The output of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural activities is the main source for water eutrophication.The fully developed agriculture in vegetables, fruits and flowers in Pearl River Delta gives rise to excessive use of chemical matter such as fertilizer and pesticide and thus bring about the serious water pollution because of the loss of nitrogen(N) and phosphorus(P) from the farmland in the region.Based on Geographic Information System(GIS) and soil pollution data, Universal Soil Loss Equation(USLE) and source type method are used to estimate the loads of particulate N and P from the soil of different land use types in the drainage area of Liuxi River in Guangzhou, China.So the key regions those the NPS pollution occurred can be confirmed and the technical support for the pollution control target and the capital flow concentration can be provided by the results.The study shows that:(1)The total loss of particulate N and P in the drainage area is 582.49 t·a-1 and 424.74 t·a-1 respectively.Among them the loss of particulate N from paddy soil occupies 40.02% and that of forest 6.31%, while the loss of particulate P from the soil of dry-land accounts for 28.75% and that of paddy soil 26.31%.(2)There are significantly different losses of particulate N and P per unit area from the soils of different source land use types in the drainage area.The losses of particulate N and P per unit area are both the highest from the soil of dry-land, which is 7.72 kg·hm-2 and 9.50 kg·hm-2 respectively, followed by those of orchard, which is 7.20 kg·hm-2 and 6.56 kg·hm-2 respectively.The causes are excessive use of chemical matter, unreasonable cultivation pattern, and the soil erosion of different land use.(3)The excessive N and P come from the loss of particulate N and P from the fertilization in agricultural production, and they are the main source of the pollutants in Liuxi River water.


The purpose was to develop and field test a comprehensive needs assessment instrument for use in determining and prioritizing local school district adapted physical education needs. The resulting Survey of Adapted Physical Education Needs (SAPEN) was comprised of 50 items, encompassing five areas: (a) significance of physical education, (b) assessment, placement, and individualized educational programming, (c) instruction and programming, (d) personnel, and (e) other. Items were to be rated on two, 6-point Likert-type scales, relating respectively to the extent to which each adapted physical education condition now exists and should exist in one's school district. Procedures established by Schipper and Wilson (1975) were followed in determining needs and subsequently designating them as first (most urgent), second, and third priorities to be acted upon by school district personnel. Content validity of SAPEN was established by five nationally known adapted physical education experts. Test-retest and intern...


ABSTRACT This study identifies research needed to assess the ecological effects and efficiency of various spill cleanup methods for oiled salt marshes. This is part of a larger program with the goa...


BACKGROUND
This study evaluates anthropometric and pubertal development parameters in children and adolescents with sporadic and familial occurrence of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1).

METHODS
The study involved 23 patients (15 boys, 8 girls) with sporadic (n=12) and familial NF-1(7 affected mothers and 4 fathers), with average age of 12 years (range 5-20 years). All patients answered to a standard questionnaire including family and personal data and, following, they underwent systematized physical examination, with special attention to anthropometric data, dermatologic and pubertal stage according to Tanner's criteria evaluation.

RESULTS
Short stature was detected in a 17 year-old patient, 148.5cm height, with score Z of -4.16 and being the even outside of the family conduit. Three male patients had head circumference above of + 2DP from on average for the age. It was not found no case of precocious or delayed puberty.

CONCLUSIONS
In our study, do not we find significant alterations regarding the stature and pubertal development.


Health care expenditure in the United States exceeds $2 trillion a year, and on a per capita basis far exceeds the expenditure of any other country. Much of this money is not well spent, as many studies have documented the inefficiency and waste in the public and private health care systems. Furthermore, despite the high cost of American health care, key measures of the nation's health, such as infant mortality and life expectancy, lag well behind other developed countries.


Wells are completed with cased-hole largely due to the requirement to achieve isolation, either at the time of completion or later in producing life. The compromise to productivity is offset by the ability to control water production isolate shale sections, or produce zones selectively. Expandable reservoir completions offer the ability to achieve the required isolation with open-hole productivity. It is reported that approximately 70% of the world oil and gas reserves are found in unconsolidated formations. Sand production is a phenomenon associated with drag forces induced by fluid flow through unconsolidated porous media. Consequently, there is a global interest in research and development for understanding the mechanisms, associated enhanced oil recovery, and sanding control. There are some unconsolidated reservoirs in Iran and sand production is a major dilemma facing operating oil and gas companies over years. The difficulty of determining whether or not sand control is required in a given well is compounded when the well is drilled in an area where there is little or no producing experience and where the various reservoir factors are slightly different from previously exploited regions. Even if the reservoir and formation properties are almost identical to other developments, the operating conditions and risks may be such that different strategies apply. Among the methods for preventing sand production, ESS Screens have already been successfully deployed for NISOC in both Ahwaz and Mansouri fields, with five systems installed in vertical cased hole wells between June 2003 and April 2004. All systems were successfully installed without incident, with well productivity in all cases far exceeding that previously achieved using internal gravel packs. More importantly, long term well performance has not deteriorated, with sand-free production being maintained at constant wellhead pressure, confirming ability of ESS Screens to provide long term sand retention integrity and substantial sustainable productivity gains compared to conventional gravel pack solutions. To fulfill the objectives established for this study, certain reservoir, well and production data gathered to assess efficiency of ESS compared to gravel packings.


intelligent real-time system design needs to incorporate autonomic features in their operations to achieve the unexpected criticalities of systems and its environment. Catastrophic scenarios can emerge in systems, challenging the traditional role of real-time systems where the temporal rigidity is the essential design feature. The priorities and its management scheme given for a normal operation by the conventional real-time systems need not be the ultimate format to meet the requirements of a catastrophic environment. Hence, usual real-time system is supplemented with a layer of intelligence to deal with the emerging catastrophic environment. Intelligent real-time systems can have hybrid schedulers with some additional features that can guarantee risk mitigation performance even with the occurrence of extreme, unusual variations of external conditions. This approach addresses intelligence in systems by making a real-time system schedule itself to adapt meaningfully even if the environment changes, by assigning intelligent priorities. This paper introduces the design of Intelligent Real-Time System (IRTS) that keep shifting the boundaries of the original hybrid scheduler with cognitive features aiding the intelligence by increasing the possibility to make a dynamically reconfigured system while increasing the fairness of the scheduling. Intelligent scheduler can be used in embedded critical systems in order to cope with the unexpected problems like nuclear power plants and hazardous installations. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed design performs the operation of IRTS, which can be advantageously applied to pragmatic systems and show how intelligence works with priority. Keywords-time system, catastrophe, intelligent, cognitive, priority


Object tracking is a vital feature in autonomous navigation involving multiple vehicles, e.g. platooning and tethering. For high speed platooning, advanced sensors like laser range finder or camera are usually employed. Due to their relatively low cost, passive sensors are used for collision avoidance of near objects. Their uses can be further expanded as a backup system for object tracking or obstacle avoidance. This paper describes the development of object tracking algorithm which in turns implemented on a low speed tethering using two mobile robots.


Managing patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS) in a clinical setting remains challenging despite a number of published practical management guidelines based on systematic reviews and involving both experts and patients. In this chapter we aim to provide a pragmatic guide to managing SS patients in clinic, drawing on evidence presented in this book, published guidelines, and the authors personal experience. Successful management of SS requires the physician to personalize care to the individual patient. Although dryness (sicca) of the eyes and mouth are the classically described features of SS, other mucosal surfaces may be affected, and patients may have systemic manifestations, including fatigue and arthralgia. Physicians should educate and support patients to manage their condition with interventions to conserve, replace, and stimulate secretions; prevent damage; and suppress any systemic disease activity.


Using sildenafil citrate as internal standard. The analytes were resolved on HPTLC plates (Merck) Silica gel 60F254 by using mobile phase Toluene: Ethylacetate:Methanol:Glacialaceticacid (5:3.5:0.8:0.2) v/v, with chamber saturation 10min. The plate was developed up to 8cm and air-dried. The plate then was scanned and quantified at 254nm. Sildenafil citrate was used as an internal standard for HPTLCmethod. The linearity of Tadalafil citrate is in the range of 100 to 220 ig/mL. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for Tadalafil citrate were found to be 20ig/mL, 50ig/mLrespectively. The proposedmethod is accurate, precise and rapid for determination of Tadalafil citrate.


This article examines the author's dream of Donald Trump, which occurred two months before the 2016 presidential election. In the dream, Trump watches while the dreamer plants a yellow chrysanthemum in a public garden. Objective and subjective interpretations are explored, and the dream's central images are amplified. The image of Trump is interpreted as a collective shadow figure. The yellow chrysanthemum is compared to the golden flower in Jung's commentary on Richard Wilhelm's The Secret of the Golden Flower, first published in 1931. Jung's mandala drawings and dreams are related to the development of his understanding of the archetype of the Self. In conclusion, it is suggested that the golden flower planted in the dream may represent the transcendent function, a reconciling symbol that offers reason for hope in our fractured and turbulent world.


Water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, water level, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, dissolved carbon dioxide, total soluble solid and etc, need to be monitored constantly in recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). RAS is a technique used in fish production by reusing the water. Conventional water quality monitoring systems are static and sinking type. Current innovative design allows sensors to be floating and moving around the culture tank. A microcontroller-based movable water quality monitoring system was built to measure water quality at every corner of the tank and send the results measured to user. pH and temperature sensors were connected with Arduino Uno to measure water quality every minute. 1Sheeld+, a "Bluetooth LE Tethered" shield for Arduino was used to transmit data between Arduino and smartphone. By pairing 1Sheeld board with 1Sheeld app over Bluetooth, data collected was logged into memory of smartphone as CSV format and sent to users via e-mail. Users will receive e-mail alert if data measured is out of range. This battery-powered system is automatically driven by a mini boat or also can be remotely controlled by user to move around the culture tank. Water quality parameters at different points of culture tank were measured. Users were able to obtain updated results from time to time and perform data analysis. A movable water quality monitoring system was successfully developed. The system was able to move all over the tank and measure pH value and temperature. Updated results are sent to users through email.


