To the Editors: Acute hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection is almost always an asymptomatic or mild illness with a benign outcome in infants and children, but the disease is often symptomatic in adults and fulminant forms can occur in them. We report the first case of fatal encephalitis in the preicteric stage of proven HAV infection in a female child. An 11-year-old Sudanese girl, in coma, was presented to our emergency department at Al-Jedaani Hospital, southern Jeddah, KSA. The girl had a high fever 2 days previously that responded to paracetamol. On the day of admission, she suddenly lost consciousness in the morning and was brought to our hospital. The child had no history of similar attacks or seizures. History of any disease and drug intake was negative, including preexisting liver disease and recent travel outside Jeddah. At the time of admission to our pediatric intensive care unit, the girl had been in coma for more than 4 hours. Her vital signs were normal. She was unresponsive to verbal stimulation (Galagow Coma Scale: 6/15). There was no pallor, jaundice, or cyanosis. There were no signs of meningeal irritation. Eye examination revealed bilateral normal fundi. Initial laboratory tests showed a hemoglobin concentration of 13.0 g/dL, total leukocyte count of 11,000/mm, with neutrophils 70%, and platelet count of 275,000/mm. The result of a blood film test was negative for malaria. C-reactive protein was positive at 11 mg/dL. Blood sugar, serum sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, creatinine, and arterial blood gases were normal. Urine analysis was also unremarkable. Initial liver function tests revealed a total serum bilirubin of 1.3 mg/dL, direct bilirubin of 0.2 mg/dL, alanine aminotransferase of 2280 U/L, mildly elevated alkaline phosphatase of 363 U/L, serum albumin of 3.6 g/dL, and prothrombin time of 14 seconds (control time: 12 s). Serum ammonia was normal (28 mol/L). The diagnosis was encephalitis and anicteric hepatitis. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) abnormal findings were protein of 80 mg/dL and white blood cell count of 400/mm with lymphocytes 65% and neutrophils 35%. Gramstained smear of the CSF revealed no microorganisms. Cultures for bacteria, fungi, and acid-fast bacilli were negative. The cranial computed tomographic findings were reported to be normal. After admission to pediatric intensive care unit, the girl remained in coma and developed fever (40°C) and tonic convulsions controlled by diazepam. By the end of the second day of admission, very mild icterus appeared. She developed frequent generalized tonic-clonic seizures unresponsive to diazepam, midazolam, and phenytoin, therefore general anesthesia with propofol was administered under mechanical ventilation, but convulsions and fever were not controlled, and the patient succumbed on the third day of admission. Follow-up of liver function tests mainly showed increased total and direct serum bilirubin to 4.2 and 3.5 mg/dL, respectively. Serologic tests for influenza, mumps, herpes simplex virus, coxsackie B3 virus, adenovirus, cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, HAV, hepatitis E virus, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus, and polymerase chain reaction specific for some infectious agents performed on blood and CSF specimens revealed that the only acute infection was HAV. This was proven by enzyme immunoassay for IgM antibody and polymerase chain reaction specific to HAV in both blood and CSF. Encephalitis during anicteric HAV infection has been previously reported rarely in adults but not in children. There is only one recent report of a case of a young boy from Tehran, Iran with HAV-associated meningoencephalitis in the icteric stage. However, all previously reported cases survived. In our case, the only clues to the diagnosis of HAV infection were abnormal initial and repeated liver function tests.


In the past six years, at the Mayo Clinic, 17 hamartomas of the lung have been removed surgically and the diagnosis has been made subsequently by microscopic examination of the tissue. Since, so far as we know, this is the largest series of these tumors to have been observed clinically and surgically, we believed that an attempt should be made to determine whether diagnosis could be made prior to surgical removal of the lesion. We felt particularly responsible for determining what roentgenography could contribute to such diagnosis. The microscopic sections and roentgenograms representing each of the 17 cases were reviewed. Partial Survey of Reported Experience Definition and Classification: The term "hamartoma," from the Greek word meaning "to err," was originated by Albrecht (1) in 1904. His definition, in translation, is "tumor-like malformations in which in truth one can demonstrate only an abnormal mixture of the normal developmental components of the organ in which they occur, whether it be with rega...


The function and affordance of natural or artificial objects and various physical constructs feature prominently in the functioning of an intelligent system or an intelligent autonomous system (IAS). In navigating an environment, an IAS needs to understand the function and affordance of roads, stairs, bridges, and various physical constructs that may assist with or obstruct its movement to achieve its goal(s). When encountering objects, understanding their function and affordance so that they may be manipulated or made use of to support the IAS in performing certain required tasks is a key aspect of the intelligent functioning of the IAS. In AI research, so far, the attention paid to the characterization and representation of function and affordance has been sporadic and sparse, and it has not received the same attention as, say, object categorization or natural language processing, even though this aspect features prominently in an intelligent system's functioning, and is more fundamental and important in many ways. In the sporadic and sparse, though commendable efforts so far devoted to the characterization and understanding of function and affordance, there has also been no general framework that could unify all the different use domains and situations related to functionality, and that could provide an intelligent system or an IAS the necessary computational, representational, processing, and reasoning constructs to effect recognition, generation, and application of functional concepts. This paper develops just such a general framework, with an approach that emphasizes the fact that the representations involved must be explicitly cognitive and conceptual, and they must also contain the causal characterizations of the events and processes involved, as well as employ conceptual constructs that are grounded in the referents to which they refer, in order to achieve maximal generality for the framework to be applicable to a wide range of domains and situations. The basic general framework is described, along with a set of basic guiding principles with regards to representation of functionality. To properly and adequately characterize and represent functionality, a descriptive representation language is needed. This language is defined and developed, and many examples of its use are described. The general framework is developed based on an extension of the general language meaning representational framework called conceptual dependency. To support the general characterization and representation of functionality, the basic conceptual dependency framework is enhanced with representational devices called structure anchor and conceptual dependency elaboration, together with the definition of a set of ground level concepts. These novel representational constructs are defined, developed, and described. A general framework dealing with functionality would represent a major step toward achieving Artificial General Intelligence.


As advertisements are time and location sensitive, a challenge for wireless marketing is to have advertisements delivered when and where they are most convenient. In this paper we introduce a two-stage auction model for location-based wireless targeted advertising. This system extends the notion of location-based service by using location information to target advertising, and does so specifically by enabling advertisers to specify their preferences and bid for advertisement delivery, where those preferences are then used in a subsequent automated auction of actual deliveries to wireless data users. The automated auction in the second stage is especially effective because it can use information about the individual user profile data, including customer relationship management system contents as well as location from the wireless system's location management service, including potentially location history such as current trajectory from recent history and longer-term historical trip records for that user. Through two-stage auction, real-time bidding by advertisers and matching ads contents to mobile users help advertising information reach maximal value.


"traditional," Shank, nevertheless, succeeds masterfully in focusing attention upon the inadequate consideration which these texts have received. The traditional statements are marked by inconsistencies, harmonizations, strained exegesis, and impossible logic. The author rightly insists that all the Scriptures be examined and that each text be allowed to say what it means. Secondly, the author apparently quite independently, of the more recent discussions in biblical theology, offers some rather interesting conclusions of his own which are not without modern counterparts. Election is not with respect to particular individual men, but "rather with respect to the ekklesia, the corporate body of all who, through living faith, are in union with Christ, the true Elect and the Living Covenant between God and all who trust in Him" (p. 170). "Faith is not the act of a moment, but the attitude of a life; the initial decision must be perpetually implemented throughout the life of the bel iever . . ." (p. 51) . Eternal life "cannot be possessed by men apart from a living union with Christ, in and through which that life is available to men" (p. 52 ). Eternal life in Christ "is our present possession only on the condition of a present living faith, rather than as the irrevocable consequence of a moment's act of faith sometime in the past" (p. 63) . Unfortunately, the author's own position is not as clear nor as well defined as would be desirable. The exegetical procedures, although an improvement over his predecessors, still leave much to be desired. Particularly significant is the lack of a proper hermeneutic. It appears certain that this book will continue to prove significant in the days ahead, especially to the author's own constituency. Combining as it does with rare talent the devotional and theological, and marked by an honest and sincere desire to search out the full meaning of the text, this work can not help but commend itself to pastors and earnest students of the scripture.


Objective To Study on promoting intelligence development effects and preventing hypoxia/reoxygenation injury of rich selenium-banqiao-codonopsis pilosula in mice. Methods Learning and memory barrier model induced by phenylisopropyladenosine(PIA)was adopted in promoting intelligence development experiment;and anti-oxygenaion experiment mice hypoxia/reoxygenation injury model was used to measure the activity of reactire oxygen species(ROS),calalase(CAT),superoxide dismutase(SOD)and malondialdehyde(MDA)in blood. Results Rich selenium-danqiao-codonopsis pilosula boild water could enhance the learning and memory ability of mice;obviously extend the swimming time of mice;could decrease the quality of ROS and MDA;increase the activity of SOD,but it had no obvious effect on CAT. Conclusion Rich selenium-banqiao-codonopsis pilosula had effects of promoting intelligence development and preventing gypoxia/reoxygenation injury.


Urban flooding caused by rainstorm is one of the major and frequent natural disasters. In order to keep abreast of urban storm characteristics and its impacts, this paper conducts a statistical analysis on the urban storm events in 2014 in China through the cyber media platform, and states its temporal and spatial distribution situation. Besides, the characteristics and reasons for storm disasters have been analyzed. The results show that the storm events occurred frequently from May to August, mainly in south China, east China and southwest China. And a series of damages, such as waterlogging, traffic disruption, geologic disasters, economic losses, disease spread and mortal danger, resulted from heavy rainfall. What's more, the main factors accounting for rainstorm calamities are being demonstrated in terms of natural and social environment. Both the frequency of storm and the deterioration of natural environment increase the possibility of flood happened.


