We develop a machine vision system as a key component of a robot‐assisted packaging system, which can guide the robot arms to pack the roast sauries into cans. For gripping strategy generation, the system is required not only to be able to detect the roast saury area but also estimate the geometric parameters. Besides, according to different canning requirements, it is also necessary to distinguish the type of fish parts. Facing these challenges, we propose a novel rule‐based matching method combined with an improved efficient graph‐based image segmentation (EGIS) method for sensing the fish part. Specifically, the matching method applies our originally designed rule‐based similarity under a genetic algorithm framework combined with deterministic crowding technique, which is used to sensing one type of fish parts. On the other hand, we improve the EGIS by introducing a shape restriction to deal with leftover fish parts. The experiments are implemented for two different types of fish part in the real factory environment. The result of our method achieved a mean location accuracy of 93.5% with a practical average processing time of 2.6 s per image. © 2020 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


This paper respectively makes a comparison analysis on the centroid change of the tilt device of bucket wheel and stacker,obtains the change trend of their centroid,and explains how to distribute the centroid of the tilt device of the two machine type and how to select reasonable hydraulic system according to the change trend of the centroid.


The invention discloses a method and a system for realizing 3D (Three Dimension) display by utilizing laser pulse projection. The method comprises the following steps of respectively determining positions of a left eye and a right eye; and respectively and correspondingly transmitting laser pulse of a simulation image to the left eye and the right eye according to the positions of the left eye and the right eye, and forming the projection of the simulation image by the laser pulse in the left eye and the right eye. According to the method and the system disclosed by the invention, by detecting the positions of human eyes in real time and correspondingly transmitting the laser pulse of the simulation image to the human eyes, the laser pulse can be also accurately received by a user under a small-range moving situation, the limit on the position of the user is removed, and a 3D image can be still watched by the user when the user is in free activity; and in addition, a traditional optical signal transmitted through a pixel display unit is replaced by adopting a laser pulse simulation image, the light focusing by the laser pulse is easier than the shortening of a basic pixel display unit, and thus a high-density high-definition display image can be realized, i.e. the high-definition display content in an optional scale can be realized by using an extremely-small device.


The aim of this article is to shed light on the connection between higher education and economic development in three emerging economies in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile). The Granger pairwise causality test was used to determine the relationship between the two variables of GDP growth and higher education enrollment. Using the 1960-1996 period, weak relationships were found between the two variables. There were, however, some differences among the countries. In Brazil, higher education enrollment was found to impact GDP growth and in the case of Chile, no causal relationship was found between these variables.


The large oil-immersed power transformer is one of the most important equipment in the power system, and its security is crucial to the stable operation of the power grid. Under fault conditions, the insulating oil and solid insulating material of the transformer will decompose and generate various gases. Therefore, detection of characteristic fault gases dissolved in insulating oil is considered to be one of the most effective methods for diagnosing potential faults and aging conditions of oil-immersed transformers. Raman spectroscopy, as a non-consumptive, highly selective technique, is suitable for multi-gases detection. However, limited by the intrinsically weak Raman scattering process, the detection sensitivity is insufficient. Here, we established a hollow-core anti-resonant fiber (HC-ARF) based gas Raman sensing platform, and the detection for characteristic fault gases of transformer (H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6) is achieved, which provides a new idea for transformer condition analysis and fault diagnosis.


Background: Cisplatin (CP) is an alkylating agent with antitumor properties. It has a wide range of adverse effects including hepatotoxicity. Objective: Evaluating the effectiveness of CPon the rat's liver architecture as well as the comparative protective role of vitamin E and Royal Jelly (RJ). Material and Methods: Two sets of forty adult male albino rats with average body weights of 200–250 g each were created at random. Thirty rats were provided as the treated group (group2) divided into three equal subgroups (a, b and c), and ten rats were served as the control group (group1). Ten rats were in subgroup (a), and they received CP treatment. Ten rats from subgroup (b) were administered CP and vitamin E. Ten rats from subgroup (c) were administered CP and RJ. The rat's liver was removed and histologically prepared for evaluation under the light and electron microscopes. Results: Administration of CP to rats produced harmful hepatotoxic effect, these effects relatively improved by administration of vitamin E and RJ, but RJ was observed that had a more potent protective effect on the rat's liver than vitamin E. Conclusion: CP induced hepatotoxicity in animal model while, RJ has a great protective effect against the liver toxicity. Furthermore, vitamin E plays a healing role in the liver damage caused by CP.


While L2 acquisition by Brazilians has been studied for different languages, the acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese by foreigners has been poorly explored. Recent studies of non-native accented speech in other languages have shown that a foreign accent could largely influence the perception of personal qualities of speakers, and this issue presents a large interest for intercultural research projects. Our research project is focused on Russophone immigrants living in Brazil, bilingual speakers of Russian and Portuguese. The specific aim of the current work is to describe a database containing information about 40 native Russian speakers living in São Paulo for at least six months. Their linguistic and sociocultural profiles are presented, and the experimental protocol of the data collection is described. The protocol included recording speech samples in Russian and in Portuguese and video recordings for further facial expression analysis of bilinguals by the program FaceReader 7.0. The analysis of the sociocultural profiles of the Russophones, presented in the current work, provides a strong basis for the enrichment of the phonetic, sociolinguistic, and nonverbal behavior analysis of these speakers.


The solubility of krypton in liquid CO/sub 2/ was measured experimentally over essentially the entire liquid range of CO/sub 2/, from -53 to 29/sup 0/C. A tracer technique using /sup 85/Kr was employed, and equilibrated gas-liquid samples were analyzed in situ with a collimated counter. Dilute concentrations of krypton were used, and the data are expressed as a distribution ratio, Y/sub Kr//X/sub Kr/, the log of which is nearly linear with respect to temperature from the lowest temperature to about 20/sup 0/C, above which the values fall off rapidly toward a value of unity at the critical temperature. The numerical values obtained for the distribution ratio increase from 1.44 at 29/sup 0/C to 29.4 at -53/sup 0/C.


INTRODUCTION The recording of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) from the surface of the cerebral cortex in response to peripheral nerve stimulation is useful when planning a cortical incision in the primary sensorimotor regions. This incision is most often performed for epilepsy, tumor, or arteriovenous malformation excision, and maintenance of the potential implies integrity of the somatosensory afferent pathway to the postcentral gyrus. A phase reversal of the prominent negativity at about 20 milliseconds (Nzo) is usually found, when comparing recordings from the postcentral and precentral gyri. This phase reversal tends to reassure the surgeon of the location of the central sulcus and preand postcentral gyri. Most of the recently described techniques for SEP recording from the cortical surface have utilized a prefabricated electrode array or grid, usually requiring multiple channel recordings, montage switching, and highly trained support personnel. In this report, we describe a simplified and rapid method of SEP recording from the cortical surface, uti l izing routine electroencephalographic (EEG) electrodes on the brain surface and scalp.


This study examines whether working long hours alters the motherhood earnings penalty in the context of the United States. The author uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979–2014) to model the annual earnings penalty mothers incur per child in the United States. The results support that working long hours (50+ hours per week) reduces the negative effect of motherhood on earnings for white women. Once we control for human capital and labour supply, however, there is no difference in the effect of children on earnings between full-time workers and overworkers. For Black full-time workers and overworkers, having an additional child has little effect on earnings. The findings suggest that although overwork appears to attenuate the earnings penalty for white mothers, white mothers who work long hours exhibit a smaller penalty because they already have high levels of human capital and supply a great amount of labour.


Anti-typhoid inoculation is one of the old-established immunizing procedures introduced in the relatively early days of the bacteriological era. The original' method of making typhoid vaccine (Wright and Semple, 1897; Pfeiffer and Kolle, 1896) has survived essentially unchanged up to the present time, and the type of vaccine still employed most extensively consists of a suspension of bacterial bodies which have been killed by heat and preserved by the addition of phenol. A great number of different methods have been described, both before and after the war of 1914-18, with a view to increasing the immunizing power of the vaccine and reducing the unpleasant systemic reactions which follow the administration of typhoid vaccines of the ordinary type. Some of these modified vaccines were suspensions of bacterial bodies killed by various chemicals instead of by heat, others were bacteria sensitized by treatment with homologous immune serum, while still other modifications consisted of bacterial extracts prepared in a great variety of ways (for references see Gay, 1918 ; Fleming and Petrie, 1934). These numerous types of typhoid vaccine were, however, all abandoned, since non-e of them was found to be superior to the ordinary vaccine made by the simple and time-honoured method of heat-killing and phenolpreservation. Practical advances in anti-typhoid immunization, long delayed, have recently been made in quick succession as a result of our newer knowledge of the antigenic structure of the typhoid bacillus and of the different significance of different antibodies. Of the two typhoid antigens that were first differentiated the somatic 0 antigen is an important immunizing agent,'while the flagellar H antigen is not (Felix, 1924; Arkwright, 1927; Topley, 1929; Schuitze, 1930). Arkwright (1927), in an admirable discussion of the Army Council Report of the Anti-typhoid Committee (1912), showed that its main conclusions with regard to the preparation of typhoid vaccine were accounted for by the fact that the committee concentrated its attention almost entirely on one test as an index of immunity-namely, the measurement of the agglutinins produced by the inoculation of rabbits and man. The only typhoid agglutinin that c'ould be estimated at that time was, however, the H agglutinin, and it is now known that the corresponding antigen is of little, if any, importance in the production of immunity. Grinnell (1932) showed that the mouse is a suitable experimental animal for virulence and protection tests with the typhoid bacillus, and that the Rawlings strain-the classical laboratory strain used for more than thirty years in the preparation of typhoid vaccine in this and many other countries-had lost its immunizing capacity, although the cultures still possessed most of the commonly accepted criteria of smoothness. Perry, Findlay, and Bensted (1933a, 1933b, 1934a, 1934b) demonstrated in numerous experiments on mice that the degree of protection afforded by a typhoid vaccine was closely related to the virulence of the culture employed in its preparation. These workers also succeeded in "rejuvenating" the old Rawlings strain. It is now generally recognized that smooth mouse-virulent cultures of the typhoid bacillus possess the two antigenic constituents known as the 0 and the Vi antigens and that these are the essential elements which determine the immunizing c'apacity of typhoid vaccines (Felix and Pitt, 1934). The balance of evidence obtained from active and passive protection experiments in mice indicates that the Vi antigen is the more effective prophylactic agent. At the' same time reports have accu'mulated from various parts of the world showing that strains of the typhoid bacillus when freshly recovered from the blood culture invariably contain the Vi antigen, which, however, is gradually lost on subculture on ordinary media (Craigie and Brandon, 1936 ; Bensted, 1937, 1940). Earlier reports on the isolation from the blood of typhoid patients of strains devoid of the Vi antigen-for instance, that published by Felix, Krikorian, and Reitler (1935)-were probably incorrect and resulted from inadequate methods of growing and testing the cultures. It seems justifiable, therefore, to assume that the prophylactic value of typhoid vaccines has been greatly increased in recent years by the employment of selected strains which are particularly rich in the Vi antigen.


