Nitrogen-doped titania (TiO2-xNy) nanoparticles with monoclinic phase were successfully prepared by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal process. The obtained TiO2-xNy powders showed high specific surface area, fine particle size, and excellent photocatalytic ability for the oxidative destruction of nitrogen mon- oxide under irradiation of monochromatic LED light with various wavelengths.


In this article we present a proposal for the descomposition of large uncertainties associated with a fuzzy set u and the multilinearization of a function f to be used in the approximation of the fuzzy set ^ f(u) obtained by extension principle. Also, we present conditions on f assuring that ^ f preserves differentiability.


A mild mosaic virus disease of sugarcane occurred in Zhejiang Province was noticed in September 1999 for the first time. Pinwheels were observed in the infected tissue of sugarcane. The filamentous virus particles isolated from the infected sugarcane leaves were mostly 740 nm in length and its coat protein was 36 kDa. This virus reacted strongly to the antiserum of sorghum mosaic virus(SrMV),moderately to that of the maize dwarf mosaic virus (MDMV) and sugarcane mosaic virus (ScMV), and weakly to that of the Johnsongrass mosaic virus(JGMV). Based on the disease symptoms, cytopathology study and the natural host range of this virus, it was characterized to be a possible member of ScMV subgroup of Potyviridae.


In vivo and in vitro Cytotoxicity Gating Strategies. Gating strategy used for identification of target cell populations in an in vivo cytotoxicity assay. (a) Doublets were excluded by comparing side scatter (SS) interval (INT) against SS height (PEAK). (b) Live cells were gated as negative for Near-IR Live/Dead. (c) Target cell populations were identified by comparing CFSE and VPD staining, giving CFSEHi, CFSELo, VPD and CFSEHi/VPD stained populations. Unstained cells from Gate F were partially masked to improve the comparison of proportions between the stained target populations. A similar gating strategy was used for identification of target cell populations in an in vitro cytotoxicity assay. (d) Doublets were excluded by comparing SS INT against SS PEAK. (e) Live cells were gated as negative for Near-IR Live/Dead. (f) Target cell populations were identified by comparing CFSE and VPD staining, giving CFSEHi, VPD and CFSEHi/VPD stained populations. Unstained cells from Gate F were left unmasked. (JPEG 752Â kb)


Production of services requires the use of equipment and raw materials. It seems difficult, however, to study the connection between these devices and production of services. Service activities can be represented as a structure of relations. On which elements of the service structure and with what specific consequences does the capital core of service activities act? After having proceeded to a macroeconomic examination of this connection, the survey takes a microeconomic approach, applied to US legal business. The conclusion is that the dead ends observed in the macroeconomic studies of service productivity could be partially eliminated thanks to this kind of analysis.


The experimental X-29A forward swept-wing aircraft has many unique and critical systems that require constant monitoring during ground or flight operation. One such system is the power takeoff shaft, which is the mechanical link between the engine and the aircraft-mounted accessory drive. The X-29A power takeoff shaft opertes in a range between 0 and 16,810 rpm, is longer than most jet engine power takeoff shafts, and is made of graphite epoxy material. Since the X-29A aircraft operates on a single engine, failure of the shaft during flight could lead to loss of the aircraft. The monitoring techniques and test methods used during power takeoff shaft ground and flight operations are discussed. Test data are presented in two case studies where monitoring and testing of the shaft dynamics proved instrumental in discovering and isolating X-29A power takeoff shaft problems. The first study concerns the installation of an unbalanced shaft. The effect of the unbalance on the shaft vibration data and the procedure used to correct the problem are discussed. The second study deals with the shaft exceeding the established vibration limits during flight. This case study found that the vibration of connected rotating machinery unbalances contributed to the excessive vibration level of the shaft. The procedures used to identify the contributions of other rotating machinery unbalances to the power takeoff shaft unbalance are discussed.


In the front of this book the following quotation by Thomas Huxley is printed: "Next to being right in this world the best of all things is to be clear and definitely wrong." The prospective reader has been fairly warned! The book contains the proceedings of a glaucoma symposium held in Amsterdam in September 1979. Unfortunately, the ophthalmic literature today is swamped with such proceedings that are expensive, uneven in quality, often unedited transcriptions of oral presentations, and poor substitutes for a peer-reviewed journal or for comprehensive textbooks. However, unlike many proceedings, this book has some redeeming features. It has been published in record time, is well edited with few transcription errors, and contains several excellent and informative papers. One of the book's high points is an article by Aulhorn in which she compares the visual fields in glaucoma and in anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. In general, she finds that


The Bawo people reside in the northern part of Meratus Mountain and survive by living a continuous nomadic life roaming from one hill to other until today. The Bawo people preferred to live solitary life instead and practically have no contact with the outside world. Material data on the existence of the Bawo people comprise of 'keriring' and 'raung' found stored in rock shelters. Through a long process, the Social Departement of the Republic of Indonesia with its population resettlement program had succeeded to provide ideal kampong for them to live in named PMT Malungai. This article discusses how the Bawo people respond to such program and the impact on the Bawo culture in respect with its survival.


Automated probe microdistillation/mass spectroscopy is described. The application of computer hardware and the development of computer software eliminate the dilatory nature of acquiring both the temperature and associated mass spectra and reduces the acquired data for processing. The interaction of various hardware components of the system as well as the associated software is described. (DMC)


Didodecylnaphthalenesulfonic acid, HDDNS, has been shown to be a useful liquid-liquid cation exchanger for lanthanide elements. Its strong acid character makes the compound an effective extractant even at low pH, but it shows little ability to separate individual trivalent lanthanide ions from each other. In an effort to introduce more selectivity into the extraction of lanthanide ions by HDDNS, a study of the effect of the addition of a crown ether, 4-tert-butylcyclohexyl-15-crown-5 (15-C-5), to the organic phase was made. The results of the extraction of Ce(III), Pm(III), Eu(III), and Tm(III) by HDDNS/toluene and HDDNS/15-C-5/toluene mixtures are reported. The addition of the 15-C-5 produced measurable synergistic effects of the extraction of the light lanthanides, while the Tm(III) was relatively unaffected.


In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in developing software controlled DC-DC converters because of their fast configurability, e.g. for several supply and load values. This paper aims at exploring the stability of a DC-DC buck converter with a software control loop in the multidimensional space of control parameters. Once the stability domain is determined, it can be further used to search for the optimal parameter values for which the output voltage of the converter satisfies specific performance requirements. In this paper, we determine the stability domain by two approaches. First, we apply an analytical method that uses an analog-to-digital transform followed by the D-decomposition technique. Second, we apply a searching algorithm developed to efficiently characterize pass/fail behavior of electronic devices. The results obtained by the two methods are directly compared and discussed. The analytical approach is more conservative in determining the stability border, identifying a sub-domain of the real one. The search-based method proved to be more accurate in determining the stability border, at the cost of additional simulation runs.


The article presents the results of studies of the field resistance of winter triticale varieties to a number of diseases that have a significant impact on the formation of grain yield. It was established that varieties Talva 100, Kornet, Student had no signs of damage by ergot, powdery mildew. Talva 100 and Cornet were weakly affected by septoria, fusarium snow mold, and ear fusarium. Talva 100 and Student were moderately affected by leaf rust. Student variety in relation to the studied varieties was more affected by septoria and fusariosis of the ear.


The FCC proton beam is designed to carry a total energy of about 8500MJ, a factor of 20 above the LHC. In this context, the collimation system has to deal with extremely tight requirements to prevent quenches and material damage. A first layout of the betatron cleaning insertion was conceived, adapting the present LHC collimation system to the FCC lattice. A crucial ingredient to assess its performance, in particular to estimate the robustness of the protection devices and the load on the downstream elements, is represented by the simulation of the particle shower generated at the collimators, allowing detailed energy deposition estimations. This paper presents the first results of the simulation chain starting from the proton losses generated with the SixtrackFLUKA coupling, as currently done for the present LHC and for its upgrade. Expectations in terms of total power, peak power density and integrated dose on the different accelerator components are presented.


Shipping activities as one of the energy users generate air pollution and GHG (GHG) emissions. The main source of these emissions is fossil fuels which are used in various activities in human life and one of them is fortransportation, including shipping activities. One of the potential mitigation actions that can reduce these emissions is by utilizing the shore connection at the port. The purpose of this study is to obtain the potential for reducing emissions from vessels anchored at the BJTI Port and the efficiency of vessel fuel costs. This study used a mixed method by calculating the vessel emissions and in-depth interviews with the port operator and government officials. By using the shore connection, it can reduce up to 24,55% of CO 2 , air pollution 99,3% of SO 2 , and the efficiency of fuel cost by 79,82%.


We develop a new method to estimate dynamic discrete choice demand models in settings with aggregate market level data. The method is developed for market settings with two or more terminal choices. It is able to estimate the consumer's discount factor and utility preferences without reducing the dimension of the state space or imposing beliefs on how consumers form expectations. Our estimator also recovers the evolution of unobservable product characteristics. Despite all this, the computational complexity of our method is similar to that of a linear regression. We characterize the asymptotic properties of the estimator and demonstrate its performance in the finite sample case. Lastly, we show how it can be implemented in an application where we estimate the demand for smartphones.


We obtain some basic estimates for a Monge–Ampère type equation introduced by Moncrief in the study of the Relativistic Teichmüller Theory. We then give another proof of the parametrization of the Teichmüller space obtained by Moncrief. Our approach provides yet another proof of the classical Teichmüller theorem that the Teichmüller space of a compact oriented surface of genus [Formula: see text] is diffeomorphic to the disk of dimension [Formula: see text]. We also give another proof of properness of a certain energy function on the Teichmüller space.