This adiabatic solution calorimeter was designed specifically for thermochemical studies of the less familiar oxidation states of the rare earths. It has been used in the determination of the heats of solution of Pr, Eu, EuCl2, and Pr(NO3)3 in acids. Currently, it is being employed in the determination of the heats of formation of the various stable, nonstoichiometric oxides of Pr. Close control of adiabatic conditions is maintained automatically throughout a run; manual manipulations are held to a minimum. The calorimeter holds about 200 ml of acid or water into which a solid sample is dissolved at the appropriate time. The temperature of the adiabatic shield which surrounds the calorimeter automatically increases at nearly the same rate as that of the calorimeter itself, and the increment of temperature is measured with a platinum resistance thermometer. The heat generated by a chemical reaction is calculated from a comparison of this rise in temperature to that caused by a calibrated quantity of electr...


Instruction-set simulators are critical tools for the exploration and validation of new processor architectures. Due to the increasing complexity of architectures and time-to-market pressure, performance is the most important feature of an instruction-set simulator. Interpretive simulators are flexible but slow, whereas compiled simulators deliver speed at the cost of flexibility and compilation overhead. This article presents a hybrid instruction-set-compiled simulation (HISCS) technique for generation of fast instruction-set simulators that combines the benefit of both compiled and interpretive simulation. This article makes two important contributions: (i) it improves the interpretive simulation performance by applying compiled simulation at the instruction level using a novel template-customization technique to generate optimized decoded instructions during compile time; and (ii) it reduces the compile-time overhead by combining the benefits of both static and dynamic-compiled simulation. Our experimental results using two contemporary processors (ARM7 and SPARC) demonstrate an order-of-magnitude reduction in compilation time as well as a 70% performance improvement, on average, over the best-known published result in instruction-set simulation.


More than a dozen U.S. states have decriminalized the possession of marijuana, meaning it is no longer a criminal offense for someone to have small amounts of the drug, such as an ounce or less. States such as Colorado and Washington have gone even further — legalizing recreational use for adults 21 and older in 2012.


Development of a superconducting filament near a screw dislocation, transition into the superconducting state of a crystal containing a screw dislocation, and the superconducting current distribution in a crystal containing such a dislocation are considered using the Ginzburg--Landau and London equations. It is shown that conditions for development of the superconducting filament near the screw dislocation depend significantly on the behavior of the order parameter in the dislocation core. It is noted that appearance of the superconducting filament is not a true phase transition, which in fact takes place in a three-dimensional frame of such filaments. It is shown that passage of a current along the screw dislocation leads to the development of a related turbulent filament, which does not disappear when the transport current is switched off.


active site, w e have investigated the interaction of the enzyme with phosphorus and arsenic analogues of malate and oxaloacetate. Phosphonopyruvate (1, X=P032-) is a substrate f o r MDH, albeit a poor one with a Km of 10.6 mM, and a pH optimum of c6.5. Arsonolactate (2, X = A S O ~ ~ ) 1s neither a substrate nor an inhibitor of MDH, a s determined f i r s t by the inability to detect NADH formation, and second by the lack of influence of th i s compound on the ra te of reaction of malate with MDH, measured by spectrophotometry at 340 nm. as NADH is converted to NAD+. In an attempt to gain information about t ?l e


Objective To evaluate the effects and operation methods on the tension-free repair of inguinal hernia.Methods The 1251 cases between January 2002 and March 2008 of inguinal hernias after tension-free hernioplasty were studied and analyzed retrospectively.Results 1251 cases of tension-free hernia repair were successful.1230 cases were repaired with local anesthesia.21 cases were repaired with general anesthesia.The operation methods including Lichtenstien,Mesh plug,stoppa.There were 19 cases of urine retention,47 cases of serosity swelling,24 cases of scrotum hematoma,3 cases of foreign body sensation,3 cases of wound infection after operation.There were 2 cases of hernia recurrence by follow-up.Conclusions It will acquire better curative effect for treating inguinal hernia by selecting repair methods and material using individualized treatment programs,especially mastering local anesthesia technology and preperitoneal space repair method.


First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Thibault Rosazza is first author on 'Dynamic imaging reveals surface exposure of virulent Leishmania amastigotes during pyroptosis of infected macrophages', published in JCS. Thibault conducted the research described in this article while a master's student in Dr Gerald Spaeth's lab at Institut Pasteur, Unite de Parasitologie Moleculaire et Signalisation, and is now a rotation PhD student in the lab of Dr Gabriel Solberger at University of Dundee, investigating host–pathogen interactions, emphasizing innate immunity modulations.


The present study was undertaken to observe the occupational health and safety issues and remedial measures taken in Sihala Flour Mill, I-9, Industrial Area, Islamabad. In an agricultural industry, the workers are highly exposed to harmful factors in their work environment, such as dust, unfavorable microclimatic condition, excessive noise, insufficient light, suffocation, falls, fires, explosions, electrocutions, and injuries from improperly guarded machinery. Dust is treated as the most influential agent, and perceived as a frequent cause of the respiratory system illnesses in a flour mill which can produce allergic reaction and chronic respiratory disorders, including sensitization and asthma. Sihala Flour & General Mills (Pvt.) Limited was visited to observe the occupational health and safety problems and their remedial measures taken by the industry. The mill was visited twice in the month of May, 2010. The study employed a cross-sectional analytical design. Data was collected using structured interviews, work-site observations, and physical examination. Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) was available and was in use. The workers in the work area were wearing masks and caps. But no ear muffs were provided to the employees although noise level was high. For the prevention of fire explosions, fire and smoke alarms were provided along with close circuit (CC) cameras which also replace the buddy system. The emergency contact numbers were displayed at all the important points including public gathering areas so every body is communicated the emergency situations. A good house keeping with good ventilation was observed throughout the mill area. No broken plugs, sockets and switches were seen during the visits. The stairs were in good condition with wide windows for sufficient lighting with proper use of day light. Transferring raw material (grains) from silos to the process area was mechanically operated and automatic. For transportation of the finished material, proper hand rails were provided. There was a system of drill for emergency situation after every six months. Proper record keeping of induction, job and refresher trainings, accidents and injuries was observed and was computerized. The mill was safe with


An important problem in the theory of cellular automata (CA) is the research of complex rules, the parameterization of the rule space, and the description of the CA dynamic behavior. In this article, the authors used evolutionary techniques in the search of CA with specific characteristics, in order to understand how their data are related to the previous findings in this sector. Using as fitness function, the variance of the input-entropy, a genetic algorithm was built to search complex rules for multistate CA. The algorithm used is efficient and many complex rules have been found. Many of these rules present interesting characteristics. Gliders with large period and large spatial dimensions may be observed. The experiments performed show that complex rules have several λ values, which do not reside in a sharply defined region; on the contrary, these values are extended on very large regions of the λ parameter. The results provide also a view of the CA rule space.


This is a silver gelatin photograph. The photograph was taken after the death of Christian R. Holmes and likely dates to the early 20th century.


Cascade dams alter the movement and accumulation of heavy metals in sediments along the river continuum. 27 sample cross-sections were taken in July 2011 from the Xiaowan, Manwan, and Dachaoshan dams in the middle reach of the Mekong River in southern China and analyzed for content of heavy metal (Zn, Cr, Pb, As, Cu, Ni, and Cd) concentrations in the dammed river reach. There were evident spatial variations of the heavy metal concentrations downstream and upstream of the three cascade dams; the heavy metal pollutions were higher downstream of the Xiaowan Dam and upstream of the Manwan Dam. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Pb, and Zn were higher than the background values in soil in Yunnan Province in China, and the maximum coefficient of variation of Cd reached 81%. Comparison results of two toxicity guidelines showed that the adverse effects in three cascade dams were not very high; there exists some relatively high pollution level sample sites, which were sufficiently high to cause adverse effects. The calculated geo-accumulation index (Igeo) results indicate that the investigated sediments can be classified as unpolluted with Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, and Pb, moderately polluted with Cd, and unpolluted to moderately polluted with As. Except for Cd (moderately pollution indices), all other six heavy metals varied more or less in the range of the local natural background concentrations. This pollution condition can be seen as a good sign for the dam environment. 44%, 26%, 30% of sample sites, which were located in the river center downstream of the Manwan Dam, exhibited low, moderate, and high ecological risks of heavy metal pollution and a decreasing trend of potential ecological risk Z1 (downstream of Xiaowan and upstream of the Manwan Reservoir) were higher than those in Z2 (downstream of Manwan and upstream of the Dachaoshan Reservoir). The calculated Eir mean values of the potential ecological risk for individual heavy metals is ordered as Cd>As>Pb>Cu>Ni>Zn>Cr. The principal component analysis result showed two primary components explaining 92.83% of the total variance. Zn, Cu, Cd, As, and Pb were considered to be anthropogenic heavy metal loads, while Cr and Ni were related to represent natural heavy metal loads.


In Confucius' opinion,the aim of self-cultivation is for one to train oneself to be a man of noble character.One's self-cultivation is a requirement for both the improvement of ethics and the formation of social morality.The ways of self-cultivation are mainly: learning,self-examination,self-argument,restraining one's selfishness and making a resolve.


