Objectives: To describe a treatment population of older adults (60+ years) assessed for alcohol treatment over a 20-year period. Method: Retrospective analysis of alcohol treatment assessment data relating to all older adults assessed by one UK NHS Trust Community Alcohol Team (n = 585) between April 1988 and March 2008. Results: Over the 20-year period, the number of assessments per year increased though the demographic profile of those assessed for treatment remained the same: male (62%), white ethnic origin (94%) and average age 65.7 years. The average amount of alcohol consumed per week was 102.91 units. Most were drinking alcohol on a daily basis (79%), mainly spirits (79%), at home (84%), alone (82%) and 'to reduce tension/anxiety' (22%). The average length of having had an alcohol problem was 9.7 years. Significant gender differences were found in terms of demographic profile and drinking patterns. Conclusions: The older adults assessed for alcohol treatment were drinking in amounts comparable to the treatment population of younger adult problem drinkers, men more so than women. The majority were not reporting problems with their drinking until they were on average in their middle-to-late 50s and were therefore considered to be late onset 'reactors' rather than early onset 'survivors' of longer term heavy drinking patterns reported in earlier studies.


Carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation is a challenging task in Wi-MAX uplink as it uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) which demands extremely accurate frequency synchronization. Here each user may experience a different CFO relative to the base station reference carrier and the estimation of them turn out to be a multiple parameter estimation problem. In this paper, we propose a null subcarrier based particle swam optimization (PSO) technique that performs the estimation by minimizing a cost function. As compared to the null subcarrier based grid search algorithm available in the literature, the computational complexity of the proposed technique is very low. The mean square error of the CFO estimator and bit error rate performance of the Wi-MAX base station receiver that employs the proposed estimation method are studied through computer simulations. It has been shown that the proposed technique achieves a better performance than the grid search algorithm at low to medium signal to noise ratio (SNR) where the algorithm reliability really matters.


Early American writers believed that what they understood as "standard" English was necessary for the functioning and maintenance of the newly established nation. As a result, "standard" English was placed upon a metaphorical pedestal that "accent," whether regional (within the nation) or foreign, threatened to knock over. This chapter examines Noah Webster's project to standardize speech, particularly his call for pronunciation based on a "principle of analogy." The chapter also examines the obstacles Webster faced during his mission to develop a national language, which included overcoming regional vocal differences and halting what he perceived as the corruptive influence of foreign languages. After reviewing scholarship on the history of American English as well as scholarship on Webster's work, I argue that Webster wanted to standardize not only spelling but also, and more importantly, the sounds associated with the letters of the English alphabet. If, according to Webster, Americans could overcome the desire to imitate "corrupt" English and foreign models of the pronunciation of various sounds attached to letters, then a standardized pronunciation could be achieved.


Pecking is not controlled by nutritional state in a newly hatched chick, but by 3 days posthatch it is. This paper reviews evidence showing that the experience of pecking followed by swallowing is both necessary and sufficient for pecking to become integrated into the hunger system. Sorne irnplications of these results for ideas concerning dic development of behavior systems are discussed, as are possible functions of such a mechanism of dcv¬eloprnent. It is concluded that the function of a behavior xnay not be related to its causes.


Objective To investigate the effects of GubenYiai Recipe,a traditional Chinese medicine prescription mainly composed of Taxus chinensis,Astragalus mongholicus,Chinese yam,semen coicis,Codonopsis pilosula,on the expression levels of suppressor genes kiss-1 and nm23 in the tumor tissues of C57 mice bearing Lewis lung carcinoma.Methods The C57 mice inbred strain bearing Lewis lung carcinoma was used as model.The mice were divided into normal saline treated group,high-,medium-,and low-dose of Guben Yiai Recipe treated group,and adriamycin plus Guben Yiai Recipe treated group.The expression levels of kiss-1 and nm23 in the tumor tissues were observed and compared among the six groups.Results Compared with those in normal saline treated group,the expression levels of kiss-1 and nm23 were significantly increased in adriamycin plus medium-dose Guben Yiai Recipe treated group,adriamycin treated group,and high-and medium-dose of Guben Yiai Recipe treated group.There was no significant difference in the expression levels of kiss-1 and nm23 between adriamycin plus medium-dose Guben Yiai Recipe treated group and any of the three treatment groups,i.e.,adriamycin treated group,high-dose Guben Yiai Recipe treated group,and medium-dose Guben Yiai Recipe treated group.Conclusion Guben Yiai Recipe possesses some inhibitive effects against the metastasis of lung cancer via increasing the expression levels of kiss-1 and nm23 in the tumor tissues.


Pit viper venoms contain a number of serine proteinases that exhibit one or more thrombin‐like activities on fibrinogen and platelets, this being the case for the kinin‐releasing and fibrinogen‐clotting KN‐BJ from the venom of Bothrops jararaca. A three‐dimensional structural model of the KN‐BJ2 serine proteinase was built by homology modeling using the snake venom plasminogen activator TSV‐PA as a major template and porcine kallikrein as additional structural support. A set of intrinsic buried waters was included in the model and its behavior under dynamic conditions was molecular dynamics simulated, revealing a most interesting similarity pattern to kallikrein. The benzamidine‐based thrombin inhibitors α‐NAPAP, 3‐TAPAP, and 4‐TAPAP were docked into the refined model, allowing for a more insightful functional characterization of the enzyme and a better understanding of the reported comparatively low affinity of KN‐BJ2 toward those inhibitors.


In recent times, there has been a significant short fall between the production and supply of animal protein to meet the ever increasing population. To meet the increasing demand for animal protein, there is need to focus attention on the production of livestock whose nutritional requirement does not put much strain on the limited sources of feed ingredients to which men subscribe. An example of such livestock is rabbit. Rabbit is a pseudo-ruminant herbivore which utilizes much undigested and unabsorbed feed materials as sources of nutrient for maintenance and production. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding Aspilia africana as forage on the growth rates of female pseudo-ruminant herbivores (rabbits) at different physiological states. Thirty (30) Dutch breed rabbit does of 5 – 6 months of age were used for the experiment which was conducted in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) for a period of four (4) months. The rabbits were divided into three treatment groups, ten (10) does per treatment group; which consisted of mixed forages (Centrosema pubescens (200g), Panicum maximum(200g) and Ipomea batatas leaves (100g) without Aspilia africana (T1; control), fresh Aspilia africana (500g/doe/day) (T2) and wilted Aspilia africana (500g/doe/day) (T3). Rabbits in all treatment groups received the same concentrate (300g/animal/day) throughout the period of the study and mixed forages from the commencement of the experiment till the does kindled. After parturition, fresh and wilted Aspilia africana were introduced in treatments 2 and 3 respectively, whereas the control group continued on mixed forages throughout the study. The result of the study revealed that the initial average body weight of the rabbit does was 1.74kg. At mating and gestation periods, the body weights of the does in T2 was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the rest. There were no significant differences (P<0.05) in the body weights of does at kindling between the various treatment groups. During lactation, weaning and re-mating, the control group (T1) had significantly lower body weight than those of the treated groups (T2 and T3).Furthermore, T2 had significantly higher body weight than T3. The study revealed that Aspilia africana; particularly the fresh leaves have greater growth stimulating effects when fed to pseudo-ruminants (rabbits), thereby enhancing body weights of does during lactation and weaning. 60 NseAbasi NsikakAbasi Etim: Growth Stimulating Effects of Aspilia africana Fed to Female Pseudo-Ruminant Herbivores (Rabbits) at Different Physiological States


The present work was undertaken in the hope that a convenient avenue of approach to the structure of the sugars might be opened up by the two hexose alcohols, mannitol and dulcitol, which give excellent crystals at ordinary temperatures. I t is not unreasonable to expect that isomers such as these, with very similar densities, might show in the dimensions of their unit cells certain similarities suggestive of some form of molecule common to the hexose alcohols, as the long-chain configuration is common to the hydrocarbons and the fatty acids. In addition, a collateral examination of mannose might equally well be expected to yield some evidence as to the nature of the change which takes place when a sugar is formed from the corresponding alcohol, and hence to supply data of fundamental importance in correlating the structures of the sugars and of their derivatives.


Two facts stand out very prominently in connection with the present method of estimating the bloodpressure. The first is that the estimation of the systolic pressure varies with the width of the armlet, and the second is that the figure given as the normal diastolic or basic figure varies from 55 mm. to 85 mm. Hg., according to the observer. As I have already pointed1 out, the normal systolic pressure estimated by means of a 4-in. armlet equals 120 mm., with a 3-in. armlet it equals 135 mm. and a 2-in. armlet gives the figure as 150 mm. Hg. So long as the width of the armlet be given it is immaterial what is the width, because the figures can all be reduced to a common denominator, but in my opinion it is far better to have one size of armlet common to all sphygmomanometers. The marked variation in the figures given as the


Reliable prediction of traumatic brain injury (TBI) outcomes based on machine learning (ML) that is derived from quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) features has renewed interest in recent years. Nevertheless, the approach has suffered from imbalanced datasets. Hence, to get a reliable predictive model for predicting outcomes, specifically in a high proportion of moderate TBI with good outcomes, could be challenging. This work proposes an improved outcome predictive model that combines the absolute power spectral density (PSD) as input features for training random under-sampling boosting decision trees (RUSBoosted Trees) as a classifier. Resting-state, eyes-closed EEG data were obtained from 27 moderate TBI patients with follow-up visits. Patient outcome at 4–10 weeks to 12-month was dichotomized based on the Glasgow Outcome Scale as poor (GOS score ≤ 4) and good outcomes (GOS score = 5). The predictive values of absolute PSD from five frequency bands: <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> (0.5-4Hz), <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\theta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> (4-7Hz), <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha $ </tex-math></inline-formula> (7-13Hz), <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> (13-30Hz) and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\gamma $ </tex-math></inline-formula> (30–100Hz) were evaluated to identify the most informative predictors for reliable prediction outcomes. RUSBoosted Trees performed best at discriminating patients into two outcomes categories (G-Mean = 92.95%, TPrate = 100%, TNrate = 86.4%) of absolute PSD in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\gamma $ </tex-math></inline-formula> bands, which was excellent compared to the other state-of-the-art methods. The highest area under the curve (AUC) of absolute PSD in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> (AUC<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_\delta =0.97$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\gamma $ </tex-math></inline-formula> (AUC<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_\gamma =0.95$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) revealed their predictive values as robust prognostic markers for prediction outcomes. The RUSBoosted Trees presents a promising result in prognosis prediction of highly imbalanced data, making it an accessible prediction tool for clinical decision-making, unlike the black-box approaches.


