Ab initio numerical study of collisionless shocks in electron–ion unmagnetized plasmas is performed with fully relativistic particle in cell simulations. The main properties of the shock are shown, focusing on the implications for particle acceleration. Results from previous works with a distinct numerical framework are recovered, including the shock structure and the overall acceleration features. Particle tracking is then used to analyze in detail the particle dynamics and the acceleration process. We observe an energy growth in time that can be reproduced by a Fermi-like mechanism with a reduced number of scatterings, in which the time between collisions increases as the particle gains energy, and the average acceleration efficiency is not ideal. The in depth analysis of the underlying physics is relevant to understanding the generation of high-energy cosmic rays, the impact on the astrophysical shock dynamics, and the consequent emission of radiation.


Abstract The optimum model shapes of pan-breakers and injectors with pressurized fluid injection have been determined by basic soil bin tests with injected air, as reported elsewhere. The tests showed that the characteristics of soil failure changed with soil moisture, and displayed collapse failure, fracture failure, and plastic flow. Maximum rupture distances were obtained with fracture failure. This paper deals with the characteristics of soil failure by subsoilers with pressurized water injection. Liquids such as water saturate soil around a nozzle port and change the rupture distances on the soil surface. The results show that with pan-breakers and soil moisture causing fracture failure, both rupture distances and disturbance energies decreased to about one-half when the water flow rate was increased from 0 to 0·45 kg/s. With injectors, rupture distances decreased to about one-half but the disturbance energy remained constant, regardless of water flow rate.


During the past decade, considerable research efforts have been devoted towards non-chemical weed control. Some of these efforts have been directed towards the control of forest weed species. Non-chemical control of forest vegetation encompasses many approaches and techniques and only a few of them are discussed in this paper. Three major and promising research areas are identified: (1) allelopathy, (2) microbially produced phytotoxins, and (3) bio-control. Each of these weed management strategies is briefly presented and discussed using examples from the forestry literature.


Control of multi-phase machines has gained noticeable interest recently both in healthy and faulty operations. Finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) in particular have been proposed to drive multi-phase machines avoiding sophisticated pulse width modulation (PWM) methods. On the other hand, FCS-MPC has some limitations. Weighting factor design in the cost function of FCS-MPC algorithm is one of the widely reported problems which still under investigation. In this paper, the prediction stage of FCS-MPC for asymmetric six-phase induction motor has been reformulated based on the double d-q (2dq) model of the machine. Unlike the reported FCS-MPC algorithm in literature, this will results in four control variables (stator currents in the double stator circuits) which have the same priority. Thus, equal weighting factors could be used in the cost function. It is illustrated that this will automatically reduce the effect of the circulated currents (x-y components) by generating equal reference currents in the corresponding phases of the 2dq representation. The dynamic and steady state performance of the proposed method is demonstrated. Moreover, the proposed method is compared to the FCS-MPC based on voltage space decomposition (VSD) method reported in literature.


The main aim of feature selection (FS) is to determine a minimal feature subset from a problem domain while retaining a suitably high accuracy in representing the original features. In many real world problems, FS is a must due to the abundance of noisy, irrelevant, or misleading features. For instance, by removing these factors, learning from data techniques can benefit greatly. A detailed AbstrAct


A tuning quality evaluation algorithm meant to be used as a user advising subsystem for Query-by-Humming applications is designed and presented. A queries dataset from a previous study is extended and analysed in order to define some relevant tuning quality descriptors. The automatic procedures needed to calculate those descriptors are also devised and optimized. A preexisting tuning quality expert annotation is expanded by collecting new evaluations in a specific experiment. All the available data and methods are extensively tested using machine learning software.


Local government is an integral part of the democratic governmental system that has emerged in Uganda since the 1850s. The new local government dispensation seeks to enhance the participation of the local citizenry and civil service organisations in local governance thereby providing a legitimate vehicle for democratic expression. It is generally accepted that a process of decentralisation should probably best be judged against its objectives to build a sustainable municipal service while providing services efficiently and effectively and at the same time addressing poverty and sustainable growth. However, the link between decentralisation and empowerment through poverty reduction is not automatic and issues of corruption and abysmal levels of local revenue basically erodes the autonomy of local government. Consequently, the focus should be on efficiency and effectiveness and the system of decentralisation through devolution provides value for money compared to other available alternatives and if this is the case, to further develop it. Some of the challenges that has to be addressed includes inter alia, enhancement of the quality of services delivered; improvement in the value of services, human resources and location points and fostering partnerships with civil society organisations.


Presentation of Case First admission. A twenty-one-year-old college student was admitted to the hospital because of weakness in the legs and confusion. He had been well until thirteen months previously, when he fell while skiing, landing in a sitting position. He continued to ski but six hours later entered another hospital because of back pain and slight pain in the neck. A large hematoma was observed in the left buttock. X-ray films of the lower spine were normal. He was discharged after two days, and the symptoms subsided. Two months thereafter he became aware of weakness and a "rubbery . . .


The present study aimed to recover the organic solvents and active ingredients as well by using charcoal (adsorption) and (desorption). The process in which molecular species leave the surface of a solid and escape into the surroundings; simply reverse of absorption or adsorption is called as Desorption. Activated carbon was added to the mobile phase Methanol: Water (50:50) which contains active ingredient (Paracetamol) and stirred and centrifuged, the supernatant layer was measured for the absorbance. After confirming the absence of active ingredients in the supernatant the activated carbon loaded with active ingredient was dried under air. 0.1M Sodium hydroxide solution was added to the dried matter and was Ultrasonicated at different calorimetric powers to facilitate desorption of active ingredients. The supernatant shows no absorption maxima at the wavelength of the active ingredient (257 nm) and peaks were shown in HPLC system after desorption by Ultrasonication. Thus the organic solvent as well as active ingredients can be reused for further studies. The study has huge advantage because of complete recovery of solvents as well as active ingredients. © 2017 iGlobal Research and Publishing Foundation. All rights reserved. Indo Global Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2017; 7(2): 148-151 149 In the laboratory, it is usually applied using an ultrasonic bath or an ultrasonic probe, colloquially known as sonicator. MATERIALS AND METHODS Paracetamol with purity greater than 99.5% and ultra-high quality (UHQ) water were used to prepare the aqueous solutions. The Granular activated carbon (GAC) has a BET surface area of 929 m 2 g -1 and a mean granulometry of 3 mm. The carbon was pretreated by boiling in ultra-high quality water for 1 hr and washed thoroughly with UHQ water until the UV absorbance intensity was equal to zero. Finally, the washed GAC was dried in an oven at 110 0 C to constant weight before use. HPLC Instrumentation and Conditions: The analysis was carried out on a HPLC system (Agilent 1220) equipped with UV detector, pressure controlled by reciprocating pump and operated by Ezechrome Software. InertsilC18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 5 μm) was used for separation. Mobile phase used for separation was mixture containing methanol and water of HPLC grade (50: 50 v/v). The flow rate was kept at 1.0 ml/min, column temperature was ambient (25°C), eluents were detected by UV detector at 205 nm, and the injection volume was 20 μl. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE: RECOVERY OF SOLVENTS: Preparation of mobile phase: Mobile phase was prepared by mixing 50 volumes of methanol and 50 volumes of water of HPLC grade. The mobile phase was ultrasonicated, filtered through 0.45 μm membrane filter, and degassed. Preparation of Standard Solution: Standard stock solution was prepared by weighing accurately 10 mg of paracetamol and dissolved in the 10 ml volumetric flask and made up volume with mobile phase(1000 μg/ml). From the above stock solution 1 ml was taken separately and diluted to 10 ml to obtain a final concentration 100 μg/ml. PROCEDURE: Inject 20μl solution into the system and peak was observed, the eluting solvent and active ingredient from column was passed through activated charcoal and the resulting solution was injected into system and there we observe a blank peak which is nothing but mobile phase peak while the active ingredient was desorbed in the charcoal and also the supernatant layer was measured for the absorbance. Mobile phase peak RECOVERY OF ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: Preparation of 0.1 M NaOH: Weigh accurately 4 gm of sodium hydroxide pellets (NaOH) and dissolved in a 1000 ml volumetric flask to get 0.1 M NaOH. PROCEDURE: After confirming the absence of active ingredients in the supernatant the activated carbon (charcoal) loaded with active ingredientwas dried underair. Now, to the dried active ingredient which is present in the charcoal was taken and to this 0.1 M NaOH was added to determine their effects on desorption under ultrasonic field at21 kHz, 15.2–38.3W, 1 hr irradiation. Scheme of the experimental set-up for desorption under


In the era of Web2.0, users are not only the receivers of information, but also the producers of information. UGC (User Generated Content) has become the main information content on the Internet. In this context, online tourism community emerges as the times require. More and more users have obtained the travel information they want through the online tourism community, and at the same time published their own evaluations and experiences of tourist destinations. Therefore, the user generated content in these online tourism communities is the most direct reflection of the tourism destination image in the minds of users. Based on the analysis of online tourism community UGC, this paper constructs the evaluation index system of tourism destination image, and carries out sentiment analysis on online tourism community UGC to help tourism destinations analyze their own image and consumer needs from multiple levels, so as to make targeted improvement and promotion.


Abstract:Shortly before writing the papers that many consider the birthplace of pragmatism, Peirce studied Antoine Cournot's application of the calculus to political economy. Though there is no explicit evidence that Peirce's reading of Cournot influenced his theory of inquiry, there is a discernable affinity between Cournot's approach to economics and Peirce's approach to inquiry. The current paper aims at making this affinity explicit and show that looking at Peirce through the lens of Cournot's approach to economics can give us a better understanding of Peirce's views on inquiry and his understanding of truth in terms of a final opinion.