Ambulatory anesthesia allows quick recovery from anesthesia, leading to an early discharge and rapid resumption of daily activities, which can be of great benefit to patients, healthcare providers, third-party payers, and hospitals. To compare hyperbaric prilocaine 2% (takipril) with hyperbaric bupivacaine 0.5% for day-case spinal anesthesia in the term of primary outcome which is the time to sensory and motor block regression and secondary outcome in the form of time to home readiness, early ambulation, incidence of complications in saddle area surgeries. This study was carried out in Al-Azhar University hospitals (Al-Zahraa hospital) and included 46 patient aged 18 to 65 years of both sexes undergoing saddle perianal operations under spinal anesthesia. Patients were randomly allocated into two equal groups 23 patients in each group. In our study was that day-case spinal anesthesia with prilocaine 40 mg +20 μg fentanyl provide faster sensory block onset, regression in Group P than in Group B (136.91 ± 12.81 min versus 201.30 ± 19.69 min) as primary outcome and home readiness for Group P than for Group B (186.43 ± 30.75 min versus 231.39 ± 25.61 min) with less complication as secondary outcome compared with 10 mg bupivacaine + 20 μg fentanyl for day case spinal anesthesia. Hyperbaric prilocaine + fentanyl is superior to hyperbaric bupivacaine + fentanyl in the term of primary outcome which is earlier sensory and motor block regression and secondary outcome in the form of home readiness, early ambulation and complication, so we recommended hyperbaric prilocaine for day- case surgery in saddle area surgeries.


Infection imaging is an important field in radionuclide imaging. But there are few reports about positron radionuclide labeled agents. To investigate a kind of specific infection imaging agent which can differentiate bacteria caused infection, we have radiosynthesized fluorine-18 labeled Levofloxacin (LVFX) for infection imaging. A typical Hamacher method was used to label LVFX. Radiochemistry purity was more than 98%, yield rate was about 40% and the pyretogen test result was negative. The labeling result showed that the labeling method was easy, procedure was simple and labeled agent was stable. The biodistribution and imaging of F-LVFX in animal model was also studied. 18 Both biodistribution and imaging result showed higher uptake of F-LVFX in infected tissues. The accumulation of 18 labeled agent in infected and normal tissue showed significant difference (P0.05). This labeled agent was mainly excreted through kidney and liver. It is suggested that fluorine-18 labeled LVFX is a potential infection imaging agent.


In this work, synergistic effects or hydrogen bond acceptor - donor (HBA - HBD) interactions in the binary mixture of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) with organic co-solvent, are investigated using impulsive stimulated Raman spectroscopy (ISRS).


Answer: B A 45-year-old man developed recurrent partial seizures with secondary generalisation. Four years earlier, he had fi rst presented with diplopia from left abducens palsy and right hemiparesthesia, followed by left hemiparesis 1 month later. His magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan done then is shown in Figure 1. His MRI cervical spine with contrast was unremarkable for any cord lesion. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate, anti-nuclear antibody, antidouble-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid, anti-extractable nuclear antigens, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies, anti-cardiolipin antibodies, lupus anticoagulant test, and cerebrospinal fl uid (CSF) analysis were unremarkable. He was treated with pulsed steroids and an immunomodulatory agent, but was lost to follow-up. On re-evaluation during the current admission for seizures, his neurological function had been deteriorating progressively over the past 4 years. He had severe cognitive defi cits (Mini-Mental State Examination 2/28), cerebellar dysarthria, and generalised pyramidal weakness with spasticity. Repeat MRI brain scan is shown in Figure 2. Serum calcium, vitamin B12, lactate, pyruvate, caeruloplasmin, rheumatoid factor, anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies, antiglutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies, anti-gliadin IgA and IgG antibodies, human immunodefi ciency virus and syphilis serologies, and very long chain fatty acid levels were unremarkable. Ophthalmological examination excluded retinal vasculitic lesions or infl ammation; pathergy test was negative. Repeat CSF analysis was positive for oligoclonal bands. Computed tomography thorax showed no evidence of pulmonary sarcoidosis. He was treated with but did not respond to further courses of pulsed steroids.


According to the developmental condition of karst in a construction site of Shenzhen is investigated,the site's bedrock surface and corrosion groove are simulated,the cause of karst ground collapse during the exploration is analyzed. Combined with the engineering analogy method,the risk of karst collapse and soil cave collapse triggered or aggravated by engineering construction,and the risk of karst water inrush which engineering construction may be suffered are predicted and evaluated,the corresponding measures of geological disaster prevention are propound in the paper.


Taken pavement surface evenness as excitation,a half-vehicle vibration model with four degrees of freedom was built,and the dynamic vehicle loads was analyzed by the system dynamics and the vehicle vibration theory. In consideration of the factors of dynamic road and environment,the pavement evenness deterioration and permanent deformation were calculated according to amended Shell permanent deformation theory.Then,a new remaining life prediction method of asphalt pavement was proposed in combination with the test results of expressway surface evenness and current quality standard.The results indicate that this method not only can accurately predict the remaining life of asphalt pavement but also can provide evidence for evaluating pavement service quality and scheming the best cost-effectiveness maintenance scheme of pavement.


Leading school turnaround has been conceptualized as a school-level issue focused on immediate change. There has been little consideration about how district leaders change systems to sustain schoo...


Regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA) form the basis of many investigations. Here we describe how to undertake many common tasks in linear regression (broadly defined), while Chapter 7 discusses many generalizations, including other types of outcome variables, longitudinal and clustered analysis, and survival methods. Many R commands can perform linear regression, as it constitutes a special case of which many models are generalizations. We present detailed descriptions for the lm() command, as it o↵ers the most flexibility and best output options tailored to linear regression in particular. While ANOVA can be viewed as a special case of linear regression, separate routines are available (aov()) to perform it. R supports a flexible modeling language implemented using formulas (see help(formula) and 6.1.1) for regression that shares functionality with the lattice graphics functions (as well as other packages). Many of the routines available within R return or operate on lm class objects , which include objects such as coecients, residuals, fitted values, weights, contrasts, model matrices, and similar quantities (see help(lm)). The CRAN statistics for the social sciences task view provides an excellent overview of methods described here and in Chapter 7. Example: 6.6.2 mod1 = lm(y ~ x1 + ... + xk, data=ds) summary(mod1) summary.aov(mod1) or form = as.formula(y ~ x1 + ... + xk) mod1 = lm(form, data=ds) summary(mod1) coef(mod1) Note: The first argument of the lm() function is a formula object, with the outcome specified followed by the ⇠ operator then the predictors. It returns a linear model object. More information about the linear model summary() command can be found using help(summary.lm). The coef() function extracts coecients from a model (see also the coefplot package). The biglm() function in the biglm package can support model fitting to very large datasets (see 6.1.7). By default, stars are used to annotate the output of 67


Mass protests in Belarus after the presidential election in 2020 showed all weaknesses of the official propaganda. The monograph characterises the tools of the cultural protest (banners, music, street art, digital forms of resistance), which exposed a deficit of truth in the relations between the government and society. They undermine and ridicule the actions undertaken by the presidential centre as well as the long-term strategy of the official propaganda. Regardless of the political outcome, the 2020 crisis will have long-lasting political, social and cultural consequences. It is an important factor in building the contemporary Belarusian identity.


Every anniversary, and even more, the 10th anniversary of Romania's membership and 60 years of European integration, is not only a festive dimension but also a reflection. What can mean for Romania the 10th anniversary of presence in the EU? [9]. The answer to such a question can only come from the context of this decade, marked, inter alia, by the economic and financial crisis, security developments at the EU's borders, the refugee crisis, terrorist attacks in various major cities in the Union, and, not least, by Brexit.


We have begun a detailed analysis of the evidence for and topography of features identified as potential shorelines that have been im-aged by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) during the Aerobraking Hiatus and Science Phasing Orbit periods of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission. MOC images, comparable in resolution to high-altitude terrestrial aerial photographs, are particularly well suited to address the morphological expressions of these features at scales comparable to known shore morphologies on Earth. Particularly useful are examples of detailed relationships between potential shore features, such as erosional (and depositional) terraces have been cut into "familiar" pre-existing structures and topography in a fashion that points to a shoreline interpretation as the most likely mechanism for their formation. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.


