ABSTRACT Activation of platelets by exposed collagen after vessel wall injury is a primary event in the pathogenesis of stroke and myocardial infarction. Two collagen receptors, integrin α2β1 and glycoprotein VI (GPVI), are expressed at similar levels on human and mouse platelets, but their individual roles during collagen activation remain poorly defined. Recent genetic and pharmacologic experiments have revealed an essential role for GPVI but have failed to define the role of α2β1 or explain how two structurally distinct collagen receptors might function together to mediate platelet collagen responses. Discriminating the roles of these two collagen receptors is complicated by evidence suggesting that GPVI and platelet integrins may activate a common intracellular signaling pathway. To determine how α2β1 and GPVI activate platelets in response to collagen, we have (i) examined collagen signaling conferred by expression of these receptors in hematopoietic cell lines; (ii) determined the effect of blocking each receptor on the activation of human platelets by collagen; (iii) generated low-GPVI mice in which the α2β1/GPVI receptor ratio has been altered from 1:1 to 50:1 to expose α2β1 function; (iv) studied the collagen responses of mouse platelets lacking LAT, an adaptor protein critical for GPVI but not integrin signaling; and (v) addressed the mechanism by which soluble collagens activate wild-type platelets. These studies demonstrate that α2β1 requires inside-out signals to participate in collagen signaling and that α2β1 is required for collagen activation of platelets when GPVI signals are reduced by blocking anti-GPVI antibody, low receptor number, specific disruption of the GPVI signaling pathway, or forms of collagen that bind weakly to GPVI relative to α2β1. We propose a reciprocal two-receptor model of collagen signaling in platelets in which the nonintegrin receptor GPVI provides the primary collagen signal that activates and recruits the integrin receptor α2β1 to further amplify collagen signals and fully activate platelets through a common intracellular signaling pathway. This model explains many of the genetic and pharmacologic observations regarding collagen signaling in platelets and demonstrates a novel mechanism by which hematopoietic cells integrate signaling by structurally distinct receptors that share a common ligand.


The present case highlights a potential pitfall in assessing mitral regurgitation severity due to the presence of similar colored prominent pulmonary vein signals in the left atrium during color Doppler examination.


death. During the final hours of survival, however, the condition of the animals presents a picture similar to hemorrhagic shock, suggesting that a rapid depletion in blood volume may in fact be the main cause of death. Therefore an attempt has been made in the present study to determine blood volume during the period (10 hours prior to death) when the circulation appears to be undergoing rapid deterioration. In the preceding investigation withdrawal of blood samples on the second and third postirradiation days contributed to the blood volume deficit. In order to eliminate this complication in evaluating the blood volume changes in the terminal stages, only two measurements were made in the present study, one prior to radiation and one within 10 hours before death.


The proposition, "beauty as the symbol ot morality", shows Kant" s ideal ot establishing his critical philosophy system, that humanity tends towards freedom through taste from nature . It is also the inside clue penetrating . "The Critique of Judgement" . The article tries to discover the relation between beauty and morality in two respects about the taste and forms of beauty, and analyses the meaning of symbol connecting examples and schemata , on the base of discussing the relation between beauty and nature .


We report for the first time the chromosome number and karyological characteristics of the endangered European freshwater crayfish genus Austropotamobius (Decapoda, Astacidae). The karyotypes of the white-clawed crayfish ( Austropotamobius pallipes species complex) and of the stone crayfish ( A. torrentium ) consisted of 2 n = 176 chromosomes arranged into 76 metacentric, 11 metacentric-submetacentric, and one heteromorphic acrocentric/metacentric chromosome pair. Fluorochrome staining with 4,6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) revealed distinctive centromeric/pericentromeric as well as interstitial AT-rich blocks in A. pallipes and A. torrentium . Centromeric/pericentromeric AT-rich blocks were observed on all chromosomes, whereas interstitial AT-rich blocks were observed on some chromosomes, mostly on the larger ones. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with the 45S rDNA probe on mitotic metaphases of A. pallipes and A. torrentium have revealed four major Texas-red signals, corresponding to four sites of 45S rDNA. One of the two 45S rDNA-bearing chromosome pairs was highly heteromorphic, considering the length of chromosomes as well as the size and intensity of 45S rDNA FISH signal. We speculate that the heteromorphic chromosome pair might represents X and Y sex chromosomes, suggesting the presence of XX-XY sex determination system in the A. pallipes species complex and A. torrentium .


In this paper, three new confidence intervals for the location parameter of skew normal family with known coefficient of variation and skewness are established. Corresponding with these new intervals, three confidence intervals with shortest lengths are obtained also. Monto Carlo simulations of these confidence intervals are discussed towards their coverage probabilities and average lengths. Finally, comparisons of these estimation methods are studied.


Based on the analysis of the meaning of work and the function of grassroots coaches human resources management,added with work status,occupation analysis function and nature of its work,content analysis,the results showed that: currently work analysis of grassroots coaches in the human resources management is a lack,not the guidance for the follow-up work of human resource management;coaches in real work process play a variety of roles of occupation;coaches work with dynamic characteristics,means diversity,and work process is complex,work output has lagged behind;coaches' work besides sports training and sports competition includes communications with parents,athletes' culture class teachers,school administrators,other sports school coaches and managers for athletes,in order to ensure the smooth running of enrollment,athletes' cultural course learning supervision


Let R be a ring. By the notation [R,R] we denote the additive subgroup of R generated by all [a,b] = ab − ba in R. In this work, we partially generalize a result due to Herstein [I. N. Herstein, To...


Quality of meat and meat products by two oxidative processes is affected. The two processes are lipid peroxidation and myoglobin oxidation. To delay oxidative processes, in meat and meat products are added compounds with antioxidant activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity of (±)-catechin, quercetin, and gallic acid, on oxidative processes in minced pork, comparatively with ascorbic acid in the same concentration. The ability of antioxidants to reduce DPPH• and to chelate Fe (II) were determinated. Minced pork samples separately with the chemicals were treated. The treated samples with antioxidants were preserved for seven days at refrigeration temperature. Myoglobin, oxymyoglobin, metmyoglobin concentrations, peroxide value, conjugated dienes and trienes levels and TBARS value were determined. Polyphenols have showed important hydrogen radical donator and iron chelator activity, higher as ascorbic acid activities. All antioxidants were effective in myoglobin oxidation and lipid peroxidation inhibition on minced pork, but the three polyphenols ((±)-catechin, quercetin, and gallic acid) protected better myoglobin than ascorbic acid as showed the results.


We present a quantitative analysis of sexual dimorphism and geographic variation in the skull of Myotis nigricans (Schinz, 1821) assessed by traditional and geometric morphometrics. In the traditional morphometrics, differences in size of skulls were analyzed using ten linear measurements of the skull and one from forearm. Differences in size and shape were investigated applying geometric morphometrics techniques to two-dimensional images of lateral and ventral views, in which 30 landmarks were ploted. Results of traditional and geometric morphometrics revealed sexual dimorphism only in size of the skull. Females were larger than males, in five skull measurements and in the forearm length. Geographic variation was evident in size and shape of the skull. Southern Brazilian specimens were larger than Ceará specimens in five skull measurements and also in the forearm length. Differences in shape of the skull were statistically significant. Deformation grids present changes in the skull shape, mainly related to lateral view.


Public health practitioners can effectively use traditional musical dance drama interventions to bring changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among people in regions with high illiteracy and poverty. These interventions can also be particularly useful in regions where more conventional health service technologies are too expensive to implement.


This paper endeavours to capture the broad configuration of demographic
evolution of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada from the early contacts with
Europeans to the present. The main stages thereof are identified and the
underlying factors explored, against the historical background of Aboriginal
and European civilisations' encounter. While taking stock of the past, the paper takes a glimpse into the future. It concludes with a review of demographically-driven policy issues that the First Nations are likely to confront as they step into the 21s Century.


The breakdown mechanism of dielectrically isolated lateral high voltage p-i-n devices fabricated on thick-film BESOI are examined under different conditions. The distribution of electrical equipotential is obtained by numerical simulations. The approaches to improve the breakdown voltage are presented in terms of germetry and isolation groove bias voltage of the devices.


This article aims to describe the experiences and development in confidence which Emily Brontë gained by her stay at Law Hill, which Charlotte suppressed. Various authors have suggested that this was a crucial period in her life. Hilda Marsden thought Wuthering Heights was 'born out of intense love for some special point of earth [Shibden and High Sunderland]'. Romer Wilson wrote, 'Something very serious befell Emily'. Ernest Raymond said, 'Emily may have experienced a passionate love' at Law Hill. The following matters will be considered in this article: (a) Emily's positive relations with some children and adults at Law Hill; (b) the educational practices and circle of acquaintance of the school's head; (c) the social background of the pupils, daughters of tradesmen, not the gentry; (d) a means by which Emily could visit High Sunderland; (e) Emily's only recorded adult friendship beyond her family. It also attempts to suggest why Charlotte airbrushed Law Hill from the record.


Objective To evaluate the efficacy,safety and feasibility of retroperitoneal laparoscopic decortication for the treatment of renal cysts by ultrasonic scalpel.Methods Data of 34 patients who underwent laparoscopic decortication of simple renal cysts,performed with ultrasonic scalpel,were retrospectively reviewed.Results All the operations were successfully accomplished in the 34 patients.43 cysts in the left,48 cysts in the right.The mean operative time was 37.28±0.45 min.The mean intraoperative blood loss was 7.18±0.53 ml.Unilateral peritoneal injury occurred in two patients.The mean hospital stay was 8.97±0.12 days,and mean postoperative hospital stay was 4.90±0.07 days.Conclusion One-stage retroperitoneal laparoscopy for renal cysts by ultrasonic scalpel was a feasible,safe and efficient method.