The main purpose of this study is to identify the attitudes of sample of Qatar University students towards the modernization and development of social and cultural Qatari woman's roles.
The sample: the final sample tested (314) students, (157) males, (157) females. Statistics analyses used were the means, standers deviation, factor analysis Univariate Analysis of Variance and POST-HOC-Tests Scheffe. Questionnaires: Were attitudes towards the social roles of Qatari women. Modernization of the social and cultural roles of Qatari women. Modernization and development the society. Results: Indicated that The main effect of sex was significant in all the variables of the study, and this significant effect was for the females, hi addition to this result that the main effect of studying years was not significant except reactive the role of woman and renewal woman's roles, and this significant effect was for the females. There was a significant interaction between sex and studying years in quality of woman's role, and efficiency of martial life/ and selective attitudes, and this significant was for the females. There was not a significant interaction between sex and studying years in the variables of the attitudes towards modernization and development of woman's roles.


This paper presents the applied stress, the residual stress and difference between them for two different materials, calculated by the combination of Hooke´s Law and Holloman Law. In order to calculate the stresses two different materials were chosen, the first is an alloyed steel SAE 4340 and the second a high strength steel UHB-20C. The results showed that both materials showed the same trend, which means the difference between the applied stress and the residual stress is minimal when applied stress is closer to material tensile strength. On contrary, when the applied stress is closer to the materials yield strength the difference is significantly higher.


A process for manufacturing indium tin oxide (ITO) sputtering targets as described. The process includes the precipitation of indium and tin hydroxides, sintering in the absence of chloride ions, using the resultant oxide powders to prepare an aqueous slip with dispersing agent, binder, special high density promoting agents and compacting the slip in a specially surface coated porous mold using the method of slip casting followed by sintering the resultant compacted target body to yield high density ITO target.


This paper presents a novel MEMS-based electro-rheological (ER) microfinger system with an alternating pressure source for multiple microactuator systems. Based on rectifying alternating flow by the ER microvalves, the ER microfinger system enables half number and small size of supply and return pipes, which is suitable for multiple microactuator systems. The MEMS-based finger part was realized by newly developed PDMS micromolding process featuring high-aspect-ratio and three-dimensional structures. This is the first time demonstration of bi-directional, large-displacement of 1.1 mm and high-speed (rise time of 1.1 s) bending motion of the fabricated 1.6-mm long ER microfinger.


Microstructures and magnetic properties of Fe- (Ta, Nb, Zr)-N alloy films near the eutectic composition were studied. These new soft magnetic alloy films were prepared by N2 reactive sputtering. The structures and magnetic properties were changed by annealing or adjusting N2 partial pressure ratio. The film structures were investigated with X-ray diffraction and TEM, and the following results were obtained. (i) the as prepared films; amorphous like phase, (ii) the annealed films; homogeneous mixture of fine-grained α-Fe and (Ta, Nb, Zr) nitrides, (iii) the films annealed at higher temperatures; composite of grown grains of α-Fe and (Ta, Nb, Zr) nitrides. Among these films, the films (ii) exhibit good soft magnetic properties, small magnetostriction and high saturation magnetization up to 1.6 T. Furthermore, Fe-Ta-Zr-N alloy films show higher thermal stability of the soft magnetic properties.


This paper explores the efficiency of passive investment strategy and weak market efficiency in China A shares markets with our programming trading strategies .The empirical results denied both of them under the maximum loss risk measurement.


Protection of Deen (religion) is the highest objective of Maqasid al-Shariah, followed by protection of life, protection of offspring, protection of intellect and protection of wealth and property. Qur'an and Prophetic Sunnah have addressed many ways and methods meant for all times and space on how to protect the religion of Islam. Da'wah is prescribed by both Islamic sources as one of the most important ways concerning the protection of Deen al-Islaam (Islam and its teachings). It was the best
 way used by all God's Prophets and their followers. However, contemporary situation of the Muslim world, where Deen al-Islaam – its teachings, its Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) and its followers – has been misunderstood, misinterpreted and mistreated especially by Western media, intellectuals, and politicians, shows the weakness of Muslims in their Da'wah discourse.
 How does a matured Muslim protect his/her religion – Deen al-Islaam? What is the right methodology to be used by a Muslim in his/her Da'wah discourse? To answer these questions, this study attempts to look at the Prophetic Da'wah for extracting the methodology employed by him (p.b.u.h.) as a relevant tool for Da'wah activities in contemporary world. Pre-Islamic Arabian society, the Prophecy of Muhammad (p.b.u.h.), special characteristics and methodology of Prophetic Da'wah, and its relevance
 to contemporary society are the main issues discussed in this paper. Descriptive and analytical methods are used in this study. This research adds to the existing literature on Islamic Da'wah significant findings, which serve as a key reference for young Muslim scholars / leaders and a source of clarification for non-Muslims.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of ability and motivation on the performance of employees of PT PLN (Persero) ULP Tanjung Karang. It will be the main source of task success to improve labor productivity. The survey respondents were all employees of PT PLN (PERSERO) ULP Tanjung Karang, totaling 30 people. Data were collected and analyzed using multiple linear regression equations using SPSS version 25. The coefficient of determination for the test results was 0.417. The current study found that both competence and motivation have significant positive effects on employee performance, with f-test scores at the significant level of 0.000.


of the scriptural assertion of Christ's unique mediation; and Andrew Mbuvi explores scriptural references to Christ's priesthood in conversation with the African understanding of expiatory sacrifice. K. K. Yeo's final essay on Christology in China provides a fitting conclusion to the collection, emphasizing the need for new contextual Christologies that are in continuity with the tradition. The volume, which emphasizes the continuity between biblical scholarship and systematic reflection, will serve as an excellent introduction to contemporary Christology, but also to the broader and ever-expanding field of contextual theology.


Methods and systems for placing an overlay in video content are provided. A method receives video content and input indicating an overlay to be placed in the video. The method determines, based on overlay and video properties, locations where the overlay can be placed. The method presents suggested locations for the overlay and receives a selection of a suggested location. The overlay is placed in the selected location. A system includes memory with instructions for inserting an overlay into video content. The system receives an indication of an overlay to be placed in the video, performs attention modeling on the video to identify zones likely to be of interest to a viewer. The system presents locations within the identified zones where the overlay can be inserted and receives a selection of a location. The system inserts the overlay into the selected location and renders the video with the inserted overlay.


The equations describing the disturbed motion of an artificial Earth satellite in the atmosphere are integrated by using a new variable instead of the true anomaly. The atmospheric flattening and rotation, the linear variation of the density scale height with the altitude, the symmetrical diurnal effect and the variation of its amplitude with the heigth are taken into account. Approximate formulae for the perturbations in all the orbital elements over a revolution of the satellite are given.

Les equations decrivant le mouvnment perturbe d'un satellite artificiel de la Terre dans l'atmosphere sont integrees en employant une nouvelle variable a la place de l'anomalie vraie. L'applatissement et la rotation de l'atmosphere, la variation lineaire de la densite d'echelle avec l'altitude, l'effet diurne symetrique et la variation de son amplitude avec la hauteur sont consideres. On donne des formules approximatives pour une revolution du satellite pour les perturbations dans tous les elements orbitaux.


Abstract Two explicit schemes for the numerical solution of the shallow-water equations are examined. The directional-splitting fractional-step method permits relatively large time steps without an iterative process by using a treatment based on the characteristics of the governing equations. The interpolated differential operator (IDO) scheme has fourth-order accuracy in time and space by using a Hermite interpolation function covering local domains, and accurate results are obtained with coarse meshes. It is shown that the two schemes are very efficient for hydrostatic meteorological models from the viewpoints of numerical accuracy and central processing unit time, and the fact that they are explicit makes them suitable for computers with parallel architecture.


Abstract This paper outlines a mesoscale forecast system that could he implemented within a few years in spite of relatively sparse direct observations. Methods are discussed of using satellite information on large mesoscale features to initiate numerical models. The models develop further mesoscale structures through the influence of mesoscale geographic features and organized convective systems. The output of the numerical model serves as the physical foundation upon which the latest detailed satellite data can he interpreted. Although many of the techniques described are not off-the-shelf items today, they are entirely feasible. It is important that the components of the forecast system be developed in parallel, rather than in series, if the system is to be completed within five years. The components include: polar-orbiting satellites for high latitudes; geosynchronous satellites for low latitudes; a mesoclimatological data base largely from satellite data; a mesoscale numerical prediction model with l...


The trend towards increasing electoral volatility has triggered a rich literature investigating which voters are most likely to switch parties in subsequent elections. Less is known, however, on the role parties play in causing voters to switch parties. From a Downsian perspective we assume that changes in parties' ideological positions should cause voters to switch parties from one election to another. The current paper addresses these shortcomings in the literature by bringing together literature on volatility and research on responsiveness to political party. For doing so, we make use of the data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) project. The results presented in this paper show that parties' ideological shifts are indeed causing voters to switch parties. The extent to which this mechanism of accountability functions, however, is partly dependent on individual- as well as contextual-level factors.


Much analysis of Asian regional relations and institutions is written in an historical and cultural vacuum. The impression is often given that security or economic arrangements are comparable with physical structures — creations of engineers rather than social scientists (or even architects). The writings of Amitav Acharya, now Professor of International Affairs at American University in Washington, DC, are a distinguished exception. Already the author of major books on security architecture and community identity in Southeast Asia – including his Constructing a Community in Southeast Asia, which has just come out in a new edition – Acharya has produced a careful study of the diffusion of security ideas and norms in the Asian region, particularly Southeast Asia. He concentrates in particular on the establishing in Asia of the norm of 'cooperative security' (as against 'common security') and the institution of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). It is a study – dealing especially with the last half century or so – which draws not just on the historical record of Southeast Asia but also on the theoretical insights of historians of that region. Acharya is genuine in his cross-disciplinary endeavour, and, in my view, has developed a methodology that invites a response from historians as well as practitioners in his own field of security studies.


