releasing figures on cost of the study, or its length, but expects that more information will become public when the protocol is finalized.


In spite of the increasing use of intravenous lidocaine in the operating room, no pharmacokinetic data exist for intravenous lidocaine in children. We studied ten children, ages 0.5–3 yr, and eight adults to determine lidocaine pharmacokinetics during anesthesia with halothane, nitrous oxide, and oxygen. After induction of anesthesia, tracheal intubation, and insertion of venous and arterial catheters, lidocaine, 1 mg/kg, was infused intravenously over 30 sec. Arterial samples were drawn at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min. Plasma was separated and analyzed for lidocaine, using gas chromatography. Plasma concentration vs time data were fitted to a two-compartment model.Using standard formulas, we derived the following data: Children: distribution half-life (t1/2α) 3.2 min, elimination half-life (t1/2β) 58 min, volume of the central compartment (V1) 0.22 L/kg, volume of distribution (Vd area) 1.1 L/kg, and total plasma clearance (Cl) 11.1 ml·kg−1·min−1. Adults: t1/2α 3.6 min, t1/243 min, V1 0.16 L/kg, Vd area 0.71 L/kg, and Cl 9.8 ml·kg−1·min−1. No significant differences were found between children and adults for all parameters analyzed. We conclude that children older than 6 months of age distribute and eliminate intravenous lidocaine in the same manner as adults.


In order to cultivate applied talents with lofty professional ethics and the requirements of environmental science and engineering quality, the professional quality training mode were built according to "one main line, two stages, four levels, and eight modules". The engineering quality training is used as a main clue of the whole process of teaching. The two levels of "3 year school study and 1 year enterprise engineering practice" are adopted to establish and implement the four levels of "engineering cognition, engineering foundation, engineering synthesis and engineering innovation" and the eight modules of progressive engineering training mode of "enterprise enterprise cognition, perception, business courses, skills, comprehensive application, team training, internship, graduation design. Keywords School enterprise cooperation,Environmental engineering quality,The four level and eight module


Background: In patients with inoperable malignant biliary strictures, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) guided biliary stenting fails in 5% to 10% patients due to difficult anatomy/inability to cannulate the papilla. Recently, endoscopic ultrasound guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) has been described. Primary outcomes were to evaluate the biliary drainage success rates with EUS and compare it to percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD). Secondary outcomes were to evaluate overall procedure related complications. Methods: Study selection criteria: Studies evaluating the efficacy of EUS-BD and comparing EUS-BD versus PTBD in inoperable malignant biliary stricture patients with a failed ERCP were included in this analysis. Data collection and extraction: Articles were searched in Medline, PubMed, and Ovid journals. Two authors independently searched and extracted data. The study design was written in accordance to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement. Subgroup analyses of prospective studies and EUS-BD versus PTBD were performed. Statistical method: Pooled proportions were calculated using fixed and random effects model. I2 statistic was used to assess heterogeneity among studies. Results: Initial search identified 846 reference articles, of which 124 were selected and reviewed. Sixteen studies (N = 528) that met the inclusion criteria were included in this analysis. In the pooled patient population, the percentage of patients that had a successful biliary drainage with EUS was 90.91% (95% CI = 88.10–93.38). The proportion of patients that had overall procedure related complications with EUS-PD was 16.46% (95% CI = 13.20–20.01). The pooled odds ratio for successful biliary drainage in EUS-PD versus PTBD group was 3.06 (95% CI = 1.11–8.43). The risk difference for overall procedure related complications in EUS-PD versus PTBD group was −0.21 (95% CI = −0.35 to −0.06). Relative risk for infectious complications and bile leak in EUS-BD versus PTBD was 0.25 (95% CI = 0.07–0.94) and 0.33 (95% CI = 0.12–0.87), respectively. Conclusions: In patients with inoperable malignant biliary strictures who failed an ERCP guided biliary stenting, EUS-BD seems to be an excellent management option and superior to PTBD with higher successful biliary drainage rates and relatively fewer complications.


