Implementation of water treatment technologies for poor quality water may help reduce dependency on freshwater. One promising technology among water treatment technologies is magnetic water treatment (MWT). This study was aimed to evaluate the impact of bore water, hard water (1000 ppm) and saline water (electrical conductivity of 3 dS/m) on the plant biometric parameters and the yield of the radish. The water was treated in three stages: electrolysis, de-ionization and magnetization. In the pot culture experiment conducted, leaf length and leaf area index (LAI) was maximum under magnetized bore water treatment which was 22.7 cm and 6.2 compared to all other treatments respectively. The fresh weight (66.2 g) was highest in magnetically treated bore water, which was statistically significant over control. Among bore water treatments, the average yield per plant (48.5 t/ha) was maximum under magnetized bore water over control (43.9t/ha). Overall, the findings suggest that magnetically treated irrigation water positively influences plant growth parameters and the yield of radish.


Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) with a high photocatalytic performance were prepared by using the aerobic combustion of saccharides such as glucose, fructose, dextrin, and starch with zinc nitrate. The ZnO NPs were characterized by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray scattering spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), and UV-vis spectroscopy. The TEM images revealed that the ZnO NPs have sizes ranging from ~20 to 35 nm with a bandgap of ~3.32 eV. The XRPD pattern revealed the hexagonal wurtzite crystalline structure of the ZnO NPs. The photocatalytic properties of the ZnO NPs were studied by the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) in deionized water (DIW) and simulated fresh drinking water (FDW) under ultraviolet light (UV-B) and sunlight illumination. The terephthalic acid photoluminescence technique was also used to study the generation of a hydroxyl radical (•OH) by ZnO NPs. The saccharide-derived ZnO NPs exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than the nonsaccharide-derived ZnO NPs. Varying the type of saccharides used during the calcination had some effect on the degree of the catalytic enhancement.


Phytotoxicity of Bi citrate and Bi nitrate on perennial ryegrass were evaluated using standardized filter paper and soil tests. Endpoints included seeds germination, and root and shoot growth. The results showed that Bi nitrate seemed to be more toxic than Bi citrate, and root growth more sensitive than seeds germination and shoot growth. Filter paper test indicated that Bi nitrate significantly decreased root elongation (IC 50 =60.34 mg/L) at tested concentrations ≥ 30.35 mg/L and seedling germination at 485 mg/L. Bi citrate decreased significantly root elongation (IC 50 =139.5 mg/L) and seedling germination at concentration ≥ 99.52 mg/L and at 398.08 mg/L, respectively. Data from OECD artificial soil spiked with Bi nitrate indicated a significant reduction on root mass at 485 mg/kg soil but no significant effect was observed on shoot mass and germination at concentration ≤ 485 mg/ kg soil. In natural soil, Bi nitrate reduced significantly root mass and root elongation at concentration ≥ 4.8 and 48.5 mg/kg soil, respectively. No effect was however observed on seeds germination and shoots mass. Natural soil spiked with Bi citrate showed no significant decrease in seed germination and root growth at concentrations ≤ 398 mg/kg. The toxicity of Bi salts on perennial ryegrass varied with the matrix in the following order: filter paper>natural soil>OECD artificial soil. We assume that Bi phytotoxicity is related to Bi bioavailability which in turn is controlled by solubility of the Bi salt in addition to the physicochemical properties of the tested matrix. on terrestrial plants exposed to the through water, contaminated soil and soil fertilization. In this study, we investigated the toxic effects of Bi nitrate and Bi citrate on germination, root elongation and growth of the L. perenne plant, using filter paper and contaminated soil exposure tests. We also compared the toxicity data form Bi nitrate and Bi citrate to gain some insights on Bi bioavailability to L. perenne for each tested salt.


To some extent,the English WORD corresponds to the Chines"ezi".In light of this phenome-non,analyzes were made of the similarities between English affixes and Chinese radicals.Findings show that both English affixes and Chinese radicals have categorization functions.They are both the re-sults of cognitive categorization in different languages and the word-formation similarities of different languages reflect the universality of human cognition.The findings help further understanding of the re-lation among language,thought and cognition.


The Federal Railroad Administration initiated research to collect data on remote control technology used in railroad yard-switching operations. This data will be used to conduct a risk assessment comparing conventional yard-switching operations with remote-control switching operations. A Hierarchical Task Analysis was chosen as the method to collect and organize the data for the risk assessment. Traditional task analyses are designed to record individual performance rather than teams working together to complete a task. The Hierarchical Task Analysis was modified to capture communication and coordination of team performance. The methods of developing the Hierarchical Task Analysis for Teams and data collection procedures are described, and an example of the results of the Hierarchical Task Analysis for Teams is presented and discussed.


The aim of this study was to determine whether the brain tissue of type 1 diabetic animals is more susceptible to damage by hypoxia reoxygenation than healthy animals.


BACKGROUND
Immune function is altered in adult depressed patients. The aim of our study was to see whether or not cytokine secretion is impaired at a very young phase of development of depressive disorders, possibly being pathogenetically involved in their course.

METHODS
Basal plasma concentrations of interleukin-1beta (Il-1beta) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) were measured radioimmunologically in 22 drug-free children-adolescents, 11 with recurrent major depressive disorders (MDD) and 11 with dysthymia (DYS), and in 11 psychophysically healthy age-sex matched controls. Depression was monitored using the Poznanski Rating Scale and Anxiety with the Reynold Rating Scale.

RESULTS
Il-1beta levels were not significantly different in MDD from controls and significantly higher than normal in DYS subjects. TNF-alpha levels were not significantly different in MDD patients from controls and significantly lower than normal in DYS patients. Cytokine concentrations were correlated with anxious and depressive symptomatology in MDD but not in DYS patients.

CONCLUSIONS
There is a cytokine pathology in depressive disorders of obscure etiopathogenetical significance.


A program to determine the feasibility of bonding stainless steel with exothermically reactive ceramic-metal adhesives, and to develop such adhesives if they proved feasible is described. It was found that comparable lap shear strengths could be produced in specimens bonded with a commercial braze alloy by means of furnace heating and by means of exothermic brazing. Lap shear strengths up to 1OOO psi were obtained with the exo-reactant adhesives. However, impact shock brittleness and poor resistance to moisture severely limited funther development of these systems. Combination metal-oxide and metal-glass exothermic systems were developed. These exothermic silver-base and copper-base adhesives gave metallic bonds which, on the basis of stainless steel tensile lap shear strengths, showed strengths in excess of 9000 psi at all temperatures up to 800 deg F. Reactive and inent constituents were combined to produce a fluld glass, which could be squeszed out of the bond area, and a stainless steel wetting alloy that remained in the bond area as a braze filler metal. The silver-base exo- reactant adhesive systems were adapted to stainless steel honeycomb panel bonding. Exothermically bonded stainless steel panels gave flexure and edgewise compression strengths of 64,300 and 61,900 psi compared to 160,000 and 115,000more » psi provided by the conventionally furnace brazed panels. (auth)« less


The research is about identification of dynamic objects' management systems. The author analyses modern identification methods for nonlinear control systems via: identifying algorithm on the basis of decomposition of the Wiener functional, genetic algorithm, neural network, self-organizing algorithm, the Volterra filter. The merits and otherwise of the above are also shown. Implementation of the Volterra filter is offered for identification since it is cooperable to general class of nonlinear systems. The capability to find simplification in filters' design and implementation based on minimizing of the medium square error is illustrated by the second-order Volterra filter represented by parallel combination of linear and quadratic filters. The implementing procedure for optimal second-order Volterra filter without significant loss of accuracy is also developed.


: To have a complete and indeed scientific enquiry of interpreting study is to invoke another expansive and shrill systematic point of view, namely the discourse study. This is because interpreting is the composite acts of transmitting the conveyed messages linguistically, understanding the whole interaction among all participants, and rendering the intended meaning prevalently. Thus, such thorough discourse analysis is worthy to make in drawing comprehensive elaboration of those phenomena. Technically, in doing interpreting, various strategies will be implemented when dealing with the complicated massages transfer or in coping the dense intended meaning of the utterances. Thus, this paper will dive deeper scrutinizing of what lies beneath when an interpreter put such strategies in the realm of legal activity by using discourse analysis. Specifically, this paper will investigate one of Indonesia phenomenal judicial event which involved court interpreting activity, namely the case of Jessica Kumala Wongso. Finally, to make a substantial inference then the study of conversational analysis and communication theory is crucially applied.


To measure spin‐dependent parton distribution functions in the production of W ±‐bosons at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, an accurate model for distributions of charged leptons from the W‐boson decay is needed. We present the single‐ and double‐spin lepton‐level cross sections of order O(αS), as well as resummed cross sections, which include effects of multiple parton radiation effects. We also present a program RhicBos for the numerical analysis of such cross sections in γ*, W±, and Z0 boson production.


In our contribution we highlight the importance of marketing
and its great influence on running a business successfully. We
present some results of the research focused on judging the
process of providing quality value in business field.


Background: Pulmonary emboli (PE) are a common event seen in over 600,000 patients a year. Occurring suddenly, PE often result in a high rate of mortality. To combat the high rate of mortality, more aggressive therapies including the use of thrombolytics are often indicated. The use of intrapulmonary artery infusion of urokinase has been shown to promote rapid resolution of emboli and restoration of normal pulmonary hemodynamics.


