The residual strength tests after cyclic loadings on concrete cylinder specimens and stud anchor specimens were performed to obtain data regarding effects of cyclic loadings on concrete and stud anchor specimens for proposing a new method capable of evaluating the soundness of equipment support using the S-N curves. More specifically, cyclic loadings may lead to a reduction in the strength and stiffness of concrete and also lead to the pullout and a reduction of the strength of stud anchor sections, which may reduce the rigidity of the equipment support, and this situation is not preferable from the viewpoint of long-term soundness evaluation. Then, in order to investigate whether or not cyclic loadings reduce the strength and the rigidity of the equipment support, cyclic compressive loadings with constant amplitude were applied to cylinder specimens, then static compression tests were performed. Also, cyclic tensile loadings with constant amplitude were applied to stud anchor specimens, then static pullout tests were performed. As a result, it was found that the cyclic loading would not lead to the pullout of stud anchor and a reduction of the strength of stud anchor if the maximum stress ratio is less than the long-term allowable stress. 1. Background of research The degradation factors considered in the evaluation of long-term soundness of structures in nuclear facilities are heat (high temperature), irradiation, carbonation, chloride penetration, alkali silica reaction, and machine vibration (AIJ 2015). Since the degradation state due to machine vibration cannot be identified until cracks are visually identified as degradation phenomena, the soundness evaluation of the equipment support against machine vibration is seemed to be very rudimentary compared with the evaluation against other factors. On the other hand, although the number of load cycles due to vibration equipment, such as turbines, is very high in the normal operation of a nuclear power plant, since the stress ratio acting as the cyclic load is very low, it is considered that the fatigue caused by machine vibration would never damage concrete. In the cooperative research performed by electric industries for the common purpose, a method capable of evaluating soundness is investigated using S-N curves in the stage before cracks due to machine vibration can be visually confirmed. This paper reports the results of residual static strength tests of concrete cylinder specimens and headed stud anchor specimens conducted to obtain basic data for the purpose of establishing an evaluation method. In this paper, the equipment support means the reinforced concrete section with steel anchorage embedded for installing and holding equipment. A headed stud anchor was selected as steel anchorage because a large volume of its experimental data is available. Plain concrete specimens undergo changes of material properties with increasing number of load cycles. Plain concrete specimens exhibit increases in residual compressive strength and stiffness after cyclic loading. As the number of load cycles is getting closed to fatigue life, the residual strength and stiffness are decreased and become less than those without cyclic loadings. Bennett and Muir (1967) measured the residual strength after cyclic loadings of the plain concrete using 8×3×3 inch prism specimens with compressive strength of 40MPa to 64MPa. The tests were performed only on the 11 specimens which survived one million load cycles with speed of 4Hz to 8Hz at the maximum stress ratios of 0.67 and the minimum ratios varying 0.15 and 0.2 of the of static strength of prism specimens without cyclic loadings. The increase in the residual strength varied between 1% and 23% with average of 11%. Awad and Hilsdorf (1974) performed fatigue tests and creep tests using the 12×4×4 inch prism specimens with compressive strength of 28MPa. The maximum stress ratios were quite high at 0.90 and 0.95 of the static strength without cyclic loadings. There was an increase of 5% in the residual strength after cyclic loading or susGeneral Manager, Nuclear Power Department, Kajima Corporation, Tokyo, Japan. *Corresponding author, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Deputy Manager, Nuclear Nuclear Power Department, Kajima Corporation, Tokyo, Japan. Assistant Manager, Power Generation Division, The Chugoku Electric Power Co., Inc., Hiroshima, Japan. Associate Manager, Power Generation Division, The Chugoku Electric Power Co., Inc., Hiroshima, Japan. Senior Manager, Civil and Architectural Engineering Department, Nuclear Power Division, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. Nagoya, Japan O. Kontani, N. Ishitobi, J. Kawada, N. Taogoshi, M. Koge and Y.o Umeki / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 14, 634-642, 2016 635 tained loading with the maximum stress ratio of 0.9 at life ratio of 0.3 which means at 30% cycles of fatigue life or 30% of duration to cause the creep failure. Ballatore and Bocca (1997) measured the residual strength after cyclic loadings using the plain concrete core specimens of 45.5 mm diameter and 140 mm long with compressive strength of 19MPa and 59MPa. The maximum stress ratios were at 0.1 and 0.2 and the minimum ratio was 0.02 of the static strength without cyclic loadings. The cyclic loadings of at most 7200 cycles were applied with loading speed of 1Hz. The increases in the residual strength and stiffness were 0.11 and 0.87 respectively for concrete with 19MPa and were 0.14 and 0.22 respectively for concrete with 59MPa. Bocca and Crotti (2003) measured the residual strength after cyclic loadings using the plain concrete core specimens of 60 mm diameter and 120 mm long with compressive strength of 24MPa, which were similar tests performed by Ballatore and Bocca (1997). The maximum stress ratios were at 0.2, 0.6 and 0.8 of the static strength without cyclic loadings. The cyclic loadings of 3600 cycles were applied with loading speed of 1Hz. The increases in the residual strength and stiffness were 5% and 6% respectively for the maximum stress ratio of 0.2, were 7.6% and 36% respectively for the maximum stress ratio of 0.6, and were 11.4% and 36.1% respectively for the maximum stress ratio of 0.8. Ballatore and Bocca (1997) stated that dynamic loading reduces pore space to improve material compaction and strain hardening takes place all the same time as is reflected in an increase in strength and stiffness after cyclic loadings. Bocca and Crotti (2003) stated that the test pieces subjected to preloading yielded more homogenous results, with a reduction in standard deviation, compared to non-preloaded test pieces probably because of a decrease in the stress peaks occurring in the material and a redistribution of stresses due to cyclic load induced creep. For the headed stud anchor, only one datum of the residual tensile strength after cyclic loadings was found in Matsuzaki, et al. (1981). With the stud diameter of 19 mm, embedded depth of 80 mm and concrete strength of 23.5MPa, the residual tensile strength after two million of load cycles was increased by 27% compared with the static tensile strength without cyclic loadings. The maximum and minimum stress ratio was 0.75 and 0.11 respectively with loading speed of 10Hz. The residual bond strength between deformed bar and concrete after cyclic loadings was found in Rehm and Eligehausen (1979). With the rebar diameter of 14 mm, embedded length of 42 mm and concrete strength of 23.5MPa, the residual tensile strength after two million of load cycles was increased by 5% compared with the static tensile strength without cyclic loadings. The maximum and minimum stress ratio was 0.5 and 0.1 respectively with loading speed of around 1Hz. 2. Concrete cylinder specimen This section reports the residual strength test results of the concrete cylinder specimens in order to obtain the very basic information of concrete under cyclic compressive stresses. 2.1 Outline of tests Table 1 shows the mix proportion of concrete. The concrete was manufactured using gravel and sand produced in Shizuoka Prefecture and ordinary Portland cement with water to cement ratio of 0.59. Compressive strength of 35MPa was the target. The cylinder specimens were 10 cm in diameter and 20 cm long and were cast in steel molds. The specimens were demolded the next day, and were cured and sealed in aluminum bags at 30°C for 4 months to prevent further strength development during fatigue tests. After 4 months of curing, cylinder specimens were still kept in aluminum bags until those were submitted to tests. It took 3 months to finish all the tests. During cyclic loadings and residual strength tests, the specimens were exposed to an atmosphere in the testing laboratory. Table 2 shows the maximum stress ratios and number of load cycles before residual strength tests for each specimen. Three levels of the maximum stress ratios (0.75, 0.65 and 0.33) were considered in the fatigue tests. The minimum stress ratio was 0.05 and the loading speed was 5 Hz in all cases. Figure 1 shows test cases in terms of the number of load cycles and the maximum stress ratios in the S-N curves. During tests, the compressive strains were Table 1 Mix proportion for cylinder specimens. Unit Mass(kg/m) ID W/C(%) s/a(%) water cement sand gravel WC59 59 42 158 268 781 1095 Additives : air entraining water reducing agent (1% of cement weight) air entraining agent (0.003% of cement weight) Slump :15±2.5cm, Air


NS was charged with six offences relating to prostitution contrary to sections 279.01(1) (trafficking), 279.02(1) (receiving a material benefit from trafficking), 286.1(1) (obtaining sexual services for consideration), 286.2(1) (receiving a material benefit from sexual services) and 286.4 (advertising sexual services) of the Canadian Criminal Code. The offences that took place between 12 May 2017 and 31 October 2017 and NS was also charged with an offence under s. 286.3(1) (procuring a person to offer or provide sexual services for consideration) for an infraction on 11 May 2017. In 2021, he brought a successful challenge against provisions 286.2, 286.3 and 286.4, which were enacted by the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act 2014 (PCEPA). This was on the basis that the provisions contravened the Charter rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter), section 7 which sets out the following:


What do the following issues have in common?: Malaria, urban poverty, mining, bird populations, renewable energy sources, gender and religion. No, they are not items in the election program of a green political party. All these issues feature prominently in the 20th edition of the annual State of the World Report published in 2003. The publication of the 20th edition presents a good occasion for a brief comparative assessment of the latest edition and its predecessors. For logistic and historic reasons the assessment is limited to the last eleven volumes spanning the period of the Rio UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) of 1992 through the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. The foreword of 10th State of the World of 1993 mentions that the series was started in 1984 ''because we were concerned by the lack of information on global environmental conditions and trends, Environmental literacy, even among national political leaders, was at the time limited'' (Italics are mine). Most interesting is also the following remark in the same foreword ''One of these years we would like to write an upbeat State of the World, one reporting that some of the trends of global degradation have been reversed''. Clearly the Reports were aimed at providing authoritative information and background about a wide range of environmental issues. How well did they succeed beyond national political leaders?


