Abstract: Siddha is one of the ancient medical systems in India considered as the mother medicine of ancient Tamils/Dravidians in south India. Siddha system of medicine is as old as mankind and dominated the civilazation of the southern penisula of India .There are some people whom claim that Ayurveda is the oldest medical system, but from the research done with the help of available historical data, it is evident that Siddha system of medicine is much older and has more history than even Ayurveda .Not only is this system the oldest, this is the medical system with lots of specialities far outweigh the Ayurvedic medicine. Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicine, remains the most ancient yet living traditions. Although India has been successful in promoting its therapies with more research and science-based approach, it still needs more extensive research and evidence base; increased side effects, lack of curative treatment for several chronic diseases like, cancer. Disorders of the Musculoskeletal system affect all ages and ethnic groups.it also the Coronavirus diseases 2019(COVID-19) pandemic cause by the severe Acute Respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-coV2) is a massive threat to public health word wide. India is a peninsula of herbal hub, in which Siddha system of medicine has flourished as an englightment in the field of Medicine. Currently medicinal plant have become the per amount source of drug discovery in research for treating diverse from of disease including Cancer. Food is the major source for serving the Nutritional needs but with growing modernization some traditional ways are being given up. This review gives an overview of the Ayurvedic system of medicine and its rule in traditional medicine in order to overview of the Medicine in order to overcome malnutrition and related disorders Siddha is a great subject and explains a reputed indigenous medical and health system.


Published manuscripts have described the material properties of casting materials by using simple material testing techniques such as three-point bending and by using flexure equations which calculate material strength and stiffness. These equations assume the cast is exposed to small deformations, bends with a uniform curvature and acts as a beam. These conditions are not met in some applications since the cast/limb structure may be designed for compliance and large deformation. The flexure equation should be replaced with the "plastic hinge" concept which provides a better description of the mechanical behavior of cast and a better means to predict the failure behavior of the cast/limb structure.


In this paper first results of a sensitivity study using dual polarimetric TerraSAR-X data for ice thickness estimation are presented. The sea ice thickness reference data set was measured, coincident to the SAR data take, by means of a helicopter-borne EM sounding device on April 28, 2008 in the Russian Arctic. For some of the signatures, namely the complex correlation coefficient, a relation to ice thickness could be found that is theoretically predicted for L-band SAR. The first results show, that the new generation of polarimetric space borne SAR sensors like TerraSAR-X may open a new opportunity for thin sea ice thickness monitoring from space.


s newspaper accounts and statistics make clear, the number of reported child abuse cases in the United States is on the rise. In 1992 alone, 2.7 million children were referred to Child Protective Services as suspected cases of abuse and neglect, according to the 1992 Children's Defense Fund Report. Although one can argue that there are problems with the way statistics are collected and interpreted, there is no doubt that America faces an enormous problem with child abuse. The problem does not stop with the abused child. Research has shown that child abuse is cyclical: the abused child often becomes an abusing parent, as reported by John Van deKamp in 1991, when he was the state's attorney general. Because of the magnitude of the problem, much effort has been directed at treating both the abused and the abuser. The central hope behind these efforts is to break the cycle. In this study, we have used a relatively new approach to treating child abuse through an intensive in-home treatment program that concentrates on reducing stress and increasing communication skills. The following is a short description of the program, the families involved and a summary of our findings.


The relationship between community attachment and depression is examined in a sample survey (N = 295) in two midwestern rural towns and their surrounding open-country areas. When community attachment, a variable through which a rural resident's social integration into the local community affects mental health, was low, higher levels of symptoms of depression were observed. The economic viability of the local community was found to have a relationship to mean depression scores in the towns but not in the open-country areas.


The system for medical device regulation in Australia was recently updated. This has caused alarm and confusion amongst surgeons, particularly those who depend on three-dimensional (3D) printed models and surgical guides, which must now be regarded as medical devices. This presents an opportunity to reflect on how regulation of medical devices came about and what the new regulations mean for surgeons.


Surface phytoplankton samples were studied quantitatively and qualitatively in February 1996 – November 1998 and January 2003 – November 2005 at the shore and in the center of Admiralty Bay, King George Island. Phytoplankton assemblages showed spring− summer peaks (maxima 4.0–5.2×106 cells l−1) associated with small variations in low atmo− spheric pressure, and low velocity winds. They were dominated by nano−sized ( 20 μm) Fragilariopsis spp. Nano−sized Thalassiosira spp. were the winter dominants. Diatom species dominance structure may change at each of the two sites within a month (e.g. shore site: F. cylindrus dominant in October '98; T. gravida in November '98). Dinoflagellates showed summer increases associated with diatom blooms. Variations in phytoplankton cell concentrations, the species structures between the shore and open wa− ters, and between seasons appear to be related to physical factors: changes in wind velocity and direction, inflow of waters from the Bransfield Strait, ice melting and changes in atmo− spheric pressure.


Medium Btu methane gas is a naturally occurring byproduct of anaerobic digestion of landfill municipal solid waste. The energy potential of landfill gas in New York State is estimated to be 61 trillion Btus per year or the equivalent of 10% of the natural gas used annually in the state. The 18-month Landfill Gas to Electricity Demonstration Project conducted at the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, New York conclusively demonstrated that landfill gas is an acceptable fuel for producing electricity using an internal combustion engine/generator set. Landfill gas proved to be a reliable and consistent fuel source during a six-month field test program. Engine exhaust emissions were determined to be comparable to that of natural gas and no unusually high corrosion rates on standard pipeline materials were found.


1. OVERVIEW 2. INDETERMINISM AND AGENCY 2.1 Branching time 2.1.1 Frames and Models 2.1.2 2.1.2 Propositions 2.2 Individual agency 2.2.1 Agents and choices 2.2.2 Stit operators 2.2.3 Some logical considerations 2.3 Individual ability 2.3.1 Kenny's objections 2.3.2 Brown's theory 2.3.3 Refraining and ability 2.4 Group agency and ability 2.4.1 Group actions 2.4.2 A group agency operator 3. OUGHT TO BE 3.1 The standard theory 3.2 A utilitarian theory 3.2.1 General models 3.2.2 Utilitarian models 3.2.3 Logic of the utilitarian ought 3.3 The Meinong/Chisholm analysis 3.3.1 The analysis 3.3.2 Some logical features 3.4 Evaluating the analysis 3.4.1 Agency in the complement 3.4.2 The gambling problem 4. OUGHT TO DO 4.1 Dominance 4.1.1 Ordering the propositions 4.1.2 A sure-thing argument 4.1.3 Ordering the actions 4.2 Dominance act utilitarianism 4.2.1 Optimal actions 4.2.2 The finite choice condition 4.3 A new deontic operator 4.3.1 The definition 4.3.2 Deontic logic and act utilitarianism 4.3.3 Logic of the dominance ought 4.4 Independence 4.4.1 Independence and conditionals 4.4.2 Conditionals and sure-thing reasoning 4.4.3 Refining the analysis 5. CONDITIONAL OUGHTS 5.1 Conditionally optimal actions 5.2 A conditional operator 5.2.1 The definition 5.2.2 Some logical considerations 5.3 Two patterns of argument 5.3.1 The action argument 5.3.2 The ought argument 5.4 Orthodox act utilitarianism 5.4.1 An example 5.4.2 The definition 5.4.3 An orthodox deontic operator 6. GROUP OUGHTS 6.1 Optimal group actions 6.2 Individual and group act utilitarianism 6.3 Deontic operators for group oughts 6.3.1 Definitions 6.3.2 Some logical points 6.4 Rule utilitarianism 6.4.1 Formulating the theory 6.4.2 Act and rule utilitarianism 7. STRATEGIC OUGHTS 7.1 Strategies 7.1.1 Basic idea 7.1.2 Limiting the range 7.2 Strategies and choices 7.2.1 Agency 7.2.2 Ability 7.3 Strategic dominance and optimality 7.3.1 Dominance 7.3.2 Optimality 7.4 A strategic ought operator 7.4.1 The definition 7.4.2 Logical points 7.4.3 Actualism and possibilism A. Proofs of validities and propositions A.1 Validities A.2 Propositions Bibliography Index


The invention discloses a method and a device for associative table query of MONGODB shards. The method includes: determining query conditions which are used for querying grouping summary information, corresponding to assigned grouping, in assigned data tables of all MONGDB shards; determining data recording marks of an optional grouping belongs to the assigned grouping in the assigned data tables and using the data recording marks as target data recording marks; obtaining data information of the data recording marks, belonging to one of the target data recording marks, in the assigned data tables of each MONGODB fragment; storing the obtained data information in a temporary data table; implementing grouping summary to the obtained data information based on the temporary data table to obtain the grouping summary information. The method and the device for associative table query of the MONGODB shards are capable of realizing high-efficient associative table grouping query of a plurality of MONGODB servers.


Conditional cash transfer programs pay recipients in exchange for an action that brings private behavior closer to the social optimum. We analyze one such program in Mexico: Progresa that pays four million poor mothers to send their children to school and health visits. We show that these programs can be made more efficient by selecting beneficiaries and calibrating transfers for maximum response per unit of transfer.


