The nature of anxiety and its biological basis is reviewed, as are the causes and types of pathological anxiety and their pharmacological treatment. The main drugs used in the treatment of anxiety work by depressing the brain and hence perception and response to stressors. Alcohol, barbiturates, and anesthetic agents are the paradigm (sedatives), but newer drugs (the anxiolytics) such as the benzodiazepines act somewhat more selectively and are subject to a ceiling effect that makes them much safer. However, all depress cognition and are dependency producing. There is also a small group of other drugs used as anxiolytics, especially in children and those with MRDD, which includes antihistamines, buspirone, and clonidine. There have been very few studies of anxiety and its treatment in MRDD, but it is generally assumed that the range and type of disorders is similar. Thus, the best and most equitable policy is to apply the indications and the cautions that have been developed in adults without MRDD. Generally speaking, anxiolytic drugs should be used with great caution and only for short periods. There is little evidence to attest to the value of antihistamines. Clonidine and buspirone deserve more study. MRDD Research Reviews 1999;5:299–304. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


An experiment research for determination of oil-spills on the sea surface was performed by using a shipboard laser fluorosensor in Jiaozhou Bay. The laser-induced fluorescence(LIF) spectra of five kinds of oils were obtained. The results show that the LIF spectra of the in situ measurement are basically consistent with those of the laboratory measurement, and these spectra can be discriminated.


The acquisition and induction of desiccation tolerance associated with the expression of heat stable proteins in the developing peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) seeds were studied. Desiccation tolerance of peanut seeds was achieved during 45 to 65 DAP (days after pegging) embryogenesis, while a set of low molecular weight (9 to 15.5 kD) heat stable polypeptides was preferentially expressed. Slow drying regime applied in vitro to 25 and 35 DAP peanut embryos induced desiccation tolerance and the expression of the same subset of polypeptides. Mature drying treatment enhanced the ability of 65 DAP peanut embryos to withstand fast drying, also increased the heat stability of arachins, the major peanut storage protein, which was heat labile during 45 to 65 DAP embryogenesis.It was concluded that the heat stable proteins may contribute to desiccation tolerance of the peanut seeds, and the low molecular weight heat stable polypeptides may confer nonspecifically heat tolerance on peanut storage proteins which were normally heat labile.


This article approaches the relationship between the right of communication, the right of Integral Sexual Education and the prevention of unintentional teenage pregnancy. The theoretical framework recovers the development of studies of social, culture and communication processes (Martin Barbero, Uranga), studies on critical pedagogies (Freire), studies on education and TIC (Levy, Dussel, Quevedo), studies on youths (Serres, Urresti, Reguillo, Ford) and studies on culture and health (Faur). The methodological approach is qualitative, since we consider that this allows a better approach to the theme complexity because it recovers the point of view of students in order to create knowledge.


A novel way to determine a type of dominant carriers photoexcited from deep traps in a photorefractive semiconductor is presented. Numerical analysis of a picosecond free-carrier grating dynamics in presence of SC field revealed an excitation intensity dependent grating diffusive decay time ?D ~ D -1, if the carriers partially screen the SC field in deep traps. An increase (decrease) of effective diffusion coefficient D with excitation intensity is a signature that electrons are the major (minor) carriers photoexcited from deep traps. The method has been verified in number of vanadium-doped and shallow impurity Cl and/or As co-doped CdZnTe bulk crystals.


Objective To study a protective apparel with protective suit and protective mask in order to protect the operators using new HAN propellant in the course of storage, transportation and filling-up. Methods According to the character of it, polyurethane-coated (PU)polyester fabric was applied in the main part of protective suit and mask, and then anti-fog technology to deal with PU as window material. Results The performance test and probation evaluation of the protective apparel were met relevant standards of the technical specifications. Conclusion Through reasonable structure designing, the defects in the protective apparel were overcome such as bad permeability and large load. The protective apparel was characteristized by portable, comfortable, practical and so on. Furthermore, it enriches the protective system for the liquid propellant.


The paramagnetism at 20° of cytochrome b5 at pH 7 shows that the heme iron of the enzyme is low spin both in the oxidized and the reduced state. The electron spin resonance (ESR) at low temperatures shows that there is a mixture of high and low spin heme contributing to the absorption. At high pH there is reversible denaturation accompanied by changes of the ESR from both the high and low spin forms as well as of the light absorption. The ESR of cytochrome b5 is definitely different from that of microsomal Fex.


This year, once again, millions of people in the United States who get health insurance through their employers received the unwelcome news that cost sharing would increase. Harvard University, where both of us work and get our health insurance, increased costsharing for its employees, raising a hue and cry from faculty.1 There were charges that the changes were regressive and particularly harmful for lower-wage employees.1 The critiques implicitly presumed that it is possible to have high wages, lower premiums, and no cost sharing. But this presumption misses the fundamental economic connections between wages, premiums, and cost sharing. Cost sharing has certainly increased, from copayments for physician office visits and prescription drugs to deductibles; the fraction of workers in a plan with at least a $1000 deductible for coverage of a single person increased from 10% in 2006 to 41% in 2014.2 Higher cost sharing feels like a decrease both in the generosity of coverage and in compensation. It seems particularly unfair to lower-wage workers who face the same deductibles and copayments as their higher-paid counterparts and who may be discouraged from seeking needed care. But increases in cost sharing are not necessarily regressive nor necessarily associated with lower compensation. The reality of who actually pays for health insurance drives the different impacts of changes in insurance plans on low-wage and high-wage employees. Despite the hand-wringing over increases in employee premium contributions, the employee share of premiums has stayed between 27% and 29% for the last 2 decades, although the dollar amounts have increased because total premiums have increased. The premium for a family policy more than doubled from approximately $8000 in 2002 to $16 800 in 2014.2 This is far from transparent to employees, most of whom do not see their employer's share of the premium. More important— but even more opaque—is the fact that employees ultimately pay not only their share of premiums but their employer's share as well.3 This is driven by the economics of labor markets. Employers are largely indifferent between paying an employee $40 000 in wages and $20 000 in benefits and paying $50 000 in wages and $10 000 in benefits—in both cases, total compensation is $60 000. When the cost of health insurance increases, less money is left available for wages. This "wage-fringe" trade-off is well documented and applies to nonprofit and for-profit employers alike. Increases in health insurance premiums do not get absorbed by an unlimited reservoir of prof its or endowments—they are paid for by employees taking home smaller paychecks.4,5 The trade-off does not occur instantaneously for each individual, however. So increases in premiums are much more visible and salient than their effect on take-home pay. The trade-off between wages and fringe benefits is central to understanding the distributional effects of increases in health care costs. Employers provide a similar menu of insurance options to workers with different wages and salaries. Health insurance premiums represent a much larger share of compensation for a family taking home $40 000 than for a family that makes $150 000—and a premium increase of $1000 takes a much bigger percentage bite out of take-home pay for the lower-income family. A lower-income family might prefer to have less generous health insurance and more compensation, so that more money was available for rent, gas, and other priorities. So why do they have this compensation package? A key reason that employers provide a similar menu of insurance options, regardless of an employee's income, is that the tax code in the United States favors health insurance benefits relative to wages as long as employers offer their highand low-wage workers the same plans. This tax preference fosters compensation packages that are skewed toward health insurance rather than wages. The skewing has 2 insidious effects: it is both regressive and inefficient. The tax preference for health insurance is regressive because it gives a greater tax benefit to higherincome workers: an employee in the 40% marginal tax bracket with a $10 000 tax-free policy saves $4000 in taxes avoided, whereas an employee in the 15% tax bracket saves only $1500. Higher-income workers are also more likely to have jobs that offer expensive insurance plans. As a result, lower-wage workers have slow or nonexistent wage growth because of the growing share of their compensation devoted to health insurance instead of wages, and their insurance plans cater more to the preferences of higher-wage workers than to theirs. Remedying this regressive aspect of the tax code is one of the motivations for the "Cadillac tax": starting in 2018, health insurers have to pay a tax on employer health insurance plans with premiums greater than $10 200 for individuals or $27 500 for families.6 These dollar amounts increase only as quickly as inflation, so if health insurance premiums increase more quickly, more and more plans will be subject to the tax over time. The Cadillac tax provides a motivation for employers to slow premium growth. Another reason to reduce the tax subsidy for expensive employer-sponsored health insurance is that the subsidies encourage the proliferation of plans with minimal cost sharing, which in turn encourages the inefficient use of medical care. At first blush, it might seem that cost sharing is just a way of dividing up whether employers or employees pay the bills, but decades of evidence show that lower cost sharing leads patients to consume more care of limited health value—such as unnecessary tests—and that this consumption leads to higher health insurance VIEWPOINT


In this paper, a method for dense semantic 3D scene reconstruction from an RGB-D sequence is proposed to solve high-level scene understanding tasks. First, each RGB-D pair is consistently segmented into 2D semantic maps based on a camera tracking backbone that propagates objects' labels with high probabilities from full scans to corresponding ones of partial views. Then a dense 3D mesh model of an unknown environment is incrementally generated from the input RGB-D sequence. Benefiting from 2D consistent semantic segments and the 3D model, a novel semantic projection block (SP-Block) is proposed to extract deep feature volumes from 2D segments of different views. Moreover, the semantic volumes are fused into deep volumes from a point cloud encoder to make the final semantic segmentation. Extensive experimental evaluations on public datasets show that our system achieves accurate 3D dense reconstruction and state-of-the-art semantic prediction performances simultaneously.


The invention relates to an antitheft device for motor vehicles by ignition power interruption by means of a relay powered by an electronic control unit whose contact is in series with the ignition "ON" of the ignition lock direction of the vehicle. the anti-theft device according to the invention is characterized in that said relay RL is powered by said center C through at least a transistor T1, said relay RL being connected to ground an open switch device D maintained in the event of motor rotation. Application to the car industry.


