Abstract 2912 HDAC enzymes are being studied as novel therapeutic targets in several cancers including multiple myeloma (MM). In particular, the combination of proteasome inhibitors (e.g. bortezomib (BZ)) with Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have shown very promising results in pre-clinical MM models. HDAC6, a Class II HDAC, has been linked to the activity of aggresomes that degrade unfolded and misfolded ubiquitinated proteins. Targeting both proteasomal and aggresomal protein degradation systems with proteasome inhibitors and HDAC inhibitors, respectively, induces accumulation of polyubiquitinated proteins, followed by activation of apoptotic cascades. Here we investigated the preclinical activity of an HDAC6 selective inhibitor ACY-1215 in MM, either alone or in combination with BZ. In vitro enzyme assays showed that ACY-1215 has potent inhibitory activity against HDAC6 (IC50 0.0054 mM) compared to the other HDACs, including Class I HDACs. Maximal cytotoxicity of ACY-1215 against MM cell lines was observed at 48h, with IC50 values ranging from 2–8 μM. To investigate the specific inhibitory effect of ACY-1215 on HDAC6 activity, we evaluated its effect on acetylation of a-tubulin. ACY-1215 induces potent acetylation of a-tubulin at low doses and triggers acetylation of lysine on histone H3 and histone H4 only at much higher doses, confirming its selective inhibitory effect on HDAC6 activity. Importantly, this selective inhibition was also observed in patient MM cells, where ACY-1215 increased acetylated a-tubulin after 4 h of treatment. We next combined low doses of ACY-1215 with BZ and showed synergistic anti MM activity, resulting in apoptosis via caspase-3, -8, -9 and poly (ADP) ribosome polymerase activation. Moreover, the combination of ACY-1215 plus BZ increased the accumulation of polyubiquitinated proteins compared to either agent alone. To investigate the effect of ACY-1215 on aggresome formation, MM.1S cells treated with ACY-1215 1 μM and/or BZ 2.5 nM for 12 h were stained with immunofluorescent anti-ubiquitin antibody. BZ-treated cells showed perinuclear structures consistent with aggresome formation, which was disrupted when BZ and ACY-1215 were combined. This result supports the synergistic anti MM activity of ACY-1215 with BZ. We also evaluated the in vivo anti-MM effect of combination therapy using two different xenograft models in SCID mice: plasmacytoma model and disseminated MM model. ACY-1215 in combination with BZ triggered more significant anti-MM activity than either agent alone in suppressing tumor growth and prolonging host survival in both models, without significant adverse effects. To optimize the design of future clinical trials, we conducted pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies in our plasmacytoma model. ACY-1215 peak plasma levels were observed at 4 h, which were unaffected by the addition of BZ. To further characterize the activity of ACY-1215 against HDAC6 in vivo, we evaluated the acetylation of α-tubulin in mouse blood cells by flow cytometry. The maximum levels of blood cell α-tubulin acetylation were observed at 4 h, providing an important biomarker for future clinical trials. Importantly, levels of acetylated α-tubulin were also detected in tumor tissue from treated mice in a similar time frame to peak blood levels, suggesting that ACY-1215 is readily absorbed by tumor tissue. Moreover, ACY-1215 did not accumulate in tumor tissue, as shown by the decline of acetylated α-tubulin in blood cells and tumor tissue by 24 h post-dose, which parallels the elimination of ACY-1215 from blood. We further confirmed the HDAC6 selectivity of ACY-1215 in our in vivo models by investigating the effect of the drug combination on histone acetylation in tumor tissue. WB analysis and IHC did not show a significant increase in acetylated histone H3 (lys 18), while demonstrating a robust acetylation of α-tubulin, the primary marker of HDAC6 inhibition by ACY-1215 at the cellular level. The results from our in vitro and in vivo studies therefore show significant and synergistic anti-MM activity of ACY-1215 in combination with BZ and provided the rationale for the ongoing phase I/II clinical trial in patients with relapsed or relapsed/refractory MM. Moreover, our pharmacodynamic helped inform the design of correlative studies, which will establish whether acetylated α-tubulin can be used as predictive biomarker of HDAC6 inhibition and disease response. Disclosures: Hideshima:Acetylon: Consultancy. Kung:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Consultancy. Tamang:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Yang:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Jarpe:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. van Duzer:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Mazitschek:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees. Ogier:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Bradner:Acetylon: Consultancy. Anderson:celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Millennium: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Merck: Consultancy, Honoraria; Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc: founder. Jones:Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Raje:Celgene: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Millenium: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astra Zeneca: Research Funding; Amgen: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Acetylon: Research Funding.


Many factors affect the genesis of chromosomal aberrations in cells. In this issue of the International Journal of Cancer, Demin et al describe a long noncoding RNA CASTL (chromosomal aberrations stimulating lncRNA) that facilitates CCDC6-RET fusion (inv(10)(q11; q21)). Expression of CASTL1 is cell-type specific and can account for the appearance of CCDC6-RET fusion only in specific cell types. Chromosomal rearrangements result from DNA breaks and erroneous DNA repair; their appearance is a risk factor for oncogenic cell transformation. Common threats for chromosomal rearrangements originate from the cellular machinery itself, which comprises DNA-damaging cellular activities (replication stress and reactive oxygen species), programmed DNA-cutting enzymes (e.g., recombination-activating gene (RAG) 1/2 complex or activation-induced deaminase (AID) indispensable for proper antibody production in B cells), specific genome architecture and stochastic DNA movements that allow DNA breaks clustering, and, finally, error-prone DNA repair activities. Another player in the genesis of chromosomal rearrangements could be microhomology in the DNA of the partners involved in a chromosomal translocation, inversion or deletion. These factors render the cell intrinsically vulnerable to spontaneous chromosomal rearrangements. Recently, an unexpected novel contributor to this vulnerability was revealed. In this issue of the International Journal of Cancer, Demin et al describe how a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) ENSG00000269945 facilitates CCDC6-RET fusion (inv(10)(q11;q21)), a rearrangement encountered in thyroid and lung cancers and leading to a constitutive activation of the RET oncogenic tyrosine kinase. The lncRNA located on chromosome 14 contains sequences that are homologous to CCD6 and RET intronic regions, thus potentially providing an illegitimate repair template for chromosome 10. Upon stimulation of DNA damage, the presence of this lncRNA increased the formation of the CCDC6-RET fusion and chimeric oncogene expression in human thyroid cells, which warrants the terminology proposed by the authors for this lncRNA: chromosomal aberrations stimulating lncRNA 1 (CASTL1) (Figure 1). There could soon be more CASTLs found in the human genome. It was previously proposed that RNAs might indeed act as a repair template for DNA double-strand breaks repair via homologous recombination (HR) both in cis (RNA derived from the same locus) and in trans (RNA derived from distant parts of the genome). Further discovery and study of CASTLs should reveal their mechanisms of action. Do they facilitate chromosomal rearrangements by "hacking" the accurate HR repair with a wrongful template? What ensures the proximity of RNA template to a DNA double-strand break? Are they acting throughout the cell cycle or their action is limited to a particular cell cycle phase? What could be the influence of secondary structures of lncRNAs and the presence of repetitive elements within them on the DNA repair? By answering these questions, we should expand our understanding of RNA-templated DNA repair and its contribution to chromosomal rearrangements. Furthermore, an important clue comes from the fact that the expression lncRNAs is cell and tissue specific. It has long been questioned why different chromosomal aberrations occur in different cells. It is plausible that lncRNAs, expressed in a particular cell type, might contribute to the appearance of cell-specific chromosomal rearrangements between different loci via homologous regions. By analyzing previously published transcriptomes, Demin et al demonstrated that CASTL1 was expressed in normal thyroid tissue and in papillary thyroid carcinoma with CCDC6-RET inversion. To conclude, Demin et al describe an intriguing mechanism whereby the CASTL1 lncRNA is involved in the formation of an oncogenic CCDC6-RET fusion through its homology to the CCDC6 and RET intronic loci. Upon DNA damage in these loci, lncRNA CASTL1 presumably serves as a micro-template for DNA repair, increasing the chances for gene fusion. It is currently unknown whether other lncRNAs with comparable activities exist in the human genome and, if so, what could be their evolutionary role. In particular, why the genome encodes self-hacking lncRNAs remains to be elucidated.


We investigate topology in lattice simulations of QCD with two flavors of dynamical Wilson fermions. At various sea quark masses we find reasonable agreement between results for the topological charge from fermionic and gluonic definitions, the latter with cooling. We study correlations of the topological charge with light hadronic observables and find effects in the flavor singlet pseudoscalar channel. The quark mass dependence of the topological susceptibility chi is consistent with the leading order small m/sub pi / expectation, chi =f/sub pi //sup 2/m/sub pi //sup 2//4.


Abstract Many people would say that Calderon–Zygmund operators have almost diagonal matrices in orthonormal wavelet bases. We will show that this statement is not true as stated. In contrast, the "nonstandard matrix representation" of Calderon–Zygmund operators always yields almost diagonal matrices. The Beyklin–Coifman–Rokhlin fast algorithm amounts to replacing these almost diagonal matrices by banded ones. We compute the operator norm of the error term in this approximation and give sharp estimates.


The basic issue for the study of public management is social equity. Its characteristic of public management and distinction from business management determine that the basic principle of public management is social equity. Based on such principle, public management is able to regulate the market competition and stabilize the society.Meanwhile, by promotiong and coordinating with each other, the equity of public management and efficiency of business management become impetus to keep the economy developing and the society going ahead.