This article maintains that the intelligibility of Marx's project in Capital resides in its apprehension as an economic theory. The ontological predicate for Marx's project as such is the historically unique tendency for capital to reify human economic life. Marx famously captured this tendency with his notion of capital converting concrete interpersonal material relations into abstract impersonal relations among things. It is capitalist reification which provides the epistemological warrant for the dialectical architecture of Capital as economic theory par excellence (1). Moishe Postone (1996: 75) puts it this way: 'Marx ... characterises capital as the self-moving substance which is Subject ... [Its] social relations ... are of a very peculiar sort--they possess the attributes that Hegel accorded to the Geist'. Simply put, what the concept of reification captures is the fact that while capital is a socially and historically constituted object, it 'turns the table' if you will on human subjects to objectify them as capital wields human society for the abstract purpose of value augmentation. The dialectic, then, is a special-purpose or content specific method demanding a theoretical object with unique ontological properties for its operation. That is, the theoretical object must be 'self-moving' and 'self-reifying' (Kourkoulakos, 2003: 191-4). In the material world, only one such theoretical object exists--capital. Marx, unfortunately, passed away before the three volumes of Capital were completed. And, while volume one went to the printer in his lifetime, this is something Marx bemoaned. In his own words (Marx, [1865] 2012): I cannot bring myself to send anything off until I have the whole thing in front of me. Whatever shortcomings they may have, the advantage of my writings is that they are an artistic whole, and this can only be achieved through my practice of never having things printed until I have them in front of me in their entirety. This is impossible with Jacob Grimm's method which is in general better with writings that have no dialectical structure. As discussed elsewhere (Westra, 2011), the well-known elaborations upon the three volumes of Capital as Marx left them focus largely upon clarifying what Marx himself wrote rather than attempting to complete the project in its dialectical 'entirety'. To review the literature on such elaborations upon Capital would significantly outstrip the bounds of this article. This point applies as well to the mountain of writings on this or that concept of Capital the adequate understanding of which cannot be gained through treatment that abstracts from their place in Capital taken in its dialectical entirety as Marx puts it. However, the only works I am aware of which attempt to complete the three volume project of Capital are that of Japanese economists Kozo Uno (available only in Japanese; though an abridged English translation of Uno's magnum opus was published in 1980) and his student, Thomas Sekine (1986; 1997). And recently, John R. Bell (2009) provides a valuable single volume excursus on Sekine's approach to Marx (Sekine's early extended two volume dialectic of capital was published in English by a Japanese press and made available to a limited group of scholars; it is that which Bell synthesises). The purpose of this article is thus to present to readers an outline of how Capital is reconstructed and completed as a dialectical theory from the perspective of Uno and Sekine; though with emphasis placed upon those areas of Capital I view as most desperately in need of elaboration. Completing the economic theory of capital to capture the inner working of the capitalist commodity economy demands that at points where the dialectic steers us in directions which diverge from the letter of what Marx left in his unfinished project, we should 'listen to capital' and follow its self-reifying dialectical logic. …


Objective: To discuss the aspects and management of CHARGE Syndrome, a rare genetic condition, caused by a sporadic dominant mutation in the CHD7 gene, based on the outpatient monitoring of a person with the condition. Case Details: BFCSB, female, seven years old, has ophthalmic and auditory dysfunction, optic nerve dysfunction, development and growth delay, cardiovascular malformation, orofacial cleft already submitted to surgery and hearing malformations. In addition, she has difficulty in modulating affection and recurrent suppurative ear infections. She has a negative family history for CHARGE Syndrome. She presents adequate family support and multidisciplinary assistance. In the case of the study patient, the suspicion of CHARGE syndrome was based on major and minor criteria and confirmed through heterozygous mutations in the CHD7 gene. A follow-up by a multidisciplinary team was essential for the patient's development, as well as early treatment of clinical situations encountered. Final Considerations: The patient presents most of the clinical alterations foreseen in the literature for CHARGE Syndrome. Early diagnosis and health care by a multidisciplinary team allowed good results.


The new superconductor MgB/sub 2/ may prove useful for microwave applications at intermediate temperatures. MgB/sub 2/ films with the thickness of 300 - 400 nm have surface resistance R/sub S/ less than 10 /spl mu//spl Omega/ at a frequency (/spl omega//2/spl pi/) of 8.5 GHz and 7 K, and /spl sim/ 1.5 m/spl Omega/ at 87 GHz and 4.2 K. The critical temperature (T/sub C/) of these films is /spl sim/ 39 K when they are prepared under optimum conditions. The R/sub S/ appears to scale as /spl omega//sup 2/ up to 30 K. After surface ion-milling, a reduction of the T/sub C/ and an enhanced resistivity /spl rho/(T/sub C/) are observed consistently at 8.5 GHz and 87 GHz along with a reduced R/sub S/ at low temperatures. The observed /spl rho/(T/sub C/) - T/sub C/ relation and the uncorrelated behavior between /spl rho/(T/sub C/) and R/sub S/ values measured at low temperatures are well explained in terms of the two-gap model, with the observed /spl rho/(T/sub C/) - T/sub C/ relation attributed to the properties of the large gap, and the R/sub S/ at lower temperatures reflecting the properties of the small gap, with an enhanced gap energy due to increased interband scattering. This study suggests that the interband scattering should be enhanced to improve the low temperature microwave properties of MgB/sub 2/ films and that the ion-milling process must be performed with great care to preserve the high quality of MgB/sub 2/ films.


A distance measuring apparatus installed in an automobile to measure with a high degree of accuracy a distance between a road surface and the axle of vehicle body of the automobile in motion. With this distance measuring apparatus, the distance between the point of its installation on the automobile and the road surface is measured by transmitting wave signals from the point of installation toward the road surface, selecting only the reflected wave signals of a predetermined intensity from the received reflected wave signals from the road surface and then integrating and averaging the data of the distance to the road surface derived from the selected reflected wave signals.


As a result of high urbanization and industrialization the Varna Bay is one of the most influenced by anthropogenic activity region of the Bulgarian Black Sea area. Simultaneously the Varna Lake nutrient-enriched inflow contributes additionally to the negative changes of the ecological situation, especially in summer. To establish the state of the benthic communities in contact with lake waters in 2019, samples of macrozoobenthos were collected. The quantitative parameters of macrozoobenthos in Varna Bay established: taxonomic structure dominated by Polychaeta , spring abundance 2.5 twice higher that in autumn, built mainly by Oligochaeta , known as indicators for eutrofication. During both seasons the biomass maintains low values, due to predominance of small-sized mollusks. According to statistical indices the ecosystem status is slightly or moderately disturbed, with better results for the North region. Cluster analysis clearly defines 2 groups, according to the bottom substrata, with stations along the way of lake inflow waters forming an independent cluster. In conclusion, despite the total state of the Varna Bay ecosystem, the most negatively influenced stations are along the lake inflow way.


The article provides a system analysis of many problems that hinder the development of medical computer-aided design systems (CAD), in order to identify the most important problems of the subject area. An analysis is made of the key participant roles of the development and practical use process of medical CAD systems in order to determine the degree of their contribution to the final comprehensive result. The structure of business processes is being developed to ensure the completeness and relevance of the developed problematic model. The results can be useful for researchers and developers of medical computer-aided design systems, for experts of related specialties and potential consumers; for doctors studying or actively using computer modeling in the medical diagnostic process; for students studying medical informatics and students of biotechnological specialties, as well as teachers of relevant disciplines.


Chlamydiae are Gram‐negative obligate intracellular bacteria that cause diseases with significant medical and economic impact. Chlamydia trachomatis replicates within a vacuole termed an inclusion, which is extensively modified by the insertion of a number of bacterial effector proteins known as inclusion membrane proteins (Incs). Once modified, the inclusion is trafficked in a dynein‐dependent manner to the microtubule‐organizing centre (MTOC), where it associates with host centrosomes. Here we describe a novel structure on the inclusion membrane comprised of both host and bacterial proteins. Members of the Src family of kinases are recruited to the chlamydial inclusion in an active form. These kinases display a distinct, localized punctate microdomain‐like staining pattern on the inclusion membrane that colocalizes with four chlamydial inclusion membrane proteins (Incs) and is enriched in cholesterol. Biochemical studies show that at least two of these Incs stably interact with one another. Furthermore, host centrosomes associate with these microdomain proteins in C. trachomatis‐infected cells and in uninfected cells exogenously expressing one of the chlamydial effectors. Together, the data suggest that a specific structure on the C. trachomatis inclusion membrane may be responsible for the known interactions of chlamydiae with the microtubule network and resultant effects on centrosome stability.


Columbia is a 10,240-processor supercluster consisting of 20 Altix nodes with 512 processors each, and currently ranked as one of the fastest computers in the world. In this paper, we present the performance characteristics of Columbia obtained on up to four computing nodes interconnected via the InfiniBand and/or NUMAlink4 communication fabrics. We evaluate floatingpoint performance, memory bandwidth, message passing communication speeds, and compilers using a subset of the HPC Challenge benchmarks, and some of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks including the multi-zone versions. We present detailed performance results for three scientific applications of interest to NASA, one from molecular dynamics, and two from computational fluid dynamics. Our results show that both the NUMAlink4 and In- finiBand interconnects hold promise for multi-node application scaling to at least 2048 processors.