Background Cruise ships provide an ideal setting for transmission of SARS-CoV-2, given the socially dense exposure environment. Aim To provide a comprehensive review of COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships. Methods PubMed was searched for COVID-19 cases associated with cruise ships between January and October 2020. A list of cruise ships with COVID-19 was cross-referenced with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of cruise ships associated with a COVID-19 case within 14 days of disembarkation. News articles were also searched for epidemiological information. Narratives of COVID-19 outbreaks on ships with over 100 cases are presented. Results Seventy-nine ships and 104 unique voyages were associated with COVID-19 cases before 1 October 2020. Nineteen ships had more than one voyage with a case of COVID-19. The median number of cases per ship was three (interquartile range (IQR): 1–17.8), with two notable outliers: the Diamond Princess and the Ruby Princess, which had 712 and 907 cases, respectively. The median attack rate for COVID-19 was 0.2% (IQR: 0.03–1.5), although this distribution was right-skewed with a mean attack rate of 3.7%; 25.9% (27/104) of voyages had at least one COVID-19-associated death. Outbreaks involving only crew occurred later than outbreaks involving guests and crew. Conclusions In the absence of mitigation measures, COVID-19 can spread easily on cruise ships in a susceptible population because of the confined space and high-density contact networks. This environment can create superspreader events and facilitate international spread.


A factorial experiment with four levels (0.25, 50 and 75 g/plant) eacb of Urea and Superphosphate was carried out witb E. grandis grown on a severely truncated (Lithic Dystropept) soils at Minmutti, Idukki District, Kerala. Height, collar circumference, crown diameter and volume of E. grandis plants Increased with the application of N ferlilizer alone or in combination with P. However, P application alone was inferior to control treatment. Considering tbe growth parameters, relative treatment elfecllveness (RTE) and relative economic effecliveness (REE), treatment N 75 P 75 was the best followed by N 75 P 50 and N 50 P 75 treatments.


Abstract The validity of direct self-reports of motivational force for task performance levels was examined in three studies. Such measures have been used as true-scorelike criteria for computed measures of force and have advantages as measures in their own right. Results suggested that simple, direct self-reports should be useful in some research settings, but their validity as assessments of motivational force per se may be influenced by both wording and context.


Coupled Hidden Markov Model (CHMM) is the extension of traditional HMM, which is mainly used for complex interactive process modeling such as two-hand gestures. However, the problems of finding optimal model parameter are still of great interest to the researches in this area. This paper proposes a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) for the CHMM training. Chaos is used to initialize GA and used as mutation operator. Experiments on Chinese TaiChi gestures show that standard GA (SGA) based CHMM training is superior to Maximum Likelihood (ML) HMM training. HGA approach has the highest recognition rate of 98.0769%, then 96.1538% for SGA. The last one is ML method, only with a recognition rate of 69.2308%.


Purpose: This study examined the injury and rehabilitation of athletes with disabilities in racket sports projects (i.e., badminton, table tennis, and wheelchair tennis). In addition, the characteristics of each project and the differences among those projects are discussed. Methods: Business team athletes with disabilities in racket sport were enrolled as subjects (i.e., 19 badminton athletes, 19 table tennis athletes, and 19 wheelchair tennis athletes). The real conditions of the injury, injury severity, injury site, symptoms, and rehabilitation methods after injury were analyzed. Results: No significant differences were observed among the actual condition, injury severity, symptoms and the methods of rehabilitation on racket sport for athletes (i.e., badminton, table tennis, and wheelchair tennis athletes) with disability. The differences were focused mainly on the injury sites due to the characteristics of the different projects, and specific technical actions. Conclusion: This study examined the real condition of the injury, injury severity, injury site, symptoms and rehabilitation methods after the injury on the rackets (i.e., badminton, table tennis, and wheelchair tennis) athletes with disabilities. The data can be used to eliminate the incidence of injury and minimize the injury severity for racket athletes with disabilities. In addition, it can also be used for the disabled, who like racket projects, as the fundamental material to prevent injury and assist in recovery.


An Artificial Neural Network approach is applied to predict the lift coefficient of the airfoil for different angles of attack at the specified Reynolds number for airfoils with different shape characteristics. The Stall of the airfoil is characterized by a sudden drop in the lift force caused by flow separation. Therefore by prediction of the lift coefficient for different angles of attack and via determining its maximum, the stall angle for a specific shape of the airfoil can be determined. The Computational Fluid Dynamics is used to provide the initial data needed for ANN training; the lift coefficient of the airfoil for the range of angles of attack is taken as a target and NACA0012 is considered as a base line model in the present study. The profile of the airfoil is constructed by Bezier curves with eight control points and these control points along angles of attack are adopted as the training data for the Artificial Neural Network training. The ANN results are compared with those obtained by CFD. The results show the ANN approach can accurately predict the lift coefficient for the preliminary design process at substantially lower computational cost.© 2010 ASME


Real-time online attendance method is helpful for workers who do a lot of activities outside the office or workers with multi-schedule. The attendance system using online biometric fingerprint system will reduce the problems caused by manual system usage such as lags in data management. The purpose of the research is to constructs an online presence system that combines fingerprint modules and GPS. The ZFM-20 fingerprint module is used as the system's main input as well as a security tool as an entrance to get access to the entire system. GPS module is applied to determine the user's location and sends it to the smartphone. Arduino module in the system will send a text message to the parties concerned about the user's location data automatically. Each module works well and testing the entire system showed the system work reliable according to the initial scenario. The User can access the report using SMS, website, and application on the Android smartphone. The fingerprint sensor can determine the fingerprint stored in the database with an average response time of 1.39 seconds, and GPS can determine latitude and longitude with an average error of 0.007352% and 0.0003% respectively.


The purpose of this study was to provide a framework to guide the implementation of the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) process and examine opportunities and procedures involved with achieving VPP status. The literature review included VPP background, history, requirements, eligibility, application process, onsite review procedures, program approval or denial, participant benefits, and success stories. Unstructured interviews were chosen as a means for the interviewee to speak freely about their experiences and perspectives of the VPP process. The VPP was established to identify and recognize worksites with outstanding safety and health management systems and encourage cooperation between management, labor, and OSHA. Participants are dedicated to the development and implementation of systems to identify, evaluate, prevent, and control occupational hazards that could result in employee injuries and illnesses. Approval into VPP is OSHA's official recognition of employers' and employees' outstanding efforts in achieving occupational safety and health procedures which focus on continued improvement and development of existing safety and health programs. The Graduate School University of Wisconsin Stout Menomonie, WI Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge my family and friends who have been supportive of me during the process of completing my degree. Sincere appreciation for guidance and patience is extended to Dr. Elbert Sorrell, Tom Kaliher, Brenda Parker-Thompson, Mary and Ron Fandry, as well as the Risk Control Department faculty. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page . . ABSTRACT 11 . . List of Tables vll Chapter I: Introduction 1 Purpose of the Study 3 Goals of the Study 3 Background and Significance 3 Assumptions of the Study 4 Definition of Terms 4 Chapter 11: Literature Review 7 Introduction 7 Background 7 History 10 Applicant Qualifications 12 Application Process 14 Onsite Review Procedures 19 Program Approval, Denial, or Termination 23 Participant Benefits 28 Success Stories 30 Chapter III: Methodology 3


The Milky Way is our home galaxy in the universe. However, human beings do not know much of our home galaxy about its structure and physical properties. The and his cooperators have spent a decade to reveal the large-scale of magnetic fields of our Milky Way galaxy. They achieved a significant progress. Originally only knowledge of magnetic fields in the local galactic area of a few thousand light-years was there. Now, a global magnetic field structure of our Milky Way, a scale of tens of thousand light-years, is known. Here they report their efforts and results.


Wireless technology is the networking backbone in homes and offices worldwide. This same technology now offers a maintenance solution for Surface Force Atlantic tank and void material condition assessments. Wireless technology puts the power of a desktop computer into the hands of tank and void assessors as they enter these cavernous shipboard compartments. With a few taps on a personal digital assistant (PDA) touch-screen, assessors can record equipment configuration errors, annotate any one of over 100 possible tank condition abnormalities, or generate a repair work order with pre-written problem description and recommended solution statements. At the end of a typical workday, these PDAs are wirelessly connected to a mid-Atlantic regional maintenance center (MARMC) commercial off the shelf (COTS) server, where data export files are formatted for ship and shore 3M input. As Navy commands look to reduce operational and maintenance budgets, this automated and wireless business solution offers a means of maintaining the original tank and void maintenance goal of inspecting and trending degradation at a fraction of the previous required time and effort. Additionally, this process allows for the processing of assessment results to the SNAPSHOT database, the master tank, and void historical data repository. This automated process was successfully tested and implemented on 27 Norfolk-based ships in 2006. With significant cost and time savings realized, the next logical step was to develop a distant support capability for remote locations. The goal here was to incorporate these same standards and processes into southeast regional maintenance center (SERMC) ships while maintaining the MARMC-located COTS server as the main hub for work scheduling and PDA loading. To accomplish these goals, a process was developed using standard web technology for transferring PDA work assignment files (tanks and voids scheduled for assessment) from the main COTS server located at MARMC to the remote SERMC tank assessor equipped with a PDA. Once the assigned tank and void condition assessments are accomplished, files are then returned to MARMC using the same web technology. MARMC handles these remote files the same way as they do local files for data export to ship and shore 3M systems. This distant support capability was successfully tested and implemented on three Mayport-based ships in December 2006. This paper will detail the significant steps taken to automate a maintenance process that used a hand-scribed paper process and standard US Navy maintenance reporting infrastructures. The lessons learned during the upgrade process, maintenance advantages that maximize efficiency, cost effectiveness, and surface force ship reliability will be also be discussed.