Athletes often suffer from knee joint injuries because they often use the knee joint to exert force during training. This paper aims to analyze and discuss the auxiliary diagnosis of the knee joint sports injury detection model based on machine learning. This paper expounds the treatment method of knee joint injury, and proposes a machine learning algorithm. On the basis of this research, the auxiliary diagnosis experiment of the knee joint sports injury detection model is analyzed. The experimental results show that after 3 months of machine learning-based rehabilitation training, there is a significant difference in the duration of the balance pad before and after the table tennis players practice. The duration of the athletes on the balance mat has increased, and the increase is relatively large. Among them, the average duration of female athletes on the balance mat increased from 75.5 seconds before training to 141.9 seconds after training, while the average duration of male athletes on the balance mat increased from 66.7 seconds before training to 136.8 seconds after training. Studies have shown that machine learning-based rehabilitation physical training can significantly improve athletes' endurance on balance mats and can improve knee function scores. In summary, machine learning-based rehabilitation physical training can effectively improve knee joint injuries.


Phenolphthalein aldehyde was synthesized and used as a turn-on fluorescent probe for the detection of holmium ion (Ho3+), which is one of the lanthanide ions, in HEPES–DMF = 1 : 1 (v/v, pH = 7.4) solution with an excellent selectivity and sensitivity for Ho3+ over other metal ions.


Some advantages in pasture-based dairy production are realized worldwide. However, effects of grazing management on reproduction of dairy cows are still obscure. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the influence of different managing period on reproduction of dairy cows raised in grazing and non-grazing periods. The records utilized for this analysis were collected by 3 dairy farms in Ashoro town of Hokkaido from April 2004 to September 2010. The farms raised cows in pasture all day from the middle of May to the middle of November every year. Surveyed farms tended to have seasonal breeding for utilizing pasture efficiently during the grazing period. The farms also inclined to show relatively high parity and many services per conception of cows. By comparison with averages of reproduction traits of dairy cows in Hokkaido, the mean of first service conception rate in the surveyed farms was lower. The average of conception rate per insemination in the farms was lower than the Hokkaido average. The means of postpartum first service days, days open and calving interval days in the farms were shorter than the average. In addition, the means of estrus detection rate and pregnancy rate were higher than the average. The cows inseminated in the grazing period showed shorter postpartum first service days than the ones serviced in the non-grazing period. In addition, the cows impregnated in the grazing period showed shorter day's open and calving interval days than the ones fertilized in the non-grazing period. On the other hand, the cows calved in the grazing period had no significant difference in reproduction traits with the ones delivered in the non-grazing period. The effects of dairy management for utilizing pasture for cows and increasing milk yield in the grazing period on reproduction of cows raised in different periods were identified.


In the two papers published recently, we apply collinear expansion to both inclusive ($e^+ e^- \to h+X$) and semi-inclusive ($e^+ e^- \to h + \bar q + X$) hadron production in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation to derive a formalism suitable for a systematic study of leading as well as higher twist contributions to fragmentation functions at the tree level. We carry out the calculations for hadrons with spin-0, spin-1/2 as well as spin-1. This proceeding is mainly a summary of these two papers.


Shanghai's rice supply became difficult in the Anti-Japanese War.The puppet Shanghai Municipal Food Management Committee was established at the end of 1941.It sold rice at a lower price for two months,which to some degree alleviated the food crisis of Shanghai.The committee sought its own benefit so that it distorted the public benefit and could not solve the food crisis.This paper deals with the formation and structure of relief rice's price and analyzes the efficiency of such relief.


A growing appreciation of the powerful impact of the social determinants of health, particularly the toxic effect of poverty on health, is driving the need for a re-evaluation of the role of governments and institutions such as hospitals in the lives of children and families. The well-being of families is the cornerstone on which society rests; yet evidence is growing that families are facing significant challenges beyond their control that adversely impact their ability to perform their essential role. With evidence of a growing divide in society--an expanding gap between the rich and the poor (Novak 2007)--contributing to a polarization of health and social outcomes along this continuum, there is an urgent need for revisioning priorities for health and social policies. Bold new ideas and leadership are needed to plan a future that encompasses social justice as a key value and operating assumption.


A new moving‐coil underwater sound transducer can be used singly or in pairs to generate greater underwater sound‐pressure levels in the frequency range from 20 to approximately 100 Hz than are possible with any other wide‐band transducer. The mean transmitting current response of the single transducer in the frequency range 20 to 10 000 Hz is approximately 50 dB re 1 μbar/A at 1 m. When driven by about 2000 electrical watts, the transducer will generate approximately 8 acoustic watts at 80 Hz. It will accommodate more than 3000 electrical watts, being displacement limited. It is designed for use at depths to 90 ft; with additional pressure compensation, the depth can be increased. It is planned to use this transducer in arrays for even higher acoustic outputs.


Research into perceptions of leisure has, with few exceptions, followed the traditional scientific paradigm of inquiry. This paper considers some of the difficulties associated with this positivistic approach. Topics addressed include the gap between research efforts and theory development, the parsimonious nature of positivism, and the assumptions about reality necessary for traditional inquiry. An expanded methodological approach, compatible with the generation of grounded theory, is suggested as an appropriate means for increasing understanding of leisure perceptions.


The invention concerns a method for monitoring a running motor vehicle wheel tyre, and, in particular, a device comprising: a sensor (4) mounted on the wheel; coupling means (BVF2, BRF2) transmitting to the vehicle indications obtained from the sensor (4); and power supply means (BVF1, BRF1). The invention is characterised in that the sensor (4) is a miniature sensor sensitive to acceleration, implanted in the tyre running tread or in the proximity thereof. The coupling means, mounted on the wheel, transmit the indications relative to the measurements carried out when the running tread is in contact with the ground.


ABSTRACT This study investigates political nonmarket strategy (NMS) by addressing its links to market strategy, values orientation, and multiple dimensions of firm performance – competitive positioning, customer orientation, and financial outcomes – in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Data were collected from hotel managers and analyzed utilizing partial least squares (PLS) methods. Cost leadership was identified as a driver of financial performance in Hong Kong, while differentiation based on quality appears to help firms in terms of competitive positioning but drives neither financial nor customer-based performance. Political NMS helps firms with competitive positioning and customer orientation but does not appear to drive financial performance. Values orientation was identified as a significant driver of all three dimensions of firm performance.


It is well known that oxide fuels crack during the first rise to power, with continued fracture occurring during steady operation and especially during power ramps or accidental transients. Fractures have a very strong influence on the stress state in the fuel which, in turn, drives critical phenomena such as fission gas release, fuel creep, and eventual fuel/clad mechanical interaction. Recently, interest has been expressed in discrete fracture methods, such as the cohesive zone approach. Such models are attractive from a mechanistic and physical standpoint, since they reflect the localized nature of cracking. The precise locations where fractures initiate, as well as the crack evolution characteristics, are determined as part of the solution. This paper explores the use of finite element cohesive zone concepts to predict dynamic crack behavior in oxide fuel pellets during power-up, steady operation, and power ramping. The aim of this work is first to provide an assessment of cohesive zone models for application to fuel cracking and explore important numerical issues associated with this fracture approach. A further objective is to provide basic insight into where and when cracks form, how they interact, and how cracking effects the stress field in a fuel pellet. The ABAQUS commercial finite element code, which includes powerful cohesive zone capabilities, was used for this study. Fully-coupled thermo-mechanical behavior is employed, including the effects of thermal expansion, swelling due to solid and gaseous fission products, and thermal creep. Crack initiation is determined by a temperature-dependent maximum stress criterion, based on measured fracture strengths for UO2. Damage evolution is governed by a traction-separation relation, calibrated to data from temperature and burn-up dependent fracture toughness measurements. Numerical models are first developed in 2D based on both axisymmetric (to explore axial cracking) and plane strain (to explore radial cracking) assumptions. A 3D model is then developed, permitting simultaneous radial and axial fractures. Although fuel cracking is clearly three-dimensional, 2D models are of interest since they are simpler to implement, are much less computationally intensive, and have potential application to existing 2D fuel performance codes. Numerical issues related to cohesive zone models, such as mesh dependency and viscous stabilization, are addressed. Model results indicate that for typical oxide fuel properties, both axial and radial cracking occurs during initial heat-up, well before steady-state thermal gradients are established in the pellet. Cracking results in local stress relief and a shift in peak stress locations, leading to the initiation of new cracks. Continued growth of existing cracks, plus the initiation and growth of additional fractures, is observed during steady operation and power ramping. 3D models provide considerable insight into the progressive interactions between radial and axial cracking. Parametric studies demonstrate the effects of temperature dependent material properties on crack initiation and progression. Increasing fracture strength and toughness with temperature, leads to crack arrest in high temperature regions near the pellet's symmetry axis.


Panicum repens is a species of grass. The paper has been made from nonwood materials for long times. This research was used Panicum repens for made grass pulp as non-wood fiber. The influence of alkaline concentrations on properties of pulp from Panicum repens was investigated under room temperature. Alkaline concentration levels were varied at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%, respectively. Moreover, Paper pulp from Panicum repens was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). This research has controlled the length of fiber approximately 0.52.5 cm before soaked with alkaline concentration at 1 hour and soak with water for controlled pH value at 7-8. Paper pulp was formed on a sieve. The result showed that color of paper pulp made from Panicum repens was light brown and green. SEM showed that alkaline concentration affects the physical properties of paper pulp. Moreover, true density of paper pulp was also investigated in this research.


The real challenge of synchronization in OFDMA exists in the OFMDA uplink. For the interleaved OFDMA uplink,this paper,a blind estimation algorithm of frequency offset based on the minimum-norm method in the noise subspace is presented,which uses the characteristic of the periodic signal structure in the interleaved OFDMA uplink,and this algorithm can estimate the frequency offset of each user exactly in one OFDMA block.