Interest for Wireless Power Transmission systems (WPTs) is increasing since they allow for power supplied devices involving low power consumption, located in unreachable area or needing expensive maintenance costs. In this paper we will present a rectenna design which is modeled and evaluated for an WPTs at 2.45GHz. The proposed rectenna structure consists of a 3×3 receiving antenna array with circular polarization which provides a high gain of 9.25dBi, and a microstrip RF-to-DC rectifier based on a voltage doubler circuit with HSMS 2820 Schottky diode, which provides a high conversion efficiency of 78% and a DC output voltage of 13.6V can be reached for a given input power level of 24dBm and an optimum load of 950Ω.


Introduction It has long been axiomatic, from Charles Darwin's day on, that genetic variability is the raw material of evolution. Only where there are alleles at a given locus can natural selection truly select. Only where there are allelic series at multiple loci can differing genotypic combinations occur and natural selection then shape particular genotypic modes. Given sexual reproduction, the kind we all prefer, the number of genetic combinations is then maximized. The tendency of living organisms to depart indefinitely from a central type, as Darwin put it in The Origin of  Species,' represents the evolutionary potential both the chance and the opportunity to form new species from old. But aside from being a potential for evolution, in man as in all other forms of life, the magnitude of genetic variability provides a tacit editorial comment on the present state of natural selection. The existence of genetic variability and its magnitude is an historical clue to selective factors that have been or are at work. The existence of genetic variability has meaning in and of itself. For any genetic polymorphism, the sheer continuance of that polymorphism (beyond the level that the mutation rate alone would support) is indicative either of competing directions of selection, or of an adaptive premium given to the heterozygote. Conversely, any narrowing of the range of genetic variability, here contrasting one human population with another, may be viewed as the result of directional selection or of stabilizing selection, depending upon the directionality and peaking of the genotypic shift.


Delirium is a complex geriatric syndrome with acute onset and fluctuating course. It is common in all medical setting. However, it is frequently...


We present a systematic study of exclusive charmless nonleptonic two-body B decays including axial-vector mesons in the final state. We calculate branching ratios of B{yields}PA, VA, and AA decays, where A, V, and P denote an axial vector, a vector, and a pseudoscalar meson, respectively. We assume a naive factorization hypothesis and use the improved version of the nonrelativistic Isgur-Scora-Grinstein-Wise quark model for form factors in B{yields}A transitions. We include contributions that arise from the effective {delta}B=1 weak Hamiltonian H{sub eff}. The respective factorized amplitudes of these decays are explicitly shown and their penguin contributions are classified. We find that decays B{sup -}{yields}a{sub 1}{sup 0}{pi}{sup -}, B{sup 0}{yields}a{sub 1}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {+-}}, B{sup -}{yields}a{sub 1}{sup -}K{sup 0}, B{sup 0}{yields}a{sub 1}{sup +}K{sup -}, B{sup 0}{yields}f{sub 1}K{sup 0}, B{sup -}{yields}f{sub 1}K{sup -}, B{sup -}{yields}K{sub 1}{sup -}(1400){eta}{sup (')}, B{sup -}{yields}b{sub 1}{sup -}K{sup 0}, and B{sup 0}{yields}b{sub 1}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}(K{sup -}) have branching ratios of the order of 10{sup -5}. We also study the dependence of branching ratios for B{yields}K{sub 1}P(V,A) decays [K{sub 1}=K{sub 1}(1270), K{sub 1}(1400)] with respect to the mixing angle between K{sub 1A} and K{sub 1B}.


This thesis is a continuation of work done in a specialization project. The result from the preliminary work have been used to implement a programmable peripheral processor in HDL that can replace non-programmable hardware modules. The implemented solution have then been tested to find out if it is capable of doing the most basic operations that a UART protocol require to do parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel conversions. The results of the implementation and testing have been analysed and the performance, area and power consumption have been presented. The resulting performance and area have also been compared to traditional hardware solutions. The results from the tests demonstrates that the presented peripheral processor is capable of doing the basic operations that is required to do parallel-to-serial and serialto-parallel conversions. However, the area of the peripheral processor is significantly larger than the total area of multiple non-programmable hardware modules. The result of this is that the cost of utilizing a peripheral processor will be greater than with existing solutions.


The proliferation of commercial billboards and electronic signage in New York's Manhattan limits the possibility for interactive art sites. Lucy Bullivant describes how Eskyiu transformed an HSBC bank in Chinatown's Canal Street with an interactive facade and Antenna Design have created their Civic Exchange project for a site in Battery Park City. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Chronic Non-Cancer Pain (CNCP) affects almost 20% of the UK's population and has both individual and economic burdens. Opioids have been increasingly prescribed in primary care to help manage CNCP and given the inherent nature of chronic pain, are usually issued long term. Research over the last two decades has raised concerns regarding the efficacy of opioids for managing CNCP, and potential harm particularly in doses that exceed 120mg of Morphine Equivalent Dose (MED). There is an emerging public health priority therefore to reduce the risk of harm in those patients already established on high dose opioids. Opioid weaning has been recommended, however a caveat to this is the lack of evidence on how to best manage opioid withdrawal and patients' continued experience of pain. This research sought to identify recommendations for an intervention designed to reduce high daily doses of opioids among CNCP patients in primary care. To achieve this the research investigated high dose opioid prescribing in primary care across Liverpool in the North West of England and explored behaviours influencing opioid treatment with Health Care Professional (HCP) and CNCP patients. A mixed-methods approach was used in the three studies of this research programme. Study 1 was a quantitative analysis of N=93,236 opioid prescriptions issued to N=30,474 patients for CNCP across Liverpool Clinical Commissioning group (LCCG) during 2016-2018. Study 2 was a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with HCPs (n=16) and CNCP patients (n=13) to better understand the behaviours associated with treating, and being treated with, opioids for CNCP pain. Study 3 developed a set of recommendations for an opioid weaning intervention, based on the findings of studies 1 and 2, using the 3-stage framework of the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW). This systematically and theoretically informed the intervention content to facilitate opioid weaning. Feasibility and acceptability consultations with HCPs(n=8) and CNCP participants(n=3) were subsequently conducted online to establish consensus and refinement of the proposed recommendations. The findings from study 1 revealed that 3.5% (n=1,060) of patients in Liverpool are prescribed opioids above 120mg MED/day. Most patients are female (66%), with an average age of 58 years, located in North Liverpool, and likely to receive n=3 opioids attributing to their total daily dose. This provides some indication of where and who an intervention of this kind might target in Liverpool. The findings of study 2 with contributions from the literature helped identify a range of behaviours (n=34) associated with opioid weaning. Guided by the BCW in study 3, these behaviours were prioritised and 3 were selected to target the change needed to reduce or discontinue opioids. These include 1) improving adherence to opioid weaning, 2) reducing patients fear and anxiety and 3) improving information and support for opioid weaning. Feedback from HCPs and CNCP participants revealed the need to also consider addressing issues of initially engaging patients and support available for HCPs delivering the intervention and carers of patients weaning. To trigger the change needed, 6 intervention functions and 24 unique BCTs delivered via a mixture of face-to-face, online, and individual and group methods are recommended. A small but significant proportion of CNCP patients are in receipt of opioids at doses eliciting little pain relief whilst increasing risk of harm. Given the economic and social impact of CNCP, reducing this risk of harm and optimising pain management is a public health priority. This study has proposed content for a behavioural change intervention that will target opioid weaning in a primary care setting.


The shell structures with composite materials have the advantages in strength, corrosion resistance, and weight reduction. The objective of this study is to analyze anisotropic composite circular cylindrical shells with shear deformation theory. In applying numerical methods to solve differential equations of anisotropic shells, this paper use finite difference method. The accuracy of the numerical method can be improved by taking higher order of interval to reduce error. This study compares the results of finite difference method with the results of ANSYS based on finite element method. Several numerical examples show the advantages of the stiffness increasement when the composite materials aroused. Therefore, it is expected that results of this study give various guides for change of the subtended angles, load cases, boundary conditions, and side-to-thickness ratio.


Buildings contribute 20 to 40% of the world's energy consumption, making the need to regulate and minimize their energy use a priority. A standard protocol was developed by the University of Manitoba Construction Engineering and Management Group to evaluate energy consumption across a sample of Manitoba schools in collaboration with the Manitoba Public School Finance Board. The protocol aims to evaluate school buildings' overall historical energy consumption and real-time electricity consumption at the space level. An extensive literature review was carried out to identify relevant parameters, methods and instruments to evaluate buildings' energy use. The protocol identifies school data parameters as well as historical energy data and real-time electricity data parameters to be collected, related methods and recommended values for these parameters. The protocol is currently being validated through its practical application to the sample of Manitoban schools identified. This protocol is expected to be useful to future researchers looking to evaluate other school buildings in other locations and enable buildings operators and managers to track their buildings' energy performance.