Radioisotopes (RI) that may be formed by thermal neutron irradiation of natural geochemical materials are extracted from the table of radioactive isotopes (Browne and Firestone, 1986) . Their gammaray energies which are ordered with their gamma-ray intensities, their half-life, and in addition, thermal neutron capture cross sections and natural abundance ratios of target nuclides related to the production of these RI were tabulated into a radioisotope database. Other RI that are categorized as natural RI, fission products, fast neutron reaction products and RI used for gamma-ray energy calibration were also comprehended. This database occupies a memory area of 144kbyte and is available as a floppy disk if requested. This database is especially useful to identify nuclides when an instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) is performed on the natural materials. Two examples of gamma-ray assignment of natural zircons irradiated with thermal neutrons or not irradiated are presented. For this kind of work, the database was used as a library of RI table with reduced-memory formats.


This paper suggests separately the integer programming model for respective acquisition decision-making on the basis of the different feature of periodicals in the collection structure, the behaviour of user utilization, the velocity of obsolescense,and distribution mode etc.,and introduces the regulating mechanism, to give more flexibilites to decision-making.The model has the following features: the theory is reliable, data is rational, the structure is perfect. and the practical nature is strong.


The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of contrast baths on varicose vein and to compare its effect with that of calf muscle exercises on the improvement of varicose vein. A randomized clinical trial was performed on 70 patients with varicose vein of the lower limb. Their age was (40-50) years. Patients were randomly divided into three groups; Group (1) (30 patients) used a contrast bath and compression stocking. Group (2) (30 patients) performed pedal ergometer exercise and the compression stocking. Group (3) (10 patients) used compression stocking. Venous Duplex ultrasound scanning was conducted for evaluating the cross-section of great saphenous vein (CsGSV) at the knee and ankle levels. There was significant reduction in the mean value of CsGSV at the ankle and knee levels in group one and two with non-significant difference in group three. The result revealed a non-significant difference between contrast baths and pedal ergometer exercise groups. Both contrast baths and strengthening exercise to calf muscle are effective methods in the treatment of varicose veins. [Helal OF, Alayat MS, Abdelaal AA. Change in the great saphenous vein diameter in response to contrast baths and exercise: a randomized clinical trial. J Am Sci 2013;9(3):476-483]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org. 71


Bioinformatics has played important role in better understanding the structure and function of biological macromolecules that primarily include the DNA and the proteins. Using bioinformatics tools, it has even become possible to get better insights about the important regulatory network of the cells, it has allowed the researchers in designing better drugs, crops, medicine and the therapeutic agents. The field of molecular biology together with bioinformatics can successfully address the cause of several dreadful diseases like cancer, diabetes, protein mis-folding and other metabolic disorders. However, despite these breakthroughs, it has several other challenges ahead; this mini review will provide insights about important applications, challenges and future prospects of the bioinformatics in various fields.


We formulate mixed-integer conic approximations to AC transmission system planning. The first applies lift-and-project relaxations to a nonconvex model built around a semidefinite power flow relaxation. We then employ a quadratically constrained approximation to the DistFlow equations in constructing a second-order cone model that is convex without relaxation. We solve mixed integer linear and second-order cone programs using commercial software and assess their performance on two benchmark problems. As with DC power flow models and linear AC relaxations, the new models usually produce solutions which are infeasible under the original constraints. However, they are nearer to feasibility, and therefore represent stronger alternatives.


Cold storage was originally and primarily used for the purpose of preventing the waste of foods. The Indians of the northern part of what is now the United States, and of Canada, packed fresh meat in snow to avoid thawing. They were found doing this when the white race first came and the whites adopted the practice. In the course of time the whites had their ice houses, which provided cold storage facilities for milk and butter, fresh meat, berries and other foods for very short periods of time. The main object was to prevent waste. The extension of ice cooling to refrigeration in commercial use followed and also the packing of dressed poultry, fresh oysters and other perishable foods in ice for shipment. As foods were placed in some sort of temporary cold storage to prevent waste, it was incidentally observed that their utility was extended in time. The importance of this to men engaged in handling food commercially was very great. With regard to the early commercialization of cold storage, the testimony of Mr. F. G. Urner of the Urner-Barry Company, publishers of the New York Produce Review and of the New York Producers' Price Current, is quoted:


1. Introduction. 2. The Sources. 3. The Old Regime: Society and Culture. 4. The European State System. 5. Political Issues in the 1780s. 6. Upheaval in France. 7. The Revolution Beyond French Borders. 8. Bonaparte From Consul to Emperor. 9. Napoleon and the Nations of Europe. 10. The Dimensions of Violence. 11. The European State System After 1815. 12. Restoration Politics. 13. Philosophers, Scientists and Historians. 14. Society and Culture in 1830. 15. Conclusion


SalonNORTH held another great evening yesterday (14 June 2012), this time moving to the bigger venue of the Hotel St George in Harrogate as the ...


Computer expert system is a typical representation of computer reasoning software.This paper proposes a method to design and realize a computer reasoning software,which can convert a theory,knowledge and experience into a knowledge base computers can store,express and apply.Through a knowledge converter the contents in knowledge base can complete the identification,analysis,data acquisition,data encoding and address assignment of knowledge,and then convert itself into a knowledge rule base's document for logical reasoning.Base on the knowledge rule base's document,a independent reasoning executive system is set up,which,by means of precise reasoning,can realize the logical control fixed by a corresponding reasoning structure in accordance with the knowledge rule document produced from the knowledge converter.This paper describes a concept of designing computer reasoning software,layout and its features,and introudces a method of realization of computer programming language.


Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are being introduced to overcome the limitations associated with paper-based and isolated Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. This is accomplished by aggregating medical data and consolidating them in one digital repository. Though an EHR system provides obvious functional benefits, there is a growing concern about the privacy and reliability (trustworthiness) of Electronic Health Records. Security requirements such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability can be satisfied by traditional hard security mechanisms. However, measuring data trustworthiness from the perspective of data entry is an issue that cannot be solved with traditional mechanisms, especially since degrees of trust change over time. In this paper, we introduce a Time-variant Medical Data Trustworthiness (TMDT) assessment model to evaluate the trustworthiness of medical data by evaluating the trustworthiness of its sources, namely the healthcare organisation where the data was created and the medical practitioner who diagnosed the patient and authorised entry of this data into the patient's medical record, with respect to a certain period of time. The result can then be used by the EHR system to manipulate health record metadata to alert medical practitioners relying on the information to possible reliability problems.


Rate coefficients of the Arrhenius-Neel form are calculated for thermally activated magnetic moment reversal for dual layer exchange-coupled composite (ECC) media based on the Langer formalism and are applied to study the sweep rate dependence of MH hysteresis loops as a function of the exchange coupling I between the layers. The individual grains are modelled as two exchange coupled Stoner-Wohlfarth particles from which the minimum energy paths connecting the minimum energy states are calculated using a variant of the string method and the energy barriers and attempt frequencies calculated as a function of the applied field. The resultant rate equations describing the evolution of an ensemble of non-interacting ECC grains are then integrated numerically in an applied field with constant sweep rate and the magnetization calculated as a function of the applied field H. MH hysteresis loops are presented for a range of values I and a figure of merit (FOM) that quantifies the advantages of ECC media is proposed. The results are also used to examine the accuracy of certain approximate models that reduce the complexity associated with the Langer based formalism and which provide some useful insight into the reversal. Of particular interest is the clustering of minimum energy states that are separated by relatively low energy barriers into "metastates." It is shown that while approximating the reversal process in terms of "metastates" results in little loss of accuracy, it can reduce the run time of a Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation of the magnetic decay of an ensemble of dual layer ECC media by 2~3 orders of magnitude. The essentially exact results presented in this work for two coupled grains are analogous to the Stoner-Wohlfarth model of a single grain and serve as an important precursor to KMC based simulation studies on systems of interacting dual layer ECC media.