In water, oil spill constitutes serious environmental concern. When impacted water is flowing, it can be self-cleansed by waves. Turbulent water bodies have attracted huge research attention with many models available. However, it becomes different with non-turbulent and stagnant water as in the case with mangrove swamps. This paper reports the development of mathematical models for monitoring transport and diffusion phenomena of aromatics through water column using equations of transport and mass transfer. The models were validated using results from a simulated stagnant water polluted with crude oil. From the result, aromatics transported through water at 0.25 m and 1 m for month 1 is 12.988 µg/l and 0.081 µg/l for experiment and 9.215 µg/l, and 0.0781 µg/l for model, respectively. While month 5, was 48.982 µg/l and 1.890 µg/l for experiment and 39.850 µg/l and 1.650 µg/l for model, respectively. These and others reported show that the models can adequately predict the transport of aromatics through such water body.


ABSTRACT The metabolism of methane is an important part of the biogeochemical cycling of carbon. Methane is also a major contributor to climate change. A specialized group of microbes that consume methane, the methanotrophs, represent a natural filter preventing even faster accumulation of methane in the atmosphere. Methanotrophy can proceed via both anaerobic and aerobic modes. The anaerobic methanotrophs, represented by both archaea and bacteria, all appear to be engaged in syntrophic interdependencies with other species, to overcome the energetic barriers of methane metabolism in the absence of oxygen. In contrast, aerobic methanotrophy can be carried out by pure cultures of bacteria. However, a concept of communal function in aerobic methane oxidation has been gaining momentum, based on data regarding the natural cooccurrence of specific functional guilds and results from laboratory manipulations. The mechanistic details of how and why the methanotrophs share their carbon with other species, and whether and what they gain in return, are still sparse. In this minireview, we highlight recent studies that led to this new concept of community function in aerobic methane oxidation. We first describe stable isotope probing experiments employing heavy-carbon-labeled methane and tracing methane carbon consumption. We then present an analysis of data on microcosm community dynamics. We further discuss the role of a synthetic community approach in elucidating the principles of carbon flow and species cooperation in methane consumption. Finally, we touch on the role of lanthanides, which are rare Earth elements previously thought to be biologically inert, in bacterial metabolism of methane.


According to observations and numerical simulations, the Milky Way could exhibit several spiral arm modes with multiple pattern speeds, wherein the slower patterns are located at larger Galactocentric distances. Our aim is to quantify the effects of the spiral arms on the azimuthal variations of the chemical abundances for oxygen, iron and for the first time for neutron-capture elements (europium and barium) in the Galactic disc. We assume a model based on multiple spiral arm modes with different pattern speeds. The resulting model represents an updated version of previous 2D chemical evolution models. We apply new analytical prescriptions for the spiral arms in a 2D Galactic disc chemical evolution model, exploring the possibility that the spiral structure is formed by the overlap of chunks with different pattern speeds and spatial extent. The predicted azimuthal variations in abundance gradients are dependent on the considered chemical element. Elements synthesised on short time scales (i.e., oxygen and europium in this study) exhibit larger abundance fluctuations. In fact, for progenitors with short lifetimes, the chemical elements restored into the ISM perfectly trace the star formation perturbed by the passage of the spiral arms. The map of the star formation rate predicted by our chemical evolution model with multiple patterns of spiral arms presents arcs and arms compatible with those revealed by multiple tracers (young upper main sequence stars, Cepheids, and distribution of stars with low radial actions). Finally, our model predictions are in good agreement with the azimuthal variations that emerged from the analysis of Gaia DR3 GSP-Spec [M/H] abundance ratios, if at most recent times the pattern speeds match the Galactic rotational curve at all radii.


Glycine betaine (N, N, N-trimethylglycine) is a effective compatible solute, which maintains fluidity of membranes and protects the biological structure of the organisms under stress. In this study, betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (GbsA) and betaine alcohol dehydrogenase (GbsB) genes encoding for glycine betaine biosynthesis were PCR amplified from genomic DNA of Bacillus subtilis isolated from salted anchovies (Thrissina thryssa) collected from retail fish market of Cochin, Kerala, India. The amplified genes were cloned and nucleotide sequences were determined. The sequencing results showed that GbsA and GbsB genes contain ORF of 1473 bp and 1182 bp long, encoding 474 and 266 amino acids respectively (GenBank accession nos. FJ823257 and FJ823258). In silico sequence analysis revealed that the GbsA and GbsB sequences of B. subtilis were conserved in many eubacteria.


Thesis focuses on a comparison of time deposits for individuals in selected banks and credit unions for short term investments. The comparison is done by analyzing offers of these products of selected financial institutions in Czech financial market and comparison of these products based on interest rates, penalties for early withdrawal and minimal primary deposit, using scoring method and ranking method.


In the vernacular a burek also means an idiot or an incompetent [person]. Example: "You're a bunch of complete bureks!" Of course this pejorative use contains slightly veiled chauvinism or racism; a burek in this sense implies a stupid and incompetent southerner, a person from the Balkans or the Orient. (Razvezani jezik 2012) The large majority of users of this phraseme are probably not aware of this "slightly veiled chauvinism or racism". In some cases, for instance among certain (secondary-school) peer groups, it can even be a term of endearment. However, it is clearly not a term of endearment in the song "Ti si burek" ("You're a Burek") by the national folkmusic group Trio Genialci. In the popular video (at least judging by YouTube views), a well-heeled Slovenian businesswoman comes home to find her immigrant husband (ostensibly a Bosnian) on the couch wearing a singlet and track suitbottoms, with a beer and a remote in his hands, his feet on the table, football on the telly, a baby in the corner needing its diaper changed and her husband's brother also on the couch, also with a beer in his The dish burek was brought to Slovenia by people from the other republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in the 1960s. It is now the handiest and most frequently used signifier in Slovenian popular culture, media, vernacular language etc. for immigrants from the former republics of the SFRY, the Balkans, the SFRY itself and the phenomena associated with it. This paper addresses why and how this semantic hyperinflation occurred to precisely this fast food. The burek is a product of Slovenian nationalism par excellence and cannot be understood without taking into consideration the material conditions of the object. The paper shows that the burek plays a significant role in the formation and reproduction of identities.


The invention relates to an Internet of Things smart home security gateway system. The system comprises a user side, a security gateway and a terminal node. The user side and the terminal node each comprise a data encrypting/decrypting module used for encrypting/decrypting a sent control order and received data through a preset encrypting program on a remote client side or the terminal node; the security gateway comprises a safety communication module, a user access control and node identity authentication module, a credible platform module and a log audit and alarm module; the safety communication module achieves data safety filtering, reconstructing and forwarding and guarantees safety of the bi-direction transmission; the credible platform module is used for achieving system safety authentication, user behavior credibility analysis, data sealing storage and free decoupling and can be independently maintained and upgraded; the log audit and alarm module is used for recording user access and node authentication behaviors, carrying out safety audit on the operation of viewing logs and giving a timely alarm for an abnormal phenomenon found in the gateway system safety monitoring process. By means of the Internet of Things smart home security gateway system, the safety performance of a smart home system and the running efficiency of a gateway can be improved, and a safety guarantee is provided for Internet of Things smart home.


The present invention relates to a device for detecting improper wiring of a watt-hour meter and a method therefor, the device comprising: a detection unit for detecting voltage and current signals from a three-phase three-line watt-hour meter; a calculation unit for calculating active and reactive watt-hours, and phase angles for each phase and between phases on the basis of the voltage and the current signals; and an improper wiring detection unit for detecting improper wiring of the watt-hour meter on the basis of the active watt-hours, the phase angle for each phase, whether a current value is generated when the measurement value is zero, a period average power factor, and a phase difference between phases.


This article challenges divisions which have been set up between practice, research and theory in relation to the discipline of Education. It questions the epistemic positions upon which positivist metanarratives underpinning these divisions are founded. These include the separation of practice from research and theory and the creation of the notion of a vocational and academic divide. We provide insights into how a University-supported, practitioner-research programme (PRP), which draws upon Dewey's pragmatic epistemology, is impacting upon the improvement of educational practice, processes of educational inquiry and the development of theory in the Further Adult and Vocational Education (FAVE) sector in England.


Let \(R\) be a ring. A right \(R\)-module \(M\) is called \(\mathrm{d}\)- Rickart if for every endomorphism \(\varphi\) of \(M\), \(\varphi(M)\) is a direct summand of \(M\) and it is called \(\mathrm{wd}\)- Rickart if for every nonzero endomorphism \(\varphi\) of \(M\), \(\varphi(M)\) contains a nonzero direct summand of \(M\). We begin with some basic properties of \(\mathrm{(w)d}\)-Rickart modules. Then we study direct sums of \(\mathrm{(w)d}\)-Rickart modules and the class of rings for which every finitely generated module is \(\mathrm{(w)d}\)-Rickart. We conclude by some structure results.


Polysilicon thin-film transistors (TFTs) using solid phase crystallization (SPC) and liquid- phase deposition (LPD) gate oxide are first realized by low-temperature processes (< 600 degree(s)C). Raman spectra of poly-Si layer reveals that LPCVD a-Si layer following with Si+ implantation and SPC at 600 degree(s)C for 48 hours is a superior starting material for active layer. The method of LPD-SiO2 is described. The physical, chemical and electrical properties of such a new dielectric layer are clarified. The TFTs exhibit sufficient performance for pixel transistors. The field effect mobility reveals much dependence on channel length. The off-state current comprise the resistive current, the thermal emission current and the field enhanced generation current via trap states.


The possibility of Kondo singlet state formation of a magnetic impurity in an insulator with a small gap is investigated by 1/ N expansion and the quantum Monte Carlo method. The former gives the criterion E g 2 T K for the magnetic state. The latter, applied to the Anderson model, demonstrates the crossover between the singlet and the magnetic states at a critical value of E g consistent with the above.