Young rats were maintained for 84 days on a diet which supplied to each 0.15 mg of iron and 4.26 mg of calcium per day. The Ca:P ratio of the diet was 1.4. For some of the animals the dihydrate of disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) was added at a level of 0.01%, which supplied 1 mg per rat per day. The molar ratio of EDTA:Ca:Fe was 1:37.9:1.The EDTA did not affect the growth of the rats. It did not affect the excretion of calcium, or its concentration in blood serum or femur. Since the faecal excretion was not affected, apparently the absorption was not impaired. The growth of the femur was not affected. EDTA was associated with generally higher levels of iron in the serum, but the average difference was not statistically significant. There was no effect upon the liver iron or the haemoglobin level in the blood.Small amounts of EDTA in the diet apparently did not interfere with the utilization of low and probably inadequate dietary levels of calcium and iron.


attributed to coexisting NG. Agents isolated from endocervix were Ureaplasma parvum 26(40.6%), N.gonorrhoeae, 17 (26.6%), Mycoplasma hominis 11(17.2%), HSV2, 9(14.1%), Ureaplasma urealyticum 5(7.8%), T.vaginalis 4(6.3%), HSV1 and C.trachomatis, 1 each(1.6%) and Mycoplasma genitalium (0%). Bacterial vaginosis was diagnosed in 14(21.9%) patients. Multiple, two, three, four and five agents were isolated in 10, 6, 6 and 1patients respectively. Isolation of M.hominis and U. parvum was significantly associated with bacterial vaginosis (p value 0.04 & 0.003 respectively). Non-usage of condoms predisposed to cervicitis. Conclusion Few C.trachomatis isolates, absence of M.genitalium and increasing prevalence of HSV, highlights the changing etiological pattern of cervicitis. Though U.parvum and M. hominis are usually commensals their high isolation, association with bacterial vaginosis and propensity to cause diseases in preterm infants and extragenital infections puts forth the need for further studies and regular monitoring of agents implicated in cervicitis.


Most times there was only laughter coming from the room. Raucous, joyous laughter mingled with shouts, cheers, and long gasps for breath. Some clapped hands and slapped their sides, others attempted restraint by holding their mouths in a muffle of politeness, and a few stoked the mirth by strutting exaggerated imitations or by mugging outrageous faces. The laughter was infectious; it provoked everyone into the rollick? ing atmosphere. Tables and chairs slid across the floor as room was cleared for someone's performance, and then quickly replaced again for coffee and more joking. Glasses giddily chased bottles of wine, huge slabs of cheese were sliced and devoured, and wrinkled hankies swabbed at eyes and dusted powdered sugar from the outstretched corners of smiling mouths. Old Francesca was holding court, and when the queen daily opened her doors, the kitchen dissolved into a whirling, exciting world of color, bodies and faces, dancing, song, and utter, delirious enchantment. At other times the room was quiet except for soft, earnest talk, sobs and cries, and of the queen gently consoling one of her guests. Sometimes there was a halting monologue punctuated by long pauses, tears, and tragic wails of grief. Painful reminiscences, memories traded back and forth while wrinkled hankies swabbed at different tears, and years of hardship trotted out their scars in graceless torment. Sometimes the quiet was wretching as a pendulum clicked noisily, or coffee gurgled into a china cup, or a scratchy throat cleared before another story was hesitantly begun. While encouraging a reluctant speaker to continue, the queen would lift the top off a crystal decanter and offer Strega to her


Resonance and loss characteristics of whispering gallery modes in a dielectric disk resonator are discussed three-dimensionally by using an approximate variable separation method. A radius of the disk is sufficiently large compared to a wavelength. A cylindrical function with a complex order and argument whose absolute values are much larger than unity is included in an eigenvalue equation.

In this paper, the eigenvalue equation is solved analytically by using a newly developed calculation method of the cylindrical function. As a result, resonance and loss characteristics of the dielectric disk resonator in a wide frequency ranging from a microwave to optical wave are understood. The present method can be applied to a whispering gallery mode resonator made of lossy dielectric materials. Therefore, one can obtain a radiation loss separately from a dielectric loss based on a loss tangent of the materials.


The first COSPAS-1 satellite launch 35 years ago opened a new era of rescue of people in distress when timely and exact determination of coordinates of maritime, aviation or any other accident became possible by means of spacecraft. The project of a satellite system for search and rescue COSPAS-SARSAT was started in 1979 by four countries: the USSR, Canada, France, and the USA. At the beginning of the twenty first century, this project continues to remain a unique model of the international cooperation of 43 states and organizations, which provide means of satellite communication free of charge for the end user in distress in every spot on the globe. Today, the Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) satellite system for distress alerting and positioning is beginning to operate and will eventually serve as a replacement of the existing LEOSAR system. As a reminder, 1998 was marked (after several years of testing) to strengthen the LEOSAR system with the introduction of the GEOSAR geostationary satellite system. The realization of the MEOSAR system will guarantee that the COSPAS-SARSAT Programme will continue its successful activities in the near future, providing improvements to the operational parameters of the System, including the accuracy of determination of the coordinates of an emergency beacon. The status and major avenues of the Programme development are considered in this paper.


HONG KONG/LEIPZIG, Germany: Nine months after its formation, the government coalition between the Labor and Green parties in Australia is being severely tested regarding the introduction of a new dental subsidy scheme. The clash came after Labor Health Minister Nicola Roxon in an interview told The Australian newspaper that the scheme would be scrapped from the next federal budget in May in order to return the nation's balance to a surplus in 2012/13.


According to the terahertz environment detection, the scattering characteristics of the wind-driven sea surface in the lower terahertz frequency band are investigated. The tilted facet modulation model is used to study the scattering characteristics of terahertz waves under different sea conditions from both the Bragg and the non-Bragg scattering characteristics. Comparing the calculated results of low frequency terahertz backscattering with that of the microwave backscattering, it is shown that the non-Bragg scattering plays a dominant role at the near normal incidence, and the sea surface scattering characteristics are consistent in low frequency terahertz band and the microwave range. At a medium incident angle, Bragg scattering plays a dominant role. Because of the shorter wavelength of the terahertz wave, the corresponding lower Bragg scattering intensity, the intensity of the lower terahertz backscattering from the sea surface at medium incident angles is significantly lower than that of the microwave backscattering. This paper also studied the terahertz sea surface scattering characteristics under different sea conditions, and found that as the sea conditions increase, the intensity of the terahertz echoes at medium incident angles decreases sharply under the influence of the Bragg scattering characteristics.


Long range (LoRa) is a popular low-power wide-area networking (LPWAN) technology that can support multitude of Internet of Things (IoTs) use cases. LoRa drives its popularity from its ability to dynamically conFigure PHY layer transmission parameters, such as, bandwidth, spreading factor, coding rate, and transmission power. These parameters impact coverage, reliability, data rate, and energy consumption. Therefore, the parameters should be carefully selected based on an IoT use case's requirements. Ideally, a deployed LPWAN should simultaneously support multiple IoT use cases. This requirement complicates networking planning and the transmission parameters assignment because not only multiple use cases' dynamics have to be considered, but possible impact of use cases on each other has to be taken into account. Here, we present and evaluate three different LoRa-based LPWAN planning and communication strategies. The presented strategies consider the following: (i) IoT use case's data generation model, (ii) transmission parameters selection, (iii) network topology, and (iv) communication model. Our simulation results have demonstrated that the network planning and communication strategy that allocates fastest data rate PHY layer transmission parameters to LoRa nodes, partitions a network into different cells, and uses separate gateway inside each cell is the best LoRa-based LPWAN deployment and communication strategy. The strategy outperforms other presented network planning strategies that use hybrid communication model based on separate communication channels and a combination of single-hop and multi-hop communication.


This text aims at examining the presence of the figure of the Muse in Invencao de Orfeu by Jorge de Lima. For that, we will make a small introduction on the origin and meaning of the Muse, for, then after, to analyze as Jorge de Lima if it used of this mythical tradition of the poetical creation in the elaboration of its poem.


Introduction: The statement emphasizes the value of exercise in decreasing the risk of several chronic diseases and enhancing general health. Obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease have all been linked to a lack of physical activity. Exercise is therefore advised as a helpful strategy to counteract inactive lifestyles and enhance health results. Different types of exercise training can have varying impacts on cardiovascular responses, body composition changes, and ultimately physical performance. By identifying the activity that yields the greatest positive impact, it becomes possible to provide practical recommendations for implementing high-quality physical activity interventions that will benefit adolescents and improve their physical activity levels and capacity indicators. This study aims to investigate the impact of high-intensity continuous training on physical performance. This information can be valuable in designing targeted interventions and strategies to promote regular physical activity and improve health outcomes among the population, specifically focusing on adolescents. Material and Methods: The present study is based on a descriptive and comparative plan. The participants were composed of 22 healthy students (11 males and 11 females) recruited from Nakhon Phanom University, Thailand. Participants were required to complete all workouts conducted 3 times a week for 8 weeks. The tests were used to assess physical performance, such as body weight, body mass index, the sum of four skinfolds (Σ4 skinfolds), muscular strength, and oxygen consumption were determined before and after exercise training. A paired t-test has been used to examine impairment in physical performance in adolescents. Results: Twenty-two volunteers male and female, aged 18.55±.51 years, with a height of 163.52±6.46 cm, a body weight of 55.70±3.94 kg and a body mass index (BMI) of 20.92±1.61 kg/m 2 took part in this study. The study shows that there was a significant difference before and after continuous high-intensity workouts in body weight (P=.04), body mass index (P=.00) body fat (%), (P=.00) muscle strength (p=.07), and oxygen consumption (P=.00). Conclusion: Continuous high-intensity training has a positive effect on body weight, body mass index, body fat, muscle strength, and the cardiovascular system. Therefore, it is suggested to consider these elements as a guide in the planning of aerobic training, in order to better physical performance. In the component of cardiovascular health, and adiposity on overweight adding in adolescents.