This study examines how impoliteness is carried out through code-switching in the Hong Kong Cantonese television
 talk show Sze U Tonight. Hong Kong is a modern and globalised Chinese society with a colonial background and is
 currently part of China. This unique combination makes the norms that govern code-switching and impoliteness in talk shows worth
 exploring. It is interesting to examine how the Hong Kong people express themselves through their language choices, especially
 when this is put in the media for public viewing, situated in the context of semi-institutional conversations on a Hong Kong
 television talk show. Using Spencer-Oatey's (2002, 2008) rapport management framework, this paper discusses the forms and functions of code-switching that manifest as
 impoliteness in the media of a multilingual Chinese society.


The purpose of this paper is to critically explore ways of breaking through the ''glass ceiling'' of women in management to examine the causes, effects, and the role of Human resources in eliminating barriers and strategies to break through the "glass ceiling". The methods used in collecting data are the telephone interview and an on-line self administered questionnaire. The data from the interview was obtained from 8 managers in the organization; the data from the interviews were transcribed, and key points made by each manager were coded and the analysis was based on each question asked. The questionnaires were administered on 55 middle and junior grade officers in the organization and 47 responses were received from the participants indicating a response rate of 85 percent. The results show that women still face barriers in the case organization; even though efforts are being made to reverse the trend. The study shows that these barriers can be eliminated in organisations largely by the efforts of women and organisational policies. The scope of the research is small as it involves only one organization and inadequate time for carrying out the research. The research results offer practical direction to organizations. Also, the knowledge gap observed in the area of the research topic has been filled by this study. In addition, in developing countries, a few studies have explored ways of breaking though the "glass ceiling" of women in management.


Dynamical properties due to hopping of an excited kink on the ground state kink-lattice are studied in the Frenkel-Kontorova model in one-dimensional ionic conductors, by an evaluation of the correlation function of kink field density which directly concerns the NMR- T 1 for the quadrupole coupling. The hopping is treated by the relaxation mode theory. The resultant relaxation time T 1 approaches to the ω 1.5 -dependence when the diffusion length becomes less than the correlation length. The slope energy of ln T 1 , in this case, is determined by the sum of the renormalized kink energy and half of the kink-activation energy, which is quite consistent with the observed value from the NMR- T 1 experiment in the K-Al-priderite.


Abstract: This study investigated correlations between circulation state of community currency and people's money consciousness based on the concept of micro-meso-macro loop. Money consciousness is an attitude toward currency system. We surveyed people's money consciousness by a questionnaire consisting of 27 questions. A factor analysis of the questionnaire yielded three factors: "currency diversity" (F1), "fairness" (F2), and "profit orientation" (F3). From analysis of the results of our questionnaire, we found the followings: 1) The operators of community currencies tended to put more importance on "currency diversity" and "fairness" than the members of financial organizations. 2) The users of community currency with high circulation had higher "diversity" and "fairness" than those with low circulation. 3) The users of better understanding of community currency placed a high value on "currency diversity". We concluded that accepting "currency diversity" by many residents was important for circulation of community currency.


The utility model is a liquid heating device which comprises a shell, a fixed disk, a rotary disk, a shaft and a cover. A through hole is arranged at the central position of the shell, corresponding to a wall. The shaft penetrates through the through hole. The rotary disk is fixedly connected on the shaft, and is embedded in the fixed disk. The fixed disk is fixedly installed on the shell. A water outlet is arranged on the shell. The cover is installed on the shell. A water inlet is arranged on the cover. The utility model has the advantages that the liquid heating device can effectively save energy, is quick to heat, needs only three minutes to rise the temperature of the water by twenty-five degree centigrade, has simple structure and long service life, is free from maintenance, is simple and convenient to install, and can be installed at the places where hot water is needed at any time.


The pelagic fishery sector of the country alone consume around 200 million litres of fuel per annum. The trend of increasing engine power to achieve more speed to reach the fishing ground faster aggravates the issue of wastage of fuel and leads to great loss to fishers and environmental problems like increased carbon emission. Due to unscientific design propellers, this loss increases and also causes huge expenditure on maintenance / frequent replacement of propellers. The improved blade element design of propellers proved fuel saving in ring seiners by 18-21%. This intervention can benefit the sector consisting of about 1100 vessels and could save around 14-19 million litres of diesel per annum worth around 63-78 crore rupees. It will also help to reduce 51,000 tonnes of CO 2 emission per annum. The techniques developed for this sector can be customized for creating appropriate designs for other sectors like trawlers to achieve still higher fuel saving.


The precise characterization of contact, trade, and diffusion is an important aspect of any reconstruction of past cultures. The analysis of shared traits of material culture may provide significant information beyond the mere establishment of contact. In particular, quantitative analyses of distribution patterns of such traits are an especially powerful tool for defining and differentiating various types of trade and contact (e.g., Earle and Ericson 1977; Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1975). Recent collections of flint implements in Israel provided data for quantitative analyses of lithic assemblages that permit better understanding of the nature of flint exchange in the 4th and 3rd millennia B.C. The following explicit characterization of the fan-scraper trade derives almost exclusively from such quantified studies.'1


The solvolysis reactions (see diagram in article) have been studied in anhydrous dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) over a range of bromide concentrations and at various mole fractions of DMSO in NN-dimethyl-acetamide (DMA). The solvolysis of both isomers results in nearly complete removal of first bromide in pure DMSO while in DMA almost insignificant solvolysis occurs. The influence of ion association on the measured rates is discussed. Activation energies are presented for all reactions.


We consider the problem related to the estimation of parametric models in the presence of outliers. The maximum likelihood estimator is often used to find parameter values. However, it is highly sensitive to abnormal points. In this regard, the weighted trimmed likelihood estimator (WTLE) has been introduced as a robust alternative. We present a new scheme for automatically computing the trimming parameter and weights of the WTLE. The method is illustrated by applying it to the standard GARCH model. We compare the approach with other recently introduced robust GARCH estimators through an extensive simulation study.


The objective is to socialize the experiences of the department of foreign languages in the University of Las Tunas about the environmental culture of teachers and students. In this work the categories educative influences and strategy are systematized, we also consider the definition of environment. The methods used are the following: analysis- synthesis, induction- deduction, interview, and workshops of critical opinions and cooperative construction. Actions directly to develop de environmental culture of students and teachers are approached in the research project about the development of the professionals' development of humanist sciences. These actions are projected as part of teacher preparation in the department and in the academic year throughout the educative strategy. It is concluded that this preparation has shown its effectiveness in the practices observing transformations in their performances.


This article refers to the recent amendments to the German Telecommunications Act introduced by a Law of 18 February 2007 on the modification of the telecommunications provisions (hereinafter:…


This report presents the use of pattern classifiers for defect depth estimation in composite materials by using Infrared Nondestructive Testing (IRNDT). First, the training and test datasets are explained. Additionally, the use of several features such as Cmax and tmax, thermal contrast curves and dissimilarity representation of thermal contrast are shown. Finally, these features are used to train and test ldc, qdc and 1-NN classifiers and their performances in terms of classification errors are compared. 1. Training and test sets The training and test sets are thermal contrast (TC) curves extracted from composite materials. In IRNDT thermal contrast is defined as: ∆T = Tdef − Ts (1) in which Tdef and Ts corresponds to time evolution of temperature in defective and sound areas of the inpected material. The thermal contrast type used in this work is reference-free which means that a sound area does not have to be defined a priori by an operator but it is defined by using a thermal model. More details of this thermal contrast can be found in [1]. The training dataset was extracted from the flat CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) sample CFRP006 shown in Figure 1 and the test dataset was obtained from sample CFRP007 with curved shape as shown in Figure 2. The test set has 226 x 236 observations which correspond to every pixel in the infrared image sequence. Figure 3 shows the TC curves for the five largest defects at different depths (15 mm in lateral size) in CFRP006. The thickness of all the samples is 2 mm. These experiments were performed using two powerful flash lamps (Balcar FX 60, 6.4 kJ), with a 5 ms pulse as the excitation source. All the thermogram sequences were recorded using a FPA infrared camera (Santa Barbara Focalplane SBF125, 3 to 5μ m), with a 320 x 256 pixel array. To generate training data twelve (12) experiments were carried out on a sample with 25 defects so that every defect had twelve observations producing 300 curves from defective pixels and 300 from sound pixels to complete 600 observations for the training set.


Al protective coating was deposited on AZ31 magnesium alloy utilizing super vacuum magnetron sputtering unit.Investigations on composition profile and micromechanical performances of the resultant coating were carried out by glowing discharge spectrometric analysis and nanoindentation/scratch test respectively.The results shows that Al coating formed on the surface of magnesium alloy substrate with a intermediate layer between them,the coating has a elevated surface hardness,elastic modulus which decreased with depths increased,additionally it was adhered well to the substrate being characterized by somewhat elastoplastic property.The Al coating is expected to be contributed to the formation of protective film on magnesium alloy.


A unilaterally castrated male boxer was referred for chronic generalized alopecia and pruritus. Physical examination revealed symmetrical alopecia, pendulous prepuce, lichenification of the scrotum, and enlargement of mammary papillae. Penile/preputial cytology revealed superficial epithelial cells. Transabdominal ultrasonographic examination revealed a globoid mass with heterogenous echogenicity in the left caudal abdomen. The presumptive diagnosis was Sertoli cell tumor (SCT) associated with cryptorchidism. Exploratory laparotomy and histology of the removed mass confirmed the diagnosis. Three weeks after surgery, serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) concentrations decreased from 8,435 to 56 ng/ml and inhibin B decreased from 805 to < 6 pg/ml. Two months after surgery dermatoses subsided and there was substantial regression of enlarged nipples. This report highlights the diagnostic value of practical procedures (penile/preputial cytology, transabdominal ultrasonography, and measurement of serum AMH and inhibin B concentrations) to aid in the diagnosis of cryptorchidism and SCT, especially in patients with generalized skin conditions.


