Abstract Previous toxicological and immunology assays have strongly suggested that a neurotoxic component is present in the venom of the Tiger Rattlesnake, Crotalus tigris. However, there has been no direct identification of this neurotoxin. We obtained 18 blood samples from Arizona C. tigris and analyzed them by PCR and DNA sequencing using primers specific for the acidic and basic subunits of Mojave toxin. All 18 samples demonstrated the presence of both subunits. Venom collected from five of the 18 snakes that provided blood samples were additionally tested for the presence of Mojave toxin with monoclonal antibodies. These anti-Mojave toxin antibodies recognized all five venoms. We conclude that, at least for the Arizona snakes sampled, the neurotoxin in C. tigris is Mojave toxin. Additional sampling and testing is necessary to determine the complete geographic distribution of Mojave toxin and Mojave toxin subunits in C. tigris populations.


Advanced A Reference Grammar of Modern French is the standard English-language grammar reference for the forms and structures of French as it is used today throughout the French-speaking world. - Extended explanations of grammar points that are sometimes difficult to grasp. Pay serious attention to student needs. - Usage specified for grammar entries includes literary, educated, formal, informal, and slang. Students learn to recognize the importance of context in the use of language.


The purpose of the research was studying of features of clinic, course, medical tactics and outcomes of infectious endocarditis in 25 patients suffering from "salt" drug addiction. Materials and methods: we examined 25 patients with infectious endocarditis, the host "salt" intravenously. To verify the diagnosis in addition to standard studies of blood, urine, sputum, was performed transthoracic EchoCG, x-ray study of the chest (twice, at admission and before discharge of the patient from the hospital). For certain indications used diagnostic fiber-optic bronchoscopy and computed tomography of the lungs, consulted a neurologist, cardiologist, infectious disease. Results and discussion: 84% of patients diagnosed with HIV. The acute course of the disease and presence of accompanying pathology of organs and systems was observed in the majority of patients, with a predominance of neurological changes (88%). Typical meager cardiac symptoms (noise in the region of the heart were heard in 12% of patients), frequent lung as a result of pulmonary embolism (64%). Identified infectious agents (in most cases Staphylococcus aureus -32%), the defeat of the heart valves according to the EchoCG (in 72% of patients vegetation on tricuspid valve with varying degrees of regurgitation). The choice of antimicrobial medicines was optimized (cephalosporins I-III generation, aminoglycosides, vancomycin). The positive outcome of a disease was observed in 84% of patients, mortality was 16%. Conclusions: for infectious endocarditis injecting a "salt" of the drug revealed the following: acute disease; pronounced General symptoms, atypical clinical picture, involvement of the heart valves, lungs result in pulmonary embolism, early development of multiple organ failure, high mortality. In comparison with injection drug users who inject other drugs, "salt" addicts are characterized by the frequent development of infectious endocarditis, which is apparently connected with the influence of "salt" on the immune system and joining the bright and varied neurological symptoms.


Huashugou copper deposits belong to a kind of altered rock type copper deposit with the regional stratabound property, ore body is controlled by the fracture zone within mine district On the analysis of the geological future of deposit and source bed as well as metallogenic age,the authors think that the Huashugou altered rock type copper deposit is formed in two stages,the first stage is the period of Cu pre enrichment under Proterozoic rift Anather is the period which the Cu in banded iron formation is remobilizationed to the fracture zone and enrichmented to form copper deposit in Caledonian orogeny


Recently, MANET (Mobile Ad Hoc Network) researchers have shown increased interest in using mobile robot technology for their testbed platforms. Despite the existence of review papers that discuss the usage of mobile robot technology pertaining to a MANET testbed from the perspective of a MANET researcher, said findings are rather lacklustre as it is not the sole purpose of said reviews. Hence, this review aims to comprehensively discuss the technical aspects that were facilitated with mobile robot technology for previous undertaken research. Only selected MANET testbed relevant to this review are compiled, namely Mobile Emulab, MiNT-m, MiNT-2, Proteus, w-ilab.t, ARUM, Sensei-UU, Kansei, CONET-IT, CONE, Roomba MADNet, Explorebots, SCORPION, MOTEL, iRobotSense, IoT-Lab, and NITOS. The discussions in this article are divided into three parts, namely hardware, software as well as mobile robot positioning and localization. The technical content of this review is expected to be a source of reference for other MANET researchers who are interested to use mobile robots for real mobility in their MANET testbeds.


In recent years, semantic search has been successfully used for information retrieval, however, it is still in the early stage, and there is not semantic search engine for minorities in China. In this paper, we propose a semantic retrieval model which is comprised of resources collection, semantic annotation, query analysis and results ranking. For semantic annotation, we use domain ontology and two bilingual dictionaries to extract keywords for annotation. For query analysis, we present a method which combines lexical relationship and semantic relationship to analyse user's query. And for results ranking, we propose a modulative method that ranks results based on how predictable a result might be for users, which is a blend of semantic and information-theoretic techniques. The preliminary experimental results show the capability of the proposed model to boost the precision and recall rates of webpage searching.


The aim of the study was to assess the quality of agricultural soils, which accumulate additional amounts of heavy metals from fertilization and modify their bioavailability, with the use of interdependencies between their biological and chemical properties conditioned by the distance from communication routes. Our results indicated that heavy metals had an impact on enzyme activity in soils and their accumulation was significantly related to the distance from the edge of the road, location of sampling sites, date of soil sampling, and years of research. It was found that the greatest amounts of zinc, cadmium, lead, and copper were accumulated at a distance of 5–20 m from the edge of the road. The highest enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index values were recorded for Pb, followed by Zn, Cu, and Cd. Principal component analysis and regression models showed that the activities of phosphatase and dehydrogenases seem to be the best bioindicators of contamination of roadside soils used for agricultural purposes. Since their activity is related to soil's organic carbon content, inputs of organic fertilizers and crop residues should be ensured in the agroecosystems along roadsides.


There have been iriai-rinya (common forests) in almost all of mountain villages in Japan. They have been owned by each village itself and utilized by almost all of the villagers based on social and cultural norms. Because of its pre-modern ownership system, however, the Japanese government has attempted to redesign it in a modern form since the Meiji Era (1867-1911), that is abolition of the ownership of iriai-rinya and putting it into the category of government-owned forests.The latest efforts done by the Japanese government was the Act for Modernization of Iriai-Rinya (iriai-rinya-kindaika-hou), which was enforced from 1966. In the act, the viewpoint of iriai-rinya was quite different from the previous policies and acts. The ownership of iriai-rinya was regarded as private property by nature. As a result of implementation of the Act, iriai-rinya have been usually divided into many parts owned individualy or shifted to associated ownership and management.During this reorganizing process, regional patterns have occurred, namely, the type of individualization in Northeast Japan and the type of association in Southwest Japan. Some factors indicated in the regional patterns can be summarized as follows;First, historical factors existed behind the regional patterns. Especially, the significance of iriai-rinya differed according to the implementation of to previous different policies on iriai-rinya.Second, administrative factors existed. The attitude of each prefecture toward iriai-rinya has strongly effected the reorganizing process.In this paper, however, it is argued that iriai-rinya have been scarcely reorganized by implementation of the Act in many metropolitan-neighboring mountain villages, although it has been done in other categories of mountain villages. With regard to this argument, previous research seems to have been hypothetical or general, but not empirical.Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the reorganizing process of iriai-rinya in two villages of Fujioka municipality, Aichi Prefecture, as a case of mountain villages neighboring to metropolitan areas, putting the focus on regional factors concerned with the implementation of the Act. The comparison between two villages is adopted as the main methodology, that is, one is a village authorized by the Act and the unauthorized village is the other.The results are summarized as follows:First, both villages planned to establish an association for forest management, that is, in both villages, there was intent to continue the collective forest-use by the implementation of the Act.Second, the previous mode of forest-use, however, was different. Furthermore, the prefecture government policy was to determine the type of reoganization owing to the previous mode of forest-use.Third, therefore, the Act was scarcely implemented, when the policy of the prefecture government as did not agree with the intent of a village. In other words, administrative factors could effect the type of reorganization.Fourth, the eventual determinant factor in the implementation of the Act was correspondence between the planning of the forest-use and the spirit of the Act. The reasons for disapproval, for example, wore that there had been alternative land-use planning, such as construction for leisure industry.From these facts, the following can be argued, that the inhabitants have intended to maintain the traditional mode of forest-use and ownership system, as ever, while the mode of urban land-use has invaded mountain villages. This is also supported by the fact that they have recognized the significance of forest management organization in conservation of the local living environment.


A plasma-assisted mist chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system with a high-density inductivity coupled RF plasma (ICP) source has been developed for low-temperature and high-rate deposition of zinc oxide films. In this paper, characterization of an ICP for plasma-assisted mist CVD is reported. It was found that the plasma density measured with a cylindrical Langmuir probe was as high as 1.2 × 1011 cm−3 and the electron temperature was 1.0 − 2.5 eV for an Ar plasma. The gas temperature in the ICP determined from molecular optical emission spectroscopy was 1450 K at an RF power of 1000 W for an Ar/air plasma. These results demonstrate that a plasma sustained by an inductively coupled RF plasma source has sufficient enthalpy for vaporization of mists and also has a high density for efficient dissociation of precursors and generation of oxygen radials during ZnO film deposition using plasma-assisted mist CVD.