Objective: To evaluate the scientific contribution of brazilian spine surgeons not only in number of publications, but also their quality between January 2000 to December 2011. Methods: A research of publications by razilian spinal surgeons on topics concerning the spine or spinal cord was performed using an online data-base; Pubmed.gov. The results were limited to articles published from January 2000 to December 2011. A total of 1,778 articles were identified after a Medline search. After exclusion criteria, 206 papers were selected. The quality of the Journals was assessed with Impact factor (If), and the qualis CAPES, and the article quality using the Oxford classification.Results: An increasing number of publications by brazilian spine surgeons was observed. 45.1% of those papers were published during the last 4 years (2008 - 2011). Clinical studies and case reports were the most frequent types of article published (37.5% vs 31.1%). An increasing number of brazilian publications in non- brazilian journals has been observed in recent years (linear -by-linear association: 5.449, P = 0.020). The Arquivos de neuro-Psiquiatria was the most frequent journal in which the papers were published (n=67, 32%). The If of the publications varied from 0.021 to 8.017. The analysis of quality of the articles using the Oxford classification demonstrated that most of them provided lOE 4 (n = 113, 54.9%) or 5 (n = 45, 21,8%). Conclusions: There has been an increasing in the number and quality of publications by brazilian spine surgeons in recent years. Also, the number of publications by


In the restoration of ancient water engineering, the loss of fine soil particles from the ancient riverbank can easily cause seepage instability problems such as piping during the flood transient process. This paper explores the influence mechanism of flood fluctuation on soil seepage stability based on indoor experiments, field monitoring and saturated-unsaturated soil seepage theory. The paper obtains the soil-water characteristic curve of unsaturated soil using laboratory tests, builds the transient seepage finite element model of porous media and modifies parameters monitoring data to verify the numerical analysis results. The results showed that the groundwater level, pore water pressure and seepage hydraulic gradient had changed. The maximum pore water pressure between the ancient riverbank and antiseepage structure increased by 13.4%, the maximum hydraulic gradient at the toe of the riverbank increased by 49.3% and the instability of seepage significantly increased. Through the modified lime grouting between the ancient riverbank and the antiseepage structure, the structure of the soil mass was changed, and the maximum hydraulic gradient was reduced by 55.6%, which restrains piping damage. This study can be used in the restoration of ancient riverbanks to solve piping problems.


Institutional investor activism and investors' capacity to influence boards and executives of firms in which they invest have grown substantially in the last 25 years. Alongside growing investor influence, agency theory continued to be the dominant guiding influence on corporate governance reform. In this paper we discuss the practical implications of agency theory in its application to executive compensation and how Canadian institutional investor attitudes on compensation, shaped by agency theory, have evolved in the tumultuous decade starting with the 'Enron' scandal and including the global financial crisis. We used survey methods to ascertain institutional investor opinion in three rounds of research (2004, 2007 and 2010). We found that investors increasingly want boards to compensate managers with long-term vesting equity and use less cash compensation. Notably, we also find investors want companies to be highly innovative. However, long-vesting equity compensation may promote management to be overly conservative and less entrepreneurial in guiding firm strategies. We discuss implications of these findings and potential remedies.


Lindsay Anderson, whose first feature, THIS SPORTING LIFE, appeared last year, has been noted for his work in various fields, including film criticism and documentary. He was one of the founder-editors of SEQUENCE in 1947, and began writing and directing industrial films in 1948. Among his best known short films are WAKEFIELD EXPRESS, THURSDAY'S CHILDREN, 0 DREAMLAND and EVERY DAY EXCEPT CHRISTMAS. He has also worked in the theater, where his productions have included THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL, SERGEANT MUSGRAVE'S DANCE, BILLY LIAR, THE FIRE RAISERS, and THE DIARY OF A MADMAN. Most recently he has directed the London production of Max Frisch's ANDORRA at the National Theatre.


The local Lagrangian formulation for chiral bosons recently suggested by Ploreanini and Jackiw is analyzed. We quantize the system and explain how the unconventional Poincare generators of left and right chiral bosons combine to form the standard generators. The left-U(l) Kac-Moody algebra and the leftVirasoro algebra are shown to be the same as for left Weyl fermions. We compare the partition functions, on the torus, of a chiral boson and a chiral fermion. The left moving boson is coupled to gauge fields producing the same anomalies as in the fermionic formulation. It is pointed out that the unconventional Lorentz transformations are inapplicable for the coupled system and a set of different transformations is presented. A coupling to gravity is proposed. We present the theory of chiral bosons on a group manifold, the chiral WZW model. The (1,0) supersymmetric abelian and non-abelian chiral bosons'are described. Submitted to Nucl. Phys. B * This work is supported in part by Dr. Chaim Weizmann Postdoctoral Fellowship and by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract #DE-AC03-76SF00515 (SLAC).


The invention relates to an improvement of take-off safety and take-off efficiency of a gyroplane and belongs to the field of gyroplanes in aerotechnics. In background technology, a gyroplane is an aircraft which uses a rotating rotor wing with power drive to supply lifting force, propelling force and operating force, and has capabilities of lifting vertically, hovering in air and flying front and back, left and right. A gyroplane disclosed by the invention comprises a cabin 1, tyres 2, an empennage 3, a carrying propeller 6 for controlling the total step of a blade, a rotor wing 7, a mechanical transmission device 11, a reducer 12, a transmission shaft 13 with a toothed clutch, and a connecting shaft 10. In the specific implementation, a prototype sample is manufactured according to the design drawing of the invention and is verified through fight test.


Once Alice falls through the rabbit-hole into Wonderland, the reality that surrounds her undergoes profound change while her strategies for dealing with that reality do not. Wonderland presents her with a myriad of shifting categories; boundaries — such as those between animal and human, decorum and rudeness, order and chaos — are continually violated. Alice in Wonderland is especially demonstrative of the fantasy genre because Alice, a stranger to Wonderland, realizes the fantastical nature of the world that surrounds her and must constantly work to navigate and understand it. Works like fairy tales, on the contrary, present self-contained worlds to which their characters are accustomed. While encountering a fire-breathing dragon may seem remarkably fantastical to a reader of The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, though admittedly terrified of the creature, recognizes the dragon as part of his world and possesses skills with which to combat it. Alice's experiences are much more jarring to her sense of reality, as W. H. Auden describes: "In Wonderland, Alice has to adjust herself to a life without laws . . . She has to learn for example to walk away from a place in order to reach it . . . In Wonderland, she is the only person with self-control" (9). Lewis Carroll demonstrates the lawless nature of Wonderland through fantastical inversions of logic, like having to walk away from a destination in order to achieve it, and of nature, like a rabbit which can talk and wear a waistcoat. Continuous border-violations and inversions therefore become characteristic of Alice in Wonderland's fantasy, as Eric Rabkin points out: "the fantastic is fantastic, then, not by virtue of simply violating some rules we have picked up in the real world, but by virtue of reversing the ground rules we are following at any given moment of reading" (20).


This is the second part of a series of two papers dedicated to a systematic study of holomorphic Jacobi structures. In the first part, we introduced and study the concept of a holomorphic Jacobi manifold in a very natural way as well as various tools. In the present paper, we solve the integration problem for holomorphic Jacobi manifolds by proving that they integrate to complex contact groupoids. A crucial tool in our proof is what we call the "homogenization scheme", which allows us to identify holomorphic Jacobi manifolds with homogeneous holomorphic Poisson manifolds and complex contact groupoids with homogeneous complex symplectic groupoids.


village sanitation; (9) service of backward tribes; (10) uplift of women; (11) education in hygiene and health; (12) propagation of Hindustani as the Rastrabhasa, in addition to the cultivation of Indian languages for the political education of the masses; (13) love of one's language; (14) working for economic equality; and (15) organization of peasantry, labor, and students. The aim is a classlessness and, so far as the state is a coercive power, a statelessness. The ideal society will remain, however, always unrealizable. The structure of the realizable state, as representing the first step, after the revolution, towards the ideal, is that of a middle way, in which a degree of socialized and centralized production necessarily will exist, but in which socialization in the main will be tacked to handicrafts rather than to centralized production. The pace of progress must not be forced—not even toward the ideal of non-violence. "Rights are created . . . not by the state or by any other group, but by the individual himself as he develops fitness for the right by the pursuit of truth and non-violence" (p. 305). This is not a book for the casual reader. One may sense, moreover, a slight degree of repetitiousness. Yet written in simple and forceful style, it carries a good deal of conviction. The publishers are justified in regarding the study as an "impressive and stimulating," even a "unique, contribution to the Philosophy of Non-Violence."


Reads Pedro Mir's "Countersong to Walt Whitman" as a critique and renewal of the Whitmanian vision of democracy, arguing the poem "does not cast Anglo-America as an essentially antagonistic force but rather as a paragon of democracy taken hostage by monopoly capital." OF SUBJECTS AND COWBOYS: FRONTIER AND HISTORY IN PEDRO MIR'S "COUNTERSONG TO WALT WHITMAN"