In-memory computing is an emerging technique to fulfill the fast growing demand for high-performance data processing. This technique provides fast processing and high throughput by accessing data stored in the memory array rather than dealing with complicated operation and data movement on hard drive. For data processing, the most important computation is dot product, which is also the core computation for applications such as deep learning neuron networks, machine learning, etc. As multiplication is the key function in dot product, it is critical to improve its performance and achieve faster memory processing. In this paper, we present a design with the ability to perform in-memory multi-bit multiplications. The proposed design is implemented by using quantum-dot transistors, which enable multi-bit computations in the memory cell. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed design provides reliable in-memory multi-bit multiplications with high density and high energy efficiency. Statistical analysis is performed using Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the process variations and error effects.


Part A Objectives Words, meaning and the importance of context Aims and objectives Functions and constraints Part B Mechanisms Financing Allocation and administration Part C Effectiveness Income replacement and compensation Tackling poverty, guaranteeing sufficiency Redistribution of income Part D Efficiency Target efficiency Economic efficiency Administrative efficiency Part E Contemporary Influences Individualisation and social change Globalisation and internationalism Post script Glossary Bibliography


Diffusion Bonded joints have been produced between sheets of the high strength aircraft and aerospace Aluminium alloys AA 7475 and A1-Li 8090/2091. For these materials the combination of Diffusion Bonding and Superp1astic Forming would lead to considerable de sign flexibility and cost reductions. So an enormous increase of their application potential for aircraft structural components would result from the development of DB/SPF-techno10gies (1). This paper reports some effects of different surface preparation methods on the bond quality which were investigated in connection with a modified bonding process. The preparation methods included grinding, brushing and "RF ion etching" (sputter cleaning) with a subsequent sputter deposition of CU, Ag or Au. Grinding was ac complished in air and also in argon atmosphere in order to mini mize the immediate formation of the natural oxide layer. From the argon chamber the ground specimens were then directly shifted into the bonding chamber without beeing exposed to air. Surface and depth profile analyses were carried out by means of G10W-Discharge-Source (GDS) P1asma-Emission-Spectroscopy in order to verify the surface characteristics of the sheets to be bonded. The DB-joints were produced in a Diffusion Bonding Hot-Press which admits a defined application of the weld pressure during the heating phase and also rapid cooling after the bonding pro cess. This process was especially developed for the Diffusion Bonding of high strength Aluminium sheets. Shear tests at room temperature exhibited that excellent strengths up to 410 MPa are possible. Besides the shear strength also the peel strength was measured at room temperature and at SPF temperature (5160C). The results were correlated with joint characteristics found by meta110graphic methods and observations


A denoising method using wavelet library was proposed. Key to this method was to construct a smooth orthonormal wavelet library.A new method for constructing smooth orthonormal wavelet library was presented based on the following conditions: 1) regularity,i.e.,the wavelets have sufficient regularity;2) non-redundancy,i.e.,there should be no duplicates among the library wavelets;3) completeness,i.e.,the library should be representative of the whole wavelet space.The experiment results show that when the library is used in signal denoising,the wavelet library performs better than any of the single wavelets.


Several 2-polychloroarylethanols were synthesised by the reaction of polychloroaryl-lithium compounds with ethylene oxide. The products did not undergo cyclisation by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution except in the case of 2-(heptachloro-4,4′-bipyridyl-3-yl)ethanol, which gave 5,6-dichloro-2,3-dihydro-4-(tetrachloro-4-pyridyl)furo [2,3-b]pyridine.Metal–halogen exchange between n-butyl-lithium and 2-pentachlorophenylethanol took place at the m- and p-positions. On heating, the mixture of lithiated compounds gave 4,5,6-trichloro-2,3-dihydrobenzo[b]furan via intramolecular addition to an aryne intermediate. 2-(Tetrachloro-4-pyridyl)ethanol underwent metal–halogen exchange at both positions 2 and 3 of the ring, but cyclisation was not achieved in this case.


Abstract: We introduce a new type of text detection neural network, which can accurately locate the position of the text in a variety of complex environments and give the best rectangle containing them. It is composed of three parts, the first part is the backbone composed of residual network, which is responsible for refining the feature map. the second part is the sequence module composed of transformer, which processes the feature map as a linear behavioral unit, so as to deeply mine the context of characters in the image, and the last part is the multi-scale detection module, which is based on different sizes of feature maps The best target box is detected as the result. The residual backbone ensures that there will be no gradient explosion in the process of back propagation.as information between grid cells in the same line is consistent, the transformer module pay more attention to the text line. The detection module uses multiple anchors in the vertical direction at the same time, which achieves good results in speed and accuracy. Based on the data set icdar2015, which is commonly used in the field of text detection, we do experiments and achieve a f score of 0.7.


The concept of social entrepreneurship has been differently identified by diverse researchers leading to contradicting definitions. Therefore, whether visionary social entrepreneurship results in increasing profits is a questionable in the research world. As an answer to these contradicting findings and ideas of social entrepreneurship in literature, the current study focused in explaining the characteristics and the behavior of social entrepreneurial ventures in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the focus of the study is to explain how visionary social entrepreneurship leads to create profits and to gain increasing profits in a sustainable way.


ABSTRACT In the field of adsorptive water remediation, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) equation is often used to describe sigmoid type II isotherm data. A standard type II isotherm is a composite curve that comprises a type I and a type III curve at low and high concentrations, respectively. The BET equation uses a Langmuir-like function to describe the type I curve and a unique function to represent the type III curve. However, the ability of this mathematical combination to fit atypical type II isotherms is somewhat limited. The BET equation has been modified in various ways to improve its data fitting ability. The Aranovich–Donohue equation is an interesting modification in that it has a flexible equation structure that allows users to choose an isotherm model to describe the type I curve at low concentrations. It is shown here that the Aranovich–Donohue equation featuring the Sips equation is capable of accurately correlating anomalous acid red and acid black dye isotherm data, outperforming the original BET equation. Furthermore, the Aranovich–Donohue–Sips equation can accurately track a phenol isotherm characterized by a type V curve at low concentrations, demonstrating its versatility in fitting nonstandard type II isotherm data.


block. For example, adding sodium bicarbonate to lidocaine2 or to chloroproacaine3 reduces the onset of epidural analgesia by 2 to 3 minutes at most. It often takes longer than that to locate, draw up, and add the sodium bicarbonate to the local anesthetic. Nevertheless, and from an intellectual perspective, why shouldn't the addition of sodium bicarbonate hasten the onset of blockade so that this maneuver would be clinically useful? The answer is in a publication by Jorgen Rud.4 He studied the effects of various lidocaine concentrations at varying pH on the compound action potential (CAP) amplitude of isolated frog nerve. His results are shown in Figs 1 and 2. Figure 1 shows the relationship of the base concentration to the pH of the solution. This figure demonstrates that the base concentration is linked to the concentration of lidocaine. The higher the concentration of lidocaine in the solution, the greater the amount of base at any pH. Therefore, any effect of increasing the pH is greater with higher initial concentrations of lidocaine. On the other hand, as seen by the plateau (knee in curve) in Fig 2, the onset of block is nearly maximal at concentrations of base as low as 1 to 2 mmol/L. Therefore, elevation of the pH has little effect on speeding onset with low concentrations (5 mmol/L) of lidocaine because the additional amount of base produced with increasing pH is small. Likewise, increasing the pH of higher concentrations of lidocaine (20 mmol/L and 40 mmol/L) has little effect on hastening onset because onset is already very fast, even at low pH. When a more rapid onset is desired, it is easier to use a higher concentration of drug or to inject a larger volume rather than manipulating the pH of the local anesthetic. Higher concentrations of the same volume or larger volumes of a lower concentration will both provide more local anesthetic base and speed onset. Furthermore, the quality of the block will be improved and its duration prolonged. Local anesthetic solutions that are premixed with epinephrine have a pH of 4.5 to prevent the oxidation of the epinephrine. Low concentration of these solutions will benefit more from pH adjustment than nonepineprhrinecontaining solutions, which have a pH of 6.5. Alternatively, adding fresh epinephrine to plain local anesthetic solutions will result in epinephrine-containing solutions with a pH of 6.5. Note: 5 mmol/L 0.115%, 20 mmol/ L 0.46%, and 40 mmol/L 0.92%.