This is a quasi-experimental research utilizing a one group pretest-posttest design. The purpose of this study is to study the levels of pain and stress for head and neck cancer patients. This study also aims to compare the levels of pain and stress for head and neck cancer patients before and after receiving treatment from their primary care nurses. The sample group was attained through the use of the purposive sampling method. The group consists of 8 registered nurses from the Eye Ear, Neck and Throat department at Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital and 33 head and neck cancer patients who have received treatment at Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital from January to December 2012. The tools used to collect the data consists of a general questionnaire, a feedback form to record the level of pain through the use of the "Numeric Rating Scale (NRS)," and a psychological evaluation form to assess the level of stress. The overall data, level of pain, and the level of stress were analyzed by descriptive statistics consisting of quantity, percentage, average, and standard deviation. The comparison of the level of pain and stress employed the use of the dependent t-test. The results of this research study found that before this study was conducted, the majority of the patients had an elevated level of pain (45.45%). After participating in this study, this research found a reduction in the number of patients who assessed their level of pain as high. Their responses had a tendency towards the medium range (57.58%). As for the stress levels, this study found that the level of stress for most of the patients was determined to be normal before this research was conducted (57.58). However, two patients assessed their level of stress as higher than normal (6.06%). After participating in the study, the majority of the patients assessed their stress level as normal (63.64%). The number of patients that evaluated their stress level as high was also reduced. In addition, there were no patients that assessed their stress level as excessively higher than normal. The results from comparing the level s of pain and stress before and after this study was conducted found a major difference in the levels of pain and stress for head and neck cancer patients. Additionally, this result was determined to be statistically significant (p<.05), and the results from comparing the satisfaction of registered nurses was found that in post participation in this study they are more satisfied with the application of the primary nursing guidelines than prior to the research, additionally, this result was determined to be statistically significant (p<.05). The results of this study can be used as a guideline for the nursing supervisors in order to develop a more effective management and delegate the appropriate duties to their nursing staff. This study can also assist nurses in pinpointing the most correct care for each issue and proficiently respond to the needs of the patients, therefore improving the level of nursing care. The patients and their families will receive the care that they require, which in turn improves their quality of life. Hence, the level of satisfaction towards the service they received will also be augmented. This study can also be used to develop the process of providing nursing care for patients in other groups apart from the group in this study, so that the efficiency of their nursing care may be concretely enhanced. Keywords : Primary nursing, Head and Neck cancer Patients, Pain level, Stress level


The combination of frequency division and code division multiplexing in a multiaccess network such that the beneficial aspects of each technique mitigate the shortcomings of the other is addressed. The feasibility and expected performance of the resulting hybrid network are examined. CDMA (code-division multiple access) is used to eliminate the need for laser frequency control, which is required for pure FDMA (frequency-division multiaccess) schemes. On the other hand, an FDMA-like mutual avoidance scheme exploits the limited tunability available to keep signals away from one another as much as possible, relieving the need for CDMA to protect against more than the occasional crossover of one interfering signal. This significantly limits the amount of spectral spreading required. The use of the hybrid network for high-bit-rate and low-bit-rate applications is discussed. The power budget for a local network utilizing a star coupler is outlined.<<ETX>>


Aortic dissection (AoD) is a very rare but potentially fatal entity during pregnancy. The incidence of acute aortic dissection during pregnancy is about 0.4 cases per 100 000 persons yearly. A 28-year-old 38-week primi was referred to the hospital following sudden onset of burning epigastric pain which developed while returning from the routine visit to the cardiologist. She was treated for gastritis in the ward and a few hours later she developed shortness of breath, tight chest pain and tachycardia. Emergency LSCS was done and a live baby was delivered and she had sudden cardiac arrest soon after the extubation, in spite of the intensive resuscitation measures including six units of blood transfusion. She was diagnosed with mild aortic regurgitation and trivial mitral regurgitation before the pregnancy and was referred to the cardiologist during the first trimester and was confirmed with low cardiac risk.  She was seen by the cardiologist during all 3 trimesters and was concluded with low cardiac risk. The autopsy revealed 2750 ml of blood in the chest cavity and 750 ml of blood in the abdominal cavity. There was a collection of blood which was infiltrated into the mediastinal tissues around the aorta. There were macroscopic features of aortic dissection and the microscopy of the aorta revealed degeneration of tunica media, a through and through tear on intima with leakage of blood into the surrounding tissues.  This case report illustrates that the pregnancy itself is a risk factor for the development of AoD which leads to the catastrophic disorder in pregnancy.


Il quadro finanziario pluriennale dell'Unione e la costruzione del processo di integrazione europea (di Silvano Presa) - ABSTRACT: This paper assesses how the eu budget is going to be shaped over the next decade in view of meeting the challenge of growth. Firstly, the paper briefly recalls the main features of the European Union's public finances. Secondly, it highlights the main European Commission's proposals for "Building our Common future" and how that translates into the budgetary architecture for the period 2007-2013, focusing on the expenditure side of the EU budget. It finally provides some reasons why those proposals not only do not coincide with the recommendations made by the group of distinguished economists who produced the Sapir report, but may even risk further departing from them at the end of the decision-making process.


A matrix with positive row sums and all its off‐diagonal elements bounded above by their corresponding row averages is called a B‐matrix by J. M. Peña in References (SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 2001; 22:1027–1037) and (Numer. Math. 2003; 95:337–345). In this paper, it is generalized to more extended matrices—MB‐matrices, which is proved to be a subclass of the class of P‐matrices. Subsequently, we establish relationships between defined and some already known subclasses of P‐matrices (see, References SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 2000; 21:67–78; Linear Algebra Appl. 2004; 393:353–364; Linear Algebra Appl. 1995; 225:117–123). As an application, some subclasses of P‐matrices are used to localize the real eigenvalues of a real matrix. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The surprise and revealing of the Romanian legal creations, the surprise of the Romanity and the originality of our law as defining elements of a Romanian legal identity and its continuity in the spaces inhabited by the Romanians are closely related to the being of the nation. In this sense, the return to the scientific debates of the polar categories: continuity and discontinuity in the field of law was determined, not long ago, by two historical processes: the one of the post-totalitarian transition of the Central and EastEuropean countries and the one of their European integration, leading to effective interdisciplinary efforts.


The need for the proposed system mounts due to expensive clinical cost, the prolonged period of Genetic testing and especially painful for an individual to perform all certain clinical tests to diagnose celiac disease. With this proposed method, an individual can foretell celiac disease by just input crisp values of varied symptoms using fuzzy logic. A case study was conducted using a questionnaire procedure to obtain out the requisite symptoms in Amritsar, Punjab on 700 individuals; having 303 females and 393 males. So, the proposed system will be implemented using Mamdani Model and forms the prediction output practicing de-fuzzification when correlated with computed values produced optimum correctness. The proposed system will have a disease prediction of 96.11% accuracy according to the input values given by an individual to authenticate the celiac disease. The proposed system will provide a fruitful outcome for individuals and physicians for celiac disease disclosure in few seconds without any painful testing strategy.


An investigation was carried out on the fireside corrosion potential of commercial boiler tube alloys at elevated temperatures when exposed to the combustion products from a series of coals. The results of these laboratory and field tests were reported previously. In some supplementary tests, the effect of chloride was investigated on similar alloys while firing a high-chloride mid-western US bituminous coal in the same laboratory furnace. On the basis of exposure in the convection pass at temperatures from 1100-1700 F, Inconel Alloy 690 was found to have very good corrosion resistance, while Incoloy 800 H and Tp-310 s.s. were good transitional materials. Poor materials were T-22, 316 s.s., Inconel 617 and Inconel 671.


The US Environmental Protection Agency`s Environmental Response Team (US EPA/ERT) was requested by US EPA Region 6 to verify or refute the presence of volatile organic air emissions at a petroleum recovery Superfund (PRS) site. Several environmental protection and public health organizations were involved with evaluating the air emissions at this PRS site, including: Region 6 of the US EPA, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the US EPA/ERT. Each group brought a unique expertise which helped in identifying sources, determining their emission rates, evaluating their impact, and monitoring during remedial activities. This report describes the technologies used at the PRS site and some of the results obtained. The compounds of concern included: benzene, bis(2-chloroethyl)ether, 1,2-dichloroethene, methylene chloride, styrene, toluene, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, and vinyl chloride.


This research aimed to the study the history and background as to how canals and villages were named along Bangsaothong District, Samut Prakan Province. It also aimed to study the roles and the importance of the canals that have been changing from the past to present. It is a qualitative research emphasizing on field work and documentation.Itwas found that most of the canals and villages in Bangsaothong District, Samut Prakan Province were named by people in the area using the names of some important people living in the canals or the unique features of the canals like the names of the plants in the area, the sizes or the directions of the canals, the topography of the areas, the animals, the structures, the behaviors, the instruments, and the beliefs or legends, respectively, to help people easily remember them for convenient communication and good understanding.The roles and importance of the canals from the past to present have been changing according to the economic development of the country. The canals in the past which were used to be important as the original of the community, economic areas for people to earn their living, and the main communication routes, have become the economic growth with business areas, industries, and new villages of newcomers along the roads with urbanization. The villages along the canals have changed into semi-urban-rural societies.


We applaud the authors of "Invasive Evaluation of Patients With Angina in the Absence of Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease," 1 who demonstrated an occult coronary abnormality in more than three quarters of these patients. Identifying the underlying abnormality is especially important for potentially life-threatening conditions that are amenable to treatment such as coronary artery spasm. Coronary spasm is associated with myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and sudden death yet is responsive to calcium channel blockers and nitrates. Surprisingly, as stated in the accompanying editorial,2 no patient had inducible spasm on acetylcholine provocation. This observation warrants closer scrutiny, particularly in relation to the acetylcholine provocation method used.

Intracoronary acetylcholine administration is used to assess the presence …


Occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) in patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT) is a suspected source of de novo hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection after LT. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of OBI in liver transplant recipients with alcoholic cirrhosis and demonstrate the association between OBI and de novo HBV infection after LT in these patients.