Introduction: The Vascular Dementia (VaD) is an irreversible neurocognitive disorder related to cerebrovascular disorders. It is considered the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's disease. Methods: The references included reviews published in the last 5 years, found through a search on PubMed database using the terms "Vascular Dementia", "Clinical Diagnosis" and "Cerebrovascular Disease". The articles were selected by analyzing the title and the abstract. Results: The initial search found 2556 results. A short communication about vascular dementia Journal of Pharmacological, Chemistry and Biological Sciences Vol.: 2(1). pp. 46-54, JanFeb DOI: 10.36619/jpcbs.2020.2.46.55 ISSN: 2674-886X Copyright © 2020 A short communication about vascular dementia 47 105 articles were selected when analyzed by time period, type of work (review) and MEDLINE filters. Those were the ones analyzed by tittle and by abstract, which left 9 articles considered useful for the proposal. Discussion: An insufficient amount of data about the physiopathology of the Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI) were found. The absence of epidemiological data about VaD makes it impossible to develop researches related to the quantitative contribution of the vascular disease for VCI. The presence of coexisting comorbities in patients with VaD is a possible presentation, which turns important the correct identification of other simultaneous dementia cases. Conclusion: The VaD is considered a cognitive disorder that incorporates behavioral symptoms and locomotor system abnormalities. The repercussion of vascular disease in cognition is already known, but recent studies and advances in neuropathology, genetic and epidemiology have helped to deeply understand the VaD and its relation with VCI. 1.INTRODUCTION VaD is an irreversible condition that can culminate with global or focal effects of vascular disease, mainly related to various cerebrovascular disorders, such as hypoperfusion, hypoxia, ischemia, and stroke. It is also characterized as a neurocognitive disorder that incorporates behavioral symptoms, memory and language difficulties, locomotor abnormalities, parkinsonian gait disorder and autonomic dysfunction, Wang et al (2018), Kalaria (2017). The definition of VaD subtypes considers the cause and extent of vascular pathologies, the grade of involvement of extra and intracranial vessels, the anatomical location of tissue changes, and the time after the initial vascular event, with the combination of atherosclerotic and cardioembolic diseases being the most common subtypes of vascular brain injury, Kalaria (2017). VaD is widely considered the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Wang et al (2018), Kalaria (2017). Nevertheless, the proper definition and the causes of the diseaA short communication about vascular dementia 48 se are variable and are hampered by the limits of neuroanatomic and pathophysiological perception, which causes some uncertainty about the prevalence and incidence of VaD in the published literature, Wolters & Ikram (2019). In North America and Europe, it represents about 1520% of dementia cases, Lobo et al (2000), Rizzi et al (2014), and 30% in developing countries, Kalaria (2008). Worldwide, the incidence of VaD is higher in older populations, Wolters & Ikram (2018). Despite of the reported declining in incidence of VaD, Wolters & Ikram (2019), the increasing numbers of obesity, diabetes mellitus and systemic arterial hypertension, all related to the pathology, brings importance for the studies about this pathology, GBD (2018), NCD-RisC (2016), NCD-RisC, (2017).


Nigeria has been described in several reports as business-unfriendly. The brunt is borne by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sub-sector, which should be the engine room of the national economy. Reports show that in advanced economies of the West and Asia, poor business environment leads to labour turnover, which in turn, affects enterprises. Could this apply to Nigeria? This study investigated staff turnover, factors of staff turnover intentions and effects of staff turnover on SMEs operating in Enugu, Nigeria. The study adopted a multi-stage sampling technique to select targets that meet the criteria of SMEs from membership of groups of organized private sector (OPS) in Enugu, and to purposively select respondents from staff of selected SMEs. Questionnaire and interview were used to elicit information from respondents, with likert-scaled options. Average mean score technique was adopted to analyze the data and to test the null hypotheses. Findings showed that job stress, job  stressors, lack of commitment, job dissatisfaction, organisational instability, personal agency, a sense of powerlessness, locus of control, personal control, economic reasons and role ambiguity are all factors of labour turnover intention; management practicies and policies affect staff turnover intention; demographic factors affect staff turnover; and unemployment situation affects staff turnover, which aadversely affect production, sales, customer satisfaction and costs of recruitment and training in SMEs. These factors ought to be avoided or minimized for optimum performance of the enterprise.


Advertisements for cancer centers in the United States promote treatments rather than screening and supportive care and rely on emotional appeals that focus on the hope of cure rather than the comfort and quality of life, a new study has found.

In the study, researchers looked at 409 magazine and television advertisements placed by 102 US cancer centers in 2012. Their results were published online in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine . Laura B Vater, of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the study's lead author.1

Vater and her …


metaQuantome enables quantitative analysis of the taxonomic and functional state of a microbiome. Leveraging quantitative mass spectrometry data generated from metaproteomic samples along with taxonomic and functional annotations, metaQuantome unravels the complex and hierarchical data structure of taxonomic and functional ontologies. As a result, metaQuantome enables data exploration, tests hypotheses, and generates high-quality visualizations. metaQuantome deciphers the contribution of taxa to a functional process and vice versa. Its accessibility will pave the way for advanced multi-omic analysis of diverse microbiomes. Graphical Abstract Highlights The new tool metaQuantome analyzes the taxonomic and functional state of microbiomes. Benchmarking against ground-truth datasets demonstrates metaQuantome's accuracy. Using a case study, we showcase metaQuantome's publication-ready visualizations. metaQuantome will enable advanced multi-omic microbiome analysis. Microbiome research offers promising insights into the impact of microorganisms on biological systems. Metaproteomics, the study of microbial proteins at the community level, integrates genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data to determine the taxonomic and functional state of a microbiome. However, standard metaproteomics software is subject to several limitations, commonly supporting only spectral counts, emphasizing exploratory analysis rather than hypothesis testing and rarely offering the ability to analyze the interaction of function and taxonomy - that is, which taxa are responsible for different processes. Here we present metaQuantome, a novel, multifaceted software suite that analyzes the state of a microbiome by leveraging complex taxonomic and functional hierarchies to summarize peptide-level quantitative information, emphasizing label-free intensity-based methods. For experiments with multiple experimental conditions, metaQuantome offers differential abundance analysis, principal components analysis, and clustered heat map visualizations, as well as exploratory analysis for a single sample or experimental condition. We benchmark metaQuantome analysis against standard methods, using two previously published datasets: (1) an artificially assembled microbial community dataset (taxonomy benchmarking) and (2) a dataset with a range of recombinant human proteins spiked into an Escherichia coli background (functional benchmarking). Furthermore, we demonstrate the use of metaQuantome on a previously published human oral microbiome dataset. In both the taxonomic and functional benchmarking analyses, metaQuantome quantified taxonomic and functional terms more accurately than standard summarization-based methods. We use the oral microbiome dataset to demonstrate metaQuantome's ability to produce publication-quality figures and elucidate biological processes of the oral microbiome. metaQuantome enables advanced investigation of metaproteomic datasets, which should be broadly applicable to microbiome-related research. In the interest of accessible, flexible, and reproducible analysis, metaQuantome is open source and available on the command line and in Galaxy.


In his second book, Noah Jonathan Jacobs briefly and profoundly looks at the basis of our nature as revealed in language, the role of illusion in human life, the armed truce between the sexes, and the hate-filled origins of whole tribes of words now quite tame.


This paper reviews the current understanding of lubricated contacts and the origins of friction in terms of the Stribeck curve. It discusses the various ways that lubricant additives can modify friction in thin‐film lubricated contacts, examining both the nature and properties of the films formed by these additives, as revealed by film thickness measurements, and their consequent effect on the Stribeck friction curve.


Secretariat support for NTAC and TBDQWG is provided by DoHA. This report documents activities undertaken by NTAC in 2012. NTAC formally met on four occasions: face-to-face in April and October and via teleconference in February and August. Dr Justin Waring, of Western Australia, was appointed Chair of NTAC in March 2011 and has been endorsed to continue as Chair until March 2015. Ms Amanda Christensen (of New South Wales) was the Deputy Chair of NTAC during 2012. NTAC developed and finalised a comprehensive work plan which sets out the work that the committee aims to complete by the end of 2015. This has helped the committee to focus on its core work and to structure its meeting agendas accordingly.


Endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS) has been applying in more and more fields because of its unique function in recent years.A review has been given about the progress of EUS in the diagnosis and treatment of upper gastrointestinal diseases.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the relationship between serum amino acid composition and pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis ( UC) , so as to explore some new biomarkers for early diagnosis and treatment.

METHODS
This study was conducted in the 309 Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army between October 2012 and November 2013. Forty-four UC patients and 52 healthy controls were enrolled and the serum samples were collected. Using high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry technology (HPLC-MS/MS) stable isotope internal standard method, we detected serum amino acid metabolic profiling in the two groups.

RESULTS
Compared with the control group, the serum levels of glutamic acid, glutamine, methionine, tryptophan and histidine in UC group were significantly lower [(59.20 +/- 21.93) mol/L vs. (88.14 +/- 34.85) micromol/L; (2200.51 +/- 648.03) [mol/L vs. (2 664.91 +/- 1034.74) micromol/L;(268.69 +/- 211.64) micromol/L vs. (431.48 +/- 298.00) micromol/L; (68.83 +/- 32.33) [mol/L vs. (89.96 +/- 29.29) micromol/L; (101.88 +/- 32.01) micromol/L vs. (115.10 +/- 17.84) micromol/L respectively, all P < 0.05 ]. However, the serum levels of asparagine and isoleucine in UC group were significantly higher than the control group [(195.14 +/- 122.14) micromol/L vs. (140.49 +/- 34.91) micromol/L; (94.61 +/- 29.76) micromol/L vs. (80.99 +/- 19.73) [micromol/L respectively; both P < 0.05].