basically one long chapter (11), gives examples of h. isba practices in six media mentioned in the literature: architecture, figural arts, textiles (the largest subsection), ceramics, glass and metal. To judge from the preface, the current book is a revised version, for the preface apparently belongs to an earlier one with two (rather than the current three) parts in a slightly different order and covered only five (rather than the current six) media. Such a mix-up is but one problem with the book's production. There are a few grammatical infelicities, typos and misspellings (I was amused to find my name sometimes but not consistently misspelled in footnotes and bibliography as Blaire). Technical terms and art historical processes are sometimes misconstrued. To give but one example, ghad. a'ir is not porcelain, but ceramics, for porcelain was never made in Islamic lands as potters lacked the essential ingredient, kaolin, and the section on potters and porcelain makers (pp. 245–249) is therefore misnamed. Far more serious is the lack of an index, and Harrassowitz should be faulted for publishing the monograph without one. For a book with almost 1,400 footnotes and a bibliography that stretches to 24 single-spaced pages with some 500 entries, and furthermore a work, particularly the second half of which is arranged, as the author himself says (p. 9), "without being confined to any specific geographic or chronological order", an index is a basic requirement to locate all the nuggets of information. These individual bits of information and their documentation in the sources represent one of the most valuable assets of the book, because, as the author repeatedly states, the information is scattered. Furthermore, the terms often change or evolve in meaning, so it is necessary to situate them within relationship to their immediate chronological and geographical framework. The most important general conclusion to be drawn from Ghabin's extensive documentation is that what was written was not necessarily – or even usually – carried out in practice, for extant buildings and objects repeatedly show that what was condemned in the sources was allowed on the ground. Most prohibitions were not strictly enforced, particularly in the upper class, and while the muh. tasib may have affected the quality of some crafts in the bazaar, he was unable to control the production of luxury goods, most of what we today call 'Islamic art'. This is not entirely a negative conclusion. Some historians of Islamic art are increasingly turning to the sources to explain their field, but this monograph is one more example showing that what is written is not necessarily what happened. Or, to put it more positively, this study of the institution of h. isba and its relationship to the arts shows that works of art often paint a different picture than that described in the written sources.


The present work reports the synthesis of water-soluble polypyrrole (PPy) and polythiophene (PTh) copolymers in different weight ratios and their characterization using experimental as well as theoretical techniques. The copolymers...


This paper has two objectives. The first is to identify current problems in Japan's pension administration. The chief problem is a weak governance structure. In particular, the current governance structure ignores the role of pension participants. A rigorous division and clear assignment of responsibilities to each of the pension participants, the Social Insurance Agency, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is urgently needed. Given rapid demographic change, the second objective is to consider the case for full tax financing of the National Basic Pension. It is estimated that the net burden would vary across different cohorts, but we demonstrate that the net burden can be smoothed across different cohorts. This result is quite different from that in the 2008 Interim Report of the Japanese National Council on Social Security.


A woman aged 65 developed contact der matitis after use of an antifungal ointment' containing 1 % of 3,5-dibromosalicylalde hyde. She had previously used this oint ment without any eczematous reaction. One day aftcr treating a nasal furuncle she developed a dermatitis with papules, vesi cles and oedema of the nose, cheeks and p.::do,-bital region. Patch testing was per formed with a routine series of substances and with thc suspccted ointment. She showed weak reactions to cinnamon, coal tar, wood tars and a mixture of perfumes. The ointment gave a vesiculous reaction. When tested with the constitutents of the ointrnent she reacted only to 3,5-dibromo salicylaldehyde. Patch testing was then carried out during the following three months with substances chemically related to this substance (see nos. 1-12 in Table r). All substances were used in a concentra tion of 0.5 0/o in alcohoL Al-test,' designed by Fregert (6), and Leucoplast®' adhesive plaster were used. The test substance was applied on the back for 48 hours. The reaction was read some hours after the adhesive tape had been removed and after a further 24 hours. A reaction with infiltration and/or vesicles or papules was recorded as positive. In order to ascertain that the test reac tions were not of a primary toxic nature, all substances giving positive reactions were tested in ten control subjects. All these controls gave negative reactions. Gas-liquid chromatography was carried out on all substances giving positive reac tions. For lht:: ,eparaliun pruc:edure a P�rkin Elmer gas chromatograph 880 was used. The column material was made of 2 0/o polyphenyl ether OS 124 on Chromosorb G (A W-DMCC, 80-100 mesh). The column was 200 cm long. The temperature was 160 ° C and the gas flow 30 ml per minute. Samples of r pi (5 0/o in ethanol) were in jected. For the preparation procedure of pure


To investigate the incidence and accountable factors for the potential dropout thoughts among Saudi medical students. A cross-sectional survey questionnaire based study was conducted among Saudi medical students enrolled at the College of Medicine, King Saud University. A total number of 587 (39.13%) medical students out of ∼1,500 filled the questionnaire. Among them 302 (51.4%) reported incidence(s) of dropout thoughts at least once. However, only 17 (5.6%) have thought of dropping out very seriously. The majority of the students (67.5%) thought for withdrawal only on stressful days. The first year of the medical school was the most common year for all the students (49.3%) for thinking of dropout and academic problems were the most common reasons behind dropout thoughts (37.8%). The students, whose decision for entering in the medical school was influenced by the surroundings were at higher risk of dropout thoughts than their peers (OR = 1.912, CI 1.33–2.75). A significant amount of dropout thoughts was prevalent among Saudi medical students, but serious thinker about dropout were less in numbers. A well-structured academic guidance program supported with psychological teaching method must be designed and offered to diagnose the symptomatic students before actually they get affected with dropout thought which might lead to actual dropout.


Is research information produced by the education community meeting the needs of state educational policymakers? Policymakers are desperate for information that will help them answer the difficult questions they face. They want information that is timely, concise, unbiased, readily available, and accurate. What happens to the large outpouring of policy proposals, research reports, and articles produced by academics and policy specialists? Unfortunately, the available information does not satisfy the needs of policymakers as well as it could, according to a recent survey of the education policy community in 15 states (Van Horn & Hetrick, 1987). Producers of educational policy information seldom deliver the goods that policymakers want. In striving to generate valid, careful studies, the research and policy analytic communities often fail to connect with policymakers' concerns. Participants in the education policy and research communities know that it is extremely difficult to bridge the gap. While the relationship between educational policymakers and producers of educational research information is not an adversarial one, a gulf of misunderstanding separates them. Researchers eschew the worlds of politics and administration as compromising the "truths" revealed through research; policymakers are often skeptical of ideas that come from people who do


The Board was in accord with the feeling of individuals at various institutions that there are now enough physics students to merit the establishment of local chapters at colleges and universities, designed to foster interest and professional responsibility and to establish a first link to the Member Societies and the Institute.


In this report we describe results from the work on business case analysis of the Sweden for Platooning (S4P) project. Platooning has the potential to contribute to the on-going transformation of t ...


Variational transition state theory (VTST) with an adiabatic approximation for excited vibrational modes and semiclassical transmission coefficients to account for tunneling is used to calculate state‐specific reaction rates for the collinear reaction H+F2(n=1)→HF+H and the three‐dimensional reaction Cl+H2(n=1–4,7)→HCl+H, where n is the initial vibrational quantum number and the rate constants are summed over final vibrational states. We also consider deuterated and tritiated analogs for both reactions for n=1. The results are compared to previous state‐selected rate constants calculated without transition state assumptions. Comparisons to accurate quantal results for the H+F2 series test both the semiclassical tunneling methods and the validity of the adiabatic approximation for excited‐state dynamical‐bottleneck locations. Comparison to quasiclassical trajectory calculations for the Cl+H2 series provide further tests of the adiabatic approximation. In general the VTST/adiabatic‐plus‐tunneling calculatio...


The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Lugol's iodine (Intrauterine) and gentamicin (parenteral and post-AI) in repeat breeding cows (n=54). Repeat breeding cows were divided into two groups based upon the type of cervico-vaginal mucus (CVM) discharge, Group-1, n=28, repeat breeding cows having pus flakes or pus in uterine discharge; Group-2, n=26, repeat breeding cows having apparently clear CVM. For treatment purpose, 14 cows from Group-1 as Group 1(a) were infused 50 ml of 0.5% lugol solution once on day of estrus and 14 cows as Group 1(b) were injected gentamicin @ 5 mg per kg body weight intra muscular twice daily for three days, starting on the day of estrus. In the Group 2(a), repeat breeding cows (n=15) were infused gentamicin @ 2 mg body weight twenty hours post AI. Group 2(b) comprising of 11 cows served as untreated control. Overall conception rate in Group 1(a) was 72.7% as compared with 60% in Group 1(b) with 1.8 and 2.1 services per conception. Conception rate in repeat breeding cows having apparently normal CVM treated with post AI gentamicin intrauterine infusion didn't improve as compared to control (40 vs. 36). It was concluded that the intra uterine infusion of lugol's solution once on day of estrus in repeat breeding cows having purulent vaginal discharge was better in cleaning uterus of uterine infections than parenteral administration of gentamicin for three days


The author believes (p. 24) that 'the systems theoretical approach may contribute significantly ...' to our understanding of the brain code. The key concept is 'topographical inhibition', favoured as the principal (but not sole) process of callosal functioning against the alternatives of topographical excitation, diffuse excitation and diffuse inhibition. Topographical inhibition 'is inhibition via the corpus callosum of homotopic (mirror-image) cortical columns which are contralateral to active columns in the other hemisphere' (p. 91). One additional postulate is needed: ' . . . the regions which are involved in (such) transfer... are both " aroused" by subcortical mechanisms...' (p. 199). Then the activity in the second area will be the mirrorimage negative of the first. The author gives detailed calculations to show that the callosum contains sufficient fibres in relation to the current best available estimates of the number of (macro-) columns in the cortex for each (macro-) column to be able to influence specifically its homotopic opposite column. He argues (convincingly to this reviewer) (p. 89) that his topographical inhibitory model would both permit information transfer across the callosum and also produce or accentuate functional asymmetries between the two hemispheres. (On his model there is less need for the asymmetries to have a structural basis than on other models.) In addition, 'the mirror-image negative mechanism of information transfer may be a fundamental mechanism of information transmission in the brain a fundamental part of the "brain code " ' (p. 200) although this sweeping claim is qualified by 'it may be the case that the excitatory mechanisms are the principal intrahemispheric means of information storage...' (p. 204) (author's italics).