The issues of the technology improvement for the buckwheat grain processing into cereal on the basis of the new patent-protected equipment with the purpose of energy and resource saving are considered in the article.


Animal populations often host individuals that differ in terms of foraging behaviour. It is still largely unknown what causes and maintains these differences, and whether they have fitness implications. In this research project, the causes and consequences of foraging generalism versus foraging specialisation were studied in GPS-equipped Herring Gulls (Larus Argentatus) breeding along the Belgian coast. Foraging specialisation was quantified both in terms of resource specialisation and spatial specialisation, during three distinguished periods of the breeding season. Morphological traits or sex could not be assigned as predictors of foraging differences. While drivers of foraging specialisation thus remain unknown, it is suggested that levels of specialisation may rather be due to behavioural differences. Contrary to expectations, energy expenditure of spatial specialists was higher than that of spatial generalists during the chick rearing period. Spatial specialists traversed longer distances during the other two periods of the breeding season. Furthermore, no effects of foraging specialisation on the reproductive success of individuals were found. In the absence of such fitness implications, the co-existence of multiple foraging strategies may result in populations that are more resistant to environmental stochasticity.


We recorded miniature endplate currents (mEPCs) using simultaneous voltage clamp and extracellular methods, allowing correction for time course measurement errors. We obtained a 20–80% rise time (tr) of '80 ms at 22°C, shorter than any previously reported values, and tr variability (SD) with an upper limit of 25–30 ms. Extracellular electrode pressure can increase tr and its variability by 2to 3-fold. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we modeled passive acetylcholine diffusion through a vesicle fusion pore expanding radially at 25 nmzms21 (rapid, from endplate V figure appearance) or 0.275 nmzms21 (slow, from mast cell exocytosis). Simulated mEPCs obtained with rapid expansion reproduced tr and the overall shape of our experimental mEPCs, and were similar to simulated mEPCs obtained with instant acetylcholine release. We conclude that passive transmitter diffusion, coupled with rapid expansion of the fusion pore, is sufficient to explain the time course of experimentally measured synaptic currents with trs of less than 100 ms. Neurotransmitter release is a form of exocytosis, a general process of vesicle fusion and pore formation, allowing release of vesicle contents. The small size of transmitter vesicles has prevented direct measurement of pore formation and expansion at synapses, but these processes have been studied extensively for large endocrine vesicles, such as mast cell granules (1–3). These studies have raised interesting questions about whether the pore opening rate and emptying mechanisms underlying mast cell exocytosis would suffice for fast synaptic currents. Khanin and coworkers (4) used analytic methods to model passive diffusion of acetylcholine (ACh) through a cylindrical fusion pore. They assumed that the pore expanded at the slow rate seen in mast cells (,1 nmzms21, 23°C; ref. 2) and predicted that the appearance of ACh in the synaptic cleft would be too slow for miniature endplate current (mEPC) generation. They considered more rapid pore expansion unlikely and concluded that passive diffusion cannot account for ACh release. However, synaptic V figure (fused open vesicle) appearance suggests that pore opening for ACh vesicles is 1–2 orders of magnitude faster than that for mast cell granules. Using rapid freezing of frog endplates after nerve stimulation, Torri-Tarelli and coworkers (5) found that V figures appeared during a single 500-ms interval after the synaptic delay. From this and the pore's typical size (radius up to '12 nm), the radial expansion rate must be at least 25 nmzms21 (20°C). Furthermore, the V figures did not appear to close, swell, or collapse during a length of time much longer than the duration of mEPCs. These findings led us to ask whether passive ACh diffusion through a pore expanding at 25 nmzms21 could generate mEPCs comparable with those seen experimentally. Resolution of this issue depends on accurate measurement of the mEPC rising phase. The rise time can be estimated using an extracellular (EC) microelectrode (e.g., ref. 6) or voltage clamp (VC; e.g., refs. 7 and 8), but technical artifacts can plague both methods, and present literature values vary by up to 4-fold (9). We used VC together with EC recording to identify and correct for measurement errors and obtained a 20–80% rise time (tr) of only '80 ms (22°C). To model ACh release and mEPC generation, we wrote a program (to be called MCELL) based on our earlier Monte Carlo algorithms (10, 11). Simulated mEPCs obtained with rapid pore expansion closely reproduced both our experimental mEPCs and simulation results obtained with instant ACh release. We conclude that passive diffusion coupled with rapid pore opening is indeed sufficient for efficient generation of fast synaptic currents, and we discuss possible mechanisms that could underlie rapid opening of synaptic vesicles. MATERIALS AND METHODS mEPC Recordings. Lizard (Anolis carolinensis) ribcages were dissected to expose single layers of muscle fibers. The bathing medium was a reptile Ringer's solution (8). Individual endplates were visualized directly using Hoffman modulation optics. Temperature was held at 22°C. For VC, we built an amplifier and low capacitance headstages based on earlier designs (8). Microelectrode resistances were only 1–2 MV (3 M KCl) after beveling in a silicon carbide slurry. Good penetrations were identified by stable resting potentials of 280 to 290 mV. Such conditions were essential for low noise, wide bandwidth (23 db at '15 kHz while immersed), and fast clamp speed (20–80% time for change in holding potential, Vh). We built a model muscle cell circuit (400 kV in parallel with 5 nF) and injected known test currents (analog mEPCs generated electronically) into it across a 40-MV resistance (ion channel conductance). The model cell was then clamped to record the analog mEPCs, and accuracy was optimized by adjusting the time constant of the series resistive-capacitive (RC) network used to measure clamp current (12). Analog mEPCs were also used to select a low pass filter cutoff of 9 kHz (23 db; Kron-Heit, The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked ''advertisement'' in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. Abbreviations: ACh, acetylcholine; mEPC, miniature endplate current; tr, 20–80% rise time; EC, extracellular; VC, voltage clamp; Vh, DCp holding potential; RC, resistive-capacitive; Ld, random walk mean step length; D, diffusion constant; h, vesicular fusion pore height; r, pore radius; DACh, D for ACh in free solution; Dp, D for ACh inside pore; DCp, the concentration across the pore; Cv, the average vesicular concentration. ¶To whom reprint requests should be addressed.


Growth hormone (GH) promotes longitudinal growth and bone modelling/remodelling. This study investigated the relationship between levels of bone formation markers and growth during GH treatment in prepubertal children with widely ranging GH secretion levels.


This paper continues the investigation about the singularity theory in dual rich quasi–Banach spaces given in T. Runst [Ru 2]. The abstract results are applied to the study of the solution structure of semilinear elliptic boundary value problems in spaces of Besov – Triebel – Lizorkin type.


There are many sources of distortion. Manufacturing process, including initial forming, machining processes and grinding, all contribute to residual stress. A large source of residual stress and distortion is the heat treating and quenching step. In this study, small components of SAE 1080 are neutral hardened after stamping. Excessive distortion was observed on many components. A study was conducted to reduce the distortion of the heat treated components while maintaining proper hardness and microstructure.


For the past half century cognitive and social scientists have struggled with the irrationalities of human choice behavior; people consistently make choices that are logically inconsistent. Is human choice behavior evolutionarily adaptive or is it an inefficient patchwork of competing mechanisms? This review presents an interdisciplinary synthesis arguing for a novel interpretation; choice is efficiently irrational. Connecting findings across disciplines suggests that observed choice behavior reflects a precise optimization of the trade-off between the costs of increasing the choice mechanism's precision and the declining benefits that come as precision increases. Under these constraints a rationally imprecise strategy emerges which works towards optimal efficiency, rather than towards optimal rationality. This approach rationalizes many of the puzzling inconsistencies of human choice behavior, explaining why these inconsistencies arise as an optimizing solution in biological choosers.


This article deals with the Faroese monolingual dictionary, published in 1997. One of the questions discussed is what requirements should be made for a dictionary which is to form the basis of future Faroese bilingual dictionaries. Attention is drawn to the fact that one main condition of a reliable dictionary, viz. the excerpt material is unsatisfactory. Purism as a principle in lexicography is discussed and criticized, one major disadvantage being that a great deal of the spoken language is excluded. The strong language normalization work (done in the past) has not comprised loan words and foreign words. As a result, a lot of such words are spelled in different ways.


Estella Bohmer 296 pages, hardback, £79.99. Wiley-Blackwell. 2015. ISBN 978 1 118 80254 0

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A REVIEW should start by giving an idea of the reviewer's perspective and any potential conflicts of interest. Here, I do have a possible conflict in that I am a co-editor of a potentially competing text, albeit one that covers rabbits only rather than including small mammals. That said, I am also a vet who sees a significant caseload of small mammal dental disease and would certainly have bought this book if I hadn't been asked to review it. Why? This is a much-anticipated book from a well-known and respected clinician who is very active in the online exotics' fora. In addition, this is a new and controversial field with various authors frequently contesting strongly held views. For clinicians picking their way through these views and opinions, it is welcome …

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The use of multiple sources of water supply and introducing water reuse in mineral processing have been part of the operating philosophy for the minerals industry to save freshwater and reduce mine water discharge. A consequence of implementing these practices is that water quality can be compromised, which in turn can impact flotation performance. A number of studies have shown that dissolved abiotic watet constituents can have different effects on flotation performance depending on the operating conditions and reagent regimes. However, far less is known about the impacts and processes associated with biotic water constituents, including microorganisms. In this study, we investigated the effect of bacteria (E. coli) on mineral (chalcopyrite) flotation performance using both microflotation and scale-up batch flotation tests. Microflotation results indicated that the presence of E. coli in water had an adverse effect on the flotation of chalcopyrite. The magnitude of the adverse effect increased with the increase of bacterial cell concentration. The adverse effect could be mitigated to different extents by increasing the collector concentration depending on the bacterial cell concentration. The adverse effect was also observed in batch flotation tests. Froth images taken showed that the bubble size and bubble load were affected by the presence of the bacteria.