Cyanobacteria utilize sunlight to fix carbon dioxide to form biomolecules such as fatty acids. These microbes can convert fatty acids into diesel fuel hydrocarbons via a two‐enzyme pathway, which has been targeted for application in renewable fuel bioprocesses. The first enzyme, acyl‐acyl carrier protein reductase (AAR), catalyzes a two‐electron, NADPH‐dependent reduction of its Cn‐fatty acyl‐ACP substrate to yield a Cn‐fatty aldehyde. This reaction provides the substrate for the second enzyme, aldehyde‐deformylating oxygenase (ADO), which catalyzes the oxygenative conversion of the fatty aldehyde into the corresponding Cn‐1‐alkane and formate. To gain insight into how to improve product turnover of the ADA enzyme, kinetic and spectroscopic techniques were used. This revealed an O2‐based unproductive pathway that compromises alkane yields. Time dependent traces showed that under high O2 conditions a delay of only 30s was necessary for maximum intermediate formation, while for the low O2 conditions it took the intermediate 50s to generate. Mix Freeze‐Quench experiments were performed under analogous conditions for the stopped‐flow experiment, but once the intermediate was formed, it was reacted with reduced ferredoxin and frozen in a cryosolvent. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectra showed formation of the peroxyl radical under high and low O2 conditions. Under high O2 conditions more peroxyl radical was formed and less alkane product, but the alkane product can be recovered under low O2 conditions. This suggests that ADO requires O2, however under conditions of excessive O2 alkane formation is inhibited. Future efforts in bioprocesses should focus on avoiding this unproductive pathway to maximize alkane production. Through investigation of ADO catalysis, opportunities for optimization of this pathway have been identified to make it a viable option for the production of renewable biofuels.


Objective To analyze the value of ultrasound screening for the last-stage early pregnancy of patients with recurrent miscarriage history.Methods The 210 puerperae with 11-13+6 weeks of gestation who received ultrasound examination in our hospital from December 2009 to December 2012 were selected and divided into the observation group(with recurrent miscarriage history) with 90 puerpeare and the control group(without miscarriage history) with 120 puerpeare according to whether there was a history of recurrent miscarriage.The clinical data differences between the two groups of patients were compared.Results The structural abnormality incidence of the observation group was 9.16% higher than that of the control group.Cervical abnormality was the most common structural abnormality incident in the two groups and was 8.89% in the observation group and 1.67% in the control group respectively,with the ob servation group 7.22% higher than the control group.Statistical analysis showed P 0.05 for all the data above.In the observation group,puerperae with 3 miscarriages were the most common(65.56%) and fetal structural abnormality in cident was the most common(66.67%).Conclusion Puerperae with recurrent miscarriage history(especially 3 or more miscarriages) are more in need of last-stage early pregnancy ultrasound screening and the cervical abnormality should be emphasized.


This note describes a search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with the Z boson at DØ, based on an integrated luminosity of L=261 pb −1 of data. We study the p¯ p → ZH → ν ¯ νb ¯ b channel, which is one of the most sensitive ways to search for light Higgs bosons because of the large Z → ν ¯ ν and H → b ¯ b branching ratios. The analysis starts with a sample of multijet events with large imbalance in transverse momentum. We then select events with two b-tagged jets and search for a peak in their invariant mass distribution. After subtracting the backgrounds, we measure the 95 % C.L. upper limits on the σ(p¯ p → ZH) × Br(H → b ¯ b) for Higgs masses between 105 and 135 GeV to be 7.7−12.2 pb.


In order to solve the problem of fast differential current instantaneous trip protection caused by current transformer saturation,a fast differential current instantaneous trip protection algorithm based on phaselet algorithm is developed,which can rapidly complete fault detection.The linear relationship between phaselet algorithm using sampling data of one-fourth period and one period Fourier algorithm is studied,and then the linear relationship matrices of the two algorithms are derived.The amplitude-frequency characteristics of phaselet algorithm are analyzed and the fast differential current instantaneous trip protection criteria are proposed.The static test and dynamic test validate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm and protection criteria.