INTRODUCTION:
Peripheral nerve blocks are gaining widespread popularity for perioperative pain management because of their distinct advantages over general and central neuraxial anesthesia.
Pain relief with peripheral nerve block (PNB) is devoid of side effects such as somnolence, nausea, vomiting, hemodynamic instability and voiding difficulties inherent to general and central neuraxial anesthesia.
Patient who undergoes surgery under PNB can bypass recovery
room and be expeditiously discharged following outpatient surgery. A substantial savings on operating room turnover time can occur if PNB are done outside operating rooms. Patient can position themselves on the operating table with little risk to the loss of airway and minimal personnel effort. High degree of patient and surgeon satisfaction results because of superior pain control with minimal side effects. Consent for amputation on table may be obtained if required, from patients undergoing anaesthesia with peripheral nerve block techniques.
Peripheral nerve block of upper limb includes the various
techniques of brachial plexus block. Among brachial plexus blocks, interscalene, supraclavicular and axillary blocks have been routinely used for many years in our institute. Infraclavicular block has gained interest in recent times.
Infraclavicular Block:
Infra clavicular brachial plexus block was first described by Bazy in the early 20th century and was even included in LABAT's text book:
regional anesthesia in 19221. In the past few years infraclavicular block has become a method of increased interest.
This block targets the musculocutaneous and axillary nerves at the level of the cords before these nerves leave the brachial plexus "sheath".
This block carries no risk of accidental intrathecal, epidural, intravertebral injection, stellate ganglion block or paralysis of hemi diaphragm.
Peripheral Nerve Stimulators:
Until recently, elicitation of paraesthesia has been a classical method to locate nerves for peripheral nerve blocks. Peripheral nerve stimulator technology utilizes objective end points for nerve localization
and does not depend on patient's subjective feeling for effective nerve localization. An effective use of PNS technology mandates knowledge of anatomy with respect to optimal needle insertion site to achieve needle
tip-target nerve contact muscle innervations scheme of the targeted nerve to identify desired evoked motor response (EMR) ability to differentiate desired EMR from the alternate EMRs elicited by the stimulation of adjacent muscles and collateral nerves and the relationships of the adjacent neuromuscular structures generating these alternate EMRs to the targeted nerve.
Therefore an algorithm can be designed for needle redirection during PNS assisted PNB.
This study attempts to compare the clinical efficacy of
infraclavicular and supraclavicular approach of brachial plexus block by using peripheral nerve stimulator.
AIM OF THE STUDY:
To compare the ease of technique & efficacy of block between
supraclavicular and infraclavicular approaches for brachial plexus block using nerve locator in patients undergoing surgery in elbow, forearm and hand.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
This is a prospective randomized study conducted at Government Stanley Hospital, attached to Stanley Medical College, Chennai. Sixty patients of ASA grade I or II of either sex undergoing surgery on the elbow, forearm or hand (mostly orthopedic plastic surgeries) were randomly allocated into two groups S and I. Each group comprises of 30 patients. Surgery was done under Infraclavicular- corocoid approach of Brachial plexus Block in group I and under Supraclavicular –subclavian perivascular approach of Brachial plexus block in group S.
Procedure:
After ethical committee approval informed consent was obtained
from the patients. Intravenous access was obtained. Anaesthesia machine
checked resuscitative equipments and drugs were kept ready.
Inclusion Criteria:
1. Age 18 - 60 yrs,
2. Both sex,
3. PS I & II undergoing surgery for both elective/emergency,
4. Hand , wrist , Fore arm and elbow.
Exclusion Criteria:
1. Infection at the puncture site,
2. Coagulopathy,
3. Allergy to amide local anaesthetics,
4. Pregnancy,
5. Severe pulmonary pathology,
6. Mental incapacity or language barrier,
7. BMI more than 35,
8. Anatomical variations.
Statistical Tools:
The information collected regarding all the selected cases were recorded in a Master Chart. Data analysis was done with the help of computer using SPSS software.
Data was expressed as mean +/- of Standard deviation.
Quantitative Analysis was compared with Student's 't' test and the Fisher's exact test for 2 x 2 contingency tables were used. A 'p' value < 0.05 was considered significant.
Patients in whom the block was unsuccessful due to total failure or missed dermatomes which needed intravenous supplementation or general anaesthesia were excluded from the study.
SUMMARY:
60 patients of ASA grade I and II undergoing upper limb surgeries were randomly assigned into two groups, Group I and Group S In this randomized prospective study, 30 patients received an infraclavicular block by coracoid approach in group I, and other 30 patients received a Supraclavicular block in group S. Surgeries below the level of elbow were selected for this study. Parameters observed were – block performance time, sensory and motor blockade, and its quality, duration of post op analgesia, and block related complications like pneumothorax, vessel puncture.
Study shows that:
1. Time to perform block was not different in infraclavicular block by
coracoid approach when compared to supaclavicular approach.
2. Onset of both motor and sensory blockade were not different in Group I and Group S.
3. Success rate of blocking four nerves to the elbow
(musculocutaneous, ulnar, radial, median,) was not different in Group I, when compared to group S.
4. Duration of post op analgesia was not different in group I, when compared to the Group S.
5. The incidence of complications in the form of vascular puncture was not different in both group I and Group S.
CONCLUSION:
From our study it is inferred that nerve locator guided
Infraclavicular block of brachial plexus by coracoid approach is at least as rapidly executed as nerve locator guided Supraclavicular approach and produces a similar degree of surgical anaesthesia with similar complication rates.


The flow patterns of R32 were observed for its condensation heat transfer in a smooth horizontal circular tube with inner diameter of 2 mm.The experiments were conducted with the method of visualization under mass fluxes of 100,200,400 kg·m-2·s-1 at the condensation temperature of 40℃.Plug,slug,annular-wavy and annular flow patterns were observed.The results show that with the increase of mass flux,the annular flow regime becomes large and corresponding vapor quality is smaller when the annular flow changes to intermittent flow.The transition line between the two patterns is a slash line.It is because the shear in the vapor-liquid phase interface increases with the mass flux,which promotes the conformation of the annular flow.With dimensionless numbers,a correlation is proposed for predicting the boundary of intermittent flow and annular wavy flow.Compared the results with other five flow pattern maps,Yang-Shieh model can predict the experimental results relatively well.


Mobile robots is getting popular with the public areas, such as airport, train station, etc. Among the technical methods for mobile robotic system, lane detection is an essential part, because lanes provide information for the robot system to keep current lane or switch to another lane space. However, existing lane detection algorithms are based on the assumption that the lane markings have good quality, but sometimes the lane markings are non-continuous and poor. In this paper, we propose a real-time multi-lane detection algorithm that is robust to the challenging lane condition. For basic lane detection part, we extract the lane features from images, and based on the features geometric uncertainty algorithm we can detect the lanes, guardrails, other vehicles in real-time. What' s more, the accuracy can be improved with the other vehicles direction information and guardrail depth information from stereo vision when the lane features are non-continuous or poor. Next, to prevent the false detection, an improved RANSAC (random sample consensus) algorithm is introduced in the algorithm. Finally, the proposed algorithm is evaluated on our dataset with different lane conditions. Experimental results show good robustness on variation of the lane conditions.


This research explores how a financing practice of the dominant society is contested in an indigenous context. Considering a traditional handloom business of indigenous women in a South Asian country, Bangladesh, this article investigates into the collateral practices in accessing bank loans. Based on an extensive literature review, it reveals that the normal practice of providing collateral places constraints for accessing loans and provides a scope for conflicts with dominant society. In so doing, it significantly extends the view beyond the issue of discrimination for the non-dominant society. The broader contribution of the paper is to underscore the impact of historical, traditional and cultural aspects on debt financing for small businesses.


The threat of an economic recession in 2023 raises concerns. Farmers, as the main supporters of food production, also feel that rice, the main food of the Indonesian people, must always be available in sufficient quantities. The population explosion during the pandemic was caused by high birth rates. Population growth must coincide with adequate food security so that there will be no famine and other chaos as a follow-up impact. The success of farmers in increasing agricultural output should be enjoyed in the form of social welfare and health. This study aims to see the relationship between increasing food production and social welfare and health. This research uses quantitative methods. Data collection using questionnaires Analysis of the study's results using linear regression It was found that there was a significant relationship between increased food production and farmers' social welfare and health. This research can be a reference for continuing to increase food production through the opening of new agricultural land. Another option is to reduce the conversion of agricultural land into settlements or offices. Thus, farmers have the opportunity to continue to maintain their food production numbers


A serious of nitride coatings including chromium, titanium and aluminum are deposited on the glass and stainless steel by Closed-Field unbalanced magnetron sputtering. The friction coefficient is measured by tribolometer and the wear traces of the coatings can be studied by the optical micrographs, those indicate that the friction coefficients of TiN、 CrN、TiAlN、CrAlN and CrTiAlN decrease sequentially as well as the anti-wear of the coatings can be enhanced. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis for the coatings, aluminum nitride can be indentified in the nitride coatings with Al element, which enhances the hardness and anti-wear performance of the coatings. The chrome oxide can be found in the nitride coatings with Cr element, which enhances the self-chip removal ability of the coatings and decreases the friction coefficients of the coatings; titanium oxide existing in the coatings is not good for the friction and anti-wear of the coatings. Chromium titanium aluminum nitride naturally is of higher hardness than the ternary nitride, as well as Chromium and aluminum in the coatings is in favor for the low friction coefficient and good anti-wear property.


Ratih Yanuarsih, C1307055. 2011. Analyzing Explicit Performatives Executed by the Characters in the Sequel Film entitled Princess Diaries and Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. English Department, Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta.
This research was conducted in order to analyze explicit performatives in the sequel film entitled Princess Diaries and Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. It was conducted to find out the type of explicit performatives, the reason why the characters execute the explicit performatives, and how the characters execute explicit performatives. This research deal with Pragmatics approach. It was descriptive qualitative study and it employed purposive sampling technique as the sampling technique. The data in this research were all the dialogs containing explicit performatives which had significant relationship with the problem statements. There were 21 data found in the films. The data were classified based on Jenny Thomas' theory and identified by using George Yule's politeness strategies. The result of data analysis showed that there were three types of explicit performatives found in the films, namely metalinguistic performative, ritual performative, and collaborative performative. There were three reasons why the characters in these films execute explicit performatives. First, because of ritual situation. Second, because of formal situation. Third, because the speakers are sure of something and want to emphasize what they mean by their utterance to the hearers. There were also two general types of politeness strategies found in these films, namely negative and positive politeness. It was suggested to other researchers to fill the gap in analyzing explicit performative by using Searle's theory and different data sources to make improvement in analyzing the data.


nicities. Even so, he maintains that "a new intrusiveness of the international community is needed" to resolve ethnic conflicts. Hence, if we are to succeed in moderating ethnic conflict, the principle of state sovereignty requires alteration. If Hassner and Chipman are correct, future efforts to dampen ethnic conflict will produce an international system whose structure, actors and norms are different from anything in the past.


The invention provides a backlight module. The backlight module comprises a light source (11), a first light reflection portion (12) arranged above the light source (11) and a second light reflection portion (13) arranged below the light source (11), wherein the first light reflection portion (12) comprise a groove (12a) denting towards the light source (11), an inner surface of the groove (12a) comprises a first reflection paraboloid (121) and a second reflection paraboloid (122) which take the light source as a focus and are mutually connected, emission light of the light source (11) is horizontally reflected by the first reflection paraboloid (121), the emission light of the light source (11) is reflected by the second reflection paraboloid (122) to the second light reflection portion (13), and the light reflected onto the second light reflection portion (13) is horizontally reflected by the second light reflection portion (13). The invention further provides an LCD having the backlight module. Through the backlight module and the LCD, the thinning effect is realized, and cost is greatly reduced.