CONCLUSION
The amino acid metabolic profiling in UC patients is different from that in healthy controls, which suggests that there might be a certain relationship between amino acid composition and pathogenesis of UC. Some amino acids would be tested as potential biomarkers in patients with UC.


To weave a study crossed by the psychoanalytic praxis in the university has caused intense discussions that implicate a double "impasse": the university discusses the scientific " vocation " of the psychoanalysis; and the psychoanalysis questions the "universalization " and the "uniformization " of the psychoanalytical knowledge. Willing to discourse on such impasses this article will go through Freud's technical texts, and will consider the subjects brought by Lacan about psychoanalysis in extension and intensity.


. In the present study, thermo-electro-mechanical vibration characteristics of functionally graded piezoelectric (FGP) Timoshenko nanobeams subjected to in-plane thermal loads and applied electric voltage are carried out by presenting a Navier type solution for the first time. Three kinds of thermal loading, namely, uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises through the thickness direction are considered. Thermo-electro-mechanical properties of FGP nanobeam are supposed to vary smoothly and continuously throughout the thickness based on power-law model. Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is exploited to describe the size dependency of nanobeam. Using Hamilton's principle, the nonlocal equations of motion together with corresponding boundary conditions based on Timoshenko beam theory are obtained for the free vibration analysis of graded piezoelectric nanobeams including size effect and they are solved applying analytical solution. According to the numerical results, it is revealed that the proposed modeling can provide accurate frequency results of the FGP nanobeams as compared to some cases in the literature. In following a parametric study is accompanied to examine the effects of several parameters such as various temperature distributions, external electric voltage, power-law index, nonlocal parameter and mode number on the natural frequencies of the size-dependent FGP nanobeams in detail. It is found that the small scale effect and thermo-electrical loading have a significant effect on natural frequencies of FGP nanobeams. behavior


Preface xi Conventions for Citations and Abbreviations xvii Introduction: Respecting the Text 1 PART I: RULE-FOLLOWING AND THE CONCEIVABILITY OF A PRIVATE LANGUAGE 13 Chapter One: On Following a Rule 15 Chapter Two: The Conceivability of a Private Language 56 PART II: WITTGENSTEIN ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS 79 Chapter Three: The Status of Mathematical Expressions 83 Chapter Four: Wittgenstein on the Mysteries of Mathematics 116 Chapter Five: Wittgenstein on Logical Consistency 139 Coda 167 Bibliography 173 Index 177


A new type of insulation coating agent is prepared with solvent-based PA and PU glue as film-forming components,nano-Ti2 and phase-change microencapsules as functional fillers,FL9063 as dispersant and BX-82 as antifoaming agent,and it is applied to coating finish of outdoors textiles.Thermal insulation textiles are irradiated for 120 min,the average temperature under the finished fabric is maintained at 23~26 ℃,and the maximum temperature difference is 23 ℃,which can meet the application requirements of insulation textiles.The finished fabrics as umbrella fabric have high UPF value above 50+ and anti-water pressure higher than that of European standards.


Achieving gender equality is one of the most important Sustainable Development Goals to guarantee health and wellbeing worldwide. Here, we aimed to assess gender-differences in risk factors and outcomes among patients admitted to Italian Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

 Here, we included 12,534 patients from the "Italian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance in Intensive Care Units" (SPIN-UTI) project, who stayed in ICU for more than 48 hours. Firstly, characteristics at ICU admission were compared between males and females using the Mann-Whitney U or the Chi-Squared tests. Next, we compared the probability of death between genders by applying a logistic regression analysis. Results were adjusted for covariates (i.e., age, patient's origin, trauma, non-surgical treatment for acute coronary disease, surgical intervention and presence of intubation) and reported as Odds ratio (OR) and 95% Confidence Interval (CI). Finally, the Kaplan-Meier analysis was applied to assess gender difference in survival.

 Compared with male patients, females were older, more likely to come from other wards or healthcare facilities and to undergo a surgical intervention (p-values<0.05). By contrast, they were less likely to be intubated or traumatized and to undergo non-surgical treatment for acute coronary disease (p-values<0.05). Interestingly, a higher proportion of deaths was reported in female patients (p < 0.001), so that their odds of dying was 13% higher than males (OR = 1.13; 95%CI=1.00-1.28; p = 0.046) after adjusting for covariates. Accordingly, females reported lower survival in ICU than males (median= 32.0 days vs. median= 34.0 days; p < 0.001).

 Our results pointed out gender-differences in patients' characteristics at ICU admission, which resulted into a higher risk of death and lower survival among females. In a Public Health point of view, these findings underline that is still important to sustain gender equality in ICUs and other hospital wards.

 There are several gender-differences in risk factors and outcomes among patients admitted to ICUs. Gender poses per se a higher risk for death in ICU, also considering other risk factors.


The mass-particle size distributions (MSDs) of Na, Al, Cd, and Pb were determined from 17, 1–5 day, high-volume cascade impactor samples collected throughout the Western Mediterranean atmosphere between 1980 and 1983. As expected, the mass median diameter (MMD) was the largest for Na, representative of sea-salt aerosol, with a median value of 5.9 μm. The median value for the MMD for Al, representative of mineral aerosol, was 2.8 μm. The smallest values of the MMD were found for pollution-derived elements, Cd and Pb: 0.7 μm. In most cases, the MSDs, for each of the elements, were log-normal. Total dry deposition velocities were calculated from the two-layer deposition model of Slinn and Slinn (1980) using three approaches: (i) by characterizing the distribution as a MMD, (ii) by considering the size distribution as directly given by the cascade impactor, (iii) by fitting the assumed log-normal distribution and dividing it into 100 successive intervals. The first approach appeared to give underestimates. The two other approaches yielded similar results for Cd and Pb, of the order of 0.05 cms -1 . For these elements, however, more than 20% of the total dry deposition flux was due to particles with diameters of 7.2 μm or greater (collected by impactor stage 1). For Na and Al, the third approach yielded values at least one order of magnitude higher than when using the two others. This clearly underlines the major role played by large particles in controlling the dry deposition of sea-salt and mineral aerosol particles. Direct measurements of Al dry deposition, made in 1985–1986 on the northwestern coast of Corsica, agree best with the values predicted by the third approach (mean calculated and measured values of 1.8 and 3.0 cm s -1 respectively). Scanning electron microscopy examinations of samples confirm that mineral aerosol particles with diameters of 10 μm or greater dominate the dry deposition flux. Preliminary data indicate that for mineral aerosol particles, this flux is, on a yearly basis, about half of the wet deposition flux. However cascade impactor data are not adequate to retrieve true mass-particle size distribution in the size range which controls dry deposition ( D > 7 μm), and this is shown to be the source for one order of magnitude uncertainties in dry deposition calculations. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0889.1989.tb00315.x


The DC glow discharge of nitrogen gas was carried out by 5 kV DC power supply, which was used to bias voltage between two parallel plate electrodes in the cylindrical glass tube chamber. The distance between two parallel plate electrodes was about 37.5 cm. The voltage was applied on these electrodes between 800 V to 1400 V. The nitrogen pressure in the cylindrical glass tube chamber was controlled by rotary pump and vacuum value. Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) was used to investigate the local emissivity of nitrogen glow discharge in the range between 200 and 1,100 nm. The spatial distribution of reactive species was measured at different nitrogen pressures from 0.15-1.90 mbar. These measurements were obtained to analyze the electron temperature. The effect of different nitrogen pressures was studied on the electron temperature and the configuration of nitrogen plasma. In the result, it was found that the plasma column increased with increasing the nitrogen pressure. The electron temperature was less than 0.8 eV.


Einstein's gravitational field equations from his general theory of relativity have formed the foundations of gravitational studies since their publication. His work is widely acknowledged as an example of a theoretical study that made a great contribution to our understanding of gravity. Einstein's mathematical approach has made the topic complex and open to misinterpretation. This study evaluates the physics upon which his mathematics operates. It shows that mass distorts space–time by the redshift of photons. It derives two alternative metrics to the Schwarzschild metric. One was derived directly from Einstein's early work on gravity. The other was derived from Einstein's field equations by removing the approximations introduced in the Schwarzschild metric derivation. Both match observation better than the Schwarzschild metric and show why Einstein did not believe in black holes. The metric derived directly from Einstein's early gravitational study, predicts the torus shape shown in the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration image. In showing the physics involved, this study suggests it is easier to understand the complexities of his work.


This paper introducs the situation of 20kV voltage level distribution network operating domesticly and abroad.According to the analysis for feasibility of constructing 20kV distribution network,it presents the superiorities and difficulties,and some countermeasures and suggestions have been given.


In this paper, the multiple adaptive vacations policy and the general limited service rules are integrated into the M/G/1 queue based on the classical M/G/1 queueing system. We deduce the PGF of the stationary queue length by using an embedded Markov chain method and regeneration cycle approach. LST of stationary waiting time is also derived according to the independence between waiting time and arrival process. We obtain the average probabilities of various system state. Some special cases are given to show the new model's properties.


The invention discloses a manufacturing method of conductive-material-containing polyphenylene sulfide composite granulates. The method comprises adding an anti-oxidant, elastomer micropowder of poly (methyl methacrylate) with particle of 0.1 to 0.2 mm, silicon carbide short-fiber conductive material and other fillers into the non-linear polyphenylene sulfide, fully and uniformly mixing in a high-speed mixer to obtain a premix of the polyphenylene sulfide, inputting the premix of the polyphenylene sulfide and the fiberglass treated by a surface treatment agent of beta-(3,4-epoxy cyclohexyl)ethyltrimethoxysilane (A-168) into a double-screw extruder for mixing, extruding and molding, and then cooling and cutting to form the finished composite granulates. The composite granulates obtained by the method has advantages of high thermal denaturation stability and tensile strength, and low metal corrosion, and can be widely applied in the fields of electronic appliances, machinery, chemical industry, petroleum, military industry, and aerospace.