Should noted that liquids are always interesting material for different use – some of them can be used as detectors for different purpose, some other as parametric "filters"etc. As it known that some research work was conducted by Sokolova in 80 (USSR), then by A.Bobrov (Russia) to use water or other liquids as detectors of non-electromagnetic emission. Of course, many others were involved in investigation of liquids. At present time, some research works are being carried out by S. Kernbach (Germany). But authors of this article used different approach, and they got some interesting results, which were not mentioned by other researches.


The study used a quantitative approach to identify technology adoption and its utilization effect on market performance of small and medium enterprises in Ghana, La-Nkwantanang municipality. The study combined the construct Of Technology Acceptance Model and Innovation Diffusion Theory to identify some factors which influence small and medium enterprises to adopt and use internet technology. Furthermore, the study examined some factors which also hinder the adoption and utilization of internet technology among small and medium enterprises. Finally, the study determined the relationship between in internet technology usage among small and medium enterprise and market performance. A sample size taken by the researchers was 100 from the small and medium enterprises in Madina La-Nkwatanang municipality. The researchers used structured questionnaires to gather primary data which was analyzed using smart PLS and SPSS and the following results were obtained perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness of internet technology, compatibility and cost effectiveness are some of the factors that influence the adoption and utilization of internet technology, however, there is a positive relationship between internet technology usage and market performance.


Small-plot field tests were used to study phorate uptake by cotton plants following seed and in-furrow granular applications; phorate recovery from the soil was studied also. In-furrow granular treatments with phorate reduced phytotoxicity and gave aphid control similar to that with the standard carbon seed treatment. Studies with p32-labeled phorate showed similar amounts of phorate-equivalents in plants treated by both methods.

Radioassay of soil cores showed 70% or more of the radioactivity in the top 1.5 inches 1 to 7 weeks after planting. The combined quantities of radioactivity extractable with chloroform and water decreased with time to a low of about 25% in each of the treatments. Generally, similar amounts of radioactivity were recovered in the chloroform and water extracts.


dangers of Mitchell's re-articulation of race and racism: calling into question the over-hasty proclamations of a post-racial era should not lead us to a new fixing of racial 'realities' that we have to accept with all of their hatred and pain. This, we know, was not Mitchell's intention. Seeing race, not racism, as the matter that on the one hand has to be socially negotiated and, on the other, acts as a lens for social negotiation, is crucial for understanding the durable, and in Lacanian terms imaginary, nature of racism. Because the imaginary is inherent in the seeable, the scrutiny of imaginary projections where they meet social ontologies might be understood as one of the important political functions of visual culture studies.


This demonstration introduces a video summarization sys-tem, leveraging multimodal information to efficiently extract essential contents from presentations. In contrast to existing methods focusing primarily on daily life videos and solely utilizing visual information, our system extracts multimodal information, including speech, text, and visual information from videos of presentations. Specifically, the proposed system extracts crucial slide texts from key-frames as queries to filter speech transcripts. By piecing together the video clips corresponding to the filtered speech transcripts, our system outputs the final video summarizations. The evaluation on ICCV 2017 videos demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed system compared with the lead-3 baseline.


Education is a significant tool for change. It contributes to social stability, develops livelihoods, improves health, and motivates long-term economic growth. One of the critical aspects of the educational process is student assessment, which enables teachers to address current issues in education and measure teaching effectiveness and student performance. Correcting assessments takes teachers time and effort. This research proposed a solution to this issue by automatically correcting the true percent relative error equation with less human interference as well as decrease grading bias by using a machine learning approach. In order to use machine learning algorithms, a true percent relative error dataset were created. A total of550 solutions by different numerical analysis students at Umm Al-Qura University were collected and labeled in this work. Then this research tried and tested six machine learning classification algorithms. The results showed that the gradient boosting classifier algorithm achieved the highest percentage in all metrics. It achied 86% in accuracy, 87% in precision, 86% in recall, and 86% in F1. While the K-neighbors obtained the lowest percentage in all metrics.


According to the Gibbs effect of image denoising in real wavelet transform domain,this paper proposes a Hidden Markov Tree(HMT) model based on Quaternion Wavelet Transform(QWT).The QWT theory and HMT are combined in this model which effective reflect the correlation between wavelet coefficient and capture the neighborhood statistical characteristics of wavelet coefficients.Experimental results show that the model both in Peak Signal to Noise Ratio(PSNR) and in the visual effect are better than many classic denoising method.


The present paper deals with the development of the gross monthly wage distribution according to the length of the practical experience of employees in the Czech Republic since the beginning of the global economic downturn in 2009, during the course of the crisis and in its aftermath. The gross monthly wage dependence on the length of the practice has been researched, the dependence intensity measurement being a part of the analysis. The trend analysis of gross monthly wage time series differentiated according to the length of the practice having been conducted, forecasts of wage levels for 2015 and 2016 were constructed with the use of the above analysis.


: Diabetic retinopathy is a common eye disease in diabetic patients and is the main cause of blindness in the population. Early detection of diabetic retinopathy protects patients from losing their vision. Thus, this paper proposes a computer assisted diagnosis based on the digital processing of retinal images in order to help people detecting diabetic retinopathy in advance. The main goal is to automatically classify the grade of non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy at any retinal image. For that, microaneurysms and hard exudates in order to extract features that can be used by a support vector machine to figure out the retinopathy grade of each retinal image. Eye fundus pictures are grouped into, Mild Non-Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy, Moderate Non-Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy and Severe Non-Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy. From the experimentations directed on patients with diabetic retinopathy the accompanying affectability. This demonstrates the examination could help ophthalmologist in breaking down a retina that is influenced by diabetic retinopathy.


The main purpose of this article is the analysis of environmental information showed in Financial Statements of the partaking companies in the stock book of Sustainability Index – ISE, from Sao Paulo Stock Exchange – BOVESPA, on Electric Energy, Chemical & Ironworks and Metallurgy sections during the period between 2007 and 2008. The analysis of the Financial Statements published by the 13 researched companies had the purpose to verify which environmental information is showed and how it is presented. The motivation of the study comes from the importance of the disclosure of environmental as a way to account for all the stakeholders, aiming at the correct analysis of the environmental by society, for instance, the captivation of new investors. The current study classifies itself as applied, exploratory and descriptive. It is about a documental research related to proceedings of collected and qualitative data in the analysis. The main results point that the Social Balance is used by all the companies in order to spread environmental expenses by presenting specific indicators. The Administration Report comes after and it is also used by most part of companies to this aim. Despite the disclosure of the companies' involvement, it is observed that the application of environmental indicators is still explored in these sections.


This paper analyzes the existing relation between corruption and economic growth and examines the possible outcome of a reform implemented by the State to weed out or reduce corruption. It will be stressed that the reform against corruption tends, if not deemed by the operators to last in time, to curb most productive investments and therefore involves a time in which less corruption is paradoxically associated with less economic growth. This model is supported by econometric analysis of the Italian case. Italy has arguably been plagued by corruption. In the late 80s and early 90s several scandals that erupted quickly led to well-known inquiries (under the name of Clean Hands) and were followed (temporarily) by the an increased monitoring to prevent such practices. A dynamic panel data approach to economic growth based on data of 20 Italian regions allows to estimate a non-linear effect of corruption on economic growth.


The whole world is facing increment in the stipulation of energy and for this purpose fossil fuels are burning readily to achieve the demand of energy. The world strives for pollution free environment and to maintain the equilibrium in energy demand and supply, focus of the world is diverting towards clean, cheap, renewable and efficient fuel that can withstand with other conventional fuel. Coal potential of Pakistan is 185.5 billion tons and is about more than the reserves of oil and gas in Arabian countries. Energy Crises and Environmental dilemma of Pakistan can be overcome by the production of DME fuel from gasification of aboriginal coal. It is estimated by the Bureau of Energy Pakistan that Diesel consumption by the transport sector and industries are 8 million tons. Pakistan spends 5.37 billion dollars extra on importing diesel of 4.8 million tons and 58,613 million tons of LPG. It is estimated that Pakistan consumes 8 million tons of diesel yearly with the rapid increment of 5%. Pakistan bears the expenditure of 5.37 billion dollars for importing the 4.8 million tons of diesel. This burden on the budget can be reduced by producing the DME from aboriginal sources as a substitute to conventional fuels. In terms of cost comparison, DME costs 40% less than diesel. Pakistan is a rich country in terms of aboriginal reserves 185 billion tons coal can produce 92 billion tons of DME. By the end of 2020, Pakistan will import diesel costing 9.18 billion dollars according to country requirement and cost of DME production 3.67 billion dollars. The fuel importing burden of budget in Pakistan till 2020 can be reduced to 5.51 billion dollars. DME can be used as an alternative to crude oil derived fuels in the boilers, combustion engines and domestic fuel.