In our country methods of pedagogical education by Konstantin D. Ushinsky have been efficient and much-in-demand over the decades. At the same time, in the context of modern pedagogical science, physiological mechanisms of implementation of Konstantin D. Ushinsky's methods have been understudied. In this work physiological mechanisms of the heritage of his pedagogical methods of education are analyzed in the context of the dominance theory by Aleksey A. Ukhtomsky. Using the examples of the authors' research, positive influence of Aleksey A. Ukhtomsky's dominant on a person is demonstrated.


In this paper, an novel unified sliding mode (SM) control scheme is proposed for boost converters, which can be adopted for the controller design based on the quantitative dynamic and static performance indexes simultaneously. Due to the ON/OFF operations of power switch, the boost converter is modeled into a switching affine system. The steady-state error is the concerned static performance indexes, while overshoot and setting time are considered at the same time for the dynamics control. In order to satisfy the different control objectives at different phases of system movement, a SM control scheme with two hierarchical sub-controllers is proposed. If the steady-state error is chosen to construct a quadratic performance index function, a linear SM sub-controller is only needed; while if the dynamic performance indexes are needed for consideration, another extra Backstepping SM sub-controller will be added. Simulations verify the correctness of this paper.


Recently, the number of detected galaxy counterparts of z > 2 Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers in QSO spectra has increased substantially so that we today have a sample of 10 detections. M{\o}ller et al. in 2004 made the prediction, based on a hint of a luminosity-metallicity relation for DLAs, that HI size should increase with increasing metallicity. In this paper we investigate the distribution of impact parameter and metallicity that would result from the correlation between galaxy size and metallicity. We compare our observations with simulated data sets given the relation of size and metallicity. The observed sample presented here supports the metallicity-size prediction: The present sample of DLA galaxies is consistent with the model distribution. Our data also show a strong relation between impact parameter and column density of HI. We furthermore compare the observations with several numerical simulations and demonstrate that the observations support a scenario where the relation between size and metallicity is driven by feedback mechanisms controlling the star-formation efficiency and outflow of enriched gas.


According to the World Health Organization incidence of cleft lip and palate ranges from 0.6-1.6 cases per 1000 newborns per year. Thus, bilateral full cleft lip and palate occurs less frequently around 15–25%. Purpose: to analyze treatment methods for children with bilateral cleft lip and palate during the period of a removable bite. A review of 51 literature sources from 1951 to 2019 was carried out. Occlusion development features in bilateral cleft lip and palate patients during mixed dentition period were analysed. Main anatomical features of the maxillofacial region in children with bilateral cleft lip and palate during mixed dentition period is narrowing of the upper and lower dental arches as well as presence soft tissues scars of the upper lip. The main methods of treatment for such children is surgical reconstructive operations, including the elimination of the anatomical defect of the hard palate using mucoperiosteal flaps from the lateral parts of the hard palate combined with orthodontic treatment methods. Thus, an integral method of treating children with bilateral cleft lip and palate during mixed dentition period is a comprehensive approach, including surgical reconstructive operations, as well as orthodontic treatment, the main purpose of which is to expand and extend dental arch, which results in normal occlusion therefore eliminating myofunctional disorders. Key words: cleft lip, cleft palate, mixed dentition, occlusion features, orthodontic treatment


The asymmetric bidentate ligand
(±)-(2-aminophenyl)(2-chlorophenyl)methylphosphine has been
prepared via chemoselective cleavage of the phenyl group from
(±)-(2-aminophenyl)methylphenylphosphine using lithium in
tetrahydrofuran (thf), to give (2-aminophenyl)methylphosphine upon
hydrolysis, followed by deprotonation of the secondary phosphine with
sodium in thf and subsequent reaction with 1,2-dichlorobenzene. The
chlorophenyl-substituted tertiary phosphine has been resolved by the
method of metal complexation. The absolute configuration of the
R enantiomer of the ligand has been assigned by a crystal
structure determination of the diastereomeric palladium(II)
complex
[(S
 P
),(R)]-[(2-aminophenyl)(2-
chlorophenyl)methylphosphine-N,P]{1-[1-
(dimethylamino)ethyl]naphthyl-C
 2
,N}
palladium(II) hexafluorophosphate. Reaction of
(±)-(2-aminophenyl)(2-chlorophenyl)methylphosphine with an
equimolar quantity of sodium (2-dimethylarsinophenyl)methylarsenide in
thf at -20 ± 5 °C gave a
1:1 diastereomeric mixture of the chiral pentadentate
ligands
(R
 As
*,R
 As
*,S
 P

*)-(±)- and
(R
 As
*,S
 As
*,S
 P

*)-(±)-{2-[(2-dimethylarsinophenyl)
methylarsinophenyl}{2-[(2-dimethylarsinophenyl)
methylarsinoamino]phenyl}methylphosphine. The chiral quadridentate
ligand
(R
 As
*,S
 P
*)-(±)-1-[(2-
aminophenyl)methylphosphino]-2-[(2-dimethylarsinophenyl)methylarsino]
benzene can be isolated, however, when the coupling reaction is
performed at 50 ± 5 °C. The chiral
multidentate ligands have been isolated by complexation to
cobalt(III) and the structures of the three complexes
determined by X-ray analyses. It is clear from the structural data that
the quadridentate ligand has formed a single
dichlorocobalt(III) complex with cis-α
stereochemistry and in which the stereogenic arsenic and phosphorus
atoms of the ligand have opposite relative configurations. Two other
complexes have also been isolated from the coupling reaction:
trans-dichlorobis[1,2-phenylenebis(dimethylarsine)]cobalt(
III) chloride and
bis[(2-aminophenyl)methylphenylphosphine]dichlorocobalt(III)
chloride. The latter is isolated as an isomeric mixture. The formation
of asymmetric bidentate (±)-(2-aminophenyl)methylphenylphosphine
is believed to result from reduction of the chloro group in the tertiary
phosphine precursor by the sodium arsenide reagent. Metal-assisted
methylation of a (2-dimethylarsinophenyl)methylarsino moiety by methanol
is postulated to account for the formation of
1,2-phenylenebis(dimethylarsine) in the reaction. Optically active
analogues of the three multidentate ligands have also been synthesized
by reaction of
(R)-(2-aminophenyl)(2-chlorophenyl)methylphosphine with sodium
(2-dimethylarsinophenyl)methylarsenide in thf and similarly isolated by
complexation to cobalt(III).


ABSTRACT Mobile phones are now used ubiquitously in everyday life around the world. However, using mobile devices for learning activities (i.e. m-learning) is not as popular as initially expected. This study explores the factors that affect m-learning apps acceptance among mobile phone users and investigates how personality, readiness, and motivation contribute to m-learning acceptance. The results of partial least squares analysis (PLS) with 297 valid samples indicate that conscientiousness and m-learning readiness are critical antecedents of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, with both motivations affecting intention to use m-learning app systems significantly and positively. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are presented based on this study's interesting findings.


Main cost and outcome measures The number of days of stable community housing was the main outcome. Direct treatment costs for each participant were included, which involved fee for service and budgeted services. Monthly service use was obtained from structured monthly client interviews and Medicaid claims, and costs in 1994 US dollars were obtained from Medicaid and Maryland state data. Costs for groups were compared using an incremental cost effectiveness ratio (incremental cost for each additional day of stable housing).


Creating accurate maps of complex, unknown environments is of utmost importance for truly autonomous navigation robot. However, building these maps online is far from trivial, especially when dealing with large amounts of raw sensor readings on a computation and energy constrained mobile system, such as a small drone. While numerous approaches tackling this problem have emerged in recent years, the mapping accuracy is often sacrificed as systematic approximation errors are tolerated for efficiency's sake. Motivated by these challenges, we propose Voxfield, a mapping framework that can generate maps online with higher accuracy and lower computational burden than the state of the art. Built upon the novel formulation of non-projective truncated signed distance fields (TSDFs), our approach produces more accurate and complete maps, suitable for surface reconstruction. Additionally, it enables efficient generation of Euclidean signed distance fields (ESDFs), useful e.g., for path planning, that does not suffer from typical approximation errors. Through a series of experiments with public datasets, both real-world and synthetic, we demonstrate that our method beats the state of the art in map coverage, accuracy and computational time. Moreover, we show that Voxfield can be utilized as a back-end in recent multi-resolution mapping frameworks, producing high quality maps even in large-scale experiments. Finally, we validate our method by running it onboard a quadrotor, showing it can generate accurate ESDF maps usable for real-time path planning and obstacle avoidance.


This thesis advanced our knowledge of the challenges of juror and lay understanding of statistical evidence in the criminal justice system through a systematic review of the literature and three empirical studies involving lay participants, scientific experts, and legal professionals. The research highlighted variations in evidence presentation, factors influencing juror comprehension, and revealed consistent misinterpretations across evidence formats. It paves the way for future research and empirically demonstrates the need for interventions to promote fairer trial outcomes.