Misalignment caused by poorly detected bounding boxes or varying poses of human bodies is a critical challenge to robust person re-identification (re-ID) systems. Most previous works extract features either from the detected entire pedestrian images or from local image patches that are globally aligned or cropped according to human body landmarks. However, these methods still suffer from misalignment ofhuman bodies in different images. In this paper, we present a Deep Joint Learning (DJL) network to fulfill misalignment robust person re-ID. It locally aligns the human bodies by pooling the features around the body parts on feature maps, and jointly optimizes the global and aligned local features to further enhance the discriminative capability oflearned feature representations. Experimental results on Market-1501 and CUHK03 datasets show that our method can effectively handle the misalignment induced intra-class variations and yield competitive accuracy particularly on poorly aligned pedestrian images.


Platinum films have been deposited by dc sputtering in an argon discharge, using plane parallel electrodes. The system was used either for diode sputtering or, by addition of a heated filament, for triode sputtering with the same geometry. Both configurations were used to maintain constant discharge current and voltage over the pressure range 10–150 mTorr. Films were deposited over this pressure range for sputtering voltages between 1.5 and 4.0 kV. The mass deposited in a given time decreased with increasing pressure and decreasing voltage. Films up to 0.7 μ thick were deposited, and the film density decreased linearly from near the bulk value to 60% of the bulk value as the pressure increased from 10 to 150 mTorr. At the same time, the resistivity increased from twice the bulk value to ten times the bulk value while the temperature coefficient of resistance was between 30%–50% of the bulk value. For the densest films, the product of resistivity and temperature coefficient was close to the value predicted...


The purpose of this article can be described as a scientific review of the Yenisei script as a source in the study of the history of the Kyrgyz language. The Yenisei (Kyrgyz) script provided an opportunity to preserve and pass on to posterity reliable facts about significant milestones in the history of the Kyrgyz and Kyrgyz statehood. The high level of farming and the state structure of the Kyrgyz people fully corresponded to their written culture. The Yenisei script can be recognized as an indicator of the high culture of the Yenisei Kyrgyz. Undoubtedly, the Yenisei script played a huge role in the study of not only the history of the Kyrgyz people, but also in the study of the formation of their language.


The distribution of J waves may correlate with left ventricular (LV) myocardial damage in survivors of ventricular fibrillation (VF).

 To determine the relationship of the distribution of J waves with presence of myocardial damage such as fibrotic or fat change on cardiac computed tomography (CT) in survivors of VF.

 We conducted a retrospective analysis of 21 survivors of VF (17 males; mean age, 61±14 years) that were implanted with a cardioverter defibrillator and underwent cardiac CT.

 On ECG, 4 patients had atrial fibrillation and 15 had J waves. On CT, 13 patients had organized LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change in myocardium. The mean corrected QT interval was 453±30 and 429±48 msec in patients with and without myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change, respectively (P=0.182). The distribution of J waves was as follows: 5 had J waves in II, III and aVF leads (one had myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change) and 2 had J waves in III lead (one had myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change). One patient each had J waves in V1 lead; V1,2 leads; II, III, aVF and V1–3 leads; I, III, aVF and V1 leads; II, III, aVF, aVL and V1–6 leads; II, III, aVF and V4,5 leads; II, III, aVF and V2–5 leads; and III and aVF leads. The first one did not have myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change and the remaining 6 had myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change (Figure). If the J waves reached to ≥1 of 3 LV inferior wall leads (II, III, aVF leads) (N=13), 10 (77%) had LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change. If not (N=8), 3 (38%) had LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change (P=0.071). If the J waves reached ≥2 of 3 LV inferior wall leads (N=11), 9 (82%) had LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change. If not (N=10), 4 (40%) had LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change (P=0.049). If the J waves reached all three LV inferior wall leads (N=10), 8 (80%) had LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change. If not (N=11), 5 (46%) had LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change (P=0.104).

 In survivors of VF, organized LV myocardial fibrotic and/or fat changes on cardiac CT correlate with a wider distribution range of J waves (reached to LV inferior wall leads). The distribution of J waves and the presence of myocardial fibrotic and/or fat change on CT may be useful to predict the occurrence of VF.

 Type of funding sources: None. CT fibrosis in VF survivors J waves and fibrotic and/or fat change


This supplement reviews the evidence used to diagnose and treat patients with seizures and epilepsy. Despite the exponentially growing literature on the basic and clinical sciences pertaining to epilepsy, the quality of the scientific evidence available to clinicians remains limited. Diagnosis may be more problematic than we imagine. Paroxysmal spells are typically infrequent; they are rarely witnessed by physicians. Video-EEG documentation of an episode is our diagnostic gold standard, but this tool cannot be applied to the vast majority of patients with infrequent episodes. How accurate are we at diagnosing a brief episode of unresponsiveness in a child? Was it a daydream, an attentional lapse, or a partial or absence seizure? Short of capturing a spell on EEG or video-EEG, what is the reliability and validity of the criteria we use to differentiate these spells? The evidentiary picture remains equally incomplete on therapy. Most antiepileptic drug trials rely on patient and family self-report of seizure frequency. Yet it is well documented that many patients are unaware of their seizures and will underreport them. The rate of overreporting is not well studied, but may be an issue as well. Thus, the major data pool we use to decide about whether a drug or device is effective may be slightly, or modestly, inaccurate. Whether we are deciding on treatment of a patient with partial or generalized epilepsy, the data to compare currently available antiepileptic drugs in their relative efficacy and toxicity are sparse. In the clinic, trying to apply the scientific evidence to the patient we are counseling about therapy, we are left without clear direction and often make selections based on different side effect profiles since the comparative efficacy data provide little guidance to select one drug versus another. Our goals in this supplement are to highlight the available evidence as well as the lack of data for the clinical care of epilepsy patients. The different classes of evidence are, in order of increase value: case reports (6), case series (5), phase IV studies (4), case-control studies (3), co-


Photograph of two unidentified trumpet players standing and performing while the rest of the orchestra members continue performing at the 14th annual Christmas/Kwanzaa Concert held by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.


This thesis develops a message authentication scheme for a new version of the X-38 Fault-Tolerant Parallel Processor (FTPP), a high-performance real-time computer system designed for applications that need extreme reliability, such as control for human spaceflight. This computer system uses multiple replicated processors to ensure that the system as a whole continues to operate correctly even if some of the processors should fail. In order to maintain a synchronized state, the replicated processors must vote among themselves to make sure that they are using identical data. This thesis adds message authentication to the voting process. Using authenticated messages allows a system to achieve the same level of reliability with fewer replicas. This thesis analyzes where message authentication is needed in the voting process, then presents and evaluates several signature schemes for implementing message authentication. The X-38 FTPP uses radiation-hardened embedded processors, which have relatively limited computational power. Therefore, the challenge is to identify a scheme that is secure enough to guarantee that signatures cannot be forged, yet fast enough to sign messages at a high rate in real time. Thesis Supervisor: Roger Racine Title: Principle Investigator, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Thesis Advisor: Barbara Liskov Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Good afternoon, members and guests. It is always a pleasure for me to be in San Francisco. The honor of being elected President of this prestigious Society is very much appreciated. Thank you for your support and trust. The officers and Board of Governors who will serve with me are experienced and dedicated. We have a great team.


The optimization of the cyclist's position aims to increase performance and may prevent overuse injuries. To find the optimum posture, taking into account anthropometry of the cyclist is essential. Thereby, a properly saddle height, adapted at the cyclist morphology, is primordial: it allows to increase performance (Hamley and Thomas, 1967) and to improve the pedalling biomechanics (articular kinematics and muscular activity; De Vey Mestdagh 1998). Several authors have studied this parameter to find the optimal saddle height as static method based on the inseam length (Hamley and Thomas 1967; Genzling 1980) or static method based on the knee angle during goniometric assessment with the pedal located at the bottom dead center (Holmes et al. 1994). However, it appears a substantial discrepancy between all these methods (Peveler et al., 2007). The aim of this preliminary study is to compare two statics methods based on the inseam length which are frequently used in the literature: Genzling method (1980) and Hamley method (1967).


vitamin K1 was administered parenterally, and prednisolone 40 mg daily given mouth. The prothrombin time slowly returned to normal, accompanied by a rise in factors V and VII, and a fall in factor X table). Urinary protein fell from 8-3 to 0-2 g/24 hours, and total serum protein rose to 53 g/l (albumin 26 g/l). The haematomas and oedema resolved completely.


In today's busy world, it's difficult to get an Emergency medical facility immediately. To address this problem, we are introducing SWARINI Ambulance Service, using IoT technology.SWARINI ambulance system collects location information of emergency medical help required by user,through GPS and user Google Map. With the benefit of medically furnished and technologically cartridge ambulance, information about patient's health details can be sent to the hospital to provide medical help. Through the IoT based Smart app it will be possible for patients to reach hospital on time which can save the life of patient.


Acting Antitrust Chief Attributes Recent Enforcement Successes to Focus on Litigation Skills* On September 20, 2012 the federal district court in San Francisco imposed a record-tying $500…


Based on the background of sustainable development of agriculture, its concepts and characteristics were analyzed, and the present situation of research on the sustainable development of agriculture at home and abroad was studied. Furthermore, some measures to promote the sustainable development of agriculture in China were proposed.