These resources are selected for their coverage of news and recent events. They are non-scholarly, potentially biased, and require evaluation. However these sources help you stay abreast of what's happening around the world. Web sites, datasets, and other helpful information


To be a teacher requires imparting knowledge or skill through instruction. However, a teacher takes on several other roles. A teacher is seen as a counsellor to both students and parents, sometimes a nurse, a social worker and even to some degree a parent for the students who are under his or her tutelage. With the increasing number of roles that students and parents ask from teachers as well as the requirements from the local Boards of Education and State Departments of Education, it is no wonder that teachers' stress and burnout are on a steady increase. The review of literature reveals that many studies have been undertaken on stress-related problems. However, there are very few studies with special reference to the teachers working in the educational institutions of the State of Punjab. Keeping in view the gaps in research, the present article aims to understand the stress phenomena among the teachers of the public and private sector institutions and thereby understand the major factors responsible for causing stress.


Objective To analyze the diagnostic value of three-dimensional contrast-enhanced MR angiography(3D CE-MRA) reconstructed by volume repetition(VR) in arteriostenosis of neck.Method Propeller LAVA and 3D CE-MRA scaning were performed in 28 suspected patients with arteriostenosis of neck confirmed by DSA.Process original image with MIP and VR to reconstruct the blood vessel at Adw4.3 workstation,then contrast them to the standard of DSA.Results There were 44 vascular lesions in all 28 cases,including 11 arterial occlusions in 7 cases,one of which was unilat internal carotid artery,eight in 4 cases were hibateral vertebral artery,two were unilat vertebral artery;33 arterial stenosis in 21 cases,one of which was unilat internal carotid artery,twenty-four in 12 cases were hibateral vertebral artery,five of which were unilat vertebral artery,three of which were unilat subclavian artery.The manifestitations of 44 vascular lesions in VR were approximately identical with those in DSA.The expressions of all slight,moderate arterial oulusions and stenosis in MIP were the same as those in DSA,while in only one case of serious stenosis they were coincident.The total coincident rate was 90.9%.In 4 casas of severe stegnotic blood vessel,one severe stegnotic LVA showed obliteration,one collateral blood vessel post-obliteration showed fuzziness,two stegnotic parts showed fuzziness by MIP.Conclutions Cervical artery VR reconstruction may avoid the vein disturbance,display arteries more directly and reflect the real information of arteries.


Many failures were found in reactor pressure vessel head penetration (RPV) head material. Those failures caused by boric acid corrosion, and from visual examination were found a big hole and white deposit crystal of boric acid during shutdown maintenance at David Besse reactor. Zinc Oxide addition in BWR reactor known as Zinc Injection that has purposed to reduce radiation exposure cause of Hydrogen addition. Beside reducing the radiation exposure, Zinc injection also has an effect in reducing material corrosion. The purpose of study is to determine the effect of zinc addition, boric acid, temperature also the effects of Cobalt Nitrate and Zinc Oxide addition to Inconel 600 TT as RPV head penetration material. The result in the BWR reactor experience will be implementated at PWR reactor, weather zinc oxide addition also has an effect in reducing the corrosion of Inconel 600. The method that used in this research is to observe the corrosion rates for Inconel 600 material using Potentiostat. Examination were conducted in 30, 40, 60, 70, 80 and 80 °C using 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000 ppm boric acid concentration. The results showed that the corrosion rate for the material were very small, but the highest corrosion rate occurred in 3000 ppm boric acid concentration at 90 °C with Cobalt Nitrate addition, around 5.210 x 10−1 mpy. In the same condition at 3000 ppm boric acid concentration for temperature at 90 °C, Inconel 600 TT corrosion rate is smaller with Zinc oxide addition, around 4.631 x 10−1 mpy.


Palmer, and Russell L. Moore. Excitation wavelengths for fura 2 provide a linear relationship between [Ca 2 1 ] and fluorescence ratio. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 279: C1278–C1284, 2000.—We proposed and tested the use of nontraditional excitation wavelengths ( l 1 and l 2 ) and an emission wavelength ( l em ) to define conditions under which free calcium concentration and a fluorescence ratio are linearly related. Fluorescence spectra were determined for aqueous solutions that contained 25 m M fura 2, 125 mM K 1 , and either 0 mM or 0.1 mM Ca 2 1 . Effectively linear relationships between [Ca 2 1 ] and a fluorescence ratio, i.e., , 5% bias when [Ca 2 1 ] # 5 3 dissociation constant, were apparent when l 1 $ 400 nm, l 2 # 370 nm, and l em $ 510 nm. Combinations with longer l 1 and l em and/or with shorter l 2 reduced this bias further. Although the method described does not obviate the complications that surround the correc-tion for fluorescence background, choosing a nontraditional combination of excitation and emission wavelengths offers several practical advantages over more traditional fura 2 fluorescence methodologies in a variety of experimental set-tings. 6 KCl, 2 MgCl 2 , 1 EGTA, 10 glucose, 5 HEPES, and 2 pyruvate, pH 7.4. The superfusate was then switched to Ca 2 1 -free Tryode for 1 min, and a fluorescence recording was taken as the background emission. Fluorescence intensities were taken to be the recorded emissions minus the respective wavelength background emissions.


From the control perspective,the work principle of the intelligent wireless remote control car based on single chip microcomputer is discribed.The STC8C52 microcomputer is used as the core controller of the intelligent car.The car is remote controlled through the wireless communication module to achieve forward,backward,turning,braking,and other basic functions.What's more,infrared sensors are equipped to detect obstacles,so that the car could avoid obstacles automatically.The circuit structure of whole system is simple and its reliability is high.


mismatches within the context of political and personal genres explores the participants' problems with identifying themselves with the other group's suffering. The central point is the attempted equation between the Shoa and the Nakba – two violent events of the past – negotiated by the speakers. Waisman proposes that this process is identifiable via gestural mismatches that situate the concepts, places and events within the participants (e.g. pointing at oneself and uttering 'they' or 'there' while talking about the Shoa/Nakba atrocities). Body, Language and Meaning in Conflict Situations makes a valuable read for several reasons. To the best of my knowledge, Waisman's book is the first study that takes the word systems approach to Jewish–Arab conflict. Although she does not explicitly use the term, it is also among the very few publications that incorporate a multimodal perspective to conflict situations in general. It also offers a rare insight into a more personal and emotional dimension of an ethnic, religious and political conflict usually accessed via mass media. The detection of the gesture–speech mismatches is in itself fascinating and evidence of fine-grained analysis – mismatches are not easy to uncover as they require very detailed and repetitive observation. Plenty of data presented with multiple examples of mismatches also seem to warrant the author's choice to give these features prominence. Unfortunately, this promising choice is not matched by the manner in which the data is presented. Waisman uses the word 'modality', yet there is no reference to multimodal analysis, and there are no images to support the data. The decision not to include them might have been driven by ethical considerations. However, one might reasonably have expected some discussion of such a decision; and given that there are currently several well-developed multimodal methodologies and transcription conventions (e.g. McNeill, 1992), this is a surprising and somewhat disappointing choice. There is plenty of description of the mismatches and the surrounding interaction but the images could support the interpretations provided and at the same time present evidence of the author's claims. Indeed, some of Waisman's assumptions and interpretations appear rather far-fetched (e.g. assuming knowledge of a participant's subconscious on p. 166). Nevertheless, the book is accessible for a variety of audiences, including discourse analysts, psychologists and readers interested in conflict interactions and gesture. What also makes this publication meaningful is that the results point to the fear and mistrust that create barriers between the young Jewish and Arab people, preventing them from understanding each other. In reality, this often leads to violence. Indeed, only a few months after Waisman completed her data collection, the second intifada (the violent Arab uprising against the Israeli state) began.


The mutual reception of cultures is a very interesting chapter in the history of mankind. Regarding the perception of stateless nations by other nations, this perception depends on the public opinion that can be inclined towards Jacobinists' uniformitarianism or towards the solidarity defense of cultural and national diversity. In Europe, the language map is still too closely linked to the map of the states. In an analogous way, the words Catalunya (Catalonia) or català (Catalan) remain frequently hidden under the words Spain or Spanish, which makes it difficult for Europeans to fully acknowledge the differential Catalan fact. It is true that in recent years the Catalan presence in Germany has increased considerably; but it is still very far from the level expected in a country that has the Catalan Countries as its first tourist destination. Catalans pose a difficult problem for foreigners to understand; they want to be considered as a people with their own identity, but they have not decided to lead a truly autonomous and independent social and political life.