We evaluate three theories of categorisation in the domain of artifacts. Two theories are versions of psychological essentialism; they posit that artifact categorisation is a matter of judging membership in a kind by appealing to a belief about the true, underlying nature of the object. The first version holds that the essence can be identified with the intended function of objects. The second holds that the essence can be identified with the creator's intended kind membership. The third theory is called 'minimalism". It states that judgements of kind membership are based on beliefs about causal laws, not beliefs about essences. We conclude that each theory makes unnecessary assumptions in explaining how people make everyday classifications and inductions with artifacts. Essentialist theories go wrong in assuming that the belief that artifacts have essences is critical to categorisation. All theories go wrong in assuming that artifacts are treated as if they belong to stable, fixed kinds. Theories of artifact categorisation must contend with the fact that artifact categories are not stable, but rather depend on the categorisation task at hand.


EDITOR,—We are writing to comment on the manuscript by Love et al, on the respiratory health eVects associated with opencast mining in the United Kingdom. Firstly, several years ago, we reported the dangers of surfacemining in the United States. Although the general consensus had been that employment as a surface miner was nearly without risk, we identified the very serious risk for aggressive pneumoconiosis in surface drillers and driller helpers. A review of our recent clinical experience has shown that the most severe cases of pneumoconiosis in West Virginia are most often associated with surface mine drilling. We are interested in the prevalence of pneumoconiosis in all groups (primarily the preproduction group), the jobs of the miners with advanced pneumoconiosis, and the relation between workers with pneumoconiosis and exposures in other dusty jobs. Nowhere in this report do the authors tell us the prevalence of pneumoconiosis in the various occupational groups. Without these data, we cannot judge the degree of adverse respiratory risk for the specific jobs in opencast mining. This is relevant to the cases of advanced pneumoconiosis, particularly the two cases of progressive massive fibrosis. Similarly, this lack of information aVects the validity of the authors' recommendations for additional screening for process workers (a term undefined in the text). We think that, because of the way that these data have been presented, the authors have not provided evidence which would justify screening of these workers. Secondly, in the abstract, the authors note that the risk for pneumoconiosis or decreased lung function was no greater in those opencast miners who had other exposures in the dusty occupations. In view of these data, it remains unclear why the authors did not exclude the 400 men who had worked in previous dusty jobs and focus entirely on workers with opencast mining exposures only. This is especially important as there were twice as many subjects with external dusty exposure as in the preproduction group, the group described as having a considerable number of workers with positive radiographic findings. Frankly, including these 400 miners in the cohort makes it impossible to define the number of miners with pneumoconiosis due to opencast mining with the authors' statistical approach. The goal of any model building technique in statistics is to find the best fitting, yet biologically reasonable, model to describe the relation between an outcome and a set of explanatory variables. With logistic regression, we cannot separate the health eVect of radiographic abnormalities due to either underground mining exposure or opencast mining exposure in the same people. Time spent in opencast mining and time spent in underground mining are both entered into the model as independent variables, even when they occurred in the same subject. Biologically, if a miner had worked as both an underground and opencast miner, it would be impossible to separate the adverse respiratory eVects of one type of mining from the other. Thirdly, table 3 is not helpful without knowledge of the duration of dust exposure or the relation between the development of pneumoconiosis and the history of employment in other dusty jobs (especially employment as an underground miner). Fourthly, the interpretation of table 6 is unclear.The authors label table 6 as predicting the risk for profusion category 1/0 or greater; however, in the model the authors predict the risks for developing category 0/1 or greater (see the text adjacent to this table). Is this an error, or did the authors use diVerent criteria ? The authors state that 8% of the workers had pneumoconiosis of category 0/1 or greater (4% category 0/1 and 4% category 1/0 or greater). Yet, the results from the model reported in table 6 shows a 3.6% prevalence of radiographic films with profusion category 0/1 (or 1/0?) in non-smoking workers and 11.0% for current smokers with zero years of exposure at age 45, and 4.1% positive for profusion category 0/1 (or 1/0?) for non-smokers and 23.4% for smokers at age 55. How can these miners have category 0/1 (or 1/0?) before they had any years of exposure, or do these values only reflect variation in chest radiographic interpretation by the readers ? If so, the amount of variability in the readings (recognised to be false positive) approximates the number described to have disease. The authors extrapolate the eVects of exposure in preproduction for 10 and 20 years into the future, based upon a mean of 6.9 years of exposure (data from table 1). Although the maximal duration of employment was 36 years in preproduction, a mean of 6.9 years implies that few workers had exposures exceeding 10 years. In view of the relatively brief mean duration of exposure and the many apparently false positive radiographs at profusion category 0/1, how accurate is this prediction likely to be? In summary, this is an interesting study of the respiratory health of opencast miners, but it seems that there are an insuYcient number of men in this cohort without exposure to other dusty jobs to determine the risk of employment in the diVerent jobs within this industry. If the data are suYcient to define the risk of employment, we ask that it be presented in a straightforward manner, so that the risk of working in these jobs in the United Kingdom can be evaluated and better support the recommendations made to monitor the opencast miner's respiratory health.


The purpose of this study is to estimate the shrinkage of wood by LV-SEM (Low-Vacuum Scanning Electron Microscope) which can observe wetted wood sample. The shrinkage of small sample specimen by the dehumidification in the specimen chamber was investigated and compared with that of normal wood specimen. The observation of cross sectional surface of wood from wetted condition to dried condition can be achieved in about twenty minutes by means of the dehumidification in the specimen chamber of LV-SEM. The volumetric shrinkage of earlywood was almost the same as that of latewood. The shrinkage of SEM observation specimen was similar to that of normal wood specimen. From the correlation of the shrinkages between SEM observation specimen and normal wood specimen, it is surmised that the shrinkage of wood is more strictly dominated by shrinkage of latewood than that of earlywood.


............................................................................................................................................ iii Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ v 1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 2.0 Resilience: Phased Approach to Characterization ...................................................................... 2 2.1 Preparedness ....................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Mitigation ........................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 Response ............................................................................................................................ 5 2.4 Recovery ............................................................................................................................ 5 2.5 Linking four phases of resilience ....................................................................................... 7 3.0 The Context of Reliability within the Resilience Model ............................................................ 9 3.1 What is Reliability? ............................................................................................................ 9 3.2 Reliability within the Resilience Model ........................................................................... 10 4.0 Role of Transactive Energy in Aiding Resilience .................................................................... 12 4.1 Power Grid Resilience through Transactive Energy Systems .......................................... 12 4.2 Challenges for Transactive as a Resilience-Improvement Mechanism ............................ 15 5.0 Proposed Resilience Metric Development ................................................................................ 16 5.1 Risk Metric as a Resilience Metric................................................................................... 16 5.2 Risk Metric Definition ..................................................................................................... 17 5.3 Risk Metric Development Process ................................................................................... 17 6.0 Conclusions and Future Work .................................................................................................. 21 7.0 References ................................................................................................................................ 22 Appendix A − Review of Resilience Metrics in the Literature ......................................................... 26


In August 2001, during the excavation of the Tarnobrzeg group cemetery in Lipnik, Przeworsk District, remains of a skeleton grave (grave no. 303) were unexpectedly discovered. An oval, light outline of the apparent grave became visible of 80 cm beneath the ground level. Dimensions of the pit were 200 cm by 130 cm, and it was orientated NW-SE. The body was probably placed in the center of the pit. Vestiges of the skeleton were visible as a light gray-brown discoloration on the bottom. The grave furniture was discovered in the SW part of the feature were. It consisted of an axe (1), flint knife (2), and a bifacial point (3). On the basis of artifacts named above, as well as analogical finds, chronology of the grave from Lipnik can be set to the turn of Proto-Mierzanowice and Early Mierzanowice phases of the Mierzanowice culture. It belongs to the horizon of graves without pottery furniture, with dead buried in the crouched position, containing bifacial point of the Czerniczyn-Torczyn type.


The financial crisis stimulated an intense worldwide debate on the adequacy of the financial safety nets in place at the time. The key issues revolved on how to design and modernize the regulation of financial systems to ensure financial stability. Following this debate, the European Commission decided to hasten the establishment of the European Banking Union by pursuing a number of initiatives.The rationale for the Banking Union is that it will make banks, stronger better supervised and easy to be resolved if they enter into crisis, without using taxpayers' money. The Banking Union is made up of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), both of which are mandatory for all Eurozone countries and are open to all other EU Member States. Both mechanisms are underpinned by a set of common rules for banks in all 28 Member States (single rulebooks). These rules introduce more robust prudential requirements for banks (Capital Requirements Directive/Regulation – CRR/CRD IV) and a common framework to prevent bank crises and to resolve bank failures in an orderly manner (Directive on Bank Recovery and Resolution – BRRD). The third pillar of the Banking Union, the pan-European deposit insurance, was not considered essential in the short term (V. Constâncio, 2013); instead, a new directive for harmonizing deposit insurance in Europe was adopted in 2014 (Deposit Guarantee Scheme Directive – DGSD). Surprisingly, during the DGSD transposition process in the EU, in June 2015 the five Presidents' group (composed of the Presidents of the European Commission, the Euro Summit, the Eurogroup, the European Central Bank and the European Parliament) published a report recommending a different road map. The Report proposed (p.11) "... the launching of a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) – the third pillar of a fully-fledged Banking Union alongside bank supervision and resolution. As the current set-up with national deposit guarantee schemes remains vulnerable to large local shocks (in particular when the sovereign and the national banking sector are perceived to be in a fragile situation), common deposit insurance would increase the resilience against future crises".As a further step, in October 2015 the Commission pledged to put forward a legislative proposal on EDIS before the end of the year with a view to creating a more European system "disconnected from the sovereign, so that financial stability is enhanced and citizens can be certain that the safety of their deposits does not depend on their geographical location" (EC, 2015a, p. 13).Just one month later, the Commission presented its EDIS proposal. This proposal is to be developed over time and gradually funded by domestic deposit guarantee schemes (DGSs). The EDIS is expected to be fully funded by 2024, thus becoming the Third Pillar of the European Banking Union. Since its announcement, an extensive debate has started on the implications of the EDIS proposal on potential risk mutualisation among EU countries as well as on the operation of DGSs. This paper addresses this debate and makes an analysis of the regulatory evolution of deposit insurance in Europe, in order to provide some policy suggestions for alternative architectures of the pan-European deposit insurance system.