Background: Studies on the efficacy of adaptive e-learning in dentistry are limited. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of linear and adaptive electronic continuing medical education (CME) courses about dental bleaching. Methods: This quasi-experimental study using a post-test control group design evaluated the efficacy of an electronic CME course on dental bleaching offered to 60 dentists who were non-randomly allocated in two linear and adaptive groups (n=30). One training session was held for participants of both the intervention and the control groups. At the end of the course, the learners participated in a post-test and completed a satisfaction questionnaire. SPSS 23 was used to analyze the results. An independent t test was used to assess the effect of type of intervention on the outcome of education, and Pearson's chi-square test was applied to assess the effect of the intervention on participants' satisfaction. Results: The mean post-test scores of participants were 6.33±1.47 for the linear group and 6.40±2.31 for the adaptive group. The mean satisfaction scores of participants were 4.02±0.53 for the linear group and 4.15±0.42 for the adaptive group. According to an independent t-test, the two groups were not significantly different in terms of post-test score (P=0.7) or level of satisfaction (P=0.2). Conclusion: The adaptive approach has considerable advantages and comparable efficacy to the linear method in terms of post-test score and self-reported knowledge and satisfaction of participants. Thus, this method of education may be as effective as the linear method for instruction in dental bleaching. The use of an adaptive approach is therefore recommended in educational curricula.


On the basis of his investigations into historical experiences and social realities,Xun zi(313-238BCE)set forth the issue of the origin of ritual and gave an answer that it was the sages who invented the rituals.In his view,since the beginning of history,everyone had the innate nature of tending to become evil and engage in fighting on account of endless desire,which led to resource shortage and utter disorders in social life.In order to solve these problems,sages invented the rituals which could rectify human nature and normalize the society.From Xun zi's perspective,"Ritual"was a product of the sages' aposteriori efforts rather than that of their a priori innate nature;their invention of ritual was a realization and expansion of their self-value and a powerful measure to normalize and guide the society.


Looks back at the passing of the 1938 Social Security Act and other initiatives of the Michael Joseph Savage led Labour Government, aimed at easing the economic hardships of the 1920s and early 1930s.


This study describes the eruption characteristics of the Pleistocene Cienega Cinder Cone. This volcano is located in the southeastern part of the Cerros del Rio volcanic field (CdR) west of Santa Fe, NM. The CdR is the largest (>700 km2) of several middle Pliocene to Pleistocene basaltic volcanic fields of the axial Rio Grande Rift in northern New Mexico. Eruptive centers are typically central vent volcanoes, ranging from low-relief shields to steep-sided, breached cinder and spatter cone remnants. The Cienega Cinder Cone is actually a volcanic complex that consists predominantly of tephra fall deposits as well as several vents, multiple intrusions, and numerous lava flow sequences. A slightly eroded northern vent is 230m in diameter and consists of inward bedded crater facies and periclinally bedded wall facies. A smaller southern vent is 95m in diameter and composed of steep N-dipping pyroclastic layers that suggest the development of a late-stage shallow cryptodome. Vent facies include vesiculated fragments, oxidized cinders, and spatter agglutinate interbedded with lava flows. Proximal wall facies are moderately sorted with a high proportion of coarse scoria and bombs while the distal wall facies are very well sorted with a high proportion of fine lapilli. Fluvial sand and gravel deposits as well as aeolian sand deposits within some of the pyroclastic layers illustrate the development of stream channels and exposed surfaces in between eruptions. One major N-striking anastomosing dike (>10 m long by 4 m wide) as well as several minor N-striking dikes (< 2 m long by 1 m wide) intrude the southern complex. Macrostructures (slickenlines, chatter marks, and Reidel shears) consistently show wall rock deformation having a North-sense of shear, indicating S-moving magma towards the inflating southern vent. Sample from all volcanic facies (vent, lava flows, proximal wall, and distal wall) contain major olivine (1-3%), pyroxene (1-3%), and plagioclase (5%) phenocrysts in an aphanitic matrix. Scoria cinders contain 20-50% vesicles in a holohyaline matrix. Our observations show that the Cienega Cinder Cone is a monogenetic volcanic complex that developed by endogenic and exogenic dome growth with short eruptive events that likely were derived from a rapidly evolving reservoir-conduit system.