The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the various range of business incubation services being provided to the nascent entrepreneurs which is based on comprehensive compilation and subsequent analysis of literature followed by case based approach in context to Indian higher educational institute (HEI) based business incubation centres. The objective behind this research is to critically assess the assistance services and to prioritize the service dimensions provided by the business incubation centres. Data has been collected from various business incubation centres to capture the experience of the incubated clients and other stakeholders who are directly and indirectly attached to the business incubation centres. The novelty of this paper is that there is no available literature that has followed a similar approach in measuring most influential business incubation service parameters taking different HEI based Indian incubation centres. Statistical analysis has been deployed for investigation of service dimensions and prioritized it accordingly as well as a model has been proposed with the identified service dimension that influences the creation of the new ventures. The findings suggests that HEI based business incubation centres are providing services to emerging economies by leveraging talent and thus creating value. The findings have both entrepreneurial and managerial implications for decision makers in universities, industry and government. The management of incubators, entrepreneurs as well as researchers can take input from this study in order to accomplish effective service management for scalable ventures.


Background While the role of adaptive immune system in pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been well characterized, there is paucity of literature on innate immunity in these patients. There are limited data on neutrophil function in pediatric lupus. In this study we analyzed neutrophilic functions in a cohort of pediatric lupus from North India. Objectives To evaluate phagocytic and oxidative burst activity of neutrophils in patients with pediatric-onset SLE Methods This prospective study was carried out at a tertiary care center in North India in patients with SLE during the period July 2017 to December 2018. Diagnosis of lupus was based on SLICC 2012 criteria and patients who had disease onset below 18 years were included. Controls were age matched children attending the outpatient clinic of department. Disease activity was measured by SELENA-SLEDAI score. Phagocytic activity was estimating using the pH Rhodo Escherichia coli (E coli) BioParticles kit by flow cytometry. Phagocytic function was measured as% phagocytic activity of neutrophils, delta mean fluorescent intensity (ΔMFI), and stimulation index (SI). Oxidative burst activity was performed by Dihydrorhodamine (DHR) flow cytometry assay and% positivity neutrophils, ΔMFI, and SI were calculated. Results Eighty-seven children with lupus (63 girls; 24 boys) comprised the study group. 44 healthy controls were also enrolled. Disease onset was 8.52±2.95 years whereas age at enrolment was 12.34±5.67 years. Phagocytic activity in neutrophils SLE and controls were 76.59 ± 20.70%; 91.30 ± 4.47%; p<0.001 respectively. ΔMFI phagocytosis in patients with SLE and control were 0.09 (005-0.16), 0.18 (0.15, 0.22); (p.= 0.002) respectively. SI of phagocytosis in patients with SLE and controls were 2.79 (1.92, 3.93); 5.00 (4.50, 6.12); p<0.001. SLEDAI score was negatively correlated with phagocytic function in neutrophils in patients with SLE. Oxidative burst activity of neutrophils in patients with SLE and controls in form of%positivity on neutrophils were 84.03±17.36%, 92.26± 5.49; p<0.001 respectively. ΔMFI and SI on DHR between patients and healthy controls were comparable. There was no difference in oxidative burst activity between active and inactive SLE patients. Two patients showed a double peak in DHR flow cytometry consistent with mosaic pattern associated with a probable carrier state for X-linked chronic granulomatous disease. Both oxidative burst activity and phagocytic activity did not show significant correlation with the dose of prednisolone. Conclusion This study suggests that there is impaired neutrophil function in childhood SLE and also there may be a correlation between neutrophil dysfunction and disease activity. The E.coli based phagocytic functions of neutrophils were significantly reduced in pediatric SLE patients compared to healthy controls. Phagocytic activity of neutrophil was significantly lower in patients with disease activity and coexistent infection in patients with pediatric SLE. Oxidative burst activity was reduced in patients with pediatric SLE compared to healthy controls. However, there was no significant correlation of oxidative burst activity to the age, disease activity and coexistent infections. References [1] Wu S-A, Yeh K-W, Lee W-I et al. Impaired phagocytosis and susceptibility to infection in pediatric-onset systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus.2013;22(3):279–88. [2] Marini R, Condino-Neto A, Appenzeller S et al. Superoxide release in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheumatol Int.2012;32(7):1977–83.Abstract THU0510 – Figure 1 Phagocytic functions in patients with active SLE versus inactive diseaseAbstract THU0510 – Figure 2 Correlation of SLEDAI and phagocytic activity Acknowledgement None Disclosure of Interests None declared


The business meeting was called to order by President Mark E. Siddall at 1502 hours on Thursday, 14 July 2016, in the Saskatchewan Meeting Room of the Westin Edmonton Hotel. President Siddall made his opening remarks and recognized the new Officers and Nominating Committee members for 2016–2017. He then thanked the outgoing Officers and Nominating Committee for their service to the Society. He also noted that members of the Nominating Committee are not appointed by Council, but voted in by the membership. See Council meeting minutes for lists of these individuals. President Siddall also thanked the sponsors who donated funds for the meeting; see the Council meeting minutes for the list of sponsors.


Various abrasive devices used in conventional grain milling machinery were tried for continuous, large scale
pearling (de-branning) of sorghum (jowar). A commercial Dandekar type rice mill satisfactorily removed
husk and bran from sorghum moistened with 3-5 per cent water and conditioned for 5 to 15 min. The
pearled jowar was attractive in appearance, had low fibre content and nutrient loss during refining was low.
Bhakris (dry pan cakes) from pearled jowar flour were more acceptable than those made from whole
meal flour. Jowar semolina (soji) of mesh size (—30 to +44 BSS) could be utilised for preparation of sweet
and savoury dishes.


Abstract : This report presents an abstract process model of 'well formed' discourse. The model is based on a hierarchical segmentation of utterances into distinct, but related and linked, context spaces. Context spaces are characterized by slots similar to case frames. The slots are functionally defined and they capture information both explicit and implicit in the dialogue. In a context space theory of discourse, a conversation is viewed as a sequence of conversational moves. A conversational move corresponds to a speaker's communicative goal. 'Support,' 'Interrupt,' and 'Challenge,' are some of the communicative goals identified in the work. All conversational moves have an associated set of preconditions which specify the requisite discourse context for their appropriate performance. Conversational moves also have a set of effects on the discourse structure, and different modes of fulfillment. A major aspect of the work is to delineate the different preconditions, effects, and modes, characterizing different types of conversational moves in a discourse. It is shown that effective communication between conversants is enabled by their following a number of well-specified rules in a discourse. These rules include choice of reference to an entity under discussion and use of clue words like 'But anyway,' and 'Incidentally.'


An unconditioned stimulus in the form of "participation money" serves to keep track of students' comments during class discussions and extrinsically to reinforce their class participation behaviors. Using a longitudinal experiment to investigate the effect of the participation money stimulus on several education outcomes, the author finds that the stimulus increases the number of comments during weekly class discussions, as perceived by both instructors and students. This increased class participation has a positive effect on students' experience and perceived understanding of course material, as well as the social atmosphere during class discussions. The findings thus have important implications for marketing educators.


While several studies are conducted to identify drivers and inhibitors of Internet Banking (IB) adoption, little is known about the impact and the potential of offline corporate branding on the adoption of IB. Internet is broadly discussed as a mean of business differentiation and source of corporate branding. However it is still unclear whether the effects of the latter on consumer behavior have the same merit in the online banking context. The aim of this article is to clarify the relevancy of the corporate branding on customer behavior toward online banking. It reviews the previous results obtained until now by researchers and highlights some less explored avenues.


This paper extensively examines the role of Compulsory Licensing in the Intellectual Property regime with regard to potential COVID-19 vaccinations. In Parts I and II, the paper analyzes the concept of compulsory licensing along with its need. Part III discusses the usage of the flexibilities laid down by the TRIPS Agreement by developing nations after the adoption of the Doha Declaration. This throws light on the status quo pertaining to its implications and repercussions and further helps in determining the situation upon invoking compulsory licensing in the current pandemic scenario. Parts IV and V discusses the pre-emptive measures taken by nations by means of laying forth foundational steps and the legal procedures involved in legitimizing the issuance of these licenses for potential COVID-19 vaccines. It discusses steps taken by various nations across the world, the reasons for doing so and their current legal status pertaining to the licenses. Part VI discusses in detail the diverging views that exist primarily between the United States of America and European Union. It entails discussions regarding accessibility and affordability of potential COVID-19 vaccines in the wake of a jurisprudential analysis of the existing legal provisions relating to compulsory licenses in both provinces. Further, Part VII lays down the negative implications which may arise while invoking compulsory licenses for potential COVID- 19 vaccines. This gives a detailed view of the need for the public healthcare to undertake a balanced approach of the interests of both, the patentee and the public at large. It also lays down the importance of adequate remuneration for the pharmaceutical companies which is often overlooked. Finally, Part VIII analyses both perspectives and lays down the importance of compulsory licensing with regard to both, accessibility and affordability.