The government of Uganda is currently rehabilitating its irrigation schemes. The largest of these is Doho Rice Irrigation Scheme (DRIS), where farmers will after rehabilitation bear the costs of its maintenance through payment of user fees. This study analyzes farmer's willingness to pay (WTP) user fees and its determinants, using data gathered from 200 rice farmers at DRIS in 2012. The contingent valuation (CV) bidding game approach and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) methods were used to elicit WTP and analyze the determinants of WTP, respectively. The study findings show that while farmers are willing to pay Ush 20,000 (USD 8)/acre/season on average, Ush 15,000 (USD 6) acre/season is actually needed to cover maintenance costs as per the 2013/2014 work plan for DRIS. The study recommends charging Ush 15,000/acre/season, however, which not only generates sufficient revenue to cover the maintenance costs, but also lies below the average WTP, which several farmers should be willing to pay without coercion. However, because not all farmers are willing to pay Ush 15,000, it is necessary to incentivize voluntary payment and strong enforcement of penalties against non-payment among those with low WTP. The OLS regression results suggest need for additional intervention that enhances private benefits to farmers, such as improved access to credit, markets and training in soil/water management and rice growing.

 Key words: Irrigation water, user fees, willingness to pay, rice, Uganda.


In order to obtain the dynamics and development trend of the giant panda population and its habitat timely for the decision-making of conservation,investigations based on sample lines,sample networks,survey,community interview and field observation were carried out,covering an area of 20 nature reserves,428 343 hm2,and 547 sample lines.Giant panda has been encountered 11 times;coexistent animals were found 1 202 times and 1196 traces found.It was showed that giant pandas like natural forest habitat with crown density over 0.4,shrub coverage 30%~69%;48.14% bamboo forest with canopy coverage over 30%.Grazing and herb collection have great impact on giant panda habitat.Cultivation and other collection have mild impact.Bamboo cut,poaching,timber harvest,fuel wood logging,tourism,mining and bamboo flowering have light impact.Qinling Mountains have been well protected for panda habitat and human disturbance has been controlled.There is a regular team working on wild giant panda monitoring.


Objective(1) To identify the effects of antivenin on sea-snake bites victims with different administration time,and(2) To screen out sensitive variables when caring and monitoring for sea-snake bites by using antivenin of Hydrophis Cyanocinctus. Methods 40 rabbits poisoned as sea-snake bites were randomly sent to five groups.Group 1 is the poisoning group without any therapy.Rabbits of group 2.group 3 and group 4 are administered enough antivenin at 0.5h.2h and 4h after poisoning respectively.Rabbits of group 5 are applied artificial ventilation at 2.5h after poisoning.and then administered antivenin at 4h.Parameters included physiological and biochemical indicators are measured at normal(before poisoning).0.5h,1h,2h,3h,4h,5h,6h,7h,8h and 10h after poisoning. Results(1) For the 40 poisoned rabbits,significant changes,including physiological and biochemical changes,were found as soon as injured.Electrocardiogram indicated hyperkaliamia at 3~6h after poisoning.Pathology test presented different damage in myocardium,skeletal muscle,kidney and liver,obviously damaged in skeletal muscle.(2) In group 2 and 3,after early administration(at 0.5h and 2h after poisoning) of antivenin,the values of Heart rate(HR),Mean arterial pressure(MAP),Respiratory rate(RR),Respiratory intensity(RI),Arterial partial pressure of oxygen(PaO_(2)) and Oxygen saturation of hemoglobin(SaO_(2)) grew higher than the values of rabbits in group 1,which were without any therapy.Alanine aminotransferase(ALT),Lactate dehydrogenase(LDH),Creatine kinase(CK),Urea(Ur),Creatinine(Cr),Arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide(PaCO_(2)),Potassium ion concentration(K~(+)) became much lower than those in group 1.All animals in group 2 and 3 survived at 24h after poisoning.Pathology test indicates that damage in myocardium,skeletal muscle,kidney and liver palliated.In group 4,after later administration(at 4h after poisoning),the values of HR,MAP,RR,RI,PaO_(2,)PaCO_(2,)PH,SaO_(2) were not statistically changed.(P0.05).The values of ALT,LDH,CK,Ur,Cr and K~(+) were lower than those in group 1.Electrocardiogram indicates hyperkaliamia.In this group,three rabbits died at 10h after poisoning and another five died within 24h.(3) Rabbits in group 5 were applied artificial ventilation at 2.5h after poisoning,the physiological and biochemical parameters improved and values were better than group 1.All animals in group 5 survived at 24h after poisoning.(4) Within all physiological and biochemical parameters,LDH,CK,RR,RI changed earlier and ALT,PaCO_(2),K~(+),Ur,Cr changed later.After administration antivenin at 2h,LDH,CK,RR,RI,HR improved earlier significantly.Conclusions The results showed that(1) Antivenin of Hydrophis Cyanocinctus is an effective medicine against sea-snake bites.The earlier the antivenin being used,the more effective the results would be,which include the better protective effect on vital organs.(2) Artificial ventilation is necessary if antivenin administration is not available in time.(3) Monitoring items,such as LDH,CK,RR,and RI,are sensitive variables that should be watched out as early as possible when taking care of victims with sea-snake bites.Other items,such as K~(+),Ur,and Cr,are better to be monitored to assess kidney function with the treatment lasts.


The coupled, nonlinear vehicle dynamics and multi‐vehicle cooperative strategies make the lane‐changing maneuver control of vehicle platoons a challenging task. This paper presents the dynamic modeling and motion control of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) for lane‐changing maneuver, utilizing the ideology of constraint‐following servo control. To guarantee a transient and steady tracking performance, a series of equality constraints and bilateral inequality constraints bounded by decaying functions or scalar constants are imposed on the dynamic state to formulate a constrained dynamical system. Since the original Udwadia‐Kalaba (UK) approach cannot handle inequality constraints and underactuated systems, a creative diffeomorphism method is applied to transform the bounded state into an unbounded one. Then, based on the UK approach and Lyapunov stability theory, a novel constraint‐following controller is designed to render the transformed states asymptotically stable in a full actuated system, and to achieve uniform stability performance in an underactuated system. Finally, numerical simulations are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control methodology.


With improving survival, the heart transplant recipient faces an increasing number of medical problems caused by both aging and the cumulative complications of immunosuppressive drugs.1 The availability of new drugs to treat infection, obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, renal insufficiency, diabetes, osteoporosis, gout, and malignancies has resulted in the heart transplant recipient and their physicians facing an almost overwhelming number of important drug–drug interactions. In parts 1 through 3 of this series, we reviewed commonly used immunosuppressive drugs and their pharmacology, as well as the common medical problems faced by the heart transplant recipient. In this article, we provide an overview of the mechanisms of common and important potential drug–drug interactions and guidelines for avoiding these interactions.


Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a fast-growing method which has been used in different industries during recent years. The main idea for creating ANN which is a subset of artificial intelligence is to provide a simple model of human brain in order to solve complex scientific and industrial problems. ANNs are high-value and low-cost tools in modelling, simulation, control, condition monitoring, sensor validation and fault diagnosis of different systems. It have high flexibility and robustness in modeling, simulating and diagnosing the behavior of rotating machines even in the presence of inaccurate input data. They can provide high computational speed for complicated tasks that require rapid response such as real-time processing of several simultaneous signals. ANNs can also be used to improve efficiency and productivity of energy in rotating equipment. In the present study develop an efficient system for sorting out various machine components in order to attain very high efficiency. Feature extraction tools are used for feature extraction of the input object. Artificial neural network the popular artificial intelligence technique is used for recognising the wavelet component object. There is also a special error function for increasing the efficiency of the system. Matlab 7.10 is used for the simulation of the object.


Introduction Small fiber involvement in different patterns of peripheral neuropathy has stirred much interest during the past few years due to the role played by these fibers in pain perception and the availability of new techniques of skin biopsy that permit the study of nerve endings [1]. The use of protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5) as a panaxonal marker in skin biopsies has led to identification of small fiber lesions in a variety of conditions that were not previously considered as potential causes of small fiber neuropathy. Small nerve fibers include the unmyelinated and the myelinated fibers smaller than 7 mm diameter. They are much more numerous than larger myelinated fibers. They are currently being explored by clinical examination, including quantitative sensory testing, but also by histometric study of nerve biopsy specimens, and more recently skin biopsies and by several techniques exploring the autonomic response [2]. There is a marked variation in unmyelinated fiber density ranging between 19 000 and 65 000 per mm endoneurial area [3]. A small proportion of these consists of post-ganglionic autonomic fibers. Small nerve fibers are often predominantly affected in human neuropathies and yet there is virtually no peripheral neuropathy in which the large myelinated fibers are totally spared morphologically. As stated in a recent review [2], there is no agreement in the literature regarding the amount of large-fiber dysfunction that can coexist and still allow the diagnosis of small-fiber neuropathy.


This paper describes IAI's experience with internal combustion piston engines for UAVs. IAI has used engines of various types for UAVs: twostroke, four-stroke, rotary and is considering diesel. Requirements of UAV engines usually differ from manned aircraft requirements resulting in changes and adaptation of engine systems. Typical design changes in various engines will be described. The available engine selections for UAVs are very limited. Light certified FAR33 engines below 50 hp are few and far between. Hence, conversion of engines / engine parts from various fields such as: engines for chain saws, carting, or motorcycles was necessary. For these engines (under 60 hp) basic systems had to be redesigned, such as: pistons, cylinders, carburetors etc. As UAVs became bigger, higher power was required and the variety of engines increased. Certified engines under JAR 22 for small aircraft / ultra-lights have now become available. Various improvement programs have been performed. The performance envelope, and range of environmental conditions was increased requiring modification of engine operating conditions by upgrading engine subsystems (carburetion, lubrication, cooling, etc.). In recent times the availability of leaded Avgas has been reduced due to ecological reasons. The emergence of military requirements for heavy fuel engines (safety and fuel availability) has resulted in the return of diesel engines for aerial use. IAI is examining the possibility of integrating diesel engines in its UAVs.