One novel Cu(II)-Fe(III) heteronuclear complex [Cu<inf>2</inf>(oxen)Fe(CN)<inf>5</inf>(NO)]<inf>n</inf> (H<inf>2</inf>oxen = N,N'-bis(2-aminoethyl)oxamide) was synthesized by the reaction of Cu(oxen)·2H<inf>2</inf>O with Cu(ClO4)2·6H2O and Na<inf>2</inf>[Fe(CN)<inf>5</inf>NO]·2H<inf>2</inf>O. The crystal structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The complex crystallizes orthorhombic with space group Pnma, and forms a centrosymmetric Cu(II)-Fe(III) heteronuclear molecule in which an oxamido group in the trans conformation bridges two crystallographically equivalent copper(II) ions with the Cu…Cu separation of 5.284(2) Å. Fe atom is in a slightly distorted octahedral environment. The title complex is assembled into a novel 2D sheet-like heteronuclear polymer bridged by oxamido and cyano.


Thirteen viruses isolated from feral birds and one isolated from a domestic duck, obtained in 1979-1980 during a survey of birds in Western Australia, were shown to be Newcastle disease viruses of low virulence for chickens. The binding of mouse monoclonal antibodies, raised against NDV-Ulster 2C to MDBK cells infected with the isolates was assessed using an indirect immunoperoxidase test. Five viruses caused binding of all 9 monoclonal antibodies tested, whereas the other 9 isolates induced binding of only 4 monoclonal antibodies.


In the networking industry,the products which embedded RFID tags will deal with the security and privacy issues of ownership transfer in the transaction process. In this situation,a RFID tag ownership transfer scheme is designed which is suitable for both customer and seller. Compared with previous schemes, our scheme has two advantages: the process of ownership transfer is complete and the transportation of tag information is secure. At the scheme can guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of both transactions. At the same time,it can achieve the ownership transfer of the tag safely.


In this paper we propose a new approach to path planning for mobile robots with cellular automata and cellular learning automata. We divide the planning into two stages. In the first stage, global path planning is performed by cellular automata from an initial position to a goal position. In this stage, the minimum distance is computed. To compute the path, we use a particular two-dimensional cellular automata rule. The process of computation is performed using simple arithmetic operations, hence it can be done efficiently. In the second stage, local planning is used to update the global path. This stage is required to adapt to changes in a dynamic environment. This planning is implemented using cellular learning automata to optimize performance by collecting information from the environment. This approach yields a path that stays near to the obstacles and therefore the total time and distance to the goal can be optimized.


To draw from performance and theatre within an 'art world' context continues to offer a number of productive challenges. Indeed, the predominant modes of practice and understanding within the disci...


One of the most difficult problems in the study of rheumatic diseases is the evaluation of an antiinflammatory response. That this is true in intraarticular as well as systemic therapy is illustrated by the divergence of results reported in the literature. For example, Cohen and others (1954) concluded, by purely clinical evaluation in a large number of patients, that cortisone acetate was equally as effective as hydrocortisone acetate, while studies based on more objective criteria by Duff and others (1951), Hollander and others (1951), Stevenson and others (1952), Ziff and others (1952), and Kersley and Desmarais (1952) clearly demonstrated its relative ineffectiveness. The present study poses two questions: (1) What are the changes in the synovial fluid examined by the usual techniques after the intraarticular administration of an agent of known effectiveness-hydrocortisone acetate? (2) Will serial analyses of synovial fluid permit evaluation in a limited number of patients of an agent ofunknown effectiveness-hydrocortisone ? The latter preparation differs from hydrocortisone acetate in its increased solubility in synovial fluid (Macek and others, 1952), and is, therefore, of considerable theoretical interest.


Veracity of debris flow dangerous degree assessment is one of essential in comprehensive assessment of disaster science,and is one of the desires in socio-economic development.This paper establishes the model of debris flow dangerous degree assessment with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method from five aspects: substance,landform,climate,geological condition and soil use,and twelve estimate factors,to evaluate eight debris flow ravines in Lianlu Hydroelectric Station assessment section of Gansu Province.The result is consistent with the actual,and it shows scientific and feasible with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method to evaluate debris flow dangerous degree.


Introduction
Uncertainty about levels of employee use of an insurance benefit for smoking-cessation treatment has presented a barrier to employers considering the adoption of such coverage. This study examined self-reported awareness and use of a new insurance benefit for smoking-cessation treatment among a sample of Wisconsin state employees, retirees, and adult dependents.


We prepared a series of isoregic chiral smectic polyesters based on (R)−(−)-4'-{ω-[2-(p-hydroxy-o-nitrophenyloxy)-1-propoxy]-1-alkyloxy}-4-biphenylcarboxylic acid. The head-to-tail (p-hydroxybenzoic acid) type monomers enable us to proceed the isoregically controlled polycondensation. All the monomers exhibited the chiral smectic C and nematic mesophases. The isoregic chiral smectic polyesters have good thermal stability and exhibit monolayered chiral smectic C and smectic A structures.


In recent years, the motor vehicles are growing at a faster rate than the economic and population growth. The surge in motorization coupled with expansion of the road-network has brought with it the challenge of addressing adverse factors such as the increase in road accidents. As per the RTI around 60% of total road accidents are caused due to driver's fatigue (drowsiness). This dissertation provides a system using real time face and eye detection techniques further eye blink rates to find out the drowsiness. There are various approaches in computer vision for fatigue detection i.e skin segmentation, template matching, neural networks etc. But one of the fast and most used methods is Viola-Jones object detection algorithm. The performance analyses of viola-jones object detection have been explored taking male and female as subjects. Further, to ensure real-time computation, Haar-cascade samples are used to differentiate between normal eye blink rate to drowsiness. This dissertation attempts to study the drivers drowsiness technique using Viola-Jones detection method on Computer Vision (OpenCV) platform which is open source and developed by Intel.


A comparative study of reliability prediction of Compressor system by means of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Time to failure (TTF) analysis is presented. The data for the study was taken from a specific example namely; CO2 compressor at the Utilities Department of a beverage plant, preferred to be addressed as X plant for the sake of confidentiality. The trained neural network predicted the reliability of the compressor very well, given the very low values of mean square error ( ) and high value of the regression (0.998742). The result was compared to what obtained in reliability prediction by time-to-failure time series. The later equally gave a considerably high value for the coefficient of determination of the linear regression line between the predicted values and the actual values (0.9824). Yet artificial neural network result gave a better value. The result shows that use of artificial neural network is a good means of predicting reliability of deteriorating systems.


A DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) via a broadcast channel input directly from the wireless terminal-view method and apparatus is disclosed. The method comprising DMB-view method through a broadcast channel input directly from the wireless terminal of the present invention recognizes the DMB channel number being inputted through a keypad of the mobile station; Recognizing a DMB hotkey being input after the input of the DMB channel number; Confirming that the DMB channel corresponding to the DMB channel number exists; When the check result, the DMB channel corresponding to the DMB channel number exists, the method that is tuned to the DMB channel corresponding to the DMB channel number; And a step of outputting attempt to reproduce the contents of the DMB channel corresponding to the DMB channel number. According to the present invention, it can be accessed simply and conveniently at the desired DMB channel by inputting a channel number directly from the wireless terminal.


The Coastal Bend (CB), Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), and Wintergarden (WG) subregions of south Texas co‐exist in similar socio‐economic contexts but rely on markedly different water sources (CB: precipitation; LRGV: surface water; WG: groundwater). This has led to unique agricultural practices and municipal policies and reinforced mental models adapted specifically to each subregion, both of which are critical to understanding structural causes behind current water use and future water sustainability. To better stakeholder mental models in each subregion, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with individuals with a significant stake in water resource use and management. Results indicated near unanimous consensus among farmers and other stakeholders that water supply is limited and will be increasingly stressed under continued urban population growth. Farmers expressed concern that it will become more difficult to continue farming if additional water resources are not available, while each subregion expressed their own unique concerns: growing bureaucratic oversight and growing population problems (CB), lack of inflows, poor water quality, and international disputes with Mexico (LRGV), and political subdivision, declining groundwater levels, and information technology costs (WG). Mental models were synthesized based on dominant themes expressed by respondents; we synthesized these into two systems thinking archetypes: Tragedy of the Commons and Success to the Successful. Though it is unreasonable to create blanket region‐wide policies, the adoption of under‐utilized conservation practices coupled to stakeholder outreach remains unexplored leverage points, given most stakeholders are unaware of the feedback processes continuing to threaten south Texas water resources.


Reared rhesus monkeys in complete social isolation (Exp I), in a group of peers (Exp II), or with their mother in natural groups of monkeys (Exp III). When Ss were 8-mo-old, separation experiments were conducted by removing the rearing cage, peers, or mother with respect to the rearing condition. Separation caused a significant increase in infant vocalizations, locomotive behavior, self-oriented behavior, and a significant decrease in environment-oriented behavior.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent omission of code book gain information during frame disappearance in a sound decoder based on a code book by using a code book gain attenuated with a gain from a previous sound frame. SOLUTION: A pitch delay M used by an adaptive code book during the frame disappearance is decided by a delay processor 60. The delay processor 60 stores the pitch delay lately received from a coder. The delay processor 60 generates the value of the M equal to the pitch delay of a final excellent frame. For avoiding excess periodicity, the processor 60 increases the value of the M by one for succeeding respective disappearance frames. A switch 43 inputs the pitch delay from the processor 60 to the adaptive code book 50 by revising its state from a regular operational position to a (voiced frame disappearance) position in response to the display of the voiced frame disappearance (since e=1 and v=1).