Objective: To explore the effect and possible mechanism of catechin microcapsulation on the repair of DNA damage in glumreular mesangial cells (GMCs) induced by H(subscript 2)O(subscript 2), Methods: According to H(subscript 2)O(subscript 2) concentration, the experiment GMCs were divided into 6 groups: a control group, 50 μ-mol/L group, 100 μ-mol/L group, 150 μ-mol/L group, 200 μ-mol/L group and 250 μ-mol/L group. Each group was sub-divided into 3 groups: 6h group, 12h group and 24h group, in order to determining the optimum dose and the best time of detecting the DNA damage in GMCs. The cultured cells were divided into 8 groups as follows : the NS control group, the H(subscript 2)O(subscript 2) group, the catechin groups (the final concentrations were 10.0, 15.0, and 20.0mg/L respectively) and the various catechin microcapsulation groups (the final concentrations were 10.0, 15.0, and 20.0mg/L respectively). At the end of the experiment, hydroxy radical (OH), malonydialdehyde (MDA) and total superoxide dismutase (tSOD) concentration of supernadant in GMCs were determined by biochemistry assay, the repair of DNA damage in GMCs were detected by single cell gel electrophoresis assay. Results: (1) At 6(superscript th)h, H(subscript 2)O(subscript 2) of 100μmoL/L could cause the DNA damage of GMCs, and H(subscript 2)O(subscript 2) of 150μmollL could result in DNA damage significantly. (2) No difference was found in the comet span of GMCs DNA in the catechin group and catechin microcapsulation group of different concentrations, while the DNA comet tail-long in the catechin microcapsulation group was shorter than that of the catechin group (all Ps < 0.05), and the fluorescence intensity of tail in the catechin microcapsulation group was lower than that of the catechin group (all Ps < 0.01). (3) When the concentration of catechin was 10.0mg/L, no statistical significance was obtained in the concentration of. OH(superscript -), MDA and tSOD between the catechin microcapsulation group and the catechin group; while. OH(superscript -) and MDA concentrations were lower, and the tSOD was higher in the catechin microcapsulation group than that in the catechin group when the concentration of catechin was 15.0 mg/L and 20.0 mg/L (all Ps < 0.05). Conclusion: Catechin microcapsulation can enhance the GMCs ability of repairing DNA damage, which may be due to elevating the capacity of its anti-oxidation by catechin microcapsulation.


Polycrystal MnO2thin films have been deposited using spray pyrolysis deposition technique under a varied thickness. By analyzing the X-ray diffraction, the structure of deposited films was found to be polycrystalline. Different optical properties of these films have been investigated by observing the optical absorption and transmission spectra. Various optical constants such as optical energy gap, the width of band tails of localized states into the gap, and steepness parameter, were calculated and the variation of various optical parameters such as refractive index, extinction coefficient and dielectric constant, with phonon energy are estimated.


Given a sextic CM field $K$, we give an explicit method for finding all genus 3 hyperelliptic curves defined over $\mathbb{C}$ whose Jacobians are simple and have complex multiplication by the maximal order of this field, via an approximation of their Rosenhain invariants. Building on the work of Weng, we give an algorithm which works in complete generality, for any CM sextic field $K$, and computes minimal polynomials of the Rosenhain invariants for any period matrix of the Jacobian. This algorithm can be used to generate genus 3 hyperelliptic curves over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_p$ with a given zeta function by finding roots of the Rosenhain minimal polynomials modulo $p$.


Competition between trade rivals in a marketplace operating within a common law-based legal system is regulated primarily by two fairly distinct branches of the law: the prohibitions against anti-competitive conduct imposed by the competition law framework, and the common law restraints against acts of "unfair competition" that attract liability under the economic torts. This dissertation aims to critically examine both these legal frameworks and provide an integrated account of how these branches of the law distinguish between lawful and unlawful modes of competitive conduct. By scrutinising the doctrinal and policy foundations that underlie each of these legal frameworks, common thematic strands that may not be immediately apparent to lawyers working exclusively in either field will be exposed, while fundamental differences between their respective inner workings will also be uncovered in the process. Engaging in such a comparative exercise will facilitate a deeper understanding of the contrasting objectives and jurisprudential approaches associated with each legal framework which, in turn, sheds some light on the nature of their relationship with each other and the extent to which legal developments in one field ought to influence, or be influenced by, the other. Besides evaluating how and why the common law economic torts operate differently from the competition law prohibitions in circumscribing the liberty of individual competitors to inflict economic harm upon their trade rivals, this dissertation will also analyse selected types of commercial conduct which are regarded as lawful under one framework but unlawful by the other, and contrast them with scenarios which could attract overlapping legal liability under both legal frameworks. In addition, this dissertation will explore a selection of legal issues arising from the doctrinal interaction between these areas of the law that may confront the courts as these two legal frameworks continue to develop in tandem with each other.


Adults experience gradual decline in cognitive function with aging, predominately a modest impairment of memory and recall. For most, this cognitive decline is relatively benign so that activities of daily living are maintained. As people live longer, developing Alzheimer's dementia is becoming a late-life problem; if one reaches 80 years of age, the risk approaches 50%. The pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease is poorly understood, and definitive treatment remains an enigma. Many approved Alzheimer drugs act via a cholinomimetic mechanism of action; they modestly improve functioning by enhancing endogenous acetylcholine within the central nervous system (CNS). However, drugs with anticholinergic (ACH) properties block acetylcholine receptors, antagonizing the central effects of this neurotransmitter and impairing cognition. Many commonly prescribed drugs, by blocking acetylcholine receptors, produce cognitive deficits in older adults.


The invention belongs to the technical field of animal cell culturing, and particularly relates to a method of forming a skeletal muscle cell by induction differentiation by utilization of a pig dedifferentiated adipocyte. A mature adipocyte of pig subcutaneous adipose tissues is separated by a collagenase digestion method, and is dedifferentiated to form the dedifferentiated adipocyte (DFAT cell). The DFAT cell has functions similar to that of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and can be efficiently multiplicated in vitro and can introduce multi-directional differentiation. In addition, by utilization of induction of the galectin-1 protein in vitro, the pig DFAT cell is dedifferentiated to form a multinucleate cell capable of expressing a skeletal muscle cell specific marker molecule.


Objective To explore the experience of paraquat poisoning rescue and preventive measures.Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 60 patients admitted to hospital in recent years,patients with paraquat poisoning.Results 60 cases of paraquat poisoning patients,have a different digestive tract burns,after comprehensive rescue,survival in 7 cases,53 cases of death,mortality rate was 88.33%,both respiratory distress syndrome,in which 18 cases with toxic myocarditis,15 cases of acute renal failure,toxic hepatitis in 11 cases,6 cases of gastrointestinal perforation,subcutaneous emphysema in 3 cases.Time of death after poisoning 2~16d,an average of 9.4d.Conclusion Only by actively carrying out the prevention work in rural areas and a great deal of publicity work on the toxicity of paraquat and strengthen the use of pesticides managed to reduce the oral intake rate;Once a poisoning incident,as soon as possible to implement a comprehensive system for treatment,to reduce the mortality.


Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) models based on turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate or length scale transport equations are commonly used for fully developed turbulence arising from buoyancy, shear, or shocks. It is shown here that RANS models also describe the linear instability phase for buoyancy instabilities (specifically, the Rayleigh–Taylor instability) and shear instabilities (specifically, the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and stratified shear flow). During the initial phases of the evolution of these models, turbulent diffusion is negligible, the fluctuation energy grows exponentially with negligible coupling to the mean flow, and the model coefficients can be chosen such that the growth rate is equivalent to the physical growth rate of short-wavelength perturbations. The reduced equations obtained by neglecting turbulent diffusion correspond to the unclosed RANS equations under the assumptions of linear theory (i.e., retaining only second-order correlations). The correspondence with linear theory requires interpreting the model length scale as a Lagrangian fluid displacement rather than a quantity derived from the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate. The analytical solutions obtained for both the K-ε and K-ℓ models in the absence of diffusion provide insight into the choice of appropriate initial conditions for RANS models, impose various constraints on the model coefficients, and can be used to verify numerical discretizations of the model equations. The analysis also quantifies and addresses issues regarding convergence under grid refinement in the presence of discontinuous mean flows. Paper II [B.M. Johnson and O. Schilling, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes model predictions of linear instability. II: Shock- driven flows, J. Turbul. 12(33) (2011), pp. 1–31] applies the analysis developed herein to shock–turbulence interaction and the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability.


The relevance of participatory – or collaborative – journalism is analysed and questioned by the author, through the case study of Citizenside, a young professional photo agency in which Agence France-Presse holds a 34% stake. This agency collects the images of online contributors and helps sell them to mainstream media for a percentage. The main challenge is to check


The invention discloses a railway vehicle anticollision control method, a railway vehicle anticollision control system and a railway vehicle system, and belongs to the technical field of railway vehicle control. The method is used in the railway vehicle system consisting of at least two railway vehicles which run in the same direction along the same railway, and comprises the following steps of: acquiring running positions of adjacent railway vehicles by a wireless communication mode in real time, comparing the running positions of the adjacent railway vehicles to determine a distance betweenthe adjacent railway vehicles, and adjusting the running speed of the latter railway vehicle of the adjacent railway vehicles according to the determined distance to keep a certain distance between the latter railway vehicle and the former railway vehicle. By the method, the running speed of the latter railway vehicle can be controlled according to the distance between two adjacent railway vehicles to keep a certain distance between the latter railway vehicle and the former railway vehicle, so a collision accident caused by overquick running of the latter railway vehicle between the latter railway vehicle and the former railway vehicle can be avoided. Dangerous situations of mutual collisions between the former railway vehicles and the latter railway vehicles are avoided or reduced, and the running efficiency and the running safety of the railway vehicles are improved.


In this study, the authors propose two fourth-order partial differential equations (PDEs) to inpaint the image. By analysing those anisotropic fourth-order PDEs and comparing their diffusion images, the authors confirm they are forward diffusion or backward diffusion. A numerical algorithm is presented using a finite-difference method and analyse the stability of discretisation. Finally, they show various experimental results and conclude that the proposed new models are better than the second-order and third-order PDEs, especially for weakening the blocky effects.