With the method of integration in a limited time, a Multi-channel normal speed gated integrator based on VXI system has been developed for measuring the signals with changeable pulse width in laser scattering light experiment. It has been tested with signal sources in ICF experiment. In tests, the integral nonlinearity between the integral results of the gated integrator and that of an oscilloscope is less than 1% . In the ICF experiments the maximum error between the integral results of the gated integrator and that of oscilloscope is less than 3% of the full scale range of the gated integrator.


Road irregularities, e.g. potholes or bulges, will cause discomfort, vehicle damages or even accidents, if not being carefully handled by drivers. For driving safety and comfort, especially in highly automated vehicles, there is a need for accurate and efficient way to estimate the road condition ahead in advance. Existing direct sensing based methods are difficult to give detailed irregularity information, while current response based approaches require either too many measurements or accurate system parameters to guarantee estimation performances. Therefore, using the information of preceding vehicle responses, a Kalman filter based algorithm to estimate severe road irregularities is proposed. The single degree of freedom vertical dynamics model is reorganized to reduce the measurement requirements of the Kalman filter. To cope with the limited information of the preceding vehicle, the model parameters are approximated according to suspension design theories. Simulation and field data validation shows that the estimation algorithm is effective and robust on different vehicles.


Objective To study the effect of L arginine/NOS pathway on LPS stimulated human renal mesangial cell proliferation.Methods MTT assay method was used to examine mesangial cell activity with L arginine stimulating,and nitric acid reducing enzyme assay was used to check the nitrite in supernate in order to indirectly speculate the effect of NO on LPS stimulated mesangial cells.Results L arginine inhibited the proliferation of LPS stimulated mesangial cells. There were no statistical difference of the quantities of nitrite in supernate among the groups.Conclusion LPS cannot cause human mesangial cells produce abundant NO,the inhibitive effect of L arginine on LPS stimulated human mesangial cell proliferation is independent of L arginine/NOS pathway.


We studied target volume coverage and normal tissue sparing of serial tomotherapy intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and fixed‐field IMRT for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), as compared with those of conventional beam arrangements. Twelve patients with NPC (T2‐4N1‐3M0) at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology underwent computed tomography simulation. Images were then transferred to a virtual simulation workstation computer for target contouring. Target gross tumor volumes (GTV) were primary nasopharyngeal tumor (GTVNP) with a prescription of 70 Gy, grossly enlarged cervical nodes (GTVLN) with a prescription of 70 Gy, and the uninvolved cervical lymphatics [designated as the clinical tumor volume (CTV)] with a prescription of 60 Gy. Critical organs, including the parotid gland, spinal cord, brain stem, mandible, and pituitary gland, were also delineated. Conventional beam arrangements were designed following the guidelines of Intergroup (SWOG, RTOG, ECOG) NPC Study 0099 in which the dose was prescribed to the central axis and the target volumes were aimed to receive the prescribed dose ± 10%. Similar dosimetric criteria were used to assess the target volume coverage capability of IMRT. Serial tomotherapy IMRT was planned using a 0.86‐cm wide multivane collimator, while a dynamic multileaf collimator system with five equally spaced fixed gantry angles was designated for fixed‐beam IMRT. The fractional volume of each critical organ that received a certain predefined threshold dose was obtained from dose‐volume histograms of each organ in either the three‐dimensional or IMRT treatment planning computer systems. Statistical analysis (paired t‐test) was used to examine statistical significance. We found that serial tomotherapy achieved similar target volume coverage as conventional techniques (97.8 ± 2.3% vs. 98.9 ± 1.3%). The static‐field IMRT technique (five equally spaced fields) was inferior, with 92.1 ± 8.6% fractional GTVNP receiving 70 Gy ± 10% dose (P < 0.05). However, GTVLN coverage of 70 Gy was significantly better with both IMRT techniques (96.1 ± 3.2%, 87.7 ± 10.6%, and 42.2 ± 21% for tomotherapy, fixed‐field IMRT, and conventional therapy, respectively). CTV coverage of 60 Gy was also significantly better with the IMRT techniques. Parotid gland sparing was quantified by evaluating the fractional volume of parotid gland receiving more than 30 Gy; 66.6 ± 15%, 48.3 ± 4%, and 93 ± 10% of the parotid volume received more than 30 Gy using tomotherapy, fixed‐field IMRT, and conventional therapy, respectively (P < 0.05). Fixed‐field IMRT technique had the best parotid‐sparing effect despite less desirable target coverage. The pituitary gland, mandible, spinal cord, and brain stem were also better spared by both IMRT techniques. These encouraging dosimetric results substantiate the theoretical advantage of inverse‐planning IMRT in the management of NPC. We showed that target coverage of the primary tumor was maintained and nodal coverage was improved, as compared with conventional beam arrangements. The ability of IMRT to spare the parotid glands is exciting, and a prospective clinical study is currently underway at our institution to address the optimal parotid dose‐volume needs to be spared to prevent xerostomia and to improve the quality of life in patients with NPC. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Currently,the proportion of female college students in vocational schools increases year by year.How to lead citizen consciousness education to female college students in vocational schools by using socialist core value system is an urgent task vocational schools facing.The Paper,through analyzing the problems in citizen consciousness of female college students,discusses the ways of improving the citizen consciousness of female college students in vocational schools.


Neutron-diffraction studies on modulated Rb 2 ZnBr 4 , carried out under hydrostatic pressure, revealed two new commensurate phases characterized by wave vectors q=2/7b * and q=1/4b * , respectively. The first order phase transition between them is revealed by the coexistence of two distinct peaks in the diffraction pattern. The observed pressure-temperature phase diagram contains: the above-mentioned phases, the ferroelectric commensurate phase q=1/3, and a region characterized by wave-vector values in the interval q=2/7-1/3


Peer review scams - in which reviews were submitted under the names of real researchers but with fake, non-institutional emails administered by those involved - have heightened curiosity about the email addresses used by researchers in their publications. Ronald Rousseau reports on research examining the prevalence of commercial email addresses in scholarly articles, their distribution per country, and whether there is a difference in visibility between articles with institutional and commercial emails, as measured by citations. Use of commercial emails is on the rise, particularly among researchers from Brazil, Russia, India, and China, but those articles with institutional emails were shown to receive more than double the number of citations.


Purpose To observe the effect of acupuncture plus TDP and external application of diclofenac magma in treatment of temporomandibular joint syndrome.Method Two hundred and forty patients were divided randomly by single blind into 3 groups, a treatment group, control group 1 and control group 2. In the treatment group, the area of temporomandibular joint was spread with diclofenac magma after 20 minute acupuncture treatment, massaged for a while and irradiated with a TDP instrument. Control group 1 was treated with a computer pulse instrument and control group 2, with acupuncture only.Results and conclusion The total effective rate was 95.00% in the treatment group, 83.75% in control group 1 and 81.25% in control group 2. There were statistically significant differences between the treatment group and the two control groups ( P0.05,P0.01) .Acupuncture plus TDP and external application of diclofenac magma has a satisfactory effect on temporomandibular joint syndrome.


The purpose of this article is to study the participation of Volodymyr Moshynsky (1895-1988) in the Ukrainian Cossack movement, who for some time was a representative of the Odessa center of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921, but the main stage of his life took place in North America in the second half of the twentieth century. The article is based on the use of a wide source base of published narrative sources, the most important of which are the memoirs and works of V. Moshinsky. Biographical, prosopographic, historical-genetic methods, as well as a number of generally accepted scientific methods were used to implement the tasks. The historiographical work on the figure of V. Moshinsky is narrow and clearly inadequate to the scale of his activity. It is mentioned in a limited number of publications and sometimes in a false context. V. Moshynsky's articles show that he was fully aware of his Cossack ancestral roots and was proud of them. There was a harmonious connection between the facts of his biography and his interests, as he had to work in the interwar period in the area where his wife's ancestors came from the Danube Cossacks. In October 1917, during a confrontation with the Bolsheviks in Moscow, V. Moshinsky became friends with the Amur Cossacks, who almost persuaded him to go with them to the Far East.


In this paper, we investigate the outage behavior of the LTE-A relay system subject to the non- identical Rician fading. For the case of decode- and-forward (DF) relaying without the direct link, a closed-form formulas is derived. Moreover, for the case of DF relaying with the direct link, an exact expression in series is derived. Furthermore, a closed-form formula is derived for the situation where no component of line-of-sight exists in the direct link. Based on these formulas, it is shown that the availability of a direct link in the LTE-A relay system can reduce the outage probability significantly.


The article examines the historical phenomenon of Peter I in the context of the specifics of the Eurasian cultural and political tradition, which N. Trubetskoy metaphorically named "the legacy of Genghis Khan". The specifics of this tradition lie in its fundamental difference from the model of European feudalism. Here, the selection of the ruling class was carried out according to moral qualities, and people's life was based on self-government ("people's monarchy"). The scrapping of this tradition, carried out by Peter I, consisted in replacing the moral criterion of selection with the pragmatic one, which led to the degeneration of the ruling class; and replacing the people's monarchy with Western absolutism, which resulted in the conflict between the state and the people.