Uncertainty quantification (UQ) has received much attention in the literature in the past
decade. In this context, Sparse Polynomial chaos expansions (PCE) have been shown to be
among the most promising methods because of their ability to model highly complex models at
relatively low computational costs. A least-square minimization technique may be used to determine
the coefficients of the sparse PCE by relying on the so called experimental design (ED), i.e.
the sample points where the original computational model is evaluated. An efficient sampling
strategy is then needed to generate an accurate PCE at low computational cost. This paper is
concerned with the problem of identifying an optimal experimental design that maximizes the
accuracy of the surrogate model over the whole input space within a given computational budget.
A novel sequential adaptive strategy where the ED is enriched sequentially by capitalizing on
the sparsity of the underlying metamodel is introduced. A comparative study between several
state-of-the-art methods is performed on four numerical models with varying input dimensionality
and computational complexity. It is shown that the optimal sequential design based on the
S-value criterion yields accurate, stable and computationally efficient PCE.


experiment in which both x and y are observed for each of a number of experimental units. Two cases need to be distinguished. In what Brown calls the random case, the experimental, units in the calibration set are sampled at random from the relevant population. Then we may use the data to estimate directly the conditional distribution of y given x, e.g. by regressing y on x in some fashion. The problem becomes more interesting when the calibration experiment is designed, and in particular when the experimental units are selected on the basis of their y values. In this, the 'controlled calibration' case, the calibration data are informative about the wrong conditional distribution, that of x given y, and there is scope for agument about how to proceed, two obvious options being to go ahead and regress y on x anyway or to regress x on y and invert the resulting equation. Both the random and controlled cases are treated in this book, although there is perhaps rather more about the (more interesting) controlled case. The variations are as follows:


State supported Universities often lend a helping hand to their state by providing services which may be difficult or impossible to acquire otherwise. This presentation reviews the process of computer aided facility management with special reference to a recently completed joint venture project to fully automate Louisiana's Facility Planning and Control services.


The latest generation of geostationary satellites (Himawari 8/9, GOES-16/17, FY-4, GK-2A) carries sensors that closely mimic the spatial and spectral characteristics of widely used polar-orbiting, global monitoring sensors such as MODIS and VIIRS. When combined, data from various currently operating/planned geostationary platforms provide a geo-ring of hyper-temporal (5-10 minutes), multispectral observations at spatial resolutions as high as 500 m. These high frequency observations offer exciting new possibilities for monitoring our planet, including better retrievals of geophysical variables by overcoming cloud cover, enabling studies of diurnally varying phenomena in the atmosphere, land, and the oceans, and support operational decision-making in agriculture, hydrology and disaster management. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) team, in collaboration with scientists from JAXA, KARI, NOAA and other international institutions, created the GeoNEX (www.nasa.gov/geonex) pipeline to integrate data from all available geostationary platforms and produce and distribute spatially, temporally, and radiometrically consistent data for the earth science community. We envision various institutions adapting the Geo component (e.g., GeoNOAA, GeoKARI, GeoChiba, GeoJAXA, GeoCMA) and customizing the pipeline and downstream products to serve the local/regional research and applied science communities.


There is provided a radiographic imaging device including: a radiation source that irradiates radiation generated by inverse Compton scattering; a first grating at which first members that diffract or absorb radiation are formed side by side such that pitches thereof are larger where distances from a center position of the radiation irradiated from the radiation source are larger, the first grating diffracting or absorbing radiation irradiated from the radiation source with the first members; a second grating that is disposed at a position at which Talbot interference is produced by the radiation diffracted or absorbed by the first grating, and at which second members that absorb radiation are formed side by side such that pitches thereof are larger where distances from the center position of the radiation irradiated from the radiation source are larger; and a radiation detector that detects radiation that has passed through the second grating.


In recent years, geographic information systems (GIS) for consumers (Google Maps and Google Earth, for example) have become very popular, and many people enjoy collecting and editing memories using those media. These systems are well designed to visualize diverse geographical data, but they can not present geographical and chronological information at the same time. Some GIS systems have a chronological function, but only as animation.


Abstract : As a critical component of information dominance for Army Vision 2010, will the Army be prepared to capitalize on all the capabilities Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) can provide? This monograph answers the question by building a case in four key areas. The first section sets the stage with a synopsis of the strategic environment in which the Objective Force could operate. Specifically, the monograph addresses how MASINT affects battlespace dominance. The second section reviews MASINT definitions and the unique capabilities MASINT provides decision-makers from the national to the tactical level. To capitalize on MASINT capabilities by 2010, Army intelligence must develop a coherent transformation plan. The third section concentrates on MASINT training. The monograph identifies how the Army trains today for MASINT and assesses whether or not this training will support our efforts to capitalize on MASINT by the year 2010. The final section analyzes the research while presenting recommendations that answer the question about the Army's ability to capitalize on all MASINT capabilities by the year 2010. Recommendations include centralizing the MASINT training process, re-evaluating MASINT personnel management and developing a tenable advocacy for Army MASINT within the United States MASINT System.


1H-pyrrolo [2,3-b] pyridine compounds are inhibitors of cell proliferation / cell viability and can be used for the treatment of tumors.


The principles, construction, and operation of a versatile, orientable x‐ray diffractometer system having a position‐sensitive detector are described. The system precisely and rapidly measures Bragg scattering from very weak scatterers such as quantum crystals of helium and hydrogen held in fixed orientation at precisely controlled extreme temperatures and pressures inside fixed bulky apparatus.


The purpose of the Magnetics Qualification Program is to demonstrate the feasibility of ICCS conductors for TF and PF coils for TFCX and DCT. Conductor requirements for these projects represent an advance over LCP conductors in peak field, overall current density, and in strand-to-strand decoupling. Achievement of these advanced parameters results in significant device performance improvement and cost savings over the performance achievable with the LCP ICCS westinghouse/Airco Conductor.


People and their quality of life are at the center of China's approach to urbanization. By 2020, China aims to integrate 100 million rural migrant workers into urban life, offering them benefits such as access to jobs, schools, and healthcare. The country also plans to revamp shantytowns where around 100 million people reside and urbanize about 100 million people in China's central and western regions. This is a massive undertaking, but urbanization is not only about the numbers. Its basic principle is the importance of the roles of people and regions. The build-out of China's urban environment is an important story because it changes lives.


Objective: This article describes the development, factor structure, concurrent validity, and predictive validity of the Safe At Home instrument, a 35-item self-report measure designed for social work assessment of individuals' readiness to change their intimate partner violence behaviors. Method: Multisite data (five sites, a total of 1,359 men at intake) addressed questions concerning instrument properties. Results: Initial exploratory factor analysis identified three scales that are consistent with the early stages outlined in the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (Precontemplation, Contemplation, and Preparation/Action). Confirmatory factor analysis further supported the three-factor solution. Concurrent and predictive validity were examined on a subset of cases. Conclusions: The Safe At Home instrument has applicability for social work evaluation of batterer's treatment intervention; additional study is needed for reliable use as an individual clinical assessment tool.


Allocation to vegetative growth and sexual reproduction was investigated throughout the growing season in the dioecious sedge, Carexpicta, under natural conditions and following experimental manipulations. Measurements taken on unmanipulated plants showed that the sexes did not differ in the total amount of biomass they allocated to either growth or reproduction. The relatively equal investment in reproduction by the two sexes is contrary to other studies, the majority of which show greater investment in reproduction by females. Two features of the reproductive biology of C. picta may account for the equal investment: the fruit are relatively inexpensive because they are uniovulate and nonfleshy, and the stamens are relatively expensive because C. picta is wind pollinated. In contrast to the lack of differences in the amount of allocation, there were differences between the sexes in the timing of allocation to growth and reproduction: males allocated more to reproduction and less to growth up to the time of flowering, whereas females showed this pattern during the time of fruit maturation. Defoliation and inflorescence removal experiments showed that a trade-off within plants between growth and reproduction does exist. In addition, the defoliation experiment revealed a difference in the response of the two sexes: defoliated tillers on males showed a reduction in growth, whereas defoliated tillers on females did not. Overall, the data support the idea that differences in the timing of reproductive expenditure are as important as the amount of expenditure in determining many aspects of the life history strategies of the two sexes.


Problem Statement: Pattern Based Communication System (PBCS) aims to handle two
prominent restrictions in communication lines. These are the inefficient utilization of the bandwidth
under the spectrum limitations and sensitivity of the data transmission rate to the variation of Signal to
Noise Ratio (SNR). Approach: The key point of PBCS is to construct the optimal communication
signals, which consist of patterned data that can be recovered by the cognitive receiver, for a successful
data transmission even in low SNR and high data bit rate. Result: In this study, performance of the
PBCS is evaluated by the comparison with Matched Filtering (MF). Conclusion: This comparison
shows that transmission performance of the PBCS is higher than MF due to its dynamic and flexible
operation capability under variation of spectral conditions.


This paper presents preliminary results of the first three dimensional simulations of the Martian photochemistry. Up to now only one-dimensional models (e.g., [1], [2], [3], [4]) have generally been used to determine the vertical profiles of trace constituants in the Mars atmosphere. These models have been very useful to estimate the globally averaged distribution of chemical species as a function of height, and have emphasized the role of water vapor to explain the classical problem of the stability of the Martian CO atmosphere. However, onedimensional models cannot represent the dramatic meridional variations of the distribution of trace species caused by the usually strong pole-to-pole gradient of atmospheric temperature and water vapor. The effects of the meridional transport of chemical species are also ignored, and a highly uncertain eddy diffusion coefficient is used to represent the vertical transport and mixing. The only two-dimensional simulations published by Moreau et al. [5] provided a better description of the interaction between dynamics, radiation, and chemistry, although the model did not include a consistent representation of the water cycle nor a treatment of the dynamics near the surface where the topographical effects are important. In the present work, a new chemical model of the Martian atmosphere has been coupled to the general circulation model (GCM) developed at LMD for the last 10 years [6]. Trace constituents are tranported by the three-dimensional winds and convective processes calculated by the GCM. Their chemical evolution is computed by the chemical module as a function of the pressure and temperature fields, solar zenith angle, heliocentric distance, and the amount of water vapor, which is also affected by condensation and sublimation processes. The evolution of the chemical species is therefore computed in three dimensions over the Martian globe and is fully interactive with the GCM dynamics, radiation field, and water cycle. Presently, we use a rather low horizontal resolution ( Æ Æ), with 32 vertical layers, from the surface up to 120 km.