Abstract. "Earthquakes" may cause dangerous results for people, which can damage buildings and hurt people, and may even cause death. Turkey lays down in a highly earthquake-prone region. Earthquakes are unpredictable and uncontrollable natural events; however, the people have to find ways to reduce these damages on people. One of the ways is to build "earthquake-resistant buildings". It is also one of the main necessities to build smart city under the focus of housing quality, quality of life. In this paper Building Control System in Turkey is presented in the frame of the legal basis in a general view. Also surveying documents related to building control system are introduced because land surveying studies are compulsory-preliminary works before building construction.


Al substituted nickel hydroxide with interlayer SO2-4 or NO-3 were synthesized by chemical coprecipitation method and their microstructure and morphology were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD),Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The electrochemical performance of these samples was measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV),electrochemical impedence spectroscopy (EIS)and charge-discharge test.The results showed that better reaction reversibility,higher proton diffuse coefficient and discharge capacity were obtained for the nickel hydroxide with interlayer NO-3 than for that with interlayer SO2-4.


We show that we can apply the soft-pion theorem to the high-energy e/sup +/e/sup -/ process, assuming the new extrapolation method, and point out that the nucleon-pole term plays an important role at PEP and PETRA energy.


In the light of potential application of deducing soil water retention from some simply determined physical properties, due consideration was given to physical and empirical models in the literature, based on the transformation of a granulometric curve PSD into a retention curve θ(h). In particular, forecasting po- 5 tentials as proposed by Jonasson's model were evaluated in 15 soils from Southern Italy. The estimated θ(h) curves provided a good reliability only when the weighing factor Wf was optimised. Even if the results obtained should be further verified in soils having different pedological characteristics, the model, used, may be particularly suitable to determine θ(h) curves, when experimental observations are poor or lack.


We measured photochemical mineralization of dissolved organic carbon in a humic lake in situ. At a depth of 1 cm, solar radiation mineralized 19 mmol C m−3 d−1. The rate of mineralization decreased with increasing depth with an attenuation coefficient of 23 m−1. Consequently, most photochemical mineralization in the water column (0.99 mmol C m−2 d−1) took place in the top 10 cm. The rate of photochemical mineralization was also modeled as a product of three spectra: (1) scalar photon flux density, (2) the apparent quantum yield, and (3) the absorption of chromophoric dissolved organic matter. We described the spectrum for apparent quantum yield as ϕλ = c × 10−dl, where c (dimensionless) and d (nm−1) are positive constants. Mathematical optimization for the best fit between the measured and the modeled photochemical mineralization resulted in ϕλ of 7.52 × 10 −0.0122 λ. The ϕλ based on the measurements in situ agreed with ϕλ determined in a laboratory at 320, 355, and 390 nm. Using the determined ϕλ, we calculated that UV ‐B contributed 9%, UV ‐A 68%, and visible light 23% to the photochemical mineralization. Half of total photochemical mineralization was due to wavelengths <360 nm. Our method for the determination of ϕλ is applicable in situ, improves the prediction of photochemical reaction rates in surface waters, and offers an alternative to the determination of quantum yields at discrete wavelengths.


The need to ensure safe food products has given room for the development of taste sensors that can surpass human abilities by quantifying the analytes. Artificial taste sensors, also known as electronic tongue, are multichannel taste sensors composed of lipid polymer membrane for the transformation of tastants into electric signals, which are entered into a computer. These sensors, unlike human beings, can mimic and quantify the tastants. The Electronic tongue is being widely employed for the analysis of different types of analytes because of its high sensitivity, stability and high selectivity.


The invention relates to a method and apparatus for making an atomic clock or atomic magnetometers regarding self-modulated laser system based on physical phenomena of the push-pull type optical pumping. A atomic vapor cell is required to be installed in the laser cavity, under appropriate conditions, spontaneous push-pull optical pumping occurs in the laser cavity. Thus, the laser beam is modulated hyperfine resonance vibration. By having a fast photodetector, modulated laser signals are converted to electrical signals, whereby is used as a signal of the signal or the magnetometer keeps time of atomic clock. Self-modulated laser system does not use the local oscillator and the microwave circuit in order to synchronize the oscillation of the oscillator to the hyperfine resonance vibration, therefore be more compact conventional systems, it can be less power consumption. The present invention serves as an application of time measurements and magnetic field measurements. .FIELD 4


The objectives of this research were to study the effect of decreasing water content during drying on germination of cucumber pollen KE014, change in germinability of cucumber pollen KE014 during storage, and it's potential for hybrid seed production. In the first and the second experiment, pollen was dried for 8, 16, and 24 hours in MgCl2 and then was stored for 56 days in ultrafreezer. The germinability was observed during drying and storage. In the third experiment, the stored pollen was used for pollination to produce hybrid seed. The results showed, drying pollen for 8 hours decreased the water content considerably from 12.048% to 6.705%, whereas germinability increased from 10.16% to 25.60%. Prolong drying didn't decrease water content significantly. Drying for 8 hours maintained the germinability for 56 days in storage. Pollen drying increased it's potential for fruit set and seed content but did not the germinability and 1000 seed weight. Therefore, cucumber pollen KE014 needs to be dried at least 8 hours upon harvesting in order to be stored and used in hybrid seed production.


Objective: As the opioid addiction epidemic continues to grow, other serious health issues regarding drug use has also increased. This study examines the trends in admissions and population characteristics of those who experience infective endocarditis with opioid drug dependence.Methods: We used ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM codes to identify patients admitted to a hospital with infective endocarditis and with a secondary diagnosis of opioid use related disorders using data released by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). Data included age, gender, ethnicity, race, discharge disposition, admission type, payer status, total charges, and zip code of patients' residence.Results: During the four-year period, the percent of patients diagnosed with infective endocarditis and a diagnosis code associated with opioid abuse or dependence doubled (4.48% to 8.52%). Of the patients dually diagnosed, the mean age was 37.47 and the majority were white (90.78%), non-Hispanic (91.96%), and female (58.55%). Nearly 47% of the patients did not have health insurance. The percentage of patients with both diagnosis codes living in urban counties was 91.37%. Median length of stay was 10 days and median total charges for patients was $101,604.Conclusions: With the increasing incidence of opioid dependence and addiction within the United States, there is a rise in infective endocarditis, a costly and debilitating disease. Our analysis provides the framework for hospital systems to identify patients who may benefit from addiction services, which through downstream effects will cause less of a health and financial burden.


The Iranian poultry sector has experienced many significant structural changes in recent years. Such changes may have influenced price dynamics and transmission of shocks through marketing channels especially on retail markets. This paper investigate price transmission, threshold behavior and asymmetric adjustment in poultry sector of Ardebil (AR), east Azerbaijan (EA) and west Azerbaijan (WA) provinces using weekly price data for the period covering 1998 through 2012. Our analysis uses a threshold cointegration model that permits asymmetric adjustment to positive and negative price shocks. R software is used for data analyzing. Main findings reveal existence of asymmetry in price transmission for all markets. Based on minimizing of the sum of squared error (SSR) criterion the estimated threshold for EA-AR, WA-AR and EA-WA markets are (0.38, 1.217), (1.61, 0.211), (0.38, 1.95), respectively. As another try the thresholds are estimated using TVECM methodology and the same results are found.


An efficient and cheap synthetic approach to functionalized exo-methylene cyclopentanes has been developed from α-disubstituted formyl-alkynes by merging amine catalysis with the indium activation of alkynes. We uncovered the crucial role of the amine cocatalyst and the development of a new cooperative catalytic system allowed the cyclization of a broad range of substrates. A mechanistic study was realized in order to rationalize the determining influence of the amine cocatalyst.


There have been periodical studies on key IS management issues facing the IT industry in North America; however, an empirical investigation on key IS management issues in developing countries has been largely ad hoc and inadequate. This paper identifies and analyzes important issues faced by CIOs in the developing country of China. The results of this study are based on two national wide CIO surveys in China, where the first was conducted in 2004 and followed by a more recent survey in 2008. The authors provide insight for both IS practitioners and researchers who have interests in developing countries. Data analysis indentified key IS management issues and demonstrated similarities as well as differences between the two rounds of surveys. Although some strategic IS issues were still within the top 10 on both the 2004 and 2008 lists, their importance ratings were different. Implications of the findings are also discussed.


In 1928, Svend Heiberg—one of the first foresters and soil scientists to practice, teach and conduct research on forestry in the United States—led the establishment of a series of conifer plantations that have been regularly used for scientific inquiry of forest nutrition, stand development, biogeochemistry, and silviculture. The 50-hectare collection of plantations— mostly red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) located on a glaciofluvial outwash sandplain ("The Plain") on the Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest in the southeastern Adirondacks of New York—were amended with organic matter or fertilized with various amounts and combinations of N, P, and K from 1935 to 1956, making the site one of the oldest forest nutrition trials in North America. Early on in the research, The Plain was discovered to have severe K deficiencies for growing red pine and other species, so studies focused on K nutrition and its interaction with other site resources, including water and light. Some of the first practice and theory papers on forest fertilization in North America were produced by Heiberg and others, including many of today's top soil scientists who worked on The Plain as students in the 1940s-1960s. In the 1970s and 80s, the long-term research sites were used by Heiberg-descendants (including Drs. Al Leaf and Ed White) to study biogeochemistry in association with plantation development (aggradation) and concern for acidic deposition effects in forest ecosystems. Results are featured in Brady and Weil's seminal textbook on soils ("The Nature and Property of Soils", 12 th and 13 th editions). Research work has continued to present with a growing record of information on changes in tree communities and soil chemistry. Future research will hopefully continue along these lines of inquiry, and would focus on sustainability of conifer plantations, site amelioration of degraded soils using plantations, acidic deposition and its changing influence on site quality in the Adirondacks, and plantation forestry as related to long-term carbon dynamics.