Creativity is generating things activities that are new or innovative, useful orbeneficial, and can be understood or easily understood. Creative thinking is very importantfor a person, especially for children whose their brains are at the time of maximumdevelopment. Unfortunately, world development that is too fast make most people haveof consumer behavior and practicality lover, as occurs to children in Dusun Bandung andDusun Songbanyu 1, Kecamatan Giri Subo, Gunung Kidul, Daerah Istimewa Yoyakarta. Toreduce these behaviors, authors was initiated a simple training to make a pencil casethatis made from paperboard and origami paper. With hope, the children become morecreative and better able to take advantage of items that are around them.


Centre for Teaching Mathematics, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PU 8AA Many constructivists tag as 'absolutist' references to mathematics as a body of knowledge, and stakeout the moral high-ground with the argument that mathematics is not only utilised oppressively but that it is, in-itself, oppressive. With much reference to Paul Ernest's (1991) Philosophy of Mathematics Education this tag has been justified on the grounds that ifmathematics is a socialcultural creation that is mutable and fallible then it must be social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics. I will argue that mathematics is a body of knowledge the objectivity of which is independent of origin or social acceptance. Recently, Paul Ernest ( 1998) has attempted to include the category of logical necessity in his elaboration of the objectivity of mathematics. I will argue that this inclusion of logical necessity not only represents a V-turn, but that the way in which Ernest has included this category is an attempt to maintain his earlier position that it is social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics.


Variable rate speech coding is well-suited for network and wireless communications and is necessary to maintain good speech quality and intelligibility at ever-lower rates. In 1960 Campbell used a version of the asymptotic equipartition property (AEP) to derive a relationship between the entropy of the source power spectral density and the minimum coefficient rate required to encode the source. We analyze Campbell's coefficient rate expression and investigate its properties for autoregressive (AR) processes and for speech. We compare the coefficient rate to the familiar entropy rate power, and to the AIC model order criterion of Akaike (1971), and consider these quantities as rate indicators for dynamically varying the rate of speech coders.<<ETX>>


In this communication, we proved that the parametric general nonlinear nonconvex variational inequalities are equivalent to the parametric general Wiener-Hopf equations. We use this alternative equivalence formulation to studied the sensitivity analysis for general nonlinear nonconvex variational inequalities without assuming the differentiability of the given data.


Adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has been regarded as one of the most important strategies to address the issues of energy dependence and greenhouse effect. Empirical reviews demonstrate that wide acceptance of EV is still difficult to achieve. This research proposes to investigate the factors that might trigger the wide usage of EVs to support the energy policy. The real-world owners of EV were extracted from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), which provides large-scale individual characteristics. NHTS dataset was processed to establish the comprehensive estimation model for EV adoption with considering vehicle, personal and household factors. Besides the commonly social-economic factors, the gasoline price and car sharing program were found to be significant for EV adoption. Additionally, since the EV owners are only 1.29% of all vehicle owners, this article introduced the imbalanced dataset technique, which was seldom considered in existing researches. Subsequently, several machine learning methods were utilized to build the prediction model, and the model performance analysis indicates the Decision Tree (DT) model outperforms other models. A regional EV penetration map was also generated for the U.S. to validate the proposed approach. Implications for further research, transport policy and EV market are discussed.


With the increasing complexity and scale of modern industrial processes, there widely exist two-valued variables (TVs), such as status monitoring and numerical range variables. However, the traditional process monitoring approaches (such as principal component analysis and partial least square) are strongly based on continuous variables (CVs), thus they totally ignore the useful merit inherent in TVs. Recently, both CVs and TVs are used in combination for monitoring industrial processes for the first time. The mixed hidden naive Bayesian model (MHNBM) and feature-weighted mixed naive Bayes model (FWMNBM) have been proposed to enhance the monitoring performance by simultaneously and efficiently exploiting the valuable information of TVs and CVs. Nevertheless, both models are not suitable for nonstationary processes, which are consistent with the real property of many practical cases. Therefore, this article mainly proposes a novel self-learning FWMNBM (SL-FWMNBM) for nonstationary process monitoring. SL-FWMNBM constantly updates the model parameters in real time at the online detection stage to overcome the changes in the statistical characteristics of monitoring variables. It has the ability to mine process information carried by newly sampled data through self-learning, which is the main difference between SL-FWMNBM and the above two methods. The effectiveness of SL-FWMNBM is demonstrated through a simulation and an actual vibration case of the Zhoushan thermal power plant, China.


The invention relates to a preparation method of a V140 steel-grade oil well pipe testing object; a V140 steel-grade oil well pipe and a 35CrMo material chuck are connected by welding, electric-arc welding is selected, the equipment is a direct current welder, the polarity is in reverse connection, and a low-alloy steel low-hydrogen sodium-type welding rod and a steel coated electric welding rod for high-tensile strength are selected as welding materials; the welding temperature is 70DEG C to 100DEG C; firstly, the low-alloy steel low-hydrogen sodium-type welding rod is used for bottoming, the root is welded through, and ring welding is carried out for four to five layers uniformly; then welding is carried out by steel coating electric welding for high tensile strength, the ring welding is carried out uniformly, the total number of weld beads is no less than nine, weld seams after grooves are fully welded are provided with the strengthening heights being at least 3mm to 5mm, two weld seams are overlaid in parallel on the edges of the weld seams of a testing steel tube, and the width is about 5mm to 10mm; and according to the method, the connection problem between the steel tube and the chuck when a physical test is taken to the V140 steel-grade oil well pipe is solved, so that the physical performance evaluation safety and reliability of the oil well pipe are ensured.


Abstract : This is a final report describing research on the devitrification of initially amorphous metallic alloys and the effect of such divitrification on mechanical properties for the Cu-Zr, Ni-Nb, and Pd-Si systems. (Author)


SS(l) has been demonstrated experimentally to be the fastest square-and-multiply exponentiation scheme based on precomputation and string substitution. The Letter provides a complete proof of the efficiency of the SS(l) algorithm. It shows that SS(l) is a minimum weight representation scheme and proves that the expected weight of an n-bit SS(l)-represented exponent is n/(l+1) for large n.


Characterizations of nondeterministic complexity classes such as NP and PSPACE and the classes in the polynomial-time hierarchy in the two-person pebble game model are given. It is shown that the role-switches resource in the pebble games closely models the levels of the polynomial hierarchy. These characterizations are made possible by explicitly considering circuit size in the pebbling characterizations and the size of the underlying universe in the first-order characterizations. A dual interpreted game to model parallel computations was defined by H. Venkateswaran et al. (1986). They used this game to obtain characterizations of parallel complexity classes such as LOGCFL and AC/sup 1/. This result is extended to obtain characterizations of the class NP and the classes in the polynomial-time hierarchy in the game model. The role switches resource was used in the dual game to capture the difference between computations in the classes LOGCFL and AC/sup 1/. It is shown that role-switches model the alternating time hierarchy more accurately, and thus their collapse implies the collapse of hierarchies such as the polynomial-time hierarchy. Specifically, it is shown that the kth level of the polynomial-time hierarchy uses k-1 role-switches.<<ETX>>


Compared with the traditional HDS(hydrodesulfurization) method,the specific "4S" sulfur-degradation pathway has great advantages,such as low operating cost,low carbon dioxide emission,mild reaction conditions,high efficiency and no hydrogenation.In this review,the biodesulfurization bacterium and the research progress in metabolic engineering of those microbes in recent years are summarized.The prospect related to systems biology and synthetic biology is put forward as well.


Research suggests that the first five years of life are critical for building the foundation for children's success throughout their schooling and life. Throughout these first years of life there are a number of essential windows of opportunity during which certain kinds of stimuli are needed to help the brain develop and maintain critical connections necessary for learning. This project is a unification of a Child Development Center and a therapeutic center. This center includes children who suffer from bereavement; a broken home, death of a parent or child abuse. These children are provided with therapy by a specialist, and also given an opportunity to interact with other children as a form of therapy. This thesis therefore explores the following questions. How can design create a place that enhances learning, healing and play through interaction and movement? How can design create a space for the special needs of children without having to bind them in a classroom? How to create movement in a building that itself is static in nature?


This study used a strengths-based perspective to examine the experiences of 25 couples who self-identified as having great marriages yet had considered divorcing at some point during their marriage. Data for this study came from a larger qualitative study examining the multiple aspects of what makes marriages great. Various reasons were cited for considering divorce, including difficulties with communication, spending time apart for work or other reasons, stressors from other family members, and infidelity. Participants discussed multiple reasons for overcoming thoughts of divorce, including resolving conflicts in communication, turning to and relying on each other, seeking professional help, and religion. A detailed case study examination of one couple's experience is included as well as discussion and implications for family life educators and practitioners.