ABSTRACTThis paper considers the value of diatoms as a diagnostic tool for death by drowning, both through a review of the literature, and through practical work on samples from 45 Coroner cases in British Columbia. When interpreted in the light of knowledge regarding diatom content of the control water, and with as much information regarding the alleged drowning as is available, the diatom content of post-mortem samples can provide valuable corroborative evidence as to the cause of death.


This work is conducted with the aim of using waste material to reserve the natural resources. The objective is accomplished by conducting experimentation and verify by modeling based on fuzzy logic. In experimentation, concrete is casted by using natural/river sand as fine aggregate and termed as control specimen. Natural sand is conserved by replacing it with used foundry sand (UFS) by an amount of 10, 20 and 30% by weight. Fresh and hardened properties of concrete are investigated at different ages. It is observed that compressive strength and modulus of elasticity reduced with the increase in amount of UFS. Furthermore, concrete compressive strength is predicted by using fuzzy logic model and verified at different replacement ratio and age with experimental observations.


Oleyalmine capped Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) nanoparticles were synthesized by the colloidal method at 240 °C. 1-dodecanethiol (1-DDT), which releases sulfur atoms at high refluxing temperatures, is used as a sulfur source. It was observed that at high temperatures (over 150 °C) 1-DDT decomposes and releases sulfur atoms that combine with selenide ions. The resultant CZTSSe powder was homogenously dispersed in chloroform. Formation of the kesterite structure was identified through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis which could be tuned to stannite on the basis of the ratio of S/Se. Attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared (ATR–FTIR) analysis clearly shows the presence of oleylamine on the surface of the nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analyses indicate the formation of 10–20 nm nearly spherical particles with agglomeration. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) analysis further confirms the presence of sulfur in addition to Cu, Zn, Sn, and Se.


This paper presents an efficient method for reducinglosses in existing LT- distribution system.The study is based on a real distribution Monroe feeder in Tamilnadu state. In this study, main focus is given on the reduction of distribution losses by converting "LT distribution system" to "LT- Less distribution system". Under this proposed LT- Less distribution system; power is distributed mainly through HT (11 KV) lines with small rating distribution transformers. This paper presents the comparison of existing LT- distribution system with proposed LT-Less distribution system in terms of losses. In this paper, a program under ETAP is designed to calculate power losses (I2R loses) in the both existing LT-distribution system and proposed LT- Less distribution system.Moreover,the calculation of reduction in losses, annual savings and payback period of the proposed method has been done by using programming in ETAP.


In today"s technological era, many technologies are evolving day by day. One such promising concept is HumanMachine Interface. For example, in a wired mouse there is no provision to extend limit. In wireless mouse, one should have Bluetooth hardware installed in the computer and Bluetooth dongle attached. The proposed technology will have no such limitations and will instead depend on gesture recognition. In this project, three technologies are mainly used: object detection, image processing and color recognition using "Sixth sense technology". Sixth sense technology is a set of wearable devices that acts as a gestural interface between the physical and digital world. The aim is to move the mouse cursor on the screen without using hardware such as a mouse and only by moving the cursor through finger movements i.e. the process of gesture recognition. In this paper, we present a novel approach for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) where cursor movement is controlled using a real-time camera.


This article seeks to explain how the APP, in terms of management and administration in the projects, can contribute positively to make the hiring process free of corruption, encouraging the proper use of public resources, quality of construction and mainly aim at the common wealth.


The utility model discloses an integrated device for the treatment of high density sewage, which belongs to an organic sewage processing device, comprising five technology processing bonds of an upwards flowing anaerobic reaction pond UASB, a buffer pond, a submerged type contact oxidation filtering pond, an iron biological method aeration bond and a sedimentation pond. The utility model can process the organic sewage whose concentration is BOD=1000-10000 mg/1 and efficiency is 10 kg BOD/m day. The utility model realizes the integral structure of five bonds, and the sewerage after being processed can reach the national standard of discharge. The integrated device for the treatment of high density sewage with the advantages of simple structure, small size and convenient operation can be used to process the sewerage discharged by departments of printing, food, wine brewage, wool wash, hospitals, etc.


Abstract The rigorous mode-matching technique combined with point matching is used in this article to find the dispersion curve of the traveling wave in a 1-D strip grating backed by a grounded homogeneous dielectric substrate. The strips are assumed to be infinitely thin. Unlike regular mode matching, a simple sub-domain orthogonal set is used in order to convert the algebraic equations obtained from boundary conditions into a matrix format. There is a good agreement between the results obtained using the proposed method and what was reported in the previous literature.


ABSTRACT Local industrial complexes have recognizable patterns of location. They are groups of industries which have production interrelationships and which are geographically associated at the urban scale. Their existence is attributed to agglomeration economies in general and those gained by juxtaposing linked industries in particular. A case study of the Province of Ontario, Canada, shows that local industrial complexes are most prevalent in large towns and in towns located at the center of the provincial space economy. Certain types of complex are absent from peripheral regions and from smaller towns. These geographical regularities suggest that complexes should be used very selectively as a policy instrument to develop depressed areas.


As the complexity and ubiquity of software grows, it becomes more and more important for software engineers to produce robust and verified designs. Two types of languages are available for building design models: Semi-formal languages, such as UML, and formal languages, such as Petri nets. Semi-formal notations tend to be easier to use and understand but do not support formal analysis; formal languages naturally support formal analysis but tend to be more difficult to understand and require special expertise to use. My research has focused on developing a transformation approach aimed at profiting from both types of languages. This approach is based on mapping UML statechart diagrams, which capture the behavior of an object over its life cycle, into colored Petri net (CPN) notation. This framework has the advantage of exploiting the mature theory and tools for Petri nets and essentially hiding these details from the end-user. A prototype toolkit has been developed to automate the transformation from UML statecharts to colored Petri nets, and to provide interfaces to help users reason about the model's behavior. In this talk, I will highlight some of the key issues that arise in the net model generation, including techniques for modeling the implied semantics associated with composite states. I will also present different techniques for analyzing simulation results.


We present an algorithm that speeds exponentiation on a general elliptic curve by an estimated 3.8% to 8.5% over the best known general exponentiation methods when using affine coordinates. This is achieved by eliminating a field multiplication when we compute 2P + Q from given points P , Q on the curve. We give applications to simultaneous multiple exponentiation and to the Elliptic Curve Method of factorization. We show how this improvement together with another idea can speed the computation of the Weil and Tate pairings by up to 7.8%.


The right tool applied in the right situation can make a significant contribution to the efficiency and effectiveness of an investigation. This paper presents an overview of tools and their uses from contrasting perspectives. Tools such as sequencing methods, root cause analysis and methods for hypothesis formation, can fulfil a number of roles within investigation. These include facilitating teamwork, assisting with the communication of findings, aiding the transparency of an investigation and assisting the management of complex investigations. Tools add to the confidence of stakeholders in an investigation and to its efficiency. As each tool has a distinctive function and range of application, rather than "one-size-fits-all", a toolkit approach is advocated. For example, sequencing tools can help by allowing investigators to build an externalised model of the events under inquiry that helps direct inquiries to areas of uncertainty. Root cause methods can improve the quality of investigation by ensuring breadth of scope and depth of inquiry. However, the benefits of using tools are far from automatic. INTRODUCTION The Noordwijk Risk Initiative Foundation exists to further understanding and sharing of knowledge in the field of risk management. Because we believe that a virtuous circle exists between making tools and developing theoretical understanding, the Foundation develops tools for risk management and maintains them in the public domain. A first issue for discussion is the application of the word "tool" to analytical methods and procedures. We use tool to convey the same meaning as when the word is applied to, say, a mechanical tool; in both cases an instrument which conveys some advantage to its user in the execution of a task. A number of issues flow from the analogy between mechanical and 'methodological' tools: the design considerations for tools and the types of benefit derived from using them are two that we shall explore in this paper. As is true of tools in general, many factors determine performance and inform selection, not just the characteristics of the tool itself. Figure 1 summarises these factors in four groups: the characteristics of people using or choosing the tool or its product; the investigation task in hand, and; the wider social and technical context of the investigation. Each of these factors interacts with the others and so the lines in figure 1 can be regarded as interfaces. Hence, the obvious point that different tasks require different tools and the rather more subtle suggestion that diversity in the population needs to be accommodated by variety in – and flexibility of – the tools available. In all cases, "one size fits all" does not apply to investigative tools. Task To ol Cntext People Figure 1. Factors relevant to the selection of an investigation tool


Landak Regency in the province of West Kalimantan is rich in beautiful natural tourist attractions. Limited human resources and lack of infrastructure affect the development needed to manage those places properly. However, Landak has 12 communities that support local tourism, known as Kelompok Sadar Wisata (Pokdarwis), in each subdistrict. They are to be good beginning pioneers to manage the local tourist attractions. Helping them, STKIP Pamane Talino in collaboration with Dinas Pemuda Olahraga dan Pariwisata Landak (Disporapar) provide them training on how to be a good tour guide as our community service. They are expected to have more skills and knowledge to recognize and develop any gift and potential in their village. They will be the leader of their Pokdarwis. The implementation of this community service has been done through several stages: taking surveys, interviewing residents and community leaders, training on Sapta Pesona and tour guide, and preparing the final report. This activity results in the growth of public awareness, especially among members of the Pokdarwis, in developing and maintaining local tourist attractions.