The article by Ong and colleagues in this issue studies the proportion of patients who received "potentially futile treatments" during the last 2 weeks of their lives based on a retrospective review of administrative and billing data in one urban academic cancer treatment center.1 They found that among 27 926 active cancer patients, about one in 10 patients had potentially futile interventions in the last 2 weeks of their life, most commonly radiotherapy (8%), chemotherapy (1%) or surgery (1%). The vast majority of the radiotherapy was given with palliative intent (90%), while 84% of the surgery was elective procedures. This analysis is biased as patients who had "potentially futile" treatment, but survived more than 2 weeks (maybe even months) could not be included. While using administrative data has this and other limitations as outlined by the authors, the analyses provide an opportunity to reflect on decision‐making in cancer care.


The initial stage of a relativistic heavy-ion collision can be described by a classical colour field configuration known as the glasma. The production of quark pairs from this background field is then computed nonperturbatively by numerically solving the Dirac equation in the classical background. The result seems to point towards an early chemical equilibration of the plasma.


Recent developments of an advanced numerical model for Continuous Casting of steel unveiled at the previous 2010 CSSCR Conference in Sapporo, Japan are presented. These include coupling of the existing multiphase, heat transfer and solidification model to argon injection for tracking bubble trajectories in the SEN, metal bulk and across the slag bed after passing through the metal surface. Hence, description of a method for adding gas injection in combination with a multiphase model for tracking metal/slag interfaces (Discrete Phase Model + Volume Of Fluid, DPM+VOF) is given. Validation is supported by tests on a revamped Continuous Casting Simulator (CCS-1) based on a low melting point alloy, which can realistically replicate the flow conditions in the caster. Metal-slag-argon flow predictions were compared to observations in the physical model showing good agreement on features such as discharging jets, rolls, standing waves and argon distribution measured through a variety of techniques such as ultrasound, electromagnetic probes and video sequences. Ultimately, the model makes possible the prediction of stable or unstable flows within the mould as a function of different argon flow-rates and bubble sizes. Application to industrial practice is an ongoing task and preliminary results are illustrated. The robustness of the model combined with direct observations in CCS-1 make possible the description of phenomena difficult to observe in the caster (e.g. argon injection and metal flow), but critical for the stability of the process and the quality of cast products.


The world is watching how the Chinese military develops and deploys artificial intelligence—but how exactly will it apply AI? This policy brief analyzes Chinese experts' arguments about AI and prospective warfighting capabilities, identifying prevailing concerns about strategic stability and unintended escalation.


Abstract-The equations governing the behaviour of an eiastic dielectric in the quasi-static approximationareanafysed inconnection with theinverseproblemofthecalculusofvariations. First, through compatibility with the potential conditions, the most general constitutive equations are derived which allow the model to admit a variational formulation. Then the explicit form of the Lagrangian density is determined. Consistent with the adoption of Lagrangian coordinates, the Lagrangian density ascribes to the dielectric the structure of a particle-like system.


The development of the Internet functions now affects many activities, talks, meetings, shopping, and learnings. E-Learning is part of the development models of learning that utilizes the internet. The current development model of online learning still needs support and new innovations. Politeknk Elektronika Negeri Surabaya (PENS) has an online learning application that uses the Moodle LMS. However, the LMS requires a plugin that is used to monitor activity of students' presence, that is when they are using the application. Thus, a Moodle plugin to monitor students' presence needs to be developed. This plugin has a function to record the login time of a user as a marker of the presence in eLearning. It obtains the data by using PHP code that was added to every page in Moodle. In addition to noting the value of logged in user, this plugin also notes certain activities performed by the user. Furthermore, the plugin processes the data and display it as a report with appropriate format as required by PENS. This plugin was examined of its ability to provide information about user's activities when using the eLearning application.


The identity of the seven kings in Revelation 17:9–10 has been a point of contention and confusion. The issue revolves around where to begin the count of Roman emperors who would correspond with the unnamed kings in Revelation. This article utilizes a special series of Roman imperial coins (called restoration coins) as evidence to identify the seven kings. The evidence suggests that the five kings "who have fallen" are the past emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Galba, and Vespasian. The "one who is" represents the current emperor Titus, and the other "who has not yet come" is the anticipated reign of Domitian.


majority of cases to pay the travelling expenses of the referee. I am aware that disputes cannot always be settled in this way ; but the three sections I have named are so clear and simple, that a third party can hardly fail to come to an immediate decision, and we should select a person whose award would carry weight. If Mr. Blake refuses this challenge, I will offer to take any competent geologist to the sections, and to forfeit five gunieas to a hospital if I fail to convince him. CH. CALLAWAY.


Samples of sediment and a single box of hand-collected bone recovered from excavations at Foxton's Garage, York, have been assessed for their potential for bioarchaeological analysis. The samples proved to be almost barren of identifiable plant and invertebrate remains. The vertebrate assemblage recovered from Trench 9 was too small to be of interpretative value and that from Trench 7 appeared to be of reworked (or redeposited) material and showed no potential for further analysis. No further work is recommended on the current material.


Editor,—I read the article by Limberg et al  1 with interest. I am reminded of 'Confusion of goals and perfection of means characterise the age' by Albert Einstein. It is a well tried attempt to infuse quality initiatives in a blindness control programme. However, it is evident that the Indian experience is no different from that of many other organisations in designing, monitoring, and evaluating process indicators.2I do have some serious concerns about possible (ill) use of the indicator sight restoration rate (SRR) as a variable be to included in a mathematical model for assessing the impact of interventional strategies. A study under the aegis of reputed agencies assumes tremendous prestige and conclusions become a weighty verdict. The potential to provide serious misinformation leading to decisions in slowing down the programme is of interest.

(1) It is difficult to understand the rationale of operating in one eye only in a bilaterally blind …


and, being at a boarding-fchool, it Wras thought proper to remove him to the abode of his family. This was accomplifhed, without much inconvenience, on the feventh day from the fir ft attack. The two follow'" ing days he was able to fit up occafionally* A confiderable degree of thirfl now fupcl~ vened, and the fenfation of cold became more ltrong and frequent. Two of the ft" inily were under the influence of the incoj>eS


of the more difficult problems is patient medication compliance. Although there are several mechanisms to improve medication compliance, one effective mechanism that has not been adequately stressed is to simplify the patient's drug regimen. While several antihypertensive agents, including reserpine, guanethidine and thiazide diuretics, are usually given in single doses, other agents (e.g., hydralazine, propranolol, methyldopa) continue to be given by many, and probably most, practitioners in three to four divided daily doses. Over the past few years, numerous authors have reported that methyldopa, propranolol and hydralazine· can be administered safely and effectively twice daily. In addition, recent investigations indicate that in the not too distant future, single daily dosing of methyldopa· and propranolol" will be feasible. In Sweden, beta-blockers are now officially approved for administration in single daily doses for the treatment of hypertension. .Clinical experience with twice daily dosing of hydralazine, propranolol, and methyldopa in our clinics has been quite encouraging. More investigation on single daily dosing of propranolol and methyldopa is needed in the United States. However, we envision the time when antihypertensives will be prescribed in single and twice daily doses almost exclusively. Since hypertension affects such a large number of people in this country, and since lack of effective therapy is often catastrophic, all health care practitioners should continue to improve further the care of hypertensive patients. One potentially effective means of improving hypertensive patient care is for pharmacists to educate and encourage their physician colleagues with regard to prescribing simplified antihypertensive dosing regimens. For the moment, twice daily dosing of hydralazine, methyldopa and propranolol should be strongly encouraged. For the future, further documentation of the efficacy and safety of single daily doses of methyldopa and propranolol should be eagerly anticipated by all practitioners. WILLIAM A. MILLER, M . S C , Pharm.D. Professor and Chairman Department of Pharmacy Practice TIMOTHY H. SELF, Pharm.D. Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice Department of Pharmacy Practice STEPHEN T. MILLER, M.D. Associate Professor Departments of Medicine and Community Medicine University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences Memphis, TN 38163 References


: The study was conducted to found the ground water potentials in Sirsa district of Haryana with an aerial extent of 4276 sq.km. The study has analyzed the spatial-temporal changes in groundwater depth in Sirsa district to understand the hydrological behaviour and status of the area. Various thematic maps were prepared such as (Groundwater and its fluctuation of pre-monsoon and monsoon in two decades (1996-2017). The main objective of the study was to investigate the temporal trends in annual and monthly groundwater level with the help of central ground water board data. The result indicated a mix of negative and positive trends in the ground water level series. The study is analytical in nature and based on secondary sources information. Major sources of data are ground water year book published by Central Ground Water Board and Ground Water Cell, Agricultural Department, Government of Haryana and statistical abstract of Haryana. The study was carried out for a period of last 2 decades (1996-2017). Five groundwater observation wells were selected representing their respective block. The major activities involved in this process include compilation of existing data, generation of GIS database (shape files), interpolation, categorization, mapping, and interpretation.


case studies in Mexico, the United States and Canada shows that the quality and sustainability of the relational and formal channels are key factors for success of the knowledge transfer. Most importantly, best practices are linked with experiences supported by an institutional complexity sustained in a wide variety of intermediary organizations, and S&T initiatives created by them. These organizational capabilities for the coordination of innovation process that are social, political and historically constructed, are generated by a national institutional context which defines certain priorities in S&T. These priorities finally reflect distinctive national modes and styles of innovation and development in each country.