SUMMARYRecently it has been shown that acoustic Green's functionsfrom sources inside of a medium can be recovered usingsingle-sided reflection data by iteratively solving a Marchenkoequation. In recent work, we conjectured how this scheme canbe extended in the case of elastic media. In this work, wepresent a mathematical derivation that validates our previousconjecture, and exemplify it with a numerical example in asolid elastic medium.INTRODUCTIONA novel technique known as autofocusing or Marchenko reda-tuming has been introduced recently to construct the acousticGreen's function from a virtual source inside of the subsurface(Broggini et al., 2012; Wapenaar et al., 2012, 2013). Autofo-cusing forgoes the need for sources or receivers at the positionof the virtual source, and only requires single-sided data con-sisting of the reflection data and an estimate of the direct wavefrom the virtual source to the receivers. The reflection datamay be acquired through standard surface acquisition, whilethe direct arrival can be computed using a smooth estimateof the subsurface velocities. Acoustic autofocusing has beenvalidated theoretically and numerically, and comprises a data-driven method to recover true-amplitude internal reflectionsfrom a virtual source inside of the medium.Recent work extended autofocusing to solid media governedby elastodynamic wave equations (da Costa et al., 2014). Weconjectured an elastic scheme and showed how an approxima-tion of that scheme yields good results. Here, we prove ourconjecture through the use of one-way elastic reciprocity the-orems, and illustrate the method with a numerical example.GREEN'S FUNCTIONSWe are interested in recovering the components of the elasto-dynamic Green's function G that satisfies the following waveequation¶


NHS trusts risk a dramatic rise in litigation payouts unless they change the way they obtain patients' consent to operations, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) has warned, after a landmark case in the UK Supreme Court.

The judgment last year in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board requires doctors to explore the risks of proposed treatments and available alternatives much more thoroughly with patients.1 But the college fears that this message may not have fully filtered through, and it has issued new guidance to help surgeons adapt their processes.2

"The …


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A 63-year-old woman presented with a 2-month history of progressive dyspnea, weight loss, and a macular-papular rash over her back (panel A). Her medical history included breast cancer (treated 5 years ago with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy) and chronic mild thrombocytopenia


Trafficking with human beings involves not only a crime in itself, but, in most cases, it is acrime with multiple activities and with multilateral organizational structures. Before the war inKosovo, trafficking with human beings was very little, or not to say the least expressed, meanwhilewith the end of the war, Kosovo was not only a transit country, but it is a source and destinationcountry for women and children, sexual victims trafficking and forced labour. This paper representsan attempt to highlight the growing phenomenon of trafficking in human beings both in the region andin Kosovo, based on available literature, reports, contacts and personal research. The paper gives abrief summary of the criminal law aspect, namely the material law aspect. The problem is alsoassociated with increased migration and because of the complexity of the problem trafficking ofhuman beings, especially young women and girls for prostitution purposes is identified. This paper isprimarily leaded by these issues and seeks to investigate what happened in Kosovo in that area andwhat are the steps needed by prosecution authorities and NGOs to prevent human trafficking in thefuture.


The paper focuses on Andronoid materials located at Ustje Kozhukha 1 site in the northern spurs of Kuznetskiy Alatau. Basing on the analysis of ceramics complexes, the authors prove a number of analogies that help define the lower date of Andronoid peoples inhabiting this area: middle early 2 nd millennium BC. The paper reconstructs the specific model of interaction between the peoples inhabiting the forest-steppe and taiga-mountain regions of Kuznetsk Alatau in the Late Andronovo period.


Accurate delineation of salt body shapes is critical for hydrocarbon exploration. Various imaging methods based on seismic data have been developed. Due to the density contrast between salt and sedimentary rocks, gravity data have also been used as a de-risking tool to constrain the salt body shapes. However, quantifying uncertainties of the salt body shapes recovered from gravity data remains under-explored. Our goal is to understand and quantify how different constraints affect uncertainties of the salt body shapes reconstructed from gravity data. We adopt a trans-dimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to explore the uncertainties. To address the computational challenges with MCMC sampling, we resort to two methods: sparse geometry parameterization and randomized parallel tempering. The first employs a set of simple geometries (e.g., ellipses) to approximate the complex shapes of salt bodies, greatly reducing the number of parameters to be sampled and making the MCMC approach computationally feasible. The second serves to further improve the acceptance ratio and computational efficiency. To quantify the uncertainties of the recovered salt body shapes, we design several scenarios to simulate different constraints on the top boundary of salt bodies from seismic imaging. We develop a new method to impose structural constraints on the top boundaries of salt bodies. This new method combines a set of fixed ellipses with randomly sampled ellipses through a concave hull. The results from different scenarios are compared to understand how uncertainties are reduced when stronger constraints are imposed. In addition, to make our uncertainty quantification results more relevant for practitioners, we propose to compute the salt probability models which show the spatial distribution of probabilities of salt materials at each cell. Lastly, we investigate the effect of an uncertain salt density on the salt body reconstruction and the case of depth-varying densities in the sedimentary background. We apply our methods to the modified 2D SEG-EAGE and Sigsbee salt models and quantify the uncertainties of the recovered salt body shapes in different scenarios. Our results highlight the importance of properly interpreting the uncertainty estimates in light of prior information and information content in the data.


An evaluation program and the standards about risk investment project are described by summarizing and analyzing the experiences of the risk investment activities in developed contries and areas such as America and Taiwan. It proffers a beneficial reference to build up the risk investment mechanism in the developing of new and high technology of our country.


The longitudinal-dynamic load on a railroad train has been studied at its steady motion along the track of a homogeneous profile. A value of the longitudinal loading that a train is exposed to has been established. The calculations were carried out for a train consisting of 40 similar semi-wagons. The magnitude of the longitudinal loading, in this case, is taken to equal 1.2 MN. It is important to note that when increasing the motion speed, as well as the weight of a train, the magnitude of the longitudinal load may exceed the specified value. This contributes to the additional loading on the bearing structures of cars on the train and can cause damage to them. In addition, significant longitudinal-dynamic loads contribute to disrupting the motion stability of cars in the train. In order to reduce the longitudinal-dynamic efforts in the train under operating modes, including braking, it has been proposed to use, instead of a standard automatic coupling device, a conceptual coupler. In this case, the impact's kinetic energy is damped by transforming it into the work of a viscous resistance force. This resistance is created by moving a viscous liquid through the throttle holes of the piston based on the principle of hydraulic damper operation. To substantiate the use of a conceptual coupler, the calculation has been performed based on a method for determining the strength of the coupling device through the imaginary separation of a train into two parts. Taking into consideration a coefficient of the viscous resistance, which is created by the conceptual coupler, the acceleration experienced by a train reached about 0.8 m/s 2 . In other words, the use of a conceptual coupler makes it possible to reduce the longitudinal loading on a train by almost 30 % compared with the standard scheme of interaction between a locomotive and cars. The rod of the conceptual coupler has been estimated for strength. It has been established that the maximum equivalent stresses do not exceed permissible limits. The proposed measures would contribute to the reduction of a dynamic load on a railroad train under the loading modes of operation. The implementation of a given concept could also contribute to bringing down the damage to railroad stock in exploitation


US policymakers and analysts are increasingly pre-occupied by the problem of nuclear proliferation, once considered, in the parlance of the Pentagon, to be a 'lesser included threat' covered by the nuclear policies of the United States and its allies. Several factors, probably the least of which was the 1995 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, have sparked this interest. The end of the Soviet empire has highlighted the potential proliferation of nuclear technology, materials, expertise and even weapons as a superpower-sized nuclear infrastructure is divided among several states, including some that are hard pressed to safeguard a nuclear arsenal or materials.' The concerted efforts of several nations Iraq, Iran and North Korea to acquire nuclear weapons serves as a continuous reminder of the dangers of proliferation. The confrontation between Baghdad and the UN Special Commission repeatedly threatened to end in war, while the termination of UN inspections marked the complete militarization of the US effort to contain Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Doubts also linger about whether or not the 1994 Agreed Framework has contained North Korea's nuclear program. The May 1998 series of Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests suggests that both states are determined to deploy modest nuclear arsenals, thereby adding the prospect of a nuclear arms race to their already troubled relations.


JEROME, it appears, completed his studies at Rome in summer 366.1 He then went to Trier where he decided to pursue the ascetic way. Subsequently he left from Aquileia for the East, and from Antioch he retreated into the desert around Chalcis. His departure from the West has not been placed before 3722 nor his actual retreat before 374.3 Yet there is immediate cause to question this dating. In the prologue to In Epist. ad Gal. 3 Jerome refers thus to the vow made in his famous dream (cf. Epist. 22.30): nostis enim et ipsae, quod plus quam quindecim anni sunt, ex quo in manus meas numquam Tullius, numquam Maro, numquam gentilium litterarum quilibet auctor ascendit. The commentary on Galatians was written just before the commentary on Ephesians (1. prol.). In the Apology, dated to 401,4 Rufinus places the latter work ante quindecim fere annos (1.39). Evidently he looks to 386 after Jerome's settling at Bethlehem.5 Since Rufinus was at Jerusalem at this time,6 his dating may be trusted. Moreover, in a context where he emphasizes Jerome's lengthy allegiance to Origen, it would be against


The main objective of this research was to investigate the effect of friction on the behaviour of the metal flow and ring geometry, using comparisons from a stationary and rotating bottom die. This was carried out using friction calibration curves, compressive force analysis, stress and strain relationships and the reduction ratio of the ring specimen. The ring compression test (RCT) is considered one of the most reliable ways to obtain the friction factor existing in a plastic deformation process. This technique utilizes the dimensional changes of a test specimen to determine the magnitude of the friction factor. The variation of the calibration curve for the stationary die, with a range of m=0.0 to 0.9, and for the rotating die a range of m=0.1, 0.5 and 0.9. The frictional factor is calculated using FEM analysis, friction calibration and reduction ratio curves were generated from the compressive force using the DEFORM software package. The results indicated that the change in the inner diameter is related to the friction conditions and angular velocities at the die-workpiece interface.