Thallium is a very dispersed element and it seldom occurs in the form of independent minerals and in independent ore deposits. Biogenic loran dite is the major industrial mineral of the Lanmuchang Tl deposit in Xingren Cou nty, Guizhou Province. It was formed as a result of bioenrichment during sedimen tary diagenesis. A large number of micro-paleofossils, especially foramina and zoaria are still observed in the Tl ores. Most of micro-paleofossils have been replaced by Tl-bearing ore fluid, hence forming T1 minerals with bio-pseudomor phs, such as lorandite and christite. Bio-enrichment and hydrothermal reworking are the two important metallogenic fe atures for the Tl deposit studied. Biogenic lorandite provides an evidence for t he ore- formation mechanism and timing. An analysis on the time-bound nature of biocoen oses, sulfur isotopic composition and bio-enrichment metallogenic phenomenon sh ows that the Lanmuchang Tl diposit was originally formed in the Late Permian, an d the hydrothermal reworking took place during the Middle Triassic. No Tl minera ls in the form of bio-pseudomorphs have been identified in the Tl ores of hydro thermal reworking stage, indicating that these minerals have been replaced by ty pical hydrothermal Tl-minerals.


Rasashastra is a branch of Ayurveda dealing with metal & minerals. The Rasa Aushadhi are the back bone of Ayurvedic medicine. Metal and mineral are the integral part of therapeutics in Ayurveda and Tamra is one such metal which is highly poisonous & several times more poisonous than poison itself because one poison cause only one Dosha (toxic effect) while unpurified and unreduced Tamra may have eight Dosha.[1] Which has been described as Ashtamahadosa in classical text book. but if this Tamra is well processed through all pharmaceuticals process, it can be converted into one of the best and effective medicine. Tamra Bhasma is useful in treatment in various disease condition like Udar Vyadhi, Pandu[2] etc. In this study a descriptive study of Tamra and its therapeutic potential basis which are mentioned in our classical Ayurveda textbook with special reference to its role in Hepatomegaly is studied by searching and analyzing all Ayurvedic and all modern perspective.


The effect and efficiency of different kinds of textile dyeing and printing auxiliaries were discussed,and lots of new techniques and new species as the world′s leading level which are being studied,developed and produced were summarized.We also analyed the research and the trend of development.


Despite predictions that cosmetic procedures would face a decline due to an inclement economy and increased taxes, it appears that cosmetic procedures are at an all-time high with over 13 million procedures performed in 2011 (5% increase from 2010). Interestingly, minimally invasive procedures including injectable neurotoxins, soft-tissue augmentation, chemical peels and laser treatments increased by 123% from 2000, while traditional surgical procedures, including rhytidectomy and belphoroplasty, decreased by 17% over the past decade.[1] Minor office-based procedures can give a more youthful appearance with minimal complications and downtime with the appropriate training.


Smart electricity meters typically upload power consumption readings once or few times a day. Utility providers aim to increase the upload frequency in order to access consumption information in near real time, but the currently used data compressors fail to provide sufficient savings in this new scenario on the low-bandwidth, high-cost data connection. We propose a new compression method and data format for DLMS smart meter readings, which is significantly better with frequent uploads and makes it feasible to report every reading in near real time with the same or lower data sizes than the currently available compressors in the DLMS protocol.


SHATUO originally is a small and weak nationality,who activity in Northwestern Region in early time.As a Small and weak nationality,SHATUO does not have the tradition of Recording history,in the same time,related history book has not accurately anddetailed record.These reasons cause the difference in SHATUO's nation-al source.The author believed that the mainstream viewpoint"Shatuo comes from CHUYUE"is wrong,SHATUO's national source is SHEBI.


To the Editor. —Drs Margolis and Presson do not mention skin testing in their Editorial on hepatitis B vaccination. 1 This may be an ill-advised omission, because a skin test response gives valuable information about the cellular limb of an individual's immune response. That reaction is important in infections and vaccinations with hepatitis B. In the former, there is evidence that patients who mount a strong cellular response avoid chronic hepatitis. 2 In vaccinees who get a subunit antigen, it would seem crucial to define the result by measuring not only antibody, but also intradermal reaction, since there can be disparity between the two shortly after vaccination and years later if antibody wanes. The significance of this needs to be ascertained. However, if skin test positivity is present, this would point not merely to retention of immune memory, but also to capability for some effector response. Thus, antibody level does


It is important to study the character of this Flue Gas Desulphurization(FAD)with pyrolusite pulp system.We should use pyrolusite pulp and bacterial to desulphurize.The result of the experiment shows that Fe3+,Mn2+ dissolved slurry cn accelerate SO2 oxidation,while other composition can accelerate SO2 oxidation too.For the desulphurization system of pyrolusite combine with Thiohocillus ferrooxidans,it shows that catalysis oxidation of SO2 by low concentration pyrolusite slurry,with the reaction time increased,the desulphurization efficiency will be depressed notably.If adding bacteria to renew iron and manganese iron's activities,to catalyer's rebirth,and to keep higher desulphurization efficiency has been proposed.


The ferric chloride etching of aluminum-killed(AK) steel and Invar alloy was studied. The effect of process parameters(i.e., etchant temperature, Fe 3+ ion concentration, specific gravity(Baume), and free HCl concentration) on the etch rate was investigated, and the results showed that the etching reactions of AK steel and Invar alloy follow the first-order kin et- ics. Roughness of the etched surface was improved when the etchant Baume was increased. The change in free HCl concen- tration did not affect the etch rate significantly within the range covered in this study. The experimental data were compared with the calculations from process modeling, and they were in good agreement.


Summary.

A bacterial canker of apple trees is described and compared with cankers previously described by Rose and Hopkins, and with fire blight. The causal organism bears a certain likeness to B. amylovorus, but it is regarded as identical with Ps. papulans Rose. The suggestion is made that the latter organism should be considered as a weak parasite producing disease only where some physiological condition renders the trees liable to be attacked.


Changes in the activity of neurosecretory cells in the synganglion of mated female Argas (Argas) hermanni Audouin at different physiological states were studied. The number of neurosecretory cells laden with secretion, their size, and quantity of neurosecretions increased 1 h after feeding, reached a peak on days 2 and 3, and then declined. The decreases were greatest on day 4 but continued to decline gradually on the following days reaching levels similar to those in the unfed females by day 20. The neurosecretory cell changes were observed in all the synganglionic regions, particularly those in protocerebral, pedal, and opisthosomal centers. The increase in the neurosecretory cell number, size, and neurosecretions suggests increased production or storage of neurosecretions, or both. The subsequent decrease suggests release of neurosecretions. The decline in neurosecretory cell parameters coincided with the period of vitellogenesis and oviposition initiation (days 3–6 after feeding) and termination (day 20 after feeding).


Whilst the economic and social landscape in Europe is changing rapidly, growth in some of the major research markets seems to be stalling.


Serum levels of IgM, IgG and IgA were determined in 270 healthy children, 4–12 years old, and in thirty healthy adults by the radial immunodiffusion method of Mancini. There were nine 1-year age groups of thirty children each (fifteen boys and fifteen girls); the adult group consisted of fifteen males and fifteen females.

The difference in values between adults and children was statistically significant. The IgG and IgA concentrations showed a gradual rise with increasing age; the IgM concentration remained constant at a distinctly lower level than that in adults. The IgA level was about the same in both sexes. Girls had significantly higher IgM and IgG levels than boys. A consistent seasonal influence on the three serum immunoglobulin concentrations could not be demonstrated. A very wide variation in serum levels of each immunoglobulin in each age group was found. Very low values were by no means exceptional. The consequence of this finding for the diagnosis of immunological incompetency is discussed.


Background: Public universities in Saudi Arabia today are making substantial investments in e-learning as part of their educational system, especially in the implementation of Learning Management Systems (LMS). A better understanding is sought of how best to support their use in a blended e-learning approach.
Research Significance: Medical Informatics is a recent addition to Gulf medical curricula. This is the first study conducted in Saudi Arabia appraising medical students' experience with an LMS, particularly as part of a relevant informatics course.
Objectives: This study investigates students' use of various features of the LMS embedded in a recently implemented Medical Informatics course. We explore third year medical students' attitudes towards the LMS as well as the issues and challenges faced, specifically the interactive tools required for this particular Medical Informatics course.
Methods: A mixed methodology was employed. Survey questionnaires were distributed to all third year Medical Informatics students at the end of the course. In addition, two focus group sessions were conducted with twelve students. A thematic analysis of the focus group was performed to identify patterns in the responses.
Results: A total of 265 third year medical students survey (63.01% male and 36.99% female) were completed and analyzed. Overall, 50.6% of the students agreed that 'course was well planned' and 'up to date', had 'clearly stated' objectives and 'clear evaluation methods', ' appropriate course assignment', and that the LMS offered 'easy navigation.' Most of the students rated the course overall as good/fair. In general, females were 10.4% more likely to prefer using the LMS, as revealed by higher odd ratios (OR 1.104, 95%CI 0.858-1.42) compared to males. Survey results showed that students used LMS tools more having taken the course compared to before taking the course. The focus group, however, revealed that the students used social networking for general use rather than learning purposes, but they were using other resources on the Internet and mobile devices for learning. Male students showed a higher preference for using technology in general to enhance learning activities. Overall, medical student attitudes towards the LMS were generally positive. From focus group analysis, engagement can be improved by having the LMS embedded across all college courses as well as a route made available for official communications. Students also wanted a reminder and notification tool to help them stay updated with what is going on in the course. Interestingly, a subset of students had been running a parallel LMS of their own, whose features may be explored and integrated with the official LMS in the future.
Conclusions: Despite this being the first time a Medical Informatics course used LMS in the curriculum, students showed interest in adapting various LMS tools to enhance their learning, gaining better knowledge through familiarity with the tool. Researching the official LMS also revealed the existence of a parallel student-created LMS. This could allow teacher-led and student-led platforms to be integrated in the future for an enhanced student-centered experience. []


Finding natural ligands involved in protein–protein interactions is relatively easy, and false-positives are rare. In contrast, the natural ligands for glycan-binding proteins (GBPs) can be quite elusive, and artifacts are common. For example, it took almost 10 years from the detection of P-selectin's glycan binding properties (Moore et al. 1991) to reach the definitive conclusion that a certain specific posttranslationally modified form of the polypeptide PSGL-1 was the functionally relevant natural ligand for this GBP (Epperson et al. 2000). There are many reasons for such difficulties, including the fact that glycan binding is often of relatively low affinity and relies on multivalency to achieve adequate avidity, as well as the complexities of local rebinding effects such as the recently described "jump and bind" mechanisms for lectin–mucin interactions (Dam and Brewer 2008). Meanwhile, investigators continue to incorrectly state that "PSGL-1 is the ligand for P-selectin," without realizing that while the PSGL-1 polypeptide backbone is expressed in many cell types (Laszik et al. 1996), it is only the correctly sialylated, fucosylated, and tyrosine-sulfated form found in certain cells that can function as a P-selectin ligand. In this regard, an excellent prior suggestion is to define the ligand as the glycan(s) bound by the GBP, the protein or lipid to which the glycan(s) are bound as the "carrier," and the composite of the glycan and the carrier as the "counter–receptor" (Crocker and Feizi 1996) (see Notes).