Visual acuity at a level of illumination comparable to overcast starlight was measured at various frequencies and amplitudes of vibration chosen to be representative of conditions aboard various ships. Measures were made with electro-optical scopes of four-power and one-power, standard Navy 7×50 binoculars, four-power field glasses, and the naked eye. Decrements in acuity under vibration were largest for the four-power scope and least for the naked eye. The decrements were, in fact, directly related to the original acuity level determined for the specific optical systems with no vibration. Despite the loss, vision with the four-power electro-optical aid remained superior to that with any other system under all conditions. The importance of antivibration mounts is emphasized.


Aggression in adolescents becomes an importance focus in everyday life. This is because the impacts of aggression become a concern of many researchers. One study revealed that aggression behavior at age 14 would predict crime at age 26 (Pulkkinen & Pitten, 1993). This study aims to examine social skill variable as a moderator for relationship between anger management with aggression. This study used correlational study with moderated regression data analysis from Hayes. Subject in this study are adolescent have a behavioral problem (naughty and rebel in social life), amounting to 200 participants in a rehabilitation institution in Indonesia. The instruments of this study are Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), NAS-PI, and TISS. The result showed that anger management had an effect on aggression with 41.4%, p<0.01. Moderated regression test result's is strong enough, it is equal to 45.74%, p<0.05. Therefore, social skill can prove to be a moderation variable between anger management and aggression and strengthen the influence of anger management to aggression.


Nb-Ti-Si "in-situ" metal ceramic composites consist of Nb 3 Si and Nb 5 Si 3 intermetallic phases in a body centered cubic Nb solid solution, and show promising potential for elevated temperature structural applications. The addition of Cr has also been shown to increase the oxidation resistance at high temperatures. In this study, the LENS™ (Laser Engineered Net Shaping) process is being implemented to construct the Nb-Ti-Cr alloy system from elemental powder blends. Advantages of the LENS™ process include the ability to produce near net shaped components with graded compositions as well as a more uniform microstructure resulting from the negative enthalpy of mixing associated with the silicide phases. This study focuses on characterization of the microstructure of the Nb-27Ti-5Si-10Cr (at%) system using SEM and TEM analysis.


Presents a standardized system for the cataloguing of glass artifacts excavated from Canadian sites by Parks Canada. The vast majority of the glass dates from the 18th and 19th century and was imported from France and Great Britain. Intended to assist in making Parks Canada's records consistent in terminology and usage, and also to serve as a reference tool for inventorying, cataloguing, and researching glass artifacts of the types cited. -- AATA


This the foundation of developing virtual enterprise is to determine the core enterprise. This paper established its evaluation index system on the basis of the Role and the ability that the core enterprise must have, and determine the weights of each evaluation index by Analytic Network Process(ANP); The appraiser judge the index and got the coefficient matrix of evaluation decision that based on the set pair analysis; And it can got the total evaluation decision after the weight of expert were obtained by group decision making.Then we can determine weather a enterprise can becoming the core enterprise through the principles of decision-making more than half. The results of the empirical Analysis showed that this method have a good practicality.


For a book with the rousing title, Human Dignity and the Foundations of International Law, one would be forgiven for expecting a stirring and emotive appeal to the international community. Apart from one or two glimmers of emotion towards the end of the book, however, Capps's approach is strictly rhetoric-free. It is an unrelentingly rationalist argument, which places human dignity on a thoroughly rational footing following the approach of Alan Gewirth, within a wider rationalist theory of international law. The author's aim in this intricately argued monograph is to advance comprehensive foundations for international law within a Kantian philosophical tradition. Capps masterfully integrates discussion of the work of influential thinkers across the spectrum of political philosophy, legal philosophy and international law, including Kant, Weber, Hart, Finnis, Lauterpacht, Weil; the list is long. Capps' intention is that his general concept of international law will provide a tool for critique and reform of the international legal order. It is a lofty ambition; to give international lawyers the authority to deprive practices of the label of international law when judged as contrary to respect for human dignity. The first part of the book addresses the question of whether it is possible to generate a general concept of international law. This 'methodological problem' also encompasses the international lawyer's 'ontological problem' – does international law fall within a general concept of (national state) law? – to which Capps answers in the affirmative. The author makes the argument that a general concept of law, from which a concept of international law will derive, must be rooted in recognition of the function of law. The process of providing a response to the methodological problem seems at times to take ground-clearing to extremes (this issue must surely have been the bane of the author's life); more than 100 pages in, the methodological problem is still to the forefront. This is due to the author's painstakingly detailed construction of his argument. The second part of the book details Capps's concept of international law. It is argued that it is rational to adopt a concept of law – international law included – that is based on respect for human dignity. A 'moral concept of statehood' (p. 265) is central, which, he argues, allows us to judge the success of the international legal order in respect of its (rational) operation in accordance with respect for human dignity. Crucially, the author addresses various forms of potential objection on the basis that his position fails to take seriously relevant differences between human actors and states, and arguments that the state itself is not an agent at all. In discussion of the desirable institutional design of the international order, Capps does not begin from an unrealistically optimistic view of international relations. He argues that what is necessary in this respect will depend upon one's view of international relations (considered in terms of ideal and non-ideal theory), and he makes no suggestion that the current order should be fundamentally rethought. Capps suggests that the institutions we already have can be strengthened in effectiveness and legitimacy – in ways that will bring them closer to the concept of international law defended in the book. 396 Social & Legal Studies 19(3)


CaO-A12O3-P2O5-ZnO glass cement with intrinsic high hydration strength has been synthesized at 1450℃, and the theory of the formation of glass cement has been worked out briefly. The glass cement has the network co-formed by [PO4] and [A1O4]. The influence of Zn~2+ ion on the phase composition, state of glass cement, the evolution of the structure in glass cement clinker, relationship between the phase structure and hydration strength have been analyzed and discussed by means of optical microscope, X-ray diffraction (XRD), electronic probe microanalysis (EPMA), Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoeletronic spectroscopy (XPS).


IoT (Internet of Things) for EPESs (Electric Power and Energy Systems) is a fast-developing network built by the State Grid to monitor and control the power transmission and transformation equipments. Several domestic protocols and stan-dards have been published to guide the communication of node devices, of which each sub-system follows a different one. These protocols are designed to be very dynamic, with variability not only in field length but also in structure. Parsing modules of these protocols are of low reusability and hard to maintain as they are developed separately. Furthermore, the different implementations by different manufacturers bring the problem of conformance. In this paper, a structure description based method is proposed to satisfy the demand of multi-protocol parsing for devices in IoT for EPESs. The method includes description of message structure and a parsing algorithm dealing with variability.


In a paper1) on disablement and social conditions of patients with past syphilitic interstitial keratitis I was able to demonstrate on reexamination of altogether 122 such patients (with an average observation period of 21 years) that 21 % of these patients had become permanently disabled, and 14 % of these patients were disabled to a degree of less than one third of normal capacity for work. This disablement was due primarily to impairment of vision, and further to deafness and nervous complications, while heart lesions played only a minor r81e as cause of disablement. It will appropriate here first to give an account of what has been found in the literature and through my own studies with regard to the vision in patients with a past history of syphilitic interstitial keratitis. With regard to the Vision, I decided in my own material to group the results after the following degrees of visual acuity :


Research exploring users and professionals experiences of user participation in practice is not extensive and so far findings appear inconclusive. This study aimed to generate knowledge about how mental health workers perceive user participation in challenging interactions. Data were collected from qualitative interviews with mental health workers in Norwegian community services. Vignettes describing challenging situations were used in the interviews in order to elicit reflections pertaining to user participation. Kvale 's phenomenological- hermeneutical method was employed to analyze interview data according to his three levels of interpretation: 1) self-understanding 2) critical "common sense" understanding and 3) theoretical understanding. Self-psychology was used to interpret data at the third level. The informants emphasized three main strategies to secure user participation: Working towards the user's goals, facilitating flexible communication and enhancing a good relationship. Still, informants perceived the challenging interactions as either being dominated by the user or the mental health worker. This dichotomy indicates that a better understanding of the relationship and improved communication skills are required to enhance mutual participation for user and caregiver.


MriHE year 1961 marked the 150th anniversary of the publication of JL Rasmus Rask's Vejledning til det Islandske eller gamie Nordiske Sprog (Copenhagen, 1811), in which the historical origin of mutation, or umlaut, was first demonstrated. It is therefore appropriate that Rask's contributions to the investigation of the vocalism of the Germanic languages be once again submitted to scrutiny in order that the relationship between him and his fellow investigator, Jacob Grimm, may be more accurately defined. This relationship has often been distorted, consciously or subconsciously, by patriotic fervor on the part of both Danes and Germans. In recent years, a more objective evaluation has been undertaken, but there remain certain points which require further clarification. Jacob Grimm considered the investigation of the vocalism of the Germanic languages to be one of the most difficult problems facing the new science of historical linguistics.1 It is precisely in this area that Rask made very significant contributions which have not yet received the full recognition they deserve. Friedrich Stroh credits Rask with having contributed substantially to Grimm's views on historical and comparative linguistics and to his treatment of the Germanic languages. He finds that with the publication of the Unders0gelse om Det gamie Nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse, Rask stood "an der Schwelle der germanischen Sprachwissenschaft. Er ist freilich an der Schwelle stehen geblieben, gewann daher auch nicht den Einfluss auf die germanische Philologie wie Jacob Grimm."2 From a comparison of the early works of both Rask and Grimm with respect to their concepts of vocalic developments, it will be seen that Rask did not merely remain on the threshold, but actually opened wide the door through which Jacob Grimm later passed.