The ability to solve the equations governing the hypersonic turbulent flow of a real gas on unstructured grids using a spatially-elliptic, 2nd-order accurate, cell-centered, finite-volume method has been recently implemented in the VULCAN-CFD code. The construction of cell-average gradients using a weighted linear least-squares method and the use of these gradients in the construction of the inviscid fluxes is the focus of this paper. A comparison of least-squares stencil construction methodologies is presented and approaches designed to minimize the number of cells used to augment/stabilize the least-squares stencil while preserving accuracy are explored. Due to our interest in hypersonic flow, a robust multidimensional cell-average gradient limiter procedure that is consistent with the stencil used to construct the cellaverage gradients is described. Canonical problems are computed to illustrate the challenges and investigate the accuracy, robustness and convergence behavior of the cell-average gradient methods on unstructured cell-centered finite-volume grids. Finally, thermally perfect, chemically frozen, Mach 7.8 turbulent flow of air through a scramjet engine flowpath is computed and compared with experimental data to demonstrate the robustness, accuracy and convergence behavior of the preferred gradient method for a realistic 3-D geometry on a non-hex-dominant grid.


in an age of rapid change and no one can foresee with accuracy the nature, direction and rate of the changes which are to come. Since medicine reflects the needs, resources and philosophy of its time, my task in speaking of the medicine of the future is inevitably most hazardous. Yet we must try to discern future trends even if we are likely to succeed in small measure only, for unless we do so we may miss our opportunities for discharging the avowed task of this Society, namely, promoting the better health of the people. But seeking this goal is not the responsibility of medicine alone. The work of the doctor is here increasingly intertwined with the social sciences, economics, other physiological and biological sciences, planning, administration and politics. And so in looking at the future of medicine we must take all of them into account. Sir Winston Churchill once observed that, &dquo;The farther you look back the further forward you can see.&dquo; I do not propose to look far back into the history of preventive and curative medicine. It will suffice for my purpose if with an occasional backward glance I review the current status of


We propose a model for gravity based on the gravitational polarization of space. With this model, we can relate the density parameters within the Friedmann model, and show that dark matter is bound mass formed from massive dipoles set up within the vacuum surrounding ordinary matter. Aggregate matter induces a gravitational field within the surrounding space, which reinforces the original field. Dark energy, on the other hand, is the energy density associated with gravitational fields both for ordinary matter, and bound, or induced dipole matter. At high CBR temperatures, the cosmic susceptibility, induced by ordinary matter vanishes, as it is a smeared or average value for the cosmos as a whole. Even though gravitational dipoles do exist, no large scale alignment or ordering is possible. Our model assumes that space, i.e., the vacuum, is filled with a vast assembly (sea) of positive and negative mass particles having Planck mass, called planckions, which is based on extensive work by Winterberg. These original particles form a very stiff two component superfluid, where positive and negative mass species neutralize one another already at the submicroscopic level, leading to zero net mass, zero net gravitational pressure, and zero net entropy, for the undisturbed medium. It is theorized that the gravitational dipoles form from such material positive and negative particles, and moreover, this causes an intrinsic polarization of the vacuum for the universe as a whole. We calculate that in the present epoch, the smeared or average susceptibility of the cosmos equals, (χ_0 ) =.842, and the overall resulting polarization equals, (P_0 ) =2.396 kg/m^2. Moreover, due to all the ordinary mass in the universe, made up of quarks and leptons, we calculate a net gravitational field having magnitude, (g^((0)) ) =3.771 E-10 m/s^2. This smeared or average value permeates all of space, and can be deduced by any observer, irrespective of location within the universe. This net gravitational field is forced upon us by Gauss's law, and although technically a surface gravitational field, it is argued that this surface, smeared value holds point for point in the observable universe. A complete theory of gravitational polarization is presented. In contrast to electrostatics, gravistatics leads to anti-screening of the original source field, increasing the original value, (g^((0)) ) , to, g = (g^((0)) ) + (g^((1)) ) >(g^((0)) ) , where (g^((1)) ) is the induced or polarized field. In the present epoch, this leads to a bound mass, M_B=(χ_0 ) /(K_0 ) M_F=5.33〖 M〗_F , where 〖 M〗_F is the sum of all ordinary source matter in the universe, and (K_0 ) equals the relative permittivity. A new radius, and new mass, for the observable universe is dictated by the density parameters in Friedmann's equation, and Gauss's law. These lead to the very precise values, R_0=3.215 E27 meters, and, M_F=5.834 E55 kg, respectively, somewhat larger than current less accurate estimates.


Many researchers argue that career success of various individuals can be attributed to the effective use of social capital. Social capital theory proposes that the network of relationships support the people in performing social affairs and advancing in their careers. A considerable body of knowledge exists that examines the role social capital plays in the success of individuals and organizations. However, not many have focused on the social capital development process in the higher education institutions. This understanding is vital because higher educational institutions are the breeding grounds of the behaviors that help the students to excel in their professional lives. Current study empirically examines the relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing, and how knowledge sharing impacts academic performance. For this purpose multiple linear regression analysis has been performed. The results of the analysis highlight various aspects of the relationship between social capital, knowledge sharing and academic performance. Understanding how students learn to share knowledge in their respective social networks and the motivation behind this knowledge sharing, can help the university authorities in identifying the steps that can facilitate the process of knowledge sharing which in turn can lead to enhancement in the quality of the learning process.


The first SLAM II network simulation model for Juvenile Detention Management in Washington State was built in 1989 by the Washington State Office of the Administrator for the Courts. The juvenile detention process can be viewed as a complicated queuing system from the juvenile's arrival at the detention facility to final release from the facility. The detention process is simulated through the use of RESOURCEs, AWAITs and GATEs that control the movement of the juveniles entering and leaving the system. The goal of this research is to help judges and court administrators apply Operations Research to court management and to examine how parameters as well as structure in the simulation model influence the detention system operation. For example, how does varying the arrival rate, the service rate, or service style affect bed usage and judge time in a detention center? Or, how do changes in legal procedures effect the structure of the model and detention facilities' operations.


With the emergence of cloud computing, network teaching platforms are built an open, scalable platform for teaching, sharing resources, which can be help to provide the new development direction of network teaching and make it more efficiently. This article states functions and features of the online education platform, and the concept about AppScale and Eucalyptus. In order to propose a reasonable architecture of AppScale-based online education platform, and explore the existing network teaching platform migrating to under the cloud, providing support to set up and research the network teaching platform in the cloud computing environment.


This study proposes improvements to the pyridinated silver carbonate impregnation technique in rumen ciliate protozoa in order to provide a standardized impregnation protocol for usable for the largest possible number of species in domestic ruminants. The proposed improvements are based on results obtained from impregnation of oral infraciliature and nuclear apparatus of 36 rumen ciliate species, which are symbionts of domestic ruminants. Compared to established protocols for morphology of rumen ciliates, impregnation of a wider range of genera and species was observed with the proposed protocol. The impregnation time varied according to size, ciliate taxon, or both, varying from shorter (5 minutes) for small entodiniomorphid ciliates ( 80 μm) and the genus Isotricha. The proposed protocol is simple and easily reproducible. It is also advantageous for taxonomic, animal science, and ecological studies that aim to inventory the ruminal biota as well as understand the population structure of rumen ciliates and their relationship with the host.


A continuous reservoir monitoring system has been installed for Shell, on a medium heavy-oil onshore field situated in the northeast of the Netherlands, to re-develop oil production by Gravity- Assisted Steam Drive. The challenge was to continuously monitor using seismic reflection the lateral and vertical expansion of the steam chest injected in the reservoir during production over more than a year. The main problems for onshore time-lapse seismic are caused by near-surface variations between base and monitor surveys which affect the seismic signal coming from the reservoir. In our system, a set of permanent shallow buried sources and sensors has been installed below the weathering layer to both mitigate the near- surface variations and minimize the environmental footprint. The very high sensitivity of our buried acquisition system allows us to track very small variations of the reservoir physical properties in both the spatial and calendar domains. The 4D reservoir attributes obtained from seismic monitoring fit the measurements made at observation, production, and injector wells (pressure, temperature, and oil/water production). A daily 4D movie of the reservoir property changes allows us to propose a scenario that explains the unexpected behaviour of the production and confirms that the steam does not follow the expected path to the producer wells but rather a more complicated 3D path within the reservoir.


This study was conducted to obtain practical information on the efficient drying of animal manure under the sunny dry condition. The effects of the height of manure pile (5, 10, 15, and 20cm), stirring times (0, 1, 2, and 4 times/day), the addition of dried manure (30%, w/w), and the type of drying bed on the removal of water from fresh pig manure were investigated in a plastic house. Pig manure was dried very well by lowering the height of manure pile and the drying efficiency was the highest at 10cm height. Water evaporation rate was the greatest at the twice stirring per day treatment. The addition of dried manure as bulking material enhanced the water evaporation rate of wet pig manure. The amounts of water removed for 19 days under the condition of 10cm height of manure pile and twice-stirring in spring, summer, autumn and winter were 75.6, 73.3, 54.6 and , respectively.


The Particle Swarm Optimizer is used very widely for unimodal and multi-modal optimization problems. Recently, most of variant PSOs are combing several evolutionary strategies in order to achieve a better performance on Benchmark functions, and even for shifted, rotated, or composite functions. In this paper, a new method known as Enhanced Vector of Convergence is proposed and combined with constrict factor to improve the convergence performance of Particle Swarm Optimizer. In experimental study, other 5 variant Particle Swarm Optimizers are compared, and acceptance rate, t-Test are used for further evaluation. The results indicate that the Enhance Vector of Convergence can significantly improve the accurate level of Particle Swarm Optimizer.