Abstract Educators' efforts at fostering social and emotional learning are grounded in, and closely related to caring: a belief that developing social and emotional skills will help students to flourish both personally and academically. Yet, research has shown that many middle grades students do not feel cared for in school and find educators' efforts at caring alienating and inauthentic. This is particularly true for students from traditionally marginalized groups. One reason is educators struggle to balance caring with their positional and relational power. This study examines how students perceived the efforts of staff members in two diverse middle schools as they sought to balance caring and control in their efforts to practice social and emotional education. We suggest key intersections of care and control that underpin equitable social and emotional education.


A Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) based objective intensity prediction approach has been explored for prediction of tropical cyclone intensity over the North Indian Ocean (NIO) using ECMWF model outputs. The intensity of a tropical cyclone is classified by the maximum sustained wind (10-min mean) according to World Meteorological Organization (WMO). An empirical relationship between the difference of the model's maximum mean sea level pressure (MSLP) inside a 6° × 6° grid box around the centre of the system and the lowest mean sea level pressure at the centre of the system (ΔP) with the observed intensity is developed using over 100 analyses during 2010–2012. The same is used to predict intensity of very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud and a Deep Depression observed over the Bay of Bengal during 2014. The results show that the empirical equation is skillful in prediction of intensity as compared to predictions computed using the relationship Vmax = K DP with different constant values of K. The error analyses show that the relative error in intensity prediction using the empirical equation derived in the present study is 34% less than the same using K = 14.2 kt / hPa in Vmax = K DP with an improvement which is significant at the level of 0.95.


This paper talks about some problems,which have appeared in the reform of education of several medical colleges in China,from the teaching systems,methods and evaluating means of Harvard Medical School,hoping to inspire experts in this field.


International Committee Poland (PKN) of the
International Council of Museums (ICOM) was founded in
1947 as a result of Poland having joined the United Nations,
and subsequently the International Council on Monuments
and Sites (UNESCO). Throughout the 72 years of its activity,
ICOM Poland (PKN ICOM) has transformed from a smallsized
group of museum directors and experts (21 individuals
in 1947) into a team of professionals amounting to over
300 individuals (either professionally active or retired). Their
contribution to shaping Polish museology will likely become
the topic of an extensive monograph.
In 1947-2018, ICOM Poland was presided by 8 individuals
(see Table 1.); their operation mode was specified by
subsequent ICOM Statues, modified by the General
Assembly, as well as the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums.
It is the first decade of the ICOM Poland operations
that is discussed in the paper; the names of the illustrious
museologists of that period are given; they were the ones
who in 1947-58 worked out the principles of cooperation,
and despite the challenging political situation, were able
to gradually introduce the rules of creating museums and
of managing them as institutions of heritage protection
and active learning, open to a broad exchange of ideas
and international cooperation; furthermore, they worked
out the assumptions and models for museum exhibits'
conservation and documentation.


After analyzing SIP and two methods of translating between IPv4 and IPv6 and types of NAT-PT,a solution is proposed to integrated between the DNS-ALG and NAPT-PT,which not change the original terminal equipment and the environment,UA can directly use of existing resources to achieve SIP stack SIP communications.At the same time through high protocol implement mass of IPv6 address map to a IPv4 address.At last the solution is tested.


Multi-orbital superconductors combine unconventional pairing with complex band structures, where different orbitals in the bands contribute to a multitude of superconducting gaps. We here demonstrate a fresh approach using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (LT-STM) to resolve the contributions of different orbitals to superconductivity. This approach is based on STM's capability to resolve the local density of states (LDOS) with a combined high energy and sub unit-cell resolution. This technique directly determines the orbitals on defect free crystals without the need for scatters on the surface and sophisticated quasi-particle interference (QPI) measurements. Taking bulk FeSe as an example, we directly resolve the superconducting gaps within the units cell using a 30 mK STM. In combination with density functional theory calculations, we are able to identify the orbital character of each gap.


After defining and classifying intelligent industrial parks, the author discusses it's originating background from the policies of industrial land supply. Then, taking Nangang software\|park as an example, he introduces the procedures and the methods on planning, developing and managing of intelligent industrial parks.


Background and purpose: The incidence of non-traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) during treatment with direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) is lower than that during warfarin treatment. The chara...


We describe the catalogs assembled and the algorithms used to populate the revised TESS Input Catalog (TIC), based on the incorporation of the Gaia second data release. We also describe a revised ranking system for prioritizing stars for 2 minute cadence observations, and we assemble a revised Candidate Target List (CTL) using that ranking. The TIC is available on the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes server, and an enhanced CTL is available through the Filtergraph data visualization portal system at http://filtergraph.vanderbilt.edu/tess_ctl.


We discuss the stability and evolution of metallic nanowires attached to tips. Using surface energy arguments we show that the junction between tip and wire will occupy only a small fraction of the total length of the wire, explaining why perfect wire segments can show up in experiment. Energetic arguments can also be used to understand the observed preferential stability of gold wires grown along the [110] direction. The thinning process of an fcc [110] wire at finite temperature is found by Monte Carlo simulation to occur slowly and layer by layer, as opposed to [100] and [111] wires that are unstable and quickly destroy themselves. We finally analyze the way in which ``weird'' tubular wires, highly ordered but noncrystalline, attach to, and can be pulled from, crystalline wires or tips. A mechanism based on tension-induced dislocation delocalization, that appears to be important in the process of wire uncoiling from a tip or from a thicker wire, is identified.


The Supreme Court's companion decisions of Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton represent the modern framework governing employer liability in sexual-harassment suits. The opinions organize the basic rules for employer liability, its affirmative defense, and unique situations where the affirmative defense is unavailable. The affirmative defense is unavailable when the harasser is a "proxy" of the employer. The Supreme Court has provided little guidance on who constitutes a proxy, and the circuits have struggled to apply the Supreme Court's language with much consistency. This Note proposes that the courts utilize a suggestion from Ellerth that has gone ignored: the courts should use the concept of corporate intent as a conceptual yardstick for identifying proxies. Specifically, the courts should find that proxies are those who have the capability of imputing intent to an employer-corporation (or other business entity) because those proxies have the power to make policy for an employer. The courts should empirically locate those policy-making capabilities by looking to employers' "Corporate Internal Decision Structures." The use of corporate intent, policy-making powers, and internal-decision-structure concepts shows fidelity to the Court's jurisprudence; provides for a more objective and flexible standard for identifying proxies; and does not suffer from the problems that plague some alternative methods. This Note's proposal thus ameliorates a problem infecting current proxy-liability analysis in the courts.


The EU-funded I-GET (Integrated Geophysical Exploration Technologies for Deep Fractured Geothermal Systems) project is aimed at developing an innovative strategy for geophysical exploration. The basic idea is to integrate all available knowledge, from rock physics to seismic and magnetotelluric (MT) data processing and modelling, exploiting the full potential of electromagnetic and seismic exploration methods to detect permeable zones and fluid bearing fractures in the subsurface.


: A scheme for the integration of C D (1 / n ) -type fractional di ff erential equations (FDEs) is presented in this paper. The approach is based on the expansion of solutions to FDEs via fractional power series. It is proven that C D (1 / n ) -type FDEs can be transformed into equivalent (cid:16) C D (1 / n ) (cid:17) n -type FDEs via operator calculus techniques. The e ffi cacy of the scheme is demonstrated by integrating the fractional Riccati di ff erential equation.


Land surface temperature (LST) and emissivity were recovered from thermal infrared data of the Digital Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (DAIS), which has 6 channels in the 8-13 μm waveband region. An Adjusted Normalized Emissivity Method (ANEM) was used, for which the initial emissivity assumption was selected for each surface type according to emissivity measurements available for the study area. DAIS data were corrected for atmospheric effects by means of a nearby radiosounding and a radiative transfer model. LSTs retrieved from original DAIS data were 4-12 oC higher than "in situ" temperature measurements, what demonstrates the need for a local recalibration of the DAIS thermal channels. In the present work, a linear re-calibration was performed using "in situ" measurements of temperature and emissivity for two reference fields. With the re-calibrated radiances, the ANEM algorithm was applied to other fields and results were compared with those from the original DAIS data and with ground measurements. In all cases, the re-calibrated data yielded more reasonable results than the original data in terms of both LST and emissivity. Results of this study illustrate the need for coincident ground measurements of temperature and emissivity in selected targets to calibrate DAIS thermal data.


The corporate bond market in India is under developed. Small companies like microfinance institutions are eliminated out of the bond markets because of low credit ratings. This paper proposes a structured finance approach to developing the bond market in India. Pooling of bonds and issuing structured securities can more adequately meet investor demand. However, a significant challenge in structured finance is computation of credit risk. To this effect, the paper describes the Integrated Rating Approach to imputing credit risk. The output shows the potential structuring has in converting low rated microfinance bond pools into high rated tranches.