The bottom boundary layer is an unstratified thin layer above the sea floor, separated from the more strongly stratified interior. Formation of a thin bottom boundary layer in the presence of stratification and a sloping bottom is common, and well characterized by theory. This thin layer is an important source of mixing over the continental shelf, and it plays a fundamental role in several continental shelf physical and biogeochemical processes, such as buoyancy advection, bottom material transport and hypoxia formation. In this research, Both observations and numerical models are used to study models' ability of reproducing observed stratification and bottom boundary layer dynamics over the Texas-Louisiana shelf. Simulated vertical stratification, which is also representing the vertical density structure, was first evaluated since it directly controls the bottom boundary layer structure itself and is important for other bottom boundary layer dynamics. A new metric, the histogram of vertical stratification, is introduced in this research to evaluate the models' ability of reproducing observed stratification in a bulk sense. The improvement in model performance is attributed to the finer horizontal and temporal resolutions of a model, while factors like open boundary conditions and vertical resolutions are modified without any improvement in the ability of the model to simulate observed stratification. Towed, undulating CTD profiles collected during Mechanisms Controlling Hypoxia (MCH) program also detected mid-water oxygen minima in many transects. These intrusions are connected with the bottom boundary layer and follows the pycnocline seaward as a mid-water column tongue of low oxygen. We calculate convergence within the bottom boundary layer relative to density surfaces using the simulated results; there is


Despite the wide availability of endovascular and surgical techniques, there are still some intracranial aneurysms that remain too complex to undergo such procedures. Low-porosity stents have been proposed recently as a therapeutic alternative for such aneurysms. The purpose of this study is to assess the hemodynamic conditions in aneurysms with different morphology before and after treatment with a low-porosity stent (also known as flow diverter), using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Two patient-specific vascular models, each harboring a single aneurysm, were selected to evaluate the effect of the SILK stent (Balt Extrusion, Montmorency, France) on the intra-aneurysmal flow. One model presented a wide-necked aneurysm (AR= 1.07) at the anterior choroidal segment; the other, a narrow-necked one (AR= 2.45) at the posterior communicating segment. Vascular models were reconstructed from the available medical images. The stent was virtually implanted so as to ensure its proper apposition using the Fast Virtual Stenting method. Volumetric meshes were generated according to the results of several mesh independency tests for element size around the stent strut, boundary layer properties and size of the deployed stent. Transient blood flow simulations were carried out to solve continuity and momentum equations. Walls were set to be rigid with no-slip boundary condition and blood was considered as a Newtonian fluid. Mass flow rate at the inlet and pressure at the outlets were imposed as boundary conditions (following @neurIST data analysis protocol). Simulations were carried out in ANSYS-CFX to estimate shear stress at the aneurysmal wall and inflow at the aneurysm neck. The post-treatment reduction of flow into the wide-necked aneurysm was 9.2% at peak systole and 58.1% time-averaged over the cardiac cycle. The reduction in average shear stress on the aneurysm wall was 57.6% and 83.3%, respectively. The narrow-necked aneurysm showed a general increase in the reduction for each parameter; inflow at the neck was reduced by 37.3% and 64.7%, respectively and wall shear stress by 65.6% and 83.6%, respectively. This study allowed us to realize that CFD simulations can be employed to estimate the reduction of flow into the aneurysm due to the placement of a flow diverter. It was observed that the flow diverter was able to disrupt high-velocity flow entering the aneurysm and redirect it through the parent vessel. 2 Influence of Stents as Flow Diverters: A CFD Study


A new method for direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation based on the reactance-domain (RD) estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) and using a subarray configuration selection technique is proposed for full azimuthal estimation of several impinging signals with a single-output smart electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR antenna). The proposed method performance superiority over the previously presented RD-ESPRIT algorithm, could be demonstrated by means of computer simulations that involved one, two and three signal DoAs' estimation in the full azimuth plane


The molecule of the title compound, C29H34Cl2O6, possesses normal geometric parameters. The absolute configuration was determined from both the synthetic precursor and anomalous scattering effects. Non-classical C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the molecules in the crystal structure into infinite chains along the a axis.


