Entrepreneurship has become worldwide phenomenon as economic growth across the globe is positively affected by the emergence of new and innovative potential entrepreneurs and their ventures. New businesses, which usually result from entrepreneurial endeavors, play a significant role in job creation and new product developments and thereby improving socio-economic conditions of citizens. Hence, developing entrepreneurial orientations of young people is not a necessity but also a mandatory issue for any country, all the time. Initiated by the same, this study was carried out to assess the entrepreneurial attitude orientations of graduating students at universality of Gondar. A quantitative approach using the EAO scale is used for the measurement of entrepreneurial attitudinal orientation of the respondents based on their own opinions. A set of questionnaire was distributed to 357 respondents and 292 of them were collected back and analyzed using mean, frequency, correlations coefficient, percentages, ANOVA and t-tests. It is found that there is high entrepreneurial attitude orientation of graduating students. Besides it is found that there are no that much demographic influences on EAO scores of students. It is recommended that certain special factors in developing entrepreneurial education among students in the university should be identified and need to be carefully examined. Keywords : Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) Dimensions, University of Gondar (UOG)


The present study includes the treatment of Simulated Textile Effluent (STE) with a white rot fungus Trametes hirsuta immobilized on Na-alginate mixtures, in a co-current upflow packed bed reactor. The mass transfer coefficients were calculated based on the findings of the present investigation on the degradation of STE. For STE degraded with Trametes hirsuta immobilized Na-alginate of different sizes of beads (0.2 cm, 0.5 cm and 0.8 cm), different concentration of STE (775, 1550, 2325 and 3100 mg/l of COD) and different flow rates (0.026, 0.057, 0,102, 0.204 and 0.408 cm3/s) were studied. A mass transfer model of the form jD = K(Re')n-1 was produced with values of 'K' as 1.98, 1.35 and 1.22, the value of '(n1)' was found to be – 0.28.


This chapter aims to provide a clear and understandable picture of constructive semigroups with apartness in Bishop's style of constructive mathematics, BISH. Our theory is partly inspired by the classical case, but it is distinguished from it in two significant aspects: we use intuitionistic logic rather than classical throughout; our work is based on the notion of apartness (between elements of the set, and, later, between elements and its subsets). Following Heyting, at least initially, classical semigroup theory is seen as a guide that helps us to develop the constructive theory of semigroups with apartness. To have a structure, we need a set, a relation, and rules establishing how we will put them together. Working within classical or intuitionistic logic, in order to analyze algebraic structures, it is necessary to start with study on sets and ordered sets, relational systems, etc. A comparative analysis between presented classical and constructive results is also a part of this chapter. All proofs can be found in the Appendix.


Summary In this paper, we propose a post-processing visual enhancement technique to reduce the blocking artifacts in block based DCT decoded image for mobile devices that has allocation of the restricted resource. This algorithm uses the adaptive deblocking filter to remove grid noise and ringing noise in monotone areas. To decide whether monotone region or not, we introduce a notion of Flatness. Also, a new directional filter is utilized to get rid of staircase noise and preserve the original edge component. The directional filter is applied according to the direction of edge, which is corrected in the process of directional vector smoothing. That is, the image is enhanced through the process of two passes. Experimental results show that the proposed post-processing algorithm produced better results than those of the conventional algorithms both subjective and objective qulitys. The proposed technique is fabricated and verified as a realtime image processing chip in mobile devices.


Disclosure: Prof Girolomoni has received fees for participation on advisory boards from AbbVie, Abiogen, Almirall, Amgen, Avantgarde, Bayer, Biogen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Eli-Lilly, Galderma, Genzyme, Janssen, Hospira, Leo Pharma, Menlo Therapeutics, Merck, MSD, Mundipharma, Novartis, Pfizer, Regeneron, Rottapharm, Samsung, Sanofi, Shiseido, and Sun Pharma; and has received fees for consultations from Bioderma, Ducray, Insiderma, Pierre Fabre, Roche, and Sandoz. Prof Sattar is involved in the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) guidelines on cardiovascular disease, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines, and has consulted for Amgen, Sanofi, Roche, and UCB. Dr Behrens has received research support from Abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, Chugai, Prophylix, Bioline, Novartis, Janssen; consultant/speaker fees from Abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, Hugai, UCB, BMS, Celgene, MSD, Novartis, Biotest, Janssen, Genzyme, Lilly, Sandoz, and Hexal; and is an advisory board member for Abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, Chugai, UCB, Celgene, Novartis, Biotest, Janssen, Genzyme, Hexal, Lilly, and Boehringer-Ingelheim. Dr Gecse reports having received consultancy fees and/or speaker's honoraria from Amgen, AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Ferring, Hospira, MSD, Pfizer, Sandoz, Takeda, and Tigenix. Acknowledgements: Writing assistance was provided by Janet Fricker. Support: The meeting and publication of this article was funded by Sandoz. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily of Sandoz. Citation: EMJ. 2017;2[4]:27-35.


The present study was conducted with the purpose of investigating the use of humour by EFL teachers in a private language institute in the context of Iran. In so doing, the study made an attempt to identify the forms of humour EFL teachers opt to use more frequently in relation to the students' teaching in the classroom through observing their classroom teachings. Moreover, an interview was held with the EFL teachers to seek their perceptions with regard to the functions humorous language can serve in the process of language teaching and learning and their suggestions as to the implementation of humour in the classroom. The findings of the study demonstrate that Iranian EFL teachers show the inclination to use jokes, physical humour and riddles more frequently than other forms of humour. Moreover, the results of the interview reveal that EFL teachers assign some more commonly functions to the humorous language in the classroom such as creating a cheerful and friendly atmosphere, acting as a relaxing, comforting, and tension reducing device, increasing student interest and enjoyment, increasing learners' concentration and motivation, and finally improving the quality of learning. Finally, the suggestions for appropriate use of humour and implications of the study are discussed in the result and conclusion sections, respectively.