This paper presents a new miniature reconfigurable DVB-H and GPS antenna for a portable TV or tablet PC device. The antenna consists in a Printed-Inverted-F-Antenna (PIFA) loaded by a varactor diode. The radiating element has a size of 30*30*5 mm3 and is mounted on a 230*130mm2 ground plane. This antenna is able to maintain a return loss below -10 dB on a 8 MHz bandwidth reconfigurable channel from 450 to 900 MHz and cover a 50 MHz bandwidth around 1.575GHz for the GPS standard. Then, this radiating element reaches to cover the whole frequency band specification of the DVB-H standard while keeping a good efficiency despite of the strong miniaturization


The article describes a method for measuring the permittivity of dielectric materials with low loss in the microwave range 8-12 GHz. A miniature inductive capacitive resonator is used for measuring. The results of method's approbation and its systematic error are presented.


A process for the spatial filter measurement along at least a beginning of the measurement set manually or by an automated image analysis technique predetermined curved path (8, 25, 31, 73), with at least one along the path (8, 25, 31, 73) defined spatial filter function (60, 75) functionally dependent (of a progressive path length along the path 8, 25, 31, 73), from the time variation of a means of image acquisition and evaluation as well as the spatial filter function (60, 75) generated spatial filter signal, a velocity to be measured, or velocity distribution of one or more along the at least one path (8, 25, 31, 73) moving objects (15, 16) is calculated.


Phrenic neuropathies in peripheral neuropathies are increasingly recognized. This report describes a diabetic patient who, following a myocardial infarction, developed persistent respiratory acidosis. Subsequent evaluation revealed bilateral phrenic nerve palsies with diaphragmatic paresis. This study emphasizes the need to consider phrenic nerve injury as a cause for persistent respiratory problems even where the patient's medical condition might suggest other causes.


Over the next few decades the chemical industry will need to reduce drastically the greenhouse gas emissions footprint associated with the manufacturing of chemicals and fuels. Electrifying manufacturing of some intermediates or products holds promise to help meet this challenge. While techno-economic (TEA) and life-cycle (LCA) analyses of the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to products such as CO, formic acid, ethylene, and ethanol indicate their promise, these also highlight the challenge to compete in terms of cost with present day chemical conversion processes operated at scale [1].
 This contribution will elaborate on the prospects of electrochemical co-conversion: performing desired chemical conversions on both electrodes of an electrolyzer. Such an electrolysis process not only uses renewable energy to produce two or more value added products simultaneously, it also avoids the energy intense oxygen evolution reaction that oftentimes is paired with CO2 reduction or hydrogen evolution (water electrolysis). Indeed, when coupled with CO2 reduction to CO, the oxygen evolution reaction on the anode consumes about 90% of the energy required to drive the overall process. Performing oxidation reactions, in particular oxidation of organic substrates, reduces the cell potential by about 0.8V, representing a reduction in overall energy consumption of 30-50%, depending on the cathode process and operating conditions. . Co-conversion electrolysis process technology could be a starting point for a new generation of chemical manufacturing technology that is significantly more energy efficient than the traditional thermochemical processes, while also able to use renewable feedstocks, such as CO2, water, biomass adducts, or organic waste streams.
 This presentation will dive into technoeconomic and lifecycle analyses of a wide range of co-conversion scenarios. Using gross margin and other models, the question will be answered which electrolysis process comprised of specific combinations of cathodic reactions (CO2 reduction, hydrogen evolution, ...) and anodic reactions (various specific oxidations of organic compounds) will have the best economic prospects. Similarly, the work will provide insights as to what combinations of anodic and cathode chemical conversions are most promising from a lifecycle point of view, in reducing CO2 emissions. This work also will provide insights with respect to what factors (catalyst cost, electrode durability, ...) have the most potential in helping to further improve economic viability and to further reduce CO2 emissions.


Kajen Local General Hospital, as a hospital owned by the Local Government of Pekalongan Regency, is the biggest hospital and is a reference for the people of Pekalongan Regency. This study describes and analyses health services management of RSUD Kajen. RSUD Kajen is demanded to be able to provide good health services that how the management of health services is carried out by applying existing health service standards. This study has the types of quantitative and qualitative descriptive research that is to describe and analyze the management of health services, especially in applying the service standards of RSUD Kajen. The sample of this study were 100 respondents. The indicators used include the suitability of service requirements, ease of service mechanisms and procedures, speed of service time, reasonableness of costs, conformity of service products with service standards, quality of facilities and infrastructure, ease of fulfillment of requirements, clarity and certainty of requirements and speed and response


The physical performances of 6 kinds of Ni?MH battery separators (3 kinds of fluorizated separators and 3 kinds of sulfonated separators) were comprehensively compared with each other by measuring and calculating their thickness, surface densities, alkaline absorptions, sucking rates, apparent densities, separator porosities and SEM morphologies. With the help of contrasting charge/discharge curves, cycle lives and charge reservation rates, FV3, a special type of sulfonated separator, was selected as the most suitable diaphragm for 15, 20 and 30 A discharge performances of experimental SC3000 Ni?MH batteries with the same positive and negative electrodes. A new method was also proposed for evaluating the effects of separators on high rate discharge performance, which would be valuable to study and develop dynamical Ni?MH battery.


We analyze a general framework for modeling agents whose utility is derived from both their actions and the perceptions of others about their type. We show that such perception games always have equilibria, and discuss two natural refinements. We demonstrate the applicability of our framework in a variety of contexts, with a particular emphasis on privacy-related issues. Gradwohl gratefully acknowledges the support of NSF award #1216006. Smorodinsky gratefully acknowledges the support of ISF grant 2016301, the joint Microsoft-Technion e-Commerce Lab, Technion VPR grants and the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Systems Engineering at the Technion. We also thank Jana Friedrichsen, Ehud Kalai, Gil Kalai, Eddie Dekel and Juuso Valimaki for insightful comments. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Email: email@example.com.


BACKGROUND/AIM
UBC Rapid is a test detecting fragments of cytokeratins 8 and 18 in urine. These are cytokeratins frequently overexpressed in tumor cells. We present the first results of a multi-centre study using UBC Rapid in patients with bladder cancer and healthy controls.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Clinical urine samples from 92 patients with tumors of the urinary bladder (45 low-grade and 47 high-grade tumors) and from 33 healthy controls were used. Urine samples were analyzed by the UBC Rapid point-of-care (POC) system and evaluated both visually and quantitatively using a concile Omega 100 POC reader. For visual evaluation, different thresholds of band intensity for considering a test as positive were applied. Sensitivities and specificities were calculated by contingency analyses.

RESULTS
We found that pathological concentrations by UBC Rapid are detectable in urine of patients with bladder cancer. The calculated diagnostic sensitivity of UBC Rapid in urine was 68.1% for high-grade, but only 46.2% for low-grade tumors. The specificity was 90.9%. The area under the curve (AUC) after receiver-operated curve (ROC) analysis was 0.733. Pathological levels of UBC Rapid in urine are higher in patients with bladder cancer in comparison to the control group (p<0.0001).

CONCLUSION
UBC rapid can differentiate between patients with bladder cancer and controls. Further studies with a greater number of patients will show how valuable these results are.


The red chunk title compound [Cu4(S5)2(4-Mepy) 4]?4-Mepy) was obtained by the reaction of copper powder with sulfur powder, potassium sulfide and excess 4-methylpyridine at ambient temperature and normal atmosphere. Its structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, and the crystal data for the compound: triclinic, P , a = 9.7442(2), b = 14.124(3), c = 15.410 (3) ? ?= 98.96(3), ?= 93.82(3), ?= 94.08(3)? V = 2083.7(7) ?3, Z = 2, Dc = 1.66 g/cm3, (MoK? = 1.31mm-1, F(000) = 1052,C30H35N5S10Cu4,Mr = 1040.45. The structure was refined to R = 0.0393 and wR = 0.1158 for 9281 independent reflections. The title crystal consists of a neutral complex molecule [Cu4(S5)2(4-CH3C5H4N)4] and a 4-methylpyridine solvent molecule. In the neutral complex, the four Cu atoms are in a distorted tetrahedral arrangement and the nonbonding Cu…Cu distances in the copper tetrahedron range from 3.1414 to 3.8488 , and the CuS bond lengths vary from 2.2839 to 2.3670 ?


This paper describes the quality assurance procedures currently (August 2005) in place in Universities in the Republic of Ireland. The distinctive features that help make these procedures particularly effective and appropriate are identified. Potential issues arising from an external review conducted by the European Universities Association are discussed. Finally, the issue of the how to evaluate teaching and learning within the context of a quality assurance system is examined. The conclusion is reached that quality assurance processes in general and, in particular, those relating to the evaluation of teaching and teachers, are best achieved through internal processes subject to external moderation rather than through external inspection (Received on March 1, 2006) Introduction and Background Ireland is one of the smaller member-states of the European Union. It has a population of just over 4 million people. The profile of the population, however, is atypical with 28% being under the age of 20 and 37% under 35.1 Gross Domestic Product was 148,000,000,000 euro in 2004 2 (i.e. 148 billion euro or 36,737 euro per capita). Along with the US, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland, Ireland is categorized by the OECD as one of the five "high income" countries.3 Average annual economic growth rates have been as follows: *) Correspondence: firstname.lastname@example.com 1990 1995 = 4.78%. 1995 2000 = 9.5% 2001 2003 = 4.8% 2004 2006 = 4.8% (OECD Forecast) EU average for 2004: 1.0%, OECD average 1.6% 4 There are seven universities in Ireland all of them, in Japanese terms, national.s In 1997 these universities became self-governing corporations. (There are also 14 publicly-funded Institutes of Technology offering degree programmes up to Master level and one private college also offering degree programmes up to Master level. There are no private universities in the Republic of Ireland there are, however, several private colleges offering degree programmes validated by European or


A just, equitable, and credible peer review process is the cornerstone of a high quality and safe Health Care System. The importance of an unbiased and protected Peer Review System is codified in the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986, HCQIA. However, the peer review process may go wrong when in the new landscape of healthcare which is dominated by large hospital organizations and the big business of medicine, the peer review system may be misused for reasons other than to ensure compliance to the highest standards of professionalism in the interest of the public and the profession. In those instances, due to the immunity protection, which is afforded by HCQIA, contrived allegations of incompetence or disruptive behavior may be used to retaliate against physicians. Most physicians are not familiar with these complex issues which can affect their careers. It is time for a comprehensive discourse among physicians and healthcare attorneys with the singular goal of preserving the legitimacy of Peer Review.