A study was conducted on a native pasture (dominated by redgrass, Bothriochloa macra) in the Barraba district of northern New South Wales to examine the effects of 5 grazing treatments on total herbage mass, litter mass, basal cover, ground cover, sheep liveweight, wool production and soil water content (SWC, mm) at different depths. Plots were grazed with Merino wethers and data were collected from spring 1997 to spring 2001 and analysed to determine the effects of treatments on both production and sustainability. Five grazing treatments were applied in a randomised 3 replicate design. Grazing treatments were: continuous grazing at 4 and 6 sheep/ha (C4 and C6), continuous grazing at 8 sheep/ha, with subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum) oversown and fertiliser applied (C8+sub), and, rotational grazing at an annual stocking rate of 4 sheep/ha with pasture grazed for 4 weeks and rested for 4 weeks (R4/4), or rested for 12 weeks (R4/12). Total herbage mass declined in the C4 (control) treatment throughout the experiment and, compared with this treatment, the C6 treatment had less (P<0.007) linear trend over time, while the R4/12 treatment had a greater (P<0.001) linear trend. Stocking rates could not be maintained in the C4 and C6 treatments and sheep were supplementary fed or removed from these treatments for a total of 133 and 263 days, respectively. For ground cover, the linear trend was greater (P<0.05) in the C8+sub, R4/4, and R4/12 treatments compared with the continuously grazed C4 and C6 treatments and for litter mass this trend was also greater (P<0.05) for the R4/12 treatment than the C4 treatment. Basal cover of wiregrass (Aristida ramosa), wallaby grass (Austrodanthonia spp.) and windmill grass (Chloris truncata) was not affected by grazing treatment but for redgrass the linear trend was greater (P<0.05) in the C8+sub, R4/4, and R4/12 treatments compared with the C4 and C6 treatments. Sheep liveweight (kg/head) was greater (P<0.001) in the C8+sub treatment compared with the C4 treatment. Annual wool production (kg/head) was also higher (P<0.05) in the C8+sub treatment compared with all other treatments. Compared with the C4 treatment, significant differences in soil water content occurred in the R4/12 and C8+sub treatments, but these were predicted to be only 2.9 mm per year for the R4/12 treatment (0-30 cm depth) and 5.7 mm per year for the C8+sub treatment (30-170 cm). Use of a biophysical model indicated that evapotranspiration was the largest output term in the soil water balance and that both drainage and surface runoff of water were episodic events. A sustainability index derived from economic (equivalent annual net return ($/ha) for a 10-year period), animal production, pasture, soil health and soil water data indicated that the C4 and C6 treatments had the lowest scores for each of these parameters and the lowest overall indices. These scores were highly correlated with subjective assessments of the impact of the treatments (r = 0.93). Overall, these data indicated substantial benefits of either rotationally grazing or the addition of fertiliser and subterranean clover to the production and sustainability of the native pasture studied.


It is well known that echinoderm skeletal elements behave optically as single calcite crystals, but one implication of this observation, that skeletal units have crystallographic axes with characterizable orientations, has received little attention. This paper examines patterns of crystallographic axis orientations in 43 blastoid species and assesses their usefulness to the study of homology among echinoderm skeletal elements, phylogeny both within blastoids and at higher taxonomic levels, and biomineralization processes. Calcite decoration and optical goniometry techniques reveal intraspecific and interspecific patterns of variation in the orientations of c and a crystallographic axes in the three major sets of blastoid thecal plates. Within species, basal, radial, and deltoid c axes all show consistent orientations, clustering near the meridional plane that bisects each plate. In contrast, a axes of most plates have random orientations, although for a few plates a axes are clustered rather than random. While c axes from different species all fall about the meridional plane bisecting each plate, inclinations within this plane vary, so crystallographic data can provide new characters for phylogenetic analysis. In assessing homologies among deltoid plates, axes of posterior deltoids show little correspondence with those of regular deltoids, possibly suggesting a nonhomologous origin. Superdeltoids and epideltoids have commingled c axis orientations and may be homologues. Consistent c axes within species suggest molecular or cellular control of biomineralization during development, but the occurrence of both random and constrained a axes, depending on the plate examined, implies heterogeneities in this control affecting different plates on the theca.


A summary of the individual clinical history of the patient Y. C. P, was carried out. Initially a RCCD had diagnosed him, he was seen for the first time in October of the 2000 and we realized the boy's aspect showed a deficit of growth hormone. We decided to send him to Havana city for hormonal dosages and a deficit of GH, FSH, LH, ACTH, thinking about the possibility of a Panhipopituitarismo diagnoses, later on, a LLA is diagnosed with pursuit by Hematologia. Given the uncommon of this pathology it was decided to present it here


We re-examine the relationship between central bank independence (CBI), proxied by the central bank governor's turnover rate and an indicator based on central bank laws in place, and inflation using a random coefficient model with the Hildreth-Houck estimator for more than 100 countries in the period 1980 to 2005. We conclude that there exists no general significant negative relation between our indicators of central bank independence and inflation. Central bank independence has a significant effect only in a minority of the countries in our sample.


Thank you very much for reading family values in the old south. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their favorite novels like this family values in the old south, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some malicious virus inside their laptop. family values in the old south is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our book servers hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the family values in the old south is universally compatible with any devices to read.


The effect of plastic deformation of austenite at elevated temperatures on the kinetics ofphase transformations during continuous cooling was studied in a high strength quenched and tem-pered structural steel S690QL1 (Fe-0.16C-0.2Si-0.87Mn-0.33Cr-0.21Mo (wt.%)) by means of in-situsynchrotron diffraction. The steel was heated to 900 C (above Ac3) in the austenite region and elon-gated by 6% followed by quenching to room temperature. Time-temperature-load resolved 2D syn-chrotron diffraction patterns were recorded and used to calculate the local d-spacings between latticeplanes. The plane specific diffraction elastic constants of austenite at 900 C in the steel were deter-mined from the local d-spacings. The effect of the deformation of austenite on the phase transforma-tion kinetics was studied. The evolution of lattice parameters and the phase fraction of the bcc phasesduring the quenching process were calculated.The calculated plane specific elastic constants of austenite at 900 C varied between 32 GPa to140 GPa for the different fhklg reflections of austenite. The deformation of austenite at 900 C re-sulted in the formation of a mixture of 38 % bainite, 59 % martensite and 3 % retained austenite afterquenching to room temperature. Without hot deformation, austenite transformed to 9 % bainite and88 % martensite with 3 % retained austenite. The presence of the bainitic and the martensitic phaseswas observed fromthe change in the slopes of the lattice parameters of the bcc phase during quenchingand confirmed by microscopy.


Using a nonperturbative quantum scattering theory, the photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) from the multiphoton detachment of H- ions in strong, linearly polarized infrared laser fields are obtained to interpret recent experimental observations. In our theoretical treatment, the PADs in n-photon detachment are determined by the nth-order generalized phased Bessel (GPB) functions X-n(Z(f),eta). The advantage of using the GPB scenario to calculate PADs is its simplicity: a single special function (GPB) without any mixing coefficient can express PADs observed by recent experiments. Thus, the GPB scenario can be called a parameterless scenario.


In this paper we investigate several hypotheses concerning document relevance ranking for biological literature. More specifically, we focus on three topics: performance, risk of local searching, and homonymy recognition. Surprisingly, we find that a simple ranker based on the occurrence of a single word performs best. Adding this word as a new search term to each query yields even better results. The risk of local searching, i.e. retrieving documents by query followed by local indexing vs. maintaining a local repository and index of the full MEDLINE database, is found to be negligible – contrary to intuition, the latter approach even performs worse on some queries. The removal of automatically determined homonyms yields almost indistinguishable results to the original query, so it is not inconceivable that the problem of homonymy in biological literature has been overstated. Concluding, our work shows that simple rankers may be competitive to vastly more complex ensemble systems which include biological background knowledge and part-of-speech tagging which have been previously applied to task. The result reconfirms common wisdom within this research field.


The rapid changes in health care have moved many persons to anticipate the role and nature of the blood supply system in the future. Demographic evolution, socioeconomic factors, and technological developments are expected, in a synergistic manner, to greatly affect the traditional supply system as we know it today. This will particularly affect blood banks with a limited opportunity to expand into alternate service areas. A number of blood banks will disappear. Those that survive will play a more crucial role than ever in the health care system.


Microstructure and properties of nickel-base PM superalloy are presented. Effects of nonmetal inclusions and heat-treatment on microstructure and properties are discussed. Future trends in microstructure and properties research are presented.


With the increasing demand for high reliability in mission critical systems such as space shuttle, digital flight and real time control to mention a few, reliability analysis of fault tolerant systems continues to be the focus of most researchers. The reliability analysis of triple modular redundancy (TMR) and hybrid redundancy (TMR with spares) systems is in general carried out with the assumption of failure rate being precise. However, in practice failure rate is imprecise due to the uncertainties of system operation. In this paper, the dependability analysis of hybrid redundancy systems (HRS) comprising of N-modular redundancy (NMR) and standby redundancy is presented assuming failure rates and repair rates as fuzzy numbers. Each module of the NMR is assumed to have access to a number of cold spares and a repair facility. A Markov model for the HRS is developed. As the Markov model parameters may not be precisely known due to various reasons, vertex method and α-cut method is applied. These methods allow uncertainty-based parameters that are represented as fuzzy numbers. The dependability measures such as availability and reliability are obtained. A comparative study of the fuzzy results and the conventional results using probability concepts is presented.


Drug delivery systems have great importance for medical application. There have been wide ranging studies on drug delivery systems up to date. Among them, the fabrication of nano-size drug delivery systems and utilizing them for the effective and controll


Political risk is the risk that an investment's returns could suffer as a result of political changes or instability in a country. This paper seeks to explore the political risks that affect the mining industry in Kenya. Kenya has a wide variety of minerals which are known and mapped, but most of its potential lies in the yet undiscovered mineral deposits. In Kenya mining industry, local government plays not only a role of administrator and supervisor, but also a role of special interests subject in some cases. This situation results in uncertainty of policies and brings risks to mining investors. In order to cope with political risks, mining investors may adjust the mining production to accelerate and recover the investment. By applying the Risk Assessment Management method, this paper analyzes the effects of political risks in mining industry in Kenya. Based on core types of political risks such as poor legislation, taxation, war and terrorisms, industrial strikes, corruption, expropriation and resource nationalism, it put forward the utility function of local government and the production function of mining enterprise. Hence, it establishes the challenges and the cost of managing political risks in mining industry in Kenya. This paper illustrates that the Government of Kenya has to regulate the mining laws and put in place proper risk management policies so as to tap more investors. This paper will be helpful in solving problems of poor investment environment in mining industry, safety production, and utilization of mineral resources and will benefit potential and current investors, local and foreign financial institutions, ministry of finance and students undertaking MBA finance Option.