The solubility of carbon dioxide in 2 and 3 M solutions of 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) was determined at 20, 40, 60, and 80°C and for CO 2 partial pressures ranging from approximately 1 to 100 kPa. The results were interpreted with a modified Kent-Eisenberg model, which predited the present and previous experimental results well. The absorption capacities of AMP and monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions are also compared


The issue of tuberculosis during pregnancy is not simply a historical inquiry but rather an increasingly familiar clinical problem facing industrial nations as well as the developing countries of the world. This review focuses on the maternal aspects of tuberculous infection, as well as transmission to the fetus and newborn.


The individual who has had a stroke is reacting to a situation of stress that has many unique features. Patients who have experienced mild strokes with little or no residual mental impairment react to the stress in their own idiosyncratic fashion. Some will intergrate the experience successfully; others will become enmeshed in psychopathological manoeuvers of varying severity. In patients with moderate or severe brain damage, the situation is quite different. Here the unique features of the stroke are highlighted, the chief of these being that the very organ governing the adaptation to stress is itself impaired. The resulting clinical picture has to be evaluated now, not only in terms of what the experience means to the patient, but also in terms of the capacity the patient has for evaluating the situation.


• Throughout Labour's time in office, the tax and National Insurance system has provided incentives to be self-employed rather than employed, and incorporated rather than unincorporated. The introduction (at 10%) and subsequent reduction (to 0%) of a 'starting' rate of corporation tax on those with profits below £10,000 substantially increased the incentive for small businesses to incorporate. Many new companies were set up as a result, but it is not clear how many were the type of 'entrepreneurial' businesses the government wanted to encourage.


EGYPT. Of dry warm climates the most typical is that of the deserts, such as are to be found in the centre of Australia, that of Gobi in Chinese Tartary, the great deserts in the United States, and the tract which stretches from the great Sahara through Arabia into Persia, of which the Egyptian desert is a part. Egypt will serve well as an example, especially as it has long been used as a winter sanitarium, and a certain amount of experience of its effects has been accumulated. The chief features of the climate of Egypt, most typically exemplified in that of the desert, are, as shown by the works of Marcet, Sandwith, and Zagiell: 1. Warmth. The mean temperature of Cairo in winter is .53.30 F., the sumnmer mean is 761° F.; the maximtum at Cairo is 111 F., and the minimum as low as 3-50. 2. Great difference between night and day temperatures, due to radiation, amounting in winter to 23' F., or even 380 P. 3. Dryness of atmosphere. The rainfall is small: at Cairo. 1.22 incl, falling on from twelve to fifteen days, and is less in Upper Egypt. At Tliebes it is rare for any rain to fall, and in the province of Esnell it is almost unknown. The difference between the wet and dry bulbs somnetimes amounts to 240 F., and the annual relative lhunidiiy percentage varies from 5S.46 at Cairo to 45 at Luxor. The atmospheric dryness is proved by the mummies, which remain uinchanged for centuries. 4. Great atmosplheric putrity. According to Prince Zagiell's observations, while ordinary atmospheric air contains 4 parts of CO, in 10,t 00 parts, the air of the desert contains none at all, and putrefaction appears -checked; meat exposed to the air becomes, without any trace of decoinposition, mumnmified in three weeks. Sturgeons say thlat wounds and -ulcerations lheal rapidly. The climate suffers from veryIhot winds, such as the klvhmsin or south-east, which brings the sand of the desert, and is suifficiently hot to shrivel up roses and other tiowers and to wvarp and crack unseasoned wood. ITnder its influence both natives and Europeans droop and become listless. The climate, though warm, is a great contrast to that of Madeira, being dry and largely influenced by the results of radiation, instead of markedly equable, and it has a most beneficial influence on phthisis, provided the amount of lung area attacked is not excessive, and there be no fever. I have notes of 26 consumptiv-s who have tried this climate for one or more winters, and the results are favourable. The patients were 23 males and 3 females, the average age of the males being 28.43 and that of the females 21.33. The average history of the disease before ,spending the winter in Egypt was 36 65 months, that is, a little more than three years, thus showing that the cases were not all of early phthisis. Family predisposition was present -in 17 cases; hlemoptysis in 18 cases. Seventeen patients had lung tuberculosis alone, and 9 tuberculosis with excavation. In 6 both lungs were implicated, and in 20 the disease was unilateral. Some patients passed one winter in Egypt, otliers two, and a few three or more winters, the average length of residence per patient being 6.46 months. The general results were, improved, 17 or 65 per cent.; stationary. 3 or 11 per cent.; worse, 6 or 23 per cent. The local results were arrest in 1 case, decrease of disease in 10, a stationary condition in 3, advance of disease in 4, advance and extension in 3, extension alone in .3, or local improvement in 11; a stationary condition in 3, deterioration in 10, a much worse result than the general. This dry climate suits asthma remarkably well, and I have -known many asthmatics who have kept entirely clear of attacks during a winter on the Nile. In cases of chronic bronchitis the cough diminishes, expectoration is rapidly reduced, and at last ceases altogether; while the climate suits emphysema on account of the dry warm air and level country, land abundant air without exercise to be obtained on the Nile steamers or dahabiyehs. The patients I have found who do best in Egypt are cases of chronic pneumonia and chronic -dry pleurisy, bronchitis and chronic rheumatism, the clearing up of chronic pneumonia and pleurisies, with the cessation of all symptoms, being remarkable. One of the best results is the promotion of sleep, which may be due partly to the cool nights and partly to the absence of marine influence, which is more or less exciting. Needless to add, that to profit by the climate patients should live in the desert, either by Ascending the Nile, or residing at Luxor, or even at the Mena hIotel at the foot of the Pyramids, as Cairo has all the disgdvantages of a large city for invalid residence. I subjoin a good example of the effect of the Egyptian Climate. A. Greek gentleman, aged 22, consulted me on January 21st, 1877. His father and his brother had died from consumption, the latter of a very acute and obscure form of the disease at 2?2. He complained of cough and expectoration, but had not lost much flesh, but was somewhat languid. There was no rise of temiiperature or of pulse. On examining his chest I found slight dulness above the right scapula, tubular sounds above the clavicle, with crepitation on cough, and some tubular sounds above the left scapula, and prescribed cod-liver oil and a tonic. Five months later, after returning from Palermo, where he had been in the interval, I found him suffering from diarrhcea, three to four motions a day, and decidedly thinner, with a reddish tongue, and with increased physical signs. The crepitation was now audible on the right side from the clavicle to the third rib, distinct crepitation was also heard at the left apex. UJnder dieting and treatment the diarrhoea subsided and the cough diminished, and the patient improved; but in consequence of a relative's death, he travelled from London to Leghorn at the end of June, and was there laid up with a feverish attack and areturn of the diarrhoea. I heard no more of lhim until June 20th, 1878, when I was urgently summiioned to Naples, and found the patient greatly emaciated and very weak, suffering from profuse diarrhcea, stools varying from four to twelve a day, loose and ochrey, his cough troublesome with nummular sputa, tongue reddish, evening temperature 100° F., pulse 96, respirations 28. Hle was scarcely taking any food, but what he did take was solid and of an unwholesome character. On the right side I found tubular sounid over the first interspace, on the left side dulness to sixth rib, cracked pot sound in the first interspace, coarse crepitation to the fourth rib and above the clavicle, and distant cavernous sounds in the first two spaces. Posteriorly there was dulness over the upper two thirds; with fine crepitation; breathing was very deficient in the lower portion of the lung. The Italian medical man whom 1 met in consultation informed m)e that the patient had been sufferinig from diarrhcea for months, which was with difficulty checked and lnot stopped, and solid food with claret had beeln permitted. I found the patient witlh an excellent sceur (le charit4, who complained that she had no system of treatment to pursue; a firstrate cook, quite conmpetent to carry out an invalid dietary, but with no directions. and with a devoted brother and faithful servants longing to be of assistance, and yet the poor man was lying in the sweltering heat of Naples in June, starvingfor want of suitable food. and such comforts as no hospital patient lacks in England. I succeeded in removing him to Leghorn in an invalid,carriage, and he bore the journey well, and under the influenee of a liquid dietary and cooler air he soon improved, the diarrhcaa being at length brought under by injections of linseed tea. The temperature and pulse fell, and in the autumn lie was sufficiently recovered to bear a journey, and I recommended his wintering in Egypt, anid ascendivg the Nile in a dahabiyeh. He returned to ltaly next spring greatly imiiproved, having gained flesh, with cough and expectoration reduced, and the physical signs improved, as the doctor in Cairo reported to me. He spent a second winter on the Nile with favourable results, but pssed the summer of 1880 at Naples, where he seems to have led an ineautious life, andthe diarrhcea reCirned. Hedied in October, and over his grave his brother has erected a magnificent reproduction of one of the temples at Luxor, as a tribute to the land of Egypt. In this case the patient was a southerner; the tuberculous disease was hereditary, and developed rapidly and the obstinate character of the diarrhoea and stools passing left little doubt as to the existence of intestinal ulceration. When I visited him at Naples his disease was making such rapid progress that it did not appear probable that he would last many weeks, but with change of climate and careful dietetic and medicinal treatment he rapidly improved, and under the dry and warm Egyptian climate he lived on for more than two years in ease and apparently in great comfort. Doubtless the fact of his southern origin had some influence on the climate of Egypt proving so congenial to him.


This letter presents the optoelectrical performance of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) through the elevation of indium tin oxide (ITO) anode work function by Ni co-sputter surface doping and additional O2 plasma treatment. The turn-on voltage of OLED devices can be reduced by 2.3V for Ni atomic concentration greater than 1.8% and by 2.7V for the additional O2 plasma treatment. Devices with Ni(2.6%)-doped and O2 plasma treated ITO anodes perform the highest luminance efficiency (0.91lm∕W), three times larger than undoped ITO (0.31lm∕W) at 250cd∕m2.