The paper discusses the problem of the choice of the moulding sand mixture composition in terms of the sand behaviour in contact with molten metal. Studies of high-temperature phenomena make assessment of the sand composition bility under real operating conditions possible, thus leading to the elimination of sand-originating casting defects. The research was conducted on selected moulding materials included in the composition of traditional moulding sand mixtures without the addition of carbon. The effect of moulding sand composition and moisture content on the linear dilatation and stress-induced allotropic changes of quartz was examined. The analysis of these phenomena was based on 3D charts and maps generated from data collected during the tests.


The relationship of age, growth and length-weight was analyzed for Chalcalburnus mossulensis from the Askale region of Karasu River from November 1995 to October 1997. Fish in the sample groups were between 1 and 7 years and the ratio of males to females was 1:1.08. Von Bertalanffy equations were used to find the growth in length for both sexes. The growth parameters for males and females were estimated to be L\infinity = 19.88869 cm, K = 0.1867795 and t0 = -2.3 and L\infinity = 21.8742 cm, K = 0.168014 and t0 = -2.1, respectively. We also found that the length-weight relationships were a = 0.0129 and b = 2.913 for males and a = 0.073 and b = 3.136 for females


The increasing development of mobile applications has changed the traditional demands of computer networks, which must now provide ubiquitous broadband wireless communication. In this context, IEEE 802.16 standardizes the physical and medium access control layers of the technology, aiming to allow network access in both nomadic and mobile scenarios. In this work we analyze the impact caused by overhead on the bandwidth allocation mechanism of WiMAX networks. Our main focus is to evaluate the number of SSs that can be served, and the influence of adaptive modulation and coding configuration. Finally, we discuss the importance of considering physical impairments in the process of designing a broadband wireless access network.


In the matricial discretization method proposed, the multipass heat exchanger is divided into small exchangers, this makes possible an automatic computation of the exchanger performances and avoids some faulty assumptions; more especially, it is possible to introduce local modifications which is impossible to do with the continuous classical method; some results are given as a comparison Dans la methode de discretisation matricielle presentee, l'echangeur a passages multiples est fractionne en echangeurs elementaires, ce qui permet d'automatiser aisement le calcul des performances de l'echangeur et d'eviter certaines hypotheses abusives; elle permet, en particulier, d'apporter des modifications locales qui ne peuvent etre introduites dans le calcul continu classique; quelques resultats sont donnes a titre de comparaison


The importance of this study is to examine the customer satisfaction towards Flipkart.com users in Chennai city. Also tried to find out various attributes of Flipkartusers of Chennai city towards the online shopping. For this study survey was conducted. The data will be collected from respondents through a scheduled containing questions. The study result concluded that future of e-tailers in India especially in cities looking very bright. Flipkart.com offering best prices, good products and completely easy shopping experience for our customers. The success of any e-tailer company in India is depending upon its popularity, its branding image, its unique & fair policies, and its customer relations etc.


This paper presents an analysis of multimodality in a virtual learning environment as well as the appropriation of new genres and academic literacy experienced by students in an undergraduate blended course. The objective was to understand the relationships that individuals construct among themselves and with the multimodal environment itself through online writing. The results demonstrated that multimodality influences choices, navigation, and one's own writing style. It could be observed that the text and the discourse produced by these individuals in this environment are modified over time, influenced by the relationships established among themselves, with the technology itself, and with academia.


A 35-year-old male presentedwith episodic vomiting, anorexia, weight loss, and fever for the last 6 months. The fever was low grade, intermittent in nature, and was not associated with night sweats. There was no past history of tuberculosis. Physical examination showed mild hepatomegaly. He had a hemoglobin of 11.1 gm/dL, erythrocyte sedimentation rate 35mm/hr, total bilirubin 0.5mg/dL, serum glutamic-oxalo-acetictransaminase40IU/L,serumglutamic-pyruvictransam-inase 30IU/L, and elevated alkaline phosphatase 281IU/L (normal value 44 – 147IU/L). Viral serological tests were negative for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human immunode fi ciency virus.ChestX-rayandcomputedtomographyofthechestwere normal. Ultrasound of the abdomen revealed hepatomegaly and multiple periportal lymph nodes, largest of 2cm (cid:1) 1.2cm diameter. Mantoux test was negative. On computed tomography (CT), the liver (18.5cm) and spleen (18.4cm) were enlarged with a dilated portal


For 10 patients involving 11 finger amputations, replantations were performed under the digital block anesthesia in 1998. The patient underwent replantation in a supine position. The local anesthesial (lidocaine 2% without epinephrine) was given around the MP joint as little as possible. For most of the patients, one digital artery and two veins were repaired under the digital tourniquet made of the surgical glove. Two digits were replanted in one patient. The average operative time was 5.1 hours. Two patients underwent re-operation for vascular problems. One thumb tip replantation failed and immediately the first dorsal metacarpal flap was used for the wound coverage under the general anesthesia. These two salvage fingers were performed under the axillary block or general anesthesia during the reoperation surgery. Nine, patients under the local anesthesia completed the courses of the operation, with the conversion rate of 10%. Ten digits (91%) survived. No complication was related with the digital block anesthesia. The digital block anesthesia for digital replantation is an easy, safe, economic and effective way and may be used preliminarily for replantation in a cooperative patient with a single digital amputation.


Finite element model for the car body structure of aluminum-alloy intercity electric multiple units was established by using the finite element software Ansys.The load modes were determined according to the corresponding standards.The static strength and vibration forms of the car body in preparation and maximum vertical load condition were calculated.The results show that the static strength and rigidity of the aluminum alloy car body are consistent with the standard requirement under each working condition.


Objectives Baso-apical gradients exist in various cochlear structures including medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferent system. This study investigated the cochlear regional differentials in the function and morphology of the MOC system, and addressed the functional implications of regional MOC efferent terminals (ETs) in the mouse cochlea. Methods In CBA/J mice, MOC reflex (MOCR) was assessed based on the distortion product otoacoustic emission in the absence and presence of contralateral acoustic stimulation. High, middle, and low frequencies were grouped according to a mouse place-frequency map. Cochlear whole mounts were immunostained for ETs with anti-α-synuclein and examined using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The diameters of ETs and the number of ETs per outer hair cell were measured from the z-stack images of the basal, middle and apical regions, respectively. Results The middle cochlear region expressed large, clustered MOC ETs with strong MOCR, the base expressed small, less clustered ETs with strong MOCR, and the apex expressed large, but less clustered ETs with weak MOCR. Conclusion The mouse cochlea demonstrated regional differentials in the function and morphology of the MOC system. Strong MOCR along with superior MOC morphology in the middle region may contribute to 'signal detection in noise,' the primary efferent function, in the best hearing frequencies. Strong MOCR in spite of inferior MOC morphology in the base may reflect the importance of 'protection from noise trauma' in the high frequencies.


BACKGROUND: Studies on peripheral benzodiazepine receptor function have yielded a diverse list of activities of which the anti-inflammatory effects need to be further examined. AIMS: To evaluate the role of steroids, nitric oxide and adenosine-deaminase in the anti-inflammatory effect of PK11195. METHODS: Pleurisy was induced by intrapleural injection of carrageenan in mice pre-treated or not with PK11195. Leukocytes, exudation, adenosine-deaminase (ADA) activity and nitric oxide (NO) level were measured. Steroid involvement was evaluated by pre-treatment with D,L-aminogluthetimide before PK11195. RESULTS: Leukocytes, exudation and NO levels were reduced by PK11195 in the early (4 h) phase. In the late (48 h) phase, PK11195 decreased leukocytes and ADA activity. D,L-aminogluthetimide reversed the effect of PK11195 on exudate (4 h), as well as total and differential leukocytes and NO levels (48 h). CONCLUSIONS: Steroids, NO and ADA are implicated in the anti-inflammatory action of PK11195.