As global migration affects Sweden in a similar way as many other countries, this contribution aims to trigger the discussion about how teaching of pronunciation for this group of students might be developed in consideration to new foreign


Histories of American social institutions have been written since the turn of the century, when scholars first began studying the development and inner workings of society itself. Early and still useful contributions to this field appeared in A. F. Weber's book on the growth of the city, Arthur Calhoun's volumes on the family, John R. Commons and associates' works on labor, and U. B. Phillips on American Negro slavery. American museums also underwent an early scrutinization by a first generation of social historians, most notably Winifred E. Howe on the history of the Metropolitan Museum (1913 and 1946), Benjamin I. Gilman on the Boston Museum (1921), and Lawrence V. Coleman's three volumes on the museum in America (1939). What characterizes most of these early efforts at institutional history is the tremendous amount of interesting accumulated facts and other data combined with a decided lack of questioning or theorizing vis-a-vis the same evidence.


The rates, vp, and degrees of polymerization, text-decoration:overlineDPn, are governed by relationships different from those of a typical anionic polymerization (e.g. those initiated by organic compounds of the alkali metals). At low temperatures (⩽ 230 K) termination of macrochains is insignificant.At fractional conversions α⩽ 0.25: text-decoration:overlineDPn= constant α/[BunMgBr]0, and at α⩽ 0.4: vp=–d[MMA]/dt=vp0=k[BunMgBr]0[MMA]0 where the subscript 0 implies an initial rate or concentration. The kinetics of polymerization when either Bun2Mg or BusMgBr is used are similar.These relationships can be explained on the assumption that the rate and efficiency of initiation are governed by the reactions of an initiator-monomer complex and that the propagation reaction proceeds through a complex between monomer and the propagating chain-end.


The electrical and chemical properties of WSi2 as well as the silicide formation have been examined with respect to applications in VLSI Si-Technology.


Abstract The article examines the passages in Isocrates' Corpus containing a description and a critique of a new type of sophistic called "eristic". Based on the chronology of Isocrates' discourses and the description he gave, the author shows that the majority of these passages could not have aimed at Plato as its sole or principal target. However, it should not be excluded that Isocrates' criticism of eristics was directed against various members of the Socratic circle, a heterogeneous group in which Plato was comprised. The article shows that although a feud between Plato and Isocrates is not an acceptable premise, a possible rivalry between both men may have been possible. Nonetheless, such a rivalry does not allow one to assimilate Plato with an eristic.


Background. The spotted snakehead,Channapunctatus is a highly priced freshwater food fish species in India. The culture of snakeheads is still not common due to the scarcity of quality seed supply and lack of knowledge on their feeding and breeding techniques. Therefore an experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of a new spawning agent, Ovatide in stimulating ovulation of snakehead fish under a controlled captive condition. MaterialsandMethods. In total, 12 matured females and 24 male fish weighing 50-90 g were randomly select - ed for three hormonal treatment groups and one control group. Both male and female fish in each treatment group were administered with either saline (0.9% NaCl, control group), or 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 mL of Ovatide per kg of body weight (BW), respectively. Each breeding set consisted of two males and one female. The hormone-treat - ed fish were then held in concrete tanks for spawning. The breeding performance was evaluated based on spawning fecundity, spawning response, percentage fertilization, and percentage hatching. Results. No spawning behaviour or performance was observed in control group. Partial spawning was observed with the Ovatide dose of 0.2 mL · kg -1 BW, and complete spawning was noticed in the medium Ovatide dose (0.4 mL · kg -1 BW), and the higher dose (0.6 mL · kg -1 BW) administered fish. The highest total spawning fecundity ( P < 0.05) was recorded when the females were injected with 0.4 mL of Ovatide · kg -1 BW than those injected with other doses. The latency period and the number of spawned eggs were ranged from 25 to 31 h and from 1080 to 5814, respectively. The highest fertilization- (90.6%) and hatching (91.33%) rates were also observed at the medium dose ( P < 0.05). With regard to hatching rates, no significant difference was noticed between the medium- and higher doses of Ovatide-treated groups. Conclusions. The synthetic gonadotropin-releasing hormone with a dopamine antagonist at the dose of 0.4 mL · kg -1 BW could be used as an appropriate stimulating agent for successful spawning and induced breeding ofC.punc - tatus under captive conditions.


IntroductionNorth Korea has pursued an ideology of Juche, or self-reliance, since the 1950s and has isolated itself from the world economy. The Juche policy consists of three elements: political independence from all foreign powers, economic self-sufficiency, and military self-defense. North Korea has fostered a military-industrial complex with a belief that promotion of heavy industries would make both its economy and the military stronger. In its development process, North Korea avoided foreign direct investment and neglected international trade relations because of its distrust of foreign powers and its fear of being exploited by Westerners. Until 1960, the actual economic performance exceeded the highly set targets owing to mass mobilization and moral incentives. However, in the long run, the outcome of the Juche policy under a command economy has been disastrous because of a lack of economic incentives and suboptimal decision-making processes by a small political elite.North Korea's economic crisis occurred in the 1990s, when drought and floods hit the nation, which was already suffering from poor economic performance due to the inefficiency of the command economy. For North Korea, the 1990s were characterized by negative economic growth, with an average growth rate of -4 percent during 1990-98, as shown in Figure 1. After 50 years of implementation of the Juche policy, North Korea has ended up with isolation from the globalized world, poor infrastructure, technological obsolescence, uncompetitive industries, and a povertyridden economy, while other former command economies, such as Russia, China, and Vietnam, have made economic progress with the adoption of a market economy and the implementation of their economic reforms.Confronted with an economic crisis during the 1990s, the North Korean regime began to introduce economic reforms in 2002, increased its trade with other countries, and opened free trade zones to induce foreign direct investment. Furthermore, the Six-Party Agreement in February 2007 offered various incentives for North Korea. The short-term benefits that North Korea might receive according to the agreement included provision of fuel, which is North Korea's greatest need, and removal of the country from the U.S. terrorist list. In the long run, North Korea may enjoy far greater benefits, which include normalization of external diplomatic and economic relations, the negotiation of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, the lifting of U.S. and Japanese economic sanctions, and permission for North Korea to join international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).Recent changes occurring in North Korea remind us of what happened in Vietnam during the 1990s. Vietnam started its economic reforms, the so-called Doi Moi, in 1986 with its openness policy. Since then, Vietnam has achieved normal trade relations with the European Union, Japan, and many other countries in the late 1990s and successfully negotiated permanent normal trade relations with the United States, and it succeeded in joining the WTO in 2006. After obtaining normal trade relations with advanced countries, Vietnam's trade has accelerated, which has contributed significantly to the country's economic growth.The purpose of this paper is to review North Korea's economic reforms and their effects on trade and foreign direct investment, and to examine whether North Korea can be as successful as Vietnam in its pursuit of economic growth. We will also investigate whether there are any institutional constraints preventing its advance to economic prosperity. The second section reviews North Korea's economic reforms. The third section analyzes the trend and patterns of North Korea's trade and foreign direct investment. The fourth section introduces Vietnam's Doi Moi policy and evaluates its economic effects. …


The pushing of Maritime Silk Road in the 21 st century is a huge systematic project,which calls for the full cooperation of various regions and departments. The special economic zone of Hainan has the unique geographical position,perfect trade foundation and prominent hometown advantage. The paper analyzes the important strategic significance for Hainan to participate in the building of Nanyang route of the Maritime Silk Road in the 21 st century,puts forward specific measures about the role that Hainan will play in deepening the openning-up as well as cooperation with the Southeast Asian countries and participating in the service for the Maritime Silk Road in the 21 st century: exploring the regional exogenous demand;strengthening the connectivity between the related countries and cities; enhancing the level of free trade; exerting the advantage of tourism resources; developing the maritime partnership and further improving the foreign trade service system.


OS2966 is a first-in-class, humanized and deimmunized monoclonal antibody which antagonizes CD29/β1integrin, a mechanosignaling receptor prominently upregulated in glioblastoma. Preclinical studies in mice and non-human primates have demonstrated safety and encouraging efficacy. A two-part, ascending concentration, phase I clinical trial was therefore initiated to evaluate the safety and feasibility of delivering OS2966 directly to the site of disease via convection-enhanced delivery (CED) in recurrent high-grade glioma patients.

 This study has a 2-part design: In part 1, patients undergo stereotactic tumor biopsy followed by placement of a multiport CED catheter for delivery of OS2966 to the bulk contrast enhancing tumor. Subsequently, patients undergo a clinically-indicated tumor resection followed by placement of two CED catheters and delivery of OS2966 to the surrounding tumor-infiltrated brain. A unique concentration-based accelerated titration design is utilized for dose escalation. Given availability of pre and post infusion samples, pharmacodynamic data will be analyzed to explore mechanism of action of OS2966.

 Two subjects have been treated at two corresponding dose levels (0.2mg/mL and 0.4 mg/mL). No dose-limiting toxicity or unexpected safety issues have been identified. To date, reported adverse events were mild (i.e., grade 1) and consistent with underlying disease and surgical procedures. No adverse events were attributed to OS2966 or CED catheter placement. Further, no clinically significant changes from baseline neurological exam have been noted for either patient through initial follow-up. Maximal tumor coverage and concomitant gross total resection were achieved for both patients. Tumor volume measured 1.63 cm3 and 16 cm3 for Patient 1 and 2 respectively with an intratumoral Vd/Vi ratio of 1.3. and 0.94. Pharmacodynamic analysis via tissue-level biomarkers is ongoing and will be presented.