How to evaluate vocation education performance is one of the difficulties and hot research fields for the researchers related. The paper presents a new model for evaluating vocation education performance based on the principle of analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. First an evaluation indicator system of vocation education performance is designed through analyzing the characteristics of vocation learners' behavior; Secondly in constructing the comprehensive evaluation model for vocation education performance, analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation are combined and two level fuzzy evaluation is adopted to satisfy the dynamics, subjective and transitional characteristics of indicators and improve evaluation accuracy. Thirdly datum from three vocational colleges are taken for examples to verify the validity and feasibility of the model and the experimental results show that the model can evaluate vocation education performance practically and can help vocation education service providers take corresponding concrete measures to enhance its education performance. Introduction In the modern information era, vocation education is gradually prospering and spreads to the education systems of all the industries. Vocation education can effectively give play to the advantages of existing education resources, and brings new education concept, education methods and learning methods, making thousands of experts, scholars, teachers and students in new technologies constantly have a try and think about how to develop the vocation education utilization value. Whether vocation education is of high quality, whether it can reach anticipated education purpose and realize education value need a comprehensive, objective and overall evaluation system and a practical evaluation method. Thus, establishing perfect and reasonable evaluation standard and puting them into practice and evaluating them by adopting proper methods becomes an important topic to be solved [1]. Up to now, mathematical models adopted by evaluation of vocation education performance mainly include the following categories. 1 Analytic hierarchy process is a good method for quantitative evaluation via quantitative method, having the functions of establishing the ideal weight structure of evaluated object value and analyzing the weight structure of actually-built value by evaluated object; however, the method has strong limitations and subjectivity, with large personal error, not suitable for complicated system with lots of evaluation indicators[2]. 2 BP neural network evaluation method makes use of its strong capability in processing nonlinear problems to carry out evaluation of vocation education performance; the method has advantages like self-learning, strong fault tolerance and adaptability; however, the algorithm is easy to be trapped into defects like local minimum, over-learning, strong operation specialization[3]; 3 Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is a method carrying out comprehensive evaluation and decision on system through fuzzy set theory, the greatest advantage of which is that it works well on system evaluation of multi-factor and multi-level complicated problems. However, the membership of fuzzy evaluation method as well as the Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference On Systems Engineering and Modeling (ICSEM-13) Published by Atlantis Press, Paris, France. © the authors, 2013 0993 definition and calculation of membership function are too absolute, difficult to reflect the dynamics and intermediate transitivity of evaluation indicators of vocation education performance[4,5]. Fuzzy evaluation is a method that accurately solves inaccurate and incomplete information, the greatest advantage of which is that the fuzziness and initiative of human thinking can be naturally processed. Hence, this paper will design a indicator system for vocation education performance evaluation and use analytic hierarchy process to overcome the disadvantages of original fuzzy evaluation thus making colleges convenient to carry out vocation education performance evaluation. Analysis and Establishment of Evaluation Indicator System Vocation education performance evaluation is a complicated comprehensive operation system constituted by multiple elements, the numerous elements and subsystems of which exist in different forms, jointly assembly and forming competitiveness. This paper, based on the principle vocation learner behavior analysis, in the light of connotation characteristics of competitiveness evaluation Vocation education performance, especially on the basis of competitiveness analysis of experts consultations, combined with literatures, establishes a wide and scientific evaluation indicator system of vocation education performance evaluation [2,3,4]. The indicator system here include two categories. One category is vocation learner behavior which concludes 4 second-grade indicators, that's initial state (including software condition for study, adaptability of vocation learning environment, hardware condition for study, learning motivation), learning attitude (including completion status of study plans, participation status of teaching activities, communication with classmates, completion status of difficult tasks, self-learning abilities, study notes and records, completion status of homeworks , examination status), communication and cooperation(including questioning frequency, opinion giving in discussion zones, study summary ability in discussion, communication ability with teachers and classmates, ability to put porward teaching suggestions, ability to answer questions, teamwork abilities), resource utilization(including ability to utilize network recourse, ability to record notes, ability to choose resources ,ability to release information ,ability to release information, ability to solve practical problems). Another category is indicators of vocation education provider which concludes 3 second-grade indicators, that are evaluation of vocation curriculums, evaluation of vocation education management, evaluation of teaching effects. Establishment of Multi-hierarchy Fuzzy Evaluation Model Steps of Fuzzy Overall Evaluation Method. Fuzzy overall evaluation in this paper is conducted according to the following five steps. The first the second steps are establish evaluation element set and confirm evaluation set respectively which can see reference 7. The third step is confirm the weight of evaluation indicator, in which AHP is introduced to obtain the weight wi of each evaluation indicator ui. The set constituted by each weight wi is called weight set W, as shown in formula 1. 0 w 1 w wn} w3, w2, {w1, W 1 i ≥ = =  = i n i  (1) There are generally the following steps to confirm indicator weight by AHP which include three steps, that are judgment matrix construction the weights calculation of all indicators. All of above steps can see reference 7. In step 3, Quantitative indicator used for measuring judgment matrix is called consistency indicator CI, as shown in formula 2. 1 n)/n max ( CI λ = (2) In formula 2[7], λmax is the maximum eigenvalue of judgment matrix, n is the number of comparison indicator. λmax is calculated as reference 7. Step 4:Single-factor Fuzzy Evaluation, Suppose that evaluation object carries out evaluation according to the ith factor in factor set U ui (i=1, 2, 3, ..., n), the subordination of which as to the jth factor in evaluation set V vj (j=1,2,3,...,m) is expressed as rij, formula 3 can be used to show the evaluation result of the ith factor ui. } , 3 , 2 , 1 { R i rim ri ri ri  = (3) Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference On Systems Engineering and Modeling (ICSEM-13) Published by Atlantis Press, Paris, France. © the authors, 2013 0994 Ri in formula 3 is single-factor evaluation set, so formula 4 can be obtained, i.e. single-factor evaluation set of each factor.


Numerous reports have described the amelioration of ischemia/reperfusion injury by CAPE post‐injury, and we have recently shown that induction of heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) in vitro is highly correlated with this cytoprotection. In vivo, the presence of esterases which are abundant in blood and tissues, would severely limit the effectiveness of CAPE by degrading it to caffeic acid and phenethyl alcohol, neither of which is cytoprotective in vitro. Therefore an amide derivative of CAPE, CAPA was synthesized and screened for cytoprotection by examining its ability to induce HO‐1 mRNA in human endothelial cells. CAPA was produced by a Wittig reaction between 3,4 dihydroxy‐benzaldehyde and the corresponding amide phosphonium salt and was 95% pure by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. CAPA was as effective as CAPE in inducing HO‐1 mRNA (9‐fold over vehicle control) as determined by RT‐PCR. It remains to be determined if it exhibits greater stability than CAPE in vivo.


Synopsis In this paper, we study problems of the form: We obtain some existence and regularity results when Ω is either a ball or an annulus, without convexity hypothesis on g. We then apply these results to some shear problems in nonlinear elasticity.


The recent suggestion of the possible presence of a significant amount of material (Thomson optical depth ∼ 1) at rest and at a typical distance of ∼ 1015 cm with respect to the GRB is presented. The relevance of such interpretation for GRB energetics and its cosmological implications is outlined.


In this article, we present a 38-year-old male case with Noonan syndrome who underwent repair for an atrial septal defect (ASD) at the age of 14. Severe mitral regurgitation, mild tricuspid regurgitation, and residual ASD were detected on echocardiography. As repeated sternotomy was hindered by a severely dilated cardiac chamber with retrosternal adhesion and a suprasternally located aortic arch, we performed a right anterolateral thoracotomy approach with peripheral cannulation. This minimally invasive approach may be an optimal alternative for early recovery in patients with these characteristics.


The objective of this work was to analyze, in a microgenetic context, the cognitive functioning of children by means of the Matix game. Four fourth-grade Elementary School students took part in this research. In the first stage, each child played three games so as to get to know and explore the game. In the second stage, the participants worked in pairs which competed against each other. Then they rotated until everyone had formed pairs and taken part. For the third stage, the participants formed one pair who resolved problem-situations. In the final stage, each participant played a game so as to evaluate the level of understanding achieved by each, after going through the process of social interaction. The results indicated progress in the level of comprehension of the logical system within the Matix game, for all the participants. It was ascertained that cognitive progress seems to be associated with the cognitive conditions of each subject, and with the possibility of inter-relationship with their partners.


The high quality of gene set is necessary to study the functional research of genes. Although perilla is cultivated as an oil crop and as a vegetable crop in Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, northeast China and Nepal, the reference genome is absent. To assembly perilla gene set, we sequenced the various tissues of perilla (Perilla citriodora) RNA-seq with Illumina HiSeq platform, generating 548,549,314 short reads. When de novo transcriptome assembly was performed with five samples, 86,396 and 38,413 transcripts were assembled as total and representative transcripts, respectively. Using 1,917,424 proteins at Phytozome ver. 9.1, we annotated the perilla assembled transcripts, and 66,139(76.55%) and 24,030(62.55%) transcripts showed the similarity with known plant proteins (E-value < 1e-10) as total and representative transcripts, respectively. Among the diverse molecular functions, we were interested in the regulatory components, such as transcription factor and transcription regulator. Using this data, we identified 499 transcripts annotated the putative transcription factor differentially expressed transcripts. 165 putative transcription factors were significantly expressed in perilla flower and 121 putative transcription factors in both leaf and flower. This study provides the perilla reference gene set and the understanding of the molecular regulation of transcription factor dependent on the tissue.


Ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) is an advanced composite material characterized by compressive and tensile strengths above 150MPa and 7MPa, respectively. Initially, an experimental procedure was used to characterize the tensile performance through bending tests, using beams with 1% and 2% content by volume of steel fibers. Three-point bending load arrangement notched prisms were used to determine the contribution of the fibers to reinforcing a cracked section. With that, the (F vs. ω) experimental curves were graphed, and from there, the analytic tensile curves (σ vs. ω) was obtained point by point by application of the inverse analysis procedure proposed by the AFGC. With the analytic curves, the fracture energy was calculated, following a procedure proposed by RILEM. Subsequently, the crack width was transformed into strain using a relationship that involves the characteristic length. The resulting analytical behavior law was used to carry out computational modeling applying the finite element method. Both the finite element method and the fracture energy were used to validate the procedures, comparing experimental and numerical results. Models and experiments showed good agreement and finally was determined the constitutive law for the UHPFRC in tension. It can be concluded from this study, therefore, that the post-cracking tensile behaviour of UHPFRC can be appropriately evaluated and validated through the applied analysis procedure in this research.


The paper studies questions of sound palette in Pasternak's poetry, abundance of the world of sounds, that were heard in nature, music, everyday life and contribute to disclosure of a character, image and external characteristics of an object or a phenomenon. The synthesis of "what was heard" and "what was seen" (B. Asafiev) is one of the important features of Boris Pasternak's poetics. It gives uniqueness and individuality to creative style of the master, who perceived and revealed the world around in his poetry with special sensibility and intensity.


The research work aims at developing a valid and reliable scale for ICT (Information and communication technology) enabled classroom effectiveness from student's perspective in a multi-campus university setting. A standard methodology for scale development is used for developing and validating the scale which comprises of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The sample population was the students from a premier multi-campus university. The results revealed ICT enabled classroom effectiveness as a multi-dimensional construct comprising of four factors namely class design and infrastructure; scheduling and coordination; technical support staff; and resource availability. Although a plethora of literature is available in the domain of e-learning, none of them have considered the aspects of ICT enabled classroom effectiveness specifically in an Indian multi-campus university. The limitation of the study lies in terms of sample size and generalizability. Emphasizing the identified factors will give a cutting edge advantage for the universities by enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of ICT enabled classroom teaching.  https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2017.09.007


Pasco, Madeleine Dallas B. S. Biology Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology February 2018 "Investigation of the Response of Magnetotactic Bacteria to Varying Field Strength and Development of Autonomous Analysis of Spatial Dispersal" Thesis Advisor: Jennifer O'Connor, Ph.D. Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are single-celled organisms which contain organelles called "magnetosomes," membrane-bound ferrous nanocrystals. These organelles allow for magnetotaxis, which is movement guided by magnetic fields. MTB are generally found in the top layers of sediment of aqueous environments, and magnetotaxis is thought to help guide these microbes to ideal oxygen concentrations in the water after they may have been displaced by turbulent waters. The magnetic component of this magneto-aerotaxis is thought to be guided by the ambient magnetic field of the Earth (0.25-0.65 gauss). In order to investigate how the strength of the magnetic field affects magnetotaxis, I took images of Magnetospirillum magneticum, strain AMB-1 while varying the strength of an induced magnetic field controlled by the distance between permanent bar magnets (2 cm, 78 ± 4 gauss and 10 cm, 6.0 ± 1 gauss). The numbers of bacteria accumulated near the magnets after five minutes of exposure to a field were compared to those of E. coli, which has no magnetotactic character. In order to attempt to eliminate the error associated with manual counting of microbes, I created an autonomous program using MATLAB which converts RGB images of bacteria into binary images and counts


This special issue of Mathematical Structures in Computer Science contains several contributions related to the modern field of Quantum Information and Quantum Computing. The first two papers deal with entanglement. The paper by R. Mosseri and P. Ribeiro presents a detailed description of the two- and three-qubit geometry in Hilbert space, dealing with the geometry of fibrations and discrete geometry. The paper by J.-G.Luque et al. is more algebraic and considers invariants of pure k-qubit states and their application to entanglement measurement.


Under the Act on Physical Protection and Radiological Emergency (APPRE)[1], Licensees of ROK are required to establish a Cyber Security Plans and Program that meets cyber security requirements for computer and information system at nuclear facilities security. Regulatory Standards, KINAC/RS015[2] and KINAC/RS-019[3], are developed to ensure licensee to comply the regulatory requirements for cyber security. Moreover, independent guidelines and procedures for the reviews and inspections are developed to leverage the regulation quality of cyber security. In this paper, a practical methodologies are considered to take into account the effectiveness and efficiency of implementation on security measures with referenced methodologies. Further study for calculate or estimated that regulation of cyber security are effectively implemented, are remained.


The identification of a part of large-scale radiant heating system at an administration building is presented. The aim of the study is to evaluate the basic thermal state of the room under winter conditions with built-in radiant heating system through a simulation model, which could be used direct for its controlling in order to reduce energy consumption and to get required comfortable temperature there.


Revealing the spatial differences and convergence mechanism of urban land use efficiency (ULUE) under the background of regional integration is of great significance for exploring the coordinated promotion path of ULUE. We attempted to build a theoretical framework to interpret ULUE spatial convergence under the background of regional integration and build a ULUE "green" evaluation system under multi-objective constraints. Based on this, we employed the super efficiency slack-based model (SBM), exploratory spatial data analysis, and spatial convergence model incorporated into the spatial weight matrix to re-examine the true level, spatial differences, and convergence mechanism of ULUE in the Yangtze River Economic Zone from 2003 to 2019 on a city scale. The results show that: (1) during the investigation period, ULUE in the Yangtze River Economic Zone has obvious spatial disequilibrium and spatial correlation characteristics; (2) there are absolute β-space convergence and conditional β-space convergence of ULUE in the whole Yangtze River Economic Zone and its upstream, midstream, and downstream areas; (3) driven by government management, industrial development, and spatial error effects, the convergence time of ULUE in the whole Yangtze River Economic Zone and its upstream, midstream, and downstream areas is obviously shortened.


Electronic nuclear dynamics (END), a recently developed explicitly time-dependent theory treats fully the electronic-nuclear coupling. The END theory at the level of a model that employs a single complex spin-unrestricted determinantal wavefunction for the electrons and classical nuclei has been implemented in the computer code ENDyne. It permits comparisons of the full dynamics at this level of treatment with one where the electronic-nuclear coupling is neglected. The neglect of coupling terms is shown to have quite drastic influence on the detailed dynamics of ion-atom and ion-molecule collisions.


This qualitative study explores how and why women, positioned as mothers, wives, or carers, navigate changing household dynamics, related to care and reproductive resources, and become entrepreneurial. Drawing on relational reflexivity, we show how women's embodied, intimate relations with important others in the household form the focal point for entrepreneurial activities and offer evidence of their entrepreneurial agency. Our analysis reveals the emergence of three relational practices that result in a new venture as the entrepreneurial response of women. We critically evaluate normative analyses on gender, entrepreneurship, and household.


The problems occurred during application of organosilicone high-temperature are analyzed.The application process of high-temperature paint is studied.The relative solutions are discussed.