This is the final report For Washington University's Terabit Burst Switching Project, supported by DARPA and Rome Air Force Laboratory. The primary objective of the project has been to demonstrate the feasibility of Burst Switching, a new data communication service, which seeks to more effectively exploit the large bandwidths becoming available in WDM transmission systems. Burst switching systems dynamically assign data bursts to channels in optical data links, using routing information carried in parallel control channels. This work is supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency and Rome Laboratory (contract F30602-97-1-2703). Terabit Burst Switching Final Report Jonathan Turner 2 Terabit Burst Switching Final Report Jonathan S. Turner email@example.com 1. Project Summary The primary objectives of the Terabit Burst Switching Project were to develop a new paradigm for optical switching called Optical Burst Switching (OBS), develop and evaluate OBS switch architectures and demonstrate OBS through the development and evaluation of a prototype system. A secondary objective was the development of a 160 Gb/s ATM switch, to be used in conjunction with the OBS demonstration system. The project has made significant contributions to the development of optical burst switching concepts. Innovations developed for the project include the following: • Separation of burst control and data. One of the key ideas behind the OBS concept is the separation of the burst control information from the burst header information. This allows burst headers to be processed electronically while data bursts pass through the switches transparently in the optical domain. • Variable burst offsets to compensate for control variation. Our proposed OBS protocol incorporates a variable offset between each burst header cell and the burst that it controls. The use of a variable offset allows the offset value to be modified as bursts pass through the network to compensate for the inevitable delay variations present in the control subsystems of the burst switches. • Lookahead resource management. In order for OBS networks to handle short bursts efficiently, it is necessary for the control subsystems of burst switches to construct schedules of projected resource usage and make control decisions based on these schedules. • Horizon scheduling. We developed the first practical scheduling algorithm for OBS routers, showed how it could be implemented in hardware to provide very fast burst processing and determined conditions under which it provides optimal performance. • Horizon scheduling with reordering. Horizon schedulers can perform poorly if there is large variability in the offsets between burst header cells and their corresponding bursts. This dependence of the performance on the offset can be eliminated by augmenting the horizon scheduler with a reordering buffer, allowing burst header cells to be processed in the order of burst arrival. Terabit Burst Switching Final Report Jonathan Turner 3 • Differential search trees for burst storage management. We developed an efficient data structure for maintaining a usage schedule for a burst storage subsystem. This data structure makes it possible to quickly determine if an incoming burst can be accommodated using the available memory and can be quickly updated to account for the arrival of new bursts. • Switch element design using tunable lasers and passive wavelength routers. The cost of the datapath of optical burst switches is a key design issue. To reduce the cost of the datapath, we developed a novel switch element design whose only active component is a set of tunable lasers and showed how to analyze its blocking performance and demonstrated that it offers a practical alternative to more expensive nonblocking designs. • Time-sliced optical burst switching. Wavelength conversion is a major cost component of optical burst switches. By switching bursts in the time domain instead of the wavelength domain, the costs can be reduced by a large factor. We are developing new architectures for such systems, that are arguably among the first designs for a form of optical packet switch that shows real potential for providing a cost-effective alternative to all-electronic routers. In addition to the project's fundamental research activities, it sought to demonstrate optical burst switching and high capacity ATM switching through the development of two prototype systems. While the ATM switch was completed and has been successfully demonstrated, the prototype burst switch could not be completed, due to unexpected budget cuts that were made late in the program. 2. Personnel A project of this magnitude requires a substantial engineering staff to turn the high level vision into working systems. We were fortunate to have a talented and dedicated engineering staff to carry out this complex effort. The table below lists the individuals who were involved and their roles in the project. Name Period Role Alex Chandra 2/99-2/02 hardware design engineer logic design for Time Stamp chip, ATM Interface Controller, Input Buffer chip and Output Buffer chip Tom Chaney 10/97-6/02 Hardware Team Manager Yuhua Chen 1/99-2/02 hardware design engineer Burst Processor logic design, Burst Switch Element board design, system architecture and performance evaluation John DeHart 10/97-9/98, 1/02-3/02 software design engineer system planning, testing and evaluation Maynard Engebretson 1/98-12/99 hardware design engineer physical design J. Andrew Fingerhut 1/98-12/98 hardware design engineer Input Port Processor 2 specification Terabit Burst Switching Final Report Jonathan Turner 4 John Lockwood 6/99-9/00 hardware design engineer Burst Storage Unit, FPGA programming circuits Tom McLaughlin 1/99-6/00 hardware design engineer Burst Processor logic design Naji Naufel 2/99-1/00 hardware design engineer Switch Element logic design Wenjing Tang 2/99-2/02 hardware design engineer physical design, printed circuit board layout for IO Module, ATM Interface, OC-48 line card W. Dave Richard 3/98-3/01 hardware design engineer design of OC-48 line card, Dual G-link line card, Quad OC-12 line card Michael Richards 1/98-1/00, 10/00-12/01 hardware technician printed circuit board layout for Burst Control board, Miscellaneous board, ATM Switch IO board, Dual G-link line card, Quad OC-12 line card Fred Rosenberger 1/98-7/00 hardware design engineer Crossbar logic design, Sync. chip logic design Randy Richards 3/98-10/01 hardware technician Input Port Processor logic design, printed circuit board layout for Switch Element board, Crossbar board, Burst backplane, ATM backplane 3. Burst Switching Concept By some estimates, bandwidth usage in the Internet is doubling every six to twelve months [CO98]. Data network capacities now surpass voice network capacities and the growing demand for network bandwidth is expected to continue well into the next century. Current networks use only a small fraction of the available bandwidth of fiber optic transmission links. The emergence of WDM technology is now unlocking more of the available bandwidth, leading to lower costs, which can be expected to further fuel the demand for bandwidth. We now face the near-term prospect of single fibers capable of carrying terabits per second of data. This leads to a serious mismatch with current switching technologies, which are capable of switching at rates of "only" 1-10 Gb/s. While emerging ATM switches and IP routers can be used to switch data using the individual channels within a WDM link (the channels typically operate at 2.4 Gb/s or 10 Gb/s), this approach implies that tens or hundreds of switch interfaces must be used to terminate a single link with a large number of channels. Moreover, there can be a significant loss of statistical multiplexing efficiency when the parallel channels are used simply as a collection of independent links, rather than as a shared resource. Proponents of optical switching have long advocated new approaches to switching using optical technology in place of electronics in switching systems [BA97,GA97,MA96]. Unfortunately, the limitations of optical component technology [GU96,IK96,ST96] have largely limited optical switching to facility management applications. While there have been attempts to demonstrate the use of optical switching in directly handling end-to-end user data channels, Terabit Burst Switching Final Report Jonathan Turner 5 these experiments have been disappointing. Indeed they primarily serve to show how crude optical components remain and have done little to stimulate any serious move toward optical switching. This project has sought to develop an approach to high performance networking that can more effectively exploit the capabilities of fiber optic transmission systems and facilitate a transition to switching systems in which optical technology plays a more central role. Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is designed to make best use of optical and electronic technologies. It uses electronics to provide dynamic control of system resources, assigning individual user data bursts to channels on WDM links. The control mechanisms are designed to efficiently handle data bursts as short as a kilobyte or as long as many megabytes. OBS is designed to facilitate switching of the user data channels entirely in the optical domain. While current optical components remain too crude for this to be practical, anticipated improvements in integrated optics could ultimately make optical-domain switching feasible and economically viable. Figure 1 shows the basic concept for an OBS network. The transmission links in the system carry multiple WDM channels, any one of which can be dynamically assigned to a user data burst. One (or possibly more than one) channel on each link is designated a control channel, and used to control dynamic assignment of the remaining channels to user data bursts. When an end system has a burst of data to send, an idle channel on the


Metallic semiconductor nanolaser, as an ultra-small light source, has been increasingly attractive to researchers in last decade. It can have wide potential applications such as in photonic integrated circuits, on-chip interconnect, optical communications,etc. One obstacle to miniaturization of the laser size is that the loss increases rapidly with the cavity volume decreasing. In previous studies, a type of Fabry-Perot cavity with capsule-shaped structure was investigated and demonstrated both numerically and experimentally, showing that its cavity loss is reduced dramatically in contrast to the scenario of conventional rectangular cavities. However, when the cavity size is reduced down to nanoscale, capsule-shaped structure surfers high loss. To overcome this difficulty, in this paper, a novel type of double-concave cavity structure for metallic semiconductor nanolaser in a 1.55 μm wavelength range is proposed and numerically studied. The proposed structure consists of InGaAs/InP waveguide structure encapsulated by metallic clad, and has a cylindrical reflection end face and concave curved sidewalls. The cylindrical reflection end face can push the resonant mode into the cavity center and reduce the optical field overlap with metallic sidewalls, which can reduce the metallic loss. The curved-sidewalls topologically reduce the electric field component perpendicular to the sidewalls, and thus reducing the plasmonic loss. By optimizing the waist width of the double-concave cavity structure, the radiation loss can be effectively reduced, resulting in the improvement of cavity quality factor and the decrease of threshold current. Finite-difference time-domain simulations are conducted to investigate the properties of the proposed cavity structures such as resonant mode distribution, cavity quality factor, confinement factor, threshold gain and threshold current in this paper. The numerical results show that the double-concave cavity laser with cavity volume as small as 0.258 λ3 increases 24.8% of cavity quality factor and reduces 67.5% of threshold current, compared with the conventional capsule-shaped one, demonstrating an effective improvement of metallic nanolaser. With those advantages, the proposed structure can be used for realizing the ultra-small metallic semiconductor nanolasers and relevant applications.


Watersheds know no political boundaries. Except for the borders of a few countries and a few of the United States, this adage is true. Most watersheds include many state, provincial, and local governments and this ''balkanization'' is what makes the policy of watershed management so complex. Employing an historical exercise in counterfactualism, ''what if'' the United States were originally delineated on a watershed basis? ''What if'' each state was originally delineated by watershed, basin, or hydrologic planning unit? What would we learn as watershed managers from this exercise? This article reviews a selected history of watershed management in the USA as it relates to the many laws, regulations, and river basin commissions that were created to manage water resources that cross political boundaries. There are several lessons that watershed managers can learn from this exercise in counterfactualism. Watersheds form the best hydrological planning units for land, water, and ecosystem management. The concept of the river basin commission is a particularly effective way to manage water resources. Opportunities should be sought in the USA and overseas to create and recreate governments based on watersheds. Prospects should be explored to delineate the boundaries of sub-government jurisdictions such as water, sewer, stormwater, or planning districts based on watersheds. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


To examine the prevalence of GAD among people with peptic ulcer disease patients, as well as the sociodemographic differences and risk factors between peptic ulcer disease patients with and without GAD. This research was conducted in Samawa City's Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital. In the examination department, 50 PUD patients (study group) were assessed. A total of 30 individuals (the control group) are chosen at random and matched to the study group's age, gender, educational level, and marital status. In both groups, the diagnosis of GAD was assessed using the right questionnaires. Patients with PUD had considerably higher GAD levels. people with PUD are more likely to have a generalized anxiety disorder, hence these people should have it evaluated. Peptic ulcer condition is often known as GAD (general anxiety disorder).ICD stands for the International Classification of Disease.