 Initial data demonstrates the safety and feasibility of direct intracranial delivery of OS2966.


is designed as a self-learning pack and as such does a thorough job. Screen presentation is clear and concise in both mono and colour. User instructions are simple and fully screen supported. I particularly liked the supportive nature of responses to test answers. They are written in a friendly fashion, even when the student's answer is incorrect. The responses act as a guide to why the answer is incorrect and as a reinforce-


T his paper deals with a production inventory system with retrial of customers under  policy. The time between additions of two successive items by production to the inventory is exponentially distributed. When the inventory level lies between 0 and , items are produced at higher rate. The higher production rate will reduce customers' loss in the absence of inventory. Arrival of customers is according to a Poisson process and service times are exponentially distributed . An arriving customer who finds the server busy or inventory level zero, proceeds to an orbit of infinite capacity and retry from there.  Inter-retrial times follow an exponential distribution. Some important system performance measures related to the model are defined and analyzed numerically.  A suitable cost function is constructed and its optimum values corresponding to different parameters are calculated graphically. The optimum  pair is also obtained.


A theory of the rate w of nonradiative trapping of carriers and excitons in dielectrics and semiconductors is developed. The theory covers the cases of intrinsic self-trapping and of multiphonon trapping by various defects (or extrinsic self-trapping and trapping by "normal" defects). Capture of both thermalized and hot particles is considered. The self-trapping barrier is assumed high enough for the trapping probability to be exponentially small. An exponential rate for thermalized particles was investigated by the authors earlier [JETP Lett. 40, 115 1 ( 1984); Sov. Phys. JETP 61, 11 10 ( 1985) 1. The coefficient of the exponential is a product of several factors. The first, due to averaging over the Maxwellian distribution of the trapped particles, determines the dependence of w on Tat low temperatures. The second is determined by the effective volumes in which the particles are trapped from the band state to a discrete level. The third is due to the presence of a zero temporal mode; in the continuum approximation it is due also to the existence of spatial zero modes. The last two factors cause the coefficient multiplying the exponential to substantially exceed the chracteristic lattice frequency. In the low-temperature region, the coefficient decreases with increasing T. The initial energy E of the hot particles can affect the probability of surmounting the barrier (this probability increases in the case of self-trapping), but only if this energy is coherently transferred to the lattice. The probability of this transfer at high E is exponentially small, so that particles with E 5 Ware predominantly trapped. The optimal self-trapping energy decreases with increasing T; the optimum for trapping by normal defects is always reached at E = 0. Specific differences of the temperature dependence of w for self-trapping (intrinsic and extrinsic) and for trapping by normal defects arc also discussed.


Activity Theory is a theoretical-based context analysis technique that anchors the ethnographer descriptive work, calling his attention to the individual and social elements of human activities. For more than a decade, it has been a recognized framework for enhancing computer design practices, however there are still no methods for integrating context analysis based on Activity Theory with traditional system modeling techniques. In this paper we present a system design process that integrates ethnographic analysis based on Activity Theory with the i* organizational modeling technique. The approach uses human-practices analysis as the social root for system requirements derivation.


As an important link in the new socialist countryside construction,the resettlement of avoiding-risk inhabitants is a project to improve the living conditions of vulnerable groups dwelling scattered in areas with poor public welfare establishments,low environmental carrying capacity. Presently,both the government and the inhabitants encounter difficulties of huge investment and great population. Accordingly,some advice is proposed in this paper.


We propose a mathematical model to fit the degree distribution of directed dependency networks in free and open-source software. In this complex system, the intermediate scales of both the in-directed and out-directed dependency networks follow a power-law trend (specifically Zipf's law). Deviations from this feature are found both for the highly linked nodes, and the poorly linked nodes. This is due to finite-size effects in the networks, and the parameters needed to model finite-size behaviour make a quantitative distinction between the in-directed and out-directed networks. We also provide a model to describe the dynamic evolution of the network, and account for its saturation in the long-time limit.


OBJECTIVE To investigate the rates of urinary tract infection between indwelling catheter patients in different durations of changing urinal bags.METHODS Using the method of prospective randomized control study,561 patients with indwelling catheter were divided into two groups.The urinal bags were changed either twice a week in trial group(n=279),or every day in control group(n=282).The rates of urinary tract infection were compared between the two groups.RESULTS The rates of urinary tract infection were 3.78‰ and 2.98‰ respectively.The differences were not statistically significant(P0.05) between the two groups.CONCLUSION While the strict implementation of the measures to prevent urinary tract infection,keeping the catheter and the urinal bag tightly closed,the frequency of changing urinary bags in patients with indwelling catheter could be extended from once a day to twice a week without increasing the rates of urinary tract infection.


As an important event in modern French history, the Dreyfus event is to a large extent "an event of the French intellectuals", which, in the perspective of the history of the intellectuals, indicates the background of the "birth" of "the French intellectuals". The characteristics of the French intellectuals playing the role of the "social conscience" in the 20th century may largely be reflected on the French intellectuals of Dreyfus' time.


Abstract With the availability of internet technology and the low-cost of digital image sensor, enormous amount of image databases have been created in different kind of applications. These image databases increase the demand to develop efficient image retrieval search methods that meet user requirements. Great attention and efforts have been devoted to improve content-based image retrieval method with a particular focus on reducing the semantic gap between low-level features and human visual perceptions. Due to the increasing research in this field, this paper surveys, analyses and compares the current state-of-the-art methodologies over the last six years in the CBIR field. This paper also provides an overview of CBIR framework, recent low-level feature extraction methods, machine learning algorithms, similarity measures, and a performance evaluation to inspire further research efforts.


Excess enthalpies as a function of compositions have been measured by a newly designed calorimeter for the mixtures of methylene chloride with benzene, toluene, o-, m- and p-xylene at 25 and 30°C. The excess enthalpy HE for these mixtures is found to be negative with a positive temperature coefficient. Analysis of the HE data suggests the existence of specific interactions between methylene chloride and the aromatic hydrocarbons studied.


Nowadays multi-touch devices (MTD) can be found in all kind of contexts. In the learning context, MTD availability leads many teachers to use them in their class room, to support the use of the devices by students, or to assume that it will enhance the learning processes. Despite the raising interest for MTD, few researches studying the impact in term of performance or the suitability of the technology for the learning context exist. However, even if the use of touch-sensitive screens rather than a mouse and keyboard seems to be the easiest and fastest way to realize common learning tasks (as for instance web surfing behaviour), we notice that the use of MTD may lead to a less favourable outcome. The complexity to generate an accurate fingers gesture and the split attention it requires (multi-tasking effect) make the use of gestures to interact with a touch-sensitive screen more difficult compared to the traditional laptop use. More precisely, it is hypothesized that efficacy and efficiency decreases, as well as the available cognitive resources making the users' task engagement more difficult. Furthermore, the presented study takes into account the moderator effect of previous experiences with MTD. Two key factors of technology adoption theories were included in the study: familiarity and self-efficacy with the technology.Sixty university students, invited to a usability lab, are asked to perform information search tasks on an online encyclopaedia. The different tasks were created in order to execute the most commonly used mouse actions (e.g. : right click, left click, scrolling, zooming, key words encoding…). Two different conditions were created: (1) MTD use and (2) laptop use (with keyboard and mouse). The cognitive load, self-efficacy, familiarity and task engagement scales were adapted to the MTD context. Furthermore, the eye-tracking measurement would offer additional information about user behaviours and their cognitive load.Our study aims to clarify some important aspects towards the usage of MTD and the added value compared to a laptop in a student learning context. More precisely, the outcomes will enhance the suitability of MTD with the processes at stakes, the role of previous knowledge in the adoption process, as well as some interesting insights into the user experience with such devices.


Abstract : Navy Inventory Control Point (NAVICP) is the principle controller of the Navy's inventory consisting of over 470,000 line items valued at over $30B. NAVICP provides the Fleet the parts necessary to maintain weapons systems. In 2003, NAVICP spent over $444M in transportation charges to fulfill customer requests for repair parts. The research in this thesis is the result of an initiative by NAVICP to study the benefits in modifying their current inventory positioning policy for repairable items. NAVICP wishes to incorporate a strategic inventory positioning policy that reduces transportation costs. This thesis develops the Strategic Inventory Positioning (SIP) model that looks at historical inventory demand and determines the optimal storage locations for NAVICP's inventory of repairable items. SIP provides NAVICP an optimization-based tool to aid in determining the strategic inventory location for each repairable item. Using results from SIP and historical transaction data, a cost comparative analysis of 176 of the highest cost and demand volume items shows that using a new synchronized and scheduled truck delivery system combined with strategically locating both new procurements and returns from repair in depots near high demand concentrations, enables NAVICP to reduce annual transportation costs by an average of $110K per repairable item.


During the 10 15 August 2003 ozone pollution event, anticyclonic conditions were accompanied by long residence times of polluted air masses in the atmospheric boundary layer, inhibiting the renovation of air masses. These atmospheric conditions, together with a cloudless sky and elevated temperatures, favored photochemical ozone formation. The aim of this paper is to understand and quantify computationally the influence of both biogenic and anthropogenic emissions in the formation of tropospheric ozone during this high ozone episode. Being able to differentiate how much ozone comes from biogenic emissions alone and how much comes from the interaction between anthropogenic and biogenic emissions would be helpful to develop a feasible and effective ozone control strategy.