The slopes in Northern Iceland show the widespread occurrence of solifluction features, indicative of an active periglacial environment due to annual mean temperatures around 3°C at sea level and seasonal soil frost. In order to reconstruct periods with active and inactive solifluction in the past we excavated 18 solifluction lobes for analysing the sediment sequences. Dating of the sediments was realised mainly by tephrochronology and 14C. The oldest solifluction layer could be dated to the Younger Dryas (YD), just after the deglaciation of Northern Iceland. The early to mid Holocene up to the deposition of Hekla 3 Tephra (~3 ka BP) is characterized by the accumulation of loess and tephra layers, which show no signs of secondary remobilisation or erosion, indicating stable slopes during the mid-Holocene climatic optimum (MCO). After the deposition of Hekla 3 Tephra and especially during the 'Little Ice Age' (LIA), solifluction reappeared in the profiles as a probable consequence of Neoglacial cooling. The results fit well with other proxies from Iceland (glacier variations, pollen), from North Atlantic marine cores and from Greenland ice records.


Analytical studies were performed on the respiratory symptoms in 31 systemic sclerosis cases. Respiratory symptoms were expressed by scores from 1) coughs, 2) difficulties in walking, 3) difficulties in ascending, 4) dyspnea . In early stage cases with slight clinical symptoms, %VC was always normal, but %DLco was generally reduced. Because of good correlation between respiratory functions and clinical symptom scores, it is available to use the scores as well as %DLLco and %VC to diagnose slight lung involvement in systemic sclerosis. Also the clinical symptom scores are related to the roentgenographic manifestations of lung fibrosis which are characteristic in systemic sclerosis. Therefore we felt that this system of clinical symptom scores was useful to follow-up the patients.


Objective We conducted a research on a simple diagnosis of edema. We aimed to develop a safe and inexpensive method using ultrasound. Because B-mode imaging systems are expensive and specialized, we focused on the ultrasound propagation time waveform information. Experiment Experiments were conducted using a custom-made ultrasonic transducer. Measurements were performed on individuals with and without edema, and the results are discussed in this paper based on propagation time waveform information and frequency analysis. Summary Based on the results, we found three indices with a high possibility of understanding the state of edema. The first index was edema thickness, the second was the standard deviation of edema thickness, and the third was the shape of the frequency spectrum of the ultrasound propagation time waveform. The results indicated that the presence of edema can be easily and quickly determined by determining the thickness of the edema at the measurement point near the ankle (measurement point D) on the front surface of the lower limbs and performing frequency analyses.


ABSTRACT Accounting is about measuring and communicating. Accounting bodies and employers have expressed opinions, which have been supported by research results, advocating that greater emphasis is placed on the development of communication skills throughout the education and training of accountants. Consequently, an increasing number of accounting programmes now include communication skills as educational objectives or learning outcomes, and have integrated activities into the curriculum specifically to develop these skills. It is important to recognise that certain factors can severely restrict the development of communication skills; a major factor is communication apprehension. Research suggests that the existence of high levels of communication apprehension will make efforts to improve communication skills ineffective. Previous research findings indicate that accounting students have high levels of communication apprehension. This paper compares and contrasts the levels and profiles of communication apprehension exhibited by accounting students at the (UK University) and those at the (ESP University). The levels of communication apprehension are also compared with those of students from other disciplines at the same institutions. The results confirm the high levels of communication apprehension in European accounting students. There are notable differences between the two countries however in certain underlying factors.


With the rapid development of information technology, online open courses are playing an increasingly important role in university education. By collecting the course resource information and excellent cases of teachers' online teaching in the online open course alliance platform of universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the article conducts research from six dimensions: the number of course sources in the alliance platform, the classification of course subjects in the alliance platform, the number of courses offered by alliance institutions, the number of courses introduced by alliance institutions, the number of learners studying in alliance institutions and the choice of online teaching wisdom tools of teachers in alliance schools, and analyzes the construction and application status of online courses in the alliance platform. Finally, it puts forward the strategic measures to improve the level of online course construction of the alliance platform, and provides some reference suggestions for teachers to carry out online education and teaching.


Squamous cell carcinoma of the trachea and bronchi developed in a 19-year-old male with recurrent laryngeal papillomata since age four, who had received no prior radiotherapy, but who was tracheotomized for obstructive laryngeal papillomata. Treatment with intravenous cytosine arabinoside, "moderate dose" methotrexate, topical 5-fluorouracil and irradiation failed to alter tumor growth, and the patient succumbed to recurrent arterial tumor emboli.


In this short communication, we consider a discrete example of how to perform multiple scale expansions and by starting from the discrete nonlinear Schroodinger equation (DNLS) as well as the Ablowitz-Ladik nonlinear Schrodinger equation (AL-NLS), we obtain the corresponding discrete versions of a Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation. We analyze in particular the equation obtained from the AL-NLS and discuss its integrability, as well as its connections with previously studied discrete versions of the KdV equation.


Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a component of lipoprotein that plays role in lipid metabolism by acting as ligand binding lipoprotein with hepatocyte cell-surface receptors to clearance of chylomicrons and VLDL. Genetic study revealed an association of ApoE gene (APOE) with dyslipidemia and CVD. To investigate association between APOE polymorphism (rs 7412 and rs 429358) and serum lipid levels in obesity, 93 control persons and 314 obese persons, aged between 45-65 years were recruited from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) Cohort study in 2013. Genotypes of APOE polymorphism were analyzed by TaqMan real-time PCR. In control group, genotype frequencies of ε 2/ ε 2 , ε 2/ ε 3 , ε 3/ ε 3 , ε 2/ ε 4 , ε 3/ ε 4 and ε 4/ ε 4 were 2.2% , 17.2% , 62.4% , 3.2% , 15.1% and 0% , respectively. Allele frequencies of ε 2 , ε 3 and ε 4 were 0.12 , 0.79 and 0.09 , respectively. For obese group, genotype frequencies of ε 2/ ε 2 , ε 2/ ε 3 , ε 3/ ε 3 , ε 2/ ε 4 , ε 3/ ε 4 and ε 4/ ε 4 were 1.3% , 18.8% , 55.4% , 5.4% , 17.8% and 1.3% respectively. Allele frequencies of ε 2 , ε 3 and ε 4 were 0.13 , 0.74 and 0.13 , respectively. The APOE polymorphism showed influences on serum lipid levels in obese group. Individuals with ε 4/ ε 4 genotype in obese group had higher TC than ε 2/ ε 4 and higher LDL-C than ε 2/ ε 3 , ε 3/ ε 3 and ε 2/ ε 4 genotypes. Additionally, carriers with ε 3/ ε 4 showed significantly higher LDL-C than ε 2/ ε 4 genotype. In conclusion, association between APOE polymorphism and serum lipid profiles in obese is existed and this gene may be a useful genetic determinant for obesity and dyslipidemiaas well as cardiovascular disease in Thais.


The Javanese language has, as of late, seen a flux in its revival. The Javanese government sees the revival of Javanese as a very necessary identity marker, as a reflexive stance to transnationalism. Here, various sectors of Javenese society are contributing to the revival of the language, such as the arts, poltics, commerce, and domestic environments. The paper seeks to document Javanese in various sectors, buy observing its use in the above sectors, and elsewhere. The study observes the engineering of this language revival, and from which, the ideologies of Javanese are extrapolated, so as to expose anthropological patterns. The study thus contributes to work on language revitalization, linguistic landscapes, language ideologies and linguistic anthropology in general.


The invention provides an anti-rust steel rail. The anti-rust steel rail comprises a steel rail matrix and an anti-rust coating coated on the surface of the steel rail matrix, and the anti-rust coating is a film layer formed by coating the anti-rust oil on the surface of the steel rail matrix, wherein the anti-rust oil contains base oil and an anti-rusting agent, the base oil is castor oil, and based on the total weight of the anti-rust oil, the content of the castor oil is 60 to 84 percent, and the content of the anti-rusting agent is 16 to 40 percent. The anti-rust steel rail has excellent short-term anti-rust effect, and because the anti-rust oil, which is high in flash point and uses the castor oil as the base oil, is used in the production of the anti-rust steel rail provided by the invention, the safety of producing the anti-rust steel rail is quite high.


The aim of the study was to evaluate efficacy of various methods of diagnosis of pyometra in bitches. All the bitches suspected for pyometra (n=28) were subjected to diagnostic methods like abdominal palpation, radiography, ultrasonography and haematological examination. Abdominal palpation revealed an obvious uterine enlargement. Lateral abdominal radiograph of bitches revealed a fluid filled dense tubular structure larger in diameter than small intestinal loops in ventral and caudal area of abdomen displacing loops of intestine dorsally and cranially. Ultrasonography of bitches with pyometra revealed an enlarged uterus with convoluted, tubular horns filled with anechoic to hypoechoic fluid. Leucocytosis with absolute neutrophilia was the most common finding in the pyometra affected bitches. Among the different methods of diagnosis of pyometra, ultrasonography was found to be the most efficient method.


The theory of China's oversea investment should be set up. It can not be separated from the reality of China's "dual economy" structure and the culture tradition of "Chinese economy". It can not copy the developed countries' theory of micro-competitive edge, nor adopt J.H.Dunning's theory of international production stages. China's overseas investment system should be established on the premises that the specific reality of china's overseas investment theory should be revealed. The system should be suitable to maneuverable diversification and pluralization of overseas investment, so that it could respectively be used to explain and guide the overseas investment'activities of the principal part; so that it could provide theoretical interpretation and legal requirement for China's overseas investment.


cigarettes smoked dailv, 95% confidence interval 1 11 to 2 14) but was not a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome in infants over 24 weeks. On the other hand, when paternal smoking in the absence of maternal smoking was studied there was no significantly increased risk for the young infants with sudden infant death syndrome. The older infants who died were, however, at a significantly increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome if their fathers smoked (estimated relative risk=2 81 for every 3 cigarettes smoked daily, 95% confidence interval 111 to 7 15). There are two types of explanation for how smoking could be causally related to postnatal deaths: smoking during pregnancy may leave the newborn infant more vulnerable, or postnatal passive smoking by the infant may increase the risk of death. These data provide some evidence for the passive smoking mechanism in older infants but not in younger infants, in whom maternal smoking during pregnancy appears to be an important factor lasting well beyond the neonatal period.