: The toll Road is a transportation infrastructure that connects one particular place to another in a road network system. Its function is as an alternative way to overcome traffic congestion or to shorten the distance from one place to another. In the Year 2017 has been inaugurated Surabaya Mojokerto toll road which is a liaison between the city of Surabaya and Mojokerto. However, the problem is that there are some people who do not choose to use toll roads, they feel that toll road services are still too expensive and still use non-toll roads. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze whether there is the influence of location factor, income and tariff on toll service usage decision. This research uses multiple linear regression analysis. The population in this study are all consumers who have used the Surabaya-Mojokerto toll service. Sampling technique is Purposive Sampling method. With the sample, criteria are those who have used SUMO toll service services and aged 18 years and over, as many as 100 people. From the result of research, location factor, income and tariff significantly equal to 61,7% influence to the decision of toll service usage. For the most dominant factor and significantly influenced is the income factor.


November saw the publication of a detailed report into prescribing errors by junior doctors that had been commissioned by the General Medical Council (Dornan et al, 2009). This study identified a prescribing error rate of approximately 10% and sought to understand the reasons for—and nature of—prescribing errors, which included a lack of familiarity with prescription forms, illegible handwriting, failure to prescribe regular medication on admission, and incorrect drugs or doses being prescribed. The report also highlighted that most of these errors were identified before the drug was administered to a patient by a senior doctor, a nurse or more commonly a pharmacist.


Iodine is an essential trace element, which is essential for the formation and development of a complete organism. Attempts to eliminate iodine deficiency are reduced to mass prevention by iodination of certain foods, but it is not possible to prevent iodine deficiency in groups with an increased need for this groups. This demonstrates the need for drug use potassium iodide into the population groups for which iodine deficiency is the most dangerous - for pregnant, lactating women and children. Iodine deficiency can cause mental retardation, which creates health and social threat to many countries of the world, therefore the world conducts research on the basis on the dose of potassium iodide to prevent iodine deficiency in different populations.


A study was conducted in 19 villages of 4 sites in three ecozone namely gullies and ravines; degraded pastureland and desertic/sand dune in common access resources (CARs) of theThar region of Rajasthan. The study revealed that the high floral diversity with 22 species in Kundal in Barmer district and low floral diversity in sandy area of Mokal and Ramgarh in Jaisalmer district had 12 species each respectively. Carbon stock in the form of vegetation ranged from 0.24 to 1.81 Mg ha-1 whereas soil organic carbon ranged from 1.13 to 5.18 Mg ha-1. Selective removal and overgrazing has resulted in encroachment of Prosopis juliflora and other shrubs of low value in most of the CARs. The study indicated that changes in floral diversity and soil organic carbon are the best indicator of degradation.


prepared by Westminster Tobacco Co. Ltd. London. In Fig. 1. (in the original paper) the method of measurement has been graphically shown. In Fig. 2. the temperature change with time is manifested. Temperature is given by ordinate, time by abscissa in minutes. In this diagram process of combustion are clearly seen. In case of the cigar the temperature increases gradually. Such condition must be favourable for the distillation of nicotin, nicotein and other essential components. In case of cigarettes the maximum temperature is attained suddenly, so that heat decomposition must set in, before most parts of essential components can be distilled or sublimated. It can be noticed that cigarettes of Westminster Tobacco Co. shows much higher combustion temperature than ordinary cigar, and latter has again higher combustion temperature than the Japanese cigarettes.


Selective hydrogenolysis of aryl ethers to produce aromatic compounds is a key strategy for lignin valorization. The use of non-noble-metal catalysts to realize the cleavage of C–O ether bonds under mild conditions has been of considerable research interest recently. We herein report the synthesis of a nitrogen-doped porous-carbon-skeleton-supported Ni–CeO2 catalyst (Ni–CeO2/CN). The synergistic effect between Ni and CeO2 species led to the Ni–CeO2/CN catalyst having a high activity and selectivity for the cleavage of C–O ether bonds at a low reaction temperature. In particular, the Ni–CeO2/CN catalyst showed excellent effectiveness in the hydrogenolysis of benzyl phenyl ether (α-O-4 bonds), and the full conversion was achieved after 2 h at a temperature of 60 °C, with phenol and toluene as the sole reaction products. In addition, the conversion of more robust β-O-4 ether bonds in 2-phenoxy-1-phenylethanol reached up to 100% with the yield of ethylbenzene and phenol at 150 °C for 2.5 h being 60.2% and 68.3%, respectively. The reusability-experiment results indicate that Ni–CeO2/CN maintained a high catalytic activity in five reaction runs, making this a promising route for C–O ether bond cleavage under mild conditions.


Tomato is one of the high antioxidant potential vegetables. Nowadays, there are many techniques of tomato processings instead of fresh consumption, i.e. boiled, steamed, juiced and sauteed. Every treatment of cooking will influence the chemical compound inside the fruits and the body's nutrition intake. It is important to conduct the research on antioxidant compound especially lycopene, ?-carotene, vitamin C, ?-tocopherol, and its activity after processing. This research has been done using the experimental method. Tomatoes were cooked into six difference ways, and then it was extracted using the same procedure continued with antioxidant measurement. The research results showed that steaming had promoted the higher antioxidant numbers (lycopene. ?-tocopherol, ?-carotene and vitamin C) and higher TCA and antioxidant activities in the tomatoes than other processings. It was indicated that steaming was the best way to enhance amount, capacity and activities of antioxidants of the tomatoes.


The technological advances which have made current development of Venezuela's extra-heavy oils and bitumens resource base economical can, in the future, make them even more so, within a given oil price range. In addition, these advances can also make previously uneconomical developments economically viable and attractive.


Non-metallic Kaolin resources are important mineral products and can be used extensively.Several utilization methods of its deep processing are listed as in the fields of papermaking,plastics,rubber,and paint,etc.The comprehensive utilization of its tailings is also introduced.


Stability of control systems with multiple nonlinearities is discussed. A non-Lure type Lyapunov function is presented, which surpasses the Lure-type function from the point of view of the stability region guaranteed. This function is used to establish a stability criterion for the system. The superiority of the function proposed is indicated by a numerical example, comparing the stability boundary to that obtained by a Lure-type Lyapunov function.


A neutron lifetime measurement conducted at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) is counting the number of electrons from neutron decays with a time projection chamber (TPC). The $\gamma$ rays produced in the TPC cause irreducible background events. To achieve the precise measurement, the inner walls of the TPC consist of $^6$Li-enriched lithium-fluoride ($^6$LiF) tiles to suppress the amount of $\gamma$ rays. In order to estimate the amount of $\gamma$ rays from the $^{6}{\rm LiF}$ tile, prompt gamma ray analysis (PGA) measurements were performed using germanium detectors. We reconstructed the measured $\gamma$-ray energy spectrum using a Monte Carlo simulation with the stripping method. Comparing the measured spectrum with a simulated one, the number of $\gamma$ rays emitted from the$^{6}{\rm LiF}$ tile was $(2.3^{+0.7}_{-0.3}) \times 10^{-4}$ per incident neutron. This is $1.4^{+0.5}_{-0.2}$ times the value assumed for a mole fraction of the $^{6}{\rm LiF}$ tile. We concluded that the amount of $\gamma$ rays produced from the $^{6}{\rm LiF}$ tile is not more twice the originally assumed value.


Skin detection plays an important role in a wide range of image processing and computer vision applications. In short, there are three major approaches for skin detection: rule-based, machine learning and hybrid. They differ in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. Generally, machine learning and hybrid approaches outperform the rule-based methods, but require a large and representative training dataset as well as costly classification time, which can be a deal breaker for real time applications. In this paper, we propose an improvement of a novel method on rule-based skin detection that works in the YCbCr color space. Our motivation is based on the hypothesis that: (1) the original rule can be reversed and, (2) human skin pixels do not appear isolated, i.e. neighborhood operations are taken in consideration. The method is a combination of some correlation rules based on these hypothesis. Such rules evaluate the combinations of chrominance Cb, Cr values to identify the skin pixels depending on the shape and size of dynamically generated skin color clusters. The method is very efficient in terms of computational effort as well as robust in very complex image scenes.


Swept by the financial storm in the USA and Europe, the economic environment has been deteriorating at home and abroad. Private economy of Quanzhou is under high downward pressure. As far as the endogenous development of private economy of Quanzhou is concerned, to put the innovation-driven strategy proposed at the 18 th National Congress of CPC into practice is a realistic choice. It's important to establish and improve modern industrial system of Quanzhou by means of promoting upgrade by innovation and promoting development by upgrade. It's necessary to improve innovation mechanism, cultivate capacity for innovation, perfect innovation system and protect innovation environment to fully stimulate inner dynamics and vitality of innovation.


This paper introduces a stabilization technique of nonlinear coupled analysis for hydraulic excavators, in which a rigid body system and a hydraulic system are coupled. Also introduced is a "Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation (HILS)" for electric motors, in which the above technique is exploited. The rigid body system consists of a rotating element and a linear motion element, and the stabilization technique converts the motion of the rotating element into linear motion, enabling the motion of both the systems to be described in an ordinary differential equation without introducing any constraint conditions for the rigid bodies. This enables a coupled analysis with one motion equation that shares the state quantities of both the systems, thus improving the stability of the numerical analysis. This technique has been used to simulate in realtime the actual load acting on the electric motor, which has been reproduced on a motor-load testing apparatus and has realized an electric motor HILS system.