On the first day he toured the construction site of the new Fundacion headquarters and met with the architect. He also consulted with the Librarian and head of information services, Aida Montero, on the future library space. This space was planned perfectly to allow as much light into the public spaces while protecting the collection stacks from the bright Caribbean sunlight. It is at the center of the building, on the floor between the lecture halls and the headquarters offices. It will be wired for all services including wired meeting and study rooms. The building has a large auditorium and several other spaces for meetings, and will be equipped with distributed multimedia outlets so that meetings and events can be broadcast to any part of the building.


Cloud computing in light of numerous other existing advancements is another strategy for sharing infrastructure which gives clients to a great degree strong calculation ability and huge memory space while with minimal effort. Cloud computing empowers data innovation related services in a more unique and versatile route than previously more cost-effective than before because of the economy of scale and of sharing assets. Fog computing is a worldview that stretches out Cloud registering and administrations to the edge of the system. Like Cloud, Fog gives information, process, stockpiling, and application administrations to end-clients. Most likely, Cloud Computing has given numerous energizing services and highlights like adaptability, unwavering quality, boundless capacity, versatility and the fast preparing power yet cloud security is as yet a major issue. Distributed computing is characterized by the NIST (2009) as "a model for empowering pervasive, advantageous, on-request organize access to a mutual pool of configurable figuring assets (e.g., systems, servers, stockpiling, applications, and administrations) that can be quickly provisioned and discharged with negligible services exertion or service provider interaction.


It has been suggested that ultrasonography could replace diagnostic arteriography in the assessment of patients who present with leg ischaemia. This study investigated a group of consecutive patients who had femorodistal bypass and who were assessed before operation with colour‐coded duplex and dependent Doppler insonation alone.


A HRI study with 31 expert robot operators established that an external viewpoint from an assisting robot could increase teleoperation performance by 14% to 58% while reducing human error by 87% to 100% This video illustrates those findings with a side-by-side comparison of the best and worst viewpoints for the passability and traversability affordances. The passability scenario uses a small unmanned aerial system as a visual assistant that can reach any viewpoint on the idealized hemisphere surrounding the task action. The traversability scenario uses a small ground robot that is restricted to a subset of viewpoints that are reachable.


Gametogenesis and spawning in lamellibranch molluscs may be controlled by either exogenous
or endogenous factors. Though the factors like salinity or temperature in such studies have been widely
elaborated by various workers, the endogenous regulation stilt remains in its infancy. Our experimental
studies, based on the classic histological staining of the neurosecretory material, have revealed
neurosecretory cells in the central ganglia of lamellibranch molluscs. The tinctorial properties of these
cells may vary from species to species. The pyriform (pear-shaped) neurosecretory cells from cerebral
ganglia revealed such endogenous regulation system affecting the release of sex products. There
exists four successive stages in the passage of neurosecretory product within the sell body- This has
been extensively worked out in case of Perna from Ratnagiri coast. The data have been correlated
with the gonad maturation stages and spawning.


The Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indole with ketones and aldehydes had been developed for the preparation of 3,3'-diindolylmethanes using iodine or NCS as catalysts. Two mild and efficient catalysis systems were provided for acti-vation of carbonyl compounds and indoles. The reaction proceeded smoothly in ethanol to produce the corresponding prod-ucts with good to excellent yields. Furtherly, the mechanism was speculated.


The nanomotors consisted of gold and ferric oxide in this study are driven by visible light. Actuation of nanomotors results from the comprehensive effect of diffusion and migration of species in solution. In view of electrons, internal and external electric fields of a gold/ferric oxide nanomotor are analyzed to show the propulsion mechanism based on self-electrophoresis, especially for electron distribution resulted from light illumination on the semiconductor part. Induced photovoltage triggers decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Local electric field, formed by moving electrons in a nanomotor and charged particles in solution, drives protons to migrate as primary effect. However, the concentration gradient, impelling protons to move from ferric oxide to gold, works little in start and moving period. A gold/ferric oxide nanomotor model is established. Local moving environment of nanomotors varies and is shown by the proton concentration distribution, velocity field, and electric field. Light with wavelength shorter than 552.2 nm can actuate nanomotors, realizing start and stop control in visible light band. Stronger light intensity and lower wavelength result in higher velocity.


The kinetics of an important rotamerization occurring in vinylpyranoanthocyanin-phenol pigment (Portisin) was analyzed according to the transition state (TS) formalism. The relevant stationary states, the TS and the equivalent minima, were fully characterized. This included the optimization of the respective geometries and the analytical calculation of all vibrational frequencies. The reaction coordinate was identified, as associated with a single imaginary frequency in TS, and an appropriate intrinsic coordinate analysis (IRC) ensured that this state was connected with the correspondent equivalent minima. For the minimum, the harmonic and one-dimensional hindered rotor models were used to describe the reaction coordinate. The activation thermodynamics properties were then evaluated. The results obtained were interpreted according to the theoretical models assumed. The results are important for a prompt result for this group of portisins. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010


MFOA/PC01 Plus Postage. *Adult Students; *Cognitive Style; *Graduate Students; Higher Education; Institutional Research; *Le*,-ning Experience; *Reentry Students; Student Att.tides; Student Educational Objectives; Studelt Motivation; Studen roblems Returning adult students enrolled ingraduate programs at the UniUersity,of Wi,;r.:onsin.'s School of Education and the College of Agriculture and Life :,riences were studied. The sample of 25 male and 48 female students wer, 25 years. of age and older, U.S. citizens, and had been out'of schoo.A. for t years. Students completed a biographical assessment, a "bar6ers to learning" instrument, Rosenberg's' Total Self-Esteem Scale, and Canfield's Learning Styles Inventory. Ninety-five percent of the students returned to the university to broaden existing careers or expand into new ones. Sixty percent of respondents considered job/family/school time .at least . somewhat of a pioblem. Significant differences were found between males and females in ,learning style preferences. ,Females indicated 4 sign44cantly higher preference for using language as a media for learning, while males expected to obtain higher grades than did females. Fifty-three percent of the students indicated a strong or very strong preference for establishing their own learning goals within the classroom. The results indicate that while the returning adult students wanted to set their own learning goals, independent of ' the instructor, they valued the role of the teacher as content expeit and climate setter. (SW) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** 'NJ Understanding the Culture of Adults Returning to 40 Higher Education: Barriers to Learning and Preferred Learning Styles A Report of 'Research in Progress


OBJECTIVE
To study the chemical constituents in the root of Isatis indigotica.

METHOD
The constituents root were separated through various chromatographic techniques and their structures were elucidated by means of physicochemical properties and the analysis of their spectral data.

RESULT
Eleven compounds were isolated and identified as (+) -isolariciresinol (1), lariciresinol (2), lariciresinol-9-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), lariciresinol-4'-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (4), lariciresinol-4,4'-bis-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (5), 3-formylindole (6), 1-methoxy-3-indolecarbaldehyde (7), 1-methoxy-3-indoleacetonitrile (8), deoxyvasicinone (9), epigoitrin (10), adenosine (11).

CONCLUSION
Compounds 4-8 were isolated from I. indigotica for the first time.


In everyday life, people usually adjust the angle of their ears in order to better hear an interesting sound, particularly if that sound is hard to hear. However, when dealing with microphones, the conventional thought has been that even if the microphone is unable to pick up a sound well, its position does not change. The motivation behind the research outlined in this paper is to come up with a good combination of active-operation and signal processing. In this paper, we introduce a concept of an active microphone with a parabolic reflection board, and evaluate its effectiveness using sound source direction estimation experiments. The concept of a parabolic reflector has been widely used in the radar field. To apply this concept to acoustic signals, however, we show the necessity of limiting the band frequency of the signal. Also, we show that the proposed RYOICHI TAKASHIMA, TETSUYA TAKIGUCHI and YASUO ARIKI 92 method using an active microphone with a parabolic reflection board is, indeed, able to estimate the sound source direction (which heretofore has been estimated by conventional techniques based on non-active microphone arrays) using only a single microphone and without any prior measurements. Its effectiveness is confirmed by sound source direction estimation experiments on white noise in a room environment.


Since 1965, the size of transistors has been halved and their speed of operation has been doubled, every 18 to 24 months, a phenomenon known as Moore''s Law. This has allowed rapid increases in the amount of circuitry that can be included on a single die. However, as the availability of hardware real estate escalates at an exponential rate, the complexity involved in creating circuitry that utilizes that real estate grows at an exponential, or higher, rate. Component-based design methodologies promise to reduce the complexity of this task and the time required to design integrated circuits by raising the level of abstraction at which circuitry is specified, synthesized, verified, or physically implemented. This thesis develops algorithms for synthesizing integrated circuits by mapping high-level specifications onto existing components. To perform this task, word- level polynomial representations are introduced as a mechanism for canonically and compactly representing the functionality of complex components. Polynomial representations can be applied to a broad range of circuits, including combinational, sequential, and datapath dominated circuits. They provide the basis for efficiently comparing the functionality of a circuit specification and a complex component. Once a set of existing components is determined to be an appropriate implementation of a specification, interfaces between these components must be designed. This thesis also presents an algorithm for automatically deriving an HDL model of an interface between two or more components given an HDL model of those components. The combination of polynomial representations and interface synthesis algorithms provides the basis for a component-based design methodology.