The anisotropic nature of tin, the principle component of Pb-free solder, can cause significant variations the physical characteristics of the solder bumps. Grain size and orientation in a solder bump can drastically change the properties of one bump, giving rise to multiple potential failure modes between bumps. Electromigration may take place via grain boundary diffusion in one bump and interstitial diffusion in another. The greater the number of bumps in a test structure, the greater the probability of early failure resulting from large grains oriented in a direction that enables fast diffusion. The lognormal probability of electromigration failures can be expected to follow a linear trend. Deviation from this linear trend for the earliest failures suggests multiple modes of electromigration failure in the solder bump daisy chain.


The electro-acoustical transducer comprises a membrane flexible or rigid before assembling, the front portion of which has an aperture with a half-angle α. In order to obtain sound waves in phase at any listening point, the front portion is the site of vibrations which are responsible for sound emission and are transmitted in the membrane material with a velocity Vm approximating V0 /cos α, where V0 is the velocity of sound in air. The membrane is rigidly attached to the transducer chassis and is tensioned under a tensile stress between 5 and 20 KN, in order to the vibrations be bending transverse waves, the vibrational energy of which is totally transferred to air in form of sound waves before reaching the larger end of the membrane. The mechanical-acoustical output is close to unity and the overall energy output lies between 50 and 80%. The displacement of the rear portion of the membrane into airgap of motor is in the macro-deformation field. The membrane may be cone or dihedron-shaped.


Early service providers often come into contact with children whose problems have a genetic component. This article gives early service providers an overview of human genetic principles, including examples of common genetic disorders they may encounter. Also discussed is the genetic evaluation and counseling process, which may be of benefit to families they serve


In a study of the functional organization of the cholinergic synapse using the electromotor system of the electric ray, Torpedo marmorata, two main pools of transmitter have been identified: The cytoplasmic, comprising about 20% of terminal acetylcholine, and the vesicular. The latter is morphologically and metabolically heterogeneous. In resting tissue, about 15% of the vesicles have a relatively low transmitter content and density; they are immature (V0) vesicles newly arrived from the cell body by axonal transport. Approximately 35% of vesicles belong to the recycling (V2) pool; these are denser than the main population due to osmotic dehydration attendant upon a reduced osmotic load. The majority (50%) are fully charged 'reserve' (V1) vesicles. On perfusion, when axonal replenishment and impulse traffic are alike cut off, V0 and V2 vesicles take up more transmitter and join the V1 pool which now comprises over 90% of all vesicles. On stimulation the V2 population is greatly increased at the expense of V1, but in an ensuing period of rest rejoins the V1 population. Work with isotopically labelled transmitter precursors, false transmitters and endocytotic markers shows that the V2 population is the origin of quantized release. The cytoplasmic pool, however, is also functionally important since it the site of transmitter synthesis for vesicular uptake and is subject to 'futile recycling' brought about by the continuous molecular leakage of transmitter into the extracellular space, its hydrolysis by acetylcholinesterase, the uptake of choline and acetate and their resynthesis to acetylcholine. This indicates a control or regulatory function. There is little exchange between this pool and fully changed V1 vesicles but it supplies the recycling vesicles of the V2 pool with transmitter. In this way, quantal size is kept constant and largely independent of cytoplasmic transmitter concentration. In recent years considerable progress has been made in understanding the organization of the cholinergic synapse, largely by intensive work on one particular model system: the electromotor synapses of the electric rays Torpedo marmorata and T. californica. Methods have been devised for isolating functional nerve terminals (synaptosomes), presynaptic plasma membranes, synaptic vesicles and vesiculated fragments (microsacs) of the postsynaptic membrane. From the cell bodies of the electromotor neurones, mRNAs have been isolated that code for presynaptic proteins, and from the target cells (the electrocytes), mRNAs coding for polypeptides comprising or accompanying the receptor. From the latter, using the cDNA technique, Numa and colleagues have deduced the structure of the receptor in great detail. The present lecture will concentrate on the functional organization of the presynaptic nerve terminals.


In parallel to the developments in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), mobile commerce (m-commerce) has become a large business and technology area with ever-growing market potentials. Comparable to the rest of the world, the m-commerce sector has been developing rapidly in Russia, which provides opportunities for domestic and international enterprises. There are a number of favorable conditions, such as major advancements in the software and smart devices industries, availability of a skilled workforce with a good educational base, a technology-prone society, and increasing public and corporate investments, which reinforce the development of m-commerce. The present study aims to explore the future trends and developments in the m-commerce sector, by focusing on the Weak Signals of emerging future developments in society, technology, economy, environment and policy. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques, the study reviews the evolution of the m-commerce in the world and in Russia, and then presents a set of 10 Weak Signals, which were generated using technology mining, patent analysis, literature review, interviews and consultations through expert workshops. The paper discusses future opportunities and threats concerning m-commerce along with critical technologies for Russia for the full exploitation of the potentials in the sector


Quantitative approaches to measuring and assessing terrestrial ecosystem resilience, which expresses the ability of an ecosystem to recover from disturbances without shifting to an alternative state or losing function and services, is critical and essential to forecasting how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to global change. However, global and continuous terrestrial resilience measurement is fraught with difficulty, and the corresponding attribution of resilience dynamics is lacking in the literature. In this study, we assessed global terrestrial ecosystem resilience based on the long time-series GLASS LAI product and GIMMS AVHRR LAI 3g product, and validated the results using drought and fire events as the main disturbance indicators. We also analyzed the spatial and temporal variations of global terrestrial ecosystem resilience and attributed their dynamics to climate change and environmental factors. The results showed that arid and semiarid areas exhibited low resilience. We found that evergreen broadleaf forest exhibited the highest resilience (mean resilience value (from GLASS LAI): 0.6). On a global scale, the increase of mean annual precipitation had a positive impact on terrestrial resilience enhancement, while we found no consistent relationships between mean annual temperature and terrestrial resilience. For terrestrial resilience dynamics, we observed three dramatic raises of disturbance frequency in 1989, 1995, and 2001, respectively, along with three significant drops in resilience correspondingly. Our study mapped continuous spatiotemporal variation and captured interannual variations in terrestrial ecosystem resilience. This study demonstrates that remote sensing data are effective for monitoring terrestrial resilience for global ecosystem assessment.


Unless there is definitive evidence that one defendant is solely responsible, once jurors see "dueling defendants" they most often assume the worst happened and find blame all around.


The short interviews last from two to five minutes each. The questions were devised and asked by Xiaolong Guan and the filming was done by Xiaoxiao Yan. The interviews were made on 8th August 2006 and have only been very roughly edited.


Twenty years ago I spent a year studying the
Design Process in CDT in the UK on a Fulbright
Scholarship. Pre-National Curriculum, it was an
exciting time to be a technology educator.
Among the people whose work had impressed
me in my doctoral research were Bruce Archer,
Ken Baynes and John Eggleston. It is on
Professor Eggleston's influence on American
technology education that I attempted to focus
for this lecture.
John Eggleston was responsible for many of
the values that underpin our conception of
Design and Technology in both the US and the
UK. His ideas are among the most humanizing
principles underlying our conception of design
and technology as a new school subject for all
students. Recently in the US, however,
technology education has begun to take
engineering as its professional model, a
considerably narrower view of our enterprise
than some of us have envisioned. There are
many reasons for this, political, cultural and
economic. The most significant may be a result
of an expected shortfall of engineers, since
tightened national security has limited the
number of foreign engineering students who
have traditionally studied and then stayed to
work in the US. This influence tends to shift
technology education from general education
to a pre-professional or pre-vocational offering.
During the 1990s, many of us in technology
education based our view of the field on a
continuum of designerly activity ranging from
the artistic to the scientific. A recent book by
Daniel Pink, titled A Whole New Mind, supports
the view that the skills most valuable for the
highly technological future, in both careers and
life in general, may not be those left-brained
skills associated with engineering, but rather
the more right-brained capabilities typical of
the designer.
The left-brain/right-brain juxtaposition is a key
component of Pink's argument. He points out
that information technology is replacing or at
least devaluing the logical, analytical
capabilities of the left brain, much as
mechanical devices devalued human strength
and dexterity and took us into the industrial
age. Pink feels we are now moving beyond the
information age and into the conceptual age,
where creativity and empathy will be the
critical factors in success of all kinds. He
identifies six "senses" that will be of major
importance in business, healthcare, law,
economics and other key enterprises and
provides strategies for assessing and
strengthening these senses. Many of the
activities he suggests would be familiar to
design and technology teachers.
The whole new mind that Pink describes is
highly consistent with the broad definition of
technology education articulated by John
Eggleston. Pink's observations suggest that the
left brain-directed abilities that currently
characterize engineering are only part of the
picture of the technological literacy and
capability; hopefully, a more holistic version of
technology education will lead the way into the
Conceptual Age.


The goal in channel operator identification is to obtain complete knowledge of an operator modelling a communication channel by observing the image of a finite number of input signals. It was proved by Kozek and Pfander that identifiability can be related to the spreading support of the operator modelling the channel, as was conjectured by Kailath in 1963. The extended result proved in this paper shows that the collection of identifiable operators can be chosen to be a closed subspace of a Banach space, which includes as examples the identity operator, small perturbations of the identity, and convolution operators with compactly supported kernels as examples of identifiable channels. These examples exceed the scope of the results from Kozek and Pfander. The Feichtinger algebra and its dual arise naturally in this extension further illustrating the enduring usefulness of Feichtinger's work.