We demonstrate how concepts of communicating agents can be integrated into purely functional languages by an orthogonal extension of the usual I/O monad. These agents communicate via so-called service access points and support programming in the style of client-server architectures. We then show the feasibility of the approach by applying it to the example of graphical user interfaces, which we consider to be a typical instance of reactive systems. For this purpose we develop the concept of so-called gates, which serve as a mediator between user events and the application logic. It turns out that the combination of functional expressiveness and concurrency yields a powerful framework for the realization of reactive systems such as graphical user interfaces. All concepts discussed in this paper are represented in the functional language Opal and have been implemented in the Opal programming environment.


The problems of opposition and control in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria have lately attracted a good deal of attention. Recent developments have shown either that even an embryonic opposition within the regime can lead to the overthrow of a strong, but isolated leader (Boumedienne's coup d'état against Ben Bella), or that the stubborn refusal of a constitutional opposition to accept repeated offers of national unity can force a ruler to take exceptional measures (the case of King Hassan II who made use of the extraordinary powers of article 35 of the Moroccan constitution). It would seem that Tunisia alone has for some years now enjoyed relative stability, but it must be noted that this is maintained only by means of a constantly re-asserted hold upon the national institutions.


Intramolecular displacement of alkoxide ion by the secondary amino group of N-[2-(p-nitrophenoxy)ethyl]ethylenediamine is not catalysed by general bases, but occurs by a specific base catalysed mechanism with a pH-insensitive rate plateau and approaches to a rate limit at high pH; the rate plateau at [OH–]= 0·1–0·01 M is a consequence of the dominant catalytic effect of the neighbouring primary amino group in promoting rate determining deprotonation of the spiro-Meisenheimer intermediate.


There is growing evidence that insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF‐1) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) have synergistic actions on bone and that part of the anabolic effects of PTH is mediated by local production of IGF‐1. In this study we analyzed the skeletal response to PTH in mouse models with manipulated endocrine or autocrine/paracrine IGF‐1. We used mice carrying a hepatic IGF‐1 transgene (HIT), which results in a threefold increase in serum IGF‐1 levels and normal tissue IGF‐1 expression, and Igf1 null mice with blunted IGF‐1 expression in tissues but threefold increases in serum IGF‐1 levels (KO‐HIT). Evaluation of skeletal growth showed that elevations in serum IGF‐1 in mice with Igf1 gene ablation in all tissues except the liver (KO‐HIT) resulted in a restoration of skeletal morphology and mechanical properties by adulthood. Intermittent PTH treatment of adult HIT mice resulted in increases in serum osteocalcin levels, femoral total cross‐sectional area, cortical bone area and cortical bone thickness, as well as bone mechanical properties. We found that the skeletal response of HIT mice to PTH was significantly higher than that of control mice, suggesting synergy between IGF‐1 and PTH on bone. In sharp contrast, although PTH‐treated KO‐HIT mice demonstrated an anabolic response in cortical and trabecular bone compartments compared with vehicle‐treated KO‐HIT mice, their response was identical to that of PTH‐treated control mice. We conclude that (1) in the presence of elevated serum IGF‐1 levels, PTH can exert an anabolic response in bone even in the total absence of tissue IGF‐1, and (2) elevations in serum IGF‐1 levels synergize PTH action on bone only if the tissue IGF‐1 axis is intact. Thus enhancement of PTH anabolic actions depends on tissue IGF‐1. © 2010 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


We investigated a scenario in which M31 could be the remnant of a gas-rich major merger. Galaxy merger simulations, highly constrained by observations, were run using GADGET 2 in order to reproduce M31. We succeeded in reproducing the global shape of M31, the thin disk and the bulge, and in addition some of the main M31 large-scale features, such as the thick disk, the 10 kpc ring and the Giant Stream. This lead to a new explanation of the Giant Stream which could be caused by tidal tail stars that have been captured by the galaxy potential.


A history of fire regime was reconstructed from conifers at the Cerro Mohinora preserve in southwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. This preserve constitutes an important source of water for the Sinaloa state in the Pacific Coastal Plane; in addition, the area is habitat for the relict Mexican spruce (Picea Chihuahuana). Fire-scarred cross-sections were obtained from Pinus duranguensis, Pinus arizonica, and Pinus ayacahuite. A total of 277 fire scares were dated out of 73 cross-sections. The fire chronology extended from 1737 to 1999 and from 1902 to 1998 for the upper and lower watershed sections, respectively. The fire years of 1945, 1971, 1988, and 1995 were common for the whole watershed. Mean fire return intervals (MFI) considering all the fire-scarred samples ranged from 5.1 to 8.8 years; whereas the mean probability of fire occurrence (WMPI) had a range from 3.8 to 6.0 years. Over 80% of the fires were recorded in the spring season. The Superposed epoch analysis (SEA) revealed that fire years were significantly dry (p<0.01) and that previous years to the fire significantly wet (p<0.05), this relationship is significantly related to the ENSO influence in this part of the country.


The characteristics of the visual haptic approach complement the need in learning a proper Jawi handwriting. This paper explores literatures and previous studies on the visual haptic applications focusing on handwriting. The advantages, limitations and possible solutions for each stage will be taken into consideration in designing and developing Haptik Visual-Jawi (HV-Jawi). The development architecture of HV-Jawi also been proposed based on the review and findings of the relevant literatures and previous studies.


Abstract Aerosol particle removal and re-entrainment in turbulent channel flows are studied. The instantaneous fluid velocity field is generated by the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the Navier – Stokes equation via a pseudospectral method. Particle removal mechanisms in turbulent channel flows are examined and the effects of hydrodynamic forces, torques and the near-wall coherent vorticity are discussed. The particle resuspension rates are evaluated, and the results are compared with the model of Reeks. The particle equation of motion used includes the hydrodynamic, the Brownian, the shearinduced lift and the gravitational forces. An ensemble of 8192 particles is used for particle resuspension and the subsequent trajectory analyses. It is found that large-size particles move away roughly perpendicular to the wall due to the action of the lift force. Small particles, however, follow the upward flows formed by the near-wall eddies in the low-speed streak regions. Thus, turbulent near-wall vortical structures play an important role in small particle resuspension, while the lift is an important factor for reentrainment of large particles. The simulation results suggests that small particles (with τ p + ≤ 0.023) primarily move away from the wall in the low-speed streaks, while larger particles (with τ p + ≥ 780) are mostly removed in the high-speed streaks.


Not everyone can or should complete the typical high school program which follows the traditional time prescription. At Northeast Standard Evening High School (Philadelphia, PA.), classes in composition are a blend of adults of all ages and backgrounds. The mix of years, lifestyles, marital status, employment, careers, interests, and vocational aspirations makes for a stimulating and challenging clientele, one markedly different from that in a regular high school. Some students want a diploma; others seek employment or advancement on-the-job. War veterans search for direction while husbands and fathers are concerned about sharpening communication skills. In growing numbers, wives and mothers flee from household and family doldrums. Dropouts on the Come-back Trail


21 With global trade increasing over the last decade, the maritime industry has grown significantly. Each month, more than 10,000 vessels pass through the Strait of Dover, including cargo ships, tanker ships, roll-on/roll-off ships (Ro/Ro), passenger ships and others. Globalisation and the recent advent of low-cost manufacturing facilities has fuelled an interest in innovative systems to tackle existing issues to lower the costs, improve safety standards and comply with international and regional regulations.


Single-channel source separation is an approach to decomposing a single-channel recording into its sources without understanding how the sources are mixed. This work develops a sparse regularized nonnegative matrix factorization scheme with spatial dispersion penalty (SpaSNMF). To preserve spatial locality structured information on the basis for sound source separation, intra-sample structure constraints that are learnt from the input data are utilized. Based on the hypothesis that adjacent spectrogram points should not be dispersed in basis spectra, this framework is provided for supervised source separation. To improve the separation performance, group sparse penalties are simultaneously constructed. A multiple-update-rule optimization scheme was used to solve the objective function of the proposed SpaSNMF. Experiments on single-channel source separation reveal that the proposed method provides more robust basis factors and achieves better results than standard NMF and its extensions.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new paradigm of networks that offers intelligent connections between different objects of daily basis needs. These connections are clearly characterized by various constraints, such as the high loss rate and the low throughput. To ensure these connections, it is necessary to use routing protocols adapted to these constraints. The routing protocol for low power and lossy networks (RPL) is one of the famous protocols used in this category of networks, thanks to its flexibility and adaptability. In this paper, the study attempts to present the deficiency of the RPL protocol against a new attack called divide and conquer-based attack. The idea is to introduce a malicious node periodically launching a process based on the rank value, in order to deteriorate the network performance. The attack effectiveness is investigated through a detailed simulation using the Cooja simulator in terms of the total number of victim nodes, the average network hops and the global energy consumption.