The involvement of adipose tissue in the metabolism and the accumulation of pentachlorobenzene (PECB) was investigated in 4-week-old rats (4WK) or 6-week-old rats (6WK) and 13-week-old rats (13WK). Adipose tissue weight, especially perirenal adipose tissue, in 4WK and 6WK was much smaller than that in 13WK (10-20% of 13WK). When a single dose of PECB was orally administered to the rats, the decrease of PECB and the increase of pentachlorophenol (PCP), a major metabolite of PECB, in blood were remarkable in 4WK and 6WK compared with those in 13WK. After a 6-day PECB administration, the ratio of PCP/PECB in liver was higher and PECB residues in liver, kidney, brain and adipose tissue were lower in 4WK than those in 13WK. The content of hepatic cytochrome P-450, which could metabolize PECB to PCP, was significantly lower in 4WK. These results suggested that a small adipose tissue content in 4WK greatly influenced the metabolism of PECB by increasing the concentration of substrate (PECB) for hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes. The increases of serum GPT and liver weight due to a 6-day PECB administration were marked in 4WK, suggesting that 4WK is susceptible to the effect of PECB compared with 13WK.


1. IT IS NO IDLE PUN to speak of striking a logical note in the analysis of musical meaning; for that is exactly what is required to harmonize conceptual schema and empirical data. L. B. MIeyer's latest contribution to the theory of musical meaning in Music, the Arts, and Ideas (University of Chicago Press [1967]) is a case in point.1 What Meyer says there about how music becomes interesting or affective may well be true, and, in any case, is an experimental matter. But unless I am quite mistaken, his notion of musical meaning as stated is at least false and in all probability contradictory. That is a matter of logic on which this paper will focus. Although what follows is mostly disproof, my positive intent is to clear away a serious, though I think benign, series of impediments to Meyer's psychology of meaning in music. 2. First, a brief rehearsal of Meyer's theory of meaning. Departing from Morris Cohen's "general definition of meaning" as anything that ".. . is connected with, or indicates, or refers to, something beyond itself..." (p. 6), Meyer distinguishes two "types of meaning" appropriate to music:


Kelly Zerman, 9, Sarah Herlihy, 8, Kathy McGrath, 9, and Kelly Peters, 8, members of the Erie Tribe of Camp Fire Boys and Girls try out their rowing skills. Blue birds and blue jays, younger members of the organization, are attending summer camp at Misty Meadows, south of Fremont, Ohio.


Abstract The amounts and types of HFA soaps found in latex did not vary greatly from sample to sample. Greater than 95% of the free HFA soaps were associated with the rubber phase of the latex. The distribution of fatty acid soaps were markedly different in the serum and latex samples. About 80–90% of the HFA soaps are in their free form, but only about 50% of the furanoic acid was in its free form. Titration results agree fairly well with the GC results and indicate that titration can be a useful measure of HFA.


Metallic silver initiates short-chain homolytic decomposition of tertiary alkyl hypochlorites and hypobromites. Evidence is presented that the reaction of tertiary alcohols with silver oxide – mercuric oxide – bromine involves formation and homolytic decomposition of alkyl hypobromite followed by cyclization of γ-bromo alcohols. A convenient synthesis of tricyclo[4.3.1.03,8]decan-4-one (4-proto-adamantanone) is described.


This paper presents the results of analytical study and numerical simulation as well as discusses various microwave applications of artificial periodic substrate photonic bandgap (PBG) circuits. The configurations considered are planar microstrip and coplanar line circuits on the high-density dielectric substrate containing finite-periodic groups of air blocks underneath the lines. Transmission matrix method has been applied for analyzing the transmission/reflection characteristics of the circuits and obtaining the stopband and passband conditions. Simulation results illustrating applications of PBG circuits as microwave bandpass filters and harmonic tuning elements are presented. The configurations discussed here provide certain advantages and promising solutions in the design of novel integrated antennas and adaptive arrays for the next-generation mobile communication systems.


Bioarray imaging techniques based on resonant waveguide gratings involve costly instrumentation for profile shift measurement. Alternative for robust and sensitive sensing is to integrate the profile dimension inside the chip and measure using simple pictures.


By properties of Cvetković-Kostić-Varga-type (or, for short, CKV-type) B-matrices, a new class of nonsingular matrices called CKV-type B¯\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\overline{B}$$\end{document}-matrices is given, and a new inclusion interval of the real eigenvalues of real matrices is presented. It is shown that the new inclusion interval is sharper than those provided by J. M. Peña (2003), and by H. B. Li et al. (2007). We also propose a direct algorithm for computing the new inclusion interval. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.


An application that uses ZigBee modules to transmit signals of ECG (Electrocardiogram), Intraventricular Pressure (IVP) and Intraventricular Volume (IVV) from a Conductance Catheter System (CCS) is presented. Wireless interface is developed using ZigBee modules. One of these modules ('COORDINATOR') is connected to a PC and receives signals from the remote module. The last, configured as an 'END DEVICE', collects signals from the digital CCS. Data including biomedical signals are previously processed using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device. ZigBee technology ensures robust communication with very low power consumption, a feature that makes it suitable for implantable biomedical devices.


My aim in this paper is twofold: to establish that Kierkegaard's so-called theory of the leap strongly anticipates a line of argument that is central to Wittgenstein's so-called rule-following considerations; and to begin to show how Kierkegaard's work has fruitful contributions of its own to make to on-going discussions about rules and rule-following. The paper focuses throughout on the question of how, if at all, human rule-following can be distinguished from behaviour that is merely mechanical or instinctual. I identify a central line of argument in Wittgenstein that problematizes this question by establishing the basis our ability to follow rules in our spontaneous responses. I argue that Kierkegaard not only strongly anticipates this line of argument but also offers a distinctive story about what, at bottom, makes the difference between human rule-following and behaviour that is merely mechanical or instinctual. In a word, on Kierkegaard's story, what makes the difference is: anxiety.


There are various information flows among suppliers,manufacturers,distributors,retailers,and logistics service providers in a supply chain.Only by managing the information flows systematically and harmoniously,and establishing a platform to share the information among different joint inter-enterprises,can we guarantee that the supply chain develops orderly and efficiently and becomes more competitive.


The invention relates to a pressing jig for automatically hammering PCB (printed circuit board) connecting nails. The pressing jig for the PCB connecting nails is characterized by comprising a feeding mechanism, a reversing mechanism and a positioning mechanism; after the connecting nails are horizontally arranged, the connecting nails are sequentially fed into the reversing mechanism through the feeding mechanism; directions of the horizontal connecting nails are changed into vertical directions through the reversing mechanism; at the same time, the positioning mechanism can be used for moving and positioning a PCB below the reversing mechanism; and a press-down air cylinder positioned above the reversing mechanism acts so as to press the vertical connecting nails into the PCB. By arranging the automatic feeding mechanism, the positioning mechanism, the automatic reversing mechanism and a pressing mechanism, the pressing jig effectively realizes the rapid and accurate installation of the PCB connecting nails, realizes the assembling automation, saves the manpower, improves the work efficiency, and guarantees the assembling quality.


Stimulation of human B cells with anti‐CD40+interleukin‐4 (IL‐4) results not only in proliferation and immunoglobulin E (IgE)‐production, but also increased production of the cytokine lymphotoxin‐α (LT‐α) (formerly also known as tumour necrosis factor‐β (TNF‐β)). Here, we studied the role of LT‐α (TNF‐β) in B cells following stimulation with anti‐CD40+IL‐4 from normal versus atopic donors. Anti‐CD40+IL‐4 stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from atopic donors resulted in enhanced production of soluble LT‐α (TNF‐β) and increased membrane LT‐α (TNF‐β) expression on the B cells compared with normal donors. Functional evaluation of LT‐α (TNF‐β) in CD40+IL‐4‐stimulated B cells shows that recombinant LT‐α (TNF‐β) induces proliferation of B cells and enhances CD40+IL‐4‐mediated B‐cell proliferation and IgE synthesis in both normal and atopic donors in a dose‐dependent manner. These findings were supported by semiquantitative analysis of ε‐germline transcripts using reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) showing increased ε‐germline transcription in the presence of LT‐α. Furthermore, addition of anti‐LT‐α (anti‐TNF‐β) to CD40+IL‐4‐stimulated B cells partially inhibited proliferation and IgE synthesis in a dose‐dependent manner indicating a role of endogenous LT‐α (TNF‐β) production by B cells during continued CD40+IL‐4 stimulation. These data suggest that LT‐α (TNF‐β) plays a potentially significant role during B‐cell proliferation and IgE synthesis. Moreover, LT‐α (TNF‐β) production seems to be differentially regulated in B cells from normal and atopic donors.