This paper deals with an emergent variant of the classical problem of computing the probability of the union of n events, or equivalently the expectation of the disjunction (ORing) of n indicator variables for these events, i.e., the probability of this disjunction being equal to one. The variant considered herein deals with multi-valued variables, in which the required probability stands for the reliability of a multi-state delivery network (MSDN), whose binary system success is a two-valued function expressed in terms of multi-valued component successes. The paper discusses a simple method for handling the afore-mentioned problem in terms of a standard example MSDN, whose success is known in minimal form as the disjunction of prime implicants or minimal paths of the pertinent network. This method utilizes the multi-state inclusion-exclusion (MS-IE) principle associated with a multi-state generalization of the idempotency property of the ANDing operation. The method discussed is illustrated with a detailed symbolic example of a real-case study, and it produces a more precise version of the same numerical value that was obtained earlier. The example demonstrates the notorious shortcomings and the extreme inefficiency that the MS-IE Original Research Article Rushdi and Amashah; AJRCOS, 8(1): 21-45, 2021; Article no.AJRCOS.67438 22 method suffers, but, on the positive side, it reveals the way to alternative methods, in which such a shortcoming is (partially) mitigated. A prominent and well known example of these methods is the construction of a multi-state probability-ready expression (MS-PRE). Another candidate method would be to apply the MS-IE principle to the union of fewer (factored or composite) paths that is converted (at minimal cost) to PRE form. A third candidate method, employed herein, is a novel method for combining the MS-PRE and MS-IE concepts together. It confines the use of MS-PRE to 'shellable' disjointing of ORed terms, and then applies MS-IE to the resulting partially orthogonalized disjunctive form. This new method makes the most of both MS-PRE and MS-IE, and bypasses the troubles caused by either of them. The method is illustrated successfully in terms of the same real-case problem used with the conventional MS-IE.


PURPOSE: Provided are an optical adhesive resin composition having a high reliability and a low optical loss even at low temperature, and a method for preparing the same. CONSTITUTION: The optical adhesive resin composition comprises (a) one compound selected from the group consisting of urethane(metha)acrylate oligomer, epoxy(meth)acrylate oligomer and epoxy oligomer; (b) (meth)acrylate monomer or epoxy monomer; (c) initiator; and (d) additives. The adhesive prepared from the optical adhesive resin composition shows increased adhesion, hardness, and water/heat resistance, as well as minimized shrinkage on hardening and thermal expansion coefficient.


Escalating medical costs contribute to poverty in countries with low resources. The drug costs account for 17 percent of medical expenses. Revisiting time-tested, cost-effective drugs can reduce these costs. Some of them find a place in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children. The list consists of medicines for a basic healthcare system. They are safe and cost-effective. The present paper identifies co-trimoxazole and chloramphenicol as antimicrobials, chloroquine for malaria, adrenaline, theophylline for asthma, and phenobarbital as an anti-epileptic drug that merits consideration for reviving interest in them and reduce drug treatment costs.
What is already known about this subject?
•       The cost of drugs contributes to rising medical costs.
•       Medical expenses push a large population below the poverty line.
What does this study add?
•       Rediscovering the relevance of old low-cost drugs is essential.
•       Revisiting the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children may be useful.
•       Drugs such as chloramphenicol and theophylline are such examples.


In this paper,recent results on expansive soil engineering property and slope stability are summed up.It includes characteristics of swelling and shrinkage of expansive soil,and its physical and mechanical indexes.The cause of cracking and quantitative expression of cracks,and crack affects on engineering structure are also discussed respectively.The results on strength theory of unsaturated expansive soil have been generalized.The study methods on expansive soil slope stability,affecting factors of expansive soil slope stability,and the parametric research results have also been summarized.


then, is grounded in the belief of an immanent and ineffable divine, characterized by pantheism and/or panentheism, and sympathetic to feminine metaphors for the divine. Those involved in the progressive spirituality typically value diversity and see their particular tradition as only one way to access this divine. Lynch shows how this development of progressive spirituality, rather than being solely tied to the introduction of eastern religious traditions into the west, as many have thought, is actually a continuation of western cultural traditions. In particular he outlines the connection to the post-Reformation turn to individualism and the Romantic turn to nature. Furthermore, progressive spirituality is welladapted to late modernity, even as it is resistant to the secularized worldview imbedded in modern ideology. Overall, The New Spirituality, is an engaging text which offers a well considered argument that has much to offer the discussion about the new spirituality. Lynch's argument that progressive spirituality can be found in both traditional religions and the alternative spiritualities of a holistic milieu allows for a more expansive dialogue between religious studies scholars in these areas, as well as more potential dialogue between participants (a dialogue which Lynch points out is often lacking). Lynch is careful, though, to point out the limits of the categories he employs, highlighting the range of collective identities found within progressive spirituality. While this is suitable for the type of spirituality he is exploring, it also makes the distinctions between progressive spirituality and other types of religious identity harder to define. A bit more discussion of the problems of study of such a movement would have been useful. Though The Nez~r Spirituality offers much for scholarly discussion, it is also written in an easily accessible style, and as such would be suitable for undergraduate students.


Copper sulfide concentrates such as chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) have the reputation of being difficult to fuse. First of all, sulfides are insoluble in borate fluxes without oxidant. Insoluble particles have so many opportunities to come in contact with the crucibles that corrosion problems can be serious. Consequently, sulfide bearing materials, especially concentrates, are often considered too risky to process in platinum crucibles because no reliable, simple and safe fusion method was available. Additionally, the metallic Cu coats platinum surfaces when a sample is fused with lithium tetraborate. The Cu coating is responsible for the strong adherence of glass to crucibles and moulds. The adhesion results in sticking to the moulds during cooling, and causes cracking of the disk.


We experimentally emulate an energy efficient 500-Tbps subsea cable with 24 fiber pairs of 200-μm outer diameter Pure Silica Core Fiber and then we draw projections to assess how to achieve a 1-Pbps submarine cable for distances from 3000 to 12000 km.


We describe an application of hierarchic diff to the collaborative
editing of tree-based music representations, using
Zhang and Shasha's tree edit distance algorithm as implemented
within the XUDiff tool. The edit distance between
two trees is the minimum number of edit operations necessary
to transform one tree into the other. We consider common
operations on the score tree- deleting, changing, and
appending tree nodes- to derive a minimal edit sequence,
known as an edit script, and we compare the performance
of the widely used Longest Common Subsequence algorithm
against our approach. We conclude by summarizing
implications for the design of collaborative music document
software systems.


Heterotopic gastric mucosa of the proximal esophagus (HGMPE) also referred to as inlet patch is a salmon-colored patch located just distal to the upper esophageal sphincter. HGMPE is usually asymptomatic detected incidentally during endoscopy. Its clinical significance is mainly acid-related or neoplastic complications. Here, we present a case of a 58-year female presenting in the casualty with two episodes of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding. UGI Endoscopy revealed a large esophageal ulcer 1.5 cm × 1 cm just below the upper esophageal sphincter (UES). Biopsy from this area revealed a diagnosis of HGMPE. UGI bleed occurring as a complication of inlet patch has been very rarely reported. Only one case in literature is present making this case report the second one. This case highlights the importance of careful endoscopic evaluation of the UES region along with biopsy which may reveal heterotopic gastric mucosa in patients with unexplained UGI bleed.


In today's world full of changes, whether the advent of new technologies that are authoritative and will be a trend for many economic sectors or impact Covid epidemic whose effects are still unaware can be sure that the changes in consumer preferences and aggregate demand and increasingly more competition between the largest economies in geographical terms, all this puts more importance on research and development. It is expected a new impetus in the field of patents that will respond to new impulses from the market.
Monitor the development of patents over the last year in the broader perspective implies growth or decline in individual industries and economies, are interesting differences in the intensity of new know-how even within different regions of the world.


This paper presents a boost bridgeless totem-pole converter operating as power factor correction (PFC) stage integrated with a half-bridge LLC resonant converter as power control (PC) stage. The resultant single-stage converter yields in an effective integration, reducing the number of switches from 4 to 2 (50% reduction). This integrated topology aims decreasing conduction and commutation power losses and, moreover, achieving high power factor (PF), low total harmonic distortion (THD) and higher efficiency when compared with other converter structures. The converter is designed to have a fixed bus voltage, which is controlled by changing the half-bridge duty cycle under universal input voltage (UIV). However, since the HB duty cycle also affects the LLC converter due to their integration, a variable inductor is employed to control the LLC impedance and achieve a controlled output current and dimming capability. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the theorical analysis, through a 100 W LED luminaire. The results show voltage and current levels in the topology for different operating points. Moreover, it is shown the feasibility of output current control capability through variable inductor even with HB duty cycle variation.