Predicting nanoscale thermal transport in dielectrics requires models, such as the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), that account for phonon boundary scattering in structures with complex geometries. Although the BTE has been validated against several key experiments, its computational expense limits its applicability. Here, we demonstrate the use of an analytic reduced-order model for predicting the thermal conductivity in dimensionally confined materials, i.e., monolithic and porous thin films, and rectangular and cylindrical nanowires. The approach uses the recently developed "Ballistic Correction Model," which accounts for materials' full distribution of phonon mean-free-paths. The model is validated against BTE simulations for a selection of base materials, obtaining excellent agreement. By furnishing a precise yet easy-to-use prediction of thermal transport in nanostructures, our work strives to accelerate the identification of materials for energy-conversion and thermal-management applications.


Objective: To develop the method of social skills training and to evaluate its effect on children with behavior problems Method:30 children with behavior problems were treated by social skills training for 8 weeks The Rutter Scale, Conners Parent Rating Scale and CBCL (Achenbach child behavior checklist) were used to evaluate the effect before and after intervention Result:: After intervention, the total scores, A and N scores of the Rutter Scale decreased significantly The total and most factor scores of Conners Parent Rating Scale significantly lower than that before intervention A factor score of CBCL decreased significantly It was also shown effective by clinical evaluation The intervention way was accepted by children and their parents Conclusion: Social skills training according to Chinese culture is acceptable and effective for children with behavior problems


Magnetic anomaly detection is a passive method for detection of a ferromagnetic target, and its performance is often limited by external noise with a power spectral density of 1/fa, (0<a<2). In consideration of this kind of noise is non-stationary, self-similarity and long-range correlation, an effective adaptive detection based on the wavelet transform is proposed in this paper. The discrete wavelet transform of the noisy signal is chosen as the inputs of the adaptive whitening filter, and then decomposed by the orthonormal basis functions (OBFs) and the energy signal was taken out for threshold detection. The simulation results show that the algorithm improves the effect for detecting weak magnetic anomaly signal contaminated by 1/fa noise.


Well Completion Test is a testing activity undertaken to determine the depth of production zone and feed center depth as well as to calculate the estimated production capacity of a well. Well completion tests are performed on wells that have just been drilled by exploring the depth of the well, measuring pressure and temperature, water loss test and gross permeability test. As a result of exploring the RL well, the tool was placed at a depth of 2000 meters. Injectivity is done at different pump rates, pressure and liquid faces. The gross permeability test results obtained an injection of 202.22 lpm/ksc, an average specific capacity of 5.028 lpm/meter, transmissivity of 0.1208955 darcymeter and skin factor 3.33381. Next calculate the production estimation using the injection that has been converted and plot to the graph then obtained the result of the estimated potential production of a well that is 6,3 MW. After a well has completed a well completion test, the next step is to test the production for more accurate results, because of the well completion test itself the accuracy is only about 50% only, therefore the production test needs to be done for the results which in getting more accurate.


Abstract How do emotional responses to televised debates impact on voting intention? The present article addresses this question drawing on an original dataset combining survey data and real-time responses gathered in the run-up of the 2017 German federal election. The paper contributes to three major discussions in the literature of political science and psychology. First, we show that emotional responses to media stimuli are independent explanatory factors influencing post-debate voting intention while in part mediating real-time evaluations of candidate statements. Second, our analysis demonstrates that the impact of emotional responses to televised debates can barely be deemed to be structured along one single dimension of valence but that discrete emotions show distinct effects. Third, the paper supports the notion that anger and enthusiasm have an indirect impact on voting intention by increasing the weight of political predisposition and reducing the weight of evaluation of current information on candidates' issue stances in televised debates. We also find empirical evidence for the indirect effect of anxiety as well; it reverses the pattern and reduces the weight of political conviction while increasing the importance of evaluations about candidate statements. However, the latter finding does not seem to be very robust as in fact, substitutions are also able to generate this pattern. Finally, the paper reviews implications of the findings and discusses limitations and future perspectives of research.