Public procurement is one of the most substantial field between public and private sectors due to the fact that it determines the principles of economic relationship between them. They create significant opportunities for private sector's capital accumulation through public projects. Thus, Public Procurement Law (PPL) has been at the center of the government and private company relationship. In the aftermath of 2001 economic crisis, the new PPL was prepared following the IMF and World Bank instructions. In addition, the EU conditions were influential on the creation of a new PPL in consistent with "EU Procurement Directives" which would enable access to Turkish markets by international capitals to gain membership status. As a result, the new PPL was enacted which have the new principles enabling the competition in the global scale. However, the new PPL was amended and changed several times during the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) period and it became one of the most effective mechanism of allocating public resources among the pro-government capital circles and the AKP clientelism. On the other hand, it became the nucleus of populist economy policy of the AKP. It provides social services to its electorates in the local governments by giving tenders to pro-government private companies. Thus, for private companies, while the procurement is important to increase capital accumulation, it is also becoming a duty for them to maintain good relations with the government. This paper argues that in the recent difficulties of economy and rate shock process, sustainability of the existing clientelist procurement system is getting into trouble. Costs of the projects are growing for the bidders in the crisis process and their credit burden is increasing as a result of rate shock. By the departure of this argument, the paper focuses on tensions between the sustainability of the clientelist procurement system and the economic crisis.


Electron microscopic tomography is proving useful to examine the organization of protein molecules in large molecular machines at critical neural sites, such as synapses. Methods are still in a state of flux, and many steps exist between a neuron and a molecular model of one of its synapses. Here, we show our approach for doing tomography on synaptic structure, hoping thereby to shed light generally on the emerging field of EM tomography.


Ericsson has always strived for the technology leadership in its offering by designing products based on the latest technology. Going ahead with a similar thought it started exploring an idea of ru ...


A consistent method for computing stress-intensity factors from three-dimensional quarter-point element nodal displacements is presented. The method is generalized to permit functional evaluation of stress-intensity factors along the crack front. Embedded, surface, and corner crack problems are solved using the proposed technique. Results are compared to previous finite element and boundary element solutions. The comparison shows that use of the functional evaluation technique allows a dramatic decrease in problem size while still maintaining engineering accuracy. Next, a three-dimensional stress-intensity factor calibration of an unusual specimen configuration is presented. By taking advantage of the proposed technique, the calibration was performed with little difference in cost over the more usual two-dimensional approach. Moreover, the three-dimensional solution revealed intersting behaviour that would have been undetected by a two-dimensional solution. Finally, the results of a study on optimum size of the quarter-point element are presented. Surprisingly, Poisson ratio is shown to have marked effect on optimum element size.


In these verses the traits of the hypocrites have been mentioned. The Holy Qur'an has divided the mankind into three categories. 1. Those who believe in La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah and act upon it in the light of the excellent model of hte life of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). 2. Those who disbelieve and 3. those who are outwardly showing having believed but in thier hearts they are still lacking sincere belief. This they do to cheat God and the believers but how can a creation cheat the Creator. They are therefore, in great fallacy and causing thier own loss in both the worlds. The Qur'an stresses that a human being should be true in his words and that the words have got value both here and hereinafter. All aspects of good governance on the earth depends upon honesty and truthfulness. The hypocrites are the mischief mongers and cause disorder in the society.


Objective:To investigate the significance of rheumatoid factor determination by using different methods.Methods:The level of serum rheumatoid factor was detected by the immunoturibidimetric assay and latex particle agglutination test in 35 cases of rheumatoid arthritis,43 cases of other diseases without rheumatical arthritis and 20 healthy controls.Results:The positive percent of the rheumatoid arithritis group,the group of other diseases and the control group was 56.9%,23.3% and 0,respectively by using the immunoturibidimetric assay;and 74.3%,46.5%and 20.0%,respectively by using latex particle agglutination test.The diagnostic efficiency by using the immunoturibidimetric assay and latex paiticle agglutination test was 74.5% and 66.3%,respectively.Conclusion:Only IgM-RF can be detected by the immunoturibidimetric assay and latex particle agglutination test.Rheumatiod factor determination by the latex particle agglutination is more sensitive than that by the immunoturibidimetric assay,with lower specificity and lower diagnosis efficiency of the latex particle agglutination test compared with the immunoturibidimetric assay.


In recent years, much attention has been given to product introduction by managers, consultants and academics. Although many companies are actively improving their new product introduction processes, many are merely applying prescriptive techniques without fully understanding their processes. Very few companies use self-assessment techniques on the product introduction process because it is believed by many that product introduction is too complex and too diverse. This paper argues that self-assessment can be applied to global product introduction (the most complex operating scenario) and a framework for applying the technique is suggested.


Macroporous organic–inorganic polymer hybrids were prepared from poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), and inorganic alkoxides. To a reaction mixture of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) and tetramethoxysilane, extract from tea leafs and HCl aqueous solution in methanol were added. The resulting mixture was constantly stirred at room temperature for 1 h and heated at 60°C for two weeks. Consequently, the corresponding polymer hybrid became a macroporous material having a pore size from 3.26 to 20.86 μm. We succeeded in finding that the pruned tea leafs were able to utilize the synthesis of novel macroporous materials. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


Objective
To investigate the effect of azithromycin combined with terbutaline and budesonide on cytokine levels and Th1/Th2 index in children with mycoplasma pneumonia.

Methods
A total of 114 children with MPP were selected and divided into two groups according to the random number table method from February 2015 to March 2016. The control group was treated with azithromycin and terbutaline, the study group was treated with budesonide in addition. Both groups were treated for 7 days. The clinical effects and incidences of adverse reactions were observed, and the clinical symptoms, cytokine[interleukin-4(IL-4) and interferon gamma (IFN-γ)] changes and Th1/Th2 levels before and after treatment were compared.

Results
The effective rates of the study group (92.98%) was higher than that of the control group (78.95%), the difference was significant (P 0.05); after treatment, those levels in the study group were better than those in the control group, the differences were significant (P 0.05).

Conclusions
The clinical effect of budesonide, terbutaline, azithromycin combined treatment on children with mycoplasma pneumonia is significant, which can promote the early clinical symptoms disappearance, improve the immune function, and has low incidence of adverse reactions, so it has the value of popularization.

Key words:
Budesonide; Azithromycin; Terbutaline; Mycoplasma pneumonia; Cytokine


A capacitance sensor with high sensitivity was applied to oil–gas two-phase measurement based on a modeling and experimental studies. A model of the electric behavior of the material system between electrodes, comprising fluids and pipe, was developed to choose the optimum working frequency using two types of electrode configurations: double ring and concave, which differ in terms of linearity of response, sensitivity, and phase distribution dependence. According to the model, medium frequencies, 800–1000 KHz, is the best choice for gas–oil ratio measurement. Subsequently, a capacitance sensor was designed and constructed using electrodes mounted at the outside of the wall of a polyester tube in a static test bench to measuring gas–oil ratio. The model and experimental results show better sensitivity of ring configuration, whereas concave one presented better linearity of response. Moreover, ring configuration is less affected by air/oil distribution, although both electrodes showed dependence on flow pattern. The experimental results confirm reducing in sensitivity of both electrodes by increasing the frequency. The gas–oil ratio was determined directly from the output voltage changes instead of measuring the capacitance as void fraction indicator.


This thesis firstly introduces the evaluating board EVB2107, the development toolkit of evaluating boards and the integrated development environment. Modules on the expansion board are presented, with the rationale and functionality explained and the design and implementation illustrated. The approach of programming drivers of these modules are demonstrated, with flowcharts given.


This paper provides a summary of the 'Retrofitting Residential Housing and Precincts: Current Practice, New Strategies and Training Responses' report, which was prepared by UNSW Global Pty Ltd for the Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR). The report was prepared with the guidance of the Built Environment Industry Innovation Council (BEIIC) and aimed to address two main research gaps: First, to identify current practice and new strategies for retrofitting residential housing and precincts in the context of climate change mitigation; Second, to provide a critical review of current upskilling and training programs for the 'green collar' construction workforce.


57 ABSTRACT A process for improving the touch and draping charac teristics of polyester-based textile products by con trolled and discontinuous treatment with an aqueous solution of a hydroxide of an alkaline metal containing a hydrolysis accelerator, in which the hydroxide amount of alkaline metal contained in the aqueous me dium is adjusted as a function of the textile product weight loss to be obtained in the ratio 1:2.4 and in which the ratio: textile product weight/aqueous solution vol ume ranges from 1:5 to 1:100.


The natural forest vegetation of the Upper Midwest region represents only a small percentage of the entire landscape cover. Development pressures continue to dilute and reduce this forest heritage. Computer-assisted analytical techniques with graphic display capabilities can describe, classify, and delineate existing/potential forest resources. Vegetation information enables resource analysts, planners, and managers to make critical value judgments, to qualify rankings, and to make other interpretations regarding suitability for forest preservation, conservation, restoration, or utilization.


witnessed, into a composite description seriously erodes the value of the data themselves. Nor does the author distinguish between conjectural interpretations, which he worries from informants, and direct observation. Beyond this, narrative conventions such as 'it is said' and frequent recourse to the ethnographic present elide disparate sources which date as early as 1893. While spurious quantifications such as 'often', 'not normally,' 'sometimes,' and 'rare' lend a deceptive sense of rigor to the study, the atemporal use of sources is likely to mislead and confuse the reader when, for example, allusions to raiders and defence become integral elements in sections which purport to describe contemporary camp life. In those moments when the author presents his own field materials unalloyed with psychosymbolic analyses or ancillary sources, one is made poignantly aware of the potential merit of this study. For the tireless reader who has patience to cull the primary data from the common narrative, the monograph will offer a most welcome addition to the literature of the affinal alliance and exchange in East African pastoral societies. It is tragic that these shards, embedded as they are in such a flawed and distracting text, must stand as the only contemporary data on Bahima society. One can only hope that despite the current political and economic dislocations of modern Uganda, the Bahima will yet secure serious anthropological attention before their fascinating institutions and traditional pastoral economy are abandoned.