Traffic emission is one of the most severe issues in our modern societies. A large part of emissions occurs in cities and especially at intersections due to the high interactions between vehicles. In this paper, we proposed a cellular automata model to investigate the different traffic emissions (CO2, PM, VOC, and NOx) and speeds at a two-lane signalized intersection. The model is designed to analyze the effects of signalization by isolating the parameters involved in vehicle-vehicle interactions (lane changing, speed, density, and traffic heterogeneity). It was found that the traffic emission increases (decreases) with the increasing of green lights duration (Tg) at low (high) values of vehicles injection rate (α). Moreover, by taking CO2 as the order parameter, the phase diagram shows that the system can be in four different phases (I, II, III, and IV) depending on α and Tg. The transition from phase II (I) to phase III (II) is second order, while the transition from phase II to phase IV is first order. To reduce the traffic emission and enhance the speed, two strategies were proposed. Simulation results show a maximum reduction of 13.6% in vehicles' emissions and an increase of 9.5% in the mean speed when adopting self-organizing intersection (second strategy) at low and intermediate α. However, the first strategy enhances the mean speed up to 28.8% and reduces the traffic emissions by 3.6% at high α. Therefore, the combination of both strategies is recommended to promote the traffic efficiency in all traffic states. Finally, the model results illustrate that the system shows low traffic emission adopting symmetric lane-changing rules than asymmetric rules.


Background: The availability of numerous fundus photographs and optical coherence tomography images has allowed the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in ophthalmology for detecting retinal and optic nerve disorders. Despite the importance of anterior segment screening and cataract diagnosis before fundus examination, the use of AI remains limited in anterior segment examination as well as cataract detection due to the lack of standardization images and analysis models. In this study, we investigated whether our multiple machine-learning methods could diagnose cataract based on videos recorded using a slit-lamp device.

Methods: A dataset comprising 18,596 frames collected retrospectively were used for training and cross-validation of a machine-learning algorithm. Cataract diagnosis, cataract severity grading, and surgical indication prediction between our model and evaluations performed by ophthalmologists were assessed with kappa statistics.

Findings: Our model could diagnose cataract with sensitivity, 99·60% (95% confidence interval [CI], 99·40–99·70) and specificity, 96·00% (95% CI, 83·40–99·30) compared to the diagnosis of the ophthalmologists. The results of individual cataract grading were for nuclear cataract (NUC)0: AUC, 0·987 (95% CI, 0·947–1·000); NUC1: AUC, 0·916 (95% CI, 0·888–0·945); NUC2: AUC, 0·862 (95% CI, 0·844–0·879); and NUC3: AUC, 0·943 (95% CI, 0·931–0·955). For overall cataract grading, the accuracy was 87·8% (kappa coefficient, 0·811 (95% CI, 0·791–0·831). The AI predicted the surgical indication with a sensitivity of 91·80% (95% CI, 82·00-95·10) and specificity of 92·30% (95% CI, 86·10-94·40). The cross-validation accuracy was 86·0% (kappa coefficient, 0·800 [95% CI, 0·780–0·820]).

Interpretation: We successfully created a high-performance cataract diagnostic model using multiple machine-learning methods from videos recorded by the slit-lamp device, which can simplify and expedite the diagnostic process.

Trial Registration: UMIN-CTR Clinical Trial number (UMIN000040321)

Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (20he1022003h0001 and 20hk0302008h0001), Uehara Memorial Foundation, Hitachi Global Foundation, and Kondo Memorial Foundation. No other funding statement to declare including company and patent.

Declaration of Interests: H.Y., E.S., and N.A. are the co-founders of OUI Inc. and own stock of OUI Inc. OUI Inc. has the patent for the Smart Eye Camera (the publication of Japanese Patent No. 6627071, Tokyo, Japan). There are no other relevant declarations related to this patent. The other authors declare no competing interest associated with this manuscript. OUI Inc. did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Ethics Approval Statement: This study adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and was conducted in compliance with the protocols (UMIN000040321, Table S1) approved by the Institutional Ethics Review Board of Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan (IRB No. 20090277, 20170306, 20180206, and 20200021) and Tsurumi University School of Dental Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan (IRB Number, 1634, Table S2). Written informed consent was obtained from the maximal number of study participants for data collection, which confirmed secondary use and/or provision to a third party for further use. However, the requirement for informed consent was waived for some cases because of the retrospective study design and use of de-identified data.


Because housing finance is both a key part of the financial sector and an important method for enabling households to expand their effective demand for housing, it has become a focus of attention among policy makers world wide. Since the late 1980s, the discussion has emphasized the development of sustainable private housing finance systems, with the government playing an enabling role in expanding their reach [World Bank, 1992].


The inverse Doppler effect has been proposed for over four decades. However, there are only few experiments on it, nor to mention the practical application. The main reason is that it is difficult to build a relative movement between the source and detector in double negative materials (DNG), in which the inverse Doppler effect would happen. Here we report a practical method to realize the inverse Doppler effect based on composite right/left-handed transmission line (CRLH TL). Furthermore, we discuss the Doppler effect at the Dirac point for the first time, which is called zero Doppler effect. The zero Doppler effect is that the frequency keeps invariant no matter how and how fast the detector moves relatively to/away the source since the whole space is equiphase. It is hoped that this work may pave the way to develop the application of the novel Doppler effects.


Using the evaluation research strategy (Geroy & Wright, 1988) as a guideline, the authors conducted a needs assessment with 280 support staff, faculty, and administrators at a mid–sized community college. We taught the nominal group technique (Delbecq & Van de Ven, 1971) to representatives from each of these three groups. These representatives facilitated the participation of virtually all employees at the college in identifying a prioritized list of items that would enable these persons to "do their jobs better." Analysis of the suggested performance improvement solutions utilized the performance technology model (Gilbert, 1978) and indicated that the solutions fell into five categories of intervention: high–yield training, direction and flow of information, resources, performance incentives, and medium–yield training.

This combination of models and methods provided the decision makers with data that refocused their vision from planning professional development training to planning for performance improvement. These data represented needs, not wants, and enabled them to recognize the importance of addressing both training and non–training options.


Snack is popular for children and adult. It could be made by extrusion process. Snack is low in protein content because it is made up of cereal such as rice and corn. On the basis of nutritional and functional properties, egg was used in food industries. The objectives of the research were to analyze the nutrient content and in vitro digestibility of extruded snack from corn grits which was supplemented by egg white powder as a protein source. Randomized complete block design was used in this experiment with production periods as block. Water content was not significantly different between treatments. Supplementation with 10% egg white powder significantly increased the fat content of extrusion snack. Protein content and digestible protein increased significantly as increasing of egg white powder added. Protein digestibility of products with 10%, 15%, and 20% of egg white addition was significantly lower than those added with 0% and 5% egg white. Protein, fat, and carbohydrate linkage had formed porous product. This linkage affects product nutritive content and digestibility. Key words: egg, corn, extrusion, snack, digestibility


Aggravation of weather extremes increases awareness of climate change consequences. Mitigation options are in demand that aim to reduce the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. Amongst others, the conversion from ploughing to reduced tillage is argued to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks as an accumulation of SOC in topsoil layers is commonly reported. Yet, reviews and meta-analyses describe various results from significant increases to just a redistribution of SOC in the soil profile. Reasons can be found in different sampling depths, SOC and bulk density measurement procedure, and stock calculation (equivalent soil mass vs. equal sampling depth). Furthermore, few studies evaluated the impact of organic farming systems.
In nine long-term experiments on tillage systems in temperate Europe (France, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland), a common soil sampling campaign took place in spring and autumn 2017, and spring 2018. All trials represent common mixed organic farming systems of the respective region and contain plots with conventional and reduced tillage practices. While climatic conditions are similar, soil types vary from sandy to clayey soils. We took three undisturbed soil cores with driving hammer probes (8 cm in diameter) in each plot (minimum 3 plots per treatment) to a maximum depth of 100 cm and divided the cores in the increments 0-30, 30-50, 50-70, and 70-100 cm. The topsoil (0-30 cm) was further divided into the different tillage depths of the respective trial. We determined bulk density and organic carbon concentration as main variables and soil texture and pH as co-variates for each sample and collected C-inputs for each plot in all trails on a yearly basis.
Multivariate statistics will enable the comprehensive evaluation of tillage effects on SOC stocks up to a depth of 100 cm in organic long-term trials. Texture, trial age, and the co-variate C-input will be decisive for the development of SOC stocks and enable the evaluation of carbon sequestration potentials of agricultural soils through improved tillage practices.


In the testing of system on chips(SoC),the reliability testing for the memory is very important.The IEEE Std 1500 is a international standard that is specially instituted for embedded core testing,it establishes the standard interface between the providers and users of the IP cores.The design for the Wrapper architecture and controller of the SoC memory is based on the IEEE Std 1500.This paper validates the SRAM as the test object.And the results indicate that the system can diagnose the faults in the memory accurately.


The different condition of each region makes it possible to apply the different electricity tariff . In determining the regional tariff, there are some items that need to be paid attention respectively, namely, community buying power, electricity condition in the proposed region, and available energy resources. The electricity power station in Gorontalo dominated by the power station used fuel oil, the selling price of the electricity energy remains high. Therefore, other efforts to provide the non refined fuel oil electricity power stations to reduce the electricity provision cost needed. There are some electricity power stations that possible to be developed in Gorontalo, for example the Coal Electricity Power Station, Water Electricity Power Station, and floating nuclear power plant (FNPP).Through the software try out in three years duration from 2006 to 2009, the average tariff increasing gained is 9.85% every three months. For the first scenario which assumed that in 2009 electricity power station will consists of coal power station that has 12 MW capacity which will operate along with the diesel power station that has 40.6 MW capacity. It is expected that in 2009, the electricity selling price will reach Rp. 1,549/kWh . The second scenario is including the floating nuclear power plant will provide the 70 MW electricity for Gorontalo in 2009. The HPP (fixed selling price) in 2009 reach the average of Rp 625/kWh.