The effects of g-jitter on a buoyant flow in a cylindrical enclosure is examined via a finite-difference method. The enclosure is heated nonuniformly from above and a periodic gravitational acceleration is imposed on the flow inside to simulate gravity jittering. It is found that the flow field responding to the imposed gravitational acceleration also exhibits periodic behavior and that the heat transfer rate to the fluid is increased compared to the case without g-jitter. The modulations on the three gravity components all contribute to the increase in heat transfer rate but in ways different in nature. The flow field, sometimes, cannot remain quasi-steady with the imposed gravity changes and hot, isolated packets of fluid are created away from the heat source. It is also found that reducing the total gravity level is more efficient than eliminating the gravity jittering itself in averting the effects of g-jitter after a system has been disturbed.


Discussed is the report on Dutch social & cultural life by the Social & Cultural Planning Commission. Ph. C. Stouthard (1) points out the sampling difficulties inherent in this kind of survey, (2) questions the use of factor analysis in generating a well-being index, (3) wonders why the hypothesis that changes originate in the city & spread to the countryside could not be tested, (4) notes that the reporting of analysis results obtained by loglinear transformations is not convincing, & (5) regrets that the results of the Automatic Interaction Detector analysis are not processed further. A. de Swaan points out that the content & organization of the report is geared to the needs of the state bureaucracy; there is a chapter on the penal system but none on the arts & sciences. Three general tendencies of the report are: focusing on large scale social phenomena rather than on important details, hiding behind tables & figures, & emphasizing aspects that have an immediate impact on policy making. L. A. Welters studies the development in the conception of the three reports published to date. It is noted that the reports attach progressively more importance to inter- rather than intrasector phenomena. This development does not merely result from new description methods but reflects a policy change. A. Orianne.


Primary cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in pregnant women can lead to fatal or symptomatic infections in the foetus. In the present study we have shown evidence of primary CMV infection in pregnancy by demonstrating the presence of CMV specific lgM antibodies. Out of 31 pregnant women, 4(12.9%) had evidence of primary CMV infection, whereas in the women who had given birth to children suffering from symptomatic congenital infections, evidence of primary CMV infection was seen in 3 out of 23 (13%) women. In a heterogeneous population of women in child bearing age, 12/80 (15%) were found to be seronegative for CMV specific lgG antibodies suggesting their susceptibility to acquire a primary CMV infection in pregnancy.


The introduction of earth sciences into the New Zealand school science curriculum was long campaigned for. Although some elements of earth sciences have formed part of the geography syllabus in the past, those science teachers who did not teach geography might be expected to be unfamiliar with earth sciences. A survey of 156 teachers revealed a wide variation in knowledge of earth sciences, confidence in teaching, and involvement in teaching earth sciences, and showed an association between their confidence in and knowledge of the subject. It is argued that hands-on activities that demonstrate earth processes may help teachers to successfully implement the earth sciences component of the science curriculum.


The application of theories on the wetting kinetics of surfactant solutions requires accurate knowledge of the adsorption kinetics of the surfactant molecules at the involved interfaces. Studies on dynamic surface tensions give access to a quantitative understanding of the mechanisms governing this part of the complex wetting process. It is shown that besides the surface activity and the bulk concentration of a surfactant, the adsorption mechanism and the peculiarities of the interfacial dynamics play a significant role at the liquid–air interface. Due to interfacial processes, such as change in orientation or aggregation of molecules in the surface layer, differences in the adsorption time of more than one order of magnitude are observed.


A novel high-gain isolated two-switch boosting resonant switched-capacitor (ITBRSC) converter for sustainable energy is presented in this paper. It concludes a two-switch boosting resonant switched-capacitor (TBRSC) converter unit, an isolated transformer unit, and a load voltage regulation unit. There are two small value inductors in the proposed topology. They are, respectively, injected into the charge loop and the discharge loop. As a result, the pulsating input current is highly decreased. In this way, it could achieve the continuous input current in the primary side of ITBRSC converter. The TBRSC converter unit boosts the input voltage with the high gain ratio. In combination with the transformer, the ITBRSC converter could provide a good isolation performance by adopting the transformer. The proposed converter in this paper could be used in the variable input voltage and wide operation area. It could be acted as the high-gain isolated power supply for sustainable energy systems, such as electric vehicles and wind energy. The SC converter-based high-gain isolated converter could achieve the high power density and simple topology. A 500-W power-rating ITBRSC converter is constructed. The function of the ITBRSC converter is demonstrated and tested with the simulation and experiments. The high gain ratio and robust performance of the proposed converter are totally verified. It could facilitate the application of SC converters for sustainable energy.


The article features the reforms of the federal structure in the 1990s and the development of the Treaty of Federation in 1992. It focuses on the practices of federal relations that appeared in the post-Soviet period both in terms of the interaction between the Federal Center and the regional elites and in the context of the classical federalism. The authors described the factors that hindered the signing of the Federal Treaty, as well as the resources the regional elite used to affect the Center. They revealed the opposite views on the concept of federal structure expressed by national and territorial subjects of the Russian Federation and described their attempts to reach a compromise in the redistribution of powers. The research objective was to determine to what degree the Center was responsible for the content of the Treaty of Federation as the regional self-identification was gaining strength and the system of center-regional interaction was changing. The authors also highlighted the role of certain social groups on the development of federal relations, showed how the actions of the Center improved its positions, and identified historical facts that predetermined the asymmetry of the Treaty of Federation. The authors believed that the new model of federal relations was a compromise between the interests of the regional elites and the central government. However, it also strengthened the positions of the Federal Center and legalized the asymmetric nature of its relations with the regions. The research was based on general scientific methods and such historical research tools as comparative and systematic methods. It also involved such interdisciplinary methods as the historical-legal and the comparative analysis of legal documents.


The notion that the escape paths can make for nice visualizations was independently found by Paul Bourke [1]. Bourke's work was inspired by the Buddhabrot. The primary difference between Bourke's visualizations and the visualizations given here is that Bourke draws the paths for those points not in the set, where – oppositely – here we draw the paths for those points in the set. Here we use Bezier curves to draw the escape paths. The length of these shaggy escape paths is shortened to only 20% of the total length, giving the impression of a isotropic buzzcut. The C++/OpenGL code for this paper can be found at [2]. The following are images of the escape paths:


Coping with the welder shortage today is no small task, but various organizations have joined forces and grants are being given for assistance.


Abstract The Forbush effects associated with far western and eastern powerful sources on the Sun that occurred on the background of unsettled and moderate interplanetary and geomagnetic disturbances have been studied by data from neutron monitor networks and relevant measurements of the solar wind parameters. These Forbush effects may be referred to a special sub-class of events, with the characteristics like the event in July 2005, and incorporated by the common conditions: absence of a significant disturbance in the Earth vicinity; absence of a strong geomagnetic storm; slow decrease of cosmic ray intensity during the main phase of the Forbush effect. General features and separate properties in behavior of density and anisotropy of 10 GV cosmic rays for this subclass are investigated.


Muscarinic modulation of mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays an important role in reward, potentially mediated through the M5 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (M5R). However, the key sites for M5R‐mediated control of dopamine neurons within this region are still unknown. To address this question we examined the electron microscopic immunocytochemical localization of antipeptide antisera against M5R and the plasmalemmal dopamine transporter (DAT) in single sections through the rat VTA. M5R was located mainly to VTA somatodendritic profiles (71%; n = 627), at least one‐third (33.2%; n = 208) of which also contained DAT. The M5R immunoreactivity was distributed along cytoplasmic tubulovesicular endomembrane systems in somata and large dendrites, but was more often located at plasmalemmal sites in small dendrites, the majority of which did not express DAT. The M5R‐immunoreactive dendrites received a balanced input from unlabeled terminals forming either asymmetric or symmetric synapses. Compared with dendrites, M5R was less often seen in axon terminals, comprising only 10.8% (n = 102) of the total M5R‐labeled profiles. These terminals were usually presynaptic to unlabeled dendrites, suggesting that M5R activation can indirectly modulate non–DAT‐containing dendrites through presynaptic mechanisms. Our results provide the first ultrastructural evidence that in the VTA, M5R has a subcellular location conducive to major involvement in postsynaptic signaling in many dendrites, only some of which express DAT. These findings suggest that cognitive and rewarding effects ascribed to muscarinic activation in the VTA can primarily be credited to M5R activation at postsynaptic plasma membranes distinct from dopamine transport. J. Comp. Neurol. 521: 2927–2946, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


In order to prevent the core damage in Sadong transition area, the clay stabilizer FL-1 which can be used in this area is prepared. FL-1 is synthesized by acrylamide(AM) and trimethyldiallylammonium chloride(TM). Using the mixing initiator, the of copolymer is greater than 140 mL/g. It is shown in laboratory that the core recovery rate is greater than 95% and the clay swell rate is smaller than 3%. The filed experiment shows that the water injection intensity of every well improves by 8% and the injection pressure decreases by 6% after oil formation protection of injection wells.


In this paper a theoretical model is developed to simulate the process of vaporization and burning of emulsion droplets of a fuel and the evolution and formation of micro- and nano-particles. This process is usually known as the Emulsion Combustion Method (ECM). In the ECM, a proper salt solution is mixed with a fuel to form an emulsion of micro-solution droplets. The emulsion is then sprayed into micron-sized emulsion droplets; spray droplets burn in a spray flame to form final micro- or nano-particles. A mathematical model for the entire process from the droplet interior to the gas phase processes is proposed. Model equations are solved numerically. It is found that particle characteristics are dependent on the operating and processing conditions, such as the initial size and concentration of the suspended micro solution droplets in emulsion droplets and the fuel type and fraction of the emulsion droplets. Although a quantitative evaluation of the model performance is not yet possible due to the lack of sufficient experimental data, the developed model may be used to design an ECM process to produce particles with tailored properties. The main novelty of the model is that in an ECM process it can predict whether mono-dispersed single particles will be formed or agglomerated larger particles.