We are pleased to see that our recent article (Lacoul and Freedman, 2006) on high-altitude records for aquatic plants in the Himalayas of Nepal has now resulted in our learning of observations previously unknown to us of even higher records in the Andes of South America. This ongoing learning is a key part of the constructive progress of ecological science, involving a cumulative assembly of information about the natural world, including the geographic and environmental limits of species and how these may change over time. These sorts of high-altitude observations are especially salient today as we work to establish reliable databases that will be useful in detecting ecological responses to warming and other aspects of global climate change. In fact, one of the key points being made in our paper is that the colonization of lakes at 4760 m is an apparently recent phenomenon that may be related to high-altitude warming during the past few decades.


Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows:
Numerous Unsuccessful attempts have been made to replant sites in citrus groves where trees have been infected with Armillaria mellea. The original rootstock, sweet orange, is susceptible. Some sour orange rootstocks are resistant to the disease, but cannot be recommended because of susceptibility to tristeza (quick decline). Troyer citrange and trifoliate orange are most commonly replanted now, but both are extremely susceptible to Armillaria mellea. An Ichang hybrid has shown resistance in greenhouse tests and is now being field tested.


Because of the small cubage and lightness of MAV,the control of the attitude of MAV is very sensitive to the external disturbance.What's more,MAV has such characteristics as non-linearity,variable coefficient,inertia,pure delay,and cross coupling and so on.All these add the difficulty of control.Here,we take an advanced genetic algorithm combined with traditional optimization method to quickly get the globally optimal solution in convergence by more probability.In this way,we find an optimization control method.At the same time,the slippage mode of variable control is completely adaptive to system disturber and system perturbation makes the influences of external interference to minimum.Simulation results prove that this control method has perfect control quality and a robust nature.


This paper explains the concept of market barrier in Chinese restaurant industry,analyzes on the structural entering barrier,competitive barrier and withdrawing barrier,and probes into the influences of and the countermeasures for the market barrier on the industrial competition.


Using the self-consistent tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital method, we have investigated the electronic structure and adsorption properties of one monolayer Au atoms on a Si(111) surface. The total energies, the layer projected density of states and the charge distributions are calculated in detail. Our calculations show that the most stable position is on the interstitial center site above the Si(111) surface for the adsorbed Au atoms. It is possible for the Au atoms to sit below the Si surface, resulting in a Au–Si mixed layer at the Au/Si interface, which is in good agreement with the experimental results.


This paper examines governance processes shaping the experiences of neighbourhood restructuring-induced residential relocation in Housing Market Renewal (HMR) areas in England. Since the 1950s and 1960s, residential relocation has been examined as a matter of social and political debate, especially in gentrification studies focusing mainly on negative residential relocation outcomes long after the process was over. This paper argues that such a focus had led researchers to ignore subtle, practical dimensions of relocation delivery and the causal relationships between these and often very diverse relocation experiences. Based on the HMR case, the study shows that residential relocation in a differentiated polity is delivered by complex networks of actors and that residential relocation outcomes are the result of cooperation or non-cooperation of network members. Key innovation rests in devising a theoretical vehicle that shows how governance has a profound impact on relocation delivery and residential relocation experiences.


There are elements of our lives whose commonplace nature makes them seem to melt into our everyday routine, yet they shape our days. Maintaining Clon: Cyb...


Visual Question Answering (VQA) is a multimodal research related to Computer Vision (CV) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). How to better obtain useful information from images and questions and give an accurate answer to the question is the core of the VQA task. This paper presents a VQA model based on multimodal encoders and decoders with gate attention (MEDGA). Each encoder and decoder block in the MEDGA applies not only self-attention and crossmodal attention but also gate attention, so that the new model can better focus on inter-modal and intra-modal interactions simultaneously within visual and language modality. Besides, MEDGA further filters out noise information irrelevant to the results via gate attention and finally outputs attention results that are closely related to visual features and language features, which makes the answer prediction result more accurate. Experimental evaluations on the VQA 2.0 dataset and the ablation experiments under different conditions prove the effectiveness of MEDGA. In addition, the MEDGA accuracy on the test-std dataset has reached 70.11%, which exceeds many existing methods.


Three-dimensional (3D) objects' reconstruction using just bi-dimensional (2D) images has been a major research topic in Computer Vision. However, it is still a hard problem to solve, when automation, speed and precision are required and/or the objects present complex shapes and visual properties. In this paper, we compare two Active Computer Vision methods commonly used for the 3D reconstruction of objects from image sequences, acquired with a single off-the-shelf CCD camera: Structure From Motion (SFM) and Generalized Voxel Coloring (GVC). SFM recovers the 3D shape of an object using the camera(s)'s or object's movement, while VC is a volumetric method that uses photoconsistency measures to build a 3D model for the object. Both methods considered do not impose any kind of restrictions to the relative motion involved. present case, we do not pretend impose any kind of restrictions to the movement involved. Figure 1. Stereo vision's principle: P's 3D coordinates are determined through the intersection of the two lines defined by the optical centers O and O ́ and the matched 2D image points p and p ́. 1.4 Generalized Voxel Coloring Stereo-based methods, like SFM, fail to capture shapes with complicated topology, due to occlusion or smooth surfaces. For smooth object's, 3D reconstruction using volumetric or voxel-based methods have been quite popular for some time, [Seitz, 1997]. These methods assume that there is a bounded volume in which lays the object of interest. The 3D space model is then represented or sampled by voxels (regular volumetric structures also known as 3D pixels). First volumetric methods combine silhouette images of the object to be reconstructed with camera's calibration information to set the visual rays in 3D space for all silhouette points, which define a generalized cone within lays the same object. The intersection of these cones defines the visual hull, [Laurentini, 1994], a volumetric space in which the object to be reconstructed is guaranteed to be, Figure 2. The accuracy of the reconstruction obtained depends on the number of images used, on the positions of each viewpoint considered, on the camera's calibration quality and on the complexity of the object's shape. Generalized Voxel Coloring (GVC) is a volumetric method that does not require a matching process between the object's feature points along the image sequence used as the SFM needs, [Slabaugh, 1999]. Instead, starting with a sequence of calibrated images from the object to be reconstructed, GVC uses photoconsistency measures to determine if a certain voxel belongs or not to the object being reconstructed. This technique simultaneously builds and colors a 3D model for the object to be reconstructed. Figure 2. Left to right: from the original object to its visual hull ([Yang, 2003]). 2 METHODOLOGY FOLLOWED In this work, both methods were tested on two objects with different topological properties: a simple parallelepiped and a human's hand model. The parallelepiped has a straightforward topology, with flat orthogonal surfaces, whose vertices are easily detected in each image and simply matched along the image sequence. On the contrary, the hand model has a smooth surface and complicated topology. To test the SFM method, we follow the methodology proposed in [Pollefeys, 2004], Figure 3. Thus, the first step is to acquire two uncalibrated images, from the object to be reconstructed, using a single off-the-shelf digital camera. Then, image feature points are extracted and matched, followed by the determination of the epipolar geometry, image rectification and, finally, dense matching. Figure 3. SFM methodology followed to obtain the 3D reconstruction of objects from uncalibrated images. In other hand, to test the GVC method we follow the methodology proposed in [Azevedo, 2007], Figure 4. Thus, a single off-the-shelf CCD camera is used, to acquired object's image sequences, and the Zhang's calibration method was used to calibrate the same, [Zhang, 2000]. Then, to obtain the object's silhouettes from the input images, image segmentation is performed. Combining the original image sequence and associated silhouette images, and considering the camera's calibration parameters, both objects' models are built using the GVC volumetric method, and polygonized and smoothed using the Marching Cubes algorithm, [Lorensen, 1987]. 3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS


........................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgments ............................................................................................ vii List of Figures ................................................................................................ xii List of Tables ................................................................................................. xv Abbreviations and acronyms ...............................................................................xvi 1. General Introduction ................................................................................. 20 1.1 Bone Tissue ....................................................................................... 20 1.2 Macroscopic Morphology ........................................................................ 20 1.3 Microscopic Morphology ........................................................................ 21 1.4 Microscopic Organization ....................................................................... 22 1.4.1 Matrix Mineralization ..................................................................... 23 1.5 Bone Cells ......................................................................................... 25 1.5.1 Osteoblasts ................................................................................. 25 1.5.2 Osteoclasts.................................................................................. 27 1.6 Bone Modelling and Remodelling ............................................................. 31 1.7 Bone and Calcium Homeostasis ............................................................... 32 1.7.1 Parathyroid Hormone, Calcitriol and Calcitonin ..................................... 33 1.8 Lanthanides ....................................................................................... 34 1.8.1 Biochemistry of Lanthanides ............................................................ 35 1.8.2 Lanthanide Induced-Proliferation, Apoptosis and Differentiation ................ 36 1.8.3 Lanthanides Distribution in the Skeleton .............................................. 37 1.8.4 Lanthanides Interaction with Bone Matrix ............................................ 38 1.8.5 Lanthanides Interaction with Bone Cells .............................................. 38