In the modern world, one of the important directions of digital transformation is the developmentof Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Today, despite the fact that the technology is innovative on theterritory of the Russian Federation, it is used in global practice to intensify processes: from environmentalprotection activities to industrial and labor processes. In the context of achieving and putting into practicethe Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN, Internet of Things technologies contribute to theirimplementation in such areas as ecology and environmental protection, social integration and the eliminationof inequality. In Russia, the use of Internet of Things technologies is twofold: on the one hand, there arelegal conflicts of implementation of new regulatory norms in the current legislation of our country. On theother hand, in the field of practice, the problem of advancing technology and its application of legislativeinstruments that should regulate this field of activity is manifested. Nevertheless, the application of suchtechnical improvements entails the emergence of moral problems related to the guarantee of fundamentalhuman and civil rights and freedoms, also adopted at the UN level and making important adjustments to thebasic socio-humanitarian spheres of life.


A previously described polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay results in the amplification of a 188-bp product from Gaeumannomyces graminnis var. graminis fungal template DNA derived from boiled fungal mycelia. Similar results are obtained when mycelia are grown on potato-dextrose agar, Czapek solution agar, and Luria-Bertani agar, but not on a medium selective for Gaeumannomyces (SM-7). Amplification of this specific DNA fragment combined with observation of lobed hyphopodia can be used to identify a Gaeumannomyces-like isolate as G. g. graminis, even if perithecia are never produced by the isolate. All 40 «presumptive» G. g. graminis test isolates produced lobed hyphopodia in culture and the 188-bp PCR product, but only 19 of these isolates produced mature perithecia []


Introduction: In the majority of patients with Philadelphia (Ph)-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), the non-leukemic hematopoiesis is considered polyclonal. Occasionally, clonal cytogenetic abnormalities have been reported in Ph-negative cells from patients in cytogenetic remission after IFN-alpha or imatinib. In the present project we determined clonality of flow-sorted hematopoietic cells from untreated and treated patients with Ph-positive CML in first chronic phase by analyzing the two alleles of short tandem repeats (STR) of given loci. The loss of one of the two alleles of STR identifies loss of heterogzygosity (LOH) and clonal expansion. These results were compared to conventional cytogenetics and correlated with response to therapy. Patients and methods: A total of 25 consecutive patients (13 m/12 f, median age 58 y) treated at the University of Leipzig from April to June 2005 were included. Conventional cytogenetics were analyzed by R-banding. FISH using the LSI BCR/ABL ES probe in unsorted as well as in flow-sorted monocytes (CD14+), granulocytes (CD14-/CD33+), T- lymphocytes (CD3+), B-lymphocytes (CD19+), and CD34+-cells was performed. For LOH analysis, DNA was extracted from flow-sorted cells. 8 autosomal loci were analysed: D3S1358 (3p), vWA (12p12-pter), D8S1179 (8q), D21S11 (21q11.2-q21), D18S51 (18q21.3), TH01 (11p15.5), FGA (4q28), SE33 (6q15). PCR products were detected by capillary electrophoresis. Loss of, or a strong decrease in the signal intensity of one allele was considered as evidence for LOH. An allelic imbalance factor (AIF) was calculated by the quotient of the peak ratios from constitutional and flow-sorted cell DNA (N1:N2/T1:T2). An AIF > 1.8 was considered as LOH. Buccal swabs were used as controls. Results: Median time from diagnosis to analysis was 60 months. Of the 25 patients, twenty (80%) received Imatinib for a median of 26 months, three (12%) were newly diagnosed and two (8%) were treated with IFN-alpha. Both patients with IFN-alpha as well as 8 (40%) patients treated with Imatinib had sustained complete cytogenetic remission (CCR). Furthermore, 8 (40%) responded to Imatinib with hematological remission (HR) only, 3 (15%) patients with major CR (MCR) and one patient (5%) with minor CR. Conventional cytogenetics revealed additional abnormalities [t(7;17), del (20q), trisomy 8, and -Y] in Ph- negative cells in 4 (16%) patients. No LOH was detected in these patients. Ph-positive B-cells were detected in 4 (16%) with HR. Interestingly, the median quotient of Ph-positive CD34+ and Ph-positive unsorted cells was 0.65. LOH for SE33 in CD34+ cells, monocytes and granulocytes was detected in 6 (24%) patients [3 in CCR (2 patients treated with IFN-alpha and 1 with imatinib)], 1 patient in MCR under imatinib, and 2 patients with newly diagnosed CML. LOH was not detected in buccal swabs. Conclusions: We confirm the occurrence of clonal cytogenetic abnormalities in Ph-negative cells. LOH did not parallel abnormal cytogenetics and LOH for SE33 only was detected in patients with Ph-negative and Ph-positive cytogenetics. The detection of LOH which could be a sign of inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in treated and untreated patients with CML argues against a treatment-induced event and raises speculations on the role of this finding in the pathogenesis of at least some cases of CML.


The use of segmented joint technology allows gasket manufacturers to fabricate and supply gaskets in discrete segments, rather than the conventional one-piece construction. Segmented gaskets are required when using sheet type gaskets for flange diameters larger than the available sheet size. Typical gasket sheets are 60" × 60" or 70" × 70" square, for instance. Flanges designed for these lower stress sheet gaskets that are larger than the available sheet size to fabricate the gaskets are typically fabricated as segmented gaskets. Segmented gaskets are also utilized in smaller flange applications to facilitate maintenance activities. When replacing the tube sheet gasket in a shell and tube exchanger the entire tube sheet must be removed in order to utilize a solid, one-piece ring gasket. In some cases this is not practical or desired, so a segmented gasket is utilized which only requires the tube sheet to be removed a short distance to allow access to the sealing surface. This same scenario exists with other common process piping and vessel flanges including thermowells, lance tubes, agitator or mixer shafts, etc. Valid concerns exist when using segmented gaskets as potential leak paths are created at every joint. If the gasket material and joint design are not correctly specified and fabricated the segmented gasket may not provide the same sealing performance and reliability as the solid, un-segmented gasket. This paper will discuss the research and data found that identifies the stress multiplier for segmented/jointed gaskets to achieve the same (similar) leak rate as their solid, unsegmented gasket counterpart. This assembly or design stress multiplier will be a dynamic number that will vary based upon the gasket material and the joining technology used. Two jointing methods are evaluated in this research; the industry standard "dovetail" and the Engineered Interference Tortuous Path (EITP) joint. In practice there is currently no guidance available to guide the design or assembly of these segmented gasket applications. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance for both design and assembly purposes.


Information has a growing importance in modern society. Children face different types of pressure at every step; they are already discovering and recognizing different types of literacy in the pre-school period.
The aim of the bachelor's thesis entitled The Relationship of Parents towards their Pre-School Children regarding Family Literacy is to find out what the views are of parents about family literacy and how parents encourage children's literacy.
In the theoretical part, I introduce literacy and different types of literacy. I focus on family literacy and describe the different approaches of different families, the influence and role of the adult in promoting children's literacy and family reading. Finally, I also present research on family literacy and some projects and programs that promote family literacy.
In the empirical part, I present the results of the questionnaire, which I distributed to the parents of pre-school children in several units of the Pedenjped kindergarten. I was interested in their opinion on developing children's literacy at home and the frequency of implementing various activities of family literacy.
The research has shown that parents are important in developing children's literacy in their home environment, and that their influence on future educational success has mixed opinions. Parents read regularly with the child, and they often talk about reading in general. Most parents, together with the child, visit the library at least once a month. Various activities, such as writing a payment card and shopping lists, involve children only occasionally, however, they spend a lot of time talking to the child about the day-to-day events.


The existence of technology such as social media platforms have led individuals and health experts to use it as a supplementary tool. Providing healthcare purposes through social media platforms can facilitate and encourage individuals to gather information as well as acquire social support. Integrating social media platforms into healthcare context is a developing area of behavioral research. It is also found that there is a limited number of studies that reported the benefit acquire from the utilization of social media platforms in healthcare context. Thus, this study reported several benefits that individuals can acquire from the usage of social media platforms for healthcare context.


Nursing shortage? Don't look at me. I'd love to help - really I would. How better to have begun the new year than by resolving to do something useful with my life? But the fact is that I am not cut out for that sort of thing.


Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University,251 Mercer Street, New York, New York 10012Received December 11, 1996Contents1. Introduction.2. Linking. 2.1. Definition and examples. 2.2. Two abstract lemmas.3. Critical point theorems. 3.1. Functions on HilbertRiemannian manifolds.3.2. Functions on Hilbert spaces. 3.3. Functions on manifolds with boundary.4. Applications to PDEs and ODEs. 4.1. An elliptic boundary value problem witha concave nonlinearity. 4.2. Nonconstant time-periodic solutions of a system ofODEs. 4.3. An alternative for a superlinear problem.


In Switzerland, an important step has been taken towards the implementation of a L/ILW repository. After a long planning period in which great emphasis has been placed upon producing a convincing demonstration of basic safety and of collecting the necessary laboratory and field data, the selection of a suitable site was announced in June 1993. Based on the results of similar field investigation programs at four pre-selected sites, Nagra selected Wellenberg (Marl, Community of Wolfenschiessen, Canton Nidwalden). The next step is to submit the application for a general license to the Swiss Federal Government in mid 1994. The decision of the Government must be ratified by the Federal Parliament and the licensing procedure is expected to take around four years. If everything proceeds according to plan, construction of the repository will begin before the turn of the century.