As the field of mental health increasingly turns its attention to spirituality, Christian counseling is busily investigating how spiritual formation relates to psychotherapy. At the heart of these concerns is the topic of the human soul. This article explores the meaning of "soul" in Scripture, in Greek philosophy, and in medieval spirituality as it impacts the present practice of psychotherapy, an enterprise that primarily deals with the self. Particular attention is given to the knowledge competencies regarding the soul that Christian counselors will need as they re-tool for adding spiritual formation to their counseling practices.


Survival and growth of business ventures is a key concern which is determined by varied factors. Entrepreneurship training has been identified as one factor that can play varied roles towards growth of micro and small enterprises across the world. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of four components of entrepreneurship training on business growth among micro and small enterprises in Kiambu County. The four components of entrepreneurship training to be studied are objectives, content, trainers' competence/ attitudes and training delivery methods/presentation styles. The study was grounded in Blooms taxonomy and theory of planned behaviour. The study adopted mixed methods (both quantitative and qualitative) research design and applied a descriptive study design. The population for the study was 6,420 licensed MSEs operating in Ruiru Sub County. The study utilized stratified random sampling to select 382 respondents in main trading centres in each of the four administrative wards based on the nature of business they are involved. The study relied on primary data collected using questionnaires from owners and key employees of the selected micro and small enterprises. The data gathered were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The study found that entrepreneurship training components contributed to a certain extent towards business growth among the micro and small enterprises. The study thus recommends customization of entrepreneurship training programs and taking into consideration of the input of the owners and employees to improve its impact on the survival and growth of the business enterprises.


This work aimed to develop an alumina composite reinforced with polycrystalline alumina fibers to increase the mechanical properties of the product. A water-based processing was carried out, replacing the use of toxic and flammable organic solvents. The forming technique used was tape casting, which in addition to reliability and low cost, enables to make thin, flat tapes. The parameters for the tape casting process were: gap between the blades of 350 μm and casting speed of 12 cm/min. The process was optimized through a rheological study and alumina suspension with 50 wt.% solids was used. The slurry showed a pseudoplastic behavior and a high value of thixotropy. Several methods for separation and processing of the fibers were tested and a scattering using a specially designed support was the most efficient option. The tapes were thermopressed at 65°C and 30 MPa. The tensile test of green tapes showed a significant increase of the mechanical resistance for fiber-reinforced tapes, which was also dependent on fiber orientation.


Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, cities in the Global South have seen extraordinary growth, with China and India as the epicenters of urbanization. This essay critically assesses the state of the field of global urban studies and focuses particularly on the scholarship relating to urban China and India. The essay identifies three dominant paradigms in the scholarship: the global city thesis, neoliberalism, and postcolonialism. In contrast to US urban sociology, which is often preoccupied with the question of how neighborhood effects reproduce inequality, global urban studies account for a much wider array of urban processes, such as global urban networks, social polarization, and the transformation of the built environment. This essay points out the disconnect between US urban sociology and global urban studies and proposes a comparative approach as a way to bridge the divide.


In uncertain economic times companies, managers and employees come under pressure to minimise costs and pursue favourable terms with trading partners. While this indicates the rigorous nature of competition, the law prescribes a line (albeit a vague one) where hardnosed negotiation becomes 'unconscionable conduct'. This article assesses the recent history and current state of the law surrounding 'unconscionable conduct' and in particular how its inclusion in the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA) affects the way that businesses transact with consumers and with other businesses.


The site substitution behavior of Cr and Ta in the Ni3Al (Ll2)-type gamma'-precipitates of a Ni-Al-Cr-Ta alloy is investigated by atom-probe tomography (APT) and first-principles calculations. Measurements of the gamma'-phase composition by APT suggest that Al, Cr, and Ta share the Al sublattice sites of the gamma'-precipitates. The calculated substitutional energies of the solute atoms at the Ni and Al sublattice sites indicate that Ta has a strong preference for the Al sites, while Cr has a weak Al site preference. Furthermore, Ta is shown to replace Cr at the Al sublattice sites of the gamma'-precipitates, altering the elemental phase partitioning behavior of the Ni-Al-Cr-Ta alloy.


28 Objectives: The inherent toxicities of the drugs urge the search for alternative drugs that are safe 29 and effective. Therefore, the objective of the study is to evaluate the in-vivo anti-diarrheal 30 activity of crude extract and solvent fractions of Rhamnus prinoides leaves. 31 Methods: The Leaves of Rhamnus prinoides were macerated using absolute methanol and then 32 fractionated. For in-vivo antidiarrheal activity evaluation of the crude extract and solvent 33 fraction, castor oil-induced diarrhea, castor oil-induced anti-enteropolling, and intestinal transit 34 models were used. One-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the data, followed by a 35 Tukey post-test. The standard and negative control groups were treated with loperamide and 2% 36 tween 80 respectively. 37 Results: A significant reduction in the frequency of wet stools and watery content of diarrhea, 38 intestinal motility, intestinal fluid accumulation, and delaying the onset of diarrhea as compared 39 with controls were observed in mice treated with 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg ME. However the 40 effect increased dose-dependently, and the 400 mg/kg ME produced a comparable effect with the 41 standard drug in all models. Amongst the solvent fractions , n-BF significantly delayed the time 42 of diarrheal onset and reduced the frequency of defecation, and intestinal motility at doses of 43 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg. Furthermore, the maximum percentage inhibition of intestinal fluid 44 accumulation was observed in mice treated with 400 mg/kg n-BF (p˂0.01; 61.05%). 45 Conclusion: The results of this study showed that crude leaves extract and solvent fractions of Rhamnus prinoides had significant anti-diarrheal activity, providing scientific support for its traditional use as a diarrhea treatment .


Significance When determining responsibility for harmful actions, people often consider whether the actor behaved intentionally. The spread of surveillance cameras, "on-officer" recording devices, and smart-phone video makes it increasingly likely that such judgments are aided by video replay. Yet, little is known about how different qualities of the video, such as replay speed, affect human judgment. We demonstrate that slow motion replay can systematically increase judgments of intent because it gives viewers the false impression that the actor had more time to premeditate before acting. In legal proceedings, these judgments of intent can mean the difference between life and death. Thus, any benefits of video replay should be weighed against its potentially biasing effects. To determine the appropriate punishment for a harmful action, people must often make inferences about the transgressor's intent. In courtrooms and popular media, such inferences increasingly rely on video evidence, which is often played in "slow motion." Four experiments (n = 1,610) involving real surveillance footage from a murder or broadcast replays of violent contact in professional football demonstrate that viewing an action in slow motion, compared with regular speed, can cause viewers to perceive an action as more intentional. This slow motion intentionality bias occurred, in part, because slow motion video caused participants to feel like the actor had more time to act, even when they knew how much clock time had actually elapsed. Four additional experiments (n = 2,737) reveal that allowing viewers to see both regular speed and slow motion replay mitigates the bias, but does not eliminate it. We conclude that an empirical understanding of the effect of slow motion on mental state attribution should inform the life-or-death decisions that are currently based on tacit assumptions about the objectivity of human perception.


The accordion is now one of the unique components of the ethno-cultural complex, and its study in the historical and cultural context contributes to the comprehension of the latter as a genetically multidimensional integrity, a weighty component of modern musical culture. The understanding of the multifaceted phenomena becomes possible from the position of comprehension of formation and role of accordion as the functional-polyvalent phenomenon. In the article the features are considered on the example of creativity of the Ukrainian composers of the modern accordion music in the context of the modern musical culture. The Ukrainian composers organically combine modern compositional with folklore sources and individual features of the artist's worldview. It has been proved that for its way of formation as an "artistic instrumental complex", which affects the socio-cultural paradigm of "the image of the accordion" as a traditional folk instrument, the construction of the accordion has undergone a significant number of changes. One of the modifications of the accordion is an electronic version of the instrument. It is noted that a significant number of modern accordionists-performers and composers, having felt spirit of modern time, now more often resort to variety-jazz compositions, creating a bright palette of the works connected directly with life and a life of our society, filling musical products with cheerfulness and optimism. Key words: accordion, modernity, musical culture, digitalization, folk, pop-jazz compositions, styles, repertoire.


The need to provide students with learning experiences that can help them develop the knowledge and skills relevant to the workplace has been consistently raised by businesses. Project-Assisted Learning (PAL) and Project-Based Learning (PBL) are effective learning methods that closely match workplace situations. Several studies have documented the benefits of PAL and PBL from the perspectives of the educators. This article presents  cases of learning experiences in which project assignment, a case of PAL, was used to enhance the learning experiences of the students. The influence of the project on their experiences was captured  using  a  survey  instrument  that  involved  opinion  rating.  The  averages  of  the  rating  obtained  in  the  survey  appear  to support the view that project assisted learning (PAL) is beneficial to students from the students' perspective. Thus the students in this  study  validated  what  educators  have  claimed  previously.  Consequently,  PAL  should  be  a  component  in  the  learning experiences of students, especially in technology based programs.


The sociological investigation of public policy continues to be plagued by scholarly adherence to a conventional framework that reifies the policy process as a set of segmented and sequential stages. To overcome this problem, policy is presented as the processual, ongoing practical accomplishment of the transformation of intentions. Within this framework, the realization of intentions is shown as both constrained and enabled by (1) organizational context and conventions, (2) linkages between multiple sites and phases of the policy process, (3) the mobilization of resources, and (4) a dynamic and multifaceted conceprualization of power.


The purpose of the study was to (a) assess air quality in Livingston, Lyon, and Trigg Counties, Kentucky workplaces; and (b) compare the results from the three counties to Georgetown and Lexington, Kentucky air quality data before and after their smoke-free laws took effect.