Internet of Things (IoT) applications can significantly reduce the cost and timeframe of providing their benefits by taking advantage of the billions of existing IoT sensors and other IoT devices that have been deployed by others in IoT. This paper proposes a self-managed Sensor Sharing Marketplace (SenShaMart) that allows IoT applications to discover, integrate, and pay for the use of sensors that are managed by different parties. In addition to being a self-managed IoT marketplace, SenShaMart is fully autonomic and cannot be controlled by any specific party. IoT applications and IoT sensor providers interact via SenShaMart provided services for semantic description of IoT sensors and their data, semantic query processing, automatic integration of sensors and their data, and IoT sensor payment transactions that control the access to the flow of sensor data according to the sensor payment terms. Self-management and full autonomy are achieved via a specialized SenShaMart blockchain that keeps and manages all data needed by the SenShaMart services that encapsulate it. The paper presents the SenShaMart architecture and service organization, its specialized blockchain, as well as its current performance characteristics and future research.


Two promising classes of techniques are developed for efficient multiuser detection in code-division multiple-access (CDMA) communication systems subject to fading due to time-varying multipath propagation. Both are designed to jointly suppress both intersymbol and multiple-access interference inherent in such systems, and exploit all available time and frequency diversity. The first is a family of linear receivers for time-varying multiuser channels that generalize familiar linear equalizers designed for traditional single-user linear time-invariant channels. Minimum mean-square error, zero-forcing, and matched-filter versions of such multiuser detectors are all developed within a common state-space framework, and have convenient recursive implementations. Performance issues as well as natural decision-feedback variants of the detector structure are both discussed. The second is a family of nonlinear receivers that are specifically designed for use with spread-signature CDMA systems on time-varying multipath channels. These multiuser detectors employ a batch-iterative (multipass or "turbo" stayl) decoding algorithm based on a successive-cancellation strategy. Several aspects of the performance of this algorithm are developed, including its monotonic convergence property. Collectively, these two classes of algorithmic structures for joint equalization, interference suppression, demodulation, and detection are representative of several emerging and interrelated approaches to receiver design for next-generation CDMA systems.


Hysteresis loops and direct current backfield curves were measured on 146 samples from Hole U1439C, 54 samples from Hole U1440B, and 56 samples from Hole U1442A, which were cored during International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 352. Saturation magnetization values correlate fairly well with the downhole lithology. For samples from Holes U1439C and U1442A, hysteresis parameters plot in different regions of the Day plot depending on whether their composition is boninitic or andesitic. Similarly in Hole U1440B, samples from the various petrologic units plot have different hysteresis parameters. The results show that the magnetic mineralogy varies strongly within each hole.


The aim of this study is to examine and compare in an analytical and interpretative way the content of the Aristotelian work, using certain aspects and elements of the Transformative Learning theory in analogy. Thus, the research odjectives are the comparison of the concept and practice of critical reflection and discourse and their transformative dynamic between the Arsitotelian thought and the Transformative Leraning theory, as well as the comparative exploration of some concepts of the Aristotelian ethics as constituent attributes of Adulthood in analogy to certain aspects of the precedent theory. The chosen method is the comparative and interpretative content analysis of texts from the two related search fields. The main findings are some remarkable analogies between the Aristotelian work and the Transformative Learning theory regarding the rational critical thought, the dialectic's importance as a precondition for the transformation of admitted ideas and the notion of adulthood. However, the existence of the aforementioned analogies does not indicate a direct influence of the Aristotelian thought on the contemporary Adult Education.


Private arbitration is often made possible by pre-dispute clauses and agreements whereby parties waive the right to solve their disputes by court. The doctrine of arbitrability addresses the questions of what matters may be referred to arbitration and who will be party to it. This thesis is a comparative study that explores the theory and practice of the arbitrability of international online consumer disputes as they function in two legal systems, that of England and Wales and that of the United States of America. The purpose of this exploration is to analyze comparatively and to discuss critically the role of arbitrability, and also the problematic areas of that doctrine in international online consumer disputes. The thesis will propose ways of overcoming the problems encountered in the arbitrability of international online consumer disputes owing to the different policies regarding the arbitrability of such disputes that are to be found in the two legal systems named above. This objective is met by exploring the theory, methods, functions and purpose of arbitrability in international online consumer disputes. The thesis also examines the common ground between the different policies of the two jurisdictions. The overall aim is to strengthen the role of arbitration as an effective means of dispute resolution for international online consumer disputes.
The thesis demonstrates that the arbitrability of international online consumer disputes is relevant at three different stages of international arbitration. These stages are: at the outset of proceedings, when the arbitrators determine their jurisdiction; during the arbitration, where they control the law and procedure applicable to the arbitration; and at the stage of enforcement of the final award. The thesis demonstrates that the lack of uniformity in arbitration law damages the arbitrability of international online consumer disputes. It also shows that a new method for reconsidering the issue of the arbitrability of such disputes is required in order to lend support to the consumer as the weaker party, specifically at the outset and in the course of the arbitration proceedings. It concludes that an adequate transnational standard for determining the arbitrability of international online consumer is by no means an impossibility.
The thesis furthermore asserts that a verification method is needed in order to establish the status of the consumer as the weaker party in online disputes. Such a verification method should be transnational and should be carried out by the arbitrator so as to establish a balance between party autonomy and the reinforcement of the consumers' protection internationally. This reform is particularly necessary in view of the continuing worldwide expansion of internet used.


We have carried out semiempirical molecular orbital calculations of C Z+/60 cations and their elongated isomers-C20+40 barrelenes. The highest possible metastable charge state of a fullerene ion was found to be C 14+/60. For this charge state the lowest energy isomer is not a spherical buckyball, but an elongated barrelene. For Z≥8, the fission channels C Z+/20+40 - C (Z-2)+/20+20 + C 2+/20 are open, the energy difference between fullerene and barrelene isomers being less than 10 eV. We have calculated the energy releases in this type of fission reactions for positive charge states of barrelenes Z=8,10,12,14 and dissociation energy thresholds for Z=4,6. The reaction coordinate calculations of C 6+/20+40 - C 4+/20+20 + C 2+/20 fission and estimate of fission Coulomb barrier have been done.


The linear ordering problem (LOP) arises in a number of divers domains. The notoriously hard class of LOP instances, even for sizes L < 50, is represented by Paley tournament graphs. Instances of these graphs, along with best-known-values (BKVs), some of them proven optimum, are now readily available on the Internet. There is no published record of asymptotic complexity to solve instances of Paley tournament graphs, also known as the pal instances. In this paper we propose a new stochastic solver based on a variation of a self-avoiding walk. The solver we propose has the platform-independent asymptotic walkLength complexity of 0.09336 ⇤ 1.7727 (in number of steps). We demonstrate close correlation of walkLength with the asymptotic runtime complexity on different platforms as well under two rapid prototype implementations: one in Tcl, one in Python. Most importantly, the paper presents two significant improvements in BKVs: pal(31, 300) improves on pal(31, 285) and pal(43, 597) improves on pal(43, 543).


Chloramphenicol markedly inhibited the formation of hemoglobin by chick blastodiscs explanted before the 8-somite stage of development onto minimal or egg homogenate medium. Sensitivity to inhibition of hemoglobin formation was reduced at the 8-somite stage. Chloramphenicol had no effect upon the incorporation of leucine into total protein, and only slightly inhibited the cycloheximide-resistant incorporation of leucine.


We studied the preparation and gas-sensing performance of a hybrid nanomaterial based on titania nanotubes and graphene derivatives. We fabricated the hybrid structure with tunable chemical-sensing properties, achieved by tailoring the structure and composition of graphene oxide and coupling it with titania nanotubes. The parameters of manufactured sensing structures were investigated for hydrogen and ammonia. Our experimental findings indicate that this research may demonstrate an efficient way to enhance the gas-sensing properties of metal oxide nanomaterials for health and safety applications.


In the last few years, the renovation and refurbishment of existing buildings have been recognized as one of the main strategies to achieve energy efficiency and sustainability goals. However, the current studies have mainly focused on the retrofit, life cycle assessment (LCA), and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of buildings in isolation without envisaging the impact of microclimate and the surrounding buildings on the outcome of energy simulation. Specifically, many energy simulation software needs to include the environmental responses when buildings are treated with outdoor conditions based on weather data from the nearest metrological site. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of microclimate on retrofit and LCC of a community of buildings rather than a single isolated building. For this purpose, a coupling method is developed to integrate building energy simulation (BES) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which exchange parameters on a dynamic time step basis using Envi-met to create weather files from microclimate parameters and use it on energy simulation through DesignBuilder software. Furthermore, this study interlinks the life cycle cost assessment and retrofit strategies on a community scale. A case study of Amman – Jordan, is selected in this paper by one a residential building with two floors and an area of 450. At the same time, the retrofit strategy is considered as implementing green roofs for community areas, which are implemented in the context around the buildings. In addition, this study calculates the net present value and the pack period regarding the life cycle cost study. The initial result shows that there is an impact for microclimate parameters on the temperatures gained on the building's envelope as a result of the effect of airflow through context parameters, which in turn affect the value of energy consumption used for cooling inside the buildings. Moreover, this paper demonstrates that using green roofs on one of the neighbourhood buildings will decrease energy consumption by 28% in the simulated time while the payback period is 9.5 years.