The purpose of this paper is to develop a fuzzy logic model for traffic system. This model is used to overcome the problem of traffic congestion in cities. Consequently, travelling time, fuel consumption and pollution can reduce. Moreover, traffic flow prediction helps the transport users to plan their time of travel and also in selecting the travelling path depending on the predicted information. In this paper, we used density of vehicles variable to design a system which uses the green signal depending on the number of vehicles in that particular line. Here fuzzy logic toolbox of MATLAB is used. The fuzzy sets and membership functions are chosen in an appropriate manner.


Change your habit to hang or waste the time to only chat with your friends. It is done by your everyday, don't you feel bored? Now, we will show you the new habit that, actually it's a very old habit to do that can make your life more qualified. When feeling bored of always chatting with your friends all free time, you can find the book enPDF management of visual impairment in childhood and then read it.


To investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of prostate‐specific membrane antigen (PSMA) imaging to make response assessment regarding novel hormone treatment and to predict the outcomes for metastatic castration‐resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. This retrospective study enrolled 68 mCRPC patients who had daily received a novel hormone agent named abiraterone. Tc‐99m PSMA single‐photon emission computed tomography (SPECT/CT) was performed at the baseline (SPECT/CT1) and after 3‐6 months of treatment (SPECT/CT2). The treatment response was determined by visual analysis based on molecular imaging PSMA (miPSMA) scores framework and was compared with conventional biochemical analysis. We chose either the hottest lesion (target A) or five of the hottest lesions (target B) to calculate the tumor/background ratio (TBR) and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and compared their performances in predicting progression‐free survival (PFS). Changes in PSMA expression between SPECT/CT1 and SPECT/CT2 were well associated with the results of the visual analysis. The TBR and the SUVmax of both targets were significantly associated with the baseline serum PSA level (P < .0001). The biochemical and radiological responses were concordant in 56 of the 68 patients (P < .001). The median PFS of the nonresponse group patients was significantly shorter than that of the patients in the response group (6.8 vs 12.1 months, P = .012). For predicting PFS, most of the indexes tested were significant on SPECT/CT2, with %ΔTBR being the most significant prognostic factor. Our preliminary results suggest that molecular imaging‐targeted PSMA is of great value for treatment response assessment and clinical outcome prediction in mCRPC patients with long‐term abiraterone treatment.


The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the PCAOB have created tremendous demand for accounting expertise. That has resulted in opportunities for small firms that can help companies implement the act's ongoing requirements, take on engagements the company auditor may no longer perform or pick up assignments that larger firms forgo because they are too involved in Sarbanes-Oxley-related engagements (see "Small Firms: Think Big!" JofA, Jun.04, page 22, and "Section 404 Opens a Door," JofA, May04, page 55). In many cases, the services required are core competencies, and small firms' competitive rates and depth of knowledge make them strong competitors. How can small firms position themselves to become the second CPA firm--beyond the auditors--to serve clients' needs? You don't have to reinvent your firm. The services in demand aren't exotic new specialties or complicated compliance services; they're exactly the kinds of engagements small firms have been providing for years. The trick is to understand the new demand for your firm's core competencies and then search out the clients and referral sources that need them. Firms have had a year or more to explore this market, so the JofA spoke to some CPAs with a track record in this area about their experiences. In addition, "Marketing Tips to Success," page 63, offers detailed practice-development advice. ONGOING OPPORTUNITIES "We have gotten roughly $1 million in new work in the past year and we expect to get a fairly sizable amount more," says Larry King, CPA, of 75-person KBA Group LLP in Dallas. The largest engagements are implementations related to Sarbanes-Oxley's section 404 and to SAS no. 70, Service Organizations, which involve an auditor's evaluation of a service organization's controls. Once the effort to meet the initial implementation deadline is over, however, further internal control implementation and remediation work may well be a source of ongoing engagements. "The firm initially saw it as a long-term business opportunity, even beyond the initial surge of implementation," King says, referring to, among other things, the act's ongoing documentation and internal controls testing requirements. "We believe there will be continuing opportunities in internal control work, changing software practices to accommodate the new requirements and other areas. We've also found a big market for internal control outsourcing among companies that don't have the resources in-house to comply with all the requirements." To meet the demand, the firm created a risk advisory services division, hiring a principal in charge of the area and a staff of six that is expected to grow to nine by early 2006. "We got the work almost exclusively through active marketing, using the tagline 'Cover Yourself." Get SOX,'" King says. "Our marketing director ran ads in the local business journal and did a mass mailing to public companies throughout Texas. We followed up by sending these companies mailing tubes with monogrammed socks in them and some marketing materials." The firm then sent prospects a white paper and another mailing with golf balls and tees with the firm's logo. Those efforts, along with a telemarketing campaign, not only generated significant section-404-related work but also brought in several new clients who had been considering changing auditors. Now that large companies have generally tackled their initial Sarbanes-Oxley implementation, the firm is fashioning a new marketing campaign to gain work helping companies with ongoing remediation and internal control outsourcing. It also has picked up tax work that companies chose to give to firms other than their auditors. In one case, a company's audit committee was contacted by a whistle-blower; the corporate counsel engaged King's firm to investigate because it could offer an outsider's objectivity. The firm's risk advisory services area also consults with corporate boards and audit committees. …


Influence of plant population in stalk disease incidence in corn growth during the off season. Although the off season corn area had almost a tenfold increase during the last 15 years, few studies about diseases were reported on this specific environment. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effect of plant population on corn stalk disease at the off season environment. The experiment was installed in Toledo/PR for two consecutive years (2004 and 2005). The design was a randomized complete block with 4 replications, on a factorial scheme with hybrid as the first factor (X1392D, 30F80, 30K75 and 30P70) and plant population as the second factor (45, 60 and 75 thousand plants ha -1 ). The incidence of Stenocarpella sp., Fusarium sp., Colletotrichum graminicola, stalk lodging, root lodging, general stalk base diseases and yield were evaluated. The increased plant population showed a different increase in the stalk disease pattern through the hybrids and years tested, however it has not interfered with the yield in the same proportion.


Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is classified as Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), one of the most malignantcancers due to its poor prognosis and fast progression. Its resistance to chemotherapy, immunosuppressive tumormicroenvironment (TME), and frequent immune evasion also impose enormous obstacles in treating LUAD. However,previous research found that these tumor cells resistant to chemotherapies commonly increase their production ofintracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to high mitochondria activity. Antioxidants like glutathione (GSH)are also highly produced to maintain their redox homeostasis. Therefore, the depletion of antioxidants which can leadto intratumoral accumulation of ROS to cytotoxic levels, provides a new therapeutic target. Besides, the high levelof extracellular ROS also significantly contributes to the immunosuppressive characteristic of TME, which exhaustsactivated T cells. This work provides the framework for a novel combinational therapy based on a multiple-neoantigenvaccine to avoid immune evasion. Two types of nanoparticles further boost the vaccine's efficacy against tumors, onedepleting intratumoral GSH and scavenging extracellular ROS. Anticipated results are shown from various aspects,hoping the innovative treatment can effectively improve the survival rate with few side effects.


In the services world, the expected benefits are the fastest time to market, lower costs, greater consistency in the application, and increased agility. The reuse and sharing properties of software components are useful to address these challenges. However, to achieve this, it is necessary to be able to observe each service and to control the service composition. This article proposes to rethink the company's organisational process of application development and use the power of monitoring to help the application design. The proposed Monitoring as-a-service (MaaS), whose properties are detailed, will be used for the computation of the offered Quality of Service (QoS), for the services calibration during the service creation phase and to inform the QoS Controller during the operational phase. For effective design, the architect will place MaaS at crucial points of its architecture according to its decision-making process. Finally, we present experimental results and a conclusion ends the paper.


Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate the genetic diversity of Xanthomonas phaseoli p v. manihotis (Xpm) from eight populations from five cassava producing states in Brazil, through the rep-PCR (BOX-PCR and ERIC-PCR) and variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) markers. Cassava leaves with symptoms of cassava bacterial blight were collected in eight municipalities, and the Xpm isolates were identified by amplification with primers specific for these isolates. The identity of the Xpm isolates was confirmed with the BOX-PCR, ERIC-PCR, and VNTR markers. The observed selection pressure, together with the mode of reproduction and the mechanisms that increase genetic variability, allows of the pathogen populations to adapt according to microclimate variation, contributing to a differentiated reproductive success. ERIC-PCR and VNTRs are the best markers for evaluating the genetic variability in the eight studied Xpm populations. However, ERIC-PCR is the marker that best separated the groups by population and presented a higher similarity between the isolates of the same population. The study of the genetic diversity of Xpm is key to improve disease monitoring and management strategies in cassava crops.


Melanism is a common polymorphism in many insect species that also influences immune function. According to the thermal melanin hypothesis, ectothermic individuals from cooler environments have darker cuticles and higher polyphenol oxidase (PO) levels, which represent a better immunocompetence. In this study, the links among environmental temperature, melanism, and PO activity of Saccharosydne procerus (Matsumura) were examined. Most S. procerus have a black spot on their forewings at high temperatures in the field and in the laboratory. In PO activity assay, a positive association between PO level and temperature was found. Our results showed that a diversification of melanism occurred under different temperatures and that melanism in S. procerus presented an opposite pattern to the one proposed by the thermal hypothesis.