The core technological elements of the upcoming fourth industrial revolution are sensing, communications including 5G, big data and artificial intelligence. An important orientation of this fourth industrial revolution is the realization of a hyper-connected society and a sharing economy. From the first industrial revolution to the third industrial revolution, we have been interested in the accumulation of individual wealth in individuals or countries through economic growth based on technological development. In contrast, the fourth industrial revolution calls for a shift in our values by paying attention to harmony and relations through hyper-connectivity and sharing economy. In this paper, we first investigate the historical progress of mechanical causality supporting the modern technology during past industrial revolutions. We then criticize the view of technology in the past through the problems of modern technology civilization, and look for ways to overcome it. To conclude, we should try to transform our view of value into technology civilization with human mind through fourth industrial revolution.


In this paper, we propose a new method for interactive motion control with a multi-touch interface. A user of our system can touch and drag character's body parts to control its motion. The character's full body motion is driven by our interactive motion control model based on the movement of a few body parts which are directly manipulated by the user via the multi-touch interface. We propose a method for determining 3-dimensional positions of controlled body parts from 2-dimensional touch inputs based on the character's local coordinates and drag speed. We introduce a point-based pose representation which consists of the positions or orientations of a small number of primary body parts. Based on the representation, we develop a motion control model that includes modules for tracking, balance, inter-body interaction, relaxing and self-collision avoidance. The character's pose is reconstructed from the point-based pose representation. We present our experimental results to show that our framework can realize various natural-looking motions.


PurposeThis paper examines the governance function that incubators perform for entrepreneurial firms. The authors demonstrate that this governance function has both a consultative and a control dimension and illustrate how these are enacted in the interactions between incubators and entrepreneurs. The authors also show how these interactions come into being and how entrepreneurs assess the value of the governance role played by incubators.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a cross-sectional interview study with entrepreneurs of 21 start-ups that were hosted by three different incubators. The start-ups are all early-stage technology firms. The analysis in the paper follows an inductive approach.FindingsThe authors find that the governance role of incubators is about both consultation and control. Consultative forms of governance include providing input and advice as well as questioning ideas and assumptions. Controlling forms of governance comprise setting targets and tracking progress as well as enforcing structures and documentation. The authors furthermore show that governance episodes are triggered either by the entrepreneurs themselves or by the incubator. In the former case, such episodes are mainly about consultation, while in the latter one, they often have a pronounced control element, which materializes particularly through regularly enforced meetings. Most entrepreneurs seem to appreciate this control element, acknowledging that, in its absence, they would lack the self-discipline of doing some things that need to be done.Research limitations/implicationsThis study's findings extend prior research on inter-organizational relationships and the types of governance mechanisms observed therein. The authors show that a strict separation between actors who offer consultation and those who exercise control is too simplistic. Incubators influence entrepreneurial firms both through consultative and controlling forms of governance. In terms of limitations, this study's analysis focuses on the perspectives of entrepreneurs, and the authors did not include the perspectives of incubators nor did the authors directly observe meetings between these two parties.Practical implicationsThis paper provides examples for how entrepreneurial firms can benefit from being part of an incubator.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the discussion of the governance of inter-organizational relationships by focusing on incubators. In so doing, the authors also complement extant literature on management control in entrepreneurial settings by showing how the incubator fulfills a control function for entrepreneurs before these implement control mechanisms themselves.


1 The kinetics of codeine and seven of its metabolites codeine-6-glucuronide (C6G), norcodeine (NC), NC-glucuronide (NCG), morphine (M), M-3 (M3G) and 6-glucu-ronides (M6G), and normorphine (NM) were investigated after a single oral dose of 50 mg codeine phosphate in 14 healthy Caucasian subjects including eight extensive (EM) and six poor (PM) hydroxylators of debrisoquine. The plasma and urine concentrations of codeine and the metabolites were measured by h.p.l.c. 2 The mean area under the curve (AUC), half-life and total plasma clearance of codeine were 1020 ± 340 nmol 1-1 h, 2.58 ± 0.57 h and 2.02 ± 0.73 1 h-1 kg-1, respectively. There were no significant differences between EM and PM in these aspects. 3 PM lower AUC of M3G, the active metabolites M6G, NM and M (P < 0.0001), and lower partial metabolic clearance by O-demethylation (P < 0.0001). In contrast, the higher AUC of NC (P < 0.05) than the EM. There was no difference between PM and EM in the AUC of C6G and NCG, nor in the partial clearances by N-demethylation and glucuronidation. were about 6 and 10 times higher than that of M, respectively. The partial clearance by glucuronidation was about 8 and 12 times higher than those by N- and O-demethylations, respectively. 5 The total recovery of drug-related material in 48 h urine collections ranged from 71% to 106% of the dose and did not differ between EM and PM. Six percent of the dose was O-demethylated in EM and the majority of the metabolites produced through this pathway were conjugated. Unconjugated M accounted for less than 0.2% of the dose. In PM, only 0.33% of the dose was metabolized by O-demethylation and M was negligible (0.001% of the dose). However, PM had a significantly higher recovery of NC (P < 0.001) than EM. There was no significant difference between EM and PM in the recovery of codeine, C6G and NCG, and in the renal clearance of codeine or any of its metabolites. 6 Data from a chronic dosing study including three EM and three PM confirmed the results of the single dose study. 7 The clinically important findings were the negligible plasma concentration of the 0-demethylated active metabolites M6G, NM and M in PM, and the relatively high concentrations of M6G and NM in EM. Considering the low plasma concentration of M as well as the potent analgesic effects of M6G and NM, the latter compounds might play an important role in the analgesic effect of codeine.


A modified shell model developed earlier by the authors which included the effect of three-body forces has been used to study the lattice dynamics of sodium halides. The model has been ascribed a fundamental basis by pointing out that amongst the current phenomenological models, this one makes the nearest approach to the shell model recently derived by Sinha on rigorous quantum-mechanical considerations. Excellent agreement has been obtained with experimental data on phonon dispersion relations, specific heats at constant volume, and the infrared absorption and Raman scattering spectra of the solids.


Objective:To explore the effect of Cordyceps militaris on learning and memory capability of D-galactose-induced aging mouse model.Methods:An aging mouse model was established through the induction of D-galactose,and the experimental mice(assigned to the model group) were by gavage administered with Cordyceps militaris for 6 consecutive weeks and the Cordyceps militaris treated group was obtained.After the end of the administration,the mice were evaluated for their learning and memory capability by dark avoidance test,shuttle-box test and step-down test.Results:Compared with the control group,the learning and memory capability of mice in model group exhibited a significant decrease(P0.05 or P0.01);While,compared with the model group,the learning and memory capability of mice the Cordyceps militaris treated group exhibited an obvious recovery(P 0.05).Conclusion:Cordyceps militaris can significantly improve learning and memory capability of aged mice.


Village-level development has great contribution to regional development.Many macro social eco-nomic issues can be investigated at the village-level.Also,the government policies are implemented there.And the theories are reflected in the village-level development.Village-level economy,academically,be-comes a significant concern in China because villages are the fields to implement the government policies,es-pecially the policies of sustainable development.This paper aims to summarize the literatures on village-level development of foreign countries for the reference of further research in China.The author reviews the recent literatures on the development of village-level economy studies.Based on a comprehensive review of these researches,the author defines the village-level economy,then summarizes the features of village-level eco-nomic development,also he reveals the new trends in the study of village-level economy from the following aspects,(1) village-level industrial economy's contribution and its operation mechanism;(2) the responses of village-level economies to the external world support;(3) the factors which have effect on the village-level e-conomy from both external and internal environment;(4) the scale transfer of village-level economy;(5) the resource base of village-level economy;(6) the coordination of the systems of human being and nature.Based on the analysis above,the paper points out that further research on village-level economy should be done from the following aspects(1) the developing environment construction of the village-level economy;(2) self-developing capability of the village-level economy;(3) the structure and dynamic polarization of the vil-lage-level economy;(4) comprehensive application of methodologies in the village-level economic study;(5) summarization and comparison of village-level economies of various scales;(6) emphasis on the study of vil-lage-level economies in China.


Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a kind of inflammatory neuropathy that has a gradual start and symmetrical sensory involvement. However, there are several clinical variances, suggesting that CIDP may represent a spectrum of linked disorders rather than a single disease entity. While the prevailing idea of CIDP pathogenesis is that cell-mediated and humoral processes interact in an abnormal immune response to damage peripheral neurons, the proportional roles of T cell and autoantibody responses are yet unknown. T cell responses to specified myelin antigens are responsible in animal models of spontaneous inflammatory neuropathy. Antibodies to Schwann cell, compact myelin, and nodal antigens have been found in different human inflammatory neuropathies. The roles of the cellular and humoral immune systems in the development of CIDP are discussed in this review. It is believed that, in the future, the identification of clinical phenotypes and the underlying disease processes would aid in the development of diagnostic and therapy options for CIDP.


Angle transducers measure angle between track sections as longwall shearer proceeds along coal face. Distance transducer functions in conjunction with angle transducers to obtain relative angles at known positions. When cut is complete, accumulated data are stored on cassette tape, and track profile is computed and displayed. Micro-processor-based instrument integrates small changes in angle and distance.


It is suggested that sublingual nitroglycerine can improve the ability of T1-201 for detection of viable myocardium. Methods and Results: In a randomized, double blind study, 50 patients who had fixed defects on stress-redistribution scan, were randomized into two groups. In group I, patients received 0.4-0.8 mg sublingual nitroglycerine, before T1-201 reinjection. In group II, reinjection of T1-201 was performed, without any previous intervention. In group I, 11 (44%) of the patients showed improved reversibility after T1-201 reinjection compared with 9 (36%) of group II patients (P=0.56). Moreover, 6 of all patients showed reverse redistribution. This pattern was observed in 4 (16%) of the patients in group I and 2 (8%) of group II patients (P=0.38). Conclusion: Nitroglycerine has no significant effect on detection of reversible myocardium by T1-201 SPECT. Occasionally, T1-201 reinjection causes reverse redistribution, but nitroglycerine has no effect on it.