Germany and the Netherlands maintain close relationships. Over the last few decades their relations have constantly intensified, resulting in today's close cooperation, consultations and interrelations in a variety of fields. However, despite their close ties and geographic proximity there are cultural differences between the two countries that lead to disturbances in cross-border cooperation. These cultural differences manifest in behavior, perceptions and attitudes and can lead to irritations, problems and even conflicts in German-Dutch interaction. This book provides an analysis of cultural characteristics that play a role in German-Dutch interaction as well as their relevance and conflict potential. With an entanglement of different methods both the rather concrete and visible manifestations and the general, rather superordinate and underlying aspects of culture are analyzed, providing the readers with a comprehensive understanding of their neighboring culture and enabling them to avoid irritations and conflicts when dealing with Dutch or Germans.


The isoelectric point (pI) of S‐adenosyl‐L‐methionine and some of its metabolic products has been determined by an isoelectric focusing technique. The experimental pI values of S‐adenosyl‐L‐methionine and S‐methylmethionine are 7.24 and 6.85, respectively, and the pI values of S‐adenosyl‐L‐homocysteine and homocysteine are 6.05 and 5.65, respectively. This indicates that the contribution by adenosine, adenine and ribose to the total electric charge of S‐adenosyl‐L‐methionine or S‐adenosyl‐L‐homocysteine is approximately 0.40 pI unit. The differences in the pI values between two pairs of compounds (S‐adenosyl‐L‐methionine vs. S‐adenosyl‐L‐homocysteine and S‐methylmethionine vs. methionine) are very close (1.19 and 1.14, respectively). This difference is the amount of pI value contributed by the sulfonium group which has been formed by methyl addition. Surprisingly, the presence of a permanent positive charge at the sulfonium center in S‐adenosyl‐L‐methionine and S‐methylmethionine does not result in a higher pI values for these compounds. This might be due to the partial neutralization of the positive charge by the formation of carbanion. The mechanism of charge neutralization in these sulfonium compounds is discussed.


Knowledge distillation is a kind of model compression methods. It improves the performance of "student" networks by transferring the knowledge of "teacher" to "student". However, due to the huge gap between "teacher" and "student" in knowledge representation capabilities, directly minimizing the difference between them to transfer the knowledge will lead to the convergence issue. To this end, this paper proposes a novel framework of knowledge distillation. By sharing the weights of "teacher" and "student" in fully connected layers, we reduce the challenge of knowledge transfer. Furthermore, we propose a novel training strategy to improve the performance of low-bit quantization networks based on our distillation framework called distillation for low-bit quantization (DLBQ). The experimental results show that our methods can achieve significant improvement across different tasks. For instance, ResNet-20 gains 1.81% improvement on Cifar10 dataset. ResNet-56 shows 3.36% improvement on Cifar100 dataset and even exhibits 1.72% performance improvement than "teacher" network. Additionally, as for the improvements of quantization performance, ResNet-20 gain 1.25% improvement with ternary weights on Cifar10, and ResNet-110 manifects 3.22% improvement with binary weights on Cifar100 dataset.


Some experiments are described which explore the perception of the glides /w/ and /j/ spoken simultaneously. These cannot be spoken in isolation, like vowel sounds, but must be combined with vowels to form syllables. In previous experiments /w/ and /j/ were combined with the vowels /i/ and /a/ to form the four syllables /wi/, /wa, /ji/ and /ja/. It was found that if both the vowels and their pitches differed the consonants could be identified by some of the listeners part of the time. The effect of fundamental frequency on perception has now been explored. Each pair of syllables had different consonants and different vowels but one syllable had a pitch of 100 Hz whilst the other had a pitch of between 100 and 200 Hz. It was found that some syllables were perceived like vowels. The effects one syllable of the pair leading the other have also been systematically explored.


The author of the article analyzes the use and improvement of BM-8 and BM-13 Soviet land multiple launch rocket system. The author studied the fast tempo of evolution of reactive artillery of the Soviet Union in the years of the Great Patriotic War. The author cited history of the first battle using of reactive shells: RS-82 and RS-132 of "air-air" and "airland" on the Soviet Il-2 aircrafts and SB bombers; using RS-82 with I-16 aircrafts and with artillery-lorry "Komsomolets" during the defense of Odessa. The author investigated the secret see-transportation of the 48-th special force guards mortars to Odessa, the special ways for secret of new weapons; the technical-tactic characteristics of reactive weapons and battle activity 48-th force's in the Odessa Defense Area. The article presents the analysis of the organization of the battle using of guard-mortars force; sudden concentration strikes against enemy, which was preparing to attack. The author tells about reactive artillery support, fast chancing positions of reactive artillery, fire maneuvering on different sectors of the Odessa defense system, cooperation between reactive and other artillery.


The invention relates to a method for adjusting and controlling the planar optical anisotropy of a material of a semiconductor quantum well. According to the method, the planar optical anisotropy of the semiconductor quantum well can be effectively adjusted and controlled by changing the thickness of an ultrathin InAs (Indium Arsenide) layer inserted in the upper interface of the semiconductor quantum well. The method is simple and feasible to use, low in cost, significant in adjusting and controlling effect, and larger in adjusting and controlling range.


This paper's primary purpose was to examine the effects of talent development practices on employee retention in commercial banks in Tanzania, using the case study of CRDB Bank PLC's headquarters. A human resources department with a population of 56 individuals was selected to represent the whole population of the CRDB Bank PLC Headquarters. All 56 respondents were selected as a sample size through a scientific population analysis known as census population. The data collection technique used was a semi-structured questionnaire. The quantitative data was analyzed with descriptive analysis and inferential statistics in SPSS version 25. It was found that career development has a positive correlation with employee retention (r =.796, p value = 0.000). Furthermore, succession planning has a positive correlation with employee retention (r =.772, p value = 0.00). The findings implied that both career development and succession planning have a positive effect on employee retention. The study recommends that CRDB Bank allow training and development to be the source of business innovation and creativity and introduce new rewarding strategies to keep talent in the organization for a long period of time. The research contributes as an addition to knowledge and literature on talent development practices, as it is still a new concept in many Tanzanian organizations.


Projects and activities of the Institute for Tourism, Zagreb Cultural, entertainment and sport events have long been the back bone of tourism development strategies, especially in urban settings where they are used to create the atmosphere, sense of place or being attractions in themselves. Destinations suff ering seasonality of demand also use events to create a number of mini-seasons, while smaller community events in rural areas are used as an image creator and repeat visit generators. In addition, in many of the newly formed nation states that appeared in Europe with the fall of the Berlin wall cultural events have become one of the vehicles of (re)creation of national identity. Th ese forces, to a large extent, shape the landscape of cultural and sporting events in Europe. Th erefore, it is of a little surprise that the events have grown exponentially. Such is also the case in Croatia, where there is a growing competition between events for mostly scarce public funding, reluctant private sector sponsors and increasingly demanding audience. To be competitive, evolve and survive these events need stable funding, professional event team with a range of skills and destination wide actions to grow events into tourism attractions. For this they require, among other things, key marketing data to guide their programming and marketing strategies and to create synergies of actions with major stakeholders. Yet, the cost of the tailor made market research can not be easily met by most small and mid-size events.


Microalgae are single cell organisms that have the potential to be developed as feedstock for biodiesel oil. One of the problems of using microalgae as feedstock for biodiesel is in the extraction process. Microalgae extraction requires considerable cost. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of ohmic heating as a method of pretreatment in microalgae oil extraction. The raw materials used were microalgae paste diluted in two levels cell density, 20 g/L, and 30 g/L. The pretreatment using alternating current (AC) electric with two voltage levels (55 V and 110 V), and the duration of pretreatment was 30 seconds and 60 seconds. The next step was drying and extracting microalgae by solvent extraction method of n-hexane. The results showed that the highest oil yields (14.88%) were obtained by cell density treatment 20 g/L, done for 60 seconds of pretreatment and 110 V voltage. This result was higher than without pretreatment, so the use of pretreatment by ohmic heating can improve extracted oil yield than without pretreatment.


The past few decades have witnessed the boom in pharmacology as well as the dilemma of drug development. Playing a crucial role in drug design, the screening of potential human proteins of drug targets from open access database with well-measured physical and chemical properties is a task of challenge but significance. In this paper, the screening of potential drug target proteins (DTPs) from a fine collected dataset containing 5376 unlabeled proteins and 517 known DTPs was researched. Our objective is to screen potential DTPs from the 5376 proteins. Here we proposed two strategies assisting the construction of dataset of reliable nondrug target proteins (NDTPs) and then bagging of decision trees method was employed in the final prediction. Such two-stage algorithms have shown their effectiveness and superior performance on the testing set. Both of the algorithms maintained higher recall ratios of DTPs, respectively, 93.5% and 97.4%. In one turn of experiments, strategy1-based bagging of decision trees algorithm screened about 558 possible DTPs while 1782 potential DTPs were predicted in the second algorithm. Besides, two strategy-based algorithms showed the consensus of the predictions in the results, with approximately 442 potential DTPs in common. These selected DTPs provide reliable choices for further verification based on biomedical experiments.


Visible light and near-infrared absorption of fiber are studied experimentally.With the polychromatic light illumination,the propagation loss of optical fiber is measured according to the fiber truncation method.The absorption coefficient of fiber is obtained through the simple calculation.Several absorption peaks of fiber are found in the absorption spectrum from 500nm to 1000nm.The corresponding explanation for these absorption peaks is given.


The utility model relates to a whole vehicle controller which comprises a circuit board, a first connector, a second connector and a shell, wherein the first connector comprises a first body arranged on the circuit board; the second connector comprises a second body arranged on the circuit board; the shell comprises an upper shell and a lower shell; the circuit board, the first connector and the second connector are arranged between the upper shell and the lower shell; the upper shell comprises a first holding part and a second holding part, wherein the first holding part and the second holding part respectively correspond to the first body holding the first connector and the second body holding the second connector; therefore, the configuration of the whole vehicle controller is simplified and the maintenance is convenient; meanwhile, the utilization ratio of the connector pins of the whole vehicle controller is improved, the volume of the whole vehicle controller is reduced, the integral structure is strengthened, and the manufacturing cost is lowered.