The use of different measures and procedures in recognition memory studies often makes it difficult to communicate and compare the results of different experiments. The optimal percent correct (OPC) is an easily understandable measure which can be obtained from a variety of recognition procedures. This note gives equations that can be used to find OPC scores for two frequently used recognition procedures. In the typical recognition memory task S is given a set of stimuli made up of "old" items (items presented previously) and a set of "new" items (items not given previously). S's task is to discriminate between the old and new items, and his percent correct is simply the proportion of the total number of items (old and new) correctly identified. The cases considered here assume that recognition judgments are normally distributed with homogeneous variances and that an equal number of old and new items have been included in the test set. Signal detection methods may be applied to recognition memory performance by considering old items in the test list as analogous to "signals" and new items analogous to "noise" (Parks, 1966). Given a binary judgment task, the ideal observer will set a criterion so that he responds positively to that half of the items about which he is most certain, and negatively to the rest. Regardless of where S actually sets his criterion, his sensitivity is measured by d'. S's OPC score in turn is the area under the normal curve below the point


Applying reinforcement learning algorithms to autonomous driving is difficult because of mismatches between the simulation in which the algorithm was trained and the real world. To address this problem, data from global navigation satellite systems and inertial navigation systems (GNSS/INS) were used to gather pseudolabels for semantic segmentation. A very simple dynamics model was used as a simulator, and dynamic parameters were obtained from the linear regression of manual driving records. Segmentation and a dynamic calibration method were found to be effective in easing the transition from a simulation to the real world. Pseudosegmentation labels are found to be more suitable for reinforcement learning models. We conducted tests on the efficacy of our proposed method, and a vehicle using the proposed system successfully drove on an unpaved track for approximately 1.8 km at an average speed of 26.57 km/h without incident.


This paper presents a concept of stable coverage degree and its quantitative formula, and two kind of cooperative detection modes was put forward, which was defined as Mode A and Mode B. On the basis of estimation models including the model for real-time detection area, the model for cross coverage area, and the model for course planning, the decision-making model for multi-AEW optimal deployment was given. Finally, the contrastive analysis on two models was provided by simulation computing, its results showed the Mode B surpass Mode A, and various internal and external factors were considered into estimation models, which can offers the applied basis for multi-AEW course planning.


A continuous transfornation T of a compact metric space X satisfies the specification property if one can approximate distinct pieces of orbits by single periodic orbits with a certain uniformity. There are many examples of such transformations which have recently been studied in ergodic theory and statistical mechanics. This paper investigates the relation between Tinvariant measures and the frequencies of T-orbits. In particular, it is shown that every invariant measure (and even every closed connected subset of such measures) has generic points, but that the set of all generic points is of first category in X. This generalizes number theoretic results concerning decimal expansions and normal numbers.


of managing your own personal and employment history to become an effective leader. As stated by the authors, " it is an unfortunate aspect of the librarian profession that it is sometimes difficult for individuals to let past issues go by the wayside. .. [T]here often seems to be a tendency to remember into perpetuity decisions and mistakes one made in the past and refuse to acknowledge that leaders grow, develop, and improve their skills over time. " Despite this rather pessimistic statement, the chapter provides many tips and techniques for developing and building a successful leadership style, both for those new to the organization and for those individuals moving up to a managerial role within the same organization. Chapter 8, " Evaluating the Change and Yourself as a Change Leader, " addresses both the importance of assessment and the reasons assessment is generally avoided at the completion of a project. The authors remind the reader that, whatever broad assessment data are gathered, the data must answer four basic questions to fully assess the change leadership: How did I do as a leader for this change initiative? What did I do well? What did I do poorly? What can I do to improve for next time? These questions reinforce the concept that assessment not only serves to measure the degree of success of the particular project but also to ensure that the change leader improves with each project. In the concluding Chapter 9, " Change-Specific Challenges, " the authors focus on those changes, such as complex large-scale space or vision changes, that bring special challenges to the process. In each example, the authors note and provide guidance on how to address the management challenges in these unique situations. This review began with the provocative statement that The Challenge of Library Management: Leading with Emotional Engagement should be required reading in every library and information science graduate program. The authors emphasize that the library profession needs proactive engaged individuals who exhibit initiative, collaborate with others, take responsibility for their own professional development, and are committed to high-quality performance standards. Just as managers and administrators must effectively initiate, manage, and implement change (despite being hampered or frustrated by the library context), individuals entering the profession must be willing to be the employee the library needs now and as the future unfolds.—Catherine John Huber has a unique perspective on how to help library …


Among several manufacturing process used to repair and fabricate the components mentioned above, welding is the main process used and it may contribute significantly to the stress corrosion cracking. SCC is a local corrosion process, which is characterized by the slow nucleation and propagation of cracks on the material under the simultaneous action of tensile stresses and a specific corrosive environment.3 In general, the nucleation of stress corrosion cracks occurs at stress levels below the yield stress of the material and typically below the design tension and fatigue limit of a structural component.4,5


In this commentary the authors express their opinion on the role that the Vrye Weekblad in particular and the Press in general, can play in a post-apartheid South Africa. The article is not based on any empirical quantitative research. Rather, It should be seen as a critical analysis of comtemporary conjecture surrounding literature pertaining to this specific topic. The authors postulate that the Vrye Weekblad is ofter mistakenly portrayed as a radical newspaper by those who feel the mos threatened by the possible conse quences that its messages can produce. The value of this particular medium lles In the fact that it will help ensure that Afrikaans, as a language, will survive. It Is able to fulfil this function by showing that Afrikaans need not always be im. mediately equated with racism or suppression, but in sharp contrast, that Afrikaans can be synonomous with democracy. The difficulties and challenges facing the Vrye Weekblad (and other media) as a variable that will play a vital role in not only moulding, but also influencing a post-apartheid South Africa, are highlighted


The sections of stems with buds from sturdy mother plants were used for explants,and orthogonal design method was adopted to make a study of effects of plant growth regulators on inductions of explants.The selected optimal medium for callus was MS+6-BA0.25 mg·L~(-1)+NAA 0.1 mg·L~(-1),the medium for proliferation was MS+6-BA0.5 mg·L~(-1)+NAA 0.05 mg·L~(-1),and the medium for rooting was 1/2MS+IBA0.2mg·L~(-1)+NAA0.2 mg·L~(-1).


OBJECTIVE
Cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, as well as implants, are increasingly being performed. These implants are often encountered on routine imaging examinations, and radiologists are often asked to evaluate for complications or evidence of failure. Pectoral augmentation, gluteal augmentation, body lift and abdominoplasty, and penile and testicular prostheses are reviewed in this article.

CONCLUSION
The typical appearance of common cosmetic implants and cosmetic techniques used in the human body is presented, along with the imaging spectrum of their potential complications.


A new class of solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation is found for the two-state problem often encountered in quantum optics, magnetic resonance and atomic collisions. The authors use the Riemann-Papperitz differential equation to find exact solutions in terms of hypergeometric functions. They consider only cases in which the final occupation probabilities are elementary functions of the parameters of the model.


Online social networks (OSNs) provide data valuable for a tremendous range of applications such as search engines and recommendation systems. However, the easy-to-use interactive interfaces and the low barriers of publications have exposed various information quality (IQ) problems, decreasing the quality of user-generated content (UGC) in such networks. The existence of a particular kind of ill-intentioned users, so-called social spammers, imposes challenges to maintain an acceptable level of information quality. Social spammers simply misuse all services provided by social networks to post spam contents in an automated way. As a natural reaction, various detection methods have been designed, which inspect individual posts or accounts for the existence of spam. These methods have a major limitation in exploiting the supervised learning approach in which ground truth datasets are required at building model time. Moreover, the account-based detection methods are not practical for processing "crawled" large collections of social posts, requiring months to process such collections. Post-level detection methods also have another drawback in adapting the dynamic behavior of spammers robustly, because of the weakness of the features of this level in discriminating among spam and non-spam tweets. Hence, in this paper, we introduce a design of an unsupervised learning approach dedicated for detecting spam accounts (or users) existing in large collections of Twitter trending topics. More precisely, our method leverages the available simple meta-data about users and the published posts (tweets) related to a topic, as a collective heuristic information, to find any behavioral correlation among spam users acting as a spam campaign. Compared to the account-based spam detection methods, our experimental evaluation demonstrates the efficiency of predicting spam accounts (users) in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure performance metrics.


A basket is a set of instruments that are held together because its statistical profile delivers a desired goal, such as hedging or trading, which cannot be achieved through the individual constituents or even subsets of them. Multiple procedures have been proposed to compute hedging and trading baskets, among which balanced baskets have attracted significant attention in recent years. Unlike Principal Component Analysis (PCA) style of methods, balanced baskets spread risk or exposure across their constituents without requiring a change of basis. Practitioners typically prefer balanced baskets because their output can be understood in the same terms for which they have developed an intuition.We review three methodologies for determining balanced baskets, analyze the features of their respective solutions and provide Python code for their calculation. We also introduce a new method for reducing the dimension of a covariance matrix, called Covariance Clustering, which addresses the problem of numerical ill-conditioning without requiring a change of basis.