In this paper we study an approximation of system reliability using one-step conditioning. It is shown that, without greatly increasing the computational complexity, the conditional method may be used instead of the usual minimal cut and minimal path bounds to obtain more accurate approximations and bounds. We also study the conditions under which the approximations are bounds on the reliability. Some further extensions are also presented.


The author has described the effective educational technology adequate to the goal of the Institute of Dialog between Cultures to prepare a student to the dialogue in the process of foreign language education. Dialogue between cultures treated by the author is somewhat broader than a concept introduced by V.S. Bibler. As one of the key provisions in foreign language education and communication technology is considered the proposed technique: "techniqueaction" represents some combination of means, methods and conditions, and "technique-concept" is a model, according which "techniques-actions" aimed at achieving the goal are constructed.


Reactions with Organophosphorus Compounds, XLV. A New Synthesis of (2-Oxocycloalkylidene)triphenylphosphoranes

The bromoenolethers 1, upon treatment with triphenylphosphane in nitromethane, yield the cycloalkenylphosphonium salts 4, which on subsequent reaction with hydrochloric acid and sodium carbonate afford the (2-oxocycloalkylidene)phosphoranes 3. With methyl bromide the O-methyl derivatives 4 are reformed from compounds 3; with acetyl azide the condensed acyltriazoles 5 are obtained, which lead to the unsubstituted triazoles 6, when treated with KOH. Reaction of 3b with (SCN)2 yields the cycloheptene derivative 7b, which can be cyclized to the thiazole 8b.


Resources calculations are the most vital step in exploration. It is started from hypothetical resources to mineable resources calculation which is the final stage of the exploration phase. Results of this calculation are used to study the feasibility of the planned mining activities.On this research, the writer took data of coal from seam X, Wahau Formation, concession of PT. Bumi Murau Coal, Kutai Timur District, East Borneo Province, which form folding structure consist of anticline in west and syncline in east. Based on this geological condition, coal in this region tends to continue because it is not disturbed by faulting structure. Purposes of this research are to determine the thickness of seam X, distribution pattern of seam X, and potential resources. The research method consists of survey method, descriptive method, and analytical method. Survey method is performed to determine location of data acquisition. Descriptive method is performed by identified characteristics of coal in seam X from core drill data. Analytical method is quantitatively, it is calculate potential coal resources in this field. Volume calculation is using 3 section methods, with prismoida formula. Structure contour map is used here to know width of each section using software surfer 8 and correl draw x-3. Based on analytical method, the average thickness of seam X is 19.9 m. Core condition characteristically it is black in color, dull, concoidal fracture, setting and cubical, solid to broken, not of all contain resin. Volume of seam X is 65,537,333.333 m3 with tonnage value 85,198,533.333 ton.


Secondary radar system is a radar communication system using transceiver attached both in ground station and transponder as moving object. The accuracy of data transmission process in secondary radar system is needed to determine the distance and position of transponder from ground station. To realize the system, a data communication monitoring is needed between ground station and transponder so the user can monitor whether the data communication has been processed or not. In this final project, as the trial for transceiver and transponder, used two transceivers Adeunis Radio Frequency (ARF)7429B that will communicate each other as a secondary radar system. The communication of ARF 7429B is ASCII character data communication.This final project do data signal monitoring for data sent and received which the data is the conversion of ASCII character data into binary data. This data sent and received in ARF transmitter that will compared with data received and sent in ARF receiver. The result of this final project showed that the data can be sent and received successfully even though the limit of software for sending one character. From the data signal monitoring, there is a delay between data sent and data received. Hopefully for future research, this delay time can be used for detecting position and distance of transponder as the application of secondary radar system.


The recoverable reserves and the remaining recoverable reserves are important indices for oi-gas development. The remaining recoverable reserves should be as a material base for it in future. For waterflooding oilfields. the methods for prediction of recoverable re- serves include water drive curve, production decline, forecast model and numerical simulation. However, when a oil-gas field gets into late stage, the production decline becomes the most forecast method, which is also one of generally applied methods for forecasting recoverable reserves in the world. Based on this nethod, this paper presents the methods for quickly forecasting the technologically recoverable re- serves, economically recoverable reserves, remaining technologically recoverable reserves and remaining economically recoverable re- serves. The practicability, effectiveness and reliability of these methods have been confirmed by 12 oilfields in Chins.


Nowadays aging population is increasing in many country. As a consequence power assist devices are growing in importance. Knowing the force that the user applies is a key aspect in the control of these devices. Force sensors are often used, even though they are generally expensive, heavy and characterized by time delay. To overcome these aspects, force sensor-less power assist control (FSPAC) aims to estimate the force to assist by using only encoders. However, FSPAC is generally not robust against plant uncertainties. In this paper, FSPAC with variable gain is proposed and implemented on a system representing a door, actuated by a linear motor. The results show that the proposed control design increases FSPAC's safety and robustness.


It has become clear in recent years that the configuration space of the nuclear Skyrme model has, in each topological class, many almost degenerate local energy minima and that the number of such minima grows with the degree (or baryon number) $B$. Rigid body quantization, in which one quantizes motion on the spin-isospin orbit of just one minimum, is thus an ill-justified approximation. Instead, one should identify a (finite-dimensional) moduli space of configurations containing all local minima (for a given $B$) as well as fields interpolating smoothly between them. This paper proposes a systematic computational scheme for generating such a moduli space: one constructs an energy minimizing path between each pair of local minima, then defines the moduli space to be the union of spin-isospin orbits of points on the union of these curves, a principal bundle over a graph. The energy minimizing curves may be constructed in practice using the nudged elastic band method, a standard tool in mathematical chemistry for analyzing reaction paths and computing activation energies. To illustrate, we apply this scheme to the lightly bound Skyrme model in the point particle approximation, constructing the graphs for $5\leq B\leq 10$. We go on to complete the quantization for $B=7$, in which the graph has two vertices and a single edge. The low-lying quantum states with isospin $1/2$ do not strongly localize around either of the local energy minima (the vertices). Their energies rise monotonically with spin, conflicting with experimental data for Lithium-7.


IV RESUME V INTRODUCTION 1 REMOVAL OF NUTRIENTS 5 ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCE 7 RELEASE OF NUTRIENTS 8 TO THE WATER COLUMN 9 ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCE 10 TO THE BENTHOS 10 ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCE 12 CONCLUSIONS 13 KNOWLEDGE GAPS AND RESEARCH NEEDS 14 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 14 REFERENCES 14


The intensive study of urease, motility, adhesins and stress response proteins, long-known pathogenic factors of Helicobacter pylori, has continued. The increased virulence associated with cagA-positive strains may be explained by the presence of a pathogenicity island for which the CagA protein acts as a serological marker. The pathogenic relevance of vacuolating cytotoxin and its heterogeneity has been further demonstrated. Advances have been made in understanding the mechanism by which the cytotoxin induces epithelial cell vacuolation. The potential role played by lipopolysaccharide in the development of gastritis and H. pylori-associated autoimmunity is now recognized. The availability of the complete genome sequence of H. pylori promises to give new insights into pathogenesis in the future.


We investigated whether plasma ferritin levels through the pro‐inflammatory effects of free iron are associated with adipose tissue dysfunction in a relevant population of patients with manifest vascular disease who would potentially benefit the most from further aetiological insights.