As products become more commoditised, manufacturing companies are increasingly endorsing a service–led growth strategy, in order to deliver sustainable competitive advantage and differentiate themselves.
However, the prior body of servitization research falls short to fully capture the complex interrelationships between different internal and external drivers for servitization and how these factors could impact on firm performance. In order to address these shortcomings this paper argues that a mono-theoretical perspective in tackling the servitization phenomena is not adequate to model the drivers of servitization and their effects on firm performance. Thus this paper attempts to integrate pertinent concepts and theoretical perspectives that revealed significant when reviewing the state-of-the art.
The main aim of this paper is to develop a theoretically grounded conceptual framework for assessing a firm's internal and external servitization drivers, and examining their effects on a firm's performance.
The proposed framework conceptualises the relevant constructs and components, to establish proposition statements and the cause effect relationship between independent and dependent variables that affect servitization at the firm-level and also takes a holistic perspective of servitization strategies impact on firm performance. So this paper attempts to achieve novelty by identifying factors that account for most of the variance in the servitization construct. Absorptive capacity, industry clock speed, open innovation, co-creation of value, service orientation of organisation culture, and perceived risk are postulated as potential antecedents of the servitization of manufacturing.
This conceptual study intends to contribute to the current understanding of the relevant contingencies and organisational enablers (or hinderer) in the transition towards service provision and aims to enhance managerial decision-making processes regarding servitization.


AbstractThe present work investigates surface biocompatibility of silicon-substituted calcium phosphate ceramics. Different silicon-substituted calcium phosphate ceramic bodies were prepared from co-precipitated powders by sintering at 1300°C. The in vitro bioactivity of the ceramics was assessed in simulated body fluid (SBF) at 37°C for periods up to 4 weeks. The changes in the surface morphology and composition were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with electron probe microanalysis and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDX). Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) was used to observe the change in ionic concentration of SBF after removal of the samples. The bioactivity of the ceramics increased with an increasing silicate ion substitution in a systematic way. The surface of ceramics with 2.23% silicon substitution was partially covered with apatite layer after one week, while ceramics with 8.1% silicon substitution were completely covered with apatite in the first week. The porous microstructure of high-concentration Si-substituted ceramics helps the dissolution of surface ions and the leaching process. This allows SBF to reach supersaturation in a short time and accelerate the deposition of apatite layer.


Title Bottom-up control on mobile invertebrate community in an eelgrass bed : Contribution of different functional groups of epibiotic organisms [an abstract of dissertation and a summary of dissertation review] Author(s) 百田, 恭輔 Issue Date 2017-09-25 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/67700 Rights(URL) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.1/jp/ Type theses (doctoral abstract and summary of review) Additional Information There are other files related to this item in HUSCAP. Check the above URL. File Information Kyosuke_Momota_review.pdf (審査の要旨)


This thesis brings together existing and new research relating to the relationship between art, dementia and wellbeing. The thesis outlines the history of the rise of the non-pharmacological intervention movement over the last twenty years and profiles the work of influential figures who have promoted a person-centred approach to dementia care.


The present study aims to explore budgeting practices of Bali hotels in the Badung region which is the most prominent tourism center of the country. The results indicate that having a budget committee and budget manual are common for Bali's hotels. Secondly, participative budgeting is advocated within the industry. Furthermore, budget period seems dynamic, because hotels state that they revise budgets and make periodic reporting within the budget period. Profitability and cost control are the primary reasons in budget preparation. Finally, budgets are viewed as one of the primary performance indicators.

Key word: Budget, Budgeting Hotels, Hospitality industry


Autoethnography has emerged as a relatively new methodological approach within the fields of project management, information technology, organizational behavioral studies, and more broadly within the social sciences. As a reflexive methodology it offers the beginning and experienced researcher a means of critically exploring the social forces that shapes ones involvement in the information technology project implementation process and subsequent the project management experience. In this article the authors discuss the significance of autoethnography as it was utilized to research the experiences of project managers in the enterprise resource planning systems implementation process. The process involved recollecting, writing and re-reading experiences in light of social capital and organizational theories that explore the socio-psychological and cultural aspects within the implementation period of an enterprise resources planning system. The autoethnographic approach used in this article contributes to the emergent methodological literature that embraces the textual or narrative turn within qualitative studies of information technology and project management.


At the time of his death in January 2002, Pierre Bourdieu was perhaps the most prominent sociologist in the world (see Calhoun and Wacquant 2002). As the author of numerous classic works, he had become a necessary reference point in various "specialty" areas throughout the discipline (including education, culture, "theory," and the sociology of knowledge); he had also achieved canonical status in cultural anthropology as a result of his studies of the Kabyle in northern Algeria during the war for independence and its aftermath. Nevertheless, Bourdieu's prominence increased exponentially during the 1990s, when he became a highly visible participant in political struggles against the neoliberal orthodoxy that was coming to dominate political discourse in Continental Europe (see Bourdieu 1998a; 2001a). Social class constitutes a fundamental analytic category in much of Bourdieu's research – so much so that he is routinely included in lists of leading contemporary class theorists. Yet despite its centrality, the particular understanding of this concept that animates his work remains murky in the secondary literature.


This study focuses on the development of an alkali-activated grout with acceptable fresh and hardened properties satisfying two stage concrete requirements. The effect of different factors including activator type, water to binder ratio, percentage of superplasticizer and viscosity modifier on flowability and compressive strength of the grout were evaluated. The grout produced by activating slag with lime and 1% superplasticizer showed good flowability. Viscosity modifier was needed to counteract the segregation; however, it had decreased the flowability of the alkali activated grout drastically. The overall result of this experimental study shows that the right combination of the optimum level of superplasticizer, and viscosity modifier would help to achieve a flowable grout with good strength.


This paper is a short essays on the fauna that inhabits the subterranean environment and its bearing to some critica1 and present day problem in Evolutionary Biology, with a review of the work done on Spanish subterranean waters.


How does a currency board obtain monetary equilibrium? This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the money supply in currency boards in order to review their monetary stability. After many years of neglect by economists and policymakers, currency boards enjoyed a revival in the 1990s. Although no new currency boards have been established since 1997, economists continue to consider them from time to time as a possibility for monetary reform in some countries. This paper hypothesizes that there are certain circumstances under which a currency board maintains monetary equilibrium while an unorthodox currency board may not. By taking a balance sheet model approach, one can make more definitive conclusions about the workings and efficacy of various currency boards.


Background Allergic diseases cause a large and increasing burden in developed countries and in urban centres in middle‐income countries. The causes of this increase are unknown and, currently, there are no interventions to prevent the development of allergic diseases. The 'hygiene hypothesis' has tried to explain the increase through a reduction in the frequency of childhood infections causing a failure to program the immune system for adequate immune regulation. Intestinal helminth parasites are prevalent in childhood in developing countries and are associated with a lower prevalence of allergen skin test reactivity and asthma.


Covid-19 has created global chaos and change unprecedented in modern history. The reality of emerging from safe-houses to discover a planet with vastly different terrain – socially, economically and psychologically is no longer science-fiction. The pandemic has demonstrated the great need for IR4.0 with its technological advances that will mobilize local businesses and global economies. At the heart of both the adoption of advances and the creation of solutions in mitigating global crisis is the heart of the people – both organizational adopters of technology and everyday users. This chapter digs deep into our pain wherein human advances will require changes not only in technology, but in the very people that make up our organizations and economies. Herein, Emotional Intelligence 4.0 brings the combined power of our cognitive and emotional abilities in creating launch-pads with people solutions that hyper-drive us into future frontiers.


The Federal Photovoltaics Program is reviewed with reference to price goals, program organization, technical developments, and various applications. The immediate goals of the program are: (1) to develop the Federal market by encouraging Government agencies to incorporate photovoltaic systems, and (2) to provide marketing support to commercial solar cell and system manufacturers whose growth is crucial to the ultimate success of the photovoltaic program. The program will initially provide for procurement of the smaller remote types of systems and will be broadened to include residential and intermediate load systems.


Among all the causes which are related to the low rate of scientific and technological(ST) achievements transformation in high education colleges of our country,the main hindering factor is the fixed,old-fashioned anachronistic prejudices and opinions on the concept of innovation.Trying to accept the new idea that innovation is invention in use,we should improve the mechanism of evaluation of ST achievements and incentive scheme,establish a special ST achievements transformation team,which consist of compound versatile personnel and enterprising talents and strengthening the extent of participation of the scientific research administrators during the ST achievements transformation.These are the four main measures to improve the ST achievements transformation.


We briefly present here the mobility fluctuation values of the quantum 1/f alpha parameter for impurity scattering and for intervalley scattering, calculated with the new cross‐correlation formula.1


Abstract Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a prevalent health problem that is highly linked to back pain. To understand the disease and tissue response to therapies, ex-vivo whole IVD organ culture systems have recently been introduced. The goal of this study was to develop and validate a whole spinal segment culturing system that loads the disc in complex loading similar to the in-vivo condition, while preserving the adjacent endplates and vertebral bodies. The complex loading applied to the spinal segment (flexion-extension, bi-lateral bending, and compression) was achieved with three pneumatic cylinders rigidly attached to a triangular loading platform. A culture container housed the spinal segment ad attached to the loading mechanism which allowed for loading of the spinal segment. The dynamic bioreactor was able to achieve physiologic loading conditions with 100 N of applied compression and approximately 2-4 N-m of applied torque. The function of the bioreactor was validated through testing of bovine caudal IVDs with intact endplates and vertebral bodies that were isolated within 2 hours of death and cultured for 14 days. The resulting IVD cell viability following 14 days of loading was approximately 43% and 20% for the nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus respectively, which was significantly higher than the unloaded controls. The loading system accurately mimicked flexion-extension, bi-lateral bending, and compression motions seen during daily activities. Results indicate that this complex dynamic bioreactor may be appropriate for extended pre-clinical testing of vertebral mounted spinal devices and therapies.