Foreword During my last eight years at ST Microelectronics I have been the Corporate Director of "Environmental Strategies and International Quality Programs". Thinking back on those years, it seems to me that I have been very lucky: I found myself in the middle of a series of new and really stimulating situations, even if undoubtedly demanding. ST was climbing the world ranking of chip builders; chips are those integrated circuits that represent the brain, and often the muscles, of all the electronics around us. It's enough to recall that in 1987, the year of the fusion between the Italian SGS (Società Generale Semiconduttori) and the French Thomson Semiconducteurs, the newborn company ranked fifteenth in the world. In 2001 ST Microelectronics was the third, having in the last few years recorded a yearly average profit growth of 15.4%, while on average its competitors grew "only" (if one can say that!) 11% a year. [32] In 1993 ST, according to the precise choice of Pasquale Pistorio, its President and CEO, aimed at becoming a world leader in the environmental protection field. [6], [7], [9],[10] Because of my job, I found myself in close contact with Pistorio. Well, anyone who met him knows how stimulating working with him is, how he is always rich with new ideas, and finally, how good he is in innovatively and profitably steering a company operating, at global level, in the most technologically advanced sector of all.


Aiming at application occasion of electric system for CNC machine tool, the DC converter topology has been studied in the text. Taking the inductance and capacitance as energy storage components, inductor volt second balance and capacitor charge balance principle have been applied to conduct the theoretical analysis. The mathematical relationship between the input and output voltage has been obtained. The correctness of theoretical analysis has been verified through the simulation software


Objective To establish a RP-HPLC method for determination of clonidine hydrochloride in compound clonidine hydrochloride tablets.Methods Chromatography was carried out on a column of the Hypersil C18(4.6 mm×250 mm,5 μm);mobile phase:0.22% sodium 1-octanesulfonate-methanol-phosphoric acid(400:600:1,pH=3.0);flow rate:0.9 mL·min-1 and the detection wavelength was 220 nm.Results A good linearity of clonidine hydrochloride was obtained within 1.37-6.85 μg·mL-1;the average recoveries of clonidine hydrochloride was 100.5%(RSD=0.76%),100.6%(RSD=2.66%),101.9%(RSD=0.92%)(n=9),respectively.Conclusion The method is simple,rapid,sensitive and accurate.It can be used to control quality of clonidine hydrochloride in compound clonidine hydrochloride tablets.


Abstract Beur filmmaker Bourlem Guerdjou's 1998 film Living in Paradise follows the divergent trajectories of a young Algeria couple (Nora and Lakhdar) living in the Nanterre shantytown during the Franco-Algerian war. Although the focus on Nora may seem on the surface to subvert the film's male-centred narrative as her growing political conscience leads her to harbour FLN militants from the French police, the film's gender politics are in fact complex and even problematic. Drawing on theories of women and nation in Algerian literature and film (Woodhull and Hadj-Moussa), this paper argues that Guerdjou is working within a stock set of images of women in Algerian society during the Franco-Algeria war, inherited from newsreels, documentaries and film classics such as Gillo Pontocorvo's The Battle of Algiers. Women of Living in Paradise embody contemporary Algeria's irreducibly contradictory identity. Expected to be both courageous militant and guarantor of traditional national culture, they are, in fact, asked to negotiate the 'betweenness' (Woodhull) of Algerian society in ways that have proved disastrous for them immediately after liberation and that continue to haunt contemporary gender relations in their country.


Despite the abundance of literature on collaboration, very little attention is devoted to exploring the how partnerships transition over time. This article reports the findings of a study that examined how a mature partnership adjusted to a new administrative team while moving forward with a strategic plan to advance the partnership's mission. Key informant interviews revealed that when stable leadership is not present during transitional phases, the broker organization's capacity to facilitate the collaborative effort will be limited when priorities shift toward maintaining its organizational capacity for survival instead of the collective goals of the partnership.


The new generation of collaborative robots allows the use of small robot arms working with human workers, e.g. the YuMi robot, a dual 7-DOF robot arms designed for precise manipulation of small objects. For the further acceptance of such a robot in the industry, some methods and sensors systems have to be developed to allow them to perform a task such as grasping a specific object. If the robot wants to grasp an object, it has to localize the object relative to itself. This is a task of object recognition in computer vision, the art of localizing predefined objects in image sensor data. This master thesis presents a pipeline for object recognition of a single isolated model in point cloud. The system uses point cloud data generated from a 3D CAD model and describes its characteristics using local feature descriptors. These are then matched with the descriptors of the point cloud data from the scene to find the 6-DoF pose of the model in the robot coordinate frame. This initial pose estimation is then refined by a registration method such as ICP. A robot-camera calibration is performed also. The contributions of this thesis are as follows: The system uses FPFH (Fast Point Feature Histogram) for describing the local region and a hypothesize-and-test paradigm, e.g. RANSAC in the matching process. In contrast to several approaches, those whose rely on Point Pair Features as feature descriptors and a geometry hashing, e.g. voting-scheme as the matching process.


Manganese Aluminum Bronze or MAB alloy has been extensively used for applications under sea water such as marine propellers because this alloy exhibits high strength as well as excellent corrosion resistance behavior. In this work, microstructures and hardness properties of an annealed MAB alloy after hot deformation at different temperatures of 973 K 1123 K and strain rates between 0.1s and 1 swere investigated. During the tests, stress-strain responses of the alloy were determined, and effects of temperature and strain rate on the flow behavior of the MAB alloy were subsequently examined. Furthermore, microstructures of deformed MAB alloy were characterized by both optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Effect of microstructure on stress-strain curves was illustrated for various forming conditions. The results showed at different temperature and strain was found dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization.


It is a popular view in juri-history circle that the civil suits and criminal suits were separated in Western Zhou Dynasty, which went upon the related contents in Zhouli. However the contents of lawsuits couldn't be corroborated by the other ancient book in Pre-Qin Dynasty; in addition the posy reflecting the judicial condition in Western Zhou Dynasty does not represent the difference between civil suits and criminal suits. Consequently, according to the historical data at present, the separation between civil suits and criminal suits could not be testified.


Background and Objectives:The causes of vasospastic angina are not well known. We attempted to elucidate the risk profiles of Korean patients with vasospastic angina. Subjects and Methods:The risk profiles were analyzed in 181 patients with vasospastic angina (VA), 1533 patients with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) who underwent coronary angiography at Samsung Seoul Hospital, and 455 normal control subjects, sex and age matched to the VA group and selected from the Health Promotion Center of Samsung Seoul Hospital. Results:The male to female ratio was significantly higher in the VA group (4.6:1) than the obstructive CAD group (2.7:1). The mean age of the VA group (52.2±10.7 years) was significantly younger than the mean age of the obstructive CAD group (59.0±10.6 years) (p<0.01). Additionally, the smoking rate was significantly higher in the VA group (49.2%) as compared with the obstructive CAD group (43.1%) (p<0.01). Other major risk factors such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension and diabetes mellitus were significantly more prevalent in the obstructive CAD group than the VA group. Among the obstructive CAD group, a subgroup of Q-wave myocardial infarction (MI) showed a significantly higher smoking rate (59.3%) as compared with VA group (49.2%) (p<0.01). Conclusion:The VA group showed a higher prevalence in males and younger subjects as compared with the obstructive CAD group, and smoking appeared to be the most important risk factor for VA. (Korean Circulation J 2002;32(3):224-232)


ABSTRACT Comics-based how-to instructions have historically figured into a gender-aware category of technical communication. Studying such comics-based literature for gendering is a promising endeavor that has not garnered much scholarly attention to date. This analysis attempts to do so within the critical framework of comics studies. Through close examination of examples of gendered instructional comics past and present, this article argues that the comics medium is well suited to inform and persuade readerships through gendered means.


Organizations are usually represented and evaluated by their output. Therefore, all procedures and models which may affect and improve output attract the attention of researchers. The effects of organizing work teams as one essential resource of organizations, in addition to the structure, size and effectiveness of the team, are also considered important factors. This paper reports on an investigation performed to define a model to explain how the results of teamwork may improve production, while considering the role of IT as an effective parameter. Also, it is shown that if there is a number of IT improvement options, there may be a mix of IT improvement and team size increase that will yield the most cost efficient increase in team output.


A 4-year-old girl presented to us with redness of eyes for 15 days. During the past 3 months, she had had recurrent fever and cough every 15 days lasting for 2–3 days and relieved by symptomatic treatment. Antibiotic eye drops did not provide relief. The mother had abdominal tuberculosis, which was diagnosed 2 years earlier for which she took antituberculous therapy for 9 months. The child was not screened for tuberculosis at that time. She was a well-grown child. Eyes had multiple pinkish white nodules with marked circumcorneal congestion (Fig. 1). Visual acuity was normal. Her erythrocytic sedimentation rate was 36 mm at end of 1 hour. The Mantoux test result was positive (22 mm read after 48 hours), and sputum test result for acidfast bacilli was negative. Chest radiograph revealed perihilar shadows. Chest radiograph of the grandmother was suggestive of active tuberculosis, but those of other family members were normal. The diagnosis of phlyctenular conjunctivitis with occult tuberculosis was made and short course antitubercular therapy started with rifampin (10 mg/kg/d), isoniazid (10 mg/kg/d), ethambutol (20 mg/kg/d) and pyrazinamide (25 mg/kg/d) for initial 2 months followed by rifampin and isoniazide for the next 4 months. No medication was prescribed for the eye. Complete resolution of the ocular lesions was observed after 3 weeks of antituberculous therapy. Phlycten is derived from the Greek word, phlyctaena, which means blister. The name is a misnomer because the lesion is actually a solid nodule that can be single or multiple. Histologically, it is an aggregation of lymphocytes and occasional polymorphonuclear cells. Conjunctival phlyctens are usually transient and asymptomatic, but occasionally, larger phlyctens cause frank pustular conjunctivitis with subsequent penetration into deeper structures, leading to permanent scar formation. Corneal phlyctens present with lacrimation, blepharospasm and photophobia and usually leave opacities, leading to permanent vision impairment. Tubercular phlyctenular conjunctivitis usually regresses completely with antitubercular therapy.