The invention discloses an automatic ticket checking method and an automatic ticket checking apparatus. The automatic ticket checking method comprises the following steps: respectively recording the frequency of a first sensor, a second sensor and a third sensor continuously positioned in a same state, wherein the first sensor, the second sensor and the third sensor are sequentially arranged in a ticket checking channel on the passing direction of passengers; collecting statistics of the recorded frequency of the first sensor, the second sensor and the third sensor continuously positioned in a same state in a preset time period when a passenger reaches the position of the third sensor is detected; and calculating according to the statistical result to obtain the number of passengers needing tickets in the ticket checking period in the preset time period. The method and the apparatus improve the accuracy and the reliability of automatic ticket checking.


A rapid and simple UV-Vis spectrophotometric method was used for the determination of the level of sodium benzoate and yellow 6 in 14 different batches of orange soft drink samples and 7 different batches of orange juice samples commercially available in local markets of Bangladesh. The standard samples of sodium benzoate and yellow 6 in water were used to make calibration curves and the correlation coefficient (r2) of the calibration curves were found to be 0.9993 and 0.9953 for sodium benzoate and yellow 6, respectively. The wavelength of absorption maxima was 225 nm for Sodium benzoate and 429 nm for yellow 6. All 14 analyzed soft drinks samples contained yellow 6 and sodium benzoate in the range of 2.90-162.51 mg/L and 94.06-387.66 mg/L, respectively. The highest amount of sodium benzoate and yellow 6 were found in the sample AMR (387.66 mg/L) and BRC (162.51 mg/L), respectively. Among the 7 orange juice samples yellow 6 were found in the range of 28.03-102.66 mg/L and the highest amount was in the sample OJ1 (102.66 mg/L). The reproducibility and repeatability of the method was very satisfactory with low value of RSD in a range of 0.05 to 4.17% and 0.05 to 4.07%, respectively.
Dhaka Univ. J. Sci. 66(2): 135-137, 2018 (July)


There are few more powerful symbols of the international community's shared past and future than the ocean. From the earliest human migrations, it carried our ancestors to new continents, brought civilizations together, and opened the world to exploration and trade. It also connects us ecologically. Numerous fish species swim across territorial waters to spawn and feed, supporting billion-dollar fisheries and countless livelihoods. Most importantly, the ocean is the central force in regulating the global climate that sustains us all. In fact, scientists have shown that since the onset of the industrial age, the oceans have borne the brunt of consequences from excessive burning of fossil fuels, absorbing carbon dioxide emissions and the majority of the heat generated from global warming.


This paper presents a case study of a 'hands on' computing course taught both on‐and off‐campus to students from developing countries. The paper illustrates that a limited resource environment does not have to be a constraint in mounting a distance education course in computing with a major practical component. Some of the problems encountered and techniques used for implementation are also given.


The achievable accelerations of serial robot systems are limited by the weight of the axis drives, which are moved while traversing the given trajectory of the manipulator. By switching to parallel robot systems, it is possible to mount all drives on the rigid base platform. This reduction in weight of the movable linkage increases the possible accelerations, while retaining suitable position accuracy. Much weight can be reduced further on by using composite fibre materials for cranks and rods of each parallel linkage. Such systems are light and stiff and enable low cycle times, but unfortunately they are usually poorly damped as elastic structures and therefore tend to perform unwanted elastic vibrations during motion. In this paper, position dependent models are investigated, which are suitable to generate linearized elastic system models at arbitrary positions in the work space of the robot structure. These models are further modified to include active piezo electric patch devices as actuators and sensors, which can be used to control and observe the elastic structural deformations. The final electro-mechanical coupled system model can be used to develop and simulate state space vibration control algorithms.


There are many well documented immunological phenomena in Hodgkin's disease which remain unexplained. There is evidence of immunological reactions in progress which are related to the activity of the disease but at the same time there is depression of some aspects of the immune response. Hodgkin's disease may be associated with autoimmune reactions, some of which may cause harm, others may have a beneficial effect since there is a possibility that they may be directed against the tumour cell. The changes observed in immune reactivity undoubtedly play an important part in the clinical course of the disease. It is hardly surprising that a great deal of work has been done on this aspect of the disease.


In the study is shown the importance of knowledge exchange coaching in the network company which respond on demands of postmodernist world. Firstly it is presented the stages of problem solution process within the data is transformed into wisdom. The growing importance of knowledge management has affected on searching for the tools of implementation it. In the paper the Author's proposition is establishing the community of coaches and creating the knowledge exchange system between their external and internal coaches. There is also analyzed the coaching structure in the international company and presented the model of knowledge flow in the community coaches. Finally there were described the particular phases of the establishing the community coaches based on computer aided knowledge exchange and behavioral determinants of the knowledge transfer.


On the basis of the conducted research, the methodology of choice and calculation of threaded connections of the drill for percussion-rotary drilling, which allows to increase the service life of the hydroshock machines and stand pipes in 2-3 times.


The article compares the results of intraocular pressure measurements by two methods - standard tonometry using a Maklakov tonometer (10 g), and transpalpebral tonometry by indicator IGD-03 diathera. The study was conducted in the outpatient clinic at the center of family medicine of the North-Western State Medical University named after. I. I. Mechnikov in the group of patients with limited mobility. The result of the study was the confirmation of the correlation of the results of IOP measurement by two methods


: The third part of the guided wave based structural health monitoring of pressure vessel applies the aforementioned structural health monitoring technology in the damage localization of a filament wound pressure vessel. The hydraulic fatigue cycling and pressurization experiments of a full-scale composite pressure vessel are performed , and the damage localization results are transferred by a remote monitoring system. The guided wave signal as well as the strain of the tank and the composite layer during the mechanical tests are obtained, and the relationship between the amplitude of the guided wave signal and the fatigue and pressurization status of the pressure vessel are built. During the pressurization, the damage localization is performed by the system under different pressures, and the damage localization accuracy is analyzed. Results show that the fatigue status of the pressure vessel can be reflected by the strain, however, the strain tendency cannot reflect its status after fatigue. The amplitude of the guided wave decreases linearly with the fatigue cycles. After fatigue for 5 700 cycles, the amplitude decreasing with the inner pressure, while the strain shows an increasing tendency. Relationship between the two parameters could be used to measure the pressure vessel status. Fatigue affect the damage localization accuracy sharply, while the developed remote monitoring system could get the damage information of the filament wound pressure vessel before fatigue with high accuracy.


A further investigation into the role of linguistic evolution as an alternative to biological evolution in the emergence of syntax is presented. This follows on from the idea that languages themselves are evolving entities, which adapt to be easily acquired by the human learner. It has already been shown that it is possible for the rudimentary elements of syntax, i.e. compositionality and recursiveness, to emerge in a population of language learning agents without any specific linguistic knowledge and in the absence of selection for communicative ability[8],[7]. Attempts are made here to extend this framework to cover another important aspect of natural language: the use of a case system to make distinctions between thematic roles.


Affirmative action to employ more women and minorities at Harvard consists mainly in efforts to increase the number who apply for jobs. Since the first affirmative action plan was prepared in 1973, the proportion of women employees has risen markedly, especially in nonfaculty positions, but the proportion of black and Hispanic faculty has changed little. The record of the Medical School is particularly poor. Affirmative action is hampered by a lack of vigorous support from Harvard leaders, the decentralized university organization, the often unjustified perception of candidates' weak quality, the opposition of some women and minority faculty, and the shortages of qualified candidates.


Wavelet transforms computed by the decimated Mallat's ( see A Wavelet Tour on Signal Processing. Academic Press, 2nd ed., 1999) algorithm present a pyramidal aspect. This pyramidal analysis combined with a prediction of high-frequency coefficients is used to produce a magnified signal. The prediction is based on a zero-crossings representation and on the construction of a multiscale edge-signature database. Performances are evaluated for synthetic-noisy and natural images. A improvement regarding some classical methods is observed.