Multiprimary displays reproduce colors by using combinations of four or more lights that are referred to as primaries. A display control vector defines the relative intensities of the primaries and determines the rendered color. For multiprimary displays, a color may be reproduced using multiple alternative control vectors. We provide a complete characterization of the Metameric Control Set (MCS), i.e., the set of control vectors that reproduce a given color on the display. Specifically, we show that MCS is a convex polytope whose vertices are control vectors obtained from (parallelepiped) tilings of the gamut, i.e., the range of colors that the display can produce. The mathematical framework that we develop: (a) characterizes gamut tilings in terms of fundamental building blocks called facet spans that we identify and define, (b) establishes that the vertices of the MCS are fully characterized by the tilings of the gamut, and (c) introduces a methodology for the efficient enumeration of gamut tilings. The framework reveals the fundamental inter-relations between the geometry of the MCS and the geometry of the gamut developed in a companion Part I paper, and provides insight into alternative strategies for color control. Our characterization of tilings and the strategy for their enumeration also advance knowledge in geometry, providing new approaches and computational results for the enumeration of tilings for a broad class of zonotopes in ${\mathbb {R}}^{3}$ .


The total viable count (TVC) in bacon overweight can cause serious damage to human health. In order to find a rapid and nondestructive method of TVC, hyper spectral imaging technique was applied to quantitatively analysis of TVC on bacon. Comprehensively comparing the pretreatment method of multiple scattering, derivative method and so on finally the multiple scattering for pretreatment was used. And the interval optimization method of least squares model was set up to predict, and get a good prediction results. The correlation coefficient of the calibration and predictions respectively was 0.808 and 0.808, interactive authentication root mean square error was 0.115 and 0.198 respectively. Therefore, hyper spectral imaging technique combining iPLS can be used for the rapid detection of TVC on bacon.


Scherer's book that they would be better off being freelance than second-class citizens in the service of kings and princes. Or is it because "later, between 1840 and 1880, the popular demand for musical performance was met by the establishment of hundreds of music halls, which offered working-class patrons instrumental and vocal music lubricated by the sale of alcoholic beverages" (p. 47)? Or just because, as I suspected, Scherer does not like the music that was composed after 1849, with the exception of Mahler (not even all of it) and Shostakovich!


Objectives: (1) Describe national trends in retropharyngeal abscess (RPA) complicating peritonsillar abscess (PTA). (2) Determine factors associated with RPA in patients with PTA. Methods: Years 2003 to 2010 of the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) were queried for PTA (ICD-9 code: 475) and RPA (ICD-9 code: 478.24) in adult patients (age ≥18 years old). The cohort was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate regression modeling to identify factors associated with RPA. Results: Of the 90,941 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 86,433-95,449) patients identified with PTA, 885 (1.0%) also had a concurrently coded RPA. The annual rate of concomitant RPA doubled (P < .001) from 0.5% (95% CI: 0.3%-0.8%) to 1.4% (95% CI: 1.0%-2.0%) between 2003 and 2010. Patients with RPA were more likely to undergo tonsillectomy (23.5% vs 11.1%) and mechanical ventilation (13.2% vs 2.0%) than those without RPA (all P < .001). RPA patients were significantly (all P < .001) older (41 vs 34 years old), had a longer hospital stay (6.4 vs 2.5 days), and had more procedures (2.5 vs 0.9) compared with patients without RPA. Upon multivariate regression analysis, factors associated with RPA included age groups 40 to 64 years (odds ratio [OR] = 2.073, P < .001), 65 years and older (OR = 2.148, P = .021), and teaching hospital (OR = 1.838, P < .001). When controlling for age, sex, and hospital characteristics, general linear modeling demonstrated that RPA accounted for $27,240 (P < .001) in excess total charges per patient. Conclusions: The incidence of RPA among adult inpatients with PTA is increasing, and patients with RPA have higher in-hospital resource utilization. Further studies may help validate factors predictive of RPA to enable earlier identification.


The onset of square convective cells in fluid layers heated from below is investigated. Amplitude equations an deduced from the Boussinesq equations and a standard stability analysis is performed. Square cells are shown to be preferred when the instability is mainly capillarity driven. The influence of the Prandtl and Blot numbers are examined. At small Pr, the Plot number has not very much influence and squares are always observed for thin enough layers. in large Prandtl number fluids, Pi must be larger than the limiting value 0.28 for squares to be stable.


Objective: To compare the use of electrocautery and scalpel dissection while performing modified radical mastectomy in terms of frequency of seroma formation. Study Design: Randomized Clinical Trial. Setting: Department of Surgery, Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi. Period: 19-06-2019 to 22-06-2022. Material & Methods: A total of one hundred (n=100) female patients between age 22-60 years, who underwent modified radical mastectomy for breast carcinoma were enrolled in the study and randomized into two groups. Electrocautery dissection was performed in group A while patient in group B will undergo Scalpel dissection. Outcome was measured in terms of seroma formation at 7th day postoperatively. Results: Mean age of patients in our study was 42.39 years and standard deviation 8.26. At day 7 after the surgery, mean drain volume was 39.77 ml in our patients. Seroma formation was observed in a total of 14(28%) patients in group A (electrocautery) and 8(16%) patients in group B (Scalpel). Conclusion: Frequency of seroma formation was significantly lower with scalpel dissection as compared to those with electrocautery dissection after MRM.


We study a family of lattice polarized K3 surfaces which is an extension of the family of Kummer surfaces derived from principally polarized Abelian surfaces. Our family has two special properties. First, it is coming from a resolution of a simple K3 singularity. Second, it has a natural parameterization by Hermitian modular forms of four complex variables. In this paper, we show two results: (1) we determine the transcendental lattice and the Néron–Severi lattice of a generic member of our family. (2) We give a detailed description of the double covering structure associated with our K3 surfaces.


The mineralogical characteristics of China's main muscovites were described systemically by X-ray fluorescence(XRF), conventional chemical analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). Differences between China's muscovites and India's, especially in surface chemical composition and chemical state, bulk chemical composition and crystal structure, were discussed in detail. One can see that a lot of potassium (K) on the surface of India's muscovites is of absence,and keeping empty positions; the surface oxygen(O) is seriously absent and deficient; the silicon of tetrahedron layers exhibits more exposure. The unsaturation degree of surface chemical bond of India's muscovites is higher than that of China's. It may be due to higher surface activity. China's main muscovites are generally of the 2M_1 type. The values of lattice parameters a and b increase with increasing iron and magnesium ion contents in the muscovite structures.


The invention discloses an illuminating device capable of detecting the air quality and issuing a warning in the dynamic process. The illuminating device comprises a smoke pipe which is of a hollow structure. An energy supply mechanism is arranged on the lateral surface of the smoke pipe. A plurality of LED warning lights are arranged on the lateral surface of the smoke pipe. An air quality detection mechanism is arranged in the smoke pipe. A controller is arranged in a control box. A storage battery is electrically connected with the controller. The controller is electrically connected with the air quality detection mechanism. The illuminating device has the beneficial effects of being simple in structure and high in practicability.


Increasing drilling speed and shortening the well construction period are the goals of the drilling field. The use of downhole speed-up tools has been noted for its advantages such as no additional cost, no change in drilling equipment and no impact on normal drilling operations. However, conventional downhole speed-up tools cannot meet the needs when the drilled formation contains hydrogen sulfide. Then, the technology test on increasing drilling speed by absorption and hydraulic supercharging of drill string in hydrogen sulfide formation was carried out in well Wanweiye1 (WWY1), Anhui Province, China. The results show that: firstly, the speed-up device by absorption and hydraulic supercharging of drill string can be used in the formation containing hydrogen sulfide, and can still perform normal drilling operations with a hydrogen sulfide concentration of 567 ppm; secondly, the speed-up technology by absorption and hydraulic supercharging of drill string has a significant speed-raising effect in the region containing hydrogen sulfide and can raise the speed by 62.5% to 92.05%; thirdly, the speed-up device by absorption and hydraulic supercharging of drill string can meet the needs of high density killing fluid. Once the well WWY1 suffered an overflow, the device did not affect the killing operation when the killing fluid density reached 2.2 g/cm3 and killing time reached 104.8 h.


First-year operation of a 50 x 10/sup 6/ w cogeneration unit an Unocal Corp.'s Rodeo, Calif., refinery has been successful. The cogeneration plant, one of the first to utilize selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and CO oxidation catalysts for emission control, was completed in early 1987, and went into full commercial power production on May 30, 1987. First-year reliability of the base-loaded, three-turbine plant has been excellent. The plant, which employs selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and CO oxidation technologies, is currently running at 95% utilization. Two of three turbines have always been online since start-up. Details of the plants are given.


This study examined the effects of nurse–parent partnership, nurses' attitude to families' importance in nursing care, and nursing professional self-efficacy on the quality of pediatric nursing care. Background: The quality of pediatric nursing care based on family-centered care is defined by the qualitative care behavior of nurses from the perspective of hospitalized children and their families. Methods: The participants were 218 nurses in pediatric wards in hospitals. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and path analysis. Results: Among the factors influencing the perceived quality of respect, explanation, and skillfulness, nurse experience showed the greatest total effect. The nurse–parent partnership had the greatest direct effect on the quality of respect and the greatest total effect on kindness. Nursing professional self-efficacy showed the greatest direct effect on explanation and the largest total effect on nurse–parent partnership and nurses' attitude to families' importance in nursing care. Conclusions: To improve the quality of pediatric nursing care, it is necessary to provide a working environment in which pediatric nurses can work continuously. Hospitals should also develop a program that enables proper collaboration between nurses and parents of hospitalized children and improves nursing professional self-efficacy.