. The construction of the Semarang-Demak toll road, is claimed to be able to expedite transportation routes and solve the tidal flood problem. However, some of these development problems are felt to be disturbing to the environment and the community has questioned the analysis of development studies and efforts to deal with the accompanying impacts. The research approach used is a qualitative approach with empirical normative research type. Data collection techniques used are through interviews, observation, documentation, and literature study. The data validity used triangulation techniques and data analysis with descriptive analysis. The result show (1) The environmental feasibility of the Semarang-Demak toll road development in the Amdal document is in accordance with the regulations but there are still some weaknesses in the study (2) There are seven positive impacts and twenty negative impacts (3) its efforts are to be open to reports/complaints and the implementation of management and monitoring.


Upcoming mass production of energy efficient spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) will revolutionize modern microelectronics by introducing non-volatility not only for memory but also for logic [1]. However, the pressing issue is to boost the sensing margin by improving the tunneling magnetoresistance ratio (TMR). We demonstrate that spin-dependent trap-assisted tunneling in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) can increase the TMR. The influence of spin decoherence and relaxation on the current and shot noise at trap-assisted hopping is investigated. Keywords-Spin-dependent hopping, shot noise, spin relaxation, MTJ, MRAM Spins injected from a nonmagnetic semiconductor on a trap are oriented in arbitrary direction with equal probability. In case the spin is parallel to the magnetization of the ferromagnetic electrode with the polarization p, its escape rate to the ferromagnet is enhanced by a factor (1+p), while it is decreased by a factor (1-p) for the antiparallel orientation. In the later case, the electron is locked on the trap for a longer time. At the same time the electron blocks another electron from entering the trap (the Coulomb blockade). Thus, due to spin correlations the current is reduced as compared to trap-assisted tunneling between the normal electrodes. Spin decoherence described by the time T2 is effectively equivalent to the strong magnetic field [2], see Fig.1. Spin relaxation (T1) reduces spin correlations and the magnetoresistance modulation (Fig.1). The current and the spectral function of the current fluctuations at low frequency S(ω=0) and the Fanofactor F(ω=0)=S/2eI are calculated by a Monte Carlo technique [3], with escape rates from the trap determined by the matrix equation:


In the Internet of Things framework, crowdsourcing (CS) has played a significant role. A sufficient number of participants carrying sensors or IoT devices are necessary to obtain maximum coverage within a given budget for CS a task. Cloud computing is used for centralized processing, storage, and large‐scale data analysis. The delay associated with transferring data to cloud servers creates a time‐consuming decision‐making process. Fog computing is responsible for this capability. As a result, FogiRecruiter, a novel framework, is offered to efficiently choose participants for data collection from the vital environment while staying within a budget. We also utilize fuzzy logic to pick the best fog nodes for relaying data to them and then to faraway cloud servers. Realizing emergency communication, despite the fact that a direct connection to the cloud is inconvenient. Simulations and prototype testing are used to show the efficacy of the proposed approach.


The present invention relates to compounds of formula (I), wherein R 1, R 2, R 4, R 5 YR 6 represent a variety of substituents; R 3 REPRESE NTA aromatic heterocyclic group A 5 or 6 membered optionally substituted containing 1, 2, 3 or 4 heteroatoms selected from nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. 9A R 9B YR each independently hydrogen or alkyl C 1-4, 9A OR 9B YR are linked so that, together with the carbon atoms to which they are attached, form a ring C 05.07; M is zero, 1, 2 or 3; N is zero, 1, 2 or 3; WITH THE CONDITION THAT THE SUM TOTAL OF Myn SEA 2O 3; OA a pharmaceutically acceptable salt THEREOF. The compounds are of particular use in the treatment or prevention of pain, inflammation, migraine, emesis and postherpetic neuralgia.


Ann Thorac Surg 1998;65:397-402 Biagini Stefano Maffei, Monica Baroni, Marco Terrazzi, Fabrizio Paoli, Paolo Ferrazzi and AndreaDipyridamole Echocardiographic Study Preoperative Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease in Aortic Stenosis: Ahttp://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/65/2/397 the World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on


This research describes the trends of the independent music industry in Malaysia. It can be seen that the Malaysia music industry is growing slowly and making an impact towards the society and country in the 21st century. No doubt there are a number of main music label companies, some artists still prefer to rely on their own. By carrying out a qualitative analysis, this paper will be analyzing independent music as a part of the creative industry sector in Malaysia, the context and background conditions of the industry and not
forgetting, identifying the challenges faced when it comes to pursuing as an independent musician in Malaysia. This will enlighten where independent music stand among the society in the Malaysian local music scene and show how Malaysian independent artists and bands are managing themselves in the art scene. Hence, strategies and
recommendations are highlighted in order to improve the independent music sector as a part of Malaysia's art and culture. Also, this research contributes to enhancing the
development of Malaysia's creative industry.


LOX-PP seems to exert an anti-cancer function in ovarian cancer, either by decreasing cells proliferation rate and/or by sensitizing of cells to chemotherapeutic agents.


Mitochondrial dysfunction and synaptic damage are important features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) associated with amyloid (cid:1) (A (cid:1) ) and tau. We reported previously that the scaffolding protein RanBP9, which is overall increased in brains of patients with AD and in mutant APP transgenic mice, simultaneously promotes A (cid:1) generation and focal adhesion disruption by accelerating the endocytosis of APP and (cid:1) 1-integrin, respectively. Moreover, RanBP9 induces neurodegeneration in vitro and in vivo and mediates A (cid:1) -induced neurotoxicity. Here we show in primary hippocampal neurons that RanBP9 potentiates A (cid:1) induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction, apoptosis, and calcium deregulation. Analyses of calcium-handling measures demonstrate that RanBP9 selectively delays the clearance of cytosolic Ca 2 (cid:2) mediated by the mitochondrial calcium uniporter through a process involving the translocation of cofilin into mitochondria and oxidative mechanisms. Further, RanBP9 retards the anterograde axonal transport of mitochondria in primary neurons and decreases synaptic mitochondrial activity in brain. These data indicate that RanBP9, cofilin, and A (cid:1) mimic and potentiate each other to produce mitochondrial dysfunction, ROS overproduction, and calcium deregulation, which leads to neurodegenerative changes reminiscent of those seen in AD.—Roh. S.-E., Woo, Mitochondrial dysfunction and calcium deregulation by the RanBP9-cofilin pathway. J. 27, 4776–4789 (2013).


Capital allocation is an instrument for managing risk in an insurance company, especially by showing the diversification effect between lines of business. Based on a practical application of game theory, this article proposes a practical mapping between coherent measure of risk and coherent capital allocation. In terms of risk measure, VaR and TVaR have been selected, from which quantile-based allocation formulae can be derived. These formulae require the use of simulation, and it is shown here that the algorithm of Ruhm, Mango and Kreps (RMK) is especially adapted. Capital allocation has been applied in this article in two solvency calculation internal models. In this case, internal modelling of risks may change from one model to another. However, VaR shows more consistent results over time than TVaR. It is suggested that not only (axiomatic) coherent allocation, but also consistent allocation needs to be considered.


Objective To evaluate in vivo magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with a conventional 1.5 T system for depiction and tracking of intravascularly injected magnetically labeled bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in rat normal kidney. Methods Rat bone marrow MSCs were isolated, purified, expanded and then incubated with home synthesized Fe_2O_3-PLL. Prussian blue stain was employed for identifying intracellular irons. MSCs were injected into renal arteries of 12 recipient rats (labeled cells in nine, unlabeled cells in three). MR images of kidneys were obtained respectively before injection of MSCs, and immediately, 1, 3, 5, and 8 days after transplantation. MR imaging findings were analyzed, which were correlated with histological findings. Results Rat MSCs were successfully labeled, and labeling efficiency was almost 100%. Prussian blue staining of Fe_2O_3-PLL labeled cells revealed the presence of iron-containing vesicles or endosomes in the cytoplasm. In normal kidneys, the labeled MSCs were demonstrated as signal intensity loss in renal cortex on T2*-weighted MR images. The signal intensity decrease was visualized up to days 8 after transplantation. Histological analyses showed that most Prussian blue staining-positive cells were well correlated with the area where a signal intensity loss was observed in MRI. Conclusion 1.5T MR imaging can monitor administered magnetically labeled MSCs in vivo in normal kidneys, especially on T2*WI.


Months of uncertainty for nurse and midwife teachers ended last week when the Scottish Office announced who had won the contracts to run their colleges.


Recent development of targeting therapies in head and neck cancer (HNC) focuses on the phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3K) pathway, which is known to be a crucial factor in cancer development and resistance to multiple drugs. The effect of the specific inhibitors, however, is often overshadowed by the development of resistance which the mechanism remains to be determined.


General music teachers might be faced with formal performance expectations placed on them by administrators. While performance expectations are common in performance-based ensembles, meeting these expectations can be cumbersome and daunting to those who serve in the realm of general music. Informances—informative presentations of student learning that emphasize the learning process—provide an alternative to traditional concerts or programs. Informances serve as an excellent way of communicating one's educational objectives to parents, administrators, and community members by sharing what and how students learn in the classroom. This article explores the benefits of including informances in one's yearly programming, aligning the role of informances to address the new core music standards, two differing types of informances, as well as suggestions on how to successfully include them in the general music curriculum.


The present invention relates to a composition and a light emitting photoluminescence having the general formula (I) or (Ia) benzene compound and benzothiadiazole compound having the formula (II) photoluminescence spectrum as compositions and converter related uses thereof. Also it described comprising the above defined include the compound having formula (I) or (Ia) and (II) of the composition of the photoluminescent spectral solar converter and the device comprises a spectral converter.