This article addresses the problem of measuring a joint agreement between multiple raters and a standard set of responses. A new agreement measure based on Um's approach is proposed. The proposed agreement measure is used for multivariate interval responses. Comparison is made between the proposed measure and other corresponding agreement measures using hypothetical data set.


In this paper, we report on the design, fabrication, and testing of a polymer micro fluidic chip for Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS). A disposable plastic chip is designed to be fabricated using the hot-embossing process on polystyrene (PS) and polycarbonate (PC) substrates. The chip has an open reservoir, which is connected to an open channel that runs to the tip of the chip. A high voltage circuit is required to form the electrospray at the tip using methanol/water solution with an electrode wire in the reservoir. We have tried to minimize sources of impurities entering the microchannel, and hence, the MS, by careful selection of the fabrication process and electrode and use of open channel. The hot-embossing process is modeled using ANSYS to design the tool and predict the channel and reservoir shape and deformation. The simulation results provide an insight into the hot embossing process. Several samples are fabricated and tested, and the electrospray experimental results are reported. Laser machining and electroforming processes were investigated for fabricating the hot-embossing tool, and the results are reported.


Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of vitrification and slow freezing for the cryopreservation of human cleavage stage embryos in terms of post-warming survival rate,embryo morphology,implantation rates and clinical pregnancy rates.Methods:The embryos of 89 patients at cleavage stages were cryopreserved either with vitrification(46 patients) or slow freezing(43 patients) methods.After warming,the survival rate,embryo morphology,implantation rates and clinical pregnancy rates were evaluated and compared between the two groups.Results:In the vitrification group versus slow freezing group,the survival rate(92.7% vs.66.1%) and the post-warmed excellent morphology with all blastomeres intact(89.2% vs.61.4%) were higher(P0.05).In the vitrification group,the implantation rate(21.1% vs.4.7%)and the clinical pregnancy rate(47.8% vs.23.3%)were also higher(P0.05).Conclusion:Vitrification in contrast to slow freezing is an efficient method for cryopreservation of human cleavage stage embryos.Vitrification provides a higher survival rate,minimal deleterious effects on post-warming embryo morphology and it can improve clinical outcomes.


SUMMARY The use of multiobjective optimization techniques, which may be regarded as a systematic sensitivity analysis, for the selection and modification of system parameters is presented. A minimax multiobjective optimization model for structural optimization is proposed. Three typical multiobjective optimization techniques-goal programming, compromise programming and the surrogate worth trade-off method-are used to solve such a problem. The application of multiobjective optimization techniques to the selection of system parameters and large scale structural design optimization problems is the main purpose of this paper.


Abstract The polarity or orientation of 〈110〉 projected single crystals of tetrahedral compound semiconductors has been determined by high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) at 300 kV. The method has been applied to GaSb and computer simulations show that the image contrast is the reverse of that expected intuitively. Similar results are predicted for GaAs.


The invention provides a multipurpose combined surgical instrument which comprises a combined surgical tractor and a combined bone saw. The combined surgical tractor is composed of a winding-drum handle, a connecting handle 4 and a traction head, the winding-drum handle is composed of a winding drum handle and a connecting plate, one end of the connecting plate is crimped to be semicircular while the other end of the same is vertically arranged in the middle of the winding-drum handle which is crimped to be cylindrical, mushroom-shaped connecting rivets are arranged on the connecting plate, gourd-shaped holes are arranged at two ends of the connecting handle, a wide hole of each gourd-shaped hole is coincident with diameter of the head of the corresponding mushroom-shaped connecting rivet while a narrow hole of the same is coincident with the diameter of the waist of the corresponding mushroom-shaped connecting rivet, the lower end of each mushroom-shaped connecting rivet is riveted with the connecting plate, the number of the gourd-shaped holes at the two ends of the connecting handle is coincident with that of the mushroom-shaped connecting rivets arranged on the connecting plate, the combined bone saw is composed of the winding-drum handle and a saw blade, the connecting plates are arranged at two ends of the saw blade, and gourd holes are arranged on the connecting plates, and hooked together with the mushroom-shaped connecting rivets on the connecting plate arranged at the center of the winding-drum handle.


In the original paper, Chanda and Maity proposed a new meteorological drought index, called standardized precipitation anomaly index (SPAI), mimicking the general methodology of the most popular drought index, called standardized precipitation index (SPI). However, the proposed index differs from the SPI in details. The discusser would like to discuss some features of SPAI, presented in the discussed paper, from different point of views, as follows: 1. Per Eq. (1) of the original paper, SPAI is based on the precipitation anomalies rather than the raw precipitation data (which are employed in the SPI calculation). The authors pointed out this feature of SPAI resolves the lower-bounding issue of SPI values. Although it seems to be true, it can be shown that SPAI (in its final mathematical form) is really based on the statistical parameters of raw precipitations, like the SPI. Assuming the precipitation anomalies follows the normal distribution, the mathematical form of SPAI can be written as SPAIij 1⁄4 yij − ȳ Sy ð1Þ


The paper is focused on the idea of multi-fuel combustion in a large-scale circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler. The article discusses the concept of simultaneous coal and syngas combustion. A comprehensive three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed, which allows us to describe complex phenomena that occur in the combustion chamber of the CFB boiler burning coal and syngas produced from coal sludge.


Most studies on two-lane highway operations have focused on the percentage of following vehicles or the adjustment of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) procedure to local data. The HCM proposes the length of no-passing zones as a model parameter; however, the distribution and characteristics of passing zones are not addressed. In fact, only a few studies on the expected number of passes in a passing zone have been carried out. This research presents an analysis of the effectiveness of passing zones in terms of their length and traffic volume. Data were collected from four passing zones on a rural highway in Spain. The two-way traffic volumes ranged from 100 to 900 vehicles per hour (vph), and the passing zone lengths ranged from 265 to 1,270 m. More than 1,600 passing maneuvers were recorded. The operational effectiveness of the passing zones was obtained from the passing frequency and the passing rate. The results indicated that the longer the passing zone, the higher the passing frequency; however, the results stabilized with lengths above 1,100 m. Balanced flows with two-way traffic volumes between 600 and 700 vph optimized the number of passes. Nevertheless, the increase in the passing frequency with the traffic volume was lower than with the increase in following vehicles. The results were validated with data from another 12 passing zones. Finally, HCM adjustments based on the percentage of no-passing zones did not reliably represent the effectiveness of passing zones. Therefore, the effectiveness of every passing zone should be considered, and adjustment factors should be modified to maximize the passing opportunities for traffic volumes between 600 and 700 vph.


The purpose of the study was to identify EFL students' writing apprehension constructs affecting their writing performance using the structural...


Topical data on the prophylaxis of iodine deficiency conditions in children and adults are given. The results of a study on the effectiveness of using iodine-containing additives Biolod, iodcasein or iodized salt in meat products designed for childhood nutrition are presented. The use of iodine-containing additives BioIod or iodcasein in meat products for prophylaxis of iodine deficiency conditions in children's nutritional products was effective. With that, the highest effectiveness was observed for the BioIod additive, which was proved by experiments on hypothyroid model animals. Iodized salt has the least protective effect in iodine deficiency conditions.


FPGA implementation represents a widely accepted method to test various prototype systems regarding technological process control. In order to support the developer to integrate legacy devices in new industrial Ethernet environment, it was proposed an original smart IEEE 1451 compliant interface in order to connect HART devices to the Ethernet network. As follows, it will be exposed the design of a physical circuit, based on a Virtex 4 FPGA developed by Xilinx, which implements the functionality of the HART-Ethernet Intelligent Subsystem (HEIS).