This paper examines the effects of database generalization on the area which is determined to be visible in GIs analysis. Many different methods of generalization are possible, but here, for any cell at the target resolution, elevations are determined from: the arithmetic mean, the maximum, the minimum, and the maximum difference from the mean of the cells within the kernel, and all possible combinations of regular spacings. The resolutions studied are 0.5, 0.33, 0.25, and 0.2 of the original study area. The viewsheds determined over these different resolution DEMs are compared with a number of possible viewsheds derived by generalization of the viewshed over the original DEM. Of those tested the maximum deviation from the mean within kernel provides the best estimate of the pattern and area of the viewshed at all resolutions.


Plasma membranes were isolated from normal rat livers, livers of rats fed for various periods of time with 4‐dimethylaminoazobenzene (4‐DAB), primary hepatomas, and transplants of hepatoma 484. The tissues were homogenized in three media, i.e. 1 mM HCO3 of pH 7.5, 1 mM NaHCO3 containing 2 mM CaCl2, and 2.8 mM citric acid. The isolated plasma membranes were assayed for enzymes previously demonstrated in plasma membranes isolated from rat‐liver homogenates prepared in 1 mM NaHCO3.


A field study compared the click-through rates of box and banner web ads with red and blue color schemes using data from more than 1.5 million ad impressions from 12 months of traffic on a popular news website. For box ads, a red (versus blue) color scheme generated substantially higher click-through rates, but for banner ads the effect of color was less pronounced. Consistent with research on color and attention, ads with a red color scheme elicited a greater number of responses. This finding also suggests, though, that habituation to certain types of ads, such as banner ads, can attenuate the effect of ad attributes.


Excellence for Sustainability and the Logical Culmination of an ArgumentIntroductionThis piece could well be seen as a critical preview of "Excellence in Management {Contemporary Trends towards Business Sustainability}" authored by Professor Sorab Sadri. This, I opine is a very timely book recently being published by Lap-Lambert Publications, Germany 2014. It will be available on Amazon Books and Flip kart.com as well. It is perhaps so entitled because the argument posited therein takes the reader in the Kantian ethics from a quest for excellence of itself (an sich) and for itself (fur sich) to the need for business sustainability in a competitive world and the role of excellence therein. The basic argument in the book is that managerial ethics forms the bedrock of good corporate governance and the two combine together to approximate organizational excellence. However, like Sadri, I too opine that excellence remains a pipe dream unless it is converted into business sustainability. Sustainability involves acceptance of the business by the environment i.e. civil society. If not, trouble like that witnessed in the case of Monsanto Foods and BT Brinjal will be repeated. One of the ways of gaining acceptability is promoting quality and the other involves reaching out to the society in general and stakeholders in particular. This is where Corporate Social Responsibility plays a dominant role and initiatives to promote CSR become important. This logic was seen in its articulated form in this book and reflects the Marxian Methodology background of the author who is a well acclaimed political economist of development currently Professor and Dean at JECRC University, Jaipur.In my considered opinion "Managing for Excellence" is a specific subject offering for postgraduate students of Management Sciences in many leading academic institutions like the University of Pune and covered at the University of Mumbai and other leading citadels of learning as well. This deceptively simple-to-read textbook covers the syllabus for a very important and yet complex subject that the authors have examined from the perspective of inter-disciplinary scholarship thereby allowing the student to understand and appreciate the finer points of excellence. Unlike other works, (of Sadri) written solely for consumption of research scholars and professors, this particular work is (allegedly as well as explicitly) aimed precisely at the needs postgraduate student of management sciences.The very nature of the curriculum for this subject offering is such that it is difficult to find a single facilitator to do justice to it. Hence, Sadri (correctly) opines that the subject should either be taught by a team of experts or be handled by a sufficiently senior (experienced) scholar who can convert it into an interactive and seminar-presentation based offering. He has inserted a proviso in the Prologue namely, should this subject offering be converted into a seminar based offering, the presentations must be of very good quality, be thoroughly researched and be properly vetted. It would be advisable that this subject offering is not left to the whims and mercies of professors, who merely teach in several institutes at once and have little time to update their notes. It is imperative that Visiting Professors actively continue with either management consultancy or research to update their knowledge and skills. This is equally true of ex-servicemen who gain a higher degree start a new career in management education and often fail to update their domain knowledge. Such persons are known to regurgitate the same tripe ad infinitum and ad nauseum much to the chagrin of the students. Consequently, they either depend on their gift of the gab or on the borrowed notes from colleagues, rather than on a deep understanding and their knowledge of the subject. Under the circumstances, woe - betide the student! Ex-servicemen who take up corporate assignments and then move into academics are a class apart for they bring to the class their knowledge of the corporate world and their lectures become enriched. …


The M-state lifetime of bacteriorhodopsin (BR) could be significantly prolonged by using diaza-15-crown-5 as a chemical additive in BR−PVA films. With increasing additive content, the decay of the M-state was slowed gradually. At the highest BR/diaza-15-crown-5 molecular ratio of 1:250, the lifetime of the M state (τ1/e) could be prolonged to 568 s, which represents over a 4-order-of-magnitude improvement on the 10-ms lifetime of the native BR protein.


A gear is an essential component of most mechanical or electromechanical systems. Mechanical gears are readily used in automobile and industrial applications for torque transmission and speed variation purposes. Recent significant increase in research and development activities on magnetic gears (MG) indicates its potential in effectively replacing mechanical gears from industrial and other applications. Thus, the gradual developments of MG and magnetically geared machines have opened up innumerable opportunities for engineers and researchers. However, being a relatively new technology, the concept of MG is still unclear to many potential researchers. This paper is aimed at presenting an overview of the state of the art in MG technology, the gradual development of MG topologies, its design characteristics, optimization techniques, and a guideline for selecting suitable materials for gear construction. The MG technology is still in its early stage of development but has a huge opportunity for further improvement. The MG not only promises an ability to replace the mechanical gear, but also offers many other added advantages including increased lifespan of the machine, maintenance cost reduction, and reliable operation. Although intensive research works are being done on MGs, it is presently still unable to replace mechanical gears in industrial applications due to the holdback from the industry-readiness of MGs. The limitations and future possibilities discussed at the end of this paper could benefit readers interested in developing innovative ideas for an industry-ready version of MG.


Abstract In this paper we deal with an important, practical problem, namely how to determine the timing and the sizes of the replenishments of an item having probabilistic demand with an average value that varies significantly with time. We provide a heuristic approach to resolving this complex problem; this approach permits sequential answers to the following questions: i) is it time to order? ii) how long a period should the replenishment be expected to cover? iii) how large should the replenishment be?


As Chair of NICE, and President-elect of the RSM, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this supplement which is comprised of review articles commissioned by NICE as part of the development of its Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme.


We discuss how the computational obstacles related to energy denominators in various schemes for electron‐correlation calculations can be circumvented by a Laplace transform technique. The method is applicable to a wide variety of electronic structure calculations. We discuss in detail an algorithm for the contribution of triple excitations in fourth‐order Mo/ller–Plesset perturbation theory, which grows only with the sixth power of the size of the system, as compared to conventional N7 algorithms. Special consideration is given to efficient schemes for numerical quadrature of the integrals occurring in the Laplace transformations.


Professors Nancy King and Susan Klein devote most of their Commentary to a single subsection of my recent article.1 My entire article argued that Apprendi v. New Jersey2 exemplified criminal procedure's misguided focus on jury trials at the expense of the real world of guilty pleas. Professors King and Klein focus on my narrower point that Apprendi undercuts due process by making it harder for many defendants to secure judicial hearings after they plead guilty. In summary, I argued that defendants used to be able to get the massive benefits of pleading guilty while still enjoying enhancement hearings at sentencing. Now that enhancements are issues for jury trials, defendants cannot gain both benefits. They must either allocute to and concede these enhancement issues to gain guilty-plea benefits or go to trial on enhancement issues and forfeit these plea benefits. Professors King and Klein claim that defendants face no additional pressure to give up hearings under this scheme. But they fail to see how prosecutorial and judicial behavior reinforce the pressures to plead guilty, making hearings harder to secure for many defendants.


This systematic review examined the effects of concurrent strength and endurance training in relation to running economy (RE), maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) and lactate threshold (LT). In addition, the examination of combined core-strengthening and endurance running and the use of strength training to protect endurance runners from musculoskeletal running injuries. The authors' complied with PRIMSA guidelines. The outcome interest was concurrent strength training and endurance running, exposure was endurance runners. Seven electronic databases were searched for publications meeting the following inclusion criteria; concomitant strength training and endurance running ranging from 2003-2013, with 48 relevant publications being identified. These were assessed for quality resulting in 25 English published articles; however 15 intervention and two review studies were used. Concurrent strength training and endurance running improves the RE of endurance runners, without impacting on their VO2max and LT. Combined core strength training and running had contradictory findings regarding the benefits for enhanced running performance. The use of strength training as a protective measure against musculoskeletal running injuries has shown to be a worthwhile intervention. It is recommended that future prospective randomized controlled studies using large samples, longer interventions, and completion times of 10km, 21.1km and 42.2km be used to determine the success of concurrent strength and endurance training.


It was more than twenty years ago since many countries have redesigned their governmental governance system. In essence, the goal of these reforms is to reconstruct the relationship between country and society, and the relationship between public sector and private sector, which firstly gives expression to rearrange the system of public service, namely, it is permitted that plural modes co exist in the supplying structure and supplying process in order to improve the supplying level. At present, there are at least three supplying modes in the domain of public service in many countries, including authoritative typed supply, commercial typed supply, voluntary typed supply. The analysis on the experiences of these reforms will benefit China.