Highly repetitive DNA sequences were investigated in order to shed light on evolutionary relationships in groups of Decapoda. The investigation emphasized the relationships AeglidaeAnomura and between different species of Aegla. Analyses of molecular restriction and hybridization patterns (RP and HP, respectively) were used as experimental approaches. Highly repetitive restriction fragments obtained from species of Brachyura, Anomura, and Aeglidae were isolated and employed as molecular probes. Our results suggest that some highly repetitive DNA sequences are evolutionarily conserved among Caridea, Brachyura, and Anomura. Moreover, a 400-bp band appears to be conserved among Aeglidae, since it was exhibited by all species studied. Relative quantification of the 400-bp band showed that it is highly conserved in these species. The Aeglidae is a monotypic family that is restricted to South American temperate and subtropical fresh waters (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay), a unique phenomenon among anomurans. The only known fossil record is that of the marine species Haummuriaegla glaessneri Feldmann from New Zealand


We perform molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the static and dynamic fragmentation of metallic liquid sheets of tin induced by random surface fluctuations. The static regime is analyzed by simulating sheets of different thicknesses, and the dynamic fragmentation is ensured by applying along the longitudinal direction of a sheet an instantaneous expansion velocity per initial unit length (expansion rate) with values ranging from 1 × 109 to 3 × 1010 s−1. The simulations show that the static/dynamic fragmentation becomes possible when the fluctuations of the upper and lower surfaces of the sheets can either overlap or make the local volume density of the system go down below a critical value. These two mechanisms cause locally in the sheet the random nucleation of pores of void, on a timescale that exponentially increases with the sheet thickness. Afterwards, the pores develop following distinct stages of growth, coalescence, and percolation, and later in time aggregates of liquid metal are formed...


The question of refraction is one that plays no unimportant part in the daily work of many oculists in our large cities, and of most oculists in our medium and smaller cities. With many it forms the great bulk of their work. I present for your consideration to-day, in tabular form, a study of the refraction of 1,700 eyes, representing 869 patients taken from the last 1,000 consecutive eye cases coming under the care of the writer in his private practice. Of the 131 cases not incorporated in this study, some were infants with various inflammatory troubles and some operative cases, five only being presbyopes with emmetropic eyes. Thus you will see that about 87 per cent. of all my eye cases required correction of ametropia. Dr. Geo. M. Gould in a paper on these very lines, read before this Section in 1891 said that 93 per cent. of his


An inexpensive circuit is described which is used rapidly to reverse the current through a moderately powerful electromagnet. Application is limited to magnets energized by voltage regulated power supplies.


This issue of Applied Earth Science (Trans IMM B) is devoted to the mining of iron ores and the papers have been invited from those presented at recent AusIMM iron ore conferences. The issue is a companion to Applied Earth Science Vol. 119 (1), which focused on the exploration and mining geology of iron ores. This issue is a broader grouping that conveys the diversity, challenges and required skills that go into making a successful iron mining operation. Most examples are from the Hamersley Pilbara region or the separate Yilgarn craton, both of Western Australia.


The main activities of Chinese space solar physics in 2012–2014 include: to continue studying the mid and long-term(2016–2030) plan of Chinese space solar physics; to arrange a group of pre-study projects of space solar physics; to initiate and continue a few solar mission-level projects.This paper summarizes all these activities briefly.


Renal dysfunction is usually involved in gestational hypertension.Isolated proteinuria is considered to be a stage during the information of preeclampsia.Nephritic syndrome with pregnancy induced hypertension is a special type of gestational hypertension of which manifestation includes hypertension and "three high level and one low level" of nephritic syndrome.Severe preeclampsia is the primary cause of acute renal injury(AKI) during pregnancy,initiate renal replacement therapy as soon as possible is helpful.Therefore,enhance diagnose and therapy of kidney dysfunction of gestational hypertension is very important to help alleviate patients' condition and improve the outcome of neonatal.


Galectin‐10 (Gal‐10) is a key molecule involved in eosinophil‐mediated suppression of T‐cell immune response. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by T helper (Th) 2/Th17 immune response and impaired function of regulatory T cells, but the pathological role of Gal‐10 has not been studied so far. Therefore, we investigated the clinical correlation of serum Gal‐10 levels in SSc patients.


In its first part the paper presents a rare excavation of an early postmedieval gallows site at Becov nad Teplou in the Karlovy Vary region. The relicts of this site belong to one of the few surviving monuments of its kind in Bohemia and Moravia. Although places of execution, being closely connected to exercising the Privilege of dispensing capital punishment, were once common feature in the landscape, the archaeological excavation of such sites are still sporadic both in Bohemia and in Europe. The article describes the potential of such an excavation, which can produce information about the appearance of the gallows, the decay of the site and the manner of handling the remains of the executed persons. In the second part of the paper the author attempts to summarise the present state of knowledge concerning the gallows not only from the archaeological perspective, but also the historical and topographical research abroad. This includes the position of the gallows; their appearance; the circumstances of their decay; the types of finds from archaeological excavations, mainly skeletal remains (including the conclusions drawn from the archaeological excavation of graveyards for the executed), and their specific features.


An advanced certification methodology was developed for composite structures to include the effects of impact damage. The methodology has the capability to determine the reliability of impact damaged structure at any prescribed load level and impact threat, which may be specified in terms of impact energy or C-scan damage area. In addition, the methodology can also calculate the allowable impact threat level at a given applied load and specified reliability. The developed damage tolerance certification methodology was demonstrated on the F/A-18 inner wing. The results of the methodology demonstration showed that the F/A-18 inner wing has excellent damage tolerance capability.


The heat of dissociation of nitrogen has been studied many times and the latest values are shown in Table 1. The three experimental methods give somewhat discordant results. By methods I, II and IV, D(N 2) = 9·765 eV.* Method I does not eliminate D(N 2) = 7·373 eV. D(N 2) = 11·8 eV by methods III and IV. D(CN) = 8·2 and 8·5 eV respectively by methods II and III, while method IV gives a lower result. It is evident that D(N2) = 9·765 eV is the most likely value-r", However, a higher value D(N 2) = 11·8 eV, was suggested on the basis of the following comparisons. The internuclear distance (Ro) and the force constants (ke) of the structures MHx(M = C, N, 0, F; x =: 1 to 4) were plotted against the number of H atoms, giving plots of great regularity (Figure 1, Table 3). The basic sequence is C, N, 0, F. It should be noted


By using the mesoscale cloud inhomogeneity data obtained from ISCCP,the effects of cloud inhomogeneity in IAP AGCM have been investigated.Numerical simulation results have shown that cloud inhomogeneity has obvious influence on the simulated climates,such as precipitation,ground surface air temperature,and sea level pressure.The effect of optical depth of inhomogeneous clouds on solar radiation fields is shown to be opposite to those of the single-scattering albedo and asymmetry factor of inhomogeneous clouds,which has led to a small overall direct influence on radiation field.In AGCM,cloud inhomogeneity is mainly through the cloud water field to indirect influence the radiation field.Our research has clearly shown the importance of cloud-radiation interaction,and the importance of cloud parameterization for the improvement of the performance of global climate models.


Based on the review of the worldwide evolution and current situation of port privatization, the paper examines the challenges, which China will meet in the process of port privatization. For the purpose to provide the references guidlines for the enhancement of port privatization and improvement of the efficiency of port operations in China, the paper investigates the incentives, patterns and policies for Chinese port privatization.


We propose a novel nonbinary low-density parity-check (NB-LDPC) coding scheme for new service overlaid wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical network (WDM-PON). In conventional binary coding scheme, each channel is encoded/decoded independently; while in our nonbinary coding scheme, old service channel and new service channel are encoded/decoded together. Compared with independent binary coding scheme, NB-LDPC coding scheme provides better bit-error-rate performance as shown by our simulation.


The features of development of anomalous diffraction radiation (ADR) are investigated in the flat resonance structure with a metal-dielectric grating. In approximation of the set-point current, for the strict mathematical posing, the system of linear equalizations and its analytical solution is obtained in the long-wave approximation, which allow at the arbitrary parameters of structure to develop the comparative analysis of descriptions of ADR with other types of the radiations by an electron beam in a metal-dielectric grating. Possibilities of the practical use of ADR are specified for microminiaturization of apparatus and devices of diffraction electronics.


The article analyzes the Republican Reaction as an event key to better understanding the workings of the oligarchic pact of the First Republic and identifies problems in Brazilian federalism. The central idea is to show that for Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Sul, and Rio de Janeiro - states classified as secondary to the dominant Minas-Sao Paulo axis - the Republican Reaction was an important moment in their struggles to construct an alternative axis of power.


Weakly coordinating anions are extremely versatile species for capturing and characterizing cationic intermediates. Among these anions, carboranes and some boranes are known to be the most weakly coordinating anions. In this study, the carboranes and boranes were synthesized in order to use in different fields. B 11 H 14 - was synthesized from NaBH4 and used to synthesize CB 11 H 12 -. CB 11 H 12 - was synthesized by carbene addition to undecaborate. B 11 H 14 - was converted to B 10 H 14 by oxidation and extrusion of one boron vertex. CB11H12- was methylated on boron vertex to get HCB 11 Me 11 -. The methylated carborane cages are more hydrophobic and weakly coordinating anions.


The Virtual Machine Monitor-based Trusted Computing Platform(TCP/VMM)architecture can be used to solve the problems resulted from the application of Trusted Computing.According to the TCP/VMM architecture,we realized a system named TV/Xen.This paper researches on the key technology upon which the implementation of TV/Xen system depends,and it also introduces how to detect the TOCTOU attack on TCG integrity mesurement in TV/Xen system.