ABSTRACT In this study, we investigated the electro-optical (EO) characteristic of fringe-field switching (FFS) mode cell by the ion beam alignment method on the a-C:H thin film. The suitable inorganic thin films for FFS cell and the aligning capabilities of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) using the new alignment material of a-C:H thin film were studied. An excellent voltage-transmittance (V-T) and response time curve of the ion beam aligned FFS cell was observed with oblique ion beam exposure on the a-C:H thin films. Also, the V-T hysteresis characteristics of the ion beam-aligned FFS cell with IB exposure on the a-C:H thin films is almost the same as that of the rubbing-aligned FFS cell on a polyimide (PI) surface.


Multiple logic functions including dual-input dual-output NOR and AND gates, dual-input dual-output NOT and AND gates, and a three-input NOR gate are fabricated with fluorene-based small molecule/DNA probes (named FSM/DNA probes), which sequences are well-designed. The FSM/DNA probes can be quenched by dsDNA, aptamer-target complex and free dyes (SG I and EB) without the attachment of additional quencher moiety. The quencher-free FSM/DNA probe also presents a way for detection of ATP. In addition, the feasibility of a pH-induced "ON–OFF" fluorescence switching system is demonstrated through the carboxylic acid-terminated fluorene derivatives (F(COOH)2 and FSM/DNA probe) by taking advantage of protonation/deprotonation process occurring at the carboxylic acid functional groups. The formation of deprotonated F(COO–)2 emits fluorescent ("ON" state) at neutral and alkaline pH ranges, whereas the F(COOH)2 with the protonated carboxylic acid groups quenches the emission of fluorene ("OFF" state) at acidic pH ra...


The Chair of the Moscow University Department of Cartography responds to comments made by the Editor-in-Chief on "Cartography in the West: An Analysis of Theoretical Views in Recent Years," translated in Mapping Sciences and Remote Sensing, 1984, No. 2, pp. 118-124. Translated from: Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, geografiya, 1985, No. 6, pp. 55-58.


Okra fruits of cv. F152, either whole or sliced, were pre-treated with hot water blanching (100°C for 0.5 min.), sodium metabisulphite (0.2% Na2S2O5 for 1 min.), microwave blanching (1 min.) and a control (without pre-treatment) and subjected to dehydration at two levels of temperature at 50° and 55°C. In general, drying time decreased with increase in temperature, but the quality was better maintained at lower temperature (50°C) in most of the treatments. Moisture content reduced at faster rate with time at a higher temperature in most treatments. Rehydration and dehydration ratio of sliced fruits with Na2S2O5(TS3), microwave blanching (TS4) and control were higher compared to dehydrated material at 55°C. With regard to retention of chlorophyll and ascorbic acid, 0.2% Na2S2O5 (sliced) treatment at 50°C (TS3) retained maximum ascorbic acid followed by microwave blanching of whole fruit at 50°C (TW4) and control with sliced fruit at 50°C (TS1). With regard to sensory attributes sliced fruits treated with 0.2% Na2S2O5 treatment at 50°C showed the best result.


Electromigration-induced failure in multilayered interconnects with overlayered TiN has been studied in con- junction with the overlayered-TiN/Al heterointerface evalua- tion. The electrical contact resistance between AI and TIN changes with its fabrication processes. The contact between AI and underlayered TiN shows almost the same resistance as AI/AI direct contact. On the other hand, the contact between overlayered TIN and AI shows higher resistance compared with that of AI/AI direct contact, and its value varies with the de- position processes. That is, overlayered-TiN/Al structure suc- cessively deposited without breaking vacuum shows one order of magnitude higher contact resistance, while overlayered- TiN/AI structure deposited after the AI was exposed to air shows two orders of magnitude higher contact resistance com- pared with AI/AI direct contact. These contact resistances have a strong influence on layered metal line lifetime in terms of cur- rent bypass effect. The high contact resistance between over- layered TIN and AI suppresses the current bypass flow even when it is one order of magnitude higher compared with that of AI/AI direct contact. The simple multilayered structure of overlayered TiN/Ti/AI that has low resistance between TiN and AI, if the AI and Ti were deposited successively without breaking vacuum, has been found to be a metal line of high reliability for submicrometer-level interconnects.


To improve the capacity of single machine to handle complex network,overlapping communities detection algorithm was proposed. First,a graph compression based social network model,namely agglomerative graph,was introduced,which was a lossless compression to the original network. Then,inspired by the idea of iteration based on seeds,the selected seeds were expanded to the communities by optimizing the proposed community fitness function iteratively.Finally,the communities of high similarity with each other were merged to get the final results.Since the scale of the network to be dealt is significantly reduced, and some redundant computations are avoided,the proposed algorithm is of high efficiency.


Methylene Blue (MB) has been chosen as a model molecule to evaluate the impact of inorganic
salts, present in textile waste waters, on the adsorption properties and on the photocatalytic efficiency of
 TiO 2 . No OH ∘ radical scavenging by anions such as NO 3 − , Cl − , SO 4 2 − , PO 4 3 − , and CO 3 2 − was observed at neutral and basic pH, while this phenomenon can be suggested at acidic pH for some anions except carbonate
anions which are totally neutralized and/or eliminated as CO 2 in these conditions. The decrease in the rate
MB photocatalytic degradation in the presence of inorganic salts was shown to be due to the formation of
an inorganic salt layer at the surface of TiO 2 , which inhibits the approach of MB molecules. The correlation
between the amount of MB adsorbed and the rate of its photocatalytic degradation, whatever the nature of
the salt, its concentration and the pH of the solution, indicates (i) that photocatalysis occurs at the surface
and not in the solution and (ii) that OH − ions added at basic pH do not participate to the increase in the
photocatalytic efficiency by inducing an increase in OH ∘ formation. They increase the surface density in
adsorption sites TiO − . The effect of various salts is similar on various titania samples of industrial origin
(Millennium TiO 2 PC 500, PC 50, and Degussa P 25). It is however more important on Millennium PC 10
probably because of its smaller surface area.


The invention provides a mobile phone. The mobile phone comprises a vibrator, a vibration sensor and a control unit. The vibration sensor monitors mechanical vibration generated by the vibrator, converts the monitored mechanical vibration into electric quantity according to the mechanical energy/electrical energy conversion principle, and outputs the electric quantity to the control unit. The control unit compares the received electric quantity with a preset electric quantity threshold value to determine whether the electric quantity needs to be adjusted, and adjusts the received electric quantity into a preset target electric quantity value according to the comparison result when the electric quantity needs to be adjusted. The vibration sensor converts the adjusted target electric quantity value into a voltage and outputs the voltage to the vibrator, and the vibrator adjusts the frequency of the generated mechanical vibration according to the voltage. The invention also provides a mobile phone vibration frequency adjusting method.


The frequency dependence of the complex dielectric constant of LuFe<inf>2</inf>O<inf>4</inf> single crystal is measured by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. We observed a broad infrared active mode in the real and imaginary parts of the complex dielectric constants at around 25 cm<sup>−1</sup>.


The nonlinearity of the diffusion process in interactive systems suggests a classification of the methods that measure diffusion coefficients into equilibrium and nonequilibrium ones. Diffusion coefficients obtained by different methods, in general, do not agree with each other. This is shown explicitly with the use of Monte Carlo simulations by comparing results obtained with an equilibrium method (fluctuation method) and a nonequilibrium one (laser‐induced‐desorption method). However, the same microscopic information about the interactions between the particles can be obtained by any method with proper modeling.


This research presents a methodology for the hydrological characterisation of the overtopping failure for an existing river levee. Conventional procedures usually consider only one variable for the hydrologic forcing, e.g. peak discharge Q. Such an approach might fail if also the volume of the hydrograph V is a significant factor.  The proposed procedure is based on the generation of a set of plausible hydrographs. Each hydrograph has a couple of Q and V resulting from an approximated bivariate distribution. The shapes of the hydrographs are classified according to their tendency to produce overtopping, introducing the new Overtopping Hydrograph Shape Index (OHSI). The levee of a river reach located in Tuscany Region, Italy, was tested. As a preliminary result, it was found that the hydrographs that produce overtopping failure lay in a zone in the Q-V space, delimited by the Critical Overtopping Flood Hydrograph (COFH) curve. The existence of the COFH demonstrates that overtopping failure is not determined by a unique variable Q but rather by the combination of both Q and V. The limiting case corresponds to a family of hydrographs with varying Q and V values. The COFH allows dividing the Q-V space into two zones: the no-failure zone and the failure zone, which simplify the evaluation of the failure probability for a river levee.  This procedure is based on tools that are widely known and it is replicable by the public administrations or public entities that are interesting in the hydrologic and hydraulic risk assessment.


X iv :m at h/ 05 12 55 5v 10 [ m at h. A G ] 1 9 A ug 2 00 6 Lie bialgebras of generalized Virasoro-like type Yuezhu Wu , Guang'ai Song , Yucai Su 4) 1)Department of Mathematics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China 2)Department of Mathematics, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China 3)College of Mathematics and Information Science, Shandong Institute of Business and Technology, Yantai, Shandong 264005, China 4)Department of Mathematics, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei 230026, China E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Abstract. In two recent papers by the authors, all Lie bialgebra structures on Lie algebras of generalized Witt type are classified. In this paper all Lie bialgebra structures on generalized Virasoro-like algebras are determined. It is proved that all such Lie bialgebras are triangular coboundary.