Purpose : The goal of this study was to ascertain gender differences in sensory thresholds by measuring current perception threshold (CPT) values of the trigeminal and median nerves in healthy individuals.Materials and Methods : CPT values were measured using a Neurometer® (Neurotoron, Baltimore, MD, USA) when electrical stimulation of 2, 000, 250, or 5 Hz was applied to the left preauricular (trigeminal nerve) and thenar eminence (median nerve) regions in 20 healthy volunteers (10 males and 10 females with a mean age of 24.4 years). The day-to-day reliability of CPT was first verified in the trigeminal region by a test-retest method using an interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The CPT values were then measured and statistically analyzed to evaluate whether the values were influenced by the electrical stimulation frequency and gender difference.Results : Irrespective of the stimulation frequency, the ICC values were high (2, 000 Hz : 0.62, 250 Hz : 0.80, 5 Hz : 0.86), showing the high day-to-day reliability of CPT. The electrical frequency of the stimulation significantly influenced the CPT (ANOVA : p<0.0001) ; the mean CPT value during 2, 000 Hz stimulation was significantly higher than the value during 250 and 5 Hz stimulation (Bonferroni test : p<0.001). For median nerve stimulation, the mean CPT was lower for women than for men, but no significant gender difference was identified (ANOVA : p=0.11). Conversely, gender exerted significant effects on CPTs (ANOVA : p=0.02) for trigeminal nerve simulation. As to stimulation frequency, the mean CPT following 2, 000 Hz stimulation of the trigeminal nerve was significantly lower for women than for men (Bonferroni test : p<0.001).Conclusion : The results suggest that healthy women are more sensitive to tactile or pressure sensations compared to healthy men, and that the effects of gender differences on the sensory threshold can be ignored with pain-related nerve fibers such as Aδ and C fibers.


The series of macrocyclic diamines (3b) and (4b) form complexes with primary alkylammonium thiocyanates with free energies of binding that depend upon ring size; the diamines (7) and (8) with functional groups in the side chains are readily synthesized and form strong complexes with polyfunctional ammonium thiocyanates.


The discharges of the water courses are generated by the procedure of the precipitation
- which is an easily analysable stochastic procedure. The procedure of the discharges is
transformed by the boundary conditions of the water system. Consequently the procedure
is a very complicated structured stochastic procedure. The Cramer-Leadbetter crossing
method was constructed for analysis of such complicated stochastic procedures. For the
water management purposes it is needed to complete the random variables introduced
by Cramer and Leadbetter with the sum and extrem values of these parameters. Finally
the stochastic procedure will be characterised by the series of condition al probability
distribution of 17 random variables defined by the different crossing levels.
To complete the information the Poissonian structure of the highwaters and the
exponential character of the recession curves were used. A special tank model was used
to deduce analytical formulas for the distribution functions of these 17 random variables.
Two more sophisticated models were constructed - these models the condition al prob-
ability functions can be estimated by numerical algorithms with help of the adequate
software.


Vascular calcification is prevalent in ageing, in a therosclerosis, and especially in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), with as sociated increased morbidity and mortality. The phenotypic transition of Vascula r Smooth Muscle Cells (VSMCs) into osteoblastic/chondrogenic-like cells is critic al for the development of calcification in CKD patients. Osteocytes, terminal ly differentiated osteoblasts, have recently emerged as major regulators of calcificati on in bone. Recently, osteocytelike cells have been observed in human peripheral a rteries with medial vascular calcification. However, it remains undetermined as to whether VSMCs can undergo osteocytic differentiation within a calcifying envi ronment and the functional role of osteocyte formation in the development of medial va scular calcification. Initial studies have characterised the ectonucleoti d pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 1 knockout ( Enpp1) mouse as a valid model of medial vascular calcification, which is employed th roughout this thesis. This thesis has compared VSMCs to osteoblasts undergoing osteoc ytic differentiation in vitro. VSMC in vitro calcification was accompanied by up-regulated expr ssion of osteocyte markers, including Sost , E11, Dmp1, Phex, Mepe and Fgf23. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the appearance of sc lerostin and E11 in calcified aortae from the Enpp1 mouse. Further studies have identified a direct inh ib tory role for the osteocyte specific gene FGF23 in modul ating vascular calcification. The inhibitory effect of FGF23 on VSMC calcification wa s mediated through the MAPK/ERK signalling pathway. This thesis has also d etermined the role of BMP9, a highly osteogenic bone morphogenic protein, in vasc ular calcification, which induces VSMC calcification through a Smad signalling mechan ism. Furthermore, VSMC expression of the osteocytic marker Sost was markedly increased following BMP9 treatment. Intriguingly, BMP9 was markedly elevated in serum from dialysis patients and a significant correlation was observed between dialysis time and BMP9 concentration in patients receiving haemodialysis. The work described herein has demonstrated that vas cular calcification is associated with an osteocyte phenotype, and reports a direct i nhibitory effect of the osteocyte specific gene FGF23 on vascular calcification. Furt hermore, this thesis has shown that BMP9 induces the expression of the osteocytic marker Sost in VSMCs, and appears to play a critical role in vascular calcifi cat on.


The infrequent occurrence of overfit in deep neural networks is perplexing. On the one hand, theory predicts that as models get larger they should eventually become too specialized for a specific training set, with ensuing decrease in generalization. In contrast, empirical results in image classification indicate that increasing the training time of deep models or using bigger models almost never hurts generalization. Is it because the way we measure overfit is too limited? Here, we introduce a novel score for quantifying overfit, which monitors the forgetting rate of deep models on validation data. Presumably, this score indicates that even while generalization improves overall, there are certain regions of the data space where it deteriorates. When thus measured, we show that overfit can occur with and without a decrease in validation accuracy, and may be more common than previously appreciated. This observation may help to clarify the aforementioned confusing picture. We use our observations to construct a new ensemble method, based solely on the training history of a single network, which provides significant improvement in performance without any additional cost in training time. An extensive empirical evaluation with modern deep models shows our method's utility on multiple datasets, neural networks architectures and training schemes, both when training from scratch and when using pre-trained networks in transfer learning. Notably, our method outperforms comparable methods while being easier to implement and use, and further improves the performance of competitive networks on Imagenet by 1\%.


The strategies that are implemented in electoral campaigns are tools that help politicians to promote their candidacies, they are answers of the information that the candidates and campaigners recollect to win an election. This article analyzes the campaign strategy implemented by Guillermo Lasso for his candidacy for the presidential elections of 2017 in Ecuador, in order to know if this was the reason why the citizens supported his candidacy, which will be measured in terms of effectiveness feelings. In the first part the analysis we are going to find a theoretical description of the main forms of study of an electoral campaign. In the second part, we are going to have the keys to understand the analysis of this case, which is explained in the third section of this paper; And finally, we have the conclusions, that demonstrate the lack of effectiveness of the campaign.


Abstract : There is a growing recognition that the molecular biology of ovarian cancers is complex and that the disease is correspondingly heterogeneous. There is a need for platforms that can translate molecular findings into useful diagnostic tests for patient stratification, therapeutic decision making, and clinical trial design. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) pilot project is comprehensively cataloguing the genomic aberrations of advanced serous ovarian carcinoma. The project objective is to identify proteins and corresponding signaling pathways that (1) correlate with the genomic alterations in ovarian carcinoma as determined by TCGA and (2) can be used as biomarkers for clinical outcome and/or chemotherapy response. We have optimized 44 IHC assays for ovarian cancer tissues. We have collected more than 150 TCGA qualified tumors and created Tissue MicroArrays (TMAs). We have incorporated modified and updated TCGA findings into our study design. Antibodies to drug targets or markers of drug activity have been selected and additional pathway components and markers have been added based on findings from TCGA. The panel will focuses on the most relevant and novel signaling pathways for serous ovarian carcinoma.


Abstract This paper proposes an adaptive control method for an underactuated overhead crane system. To improve the transferring efficiency and enhance the security of the crane system, the trolley is required to reach the desired position as fast as possible, while the swing of payload needs to be within an acceptable domain. To achieve these objectives, a novel two-step design strategy consisting of a trajectory planning stage and an adaptive tracking control design stage, is proposed to attack such an underactuated system as overhead crane. In the first step this paper proposes a new S curve as the desired trajectory for trolley tracking, and in the second step, it constructs an adaptive control law to make the trolley track the planned trajectory. As shown by Lyapunov Techniques, the proposed adaptive controller guarantees an asymptotical tracking result even in the presence of uncertainties including system parameters and various disturbances. Simulation results demonstrate that the new S trajectory and the tracking controller achieves a superior performance for the underactuated cranes.


In analyzing the foundation that the traditional agriculture machinery designs the method, elaborated the function and characteristics of the software of Pro/ Engineer, and the software of Pro/ Engineer is in the application that the agriculture machinery design the realm.


The standard model of AGN suggests that the broad-line regions of high-luminosity AGN should be so large that any variability in the broad emission-line fluxes should be on timescales of about 2-4 yr or more. Spectrophotometric observations of eight radio-quiet QSOs over a period of 1 yr revealed definite H-beta flux variability in one of these objects and possibly in two others. This may be an indication that the BLRs in high-luminosity AGNs are much smaller than those predicted by the standard model, as is apparently the case in Seyfert galaxies. 28 refs.