In order to exist and develop in the fierce competition in the market of the periodicals, college journals must implement brand-name strategy. This paper discusses the importance of the characteristics, the qualities, the requirement of talented persons and the position of brands.


Data traffic continues to increase exponentially and operators are continuously upgrading their networks to meet this demand. The resulting capital and operational expenditures have limited revenues and the associated energy costs and CO2 emissions have raised economic and ecological concerns. In this paper, we use the stochastic geometry approach to investigate different sleep mode mechanisms that can address both capacity and energy efficiency (EE) objectives in dense small cell networks. We derive a multi-user connectivity model that facilitates the study of sleep mode mechanisms and manages the blocking rate of the network. We formulate an optimization framework that minimizes area power consumption using appropriate constraints. Numerical results show that sleep mode mechanisms enhance the EE of dense small cell networks and that the selection criterion of sleep mode candidate base stations is very important.


A computer code has been developed to solve the groundwater flow equation in three dimensions. The code has finite-difference approximations solved by the strongly implicit solution procedure. Input parameters to the code include hydraulic conductivity, specific storage, porosity, accretion (recharge), and initial hydralic head. These parameters may be input as varying spatially. The hydraulic conductivity may be input as isotropic or anisotropic. The boundaries either may permit flow across them or may be impermeable. The code has been used to model leaky confined groundwater conditions and spherical flow to a continuous point sink, both of which have exact analytical solutions. The results generated by the computer code compare well with those of the analytical solutions. The code was designed to be used to model groundwater flow beneath fuel reprocessing and waste storage areas at the Savannah River Plant.


Fulfilment of environmental and social obligations is required for sustainable development. Green accounting integrates all environmental consequences into corporate accounting accounts. Disclosure of Corporate social responsibility is a component of accounting performance tied to the social, economic, and environmental aspects of a company's programme that can be vital in cultivating stakeholders. The current research aims to investigate the effect of social responsibility disclosure on integrating green accounting and corporate governance of highly polluting industries in India. The study employed a descriptive study design and qualitative research methods in accordance with the interpretative research philosophy and collected the sample data from 52 highly polluted industries from Central Pollution Board in India. The study employs a structural model, descriptive statistics, and F-test analysis. The result reveals that green accounting and firm characteristics significantly enhance the selected firms' social responsibility disclosure. Furthermore, it was discovered that corporate governance and social responsibility disclosure impact the chosen firms' performance and value. However, it has been determined that green accounting does not affect the profitability or market value of the selected firms. Also, this work concludes that a good firm gives its surroundings and surrounding community enough consideration in addition to its pursuit of profit. As the research is based on 52 industries, the generalized result can not bed determined. The knowledge of the respondent also impacts the research.


The paper modifies the social force model(SFM),proposed by Helbing,and effectively eliminates the overlapping of pedestrians by adding an elimination process.Also,the paper considers the issue of exit selection when multiple exist are possible.It uses an probability model which integrates the distance-to-exit and the pedestrian density into the selection.Thus the problem of distribution unbalance among different exits,rendering the results more relevant to reality.


The purpose of this research was to analyze the implementation of Economic Value Added (EVA) as a tool to measure company's performance based on the financial report at PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk and PT. Indosat, Tbk and also to determine optimal capital structur. The metodh analyze was the financial report of both companies that had been go public The period of measurement of company's performance was 5 years, from 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 till 2011. The research finding are. (1) EVA of PT. Telkom, Tbk and PT. Indosat, Tbk during research processes is positive in value and indicated decreasing drastically, which this condition are influenced by NOPAT & WACC. (2) Optimal measurement of capital structure maximal EVA for PT. Telkom, Tbk and PT. Indosat, Tbk in 2007, 2008, and 2009 .