We hypothesized that the relative availability of meat, indicated by contribution to the diet, would be positively related to body size and population productivity of North American brown, or grizzly, bears (Ursus arctos). Dietary contributions of plant matter and meat derived from both terrestrial and marine sources were quantified by stable-isotope analysis (δ13C and δ15N) of hair samples from 13 brown bear populations. Estimates of adult female body mass, mean litter size, and population density were obtained from two field studies of ours and from other published reports. The populations ranged from largely vegetarian to largely carnivorous, and food resources ranged from mostly terrestrial to mostly marine (salmon, Oncorhynchus spp.). The proportion of meat in the diet was significantly correlated with mean adult female body mass (r = 0.87, P < 0.01), mean litter size (r = 0.72, P < 0.01), and mean population density (r = 0.91, P < 0.01). Salmon was the most important source of meat for the largest, ...


In modern day structures fracture initiation cannot be excluded in an absolute sense, defects may exist that when subjected to the operating stress may form brittle propagating cracks. In such cases an assessment of the crack arrest capability of the steel may be required to ensure structural integrity. This paper aims to give a review of existing crack arrest assessment procedures discussing their respective advantages and limitations. In addition a number of modern approaches currently being developed will be introduced and their capabilities compared to existing procedures.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


The success of the tobacco industry's multi-decade campaign to delay regulation by manufacturing uncertainty about the studies linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer and other diseases is well documented.1 2 A less well-known consequence of this campaign is the appearance of a new, lucrative application of scientific expertise: product defence. Consulting firms working for producers of toxic chemicals are using the same approaches, and even the same scientists, that the tobacco industry relied on to forestall regulation of cigarettes. Today, these firms aim to impede public health regulation by questioning studies that have identified hazardous properties of asbestos, beryllium, chromium, lead and a host of other toxic chemicals.3

Defending hazardous chemicals has become lucrative business. It is increasingly common for scientific studies to be commissioned in order to be deployed in regulatory or legal proceedings. Companies involved in the welding industry paid more than US$12 million to scientists who published papers disputing the link between welding-related manganese exposure and neurological disease.4 Similarly, two product defence firms working for defendants who produced asbestos brake shoes or related friction products received over US$23 million for their services, billing hundreds of dollars an hour to write papers for peer-reviewed journals.5 Publication by paid experts is not limited to scientists employed by polluters and manufacturers of toxic materials. Of the 26 papers published by US authors between 2002 and 2006 on the risk …


Once the diferent kinds of cautious measures in force within the scope of the minority penal responsibility have been concisely explained, the author analyse profoundly, from a procedural point of view, the cautious protection and custody of those who suffer from mental derangement or are immersed in some supposed regulated in the article 20, numbers 1, 2, and 3 of the Penal Code, which can be traduced in the adoption of therapeutic internments or ambulatory treatments.


Corn, sunflower, potato, and cucumber plants 30 to 40 days old were exposed for one hour to a 3% CO/sub 2/ atmosphere containing 50 mu C of C/sup 14/ per liter of gas. Then, the plants were maintained 4 to 8 hours under natural illumination for various periods of the day (from 10 to 14 o'clock, from 14 to 18 o'clock, and from 22 to 6 o'clock in the morning). The roots, stems, and leaves were then separated and counted on an end-window counter. The relative transport rate was estimated from the percentage activity in the root or stem. The decrease in activity per unit surface area per hour was also determined, and a correction was made for the respiratory loss. Movement of organic matter from the leaves to other parts of the plant takes place during all periods of the day. The most active transport was noted in the corn seedlings, and the least active in the potato seedlings. The sunflower was similar to the corn plants in behavior, while the cucumber was closer to the potato. In two of the plants (potato and sunflower), the transport of organic substances from the leaves increased during the night hours. Themore » transport rate rose, but did not attain its maximum during the night hours in the potato plant. The movement of organic matter to the roots was greatest during the night hours in all experiments. (TTT)« less


To organize the jobs at PT SatNetCom, Software Engineer of PT
SatNetCom created SWOS. SWOS (SatNetCom Work Order System) is a work
order application that used at PT SatNetCom. SWOS is created using CRM-CTT,
a free work order application owned by Interleave.
SWOS can be accessed via internet by login into SWOS official website
(http://swos.satnetcom.com). SWOS can be used by all employees of all
departments of PT SatNetCom.
The jobs are more organized and more transparent since SWOS was used
at PT SatNetCom., because of SWOS main functions which are task assignment
and reporting. SWOS has different function at each department at PT SatNetCom.
Since 2007, SWOS has been used as work order application at PT SatNetCom.
Until today, PT SatNetCom had more than 20000 SWOS. SWOS will be made each
time there is a new job and it will be closed when the job is finished.


The magnetic properties of BiCu2PO6 have been analyzed by means of magnetic-susceptibility and inelastic neutron-scattering measurements on powder samples by evaluating the spin-exchange interactions on the basis of density-functional calculations and by simulating the inelastic neutron scattering in terms of spin-exchange parameters. BiCu2PO6 exhibits magnetic properties described by the two-leg spin ladder with strong spin frustration along each leg chain and has a gapped quantum singlet ground state with excited magnetic states, showing an incommensurate dispersion arising from frustration.


ABSTRACT The present study focused on the effect of 10 years of continuous fertilizer trials on soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization in cassava grown ultisols. The study determines the carbon (C) mineralization potential, dynamics, and kinetics of C mineralization by fitting five decay models, significance of various long-term fertilizer applications on C mineralization and the relationship between soil physico-chemical properties with carbon mineralization parameters derived from the best model. To determine the potential of the soil to mineralize organic C a short-term aerobic incubation procedure – alkali trap method – was used. The best model fitting first-order E (R2 = 0.994) was used to describe the dynamics and kinetics of C mineralization. Relationships between soil physico-chemical properties and C mineralization parameters of first-order E model were studied by using correlation analysis. The site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) treatment showed the highest carbon dioxide-carbon (CO2-C) evolution value (2049.61 mg of CO2-C kg−1 soil) while NPK omission treatment showed the lowest (1703.37 mg of CO2-C kg−1 soil). The initial potential rate of carbon mineralization (C0k) was highest for SSNM treatment (159.78 mg kg−1) and lowest for K omission treatment (123.25 mg kg−1) indicating that the organic matter quality has increased in continuous SSNM treatment for 10 years compared to all other treatments. Significant positive correlations were shown between cumulative C evolved (Cm) and SOC. Significant negative correlations were observed between size of the mineralization flush (C1) and silt as well as between potentially mineralizable carbon (C0K) and clay.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Each school year, chemistry students around the country participate in at least one lab to develop their understanding of scientific inquiry. Having spent time as a research chemist in the mining and cosmetics industries before becoming a teacher, scientific inquiry and experimental design are topics that are near and dear to my heart. Each school year, I look forward to watching my 10th-grade chemistry students struggle through a self-designed lab and (hopefully) end up successful on the other side. Over the years, I have tried a number of inquiry projects with my students. I have had them create paper airplanes in an attempt to determine how fast they can fly, develop window cleaners to compete with commercial products, and design experiments to determine what type of light makes a solar car move the fastest (they are always amazed when black lights or single-colored lightbulbs do not move the car at all!). The problem with all of these projects? Students did not clearly understand the variables involved. As first-year chemistry students, many have never participated in a school science fair. They have memorized the steps of the "scientific method" and can recite them without any prompting from me, but when introduced to controlled, independent, and dependent variables, they hit a brick wall. That is, until last year. I was setting up a graphing lab with sugar cubes when the idea hit me--why not have my students design a lab to determine the fastest way to make a sugar cube dissolve in water? The variables--surface area, water temperature, and agitation--are simple and easy to understand. In addition, the materials needed are inexpensive--making this lab an economical one. And as an added bonus, students would obtain background knowledge of solutions and their properties well before we discussed the topic in class. I quickly created a lab handout (Figure 1) and grading rubric (Figure 2, p. 52) and found myself even more excited to watch my students work out this problem. I structured the lab so that students would work with only one independent variable. Other than that, they were on their own. This article describes my experience using the sugarcube activity in my chemistry class last year and provides suggestions for use in your classroom. Dissolving sugar activity Day 1 On Day 1, I introduced the problem and asked students how we could dissolve a sugar cube in the fastest way possible. An important first step was defining "dissolved" as a class. After some discussion, we agreed that a sugar cube had dissolved when no particle of the cube was visible to the eye. Students were quick to create and agree upon this definition. Students also identified three variables: surface area, water temperature, and agitation (variables are part of a previous unit on scientific inquiry). I informed them that they would be limited to 30 ml of solvent and that they had to develop their experiments by the end of the 50-minute period. In teams of four, students worked quickly to create a hypothesis (including the dependent and independent variables and a list of controlled variables), materials list, procedures (including safety precautions), and a blank data table. Because of the simple nature of the problem, students determined their variables easily, but the procedure and list of materials proved difficult for them. I have found this to be a common issue in open-inquiry activities, regardless of the problem students are working on. This may be due to students' lack of inquiry-based laboratory experience. After class on Day 1, I read through and made comments on each team's proposed experiment, then gathered their requested laboratory equipment. Day 2 Prior to beginning their experiments on Day 2, teams had to correct any gross errors I found in their lab design before they could begin the lab. …


Tellurium was studied as a mask film in a thermally induced superresolution rewritable optical disk for detecting below-diffraction-limit marks. Mark trains of 0.15 µm could be retrieved with 9 dB in carrier-to-noise (CNR) using an optical system with the laser wavelength of 780 nm and an objective lens of 0.55 numerical aperture. Readout cyclability was examined and methods to further improve readout cyclability were proposed.