Indonesia has a population of 270 million people and will face tough challenges in obtaining Sustainable Development Goals, especially related to Responsible Consumption and Production (RCP). The Indonesian government created a National Action Plan to achieve sustainable consumption and production patterns, namely increasing economic welfare, reducing resource use, and improving quality of life. To accelerate the call for RCP, encouraging the role of the younger generation to participate in implementing the best of green economic practices is the right strategy. This research is intended to get an overview of the extent to which the younger generation wants to participate from a behavioral angle (green economy consumers). Respondents involved in the study were 229 young people from various regions in Indonesia. Interesting results were obtained from the research model, indicating that intention strongly influences behavior and impacts willingness to participate using the SEM-Lisrel analysis. However, the awakening of intentions among the younger generation is mostly influenced by positive attitudes, while the norms and perceptions do not show strong indications of their influence. These findings form a strong basis for the development of behavioral research that can answer the research gap involving the younger generation to act as green consumers in a proven way. The younger generation can be environmentally responsible consumers by using eco-friendly products.


Over the past decade, there has been a new "decolonial turn," albeit less related than before to land and political independence. "To decolonize" is now associated with something less tangible and often under-defined. We argue that scholars, especially Western ones, should avoid depoliticizing the expression "decolonizing" by using it as a buzzword. Scholars and policymakers should use the expression only if it is closely related to the political meaning ascribed to it by Global South and Indigenous activists and scholars. Decoloniality is a political project of human emancipation through collective struggles, entailing at least the following: 1) abolishing racial hierarchies within the hetero-patriarchal and capitalist world order, 2) dismantling the geopolitics of knowledge production, and 3) rehumanizing our relationships with Others and nature. We conclude that there is a need for epistemic humility and that Western scholars and institutions must refrain from using the word too freely.


In various analyses of the effect of income taxation on an investor's willingness to invest in assets whose rates of return are uncertain, it is an underlying assumption that the investor knows for certain the rates at which his income will be taxed.' The only uncertainty then attaches to the before-tax rates of return on the risky investments. This paper concentrates on cases where at the time of selecting a portfolio an investor has incomplete knowledge of the tax rates which will be effective in the future. This may be the situation in a parliamentary election year if rival parties are in favour of corporation income taxation and consumption taxation, respectively. In some countries uncertainty about tax rates may be a more permanent feature; for example, at all times there may be a non-zero probability of complete confiscation of investment profits. Under such circumstances the tax rate can appear as a random variable from an investor's point of view. In this way uncertainty about after-tax income can reflect uncertainty as to the tax rates which eventually will become effective-political risk-as well as uncertainty as to before-tax returns-commercial risk. The separation of political risk from commercial risk enables us to study the specific effects of uncertainty about the relevant tax rates when a portfolio decision is made.2 The measurement of political risk is a difficult problem since many measures of risk are associated with certain classes of utility functions and/or probability distributions.3 A non-zero variance of the tax rate is a sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of political risk. Representing changes in political risk in terms of changes in the variance of the tax rate is to be avoided, however, as such a representation would be legitimate only under rather restrictive assumptions. We define a change in political risk in terms of a corresponding change in a dispersion shift parameter which indicates the stretching or compression of the probability distribution of the tax rate around its expected value.4 When the value of the dispersion parameter changes,


Survey Report - Purpose: This international guide on changes at CHQ provides data
and insights on changes in CHQ design over a four-year time period
(2007-2010), as well as on the status quo of recent CHQ design and effectiveness
(2010).
Surveys: The guide is based on large-scale surveys of 761 of the largest
corporations in 21 countries in North America and Europe. The overall
company-level response rate accounting for 28.4 % of the sample indicates
a large interest in changes at CHQ.
Key findings: The surveys indicate an overall trend towards stronger
CHQ - in contrast to the more prominent cases of CHQ cutbacks frequently
published in the business press. Many companies have tightened
the reins of CHQ and increased CHQ influence over divisional decisions.


Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited and its films have a wide range of influence around the world. In the contemporary era, the communication of the Shaw costume films, emphasises the humanity's classical appeal and invisible revival motivation. Also, it puts great emphasis on the trend from heroic monologue to discourse equality. The essay focuses on the aesthetic style and cultural connotation of the costume swordsman martial arts films directed by Zhang Che and Chu Yuan, revealing how the combination of the cultural psychology and Shaw's management model have jointly accomplished Shaw's films' glorious time for decades in Hong Kong. Furthermore, it proves that how the cultural mentality of the martial arts "King of the Forerunner" has affected the transformation and development of Shaw Brothers, and how the status of costume martial arts films were changed in contemporary communication.


Recently, all-IP wireless systems have been standardized under the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) framework to support next generation value added mobile services. In all-IP networks, multiple base stations connect to IMS policy servers through IP-based access gateways. As users move from one access gateway area into another, the corresponding access gateways initiate signaling flows for QoS authorization toward the IMS policy server. Depending on the service, the policy function may contact one or more application servers resulting in variable and prolonged signaling delays upon each handoff. Such delays can be of the order of seconds, depending on the specific system design and whether the user is roaming, which maybe critical to the quality of real time services. In this paper, we propose a novel proactive signaling method in the application layer that conveys authorization delay constraints from the IMS to the radio layer and thus mitigates the effects of variable signaling delay. Our method is practically relevant as it uses the already established mechanisms of authentication and authorization signaling via standardized interfaces and protocols. Using the OPNET simulator, we demonstrate that our scheme is also scalable, as its corresponding signaling overhead is upper bounded to approximately double the handoff rate.


Non-ionic surfactant and oxygen-vectors may influence the growth of Blakeslea trispora and its primary product β-carotene. Compared with other non-ionic surfactants, Triton X-100 at 0.1% yielded the highest biomass production at 52.5 g/L and increased the production of β-carotene from 793.5 mg/L in the control to 923.5 mg/L. The β-carotene production and the yield of biomass were increased when oxygen-vectors were added to the medium. With 1% n-dodecane added on the 0 day, the biomass and β-carotene production was 17.2% and 10.0% higher than that of the control. The highest β-carotene and biomass production were obtained when 0.1% Triton X-100 and 1% n-dodecane were added together on the 0 day of fermentation.


Ewa Kloczko, Wedad Abdelrahman This is lichen amyloidosis on the leg of a man in his 60s (fig 1). He presented with a 20 year history of multiple hyperpigmented itchy lesions on his arms, legs, and buttocks that were papulonodular and coalesced, forming plaques. Thioflavin T and Congo red staining of biopsy sample were consistent with lichen amyloidosis, which is characterised by cutaneous deposition of amyloid proteins with no systemic involvement.1 Lichen amyloidosis can be associated with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A,2 3 but, as is often the case, the cause in this patient was idiopathic. Medical history consisted solely of well managed HIV, which was not thought to have predisposed to the lichen amyloidosis.


the same population. Seven subtypes are considered to be appropriate by two-stage clustering procedure, hierarchical and (cid:9487)-means; they are labeled as "Extreme Anger subtype", "Prosocial subtype", "Socialized-Aggressive subtype", "Sup-pressive subtype", "High-Arousal Low-Coping subtype", "Hostile/Irritable subtype", and "Low-Arousal High-Coping subtype". Four of these subtypes found in this study show similar profile patterns as the ones in the previous study in the literature. Also, significant difference on depressive mood among these clusters is found. Finally, prevention and intervention approaches for each subtype are suggest-ed.


The brainstem include midbrain, pons & medulla. In acute stage of brainstem infarction, neurologic symptoms may be progressive. So we must pay special attention to Wallenberg's syndrome. In other words, Wallenberg's syndrome is dorsolateral medullary syndrome. A-54-years-old woman was admitted because of vertigo, ataxia & somatic sensory loss of left face and right half-body. Brain MRI showed high SI in T2W, low SI in T1W lesion left medullary infarction. We diagnosed the case as Shin-heo type Oriental medically and prescribed Gihwangemjakamibang. Diabetes mellitus was found out. So We have controlled diabetes mellitus by Occidental medical therapy. In the end, The symptoms of the patient became better. We know that cooperative(oriental & occidental) medical therapy is better than one medical therapy.Here we present one case of Wallenberg's syndrome who was admitted at Kunpo Wonkwang University Hospital Oriental Neuropsychiatry from 14th March to 6th April. 2001.


Therapeutic opioids are essential for anesthesia and palliative care and have proven highly effective in reducing the harms associated with use of illicit drugs. Yet, access to therapeutic opioids remains strikingly inadequate in much of the world, resulting in preventable suffering on a vast scale. Many of the impediments to access are found in overly restrictive law, policy and regulation at the national level. Although countries are required by international conventions to place certain controls on opioids, many national regulatory regimes far exceed the requirements of international law. This paper supports that model by illustrating the considerable latitude that countries have to adopt national laws that fulfill the requirements of international drug law.


Ethnics needs a research way and wisdom of middle use,so constant mean has reasons of substance,value,form and tool.As reasons of form and tool,constant mean requires appropriate way to research the moral things and seek the true nature of morality.If we research ethics in the way of constant mean,we must surpass the pure knowledge and put virtue and learning into integration,surpass the minute things and put greatness and extractive things together,and surpass realism and combine idealism with realism in a dialectical way.


Water-absorption of ordinary expanded shale was too high, it can be red uced greatly and be satisfied to high performance light-weight concrete(HPLC) af ter surface hydrophobic treatment. This paper shows that HPLC which 28days str ength over 30MPa and anti-permeability grade greater than P12 can be produced by that treatment shale haydite. And also studied the workability of the fresh con crete, strength and anti-permeability of the harden concrete.