Background: Frailty syndrome is a state of greater vulnerability manifesting with functional impairment, dependence, and mortality. For its study, it has been used the Fried model. The prevalence found in the same hospital in studies of 1998 and 2015 was 16.5% and 31.2%. We propose to determine the current prevalence using the model proposed by Fried. Materials and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrospective study was performed in the Hospital General de México, with 109 participants above 70 years old. Demographic, antrophometric, comorbidities, and functionality data were obtained. Modified Fried criteria were used for classification. The index of Katz and Lawton and Brody was used to assess the basic and instrumental activities of daily living. For statistical analysis, the software SPSS-24 was used. Results: The mean age was 80 years and standard deviation ± 5.63, 74.1% (83 patients) were female. Comorbidities were registered in 86.6%. About 92% obtained Katz A classification, 5.3% Katz B, and 1.7% Katz C. In the Lawton and Brody index, 86.6% were found to be independent. About 14.3% were classified as non-frail, 50% as pre-frail, and 35.7% as frailty. Conclusions: We determined a prevalence of 35.7%, being 28% greater than the one reported by Fried et al., and 20% and 6% greater than the reported in the studies of 1998 and 2015 in the same hospital. Given that it is possible to recover from fragile to pre-frail, this knowledge will serve to design strategies for the benefit of the patients.


Contents: Introduction - Theory and Conceptual Foundations - The Western-Southern divide in Europe - Greece - Portugal - The UK - Empirical Analysis - Association between Internet use and social culture in the West and South of Europe - Association between Internet use and policy and regulation in the West and South of Europe - Internet adoption influenced by social culture and decision-making: an inferential analysis - Concluding remarks.


The standard (p° = 0.1 MPa) molar enthalpy of formation for solid and gaseous diphenic anhydride (2,2′-biphenyldicarboxylic anhydride, dibenz[c,e]oxepin-5,7-dione) was derived from the standard molar enthalpy of combustion, in oxygen, at T = 298.15 K, measured by static bomb combustion calorimetry, and the standard molar enthalpy of sublimation, at T = 298.15 K, measured by Calvet microcalorimetry: −(258.4 ± 4.9) kJ mol−1. In addition, ab initio and density functional theory calculations have been performed at a variety of levels. The degree of aromaticity of diphenic anhydride is discussed in the context of other oxygen-containing (ring and keto) heterocycles and related carbocycles: this species is surprisingly destabilized.


ABSTRACT We report on a patient who developed Legionellapneumonia after bone marrow transplantation. Despite appropriate antibiotic treatment, disease progressed. The patient developed a lung abscess from which Legionella andPrevotella were isolated. Cure was achieved by surgical resection. The resected material was sterile, but 16S ribosomal DNA analysis revealed Legionella DNA.


Temporal measurements of the emission intensities of the Ar 419.8 and 420.1 nm spectral lines combined with Ar plasma modeling were used to examine the metastable atom and electron density behavior in the initial stage of a pulsed dc discharge. The emission intensity measurements of these spectral lines near the start of a pulsed dc discharge in Ar demonstrated a sharp growth of metastable atom and electron densities which was dependent on the applied reduced electric fields. For lower electric fields, the sharp growth of metastable atom density started earlier than the sharp electron density growth. The reverse situation was observed for larger electric fields. This presents the possibility for controlling plasma properties which may be useful for technological applications. Similar measurements with spectral lines of corresponding transitions in other rare gases are examined.


The purposes of this descriptive research were to study prevalence of statin - associated myopathy among outpatients at Chonburi hospital, risk of myopathy from using statins with another drugs, and relations between doses of statins and liver function, kidney function, muscular function. The samples were outpatients using statins at Chonburi hospital. Data were collected between January 2018 and December 2018. Data were analysis by using descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics including chi – square tests, logistic regression. The results revealed that most patients were using simvastatin (94.45%). The prevalence of statin - associated myopathy was 6.9% with simvastatin 6.6%, atorvastatin 8.6%, rosuvastatin 4.4%. Risk of myopathy by using statins with macrolides were 2.91 times, and with amlodipine 1.056 times. Doses of simvastatin and atorvastatin were affected to increase risk of myopathy 1.419, 1.411 times. Effect of myopathy increased when doses of simvastatin and atorvastatin were increased, but safety for increased doses of rosuvastatin statistically significant. Effects on kidney function with increased doses of simvastatin and effects on liver function with increased doses of rosuvastatin were statistically significant. This study suggested that patients with muscle symptoms should received rosuvastatin with awareness of effect on liver function.


Objective To study the effect of "No.2 Kuijie Decoction" on expression of TNF-α and TNF-α mRNA in ulcerative colitis(UC) rats.Methods The rats were duplicated by 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sμlfonic acid(TNBS) and immune induced methods,then randomized into model group,Chinese medicine group and SASP group.The expression of TNF-α was detected by immunohistochemistry method and the level of TNF-α mRNA was detected by RT-PCR method.The expressions of TNF-α and TNF-α mRNA were observed on 14th day and after treatment of 21 days.Results After oral irrigation for 14 days,the TNF-α was lower in Chinese medicine group and SASP group than the model group,with significant difference(P0.05);there was no significant difference in TNF-α level between Chinese medicine group and SASP group(P0.05);there were no significant differences in TNF-α mRNA level among the groups(P0.05).After oral irrigation for 21 days,the levels of TNF-α and TNF-α mRNA in Chinese medicine group and SASP group were significantly different from the model group(P0.01,P0.05);the TNF-α was lower in Chinese medicine group than that in SASP group,with statistical difference(P0.05);the levels of TNF-α and TNF-α mRNA were lower on 21 days than 14 days,with significant difference(P0.05).Conclusion "No.2 Kuijie Decoction" can low the TNF-α level and restrain the expression of TNF-α mRNA in UC rats.The mechanism of "No.2 Kuijie Decoction" on UC rats is associated with TNF-α.


The purpose of the study was to examine how teachers in elementary school think about, and describe how they work with, guidance and counselling within the confines of what the curriculum (Lgr 11) describes as a responsibility of the whole school. The study had a qualitative approach, where interviews with eight teachers in four schools within the county were conducted. The results showed that several of the teachers equated the guidance and counselling with the guidance counselor. Most of the teachers were not aware that they had a responsibility to the school's guidance and counselling, based on current policy documents. It could be said that the teachers felt that the purpose of guidance and counselling was to prepare students for future academic and career choices, although there were differences in how this was expressed and what the work could entail. Lack of time was reported to be an obstacle, and most found it hard to implement guidance and counselling to their subjects. The teachers were mainly influenced by their own experience of guidance and counselling, rather than their perceptions of the area could be attributed to the policy documents, information from the principal or education. The results were analyzed based on the theory of street-level bureaucracy in relation to the concepts of understanding, able and willing. It was found that there was a tremendous variation between teachers in terms of both ideas about the meaning and practical work. The results of the study in conjunction with a twenty year old PhD thesis may indicate that very little may have evolved in terms of teachers' attitude towards guidance and counselling as a whole school approach or responsibility.


The paper presents a new way of introducing finite automata to classes of 10 to 12 years old, and in general to students with a limited mathematical background. Our approach builds on computational cards (or c-cards), a project aiming at scaling-down the learning complexity of computer science core contents, by presenting symbol manipulation via a tangible, physical metaphor. C-cards are still at a very early stage of development as an educational tool, yet we believe they represent a nice, intuitive mind-tool, that can be consistently applied to a variety of (theoretical) computer science concepts. Here an algorithm for mapping finite automata on c-cards is given and its educational implication discussed: the mapping provides a mean to concretize and animate automata. The algorithm works with both deterministic and non-deterministic finite automata.


Fish-derived collagen is considered a promising material for oral mucosa tissue engineering because it is free from risk of transmissible infectious diseases. We developed a novel fish scale collagen scaffold with micropatterns on which oral keratinocytes are cultured to create a tissue-engineered oral mucosa. Anisotropic and isotropic etching were used to fabricate negative patterns on the Si substrate and soft lithography was used to translate the patterns to PDMS and fish scale collagen. The histological evaluation of the tissue-engineered oral mucosa confirmed the successful formation of the epithelial layer mimicking oral mucosa in vivo. This study suggests that our novel approach for fabricating biomimetic scaffold is promising and will make a huge contribution to the field of oral mucosa regeneration.


A simple and algebraically tractable model is developed for the efficiency of x-ray production in a certain spectral region by laser driven plasmas. The model is used as a interpolation/extrapolation device for experimental and theoretical results from three different target concepts. These tests indicate that it is of use in its intended capacity. Certain relationships between independent parameters and scaling laws also result from this construction. Most notable among these is the prediction that the efficiency for producing line radiation in a certain narrow energy range scales like the inverse square of this energy.


Taking GPS data derived from observation station of surface movement in the first working face of Qingdong Coal Mine as an example,the conversion method of GPS height to normal height with the improved BP neural-network algorithm was investigated.The results show that the improved BP algorithm can reduce BP neural network training time and improve conversion efficiency with the higher precision in the procedure of GPS height conversion compared with the standard BP algorithm and the polynomial surface fitting.The improved BP algorithm can be used in the GPS height conservation.


The proposed antenna is Koch fractal printed Yagi-Uda antenna fed by SMA connector. The radiation characteristics of the antenna are simulated by CST Microwave Studio and analysed with the help of simulated results. The antenna's currents distribution becomes more uniform after being fractal, which is conducive to increase the antenna's radiation directivity. The proposed Koch fractal Yagi-Uda antenna resonance at frequency of 7.81 GHz, 8.54 GHz and 9.42 GHz with gain of 9.67 dB, 10.4 dB and 10.61dB respectively. Parameter of antenna such as return loss, input impedance, smith chart, radiation pattern is analyzed for performance evaluation of Koch fractal Yagi-Uda antenna. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v3i4.2572