In this paper,the flotation action of smithsonite and mechanism of flotation agents such as Na_2S,CA,YXL reagent are studied by infrared spectrometry.The results show that the mechanism of Na_2S' activating smithsonite is surface replacement of S~(2-) and CO~(2-)_3 that in smithsonite particles and hydrophobic ZnS thin-film layer is formed.The absorption of collecting agent is promoted.The N-in CA reagents take part in chemical binding on smithsonite particle surface and the hydrophobic chelate is formed through the reaction of the N-in reagent with a zinc ion on mineral surface.YXL agent and smithsonite react and form hydrophobic Zn(OOCR)_2 while chemical absorption is taking place on the surface of smithsonite.Meanwhile the warming comparative experiments are carried out.The results show that it is beneficial to choose smithsonite when heating in proper range.


The cellobiose-derived dialkynes 14 and 15 were prepared by glycosidation of the acceptor 9 with the thioglycosides 12(82%) and 13(85%), respectively. The acceptor 9 was prepared from the known alcohol 2via the lactone 7 in five steps (48% overall), and the donors 12 and 13 were prepared from the alkynylated anhydroglucose derivative 10 (60% overall). Acetolytic debenzylation of 14 and 15 (16 and 17, resp.) followed by deacylation of 16 yielded 60% of the cellobiose-derived dialkyne 18. Deacylation of 14 (19), methoxymethylation (20) and trimethylgermylation led to the orthogonally protected dialkyne 21 (69% overall). Protodesilylation of 21 with K2CO3/MeOH gave 22 (90%), while the Me3Ge group was selectively removed with CuBr (19 mol-%) in THF/MeOH to give 20 (95%). Treatment of 21 with aqueous HCl solution led to 19 (80%). Bromodegermylation of 21 (NBS/AgOOCCF3) led to a mixture of 23 (85%) and 24 (11%). Similar conditions using CuBr instead of AgOOCCF3 gave exclusively the bromoalkyne 23 (93%). The temperature dependence of the δ values of the OH resonances of 18 in (D6)DMSO evidence a strong intramolecular H-bond between C(5′)O…HOC(5).


Today, major airports are facing challenges related to pollution, energy efficiency, and safety and security. Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, regarded as one of the key energy solutions of the 21 century are more energy efficient and reliable than conventional systems and have the potential to diminish these challenges. These technologies can also play a significant role in reducing the noise, air, and water pollution and enhancing energy security. This paper presents the design of a set of hydrogen technologies and systems that are commercially available and are ready for practical,


Headlines such as 'Approval for night duty plan', 'Night visits breakthrough', 'Out of hours campaign', '24-hour care must be removed from average net', 'Help us help you campaign', 'Nurses and taxis cut GP night calls' and 'One third of night visits unnecessary' have all starred in the medical and nursing press recently. They have all been news since the Government announced in May 1994 that it had agreed changes to GPs' terms of service (cited in UKCC, 1994). Flexibility was agreed in the way that GPs met their 'out of hours' responsibilities.


The value concept of class struggle formulated in the wake of the Leftist literary movement in 1930s had exerted a profound political impact on modern Chinese literature. With the implementation of reform and the open_door policy in the new age, thorough reflections and rational consideration have been made on the view that "literature and art are weapons for class struggle". The literary creation throughout 1980s, which tended to portray the fallacy of history and loss of humanity, has epitomized the art consciousness of modern Chinese writers and foreshadowed the advent of a new phase in modern Chinese literature.


This study aims to describe the Mathematical Connection Ability (MCA) in terms of Mathematical Resilience (MR) and gender of MTs students. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. This research was conducted in the even semester of the 2021/2022 academic year. The subjects in this study were class VIII MTs Al Musyarrofah Jakarta. The research instrument used was a MR questionnaire and MCA test questions which had been validated and declared suitable for use by 2 lecturers and mathematics teachers. The process of selecting subjects in this study used the Wright Maps table in the Winsteps application. The subjects selected were 5 people based on 3 categories of MR, namely high, medium, low from different genders. The results showed that students with high MCA and MR for female gender were better than boys, but on the other hand students with moderate MCA and MR and low gender. men are better than women. So the results of the study concluded that MR had an effect on the MCA but gender had no effect on the MCA of MTs students.


Abstract:The article analyzes Pushkin's view of Polish-Russian relations and their impact on European politics, as reflected in his ode "To the Slanderers of Russia" (1831). It argues that key to Pushkin's presentation of these relations is Poland and Russia's imperial rivalry over shared borderlands in Eastern Europe, and that Pushkin's imperial swagger attempts to mask certain insecurities about Russia's imperial project there. Despite that, the ode powerfully argues that Russia should be Western Europe's sole diplomatic counterpart in East European affairs and denies East Europeans any independent voice. The article focuses on the poem's fluvial imagery (the idea of the "Slavic streams" flowing into the "Russian sea") and its discourse of kinship, which the poem has popularized as a metaphor coding Russia's relations with other Slavs. Pushkin's masterful modeling of political affect is given special attention, as it has been crucial for the poem's lasting relevance in Russian culture.


Based on finite-element numerical modeling,the authors studied the feasibility of applying the resistivity method to monitoring underground geological variations.A time-lapse subsurface monitoring method based on geoelectrical observations is proposed in this paper.The numerical modeling result using 2D resistivity forward and inversion program shows that the relative variation of resistivity can serve as a good indicator for resistivity changes both regionally and locally.High-precision and large quantities of data observations of earth resistivity constitute the foundation of time-lapse subsurface monitoring.With the well-performed 2D or 3D resistivity modeling and inversion,this technique makes geo-electrical survey a useful time-lapse monitoring subsurface method.


Objective To explore the change and the clinical significance of serum AFP levels in patients with lives diseases.Methods Serum AFP levels(with RIA) were determined in 198 patients with lives diseases controlled with 50 subjetives.Result Before treatment,serum AFP in acute hepatitis,cirrhosis of lives especially in the patients developing ascites and primary hepatic carcinoma(PHC) were significantly higher than those in control(P0.01).After treatment,serum AFP levels were significantly lower than that before treatment(P0.01).Serum AFP levels in chronic hepatitis,cirrhosis of lives were than that in control(P0.05).Serum AFP levels in hemangioms were not significantly different than that in control(P0.05).Conclusion Determination serum AFP levels is not only a tumor markers(TM) of PHC,but also a better monitoring role the progress of the lives diseases.


The present paper tests a model that investigates the effect of polychronicity on job performance among hotel frontline employees; concurrently, customer incivility and coworker incivility -two important social stressors- are considered as moderators in the relationship between employees' polychronicity and job performance. Data collection is done among frontline employees in the four and five-star hotels in Northern Cyprus. The results indicate that polychronicity encourages higher employees' job performance. However, the effect of customer incivility on job performance is negative and significant and the moderating effect of customer incivility in the relationship between polychronicity and job performance is supported. That is to say high customer incivility lessens the positive relationship between polychronicity and job performance. Coworker incivility did not affect job performance and failed to moderate the relationship between polychronicity and job performance. Further, managerial implications and guidance for future research are specified.


46202 nvasive carcinomas survive and evade apoptosis despite the absence of an exogenous basement membrane. How epithelial tumors acquire anchorage independence for survival remains poorly defined. Epithelial tumors often secrete abundant amounts of the extracellular matrix protein laminin 5 (LM-5) and frequently express (cid:2) 6 (cid:3) 4 integrin. Here, we show that autocrine LM-5 mediates anchorage-independent survival in breast tumors through ligation of a wild-type, but not a cytoplasmic tail–truncated (cid:2) 6 (cid:3) 4 integrin. (cid:2) 6 (cid:3) 4 integrin does not mediate tumor survival through activation of ERK or AKT. Instead, the cytoplasmic tail of (cid:3)


Radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, medical imaging, operating room technician professions are the professions that are directly related to nuclear physics because they use radiation technologies. In this study, the conceptual understanding level of students studying in these programs about nuclear physics concepts was investigated. The mixed model was used in this research. The sample of the study consists of 100. The data were collected through "Misconception Determination Test" and "Semi-Structured Interviews". The achievement average point (14.93) of the students who participated in the study were evaluated in the "low success" category. In addition, the percentage of students gathering in the other answer (blank and not conceptually meaningful answers) category in all concepts is more than the percentage of "correct concept" and "misconception" categories. This result was interpreted as that students did not have a sufficient conceptual understanding of nuclear physics concepts. In addition, misconceptions about nuclear physics which were detected in this research were discussed in detail.


Sex workers are subjects of intrigue in urban and creative economies. Tours of active, deteriorating, or defunct red-light districts draw thousands of tourists every year in multiple municipalities around the world. When cities celebrate significant anniversaries in their histories, local sex worker narratives are often included in arts-based public offerings. When sex workers take up urban space in their day-to-day lives, however, they are criminalised. Urban developers often view sex workers as existing serviceably only as legend. A history of sex work will add allure to an up-and-coming neighbourhood, lending purpose to its reformation into a more appropriately productive space, but the material presence of sex workers in these neighbourhoods is seen as a threat to community wellbeing and property values. This paper considers how sex workers, continuously displaced from environments they have carved out as workspaces, may use the arts to draw attention to these ongoing contradictions. It investigates how sex workers may make visible the idiosyncratic state of providing vitality to a city's history while simultaneously being excluded from its living present. Most critically, it suggests ways in which sex workers may encourage those involved as producers and consumers of neoliberal urban revitalisation projects to connect these often fatal paradoxes to the laws that criminalise their labour.