This research is a quasi-experimental design, and aimed to study the effectiveness of two couple therapies, Cognitive Behavioral Couple Therapy (CBCT) and Emotional Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), on marriage satisfaction of infertile male factor pairs. The sample includes of 30 volunteer pairs of among Kosar Infertility Clinic's infertile in 2007-2008 which in matched position replaced in two experimental and a control group. By the applying Enriching and Nurturing Relationship Issues, Communication and Happiness questionnaire (ENRICH) and the Mann-Whitney U test, the results showed that marriage satisfaction in CBCT group had significant differences in comparison with the control group. The results also showed that the effect of two approaches on men and women were the same.


In this study, we investigated the effects of feeding diets with different levels of energy and nutrient density on the egg quality of laying hens during the pre-peak and peak periods. A total of 192 (Hy-line brown) laying hens were used in a 15-week trial. The hens were randomly allotted to one of four treatments, each with four replicates (12 hens per replication). We assessed the effects of four level of dietary energy (2,710, 2,850, 2,870 and 2,890 kcal/kg) and three levels of nutrient density (Methionine + Cysteine: 0.56%, 0.85%, 0.80% and Crude Protein: 14.5%, 19%, 18%). Differences in the energy and nutrient density contents of diets showed no significant effect (P>0.05) on the average daily gain, average daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, egg weight, or egg production of hens during the pre-peak and peak periods. However, hens subjected to 2,890 kcal/kg during the pre-peak period were found to lay eggs with significantly thicker shells, and yolk color was found to be significant enhanced in hens fed this diet during the pre-and peak periods. In contrast, we detected no significant effects of dietary energy or nutrient density on the Haugh unit or eggshell strength. In summary, increasing the energy level of diets from 2,710 to 2,890 kcal/kg was found to have positive effects on the shell thickness and yolk color of eggs produced by laying hens. (


Guangxi's Seventy-Year Fine Arts is an important part in the PRC's fine arts,whose hidden history could be examined from both the aspects of artists' discourses and as well as the conflicts and reconciliation between historical discourses and ideological discourses and be also be considered from the angle of the artist's recognition of his or her personal cultural identity to the minority cultural identity of Guangxi.The thesis explores the achievement of Guangxi's Seventy-Year Fine Arts from the aspects of cultural tradition,red ode under the political ideology and personality research of the folk arts.


In this paper the viscous decay of dipolar vortex structures in a linearly stratified fluid is investigated experimentally, and a comparison of the experimental results with simple theoretical models is made. The dipoles are generated by a pulsed horizontal injection of fluid. In a related experimental study by Flor and van Heijst [J. Fluid Mech. 279, 101 (1994)], it was shown that, after the emergence of the pancake‐shaped vortex structure, the flow is quasi‐two‐dimensional and decays due to the vertical diffusion of vorticity and entrainment of ambient irrotational fluid. This results in an expansion of the vortex structure. Two decay models with the horizontal flow based on the viscously decaying Lamb–Chaplygin dipole, are presented. In a first model, the thickness and radius of the dipole are assumed constant, and in a second model also the increasing thickness of the vortex structure is taken into account. The models are compared with experimental data obtained from flow visualizations and from digit...


In a recent article by Dickey, J. O., Marcus, S.L. and O. de Viron, 2011, the authors show evidences for correlations in the multi-decadal variability of Earth's rotation rate [i.e., length of day (LOD)], the angular momentum of the core (CAM), and natural surface air temperature (SAT). Previous investigators have already found that the LOD fluctuations are largely attributed to core-mantle interactions and that the SAT appears strongly anti-correlated with the decadal LOD. As the above authors note, the cause of this common variability needs to be further investigated and studied. In fact, "since temperature cannot affect the CAM or LOD to a sufficient extent, the results favor either a direct effect of Earth's core-generated magnetic field (e.g., through the modulation of charged-particle fluxes, which may impact cloud formation) or a more indirect effect of some other core process on the climate-or yet another process that affects both". The main aim of the present research note is to further support the above results, using a proper continuous wavelet analysis, and to evidence some early detected time-period relations existing between LOD and SAT data.


Abstract This paper tries to outline a history of development of informal logic in Semitic languages and especially in Arabic. It tries to explain how the first definite formulation of rules of this logic appeared at āl-Šāfi'y's Risāla, a work on 'uswl āl-fiqh or methodology of law. It attempts also to provide new theories and hypotheses about the translation movement in the Arabic and Islamic medieval world.


Through analysis of the influence of such factors as filtration feed size, vacuum degree, filtration equipment performance and operation etc. on filtration and dewatering effects, it is proposed that improving the grain size composition of filtration feed ores, increasing the vacuum degree necessary for the filtration, enlarging the area of filtration zone and strengthening operation management are effective measures for improving filtration and dewatering effects and reducing the water content of iron concentrate.


Unbalance compensation by means of removing material from the rotor is very popular in the electric motor industry when considerations are made for high production requirements, relatively small balancing tolerances, and high speed motor applications. Steps have been taken by motor manufacturers to lower tolerances in the manufacturing process in order to improve product quality. Depending on the type of balance correction by metal removal, various systems are available to meet a range of production requirements and achieve smaller balance tolerances for specific applications. These include balancing systems using contour mill correction and balancing systems using "V" nulling (component correction).


Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a disorder that predominantly affects the cartilage in the human knee joint. In leg mobility, cartilage plays a vital function. In osteoarthritis The cartilage's top layer crumbles and impairs, causing excruciating agony. A patient with knee discomfort should see a doctor, who will assess the patient's clinical symptoms and recommend that the patient undergo radiographic imaging of the knee. In the therapy of osteoarthritis, clinical symptoms are quite important. Clinical symptoms and radiological criteria are used to do a proper examination of the disease. The breadth of the joint space, osteophytes, and sclerosis are all important radiographic criteria. Based on radiological data, the Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) scoring system is used to evaluate the severity of the condition. The KL system is the most widely used approach for grading Osteoarthritis (OA) in the knee joint into five separate classes, primarily to determine the severity of the illness. (Normal, Doubtful, Mild, Moderate, Severe).
In this review, various medical imaging technologies used to detect and identify knee osteoarthritis have been examined in detail. the automated detection of human illness recovery rates and the classification of Osteoarthritis in the knee using medical images utilizing a variety of medical image classification methods (such as magnetic resonance imaging, CT scans, and X-rays) have been investigated. This research paper included the many medical imaging procedures used.
This paper reviewed the classification methods of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) between2018-2021 using artificial intelligence techniques and showed their methods and results.


New England Center • 15 Strafford Avenue • Durham, NH 03824 (603) 862-2821 • carsey.unh.edu TTY Users: dial 7-1-1 or 1-800-735-2964 (relaY N.H.) As in communities nationwide, the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont is faced with navigating the complexities of early childhood education and care,1 made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this brief, we describe the early childhood education and care landscape of Grafton and Sullivan Counties in New Hampshire and Orange and Windsor Counties in Vermont, contextualizing those findings with comparisons to data from the pre-pandemic period of 2017.2


In this study,there had been analyzed the efficiency of agriculture-related financial institutions operating by undesirable factors data envelopment analysis,which include four input factors(number of employees,total interest expense,non-interest expense and net) and three output factors(loan income,non-lending income and overdue loan ratio)of 246 agriculture-related financial institutions in 2012.It was put forward to achieve the improved direction which relatively efficient.There are 8.54% agricultural finance have different operating efficiency,which evaluated between the ratio of overdue loans overdue loan ratio of output-oriented BCC models,which include overdue loan ratio or not.There show their difference in two ways.It is higher for this agriculture-related financial overdue loan ratio,which reason is need to pay more manpower to deal with.In addition,there had to need to adjust the inputs or outputs for 80.89% agriculture-related financial institutions.The poor operating efficiency of agriculture-related financial institutions mainly due to misallocation of resources.It is imperative how to reduce operating costs and develop their business.


Quaternion-valued tensors are of recent interest for the analysis and processing of 3D and 4D signals. We explain here the theoretical difficulties related to the definition of such a mathematical object, and propose a solution allowing the preservation of the usual tensor algebraic properties. This new model allows the extension of Tucker and canonical polyadic decompositions to quaternion tensors. For the latter, we introduce an ALS-type algorithm whose relevance is numerically validated.


There are a number of applications, either proposed, currently under development or already reduced to practice, that utilize proton or deuteron beams in the 1-10 MeV energy regime. These applications have been reviewed and the accelerator requirements summarized. In terms of the beam time-structure, nearly all of the applications fall into three broad categories. (1) Beams that utilize nanosecond pulses at low duty factors (<0.5%) are required for a variety of material composition interrogation concepts using neutron time-of-flight techniques. (2) Pulsed beams, in the microsecond regime, are also used for material characterization utilizing (non-time-of-flight) characteristic nuclear signatures, where a low duty factor is used to suppress backgrounds. (3) High duty factor and continuous beams are needed for several applications, including neutron radiography (NR) and boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), in which a high total current is required, or for which the time structure of the beam is unimportant. Linear accelerators of various types can meet most of the requirements for each category, but the high average power machines of the last category of applications require further development. The primary results of this review are presented, and an assessment of the current development status of radiofrequency accelerators to meet the high-duty-factor requirements is given.


A peak pressure reduction device for airbag is provided, which makes the inner peak pressure of the airbag small in the inflator explosion. A peak pressure reduction device for airbag comprises: an inflator(40) installed at the housing; an airbag connected to the inflator; and a cover(10) which protects the folded airbag and in which the tear seam(11) is formed so that the air bag inflation can be facilitated. The expansion tube(50) is adherently installed at the tear seam. The expansion tube is connected to the inflator through the gas delivery pipe.