The Village Indigobird is a species primarily known to parasitize nests of Red-billed Firefinch (Tarboton 2001). The confirmed sightings were from the Okavango Delta approximately 600 km northeast of Windhoek. However, no records of Village Indigobird actually parasitizing Red-billed Firefinch have previous been confirmed.


We elicited autonomic hyperreflexia with percussion of bladder on patients with spinal cord injury(10 with cervical spinal cord injury and 10 with thoraco lumbar spinal cord injury).Before and during percussion of bladder,the NE in plasma were measured.The results showed that percussion of bladder could cause the rise of NE in plasma.And the rise of NE in plasma of patients with cervical spinal cord injury was much higher.The mechanism of autonomic hyperreflexia of the change in NE in patients' plasma is discussed.


Sixteen Debouillet wether lambs (approximately 3 mo old) were placed indoors in 1.5- x 3-m pens (14 h light:10 h dark) 28 d after weaning. Lambs received no implant or a 12-mg zeranol implant on d-2 (eight lambs/group). Two days later (d 0), animals received either 0 or 2.5 mg ovine growth hormone (oGH, eight lambs/group) s.c. on alternate days for 42 d. Animals had ad libitum access to water, salt, mineral and a pelleted alfalfa diet (16% CP). After 42 d, lambs were slaughtered to evaluate carcass traits, organ weights and femur characteristics. Zeranol by oGH interactions were not detected (P greater than .20). Zeranol increased (P less than .05) BW, improved (P less than .05) feed:gain during the first 20 d and increased (P less than .10) feed intake during the last 22 d of the 42-d trial compared with controls. Carcass characteristics were not altered (P greater than .10) by 12 mg zeranol. Serum insulin and prolactin were elevated (P less than .05), but serum GH was not influenced by zeranol compared with controls. Exogenous oGH decreased feed intake (P less than .10) and improved feed:gain (P less than .05) during the initial 20 d compared with controls, but did not influence (P greater than .20) these variables during the last 22 d of the study. Carcass traits were not influenced (P greater than .10) by oGH. Exogenous ovine GH dramatically elevated (P less than .05) serum GH, but did not affect serum insulin or prolactin (P greater than .10).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The utility model discloses a multifunctional dense-hole highway side slope drainage structure for both sides of the highway. The multifunctional dense-hole highway side slope drainage structure comprises water stop zones arranged on the two sides of the road; drain pipes embedded in the side slopes are arranged on the water stop zones; the upper end of each drain pipe penetrates through the water stop zone, while the lower end is inclined downwards and connected with a side ditch; and a valve is arranged at the lower end of each drain pipe and water seepage holes are formed on the sidewalls of the drain pipe. The multifunctional dense-hole highway side slope drainage structure has the advantages of both centralized drainage and scattered drainage and overcomes the shortcomings of the two existing drainage ways; the drainage structure is capable of guaranteeing that rainfall can be drained thoroughly to avoid ponding on the pavement of the road, and also capable of not flushing the side slope; therefore, the highway is protected and the service life of the highway is prolonged; besides, green plants on the side slop can be irrigated through cooperation of the valves and the water seepage holes; and huge potential safety hazards existing in watering irrigation are avoided, and traffic accidents caused by lots of watering carts needed for watering the plants on the side slope in dry seasons also can be avoided.


Objective To compare the effect of Ropivacaine and Bupivacaine used in labor combined Spinal-epidural analgesia(CSEA)and its influence on labor course.Methods 90 full term primigravida in active labor who had a single fetus with vertex presentation and were expected to have vaginal delivery were randomly divided into three groups of 30 each:Group A was Ropivacaine group,intrathecal 0.1% Ropivacaine 2.5mg and extradural 0.1% Ropivacaine plus 2μg/ml Fentanyl ;Group B was Bupivacaine group,intrathecal 0.1% Bupivacaine 2.5mg and extradural 0.1% Bupivacaine plus 2μg/ml Fentanyl ;Group C received no analgesia and served as control.All drugs were stopped at the beginning of second stage.Maternal vital signs(BP,ECG,RR,SpO2),VAS scores,degree of motor block,progress of labor,delivery way,usage of oxytocin and Apgar scores were noted.Results Both group A and group B showed good pain relief..Unassisted walking and spontaneous micturition were observed in 96.7% parturients of group A but only in 60% parturients of group B.The second stage of delivery were longer in group A and group B than that in group C.There were no significant differences in Apgar scores,delivery way and usage of oxytocin among the three groups.Conclusion Combined Spinal-epidural analgesia was safe and effective.0.1% Ropivacaine combined with Fentanyl 2 μg/ml is more suitable for analgesia in labor.


Independent College as a type of higher education not only shares some similarities with public universities,but also has its own distinctive features.Independent College must stick to its characteristics and achieve sustainable development.The diversity in personnel training patterns is a practical way of the sustainable development of independent college.The construction of scientific and efficient quality control of teaching methods is the fundamental guarantee of the sustainable development for independent college.


Circumambulatory rearrangements of dithioacyloxy groups around the cyclopentadiene ring have been found to occur by a 3,3-sigmatropic shift (hetero-Cope) mechanism with energy barriers in the range of 24–30 kcal mol–1.


For X a ringed space, we denote by K(OX) the homotopy category of all OX-modules, and by D(OX) the derived category of all OX-modules. If X is a scheme, then we denote by K(QX) the homotopy category of all quasi-coherent OX-modules, and by D(QX) the derived category of all quasi-coherent OX-modules. We will often use tacitly that for all qcqs schemes X, the category D(QX) is equivalent to Dqc(OX). This is Corollary 5.5 of [1], with Remark 5.6 replaced by qcqs induction to obtain the stronger statement.


Tough and responsive hydrogels have recently attracted great research interests for potential applications in artifical muscles, soft robotics, and actuators, etc. This paper overviews our recent progresses in the design and synthesis of hydrogels with very high strength and toughness, and actuators based on these hydrogels. Inorganic nanospheres, nanorods, and nanosheets are exploited as multi-functional crosslinkers to adsorb or bond with hydrophilic chains, leading to hydrogels with very high strength, toughness, fatigue resistance, and/or self-healing. Introduction of functional groups including ionic monomers and amino groups results in hydrogels reponsive to pH, ionic strength and electric field. Besides, ionoprinting has been used to change local crosslink density based on reversible chelating/decomposition of metal ions with functional groups. This process is rapid and thus enables reversible and rapid actuation of hydrogel devices. Our studies will further aim to develop sophiscated devices by assembling hydrogel actuators.


M-shell x-ray production cross sections for thorium and uranium have been determined for protons of energies 0.4–4.0 MeV and helium ions of energies 0.4–6.0 MeV. The M-shell line and total M-shell x-ray production cross sections are compared to the predictions of the first Born approximation and ECUSAR ionization theory using recently recommended atomic parameters. Both theories are in good agreement with the data for protons and He ions above 1 MeV. The data of others for energies above 1 MeV protons on uranium, however, fall significantly under the present measurements. Below 1 MeV, with decreasing energy of these projectiles, the first Born approximation increasingly overestimates our measurements while the ECUSAR theory underestimates them to a similar degree. The same trends are seen versus the data of others.


We demonstrate a stable high-Q microring resonator (MRR)-based pulsed laser source with adjustable repetition rate from 49 to 735 GHz, corresponds to repetition rate multiplication of up to 15× the free spectral range (FSR) of the MRR. The repetition rate multiplication is realized by temporal multiplexing multiple pulses in the MRR through simply tuning of the fiber cavity length. Thus, the repetition rate of the pulsed laser source breaks the frequency limitation of the previous dissipative four wave mixing based mode locked lasers whose repetition rate is equal to the FSR of the built in comb filter. This high quality chip-based repetition rate multiplicable pulsed laser source is an effective approach to on-chip ultrahigh speed optical clock frequency multiplication systems.


Augmented Reality (AR) has become a popular technology in museums, and many venues now provide AR applications inside gallery spaces. To improve museum tour experiences, we have developed an embodied agent AR guide system that aims to explain multi-section detailed information hidden in the painting. In this paper, we investigate the effect of different types of guiding interfaces that use this type of embodied agent when explaining large scale artwork. Our interfaces include two types of guiding positions: inside and outside the artwork area, and two types of agent movements: teleporting and flying. To test these interfaces, we conducted a within-subjects experiment to test Inside-Teleport, Inside-Flying, Outside-Teleport, and OutsideFlying with 28 participants. Results indicated that although the Inside-Flying interface often obstructed the painting, most of the participants preferred this type since it was perceived as natural and helped users find corresponding art details more easily. CCS Concepts • Human-centered computing → HCI design and evaluation methods; • Computing methodologies → Mixed / augmented


Currently, work on the automation of vibration diagnosis is mainly based on indicators extracted from the Time Sampled Acceleration signals (TSA). There are other much more attractive alternatives such as those based on angle synchronized measurement which can provide a considerable number of more relevant and diverse indicators and, thus, lead to better performance in classification. The diversity of angular measurements (Instantaneous Angular Speed (IAS), Transmission Error (TE) and Angular Sampled Acceleration (ASA)) represents all potential sources of relevant information in fault detection and diagnosis systems, but also to construct Pattern Vector (PV) to make the methods of classification robust and effective even for different running speed or load conditions. In this paper, we propose to build several PVs based on indicators derived from the angular techniques to compare them to the one calculated from the time signals, in order to improve the detection and identification of gear defects. It will be a question to demonstrate the effectiveness of angular indicators in increasing performance of the classification, using a supervised classifier based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs): The Multilayer Perceptron (MLP).