A broadband magnetoelectric energy harvester, consisting of Fe_1− x Ga_x (Galfenol) as the magnetostrictor and a relaxor ferroelectric single crystal as the piezoelectric, has been designed and optimized. Finite element analysis (FEA) has been employed to show that either a linear displacement or a 180° rotation of a magnet is sufficient to achieve maximum stroke from the Galfenol rod, which induces a rhombohedral to orthorhombic phase transition in Pb(In_1/2Nb_1/2)O_3–Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O_3–PbTiO_3 that produces a large jump in voltage. A rotational design based on a pendulum with an unbalanced mass was fabricated and used to confirm the validity of our FEA model.


This paper proposes a new method called Lyapunov-Conjugate Gradient Method (LCGM) to design fuzzy controller for unmanned autonomous forklift. The kinematic of a spin-turn mechanism is analyzed first, and then the design parameters are obtained. Based on the kinematic and the fuzzy Lyapunov synthesis proposed by Margaliot, we introduce the error weights coefficients to Lyapunov Function (LF) and derive the stable conditions. The fuzzy rule-bases are given. Next we design and optimize parameters of the Gaussian membership function by the Conjugate Gradient method. The smoother control surfaces are analyzed. Experiment results show that the type-1 controller designed by LCGM has a better performance in stability, smooth and robustness than commonly used conventional fuzzy-PID controller. Its steady lateral error and orientation error can be less than 10mm and 1 degree, respectively. A lot of unmanned forklifts that their controllers are designed by LCGM have been used in automatic plants.


count: 247, Word count (text, references & tables): 5293, Number of Tables: 5, Number of Figures: 1, Number of references: 40.


We propose that ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) above 1018 eV are produced in relativistic jets of powerful active galactic nuclei via an original mechanism, which we dub "espresso" acceleration: "seed" galactic CRs with energies ≲1017 eV that penetrate the jet sideways receive a "one-shot" boost of a factor of ∼Γ2 in energy, where Γ is the Lorentz factor of the relativistic flow. For typical jet parameters, a few percent of the CRs in the host galaxy can undergo this process, and powerful blazars with Γ ≳ 30 may accelerate UHECRs up to more than 1020 eV. The chemical composition of espresso-accelerated UHECRs is determined by that at the Galactic CR knee and is expected to be proton-dominated at 1018 eV and increasingly heavy at higher energies, in agreement with recent observations made at the Pierre Auger Observatory.


ABSTRACT In spring 2009, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library conducted a significant new survey of distance learners enrolled in off-campus or online graduate programs. Exploring distance learners' perceptions about and use of library services, the survey of 146 students reveals opportunities to better meet the research needs of distance learners whose graduate work may demand extensive use of library resources. The survey affords insights into distance learners' communication preferences, and their particular research needs. Findings from this survey have informed one academic library's strategy to begin addressing important questions in library instruction for distance learners.


Although self-aligned double and quadruple patterning (SADP, SAQP) have promising processes for sub-20 nm node advanced technologies and beyond, not all layouts are compatible with them. In advanced technologies, feasible wafer image should be generated effectively by utilizing SADP and SAQP where a wafer image is determined by a selected mandrel pattern. However, predicting a mandrel pattern is not easy since it is different from the wafer image (or target pattern). In this paper, we propose new routing methods for spacer-is-dielectric (SID)-type SADP, SID-type SAQP, and spacer-is-metal (SIM)-type SADP to generate a feasible layout satisfying the connection requirements. Routing algorithms comprising simple connecting and cutting rules are performed on a new grid structure where two (SID-type SADP) or three colors (SID-type SAQP and SIM-type SADP) are assigned alternately to grid-nodes. Then a mandrel pattern is selected without complex coloring or decomposition methods. Also, we try to reduce hotspots (potentially defective regions) by the proposed dummy pattern flipping for SID-type SADP. In experiments, feasible layouts meeting the connection requirements are generated and the effectiveness of the proposed framework is confirmed.


This paper proposes a novel motion compensated frame interpolation (MCFI) method based on adaptive hybrid motion estimation and compensation (AHMEC) for 3D video. In our work, we deal with the problem of ghost artifacts around the foreground object boundaries by considering motion and depth information jointly. First, the motion vector field (MVF) of the interpolated frame is estimated using block-based method. We use depth and motion information to distinguish the occlusion areas in the interpolated frame. Then, an adaptive pixel-based motion estimation (ME) method is applied to detail the MVF in the covering and uncovering areas. Simulation results show that the proposed MCFI algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithms in terms of objective and subjective performances.


Service-Oriented Computing is a new paradigm for the specification and deployment of distributed services in highly dynamic environments. The very nature of the context in which service-oriented computing thrives imposes unique security requirements. Large scale interconnection of systems and services, rapidly changing service compositions and ad-hoc composition and invocation of services require a flexible security model that is able to adapt to these changes. In this paper, we present an approach to specification and querying of security (access control) constraints in the context of the event-driven framework for service-oriented computing.


Although distance education during COVID-19 has brought challenges to instructors and students across the globe, the extant literature indicates that online education has presented particular challenges to social work education. In this study, we examined whether there is a gap in satisfaction with online learning between social work students and non–social work students and whether an interaction mediates the relationship between a student's major and satisfaction with online learning. We analyzed data from 269 undergraduate-level students who completed an online survey in a public university in China during the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting independent-samples t tests and mediation analyses. The results revealed that social work students felt less satisfied with online learning than their counterparts with other majors, such as law, museology, and electronic and information engineering. The empirical findings showed that learner–content interaction (LCI), rather than learner–instructor interaction (LII) and learner–learner interaction (LLI), fully mediated the association between student major and online learning satisfaction. Because most social work courses focus on interaction and practice components, educators who intend to promote social work students' satisfaction with online learning should give priority to integrating practice elements into online courses and motivating students' interest in studying online.


For the disadvantage of high cost and poor practicability of traditional license plate recognition technology based on PC, apply this technology on the ZYNQ to implement the hardware acceleration of the license plate recognition algorithm. The platform consists of programmable logic (PL)and a processing system (PS). The hardware acceleration of the algorithm of license plate location is completed through the part PL; On the PS runs the Linux system. In terms of license plate recognition algorithm, we use the edge detection algorithm, vertical projection method and template matching method respectively for the location of license plate image, character segmentation and recognition. Finally, it implement the Hardware acceleration of license plate recognition and reduce the time for the license plate recognition algorithm.


This paper deals with the mechatronic design of an active device for both the control of vibration and the trim's regulation. In particular, the design concerns a 3 dof actuated device which controls vibrations and trim of a platform. A detailed model of the system has been developed, also identifying some unknown parameters by means of specific experimental tests. The detailed model of the system allowed to set-up an effective control system able also to compensate friction. After the design phase, several experimental tests have been performed, in order to evaluate the performances of the control strategy chosen.


The miracle of Small Axe, if I may be permitted to call it that, has very much to do with its willing proximity—its candid openness—to the problem of beginnings.1 Perhaps time—more time—will alter this relationship. I don't know. But such as we have been up until now as a Caribbean platform for criticism, we have been obliged, and indeed have obliged ourselves, to think self-consciously and reiteratively about beginnings, about the curious, puzzling ways in which, as idea and as activity, beginnings always constitute a sort of paradox: a point of departure that—simultaneously—affirms and disavows, acknowledges and displaces, creates and repeats. Such I suppose is the fertility and ambiguity of beginnings. And when in the itinerant years of the midto late 1990s (returning to think about the Caribbean from a decade's work on Sri Lanka, and returning to the University of the West Indies from teaching at the University of Chicago), I initiated the Small Axe Project in collaboration with a number of colleagues, the question of beginnings was very much on my mind. What did an undertaking


Abstract: The non-zero unique integer solutions to the quadratic Diophantine equation with three unknowns 2 2 2 x  14 xy  y  z are examined. We derive integral solutions in four different patterns. A few intriguing relationships between the answers and a few unique polygonal integers are shown


ABSTRACT The field of "thought" in East Asia has begun to shrink since the 1980s and separated from its intellectual tradition. This essay aims to recover the gap between the two by focusing on the economic thoughts in the 1970s, which have since become an "other" of the literary field. It analyses the cases in Taiwan and South Korea by way of inter-referencing. During the same era, Hu Qiuyuan provided the basis of economic thoughts for the native-soil literature camp in Taiwan, while Park Hyun-chae's theory of national economy laid the conceptual foundation of the debate on national literature in South Korea. Both Hu and Park criticized neo-colonialism wholeheartedly. On one hand, by means of the historical legitimacy of the Republic of China, Hu Qiuyuan proposed the creation of a "government-people" subjectivity in order to rectify the direction of economic development in Taiwan. Based on his idea that minzu literature = guomin literature—both read national literature—he developed the intellectual concexmlParserErrorpt of innate genius based on materialism. On the other hand, given that the Republic of Korea lacked historical legitimacy, Park Hyun-chae attempted to develop an alternative subjectivity of nationalism based on people. He found possibilities of practicing it in the agricultural field and small and medium enterprises. Due to the absence of a national revolution in South Korea, he emphasized on the ethics of knowledge which eventually brought him to develop his concept of minjung literature (people's literature) = minjok literature (national literature).