Leadership is a combination of the ability to make good decisions and to motivate subordinates. If subordinates have their own information about the quality of their leaders' options, these two objectives might conflict with each other. Using a model in which a leaders' ability to make good decisions is private information we show how this conflict leads to inefficient decision–making. Depending on whether the leader is an insider who observes the subordinates information or an outsider with respect to whom the subordinates information is private, two different types of inefficiencies exist. We show that an insider will follow the information of worse informed subordinates in order to improve the subordinates' belief in the leader's decision. On the other hand an outsider with sufficiently high ability will refrain from consulting his subordinates in order to signal that he is well informed, although the subordinates' information might improve the leader's decisions. Comparing these two inefficiencies quantitatively will have implications for the question of organizational design. ∗We are grateful to Michele Piccione and Andrea Prat for their guidance during our PhD studies at the London School of Economics. We also thank Gilat Levy, Margaret Meyer, George Baker and participants of the PIPPS conference in Bristol, 2003 for valuable suggestions. †London School of Economics and Political Science. Email: email@example.com ‡London School of Economics and Political Science. Email: email@example.com


It is my great pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the Organizing Committee, at the IV Congress of Polish Biotechnology and IV EUROBIOTECH 2011, held in the Royal City of Krakow, under honorary patronage of President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski. The Congress is organized by the Jagiellonian University in cooperation with the University of Agriculture in Krakow, Biotechnology Committee of Polish Academy of Sciences, Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology and Targi w Krakowie Ltd.


Coming at the end of the great flowering of philosophical inquiry in Warring States China, when the foundations for traditional Chinese thought were laid, Xunzi occupies a place analogous to that of Aristotle in the West. The collection of works bearing his name contains not only the most systematic philosophical exposition by any early Confucian thinker but also accounts of virtually every aspect of the intellectual, cultural, and social life of his time. This is the last of three volumes that consitute the first complete translation of the Xunzi into English.


Abstract. The highly vibrant Asian summer monsoon (ASM) anticyclone plays an important
role in efficient transport of Asian tropospheric air masses to the
extratropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). In this paper,
we demonstrate long-range transport of Asian trace gases via eddy-shedding
events using MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric
Sounding) satellite observations, ERA-Interim reanalysis data and the
ECHAM5–HAMMOZ global chemistry-climate model. Model simulations and
observations consistently show that Asian boundary layer trace gases are
lifted to UTLS altitudes in the monsoon anticyclone and are further
transported horizontally eastward and westward by eddies detached from the
anticyclone. We present an event of eddy shedding during 1–8 July 2003 and
discuss a 1995–2016 climatology of eddy-shedding events. Our analysis
indicates that eddies detached from the anticyclone contribute to the
transport of Asian trace gases away from the Asian region to the western Pacific
(20–30∘ N, 120–150∘ E) and
western Africa (20–30∘ N, 0–30∘ E).
Over the last two decades, the estimated frequency of occurrence of eddy-shedding events is ∼68 % towards western Africa and
∼25 % towards the western Pacific. Model sensitivity experiments considering a 10 % reduction in Asian
emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and nitrogen
oxides (NOx) were performed with ECHAM5–HAMMOZ to understand the impact
of Asian emissions on the UTLS. The model simulations show that transport of
Asian emissions due to eddy shedding significantly affects the chemical
composition of the upper troposphere (∼100–400 hPa) and lower
stratosphere (∼100–80 hPa) over western Africa and the
western Pacific. The 10 % reduction of NMVOCs and NOx Asian emissions
leads to decreases in peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) (2 %–10 % near 200–80 hPa),
ozone (1 %–4.5 % near ∼150 hPa) and ozone heating rates
(0.001–0.004 K day−1 near 300–150 hPa) in the upper
troposphere over western Africa and the western Pacific.


In international arbitration, economic experts take legal instructions from counsel and the arbitral tribunal to assess damages. It is important that the economic assessment is conducted in accordance with the relevant legal standards. In this way, the damage calculation is not simply a detached profits calculation or business valuation – even though valuation techniques are drawn upon – but an economic assessment that aligns damages and liability under the relevant contract and applicable law. The interaction between legal and economic practitioners is not a one-way street. Economists can provide conceptual and factual inputs that help establish how the damages quantum should be brought into line with the claimant's loss. Moreover, while claims for damages have a legal basis (and arbitral decisions are fundamentally legal decisions), economics can provide analysis that informs the decision on the merits of a claim, including the key question of whether the claimant has been harmed. After all, at the core of international arbitration lie commercial and investment activities, which are understood through economic principles. In his chapter on assessment of damages in investment arbitration, Wolfgang Alschner (Chapter 14) establishes a theoretical framework for how


to write a reply. When eventually the review editor was able to persuade a number of potential respondents of our real intentions, pressures of work intervened preventing them completing the task. We would still very much welcome a critical response to the original review, preferably from the authors of ESB. Just as we would be very keen for these authors to write articles for CSP, and speak at our conferences. Given CSP's aim of encouraging debate we still feel that our decision to publish the review was politically defensible. As already explained it is a decision we now regret, but naivety is not necessarily racism, and it is to do political argument a disservice to suggest it is. Jock's review was raising a number of very important points about what he regarded as the left's lack of political realism about crime, and about how certain styles of left politics prevent the development of a more practical, and realistic, approach. It is not wrong per se to publish such views they need careful scrutiny and considered responses. Yet upon reflection it would have been better to have initiated a debate about racism in the pages of CSP with a review of ESB by a black reviewer.


The effect of Sb and Sn on the wear resistance of ductile cast iron was investigated. The hardness was increased with Sb to 0.10%, but the elongation and the impact value were decreased. The tensile strength was increased with up to 0.05% Sb, however decreased with Sb. The hardness and the tensile strength were increased and the elongation was decreased with up to 0.10% Sn. The nodularity of graphite was decreased with above 0.08% Sb however Sn had no effect on that. When the maximum compressive stress was low (), the weigth loss was decreased with increased hardness and when that was high ( and ), the weight loss did not depend upon the hardness. The pearlite stabilization with Sb and Sn increased with the wear resistance of ductile cast iron.


Non-linear optical chalcogenides with a wide band gap (Eg) and excellent NLO properties are key materials for highly desirable multiwaveband tunable optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). We exploit the "electronic structure engineer bucket effect" to develop a novel dual-waveband SrZnGeS4 with an ultrawide transparency window. It exhibits an asymmetric Fdd2 structure that consists of layers formed by corner-sharing [ZnGeS6] dimers. SrZnGeS4 is transparent from 0.30 to 23.6 μm, spanning the UV-, vis-, mid- and far-IR spectral regions and has the widest Eg (3.63 eV) in the AeMIIMIVQ4 family to date. It exhibits phase matching, high SHG intensities (e.g., 11.0 × KDP and 17.5 × AGS under λinc = 1450 and 950 nm, respectively), and a very high laser-induced damage threshold (35 × AGS). These results not only suggest bright prospects for high-power laser applications but may also enable applications of the multiwaveband OPO system from the UV-visible to far-IR regions.


The surface resistance of polycrystalline high-temperature superconductors are presented at microwave frequencies. Several cavities were used to span the frequency range from 100 Mhz to 26 GHz. Surface resistance was observed to increase with frequency and rf magnetic field. Potential applications are discussed in terms of the electrical properties and the ability to fabricate materials into useful geometries. 23 refs., 8 figs.


In order to realize the sustainable development of the communication industry, many banks have developed some new projects to provide loan to the mobile phone brand companies (MPBCs). This paper studies a perfect information game among three parties: telecom operator (TO), MPBC, and bank. In the first stage, the bank decides an interest rate and shows it to the TO and the competitive MPBC. In the second stage, the TO and MPBC are engaged in Cournot games: a simultaneous subgame, a TO-as-leader sequential subgame, and an MPBC-as-leader sequential subgame. The TO's and the MPBC's decisions and the production/sale quantities are investigated. The impacts of the interest rate and the substitute factor on the TO's and the MPBC's optimal decisions are analyzed. When the substitute factor is high, at a low interest rate, the total sales in the simultaneous subgame is higher than those in the other two subgames; at a high interest rate, the total sales in the MPBC-as-leader subgame is higher than those in the other two subgames. However, when the substitute factor is low, at a low enough interest rate, the total sales in the simultaneous subgame is higher than those in the other two subgames; at a high enough interest rate, the total sales in the MPBC-as-leader subgame is higher than those in the other two subgames; at a moderate interest rate, the total sales in the TO-as-leader subgame is higher than those in the other two subgames. Besides, the optimal interest rate of the bank is investigated and the impact of the substitute factor on the optimal interest rate is analyzed. The bank sets a higher interest rate in the MPBC-as-leader subgame than those in the other two subgames. Besides, when the substitute factor is low, the bank sets a lower interest rate in the TO-as-leader subgame than that in the simultaneous subgame; however, when the substitute factor is high, the bank sets a higher interest rate in the TO-as-leader subgame than that in the simultaneous subgame.


The purpose of this thesis is to assess the various methods of factoring water pressure that acts against a retaining wall, in accordance with Eurocode 7. Within the thesis, a general overview of the procedure and theory for the design of a retaining wall is investigated. This overview gives a better understanding of how and where factoring water pressure is involved in the design of retaining wall. Through a vast amount of research, the problems of factoring water pressure in accordance with Eurocode 7 became apparent. A review of the literature highlighted some of the methods available for factoring water pressure and how they are interpreted in other European countries. The clauses from Eurocode 7 are also investigated as this is where the problem of the various interpretations originates from. By producing my own calculations and analysing the effects of the various methods for factoring water pressure on the design of a retaining wall, I established my own data. The data produced from the calculations helped me in my search for the choice of one method for factoring water pressure. It is from the research carried out and the calculations provide that allowed me to make a recommendation for the most reasonable and efficient method for factoring water pressure acting against a retaining wall in accordance with Eurocode 7.