Abstract: Long‐term treatment of NCB‐20 cells with sodium butyrate resulted in a marked increase in the specific binding of [3H]d‐Ala2, d‐Leu5 enkephalin. This increase wm concentration and time dependent, with an EC50 of about 480 μM and a maximal effect detected after 3‐day treatment. At saturating concentration of butyrate (1 mM) the increase was three‐ to fourfold of the untreated control. Scatchard analysis revealed that the butyrate effect was due to an increase in the density of the opioid receptor binding sites. Butyrate also induced a smaller (about twofold) increase in the density of muscarinic cholinergic receptor binding assessed by using [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate, whereas α2‐adrenergic receptor binding assessed by using [3H]clonidine was not significantly affected. The butyrate‐induced opioid receptor binding could be totally abolished by the presence of cycloheximide, suggesting that the butyrate effect involves synthesis of the receptor protein. Butyrate treatment did not affect basal and prostaglandin E1‐stimulated cyclic AMP levels but caused a three‐ to fourfold decrease in the IC50 of d‐Ala2, d‐Leu5 enkephalin for attenuating these cyclic AMP levels and approximately 25% increase in the maximal extent of attenuation. In contrast to the butyrate effect, long‐term treatment of NCB‐20 cells with 1 mM dibutyryl cyclic AMP induced an 80% decrease in the opioid and α2‐adrenergic receptor bindings and a 57% loss of muscarinic cholinergic receptor binding. This down‐regulation of muscarinic cholinergic receptor binding sites was associated with a 35% decrease of carbachol‐induced phosphoinositide breakdown, whereas the receptor upregulation induced by butyrate was found to increase the carbachol response by about threefold. The differential regulation by butyrate and dibutyryl cyclic AMP suggests that the butyrate effect is mediated by a mechanism independent of intracellular cyclic AMP. The induction by butyrate of opioid receptors and muscarinic cholinergic receptors in NCB‐20 cells may provide a useful system for studying the regulation of gene expression of these receptor proteins.


The invention relates to an infrared light detector, comprising at least one sensor chip (3, 4), which has a layer element (5, 8) that is produced from a pyroelectrically sensitive material and further has a base electrode (6, 9) and a head electrode (7, 10), to which the layer element (5, 8) is connected for tapping electric signals generated in the layer element (5, 8) by irradiation of the at least one sensor chip with light (2), and further comprising a transimpedance amplifier (11, 12) for amplifying the signals with an operational amplifier (19, 25), which is asymmetrically operated by a supply voltage source (13) having a positive supply voltage and to the inverting input (21, 27) of which the base electrode (6, 9) is connected. At the voltage supply source (13), a voltage divider (15) that is connected to ground (14) is provided with a partial node (18), to which a partial voltage that is smaller than the supply voltage is applied and which is electrically coupled to the non-inverting input (20, 26) and the head electrode (7, 10).


Statistical analysis of social networks provides valuable insights into complex network interactions across various scientific disciplines. However, accurate modeling of networks remains challenging due to the heavy computational burden and the need to account for observed network dependencies. Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) have emerged as a promising technique used in social network modeling to capture network dependencies by incorporating endogenous variables. Nevertheless, using ERGMs poses multiple challenges, including the occurrence of ERGM degeneracy, which generates unrealistic and meaningless network structures. To address these challenges and enhance the modeling of collaboration networks, we propose and test a novel approach that focuses on endogenous variable selection within ERGMs. Our method aims to overcome the computational burden and improve the accommodation of observed network dependencies, thereby facilitating more accurate and meaningful interpretations of network phenomena in various scientific fields. We conduct empirical testing and rigorous analysis to contribute to the advancement of statistical techniques and offer practical insights for network analysis.


NASA Langley has been developing the High-Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) as a multi-function lidar and testbed to advance the technology needed for airborne and space-based measurements of methane and other gases. These measurements have been identified in the 2018 Earth Science Decadal Survey as a candidate for Explorer class space-based measurements. A laser transmitter capable of generating the online and offline wavelengths needed for the differential absorption lidar (DIAL) measurements of methane is key component of the HALO system.
Fibertek has recently developed the required single-frequency laser transmitter operating in the 1645 nm region for methane measurements. It incorporates the pumping of a seeded optical parametric oscillator with a kHz class single-frequency 1064 nm pump laser. The fielded system can generate 1645 nm seeded output of 2 mJ/pulse at 1 kHz. The laser has been successfully incorporated into the HALO system and used in airborne field measurements. We will discuss the design and performance of this laser and the lessons learned from our development activities.


We apply the methods developed in our previous work to study holomorphic functions of slow growth on coverings of pseudoconvex domains in Stein manifolds. In particular, we extend and strengthen certain results of Gromov, Henkin and Shubin on holomorphic $L^{2}$ functions on coverings of pseudoconvex manifolds in the case of coverings of Stein manifolds.


The paper examines the present fintech ecosystem in India in general and assesses the efficiency of fintech firms operating in lending and payment verticals. Twelve companies were randomly selected from the top-rated fintech companies in India having an operational track record of four years and more. Financial data of these firms for three years (from 2017-2020) was used for evaluating the efficiency by applying the DEA model. The results indicate that 42 percent of the companies were unable to achieve profitability. The interest obligation (36%) on short-term borrowings which constitute 68 percent of current liabilities is the major contributor to the operating cost of lending firms. Companies from payment verticals are less homogeneous in their component-wise distribution of operating cost. The current ratio of two DMUs is excessively higher while it is below the benchmark for the other six DMUs. To make the fintech a revenue generating model by scaling up their operation, this study suggests the business areas where fintech firms could collaborate with traditional financial institutions.


Sexual violence in adult correctional facilities led to the enactment of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act as one approach to reducing this form of institutional violence. The current study examined collective bargaining agreements governing correctional agencies to identify impediments that may impact administrators' responses to sexual violence, specifically in instances of allegations of staff–inmate sexual misconduct. In addition, structured interviews and focus groups with correctional administrators and labor representatives were used to develop policy recommendations. Contract language and interview participants demonstrated that a myriad of cultural and structural characteristics of prisons as well as pragmatic considerations may serve to inhibit the implementation of some policy changes. Interview participants identified several insights about contemporary prison settings and modifications that may aid in reducing some forms of institutional violence.


We have previously shown that the effect of a glare source on the detection of simple discs of light depends strongly on the temporal relations between the glare and test sources: thresholds are much higher immediately after the onset of glare and decline to a steady light-adapted level (Figure 1). In addition, these effects are greater when the detection stimulus is in the periphery rather than the fovea (Bichao, Yager, and Meng, 1995; Bichao, Meng, and Yager, 1995).


This article shows the process of designing a system of workbenches for laboratory practices oriented to virtual environments by using remote instrumentation techniques.. The process was linked to a Research process in an Instrumentation Research Seeder in the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, Colombian University. The document also presents the design process from the concept generation and Embodiment Design to the construction of a Basic Electronics Functional Prototype, including a remote access, and a trainer. One of the most important conclusion of the project points to the fact that the Remote Laboratories system is a very powerful didactic tool, not only in Virtual Education Processes, but also it will be used in a lot of academic environments.


The use of compacted stabilized earth blocks (CSEB) in load bearing masonry is largely developed during the last decades. This paper reports on an experimental study of the chemical and mechanical stabilization effects on the compressive strength of earth blocks and triplet/walls. The blocks prepared with a high sandy soil mixed with rising cement and/or lime contents and compacted at 7 MPa, are tested in uniaxial compression. The triplet and walls built with these CSEB units were joined with a cement/earth mortar. Static uniaxial compression tests have been performed on samples of small triplets/walls made of CSEB. The results show that the compressive strength values of earth blocks treated with stabilisers were generally increased by rising the additive content. The increase of earth/cement blocks resistances was found more marked in comparison with those of earth/lime. It was also observed that the blocks prepared with an optimal content of lime along with cement have led to continuous increases of mechanical strength up to values greater than 5MPa. The relationship between the blocks and triplets compressive strengths as function of stabilizer content (cement/lime) is linear. In the range of cement content from 6 to 8 %, the compressive strength of triplets are respectively 16 %and 20 % higher than those of walls.


The invention relates to the field of oil exploitation, in particular to a detection experiment device for the depth of leakage points. The detection experiment device comprises a sand adding control system, a detection system, a data collecting and processing system and a gas-liquid supply system, wherein the detection system and the gas-liquid supply system are installed at the two ends of the sand adding control system through high-pressure pipelines; the detection system and the sand adding control system are provided with detection points for hanging sensors for data transmission; the data collecting and processing system collects and processes information through the sensors installed on the sand adding control system and the detection system. The detection experiment device can be used for experimentally measuring the positions of the leakage points of pipelines with different fluid types, sizes of the leakage points and sand diameters of vertical or inclined pipe sections, and provides a technological means for exploring the positions of the leakage points of oil and gas wells for laboratories.