The purpose of speech keyword spotting is to detect a set of predefined keywords from a continuous speech signal stream. Based on the research on end-to-end technologies in the field of deep learning, this paper designs and implements an end-to-end speech keyword spotting algorithm, which has a wide range of applications in various fields, such as smartphones and automobiles. The algorithm first trains an acoustic model based on a deep neural network, which receives the acoustic features and outputs the posterior probability of the wake-up word. Then, the posterior probability is smoothed to obtain the confidence score of the wake-up word. Through the above process, the traditional decoding process can be avoided effectively. In addition, this paper compares various neural network structures of acoustic model, such as the time-delay neural network (TDNN) and the factorized time-delay neural network (TDNN-F). Through comparative experiments by controlling variables, it is verified that the proposed end-to-end speech keyword spotting algorithm has competitive performance compared with the other popular technologies.


Pot experimeats were carried out to estimate N2 fixation by vetch, milk vetch, sickle alfalfa and broadbean in pure stand using a 15N-labelled soil. Winter wheat was used as the non-fixing control. The 15N-labelled soil used was prepared by growing corn-wheat-corn successively on a nearly organic-matter-free Xiashu loess supplemented with adequate amounts of (15NH4)aSO4, P, K and micronutrients, then incorporating these 15N-labelled plant msterials into the soil after each harvest, and allowing the plant materials to be decomposed aerobically for 410 d after incorporation of the plant material of the third crop. The 15N enrichment of wheat plant-N varied slightly with organs,with a maximum difference of 9.8%. Based on 15N enrichment of soil N inferred from the mean value of the 15N enrichment in different organs of wheat 79%-91% of total N in the tops and 67%-74% of total N in the roots of legumes studied were derived from atmosphere. Estimate by isotope dilution method was in good agreement with that by the conventional difference method provided values obtained by the latter were corrected for seed N, and also with that from the measurement of N accumulated in the tops of the legumes.


Urbanization has become a global trend under the combined influence of population growth, socioeconomic development, and globalization. Even though recent urban planning in London has been more deliberate, the relationship between climate change and urban growth in the context of economic geography are still somewhat unclear. This study relies on rainfall prediction with the aid of the Statistical DownScaling Model (SDSM), which provides the statistical foundation for future flooding potential within the urban space of London while considering major socioeconomic policies related to land use management. These SDSM findings, along with current land use policies, were included as other factors or constraints in a cellular automata-based Markov Chain model to simulate and predict land use changes in London for 2030 and 2050. Two scenarios with the inclusion and exclusion of flood impact factor, respectively, were applied to evaluate the impact of climate change on urban growth. Findings indicated: (1) mean monthly projected precipitation derived by SDSM is expected to increase for the year 2030 in London, which will affect the flooding potential and hence the area of open space; (2) urban and open space are expected to increase more than 16 and 20 km (in percentage of 1.51 and 1.92 compared to 2012) in 2030 and 2050, respectively, while agriculture is expected to decrease significantly due to urbanization and climate change; (3) the inclusion of potential flood impact induced from the future precipitation variability drives the development toward more open space and less urban area.


ABSTRACT Co-composting of urban wastes (UWs) and plant residues with rock phosphate (RP) produces quality compost and reduces the use of chemical phosphorus fertilizer. Biochemical process of three compost piles (P): P1- 50% UW + 30% rice straw (RS) + 10% sawdust (SD) + 8% RP + 2% sugarcane trash (ST), P2- 50% UW + 23% RS + 10% SD + 15% mustard oil cake + 2% ST, and P3- 95% UW + 5% RP was studied. Decomposition rate followed first-order kinetics and maximum (77%) was in P3. The highest bacterial population was found in P2 having higher cumulative CO2 evolution (53.76 mg CO2 g−1 volume solid). Prevalence of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria was 2.0 to 6.3 Log10 Cfu g−1 dry weight and concentrated in RP-amended piles. Humic acid of compost was classified as rotteprudukte. Final pH (7.5 to 8.0) and germination index (>90) proved that the compost was mature. P3 compost (1 t ha−1, fresh weight) had potential to supply 25 kg phosphorus.