A semiconductor device in which the transfer rate can be enhanced between chips without causing any noise or crosstalk. Input/output circuits, i.e. input circuits (27, 37) and output circuits (26, 36), are arranged directly beneath every connection pads (21, 31) for connecting a storage device chip (20) and the chip in an ASIC (30). The circuits are arranged in array or lattice and the storage device chip (20) and the ASIC (30) are mounted to face each other on the both surfaces of the wiring chip.


Fipronil was applied to cotton by ground sprayer at ultralow volume and conventional spray rates. Boll weevil mortality and residue analysis of fipronil and its metabolites at 0,1, 2, 3, and 6 d after application were used to evaluate treatments. An evaluation of the toxicity of fipronil and metabolites to boll weevils also was conducted. The order of toxicity (LD 50 ) of fipronil metabolites at 48 h was sulfide > fipronil > sulfone > desulfinyl. Differences in percentage of mortality between treatments did not occur until 3 d after application when the ultralow volume application had higher mortality (98%) than the conventional (85%) spray rate. There were no differences in mortality between treatments at 6 d after application. Fipronil residues were present on the leaf surface longer and in higher amounts when applied in cottonseed oil at 1.17 liter/ha than when applied in water as a conventional application at 97 liter/ha.


Human gene therapy (HGT) is defined as the transfer of nucleic acids (DNA) to somatic cells of a patient resulting in a therapeutic effect by either correcting genetic defects or over-expressing proteins that are therapeutically useful 1 . In the past, both professional and lay community had high expectations from HGT. However, although the theoretical advantages of HGT are indisputable, so far it has not delivered the promised results.


This research article proposes a method for solving the two-player zero-sum matrix games in chaotic environment. In a fast growing world, the real life situations are characterized by their chaotic behaviors and chaotic processes. The chaos variables are defined to study such type of problems. Classical mathematics deals with the numbers as static and less value-added, while the chaos mathematics deals with it as dynamic evolutionary, and comparatively more value-added. In this research article, the payoff is characterized by chaos numbers. While the chaos payoff matrix converted into the corresponding static payoff matrix. An approach for determining the chaotic optimal strategy is developed. In the last, one solved example is provided to explain the utility, effectiveness and applicability of the approach for the problem.Abbreviations: DM= Decision Maker; MCDM = Multiple Criteria Decision Making; LPP = Linear Programming Problem; GAMS= General Algebraic Modeling System.


This work investigates the design of a multiphase coreless axial flux permanent magnet machine with concentrated windings, for the propulsion of an unmanned aerial vehicle. Such a system requires very high power and torque densities, which tend to be in contrast with other important requirements such as high efficiency and resilience. In order to simplify the design of the machine, an original method for the selection of the poles to coils ratio is proposed. The paper then presents a 3D finite element analysis based refinement for the final design; finally, a full scale prototype has been built and a preliminary no load test is reported.


Throughout the history of early childhood education, numerous educators have viewed the environment as the third teacher, and therefore as having equal importance as the teacher. How is thinking about the environment as the third teacher beneficial? A welldesigned environment can support and enhance all areas of children's development and learning, just as a poorly planned environment can detract from overall development and learning.


AnsTRACJ ', We investigated population s of the Jamaican slider turtle (Trachemys terrapen), a species apparently endemic to Jamaica and the only native freshwater turtle species known to occur there. We captured 54 turtles at four sites (three along the southern coast and one in the northw est) representing a variety of habitats, includin g a permanentl y ponded wetland, farm ponds, and a stream in karst landscape. Turtle s were also found in a series of seaso nal ponds where they retreat into cave refugia during dry periods when caves remain nooded , thus allowing the slider population to exist in this seasonally arid landscape. We did not observe or capture turtles during limited sampling in a large river or a brackish mangrove swamp. Individuals from the northwest population (n = 12) were morpholo gically distinct from turtles captured along the south coast (11 = 42) and descriptions provided in the literature for T. terrapen. Jamaican slider turtles are harvested incidentall y by local residents wherever they are found, and concentrated population s, such as those in cave refugia, are heavily explo ited. Our preliminary research suggests that T. terrapen is a highly threatened species needing conservation action in order to ensure its persistence.


This paper is based on the ongoing work of the Key Competence Network (http://keyconet.eun.org/) and discusses how several European countries have reacted to this framework and introduced it into their own educational systems. The adopted methodology was based on a multiple case study with an initial set of 35 cases from 13 different European countries. The initiatives related to key competence development presented differ in various ways, according to the nature of the key competences addressed, the implementation process used, the number of students and teachers directly concerned, the type of actors involved, and the duration and stage of development. The main conclusions drawn, so far, from this project emphasize: the existence of national initiatives mainly concentrated at the secondary level; the recognition of both formal and non-formal contexts for their development; that most initiatives focus, to some degree, on curriculum and the transformation of pedagogical practice so as to be more innovative, collaborative, motivational and student-centered; and even though the majority of initiatives involve investment in in-service teacher training, they rarely address initial teacher education also.


Introduction: Lipomas are the most common type of soft-tissue tumor, but intra-articular lipomas are very rare. Most cases occur in the knee joint. This is a report of intra-articular lipoma in the knee joint, 8 months after removal with good post-operative outcome. Case Report: A 56-year-old female who presented soft-tissue mass on her right knee. She felt uncomfortable but not in pain. The mass grew gradually and she wanted to be surgically removed. The mass was too large (5 cm × 4 cm × 2 cm) to be removed endoscopically, so arthrotomy was made. The mass was true lipoma histologically. She is living happily without recurrence after surgery. Conclusion: We have described an intra-articular synovial lipoma in the knee of a middle-aged female. Intra-articular lipomas are very rare. The tumor in this case was relatively large but painless, and the chief complaint was discomfort. It grew gradually, so the removal was performed. At present, the patient is living happy without recurrence after surgery.


This paper studies the controller design for automatic steering of vehicles to track the desired path. The desired path is a general curved road. The nonlinear model with coupled inputs is considered. A suitable transformation is applied to decouple the inputs. Here, no assumption of small angle is used and no nonlinearly coupling term of the model is ignored. A controller based on Lyapunov approach is derived to handle this complex system. Simulation results show that the designed controller is effective.


Colloidal suspensions of InP quantum dots (diameters 25 and 35 A) show steplike absorption spectra which are blue‐shifted by about 1 eV with respect to bulk material. Time resolved femtosecond spectroscopy at room temperature identifies the first quantum confined state. The nonlinear bleaching signal rises within 300 fs and persists longer than 200 ps.


Wealth and income inequality, specifically the perceived widening of the gap between rich and poor, has been in the public discourse for quite some time. In "Divergence: wealth and income inequality in the United States" (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, EconSouth, September–December 2014), economic policy analysis specialist Nicholas Parker looks at the topic and highlights recent trends and some new research that explores potential links to monetary policy.


A new analysis-by-synthesis formant extraction method, which uses autocorrelation domain inverse filtering, and multi-step focusing method has been proposed. A cascaded 2nd order ADIF, each of which corresponds to a formant, was used. This method significantly reduces computational cost, compared with conventional analysis-by-synthesis formant extraction method which uses frequency domain inverse filtering or time domain inverse filtering. A human speech production model, specifically the glottal pole model, was implemented in this system. Formant extraction experiments for synthesized speech and natural speech proved the robustness of this method. The real time formant extraction system can be realized by a single chip signal processor.


Digital image processing techniques are typically used to produce improved digital images through the application of successive enhancement techniques to a given image or to generate quantitative data about the objects within that image. In support of and to assist researchers in a wide range of disciplines, e.g., interferometry, heavy rain effects on aerodynamics, and structure recognition research, it is often desirable to count objects in an image and compute their geometric properties. Therefore, an image analysis application package, focusing on a subset of image analysis techniques used for object recognition in binary images, was developed. This report describes the techniques and algorithms utilized in three main phases of the application and are categorized as: image segmentation, object recognition, and quantitative analysis. Appendices provide supplemental formulas for the algorithms employed as well as examples and results from the various image segmentation techniques and the object recognition algorithm implemented.


This paper analyzes on the present situation of the income gap between the residents in urban and rural areas in China and its influence on the economic development,and discusses on the deep causes of the gap between the urban and rural areas,and puts forward some policy-related suggestions on this issue.


A high-level architecture of a Hybrid Reconfigurable CPU, based on a Philips-supported core processor, is introduced. It features the Philips XPLA2 CPLD as a reconfigurable functional unit. A compilation chain is presented, in which automatic implementation of time-critical program segments in custom hardware is performed. The entire process is transparent from the programmer's point of view. The hardware synthesis module of the chain, which translates segments of assembly code into a hardware netlist, is discussed in details. Application examples are also presented.


Danjiangkou reservoir is a source reservoir of the middle route project of South-to-North Water Transfer. To guarantee its well operation has much important in economic and social sectors. One of the effective ways to fulfill this target is desilted. According to the reservoir own property, we recommend use "control" rather than traditional "treatment" method in the process.


Irradiation of Vicia faba root tips with 2.3‐Mhz ultrasound at 10 W/cm2 causes a small but measurable heating of the tips and an immediate reduction in root growth rate. Roots exposed to comparable temperature increments without ultrasound show no reduction in growth, thus leading to the conclusion that the mechanism responsible for the biological effects of ultrasound on roots is nonthermal. From the time course of ultrasonic heating of the roots it appears that the thermal conductivity of the root material is comparable to that of water, and the acoustic absorption coefficient of the root tissue is higher than that of mammalian tissues.Subject Classification: 80.40; 35.75.