The article is devoted to the problem of formation of innovative project portfolio. The technique is based on classical models of portfolio analysis BCG. As selection criteria it is proposed to consider the integrated risk project and resource consumption. These criteria reflected in the indicators of ≪the relative riskiness of the project and the relative contribution margin≫, which formed the basis of the matrix array of projects. Thus, based on the construction of the matrix array of projects portfolio of projects in relation to the strategic goals of the organization and existing constraints.


PURPOSE: A system for issuing and certifying a document using a watermarking and a certification method thereof are provided to issue a certificate on online or offline by inserting a watermark into the certificate, and to make an organization or a company requesting the certificate certify the integrity and the justice of the certificate by the extraction of the watermark. CONSTITUTION: A user system(20) comprises a PC(21) being equipped with a watermark inserting program, requesting the document and receiving a certificate document file inserted by the watermark, and a printer(22) outputting a certificate document(30) by receiving the certificate document file. A document issuing system(10) comprises a document issuing server(16) issuing the certificate document file by using the digital information and the watermark information and transmitting it to the requestor's PC, a document information database(14) of each document issuing organization providing the digital information of the certificate document, and a watermark database(12). A certification system(40) includes a scanner for extracting the watermark and the original code information, and a watermark extracting program.


Besides its cognitive meaning (which is not the subject of this paper) the term representation, a latecomer to sociolinguistic literature, is borrowed from the terminology of the social sciences, more specifically from philosophy. In order to clarify its meaning it is necessary to differentiate representation from attitudes and ideologies. The distinctive features of linguistic representations converge to define a form of knowledge, providing interpretations of reality, generally collective (dependent on local ideologies), which may be composite, incomplete, or even arbitrary. After a review of sociolinguistic works that use the term - or don't use the term but deal with the subject - two features are emphasized here: figurativity and discursivity. Examples, mainly oral but some written, are elicited from French-language and language-contact situations.


Money has been called the human artifact that confirms the impossibility of disentangling the cultural and the symbolic from the economic. The terms of that entanglement are richly and rewardingly explored in this issue's articles by Helleiner, Curruthers and Espeland, and Siegel. The author assesses the many contributions made by these three articles. The author also considers how ideas about evidence and analysis are pursued in different disciplines. Can social scientists divorce empirical examples from historical contexts in order to substantiate or illustrate analytical strategies? Should they? This is posed primarily by Helleiner, and by Carruthers and Espeland, the latter of which comprises attempts to develop frameworks for subsequent empirical investigations. Siegel offers a useful contrast, in that its empiricism is deliberately sensitive to context.


THE PROBLEM There are many criticisms of the rationalist themes and approaches which burgeoned during and since the Enlightenment. This paper enlists Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) and Theodor Adorno (1903--1969), John Deely (1942--) and Charles Sanders Peirce (1839--1914), along with some leading Enlightenment figures themselves in order to mount a critique of the fate of the millennia-old art of rhetoric during that revolution in ways of thinking. The argument will be that post-Enlightenment over-emphasis on what might variously be called dialectic, logic or reason (narrowly understood) has dulled understanding of what people are and how people think. There have been two serious consequences of this mistake. Firstly philosophers have been circumvented and have lost potency because of their over-reliance on logic as the way of guiding human affairs. Secondly charlatans have invaded what was hitherto the quasi-sacred and much more prestigious space of persuasive communication. This space was sacred and prestigious when it was under the control of the church and other moralists. From the nineteenth century onward paralysis in thinking about the crucial role of the rhetorical-dialectical nexus has enabled philistines and the mendacious to capture and exploit this poorly understood realm of ideological and cultural production. This paper argues that putatively democratic countries now operate with a lobotomised intelligence where it comes to understanding and confronting the ways persuasive communication controls political and social construction. It calls for the aesthetes of science and logical reason to reverse their antiquated, modernist, rejection of the realm of rhetoric. If intellectuals do not sufficiently grasp the notion of what rhetoric is they will be doomed to increasing marginalisation in a contemporary world where rhetoric dominates. RHETORIC AND ITS REJECTION Francis Bacon (1561-1626) has a good summary of what rhetoric is and its importance in his: The Advancement of Learning: ...the duty and office of rhetoric is to apply reason to imagination for the better moving of the will. For we see reason is disturbed in the administration thereof by three means--by illaqueation or sophism, which pertains to logic; by imagination or impression, which pertains to rhetoric; and by passion or affection, which pertains to morality. And as in negotiation with others, men are wrought by cunning, by importunity, and by vehemency; so in this negotiation within ourselves, men are undermined by inconsequences, solicited and importuned by impressions or observations, and transported by passions. Neither is the nature of man so unfortunately built, as that those powers and arts should have force to disturb reason, and not to establish and advance it. For the end of logic is to teach a form of argument to secure reason, and not to entrap it; the end of morality is to procure the affections to obey reason, and not to invade it; the end of rhetoric is to fill the imagination to second reason, and not to oppress it; for these abuses of arts come in but ex oblique, for caution. (1) In other words morality and the ways facts are presented have a major role in shaping thought. Thought is not formed by logic alone. For Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): Rhetorick is an Art consisting not only in moving the Passions of the Judge; but chiefly in Proofs. And that this Art is Profitable...It consisteth therefore chiefly in Proofs; which are Inferences: and all Inferences being Syllogismes, a Logician, if he would observe the difference between a plain Syllogisme, and an Enthymeme, (which is a Rhetoricall Syllogisme,) would make the best Rhetorician. For all Syllogismes and Inferences belong properly to Logick; whether they infer truth or probability: and because without this Art it would often come to pass, that evil men by the advantage of natural abilities, would carry an evil cause against a good; it brings with it at least this profit, that making the pleaders even in skill, it leaves the odds only in the merit of the cause. …


Abstract At the end of the BNE MSS710806 manuscript an anonymous 16th-century hand copied a brief genealogy: in this paper I claim that this text is in fact a new attestation of the Genealogía del Cid, which only survives as an appendix to the Crónica particular del Cid (Burgos, 1512). This copy of the Genealogía reveals significant variants from the Burgos 1512 edition: it sets Cid's death in July 1099 and it awards Alphonse X the Wise with the authorship of his epitaph. These historical facts were known to Berganza in the 18th century, who recorded them in his Antigüedades without revealing his sources. In this paper, along with the edition of the text, I suggest that this copy of the Genealogía was related to the monastery of Cardeña, with which Berganza was acquainted and which reveals new insights on the text genealogy.


OBJECTIVES
Firefighters are prone to suffer from psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the workplace, and have a poor prognosis after PTSD. Reliable models for predicting PTSD allow for effective identification and intervention for patients with early PTSD. By collecting the psychological traits, psychological states and work situations of firefighters, this study aims to develop a machine learning algorithm with the aim of effectively and accurately identifying the onset of PTSD in firefighters, as well as detecting some important predictors of PTSD onset.

METHODS
This study conducted a cross-sectional survey through convenient sampling of firefighters from 20 fire brigades in Changsha, which were evenly distributed across 6 districts and Changsha County, with a total of 628 firefighters. We used the synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) to process data sets and used grid search to finish the parameter tuning. The predictive capability of several commonly used machine learning models was compared by 5-fold cross-validation and using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC), accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score.

RESULTS
The random forest model achieved good performance in predicting PTSD with an average AUC score at 0.790. The mean accuracy of the model was 90.1%, with an F1 score of 0.945. The three most important predictors were perseverance, forced thinking, and reflective deep thinking, with weights of 0.165, 0.158, and 0.152, respectively. The next most important predictors were employment time, psychological power, and optimism.

CONCLUSIONS
PTSD onset prediction model for Changsha firefighters constructed by random forest has strong predictive ability, and both psychological characteristics and work situation can be used as predictors of PTSD onset risk for firefighters. In the next step of the study, validation using other large datasets is needed to ensure that the predictive models can be used in clinical setting.


The objective of the project was to study the efficacy of using bio-based lubricant and grease technologies in railroad applications (locomotives and maintenance of way equipment). Several commercially available rail curve greases were identified and tested. Three mineral oil-based and three bio-based rail curve greases were selected for comparative testing. Greases included a summer and a winter version. Testing was conducted in an environmental chamber using two grease dispensers from two Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) at different temperatures. Field testing was conducted at two different sites on a revenue service railroad.


Abstract Counterimmunoelectrophoresis revealed the presence of precipitin antibody in all of 6 dogs and the 1 cat infected with Dirofilaria immitis and in the serum of 17 of 24 individuals living in a setting of hyperendemic subperiodic bancroftian filariasis. Antigens used in the test were prepared from microfilariae and adult male D. immitis. Some humans and animals had antibodies to both antigens while others had antibodies against microfilariae or adult worms only. The presence of soluble circulating antigen was detected in the sera of two dogs with high microfilaraemias.


IT is well known that satisfactory contrast in X-radiographs (shadowgraphs) is conditioned largely by penetration, i.e. the peak kilovoltage at which the tube functions. This factor of penetration needs to be as low as may be found reasonably convenient, otherwise detail in areas where the paint is thin or abrasion is suspected is certain to be lost. Much museum and gallery work in recent years has been performed at around 20o kV., which represents a great improvement over figures of around 50o kV., common between the wars. Yet, for critical study this is still too high. It is true that for some time 'Grenze-ray' tubes (about 9 kV.) have been available, but they possess certain practical drawbacks into which it is needless to enter now. In any case they have never become routine practice in the field of the fine arts. Since the Second World War, however, tubes incorporating a beryllium window have arrived upon the scene, and their use opens up great possibilities. The absorption of the soft X-rays emitted is strong in air, which means that particular attention must be paid to the geometrical arrangement of tube, object and recording film. An example of the equipment in question (apart from the easel holding the picture, which can be of any standard design), is shown in Figs. I and 2. Fig. I depicts the tube, mounted on a massive raising and lowering stand. To the right is a finder (similarly mounted) consisting of a sheet of perspex upon which are ruled lines corresponding to the standard film sizes. When the correct position upon the picture-or whatever the object may be-has been found, the finder is removed and a filmcarrier substituted.