Since the introduction of television, concern has mounted about the potential influence of television and other media on children's scholastic achievement. Can television and other media forms interfere in the development of skills necessary for successful test scores, grades, and other measures of academic achievement? Or, conversely, can media facilitate the development of such skills? In the current chapter, the research evidence pertaining to these questions is reviewed, exploring such related issues as whether television contributes to a diminished attention span, declines in fantasy play, imagination or creativity, or displaces time that could be spent with homework or other educational opportunities.

Keywords:

television;
youth;
scholastic achievement;
test scores;
attention span;
language acquisition;
vocabulary;
creativity;
imagination


3D digital assembly process design technology is the combination of the three dimensions and information with the new software technology in traditional process design. This article is based on an aviation manufacturing enterprises priority to the realization of the whole assembly process design, simulation and verification business process, which mainly with Dassault Companys DELMIA and 3DVIA Composer platform. In this paper, some process design thinking and methods are introduced to the aircraft product process about the separation technology division, BOM reconstruction, process simulation, 3d assembly instruction compiling, and the like. It also introduces some application methods of system integration.


Utilizing schematic theories to study the processes of reading has been the mainstream in the field of cognitive psychology. Studies have proved that mastery of schema helps to improve reader's reading efficiency and make reader's knowledge structured to a new level. Compared with the normal teaching method, schematic reading instruction can improve students' reading and reasoning abilities significantly.


ABSTRACT Mitral valve repair is the standard of care for degenerative mitral valve pathology, as established by the median sternotomy approach. Equivalently excellent results can be achieved by a variety of more minimally invasive approaches depending on institutional experience and preferences. At the Minneapolis Heart Institute®, we have experience with and utilize all approaches to mitral valve repair for degenerative disease including full and hemisternotomy, right thoracotomy, mini-thoracotomy and heart port approaches. We believe that logistic, economic, and anticipated benefit constraints currently limit the application and the robotic technology. Leaflet maneuvers continue to be important in mitral valve repair, but recently we have revisited the concept of simplifying a "complex" repair in the setting of a subset of severe degenerative (Barlow's) disease by utilizing only an oversized mitral valve ring with excellent results. As suggested by others, in the appropriate setting of bileaflet prolaps...


This paper presents a new method that improves robustness of Real-Coded Evolutionary Algorithms (RCEAs), such as Real-Coded Genetic Algorithms and Evolution Strategies, for function optimization. It is reported that most crossover (or recombination) operators for RCEAs has sampling bias that prevents to find the optimum near the boundary of search space. They like to search the center of search space much more than the other. Therefore, they will not work on functions that have their optima near the boundary of the search space. Although several methods have been proposed to reduce this sampling bias, they could not cancel the whole bias. In this paper, we propose a new method, Toroidal Search Space Conversion (TSC), to remove this sampling bias. TSC converts bounded search space into toroidal one with no parameters. Experimental results show that a RCEA with TSC has higher performance to find the optimum near the boundary of search space and it has improved robustness concerning the relative position of the optimum.


The aim of this paper is to recover Kaldor´s propositions to shed some light on the recent debate about industrial productivity in Brazil. Nowadays, it is a well-disseminated idea that the opening of the economy has contributed to the increased industrial productivity in the nineties. However, theoretical arguments have emphasized supply sources as the main cause of such an increased productivity. Following the Keynesian tradition, Kaldor emphasizes the importance of the aggregate demand components to explain productivity growth. In conclusion, we call attention to the fact that sustainability of productivity growth depends basically on the factors working on the aggregate demand side.


A grid fin is an unconventional missile control surface comprising an outer frame supporting an inner grid of lifting surfaces. Although the topic of grid fin aerodynamics has been studied by many researchers, only a few have considered aerodynamic heating, generating a high-quality structured grid that remains to be a difficult task. An effective method of grid partition and an aerodynamic prediction method to simulate the viscous flow fields of grid-fin configurations at supersonic Mach numbers have been developed. Multi-block and H-O-type grid treatments are developed for complex grid fin configurations. The viscous flow over a tail-controlled missile with grid fins at a Mach number of 2.5 and several angles of attack is calculated using computational fluid dynamics. Additionally, the heat flux distribution of grid fins is investigated, and the effects of shock wave interaction on heat flux are analyzed. The numerical results show good agreement with the measured data, and confirm that this method is an effective way to numerically simulate viscous grid fin flow fields. Furthermore, the aerodynamic heating results show that, because the peak heat flux on the shock wave interaction region is lower than that on the leading edge of the grid fin, it does not affect the thermal protection of the grid fin.


Various countermeasure systems could be deployed against radiological/nuclear terrorism. The need to compare various systems and configurations has resulted in development of a method for estimating performance of such systems. This paper presents one such performance evaluation method.


Magnetism in carbon nanostructures is of high scientific interest, which could lead to novel magnetic materials. The magnetic properties of symmetrical and asymmetrical sized small fullerene dimers (Cn for n ≤ 50) have been investigated using spin polarized density functional theory. The interaction energies depict that small fullerene cages form stable dimer structures and symmetrical sized fullerene dimers are found more stable than asymmetrical sized dimers. The dimerization of fullerene cages in different modes leads to change in their magnetic properties. The non-magnetic fullerene cages become magnetic after formation of dimer (C20–C20, C24–C24, C32–C32, C40–C40, C20–C24, C40–C44 and C44–C50), whereas the magnetism of magnetic fullerenes is enhanced or lowered after dimerization (C28–C28 C36–C36, C24–C28, C28–C32, C32–C36 and C36–C40). The individual cages of dimer structures show ferromagnetic interactions amongst them and resultant magnetic moment strongly depends on the type of inter-connecting bonds. The magnetism may also be explained based on distortion of carbon cages and change in the electron density of states in dimer configuration. The calculations presented show strong possibility of experimental synthesis of small fullerene based magnetic dimers.


After setting realistic scenarios of the wind and diffusivity parameterizations the Ground Level Concentration is worked out by an analytical solution of the advection-diffusion equation, then an explicit approximate expression is provided for it allowing a simple expression for the position and value of the maximum.


The invention discloses a ship turbine diving type propeller thruster, belonging to the technical field of marine machinery equipment. The propeller thruster comprises a propeller consisting of propeller paddles and a propeller hub, the propeller is connected with a propeller driving shaft and is driven by an engine through a speed changer, the propeller is externally covered with a protective screen, the protective screen is fixedly arranged on an installing plate by an arc plate, and the tail end of the protective screen is provided with a spare thruster. According to the ship turbine diving type propeller thruster, the propeller is externally covered with the protective screen to baffle waterweeds and prevent the thruster from being damaged since the propeller paddle can not be wound by the waterweeds; and the tail of the protective screen is provided with the spare thruster, the spare thruster is started under the condition that an active force is damaged to drive a ship to run, so that the personal safety and the property safety on the ship can be guaranteed.


The city of Tegea was one of the most important cities on the Peloponnese in antiquity, but it has until now remained strangely unknown in archaeological research. The Norwegian Arcadia Survey (1998 2001) focused its fieldwork mainly on the area of the ancient city and we are now beginning to understand some important aspects of the topography of the city. The sanctuary of Athena Alea was located outside the main area of urban settlement, although it evidently predates the urbanization of the area, which seems to have occurred in the second half of the 6th century B.c.


The electromechanical actuator (EMA) consists of electrical and mechanical parts, and the frictions, backlash, and multi-parameter coupling characteristics will seriously affect its position-tracking performance. To improve the control accuracy and anti-disturbance ability of EMA, a robust control system is proposed in this paper. First, the system structure of the EMA is analyzed, and the adverse effects caused by backlash and other parameter mismatches are treated as system disturbances respectively. Second, a finite-time state observer is designed to estimate the disturbances in real time. Aiming at the mismatch characteristics of system disturbances, a composite control law is proposed to compensate for the system uncertainties and regulate the output position of EMA. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.


An 8200-liter volume of waste solution containing 400 curies of Cs-137 and 370 curies of Sr-90 was treated by ion exchange wlth clinoptilolite, a natural zeolite. The Cs and Sr were removed from solution by this treatment and the loaded mineral was buried in a concrete container in the Chalk River B disposal area. Both the preliminary laboratory work and the full-scale operation are described. (auth)


From the observed deviations from the e-µ-τ universality, an existence of family gauge bosons with a visible energy scale is speculated. The data suggest that family gauge bosons have an inverted mass hierarchy and the lightest gauge boson mass is M33 ∼ 1 TeV, although the data, at present, have too large errors to obtain a conclusive result. Consistency of such a speculation with other phenomenon is discussed.


The official policy of Victoria's state government towards improving the conditions of Victorian Aborigines is traced from 1957 to 1974. The objectives and relevant measures of successive government bodies created for the purpose, and reasons for their failure to achieve their aims, are discussed.


A network terminal authentication method based on smart phone is proposed. In this method, the SIM card seems the smart phone as a virtual reader and establishes the link with the network terminal. The SIM card is used to authenticate by the operating system of the smart phone and the PKCS#11 on the network terminal. The realization method of the authentication protocol is also given, and its security is analyzed. The security analysis verifies that this protocol provides good security and reliability.