To understand the research progresses of these three unique wheats including Yunnan wheat(Triticum aestivum ssp.yunnanense King),Tibetan wheat(Triticum aestivum ssp.tibetanum Shao) and Xinjiang wheat(T.petropavloski Udats et Migusch),the research progresses of these three unique wheats in classification,origin and evolution,unique characters,genetic diversity were reviewed and further research directions and advices were proposed.Based on morphology,chromosome constitution and SSR molecular markers analysis,Yunnan wheat and Tibetan wheat have been taxonomically classified as a subspecies in T.aestivum,and Xinjiang wheat has been taxonomically classified as an absolute species in T.aestivum.Yunnan wheat and Tibetan wheat might be the progenitor of the ancestor T.aestivum introduced from the Middle East.Xinjiang wheat might be the progenitor of the ancestor T.aestivum introduced from the Middle East and Chinese Polonicum.Yunnan wheat and Tibetan wheat have higher genetic diversity than Xinjiang wheat.


ABSTRACT In a relatively short period of time, the Trump administration has been fairly active in the field of space. The reconstitution of the National Space Council, under the direction of Vice President Pence, the President's signing of Space Policy Directive 1, that calls for the return of humans to the Moon, and the announcement of a National Space Strategy that calls for an 'America first' approach in space, have been the highlights of this process. A key component of the administration's approach has been the promotion of commercial (private) space activities through an effort of regulatory reform intended to facilitate free enterprise and individual initiative in space. Overall, it is evident that the Trump administration views a consolidated US leadership in space as instrumental to 'Make America Great Again'. However, due to the lack of cohesion in the management of the US space program, the controversial interpretation of international principles and the US-centred view of space endorsed by the administration, doubts remain as to whether the space policy of the Trump administration will foster US leadership in space or lead to its progressive isolation.


With housing industrialization being accelerated, every relevant enterprise would be requested to find its accurate development direction and space in the housing industry chain for strengthing its power. From the concept, pitchpoint relationship and characteristics of the housing chain, the basic connotation of it is described in this paper. So the formation, the existing problems and the future development trends of this chain in China are analyzed, which will help enterprise to grasp or form itself industry chain, in the end the competitive position of industry will be established, and the brand advantage will be formed.


The coordinated aggregation-based particle swarm optimisation (CA-PSO) technique is implemented for learning linear operators. In the developed learning algorithm, the swarm consists of linear operators instead of particles. Each candidate operator in the population is attracted only by operators with better objectives than its own; with the exception of the operator with the best achievement which moves randomly as a 'crazy' agent. The CA-PSO learning algorithm learns optimal quantum and other linear operators and its results are compared with those given by Dan Ventura's learning algorithm and genetic algorithms. The comparison proves an improved performance of the developed learning algorithm over the state-of-the-art methods.


Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to have been invited to address this distinguished gathering. I do not as a rule accept speaking engagements, but I could not refuse this one. I have come out of a sense of compassion and fellowship. I come with compassion because I know of the agonies and distress you suffer as you attempt to gain some sense of the direction in which we must move if we are to save mankind. I come in fellowship because, together with some of your members, I have shared the travail of major environmental litigation. I say in all sincerity that unless the process can be improved, God save us all. The system isn't working. It is unnecessary for me to recount to this audience the horrendous misdeeds that are daily being perpetrated upon millions of people in the name of progress. These millions of persons are innocent and unknowing. They have learned to rely upon government and science to take all necessary steps to protect them from harm. Yet, the sad fact is that even if they didn't choose to so rely, there is little they could do as individuals to protect themselves and their families. In fact, there a re few of you who really know "which way to turn." The problems are of such magnitude that individual precautions are useless and sometimes counterproductive. Wasn't it in this very city that in avoiding cholesterol, the lady ate too much swordfish and got mercury poisoning? In a lighter vein, even the organic gardener now faces new hazards as he produces. He doesn't want to be poisoned from the inside out. Well, I can't say he faces his problems. While he was bending over to tend his unpolluted crop, someone removed his ozone layer. Now he will be poisoned from the outside and from the bottom side up. I n that connection, we are told to stay out of the sun while further studies are made and until industry has sufficient lead time to switch products, or a t least until after the election. I suppose that by then, our government can give a very substantial grant to the same companies to do research in making ozone from chlorine-after all, who should know better. I think we can generally agree that the individual is unable to avoid the consequences of industrial wastes, or by-products, that are released into the environment. Yet, when the individual pollutes, the situation is reversed, and the law is quick to act. I f a private householder allows his biodegradable cesspool to leak onto the surface or into surface waters, the law will stop him in his tracks. I n actual practice, you are not allowed to dump home sewage into rivers in miniscule amounts. To pollute a river legally, you must discharge many thousands or millions of gallons daily. This imbalance in the enforcement scales does not go unnoticed by the citizens of this country. I do not believe it has escaped your notice, and as for me, it has caused many days and nights of concern; yet, 1 am not like the fisherman who dreams about the big one that got away. There are more than enough polluters to attract our attention. The demand for resources, metals, food, and fibers has reached unprecedented heights. The demand for the quality of living has permeated every segment of our society. Even the poor are demanding goods and services that only a few short years ago were undreamed of by their parents. Each new edition of the scientific journals,


The deployment of femtocells comes as a solution to increase indoor coverage although it may also increase the interference level in the network. In this paper we evaluate the use of multiple co-channel femtocells as relays to the outdoor user in a cognitive radio context, where the outdoor user can be seen as a primary user and the indoor users are seen as secondary users. We show that multiple co-channel femtocells, besides allowing several secondary users to access the spectrum, may considerably increase the performance of the primary user if the femtocells act as relays to the primary signal. Moreover, results show that with the increase of the number of cooperative co-channel femtocells the capacity constraints on the backhaul can be relaxed.


Semiconductors, which are electrically anisotropic, are often obtained due to their methods of preparation or their own characteristics. Measurement values of such anisotropic semiconductors obtained by the van der Pauw method are simulated using the finite-element method (FEM). It is clarified that the values are quite sensitive to anisotropy of the carrier mobility, and variations in the measurement values can reach about two orders of magnitude even when the anisotropy is small.


To identify the liquid circulation flow structure in a bubble column, a set of multipoint tracer injection and detection device was developed for a systematic study in a bubble column of 550 cm in height and 50 cm in diameter. Tracer response profiles were measured to track the liquid flowing trajectory under various flow conditions in the column with and without draft tubes. They showed that only when the draft tube length was greater than 3 m could the tracer response exhibit obvious periodicity. To resolve the liquid circulation flow structure in the time and frequency domain, wavelet multiresolution analysis was adopted. The results showed that the liquid circulation frequency increased with superficial gas velocity, which is in agreement with the published literature. It was also found that the macroscale, mesoscale, and microscale circulation loops coexisted in the bubble column.


Understanding information requirement is all information search and information,and information used to create a starting point,if there is no specific information requirements,it is impossible to have the right information to find strategies and action,it cannot make clear to the reader's information demand judgment,should treat the needs of users from a dynamic perspective,developed under user information needs change,adjust service strategy can effectively do the job.This investigation aims through the survey of users ' characteristics,user comments and user of school information resources and personalized service information literacy.


This study aims at examining the relationships among perception, attitude, intent of purchase, and intent of recommendation of environment-friendly agricultural products by nutritionists. Furthermore, it aims at identifying nutritionists' desire to purchase environment-friendly agricultural products and analyzes which factors affect the purchase of environment-friendly agricultural products in school meals. This study also provides basic data to improve the safety and quality of food. The results indicate that the correlation of variables (parents satisfaction, perception of nutritionists, attitude of nutritionists, intent of recommendation, and intent of purchase) was significant. For tests of hypotheses, it was found that satisfaction of parents had an impact on the attitude of nutritionists (hypothesis H1). In hypothesis H2, perception of nutritionists had a significant impact on attitude. In hypotheses H3 and H4, attitude had a significant impact on intent of purchase. These results showed that the variables of perception of nutritionists, attitude, intent of purchase and intent of recommendation on environment-friendly agricultural products affected each other.


We present an original strategy for the calculation of direct and inverse photo-emission spectra from first principles.
 The main goal is to go beyond the standard Green's function approaches, such as the $GW$ method, in order to find a good description not only of the quasiparticles but also of the satellite structures, which are of particular importance in strongly correlated materials.
 To this end we use as a key quantity the three-body Green's function, or, more precisely, its hole-hole-electron and electron-electron-hole parts, and we show how the one-body Green's function, and hence the corresponding spectral function, can be retrieved from it.
 We show that, contrary to the one-body Green's function, information about satellites is already present in the non-interacting three-body Green's function. Therefore, simple approximations to the three-body self-energy, which is defined by the Dyson equation for the three-body Green's function and which contains many-body effects, can still yield accurate spectral functions. In particular, the self-energy can be chosen to be static which could simplify a self-consistent solution of the Dyson equation.
 We give a proof of principle of our strategy by applying it to the Hubbard dimer, for which the exact self-energy is available.


The Tragedy of the Commons is a common way to describe strategic interactions between gain-maximizing rational actors when faced with choices about consuming commonly held public goods. In the absence of a state authority or private property rights, the phrase and its accompanying theory posit that self-interested actors will invariably deplete commonly held resources when allowed to control access to them. This essay will formalize the tragedy of the commons as a prisoner's dilemma and show how the prisoners dilemma can be used to represent the over-use of commonly-held resources (while also modifying the prisoner's dilemma game to allow for incomplete information and state enforcement). By suggesting alternative analytical representations of the dilemma faced by actors in the commons, and exploring empirical cases of effective commons management systems enacted by the same communities that consume the common resource, this essay will show that that over-use (to the point of depletion) of a commons is not the inevitable outcome of individuals and communities governing the resources they use. Ultimately, the destiny of the commons is not unambiguously tragic.