ABSTRACT We report Pyrenula hirsuta for the first time in South American from neotropical lowland rain forest of Yasuní National Park. P. hirsuta is characterized by ascospores with many hyaline cilia and 5–7 septate. This specie grow as epiphyte in smooth bark of trees. Here, we provide information about ecology, distribution, and a morphological description of this species.


Modern gallery this spring to see a diamond-encrusted platinum cast of a human skull worth a cool £50 million: Damien Hirst's For the Love of God. Now, across town at the venerable Natural History Museum, gems of a different sort await. The Treasures exhibition features another skeletal presence, an Archaeopteryx imprisoned in a slate slab, along with 21 other well-chosen objects. Not convinced that the 150-million-year-old slab competes with Hirstian bling? True, the museum paid German collector Karl Häberlein just £700 (equivalent to about £50,000 today) for the fossil in the 1860s. But Archaeopteryx offered the first evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs, and palaeontologists considered the beast to have been the first bird until only recently, when fossils from China suggested it might instead have been a feathered dinosaur. The fossil, which is on display for the first time, was last year declared the 'type speci-men' of Archaeopteryx, and is the only one with a fully preserved brain imprint on the inside of its skull. Such anecdotes are a highlight of Treasures, and are engagingly told using interactive touch displays besides each piece. They provide necessary context for the curious non-scientist, and show how natural history museums can remain relevant in a world of cheap travel and ubiquitous high-definition footage. Few objects are more fetching than a glass rendering of the single-celled Aulosphaera elegantissima — a member of the radiolarian group of protozoa — enlarged tens of times. Ewen Callaway delights in a cherry-picked selection of the London Natural History Museum's gargantuan trove. It is one of 185 models that the museum purchased in the late nineteenth century from the Blaschkas, a glass-working family based in Germany. It is a shame that there is room for only one page from the world's most expensive book, John J. Audubon's extraordinary The Birds of America. The pages were released serially between 1827 and 1838, and with only 120 complete original editions of the metre-high book known to survive (two owned by the Natural History Museum), copies now sell for millions of dollars. Fortunately, however , there is an interactive version at the free exhibition's entrance, allowing visitors to flick through the natural-history classic, renowned for both action-packed depictions and Romantic styling. Unsurprisingly, extinction abounds here. The twin bird exhibits — a dodo skeleton and a preserved great auk — represent creatures that humans hunted to death, and speak of how natural …


Although part-time faculty positions in higher education continue to increase, reports reveal the lack of acceptance and valuing of part-time faculty across higher education institutions. Yet few qualitative studies explore this phenomenon within academic culture. This exploratory qualitative case study analyzed part-time faculty members' perceptions of inclusion or exclusion within their higher education institutions. This study was based on interviews with a diverse sample of part-time faculty members from a private and public institute of higher education. The findings revealed that, in general, part-time faculty perceived a sense of belonging when their socio-emotional needs were met, and reciprocal relationships were present within their academic culture. Additionally, part-time faculty who desired and dedicated energy towards involvement in their academic cultures had a higher chance of developing a sense of inclusion.


Synthesis and curing behaviors of polyphenol from urushiol analogues have been examined. The analogues were synthesized by lipase-catalyzed esterification of 4-hydroxyphenethyl alcohol with unsaturated fatty acids, in which the primary hydroxy group was regioselectively acylated to give the phenol derivatives having the unsaturated group in the para position. The oxidative polymerization of the analogues was performed using iron-salen or peroxidase as catalyst. Under appropriate reaction conditions, an oily soluble polymer was obtained in high yields. NMR analysis of the product polymer showed that only the phenolic moiety was polymerized and the unsaturated group was not involved in reaction during the polymerization. The polymer was subjected to the hardening by cobalt naphthenate catalyst or thermal treatment, yielding crosslinked film (artificial urushi) with high gloss surface.


Objective:The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of co-morbid depression and related factors of depression in mild cognitive...


The software quality plays a very important role in the success of the development of the software. To determine the software quality, several standards have been proposed and several quality models have been developed. During these years, thousands of software have been produced, and for each software, an approach and a model of software quality was used in the development cycle to ensure software quality, but unfortunately, today we do not have any trace of this cumulated experiments, which can be stored in a knowledge base to be shared later by all the members of the engineering software community. To solve this problem, we present in this article the QMGenerator Framework for software quality supporting the SQuaM approach, this Framework is endowed with a knowledge base exploiting the semantic technologies of the Web in particular RDF(S) which allows managing the models of software quality and sharing experiences and accumulated knowledge during the development cycle of the software.


We measured the third‐order nonlinear optical susceptibility χ(3) for C60 and C70 solutions as a function of concentration using degenerate four‐wave mixing with picosecond pulses at 532 nm. From the observed minimum we were able to obtain the real and imaginary parts of χ(3). The real part is negative at this wavelength. Values of the real and imaginary components of the molecular hyperpolarizability (γ) calculated are in the range 10−31 esu.


The invention relates to novel, synergistic, herbicidal agent combinations, which comprise 2,6 di-substituted pyridine derivatives and known herbicidally effective compounds and/or safeners. Said combinations are particularly successful when used for selective weed control with various crop seedlings, in particular, cereals.


This chapter introduces Wilson Harris's work to lay readers, with specific emphasis on landscape writing and the combination of real and symbolical spaces in Harris's novels. It also elaborates on issues tackled by Fred D'Aguiar's essay about Harris, a translation of which is included in the same volume.


Current differential protection is widely adopted in the high voltage AC transmission line with high sensitivity and selectivity. The capacitive charging current in long distance nonhomogeneous transmission lines with overhead lines and underground cables may be too large to be ignored. Therefore, accurate charging current compensation must be carefully considered. In this paper, an improved current differential protection is proposed for non-homogeneous transmission lines. The method can fully compensate the capacitive charging current by fully considering the distributed parameters and at the same time the line asymmetry. Numerical experimental results demonstrate that the proposed protection method can accurately compensate the charging current. In addition, compared to the legacy current differential protection methods, the proposed method presents improved dependability during internal faults, and improved security during external faults and other system transient.


This paper extends the theory and empirics of shadow wages by explicitly distinguishing between an hours-of-work response and a labor-force participation response – a distinction relevant for projects and policies expected to create jobs – and both responses are considered for different types of labor. Our analysis rests on a general equilibrium model of a tax-distorted but otherwise perfectly competitive economy. The model establishes an unambiguous link between shadow wages, market wages, and parameters of a country´s fiscal regime. Using data on market wages and countries´ fiscal regimes, we quantify this link for 33 OECD countries. We find that even with perfect competition shadow wages are considerably lower than market wages. We conjecture that imperfect competition does not necessarily widen this gap.


The Pontis Bridge Management System (BMS) can provide an agency with direct recommendations for bridge maintenance and capital improvement projects. Recommendations are generated using bridge inventory and inspection data, needs generation models, and program development methods. This paper presents the results of comparisons of Pontis project recommendations to the actual work performed by three agencies: Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT), South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA). Each of the three agencies programs work differently from the others, faces a different set of challenges, and uses Pontis differently within the agency. However, all three agencies have observed reasonable levels of correspondence between Pontis recommendations and actual work. Comparisons have been made between Pontis recommendations and actual work for replacements for Mn/DOT and SCDOT, and for maintenance work for NJTA.


The Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ), as a small journal that is not part of any publishing group faces serious challenges to prosper in a multitude of diverse biomedical journals. In such a complex situation, adaptations are always necessary. They include changing the editorial policy, embracing new ideas, and introducing new members to the Managing Team. Besides selecting the right articles, expert reviewers, and collaborators, the question of the mode of access to published articles has been recognized as one of the most important for the future of the CMJ.


The problem of time-varying formation analysis and control protocol design for a multi-UAV system with a nonlin-ear term is considered. Firstly, a formation control protocol for multi-UAV system is proposed for a predefined time-varying formation. Then, the multi-UAV formation problem is transformed into a consensus problem through the formation reference function. The condition for the multi-UAV system to reach time-varying formation is proposed. And the reference function expression is given. Moreover, the stability of the system is proved by the partial stability method. In addition, the design process of time-varying formation control protocol for multi-UAV system with nonlinear term is given. Finally, a multi-UAV system composed of five UAVs is utilized to verify the feasibility of the method by simulink. Simulation results show that the proposed time-varying formation control method is effective.


This book constitutes the proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on U- and E-Service, Science and Technology, UNESST 2009, held in conjunction with the International Conference on Future Generation Information Technology, FGIT 2009, on December 10-12, 2009, in Jeju Island, Korea. The FGIT 2009 conference received 1051 submissions in total, of which 301 papers were selected to be presented at one of the events taking place as part of it. The 23 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected for presentation at UNESST 2009. They focus on various aspects of u- and e-service, science and technology with computational sciences, mathematics and information technology and recent advances in these areas.


patristic quotations. Since Sanday proved that k (Codex Bobiensis) is the text used by St. Cyprian, a number of such identifications have been made. It has been shown that a text identical with a (Codex Vercellensis), as regards the Gospel of St. Luke, was used on occasion by St. Jerome and that Lucifer of Cagliari used a's type of text for St. John; that gig (Codex Gigas at Stockholm) of Acts is of the type used by Lucifer, Ambrosiaster, Niceta of Remesiana, and sometimes Jerome; that 'f of the Pauline Epistles is the Augustinian Text, while iJ, represents Lucifer's; that m (the Speculum) in the Catholio Epistles is the same text as that used by Priscillian (or Instantius); finally, Dr. V ogels has made a nearly exhaustive examination of Latin codices of the Apocalypse and patristio quotations from the same book. These equations are the result of better editing of patristic texts, or the discovery of new texts, and would seem to promise that new critical editions of the texts of the Latin Fathers will lead to further identifications in the future. A. SOUTER.