This work presents a fast and simple method based on spiral MRSI for mapping the IMCL and EMCL apparent content, which is a challenging task and it compares this indicator to classical quantification results in muscles of interest.


The focus of this writing study aims to share a reflection of the experience of encounters between Javanese culture and Manggarai culture in Bagorejo Banyuwangi, East Java. The experience of this encounter reminds the author of the importance of multicultural education in Indonesia. As a pluralistic nation, encounters with other cultures cannot be avoided. On the one hand, the encounter enriches one another. However, on the other hand, the encounter caused a lot of conflict because of different perceptions and views. Based on this, it is very necessary to have a multicultural education system that starts from the elementary school level through learning and the introduction of other cultures. Through an education system like this, the authors found that to overcome attitudes of intolerance and radicalism that often occur in the country, an adequate multicultural understanding is needed. One of them is through multicultural learning which can be carried out with the Live-In program like the author did.


On one hand,Wu Xinghua conducted experiment on reproducing form and order in the aftermath of the "new moon poetry school"; on the other hand,integrated with the exploration of the essence of "modern poetry"of the "modern poetry school",he undertook the mission of carrying forward the cultural cause with a poet's consciousness. With the identification of standard and constraint and standing in a position of elitism,he modeled the fuzzy concept and limits,thus facilitating the formation of mutual medium for poets and readers.


The contribution of this paper is an evaluation of the chain of calculations for a behaviour recognition method. That is, from person detection, centralized person tracking to a bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM). The centralized person tracking fuses detections from distributed and multimodal sensors. The BiLSTM learns long-time dependencies in the tracking data sequences. We use experimental sensor data from visual and thermal infrared sensors. The sensor data describe five scenarios with people performing normal and abnormal behaviours. The results indicate that the mean recognition accuracy is rather high. However, with position as the only input data, the robustness of the method is rather low. The robustness increases by adding velocity to the dataset. Velocity adds important information, even though velocity appears very messy when visualized in diagrams. Furthermore, the BiLSTM is compared with the unidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) and the gated recurrent unit (GRU).


This paper presents design of a new Z shaped antenna with a cpw (coplanar waveguide) transmission line. In this proposed research paper, the impedance increases with a pair of Z shape combined design on the FR-4 substrate and ground plane. The main features of the Z antenna are the compact dimensions and band-operating characteristics that are obtained without modifying the radiator or the ground plane. The antenna consists of a linear patch as radiator, a partial CPW-ground plane, and a slotted conductor-backed plane. Impedance matching for dual-band operations is achieved by a pair of mirror square-shaped slots at the conductor-backed plane. This antenna size is very compact with 28.8 mm × 37.2 mm × 1.6 mm and covers 1.696 GHz to 2.646 GHz and can be used for GSM and WLAN applications. Our designing aim is to describe radiation pattern both 3D and normal and discuss obtained gain.


Self-consistent axially symmetric Skyrme Hartree-Fock plus BCS calculations are performed to study the evolution of shapes with the number of nucleons in various chains of Yb, Hf, W, Os, and Pt isotopes from neutron number N = 110 up to N = 122. Potential energy curves are analyzed in a search for signatures of oblate-prolate phase shape transitions, and results from various Skyrme and pairing forces are considered. Comparisons with results obtained with the Gogny interaction as well as with relativistic mean field calculations are presented. The role of the y degree of freedom is also discussed.


Appropriate retinoic acid (RA) signaling is essential in the development of the central nervous system (CNS). Previous studies have shown that RA activates p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) and steroid receptor coactivator (SRC)‐3 in tumor cells in vitro. It is unknown whether the activation of p38 MAPK and SRC‐3 is involved in RA‐mediated CNS development. The current study investigated a possible role for p38 MAPK in the regulation of (SRC)‐3 phosphorylation/degradation and in retinoic acid receptor (RAR)α signaling in mouse fetal cortical neurons treated with all‐trans retinoic acid (ATRA). Results showed that ATRA treatment rapidly activated p38 MAPK, which in turn resulted in phosphorylation with subsequent degradation of SRC‐3. Inhibition of p38 MAPK by SB203580 blocked the phosphorylation and degradation of SRC‐3. The binding of RARα to retinoic acid responsive element (RARE) was rapidly increased in neurons following ATRA treatment. Inhibition of p38 MAPK significantly enhanced the RARα‐RARE binding activity, but had no effects on ATRA‐induced decrease of RARα. Treatment of the fetal cortical neurons with ATRA significantly increased the expression of HOXd3, a retinoid‐target gene. The increase of HOXd3 expression was augmented when p38 MAPK activity was inhibited by a specific inhibitor, SB203580. Results suggest that ATRA activates the p38 MAPK signal pathway with resultant degradation of SRC‐3, and that p38 MAPK is involved in the regulation of RARα‐mediated signaling in developing neurons. © 2009 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 61(6): 670–678, 2009


Fluent is one of the commercial software of computational fluid dynamics using a finite volume of discritization method.This method devides a domain of model becoming several small finite volumes. This software may be used to predict the fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical reaction and other fluids phenomena. In the recent study, the Fluent is used as a tool to predict the characteristics of air and partial exhaust gas mixtures in an intake manifold of diesel engine.In this modeling, the observed mixtures characteristics are the fluid flow and temperature distributions. The type of fluid flowing in the intake manifold of EGR is a turbulent flow. Fluent serves some turbulence models which are k-e, k-ω and Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) models. Each turbulence model has a different characteristics. It is important, therefore, to know the appropriate turbulence model type for investigating the fluid flow mixtures phenomena in the intake manifold. The fluids flowing into this intake manifold are varied based on the percentage of opening valve EGR, opening load valve and diesel engine speeds. The study shows that the k-e turbulence model is the best model than the other models. This turbulence model has small error with the experimental results for several the opening load valves in which for opening load valve of 0% (0.374% error), 50% (0,495% error), 75% (0,444% error) dan 100% (0,505% error). However, the k- turbulence model has the smallest error (0.381%) at the opening load valve of 25%.


A method for Seismic data interpretation for the purposes of identification of oil, gas and water accumulation locations and delineation of their contours uses a model of discrete media with inhomogeneous Stresses. For a Selected reflec tion horizon, the relative value of overall pressure gradient is calculated on the basis of instantaneous amplitudes and frequencies of Seismic Signals using a derived relationship between the reflection coefficients of elastic waves and the StreSS condition parameter. The calculation technique uses


This Paper discussed the inclusion of creative thinking skills into the existing Arabic curriculum in Nigeria's tertiary institutions to provide more job opportunities for Arabic graduates. The study used a total population of 1350 students selected across universities and colleges of education in Yorubaland, Nigeria. Out of this population, 303 samples were finally drawn for the study. The research question of the study is to what extent Arabic curriculum content predicts employability skills of the graduates? The research hypotheses are: Arabic Curriculum content predicts creative thinking skills of the graduates in Nigeria, and b) R0: Arabic curriculum content does not predict creative thinking skills of the graduates in Nigeria. The Principal component analysis, Simple Regression Analysis, and other statistical tools were used for data analysis. The findings of the study show that there is a significant relationship between creative thinking skills and content of Arabic language. Moreover, Arabic curriculum content predicts creative thinking skills of Arabic graduates. Significantly, the study contributes to the field of Arabic studies by introducing creative thinking skills as an added advantage to Arabic graduates. This study proposed employability package that comprises of creative thinking skills to increase Arabic graduates' chances to get lucrative jobs. The government must also ensure adhering the usage of the creative thinking skills in Arabic curriculum across all universities and colleges of educations offering Arabic language. Lastly, students of Arabic language must face challenges ahead of them and make themselves marketable to prospective employers just like their counterparts in other fields of study.


Early recommendations on radiation protection were primarily concerned with x rays and gamma rays which were deemed to have similar biological effectiveness. The postulated similarity meant that attention need only be directed to the quantity of radiation received by an individual. When other types of ionizing radiation became of greater importance, it became necessary to consider what came to be called the quality of the radiation as well. Quality relates to the nature and energy of the charged particles that produce the absorbed dose. It was envisaged that the same level of protection should be assured for all types of ionizing radiation, regardless of their quality. On the basis of specific ionization in air for the various kinds of radiation, Cantril and Parker (1945)1 developed a scheme for dealing with the effects of different radiations, including mixed radiation fields. They assumed that one could add the hazards from the various kinds of radiation and that one could estimate the relative hazard for each kind using the product of what would now be called air kerma (free-in-air) and a relative biological factor based upon specific ionization of charged particles and their ability to penetrate tissue. On this basis, they assigned a relative biological effectiveness of 10 to neutrons and alpha particles. This scheme provided the basis for the quantity we now call dose equivalent. The next step in the development of radiation protection took place during the llipartite Conferences (representation from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) in 1949, 1950, and 1953 (Taylor, 1984). It is of interest to note that comments made during the 1949 meeting indicate that the reference radiation to which those of higher biological effectiveness were to be compared was gamma rays from radium. In the 1953 conference, the reference radiation was changed to x rays. It was recognized that the relative biological eff ectiveness of gamma rays would then be smaller than one, but no numerical distinction was made. The 1950 recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) contain the relative biological effectiveness values agreed to in the 1949 conference (ICRP, 1951). These early considerations led to a number of concepts and procedures (NCRP, 1954; ICRP, 1955) that have since become established. 1) A description of the spatial distribution of energy deposition by radiation is provided by the linear energy transfer (LET), which represents the energy lost by charged particles per unit distance traversed. 2) It is postulated that the biological effects resulting