Database transaction processing is the focus of the teaching contents of the database, this paper combines the characteristics of its SQL Server database, perform, write rules were summarized exposition and teaching practice, the relevant considerations are briefly described, which for how to learn the knowledge with a certain significance.


Franchising and management contracts are important strategic choices for modern hospitality industry to achieve rapid expansion worldwide.The paper,through the survey to the senior managers of international hotel groups in Mainland China and by employing Probit model-building method,finds that the larger our national political risk and economic risk are,the bigger scale of hotels' operation is.As opposed to franchising,the smaller proportion of management contracts adopted in hotels' international expansion is,the bigger regional legal risks are.The higher educational level and the richer international operational experience are,the more dispersed of hotel spatial distribution is.As opposed to franchising,the proportion of management contracts adopted during hotels' international expansion is bigger.The study conclusion is of good referential value to the international expansion of China's tourist hotel groups.


With the continuous development of China's economy and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, people's demand for power energy is increasing, directly promoting the continuous expansion of China's power system construction. However, the increasing number and scale of transformer substations have also increased the complexity and difficulty of their maintenance work. In recent years, the auxiliary safety management system based on new communication technology has been put forward and applied, which has improved the safety level of transformer substation maintenance work to some extent and reduced the probability of related safety accidents. This paper will start with the existing problems in the process of transformer substation maintenance at this stage, and mainly discuss the auxiliary safety management system of maintenance and its application.


Many health researchers have started to see the benefits of partnering with playwrights to use theater as a tool to analyze and present complex findings. Such projects about mental health, however, remain few and far between and are especially fraught. This article argues that research-based theater can be an ideal tool for exploring and sharing counter-hegemonic "mad stories"—especially if the plays created can help interrupt, among other things, problematic biomedical narratives about individualized approaches to supporting those who are suffering. This article also incorporates excerpts from the script the author wrote as part of her doctoral thesis project about military trauma to highlight how, guided by mad theory and mad aesthetics, she has creatively woven some of the weightiest ethical conundrums encountered during the research and development process into the play itself, so that, their nuance and magnitude become a critical component of the story being presented.


This research is an effort to document and discover the difference in attitude and behavior towards toilets and usage in Pakistan and Japan. The aim of this comparative study was to show the similarity and variations of the attitude and behavior of the people in both countries clearly, in addition to it, the history of the development of toilet. The first part of this paper presents literature review which can bring forth the plausible factors that make people hesitant in discussion related to excretions. The second part presents the findings of the survey research based on questionnaire which included both open-end and close-end questions and was conducted with the people in both Pakistan and Japan. The results of two countries were quite contrasting. The last part of this paper includes the analysis. Response to questionnaire was refused by majority of the Pakistanis, whereas Japanese gladly participated in the survey. The results show that there is diversity of the attitude and variation in behavior about the usage of the toilet among participants. We may conclude that the sanitary condition are a major determinant of toilet usage and behavior among people. The significance of this research is that it deals with an under-researched area of mundane. People use toilet every day and it is indeed a universal aspect, however, people's behavior in the toilets and attitudes toward toilets have not been investigated enough by social scientists. It is rare to find the comparative study of toilet itself and people's behavior in the toilet in Pakistan and Japan. This research will help future researchers of anthropology and public hygiene. This research may also help to highlight the significance of public and private hygiene. Keywords: Hygiene, Japan, Pakistan, Toilets, Toilet Habbits, Toilet Behavior


The North eastern state of India, Sikkim is a tiny hilly state located at the foothills of the Himalayan range and is often referred as the 'Nature's Paradise' for its scenic beauty. Rice is the staple food grain in Sikkim next to maize grown exclusively during Kharif season. Bestowed with varied agro-climatic conditions, Sikkim produces some of the major crops such as cardamom, ginger, turmeric, off-seasons vegetables, flowers, kiwi, paddy, maize and millets. But the farmers of Sikkim are always inclined towards rice cultivation. The cultivation of rice has rather become like a tradition for the people and every year with the onset of monsoon marks the importance of rice cultivation for the Sikkimese people. A large number of landraces of rice both dry land and wetland were cultivated but almost all paddy landraces are now slowly disappearing due to lack of conservation methods, low productivity, lack of recent production technologies and so on.


Uji Kompetensi Mahasiswa Pendidikan Profesi Dokter (UKMPPD) is an exit exam in medical education. If the participants did not pass this test, it turned out to cause the accumulation of the number of retakers from time to time. This study aims to the analysis of the predictors of the achievement of the results of the CBT UKMPPD which includes the value of report cards, TPA, MMPI, and Read and Write the Quran, GPA stage of academic education, GPA stage of the education profession, and the results of the CBT Pre-UKMPPD. This research is a quantitative analytical method with a cross-sectional approach. The sample is selected using the total sampling method on the first taker's students for August 2020-May 2021 that have complete data. The number of students of the first taker who follow the CBT UKMPPD period of August 2020 – May 2021 is 134 people consisting of 88 people Force 2014 and 46 people Force 2015. The results of the value of report cards and GPA academic correlates strongly with correlation >0.6, and the results of the TPA, the GPA of the Profession, and the CBT Pre- UKMPPD are not associated strongly with correlation <0.6. The results of the analysis chi-square on the MMPI and BTQ do not indicate a strong relationship to the results of the CBT UKMPPD. Conclusion of this study prove that the value of report cards and academic GPA have a strong relationship that can be used as a predictor of graduation CBT UKMPPD.
Keywords: UKMPPD; Competency Test; Exit Exam.


The visual Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) presents participants with nodes, representing cities, and requires that the participant trace the shortest closed route among the cities. Humans solve a similar problem in every day navigation and search tasks. We investigated human TSP solutions for considerations other than solution length. We found a preference for solutions favoring distance-discounted reward and distance to first contact. A hierarchical stochastic model parameterizing solution length, distance-discounted reward, goodness of fit, and plan complexity showed similar effects. The model shows promise for approximating human performance in TSP and other TSP-like naturalistic tasks.


A cocrystal screening of a series of theobromine (TBR) with five organic carboxylic acids (p-coumaric acid (p-COA), 2,4,6-trihydroxybenzoic acid monohydrate (2,4,6-TRM), gallic acid monohydrate (GAL), 1-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (1-H-2-NA) and citric...


Summary form only given. The plasma-chemical reaction in reactive plasma was strongly influenced by the gas temperature and mean electron energy. To understand the gas temperature in plasma is significantly important for control of plasma-chemical reaction. In addition, the gas heating in discharge plasma causes a degradation of electrodes and a breakdown of insulation gas. Therefore, advanced plasma diagnostic method has been expected for developments of efficient plasma processing and reliable gaseous insulation technology. Previous research concerning the gas temperature measurement in corona discharge using spectroscopic measurement of second positive system bands of nitrogen has shown the gas temperature in positive DC glow corona is approximately 400 to 500 K1. However, this result indicates spatially-averaged gas temperature of measurement area, and not represents the spatial distribution of gas temperature.Spectral image processing has been applied to the study of variety of emission sources, such as electrical arc discharges, inductively coupled plasmas. In this work, the spatial distribution of gas temperature and mean electron energy in positive DC glow corona was two-dimensionally measured using spectral image processing. The positive DC glow corona was generated using a rod-plane electrode in atmospheric air. The gap distance was 30 mm and the diameter of rod electrode was 1.5 mm. In the case of gas temperature measurement, the spectral images of positive DC glow corona were taken by using ICCD camera with ultranarrow bandpass filters correspond to the head and the tail of N2 second positive system band (0-2), respectively. Similarly, in the case of mean electron energy, the spectral images were taken with ultra-narrow bandpass filters correspond to the head of N2 second positive system band (0-2) and the head of N2 1st Negative System Band (0, 0), respectively. The qualitative 2D distribution of gas temperature and mean electron energy was obtained from these emission intensity ratios. As a result, it was revealed that a distinctly high-temperature spot is formed in positive DC glow at the tip of rod electrode just before the sparkover voltage. In addition, the mean electron energy at the tip of rod electrode was indicated as highest spot in the positive DC glow corona. Spectral image processing reproduced spatial distribution of gas temperature and mean electron energy well.


[Objective] To provide a theoretical basis for high-yield breeding of broom sorghum. [Method] Using 11 kinds of broom sorghum collected at home as research objects, the differences in morphological characteristics of broom sorghum were compared through the survey of some indicators, such as plant height, tillering, inflorescence, stem node, stem-leaf ratio, yield, and so on. [Result] The 11 kinds of broom sorghum were different in morphological characteristics with large amplitude of plant height; zygl-1, zygl-6, zygl-8 and zygl-9 were appropriate for fixed broom type; zygl-9 had the highest integrated production. [Conclusion] The study laid the foundation for further exploring breeding, cultivation and promotion of broom sorghum.


Metal oxide varistors (MOVs) are commonly mounted as a lightning protection measure (LPM) in power systems such as the 48 V DC system in telecom facilities. However, degradation in the performance of the MOVs causes electric leakage of 50 Hz commercial AC power. In order to prevent such electric leakage, it is recommended that a fuse be connected in series with the MOVs for short-circuit protection. However, because the fuse is connected in series with the MOVs and a lightning surge will flow through it, such fuses must not be blown out by the lightning surge. Therefore, the authors propose a fuse with a dual structure: an outer conductor through which the lightning surge current and some of the overcurrent from commercial power will flow, and an inner conductor through which the overcurrent from commercial power and some of the lightning surge current will flow. In this study, authors evaluated whether the proposed fuse can control the current flow or not. First, by measuring the lightning surge currents that flowed through a prototype, which was installed on small coils, it was found that the proposed fuse can control the lightning surge current flow, which favors higher frequency current flow through the outer conductor. Second, by simulating the current separation rate (CSR), which is the ratio of current flow through the outer and inner conductor, it was found that the efficiency of current separation can be improved by changing the thickness and diameter of the outer conductor.