This study aimed to assess the effects of progressive lumbar stability exercises and lumbar stability exercises on changes in the transversus abdominis muscle thickness and lower extremity muscle fatigue index in soccer players. Ten subjects were assigned to undergo training in each of the 2 groups, namely, the progressive lumbar stability exercise group and lumbar stability exercise group. Each intervention session lasted for 30 min, and 4 sessions were conducted in a week for 6 weeks for soccer players of S. University in Jeonnam, Korea. Changes in the transversus abdominis muscle thickness and lower extremity muscle fatigue index were measured using ultrasound and surface electromyogram. The results of the ultrasound measurement for the transversus abdominis muscle thickness indicated that progressive lumbar stability exercises were more effective than lumbar stability exercises. The results of the lower extremity muscle fatigue index measurements using surface electromyogram indicated that the fatigue index decreased in the progressive lumbar stability exercise group. Progressive lumbar stability exercise is believed to have put more workload during the shaking of the limbs, leading to increased stability and increased efficiency of the lower extremity muscle, thereby decreasing the fatigue index. Therefore, progressive lumbar stability exercises can be an effective measure for preventing injuries and improving the game performance of sports players by increasing the transversus abdominis muscle thickness and decreasing the lower extremity muscle fatigue index.


The city of Sapporo is located in the northern part of Japan and has a lot of snow over 5 m high every year. The city government then makes a budget for snow control measures, which reaches more than 125 million USD per year recently [City of Sapporo, 2006]. Removed snow from the road ways is generally transported by trucks to temporary dumping sites in the suburbs. The transport needs huge costs around 30% of the budget and may cause increase of CO2 emissions. Therefore it is important to pay attention to onsite snow removal measures now, which are expected to be both low cost and environment-friendly.


In this work we propose an end-user supporting system for humanitarian demining tasks to semi-automatically classify signals of time domain metal detectors. Our multi-stage system consists of a first module to smooth the raw signals, followed by a neural feedforward net to classify the received signal's decay curve of the localized object at each sensor position. The resulting output activities of this net are accumulated to spatial vectors, which are propagated to a second feedforward net. Its resulting output activities are visualized in a 3D-end user interface and may be analyzed by different signal processing routines to be sensitive to changing soils and environmental conditions.


K hadraoui et al, in this issue of Menopause, report on age-associated trends in incidence and mortality rates for vulvar cancer compared with cervical cancer in the United States from 1992 through 2016. They analyzed these rates as a function of the changing guidelines for cervical cancer screening and pelvic examinations for asymptomatic women. They found that there was a 14.3% increase in vulvar cancer diagnoses for women age 65 years and older. In their Results section, they take us through the fascinating story of cervical screening changes over the past 20 years. The impetus for reduced screening comes from a better understanding of the pathogenesis of cervical cancer, reduced cervical cancer incidence, and death rates in the United States over the past 50 years, and concerns about the consequences of over-screening. An understanding that essentially all primary cervical cancers stem from persistent infection by high-risk strains of genital human papillomavirus (HPV-HR) and the concurrent development of highly accurate HPV-HR testing has led to cancer-screening triage of women based on HPV-HR status. Over-testing, and aggressive interventions such as cervical cryotherapy and excisional procedures for HPV-related preinvasive disease, have led to overtreatment of low-grade lesions, the potential for reduced fertility or preterm pregnancy outcomes due to cervical incompetence, and increased medical costs. Evaluation of vulvar disease has commonly been secondary to the focus on cervical cancer eradication due to the lower incidence of vulvar-related malignancies. However unlike cervical cancer rates that peak between ages 40 to 49 years, vulvar cancer rates continue to increase almost exponentially with age. For women over age 70, vulvar cancer becomes the most common anogenital cancer. The pathogenesis of vulvar cancer is also more heterogeneous than cervical cancer. Overall, up to 70% of vulvar cancers are related to


Aims: Present work describes the new enrichment method for the isolation of effective root colonizing and rhizospheric competent strains of genus fluorescent Pseudomonad and study of metabolic regulation of 2,4-DAPG biosynthesis in them under carbon sources and Pi levels.
Methods and Results: Three rounds of plant assay was performed using root tip attached microorganism mixtures for the next round of root treatment followed by phonotypical separation of fluorescent colonies to isolate fluorescent pseudomonad strains from different crop and vegetables rhizospheres. Isolated strains were characterized for their Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) traits viz phosphate solubilisation, production of siderophore, IAA, HCN, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate /L-methionine utilization pathway and antifungal metabolites production. Isolated strains have shown high 2,4-diacetylphluoroglucinol production and strain G2 has shown 4.6 fold high production than Pf CHA0.
Conclusions: Strain G1 and G8 supported 2,4-DAPG production under sucrose and found to be suitable biocontrol for sucrose rich rhizosphere. Strain G1 and G2 showed good 2,4-DAPG production at high Pi and will perform well in phosphate fertilizer supplemented soils.
Significance of Study: Identification of factors favorable for bio-control will facilitate the targeted application of specific strains to plant rhizosphere/soil type/fertilizer supplemented suitable to their biocontrol activity i.e. "prescription" controls.


A comprehensive review on the recent development of anodic cyanation reaction used in electroorganic synthesis is given in this paper. The research on anodic cyanation of amine, heterocyclic compounds and aromatic compounds is presented. Furthermore, the emulsion technology used in anodic cyanation is discussed in detail.


The system internal authentication and authorization are looked as the main authentication mode of the cloud computing platform. Based on the authentication mode of open source cloud platform project of foreign,analysing the cloud computing platform authentication and authorization service process,this paper realizes the integration authentication module,cloud computing platform unified authentication and authorization through the authentication module in call service,effective management can achieve in rights and resources. The experimental results show that,integrating of this module can be applied to the cloud computing platform.


Recently, the development of Bike Sharing Systems (BSSs) brings environmental and economic benefits to the public. However, BSSs frequently suffer from the imbalanced bike distribution, including dock-less BSSs. The underflow or overflow of bikes in a region may lead to a lower service level to BSSs or congestion to the city. In the paper, we consider rebalancing the dock-less BSS by providing users with monetary incentives. The long-term objective is to maximize the number of satisfied users who successfully complete their rides over a period of time. The operator of the dock-less BSS can not only encourage a user to rent bikes at the neighborhood of its source with a source incentive, but also incentivize them to return bikes at the neighborhood of its destination with a destination incentive. To learn the differentiated incentive price for rebalancing bikes across time and space, we extend a novel deep reinforcement learning framework for user incentive. The source and destination incentives are integrated in an adaptive way by adjusting the detour level at the source and/or destination by avoiding bike underflow and overflow. In the experiment, we evaluate our approach in comparison with two existing pricing schemes. The locations of sources and destinations are abstracted from a selected dataset from Mobike. The experiment results show that our adapted learning algorithm outperforms the original one that only considers source incentive as well as another state-of-the-art approach in maximizing the long-term number of satisfied users.


This paper proposes a stock dynamic sizing optimization under the Logistic 4.0 environment. The safety stock is conceived to fill up the demand variability, providing continuous stock availability. Logistic 4.0 and the smart factory topics are considered. It focuses on vertical integration to implement flexible and reconfigurable smart production systems using the information system integration in order to optimize material flow in a 4.0 full-service approach. The proposed methodology aims to reduce the occurring stock-out events through a link among the wear-out items rate and the downstream logistic demand. The failure rate items trend is obtained through life-cycle state detection by a curve fitting technique. Therefore, the optimal safety stock size is calculated and then validated by an auto-tuning iterative modified algorithm. In this study, the reorder time has been optimized. The case study refers to the material management of a very high-speed train.


ABSTRACT The geology of the Mary Ann Field is best understood in light of regional studies, which help to establish a depositional model based on both facies distribution and thickness variation. These studies also show major differences between onshore and offshore Norphlet deposits in diagenesis, hydrocarbon trapping and migration. The Jurassic Norphlet sandstone was deposited in an arid basin extending from East Texas to Florida by a fluvial-eolian depositional system, prior to a marine transgression represented by the Smackover Formation. Until discovery of the Mary Ann Field in 1979, Norphlet production was restricted to onshore areas, mostly along the Pickens-Pollard fault system in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The Mary Ann Field is a Norphlet dry gas accumulation, and it was the first offshore field in the Gulf of Mexico to establish economic reserves in the Jurassic. The field is located in Mobile Bay, approximately 25 mi to the south of Mobile, Alabama. Formed by a deep-seated (20,000 + ft) faulted salt pillow, Mary Ann Field produces from a series of stacked eolian dune sands. situated near the Norphlet paleocoastline. Five lithofacies have been recognized in cores from the Mobil 76 #2 well. Each lithofacies has a distinct reservoir quality. Optimum reservoir facies are dune and sheet sands. Non-reservoir facies are interdune (wet and dry), marine reworked and evaporitic sands. Following deposition, these sediments have undergone varying degrees of diagenesis. Early cements in well-sorted sands supported the pore system during compaction. However, later cementation by chlorite, silica and alteration of liquid hydrocarbons to an asphaltic residue, have completely occluded the pore system in parts of the reservoir.