Bridget Somekh draws on her experience of researching the introduction of ICT into education to look at ICT development over the last twenty years. The book provides a fascinating, in-depth analysis of the nature of learning, ICT pedagogies and the processes of change for teachers, schools and education systems. It covers the key issues relating to the innovation of ICT that have arisen over this period.


Human parvovirus 4 (ParV4), a newly described member of the family Parvoviridae, like B19V, has been found in pooled plasma preparations. The extent, and significance, of ParV4 exposure in UK blood donors remain to be determined and reliable detection of ParV4 immunoglobulin (Ig)G, using validated methods, is needed.


The algorithms of the synthesis of optimal structures and parameters of the matrix of transfer functions of the filter which enables to assess the vector of useful signals with the noise correction as well as without it according to the data on sensor dynamics, electromagnetic interference characteristics and vector characteristics of the measured signals were developed.


Marginalization of literature in recent years becomes one of the hot issues in academic discussion.How does literature develop in the era of image and the material desire expansion era ? The author discusses the problem of marginalization of literature from the influence of mass media and the change of literary concept in this paper. Mass media is like a double-edged sword for literature.The literary market marginal debate is implied by the different literary ideas.The author also elaborates different scenes of the literature in the contemporary center and at the edge position.The ideology lets literature become the center of thought, but marginalization of literature has demonstrated that is the literary normalization.The author clarifies the relationship between the literature marginalization and marginalized.Marginalization and marginalized embody different literary pursuit in different periods. Finally, the author analyzes the current literature marginalization problem and thinks in the matter of highly developed era,l iterature, despite being edged, its various elements still exist in all aspects of life.Maybe that is the normal form of literature.Humans also need literature, so literature remains forever.


In this paper, we derive the approximate maximum likelihood estimators(AMLEs) and maximum likelihood estimator of the scale parameter in a triangular distribution based on progressive Type-II censored samples. We compare the proposed estimators in the sense of the mean squared error through Monte Carlo simulation for various progressive censoring schemes.


Based on topological chemistry theory, a quantum chemistry method is used to calculate the 91 electrical distance vector (Mi) of a molecule, which is used to characterize the chemical microenvironment in which the molecule is located. The multivariate stepwise regression method was used to screen the variables to obtain the ternary best equation. Correlation coefficient R2=0.887, R2CV=0.673, passed by FIT and AIC .The ternary variable is used as the input set, and the inhibition rate is used as the output set. The LS-SVM and Elman-ANN algorithms are used for prediction and comparison. The results show that R2 is 0.993 and 0.994 respectively. The prediction ability is similar. But the stability of Elman is better, and the two-dimensional structure affecting the molecule is structural fragments such as =CH-, -CH<.


The nature and distribution of residual stresses are invariably critical for fatigue life with dissimilar material joints often inducing high tensile residual stresses. A fatigue-resistant concept of weld cladding process pipelines, producing compressive residual stresses, is under investigation to examine how these stresses may be influenced. Simplified weld cladding simulations have successfully illustrated the development and distribution of residual stresses through the joint. The study has highlighted the importance of accurate material data for clad and substrate materials with current analysis assumptions in a simple thick-walled pipe discussed. Experimental validation, using ICHD, measured residual stresses with depth on weld clad specimens, resulting in good correlation between simulation and experiment for a nickel-chromium-based superalloy clad on low alloy carbon steel as discussed. Future work, including a full 3D representation of the cladding process and a comparison of residual stress measurement methods, are also discussed. Figure 1. Axisymmetric FE Model Figure 2. Axisymmetric Model Boundary Conditions Although this model is a simplification of a process with spatially and temporally varying deposition, it is representative of methods such as evaporative deposition or spray coating followed by sintering. In the following sections it will be shown however that it also provides good correlation to experimental measurements for the spatially and temporally varying weld deposition process used. An elastic-perfectly plastic material model was assumed with temperature dependent thermal and mechanical material properties. Focus was placed on coefficient of thermal expansion, specific heat, thermal conductivity, Young's modulus and yield stress. These properties primarily govern the modelling of the thermal event, degree of constraint and therefore the development of residual stresses (Ahmed et al. 2007), with further contributing factors discussed in the reference given. Poisson's ratio and emissivity were assumed to remain constant. The nature of residual stresses differs depending on the state of a component, as discussed by Withers and Bhadeshia, with misfit resulting from different parts, phases and regions highlighted as the key characteristic influencing residual stresses (Withers & Bhadeshia 2001). Phase transformations in steels have been shown to influence residual stress development in X70 pipeline steel (Onsoien et al. 2010) for example. Figure 3 shows a large discontinuity in the stress distribution in the vicinity of the low alloy carbon steel substrate and clad interface for both pre-heat and material combinations, with a change from compressive to tensile stresses. At the idealised interface between the substrate and clad there is a step change in the stresses with the nickel-chromiumbased superalloy clad showing a reduction in residual stress, which remains significantly tensile throughout the clad. The form of residual stress graph for the nickel-chromium-based superalloy clad is indicative of yielding and reflects the elasticperfectly plastic model used. The stainless steel clad simulation results on the other hand show a further increase in residual stress in the clad, which is unexpected and is contrary to the experimental results obtained, which show a similar value of residual stress throughout the clad but compressive in nature. 3 EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION


Stability of the deuterium-label in the p-hydroxylation of l-ephedrine [arom.-2H5] was investigated as one of problems on the applicability of this labeled compound to metabolic studies in man. p-Hydroxyephedrine liberated by enzymic hydrolysis from its glucuronide in the 24-hr urine of rats injected deuterated l-ephedrine (97.9 atom% 2H) was purified and oxidized to p-hydroxybenzoic acid. The deuterium content on the aromatic ring of the latter compound was found to be 98.1 atom% 2H by determining accurately by mass spectrometry. This fact indicates that the deuterium-label at meta and ortho positions of the substrate was retained during the p-hydroxylation and that the deuterium-label of the resulting p-hydroxyephedrine was stable during the glucuronide formation and the subsequent enzymic hydrolysis of the glucuronide to its free form.


More than 1,400 people attended TierraFest 2023, an annual event where children, teenagers, scientists, and activists share knowledge about Earth sciences and the environment in Mexico.


Non-isothermal mold filing and curing experiments of liquid composite molding were carried out in this work. To compare the experimental results with a previously developed numerical simulation model, measurements of volumetric heat transfer coefficient between the resin and the fiber, and characterization of resin kinetics and rheological changes were also conducted. Combined with the previously measured fiber perform permeability, the numerical model provided a good prediction of temperature profiles during molding for a polyurethane/glass fiber composite.


An over-all research on works of minority writers has achieved a lot in recent years.However,there are still some points left to be further discussed: the writers' backgrounds(such as the races,and the regions they live in) should be taken into consideration;study of disciplinary development of minority literature needs to be enhanced;spaces of academic research on cultural connotation of the works of minority writers are potential and should be fully developed.Therefore,a review of the achievements in recent years will be helpful to promote the disciplinary development.


In this paper we report the fabrication of high quality polymer walls by using the monomer containing fluorine. We fabricated polymer walls with no phase retardation by using photo‐polymerization induced anisotropic phase separation of the mixture composed of LC and F‐monomer. Thanks to the anti‐adhesive property of fluoride, we could form high quality polymer walls with no light leakage. We measured electro‐optic characteristics of a twisted‐nematic LC cell whose polymer walls were fabricated by using the F‐monomer, which are compared with that fabricated by using the monomer without fluorine. The proposed fabrication method can be used to realize high‐contrast flexible liquid crystal displays without black matrix.


Objectives To examine effect of atorvastatin on the expression of COX-2 in peripheral blood monocytes from patients with early stage of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in vitro, and the IL-6 concentration in supernatant was also examined. Methods Patients with AMI (n=40) and with stable coronary heart disease (CHD) (n=18) were registered. Peripheral blood monocytes from all participants were isolated and cultured for 24 hrs, but those from patients with AMI were randomly exposed to various concentration of atorvastatin (0, 0.1, 1, 10 μmol/L) during the cultivation. COX-2 mRNA expression in monocytes was analyzed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Concentration of IL-6 in supernatant was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results COX-2 expression and IL-6 secretion by peripheral blood monocytes from patients with AMI (0.92±0.13, 205±46 pg/ml) were higher than that from controls (0.19±0.08, 41±8 pg/ml) (both P<0.05), and COX-2 expression was dramatically reduced up to 52% by atorvastatin (P<0.05), in a concentration-dependent manner respectively. The expression of COX-2 from patients with AMI was obviously correlated with the secretion of IL-6 (r=0.636, P<0.05). COX-2 expression in the monocytes after intervention of atorvastatin was also positively correlated with IL-6 secretion by these cells (r=0.783, P<0.05). Conclusions COX-2 involves inflammatory respond in early-stage of AMI. Atorvastatin may decrease COX-2 expression in peripheral blood monocytes from patients with AMI and cyclooxygenase-dependent pathway might be correlated with the anti-inflammation mechanism of statin.


This paper presents a numerical analysis of the fracture behavior of pavement slabs, using special purpose cohesive finite elements. Hilleborg's fictitious crack model is employed in sensitivity studies exploring the effect of a number of modeling parameters on edge loading responses. Moreover, the case of interior loading is investigated, anticipating a future thermal stress analysis. Results are compared with previous experimental as well as numerical investigations conducted by other independent researchers. It is shown that cohesive elements are suitable for modeling crack propagation as required in pavement engineering. It is envisaged that the approach presented in this study can be extended to more realistic in situ pavement systems, thereby addressing the limitations of current mechanistic-empirical pavement design procedures.