The IIUM Library at Main Campus Gombak has designed a Liaison Librarian programme,in which each Kuliyyah is assigned a reference librarian who is responsible on matters related to the Library and Kuliyyah. The Liaison Librarians work in partnership with Kuliyyah members to deliver information services, teach information literacy skills and develop the Library's subject collections to support the University's teaching, learning and research programmes. The programme has been initially practised by the Library since the year 2000. Within two (2) years, the library management has instilled the programme with workable processes and selected personnel. Since its existence, in ten (10) years' time, the programme continuously received positive feedbacks from the users. This study examined Kulliyah's member's perceptions on the effectiveness of Liaison Librarians programme set up by the IIUM Library. A survey was distributed to the Kulliyah Board Members during the Kulliyyah Board Meeting (KBM) in order to measure effectiveness rate of the Liaison programme. In the survey, the members are expected to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme in terms of the communication mechanism, librarian personality and model of programme. The survey involved KBM members from Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Law (AIKOL), Kulliyyah of ICT, Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge & Human Science, Kulliyyah of Engineering, Kulliyyah of Economics, Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design, Institute of Education and Centre of Languages. Undoubtedly the liaison librarians are the intermediary personnel to convey all library matters to the Kulliyah members. Therefore, this study revealed how well the Kulliyyah members appreciated and how satisfied they were with the Liaison Librarian programme modelled by the IIUM Library.


There are many reasons to review a book about the life and work of Nikolay Vavilov8. What leads us to do it today is closely related to the fate of the Pavlovsk experimental station, Vavilov's horticultural garden. There, where thousands of plant varieties are cultivated, property speculation is likely to take the place of the huge "living collection" of crop biodiversity. The conservation of crop biodiversity, a key element for the future of agriculture, always had a complex history. Indeed, another collection introduced by Nikolai Vavilov, the genebank in St. Petersburg, has already been threatened. The heroic deeds of the institute's keepers to save the gene-bank have become legendary; these men preferred to starve to death rather than feed on the seed collections gathered by the great Russian botanist and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov. It is with the moving chronicle of those days that Gary Paul Nabhan's book starts off , introducing us to the life and work of Vavilov. Nikolai Vavilov was born in 1887 in Moscow. A young agronomist and geneticist, he set up the fi rst project of exploration and conservation of plant genetic resources. Combining ethnography, genetics and ecology, his holistic approach led him to track down the geographic origins of cultivated plants and explore factors that allow them to adapt to their environment. However, soon after Vavilov's institutional success in the 1920s, Stalin and the party bureaucrats considered Vavilov's genetic research program elitist and of very little direct benefi t for Russian agriculture. In a background of famine, Vavilov's slow and complicated approach as well as his good relations with Western geneticists, made him a perfect scapegoat blamed for the diffi culties encountered by the Soviet agricultural policy. Attacked by Trofi m Lysenko, one of the regime's favorite agronomists in 1930s, Vavilov ended his days imprisoned in Saratov where he died in 1943. Nabhan, an ethnobiologist at the University of Arizona and founder of Slow Food USA, tells us about the journey he made on the footsteps of Vavilov, reviving his memory and reconstructing his research activity with passionate devotion. One of the fi rst photographs of Vavilov reproduced in the book, shows him in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1936 in front of a table covered with grapes. This picture reminds us of the long and tragic journey of a mass of starving people to this mythical city where bread was to be found, as described by Neverov in Tachkent, the City of Plenty. These two images symbolize the battle engaged byone of the main challenges of that time, which Vavilov throughout the fi ve continents in search of the sources of our food and ourended up to represent: guaranteeing food security. Continuing his journey. The author tries, in a perhaps slightly anachronistic way, to discover in the work of Vavilov elements that are present in modern concepts of use and conservation and use of crop biodiversity in the work of Vavilov. He highlights how the geneticist was probably the fi rst to articulate the concept of "loss of agricultural biodiversity", coming to the conclusion that "agricultural biodiversity is the cornerstone of better food security for mankind".


A material is needed for bipolar plate materials in molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) that combines the low oxide resistivity of 316L stainless steel (SS) with the low corrosion rate of the type 310 SS. We tested a group of materials that included Nitronic 50 SS and a newly developed high-temperature nickel-rich alloy, having chromium contents ranging from 16 to 31 wt %. Our results indicate that chromium content is the primary determinant of oxide scale composition and resistivity. In the MCFC cathode compartment, all tested alloys formed a duplex structure with an inner Cr-rich layer and an outer Fe-rich one. The composition of the inner Cr-rich layer was determined by the chromium content of the base alloy and has a controlling effect on scale resistivity. Oxide scale resistivity was measured for three electrolyte compositions: Li/K, Li/Na, and newly developed (Li, Na, Ca, Ba) carbonates. Changes in the physical/mechanical properties (spallation/cracking) in the oxide scale of 316L SS provided an understanding of its resistivity fluctuations over time.


tive-the only available means of stopping an epidemic in full course. The technique of biological control is intriguing. By its very nature it tends to be highly specific and usually the outcome of long-term (or extended) and costly research. Furthermore, we have far too many economic pests for a biological control agent to be developed for each, even assuming this were possible. In the control of Klamath weed by Chrysolina beetles range management has scored a striking success but there is no parallel to this type of biological control in forest management. Even in chemical control the need for clarification is considerable. "Persistence", for example. is a relative term that can mean hours, days, months, or years. The worst insect epidemics typically involve large forest areas with varied topography and environments: at any given time the insects are apt to be in many different stages of development. This seldom is true in small areas of field crops and the whole insect population there is usually vulnerable to treatment as a unit for at least a brief period. In the case of a forest, only a part of the pest-insect population will be at the right stage of development to be controlled by a short-lived chemical. Perhaps the need for some persiatence in range chemicals is not as pressing but the point is that overemphasis of non-persistence, in order to meet the special needs of agriculture and public sentiment, could LAWRENCE


A method was established for determining Vitamin C(Vc) in tea beverages by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC).The determination was conducted with a ZOBRAX SB-C 18 column used at 28℃.The mobile phase was 0.1% acetic acid solution,a DAD detector was used with a flow rate of 1.0mL/min and a detection wavelength of 250nm.The standard working curve of Vitamin C had a good liner relation in the concentration range from 10 to 300mg/L,and the relative coefficient was 0.9999(n = 7).The recoveries were 99.7% ~ 102%,the RSD were 1.30,0.50,0.92 and 1.21%,respectively,and the detection limit 0.009mg/L.Complying with green chemistry,the method was an accurate and rapid way to determine the content of Vitamin C in tea beverages without toxic and harmful reagents.


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Context. The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the photon is a property of light from astronomical objects that has not yet been measured. We propose a method of measuring the OAM spectrum of light from an extended natural source, the Sun. Relating the OAM spectrum of different solar areas to its structures could lead to a novel remote sensing technique. Aims. We present a method for measuring the OAM spectrum of solar photons. Methods. The THEMIS telescope is being used with a novel phase-diversity technique. A spatial light modulator is placed on one pupil image, and an ad-hoc optical setup allows the measurement of two simultaneous phase-diverse images in the same CCD, with equal optical paths. Results. Preliminary results show that very good seeing is mandatory for this kind of observation. The method works in the laboratory, and good seeing conditions in the 2010 campaign are being awaited.


Tuple-independent probabilistic databases (TI-PDBs) handle uncertainty by annotating each tuple with a probability parameter; when the user submits a query, the database derives the marginal probabilities of each output-tuple, assuming input-tuples are statistically independent. While query processing in TI-PDBs has been studied extensively, limited research has been dedicated to the problems of updating or deriving the parameters from observations of query results. Addressing this problem is the main focus of this paper. We introduce Beta Probabilistic Databases (B-PDBs), a generalization of TI-PDBs designed to support both (i) belief updating and (ii) parameter learning in a principled and scalable way. The key idea of B-PDBs is to treat each parameter as a latent, Beta-distributed random variable. We show how this simple expedient enables both belief updating and parameter learning in a principled way, without imposing any burden on regular query processing. We use this model to provide the following key contributions: (i) we show how to scalably compute the posterior densities of the parameters given new evidence; (ii) we study the complexity of performing Bayesian belief updates, devising efficient algorithms for tractable classes of queries; (iii) we propose a soft-EM algorithm for computing maximum-likelihood estimates of the parameters; (iv) we show how to embed the proposed algorithms into a standard relational engine; (v) we support our conclusions with extensive experimental results.


Bone is an active organ under continuous bone remodeling that consists of bone resorption and synthesis. The process requires precise communication among bone cells including osteoclasts, osteoblasts and osteocytes. However, the detailed mechanisms of bone cell interactions have been poorly understood. Technological advances and the accumulating evidence in recent years enabled a better understanding of the communication and coupling mechanisms at the cellular and molecular levels. These studies provide new insights into bone disease pathogenesis and molecular basis for novel therapeutic approaches.


In this work, a new multivariate method to monitor continuous processes is developed based on the statistics pattern analysis (SPA) framework. The SPA framework was proposed recently to address some challenges associated with batch process monitoring, such as unsynchronized batch trajectories and multimodal distribution. The major difference between the principal component analysis (PCA) based and SPA-based fault detection methods is that PCA monitors process variables while SPA monitors the statistics of process variables. In other words, PCA examines the variance−covariance of the process variables to perform fault detection while SPA examines the variance−covariance of the process variable statistics (e.g., mean, variance, autocorrelation, cross-correlation, etc.) to perform fault detection. In this paper, a window-based SPA method is proposed to address the challenges associated with continuous processes such as nonlinear process dynamics. First, the details of the window-based SPA method are presente...