Stratification is seen as a prominent technique for improving the performance of spark ignition engines especially at part loads. Though rotary engines have high specific power, they suffer high fuel consumption and HC emission. For this reason, direct injection methods in rotary engines have been investigated since they were introduced to the market. In this study, early direct injection in a side ported rotary engine was investigated by using CFD techniques. The aim of the study is to obtain the potential of low pressure direct injection method on mixture formation process. Geometrical model of Mazda Renesis engine that were modified as a single rotor engine for research activities was used in the modeling studies. Fuel was injected directly to the chamber from present oil hole location that has less geometrical constraints than any other location of the Renesis engine. Simulations were done for 2000 rpm which is a typical part load operation point of the engine. In numerical calculations, RNG k-e model was used as the turbulence model; spray breakup was modeled by the Taylor Analogy Breakup (TAB) model. Flow pattern of intake air and fuel droplet distributions were investigated for a possibility of having rich mixture around spark plugs. The results showed that swirl-like motion of the side ported engine inhibits fuel spray to accumulate in the middle of the combustion chamber. Fuel droplets were driven to the counter side of the inlet wall by centrifugal force of the inlet air. This effect reduced as the swirl flow diminishes due to sweeping motion of the rotor. It is observed that the main flow in the chamber is converted to the tumble-like flow at middle and last part of the compression stroke.


A substantive review of some of the recent validation studies in the area of creative thinking suggested that (a) investigators have not come to an agreement as to the most meaningful and practical immediate criteria of creative thinking; (b) every one of the easily obtainable measures including school grades, supervisor and teacher ratings, peer nominations, production records, and psychiatric diagnosis, has shortcomings as a suitable criterion; and (c) more validation studies are urgently needed to establish both empirical and conceptual validities of the current instruments.


This letter proposes an approach that combines the use of sampling-based motion planning with machine learning algorithms. In particular, the asymptotically optimal planner SST* is used to generate asymptotically minimum time trajectories, considering systems with motion constraints (nonholonomic systems) and different orders in the dynamics of the models. The intermediate states that form the trajectories obtained by the SST* planner, together with the controls that generated them, constitute the inputs and outputs, respectively, of the training set for a new variant of the MPNet network. This contrasts with other works in which neural networks are proposed that infer states that serve as a guide for another complementary method to generate controls that respect the dynamics of the system. The proposed method uses a neural network to directly infer the controls of the system (plus an application time of those controls), accelerating the generation time of trajectories up to three orders of magnitude in comparison to other methods based on learning. The proposed approach is evaluated with different dynamical systems and environments, including maps with concave obstacles and narrow passages.


The buildup of small-scale magnetic helicity which accompanies the oppositely signed growth on large scales is central to conventional dynamical quenching theories of mean-field dynamos. However, the conventional formalism presumes isotropic turbulence and thereby excludes part of the magnetic Lorentz back-reaction. This renders it insufficient to predict the full quenching for general anisotropic flows. To overcome this deficiency, we derive a new generalized quenching formalism that includes the full back-reacting Lorentz force, and a new "selective-damping-$\tau$" closure which conserves magnetic helicity. We apply the formalism to examples of $\bm\alpha^2$ dynamos and show its predicted quenching for different cases of turbulence---isotropic helical, anisotropic helical, and anisotropic non-helical. It predicts stronger-than-conventional quenching in general, but reduces to the conventional case in the helical isotropic limit.


IN A previous paper the findings of a psychiatric evaluation of 100 patients with essential hypertension were presented.1 These patients were seen because emotional factors seemed important in the illness, or for opinion concerning the advisability of sympathectomy. The series is therefore weighted in favor of those with significant nervous factors. All the patients were under fifty-five years of age; a few were under thirty, but most were between thirty and fifty years. All the patients had a thorough workup in the medical department, and all but a few were free of any significant evidence of cardiac, renal or cerebral . . .


The aim of this study was to improve the stability of eugenol–casein nanoparticles (EL–CS-NPs) through polyethylene glycol (PEG) modification. The results show that modifying the EL–CS-NPs with PEG after loading with eugenol (EL) gives PEG–EL–CS-NPs, with increased stability. The NPs modified with higher-molecular-weight PEG showed better stability. A CS/PEG ratio of 200 : 1 (w/w) yielded the NPs with the best stability. A PEG20 K–EL–CS-NP dispersion remained stable in cold storage for over one year, and also exhibited stronger inhibitory effects against Colletotrichum musae inoculated on bananas than an EL–CS-NP dispersion, since it showed more prolonged sustained release of EL than the EL–CS-NP dispersion. Lyophilized PEG20 K–EL–CS-NP powder showed better effectiveness against mold on bread than lyophilized EL–CS-NPs powder. Using PEG to modify CS-NPs shows potential for improving the stability of CS-NPs loaded with hydrophobic substances for delivery in the fields of food and agriculture.


The effect of the nickel/zirconia (111) interface on oxygen vacancy formation energies in zirconia is investigated utilizing first principles simulation. The relationship between vacancy formation energy and the Fermi level is found to be similar to that calculated in the bulk system when the vacancy is located at three oxygen layers away from the interface. Moreover, we find a modulation of about 1 eV in the formation energies when the vacancies are located closer to the interface and relate this to the interface electronic states. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2010.93]


We examine how symplectic cohomology may be used as an invariant on symplectic structures, and investigate the non-uniqueness of these structures on Liouville domains, a field which has seen much development in the past decade. Notably, we prove the existence of infinitely many non-standard symplectic structures on finite type Liouville manifolds for dimensions $n\geq 6$. To do this, we build up notions of Liouville domains, Lefschetz fibrations, and symplectic cohomology.


Bai nationality's "Bawang whip" was a traditional nationality PE item.It was an effective exercise way.By testing about 100 non-PE professional college students,it shows obvious improve on psychology health between testing group and opposition group.


Roaming technology is a very important component in the virtual reality,so that people at home can appreciate the scenic spots and historical sites from all parts of the virtual world.In this paper,a 3-dimensional model of virtual Badmionton Venue for Olympic Games with different complexity was achieved on the basis of the developing platform,which adapted the software of Creator and Vega Prime,combined Visual C++ and OpenGL language,improved mesh simplified algorithms.According to the lacking interface of Vega Prime,the friendly user's interface and roaming system was constructed,it helped people find out the distribution situation of the seat in venues before entering Olympic Games badminton hall,and helped the administrator organize the order of venues.The experiment proves that this system has very good interaction and real-time operation.


Smart Cities are today seen as one of the most promoted solutions for making the globe a more habitable place through environmental and energy sustainability. Many cities have already made progress toward the objective of becoming smart cities, they have implemented modern technology such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in nearly every element of city life, with a strong emphasis on maintaining the ecological balance in cities and so Internet of Things (IoT) is the foundational technology for constructing a smart cities framework. Though it is not difficult for developed countries to build practical plans and obtain results for smart cities utilizing IoT, cities in developing countries are still struggling to embrace technologies such as IoT due to numerous constraints. So, in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), improve the quality of city life, and reduce environmental catastrophes in South Asian (SA) developing countries, feasible structural and strategic planning with timely implementation is required so that smart cities projects become successful, particularly with the help of IoT as the basic structure of the cities. This paper's research provides a review and analysis of IoT-enabled smart cities, as well as the primary constraints and necessary procedures to address them in SA developing countries.


The creation of a diverse STEM workforce has been the target of multiple initiatives that seek to broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities. Hispanic/Latinx students represent a small fraction of undergraduate engineering students, and more than half obtain their undergraduate degrees from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Focusing efforts at these institutions has the potential to increase significantly the representation of the Latinx population in engineering. This study is part of a broader effort to identify needs and successes at existing HSIs by actively engaging with engineering educators through the use of design thinking methodologies. This paper aims to further the understanding of how educators at HSIs perceive their undergraduate students, including their assets and needs. Thirty-six engineering educators from 13 HSIs in Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas attended one of two workshops in the spring of 2018. Participants engaged in individual and group activities that helped them reflect on their students and actively design an educational innovation for their institution, using information previously gathered through interviews with students. Qualitative analysis of the data across the thirty-six educators at both workshops identified differences between how instructors describe characteristics of Latinx engineering students across regions and instructor type. The overall findings provide a set of unique characteristics of students at HSIs that can serve as the foundation for future research and future educational efforts to increase the representation of Latinx students in engineering.


List of figures 1. Democratic politics and international relations 2. Attitudes towards war in the democratic states 3. Electoral institutions and the democratic politics of war and peace 4. Electoral incentives and foreign-policy choices 5. Elections and war: the international connection 6. International outcomes 7. Conclusions Appendices Notes Bibliography Index.


The traditional RRT (Rapid-exploration Random Tree) path planning algorithm has poor real-time performance and large random adjustment of algorithm parameters, because it requires a large amount of calculations to traverse the entire planning task space. In order to solve the above problems, this paper analyzes the influence on the algorithm performance of the two parameters of step size and selection probability through experiments and statistical analysis of the data. Based on above research results, the principle of algorithm parameter selection and the improved deredundant node algorithm in the process of random tree growth are put forward. Finally, experimental simulation and data collation statistics confirm that the improved RRT path planning algorithm can achieve pruning in the process of random tree growth to make the algorithm quickly converged to the target point, and improves the efficiency of algorithm path planning.