Radiotherapy (RT) is standard curative treatment for many tumours, specially brain tumours. However, RT causes damage to normal brain tissue due to genetic instability, impairment of synaptic plasticity and increased oxidative stress and inflammation. With improved treatment, patient survival also increased in years, making long-term effect of RT more evident. Late toxicities of RT are well described for pediatric survivors but there is scant literature on late toxicities in adult survivors and, in general, the adult brain is considered less susceptible to radiation damage.

 Retrospective analysis of adult patients treated with whole-brain RT with more than 15 years of follow-up. Clinical charts were reviewed to collect clinical, demographic and outcome data.

 From 18 patients found (mean age at diagnosis of 27 years, 13 male/ 5 female), 5 were diagnosed with medulloblastoma, 5 CNS lymphoma, 5 with germinoma, 3 with ependymoma and 1 with teratocarcinoma. Most common presentations were headache (61,1%), seizure (16,7%) and dizziness (16,7%). 5 patients (27,8%) had hydrocephalus at diagnosis. All patients received whole-brain RT (mean 40Gys, varying between 21 to 60Gys), alongside with complete surgical resection in 11 patients (61,1%) and chemotherapy in 10 patients (55,6%). Mean follow-up time was 23,6 years and only 1 patient died due to lymphoma recurrence 16,7 years after the initial diagnosis. During follow-up, all patients had late RT induced changes, leukoencephalopathy in 16 patients (88,9%; mean 8,6 years after RT), ischemic stroke in 9 patients (50,0%; mean 16,0 years after RT), cerebral microbleeds in 14 patients (77,8%; mean 15,4 years after RT), cognitive decline in 12 patients (66,7%; mean 15,8 years after RT), radio-induced meningioma in 3 patients (16,7%; mean 18,1 years after RT) and epilepsy in 2 patients (11,1%; mean 10,5 years after RT). Also 1 patient had neurosensorial loss 14,2 years after RT and another one had subarachnoid haemorrhage due to ruptured aneurysm 19 years after RT.

 Our results show that late RT induced effects are progressive and irreversible in the adult survivors, in a very similar manner as has been reported in the pediatric survivors. The impact on quality of live is increasing as patients survive longer. RT is still an important tool in neuro-oncology, but its role in curing brain tumors needs further study.


Non-timber forest products provide multiple livelihood benefits. They are mainly harvested from the wild until their value increases and over-harvesting incentivises cultivation. Markets have driven cultivation, but are also frequently negatively associated with maintaining populations of wild species. A forest-to-farm transition can maintain and enhance sustainable livelihoods as well as help maintain genetic resources aided by species specific regulation, customary traditions and support from research and development initiatives.


The present invention relates to an image correction device and method considering the area attributes, the brightness region of m, but each different treatment divided into two regions, darkened due to the element of the external light source, such as even in dark areas backlight region, and the object-specific the reflectivity is lowered separating the original dark area brightness and colors, to provide an image correction apparatus and method for applying to each of the other compensation methods. The present invention for achieving this object is achieved by an inverse gamma conversion unit to release the gamma conversion linearizing the R, G, B, respectively; Threshold calculation section for calculating the m-1 of the boundary value to divide a brightness of the pixel in the m number of regions; The input image a plurality of blocks for block division is divided into (M × N); Each block is a block statistical calculation unit arranged to specify a brightness for each block in the area to determine whether it belongs to which area, of the m number of brightness region; Block-by-block look-up table generator for generating a block-by-block correction look-up table; The image correction unit for correcting the image based on the block-by-block look-up table generation unit blocks each look-up table generated from; And a gamma converter for performing gamma conversion; It includes. BLC sphere characteristics taken into consideration, a high dynamic range


The present invention relates to communication technologies, discloses a traffic flow mirroring method and the mirror device, the present invention may be mirrored on the received service stream based on the user identifier; can also parse the received traffic flow, obtain the service type of traffic flow, so that It may be based on the type of service flow traffic mirroring. Use of the present invention, it is possible to specify only the image or the user service stream designated service, reduce the processing load monitoring device.


Leaf area measurements are commonly obtained by destructive and laborious practice. This paper shows how stereo and Time-of-Flight (ToF) images can be combined for non-destructive automatic leaf area measurements. We focus on some challenging plant images captured in a greenhouse environment, and show that even the state-of-the-art stereo methods produce unsatisfactory results. By transforming depth information in a ToF image to a localised search range for dense stereo, a global optimisation strategy is adopted for producing smooth results that preserve discontinuity. We also use edges of colour and disparity images for automatic leaf detection and develop a smoothing method necessary for accurately estimating surface area. In addition to show that combining stereo and ToF images gives superior qualitative and quantitative results, 149 automatic measurements on leaf area using our system in a validation trial have a correlation score of 0.97 with true values and a RMSE value of 10.97 cm 2 .


The "vertical" divergence of the beam in a counter diffractometer causes a broadening, and a shift of centre of gravity, of diffraction lines. The effects do not disappear as 2 theta tends to 180°, and hence present extrapolation methods fail to remove the errors introduced. Experimental results are quoted that are not explained by previous treatments, and a theoretical investigation is made of the diffractometer with no Soller slits, one set of slits, and two sets of slits. Results show a marked asymmetry about 2 θ = 90°, both in shift of centre of gravity and in line broadening, the maximum effects occurring at low values of 2 θ. The use of Soller slits for various practical applications of the diffractometer is discussed. For accurate lattice-parameter measurement it is shown that the fractional error in spacing introduced by vertical divergence may be written in the form Δd/d = - a + b cos2 θ where a and b are positive constants depending on goniometer radius, specimen height, and Soller-slit aperture (if used). Extrapolation against cos2 theta and addition of the constant a will therefore give the true lattice spacing. The magnitude of the correction for a "Norelco" high-angle goniometer with two sets of Soller slits is approximately 4 parts in 105.


The planning of space is a political process. It is a form social and political action that determines the way and the place where we will live. But who are these factors that shape the form of the city? Who are the data that influence the configuration of urban fabric? In our suggestion we will try to record the data and the factors, as well as their role in the configuration of urban fabric of a Greek middle size city. As such are usually comprehended the cities with population between 100 and 500 thousands of residents. The each city , small or big , is a unique case. The regrouping and generalisation become for charm of research. Among the data we have to report the below: - population - immigration - geographic place - topologike's peculiarities - technical infrastructures - mentality Also, the factors that they influence are: - economic - social - cultural - policies The example of Larissa Larissa is a formal Greek city of middle size with augmentative tendencies. Its population, in the inventory of 1991, was 113.090 residents while in the inventory of 2001 they are roughly 125.000 residents. It is found in central Greece, in the means of Thessalian plain and near of national road Athens - Thessalonica. The Municipality of Larissa does not have contact with the sea, but the city crosses of Penaeus river. Close by the city exists an airport of military service. The various districts of city are shaped concerning Penaeus river, the national road, the railway lines , the airport and of course the illegal building. The population in the neighborhoods of city is pull or repel by the reason of all the higher up , but also by the world that already lives in the region. All these has their role and these are that influences the configuration of urban fabric. Other than these least and other more. In any case , all these with the guidance of the government are that builds the modern cities where we see and live.


Program priorities include: (1) Expand and advance NASA's scientific and technological base by building on prior year's efforts in research and academic infrastructure; (2) Increase exposure to NASA's unique mission and facilities by developing closer relationships with NASA Strategic Enterprises; (3) Increase involvement in competitive peer review and merit selection processes; (4) Contribute significantly to the Agency's strategic goals and objectives; (5) Create systemic and sustainable change through partnerships and programs that enhance research and education programs; (6) Prepare faculty and students at HBCU's for NASA-related fields and increase number of students that enter and successfully complete degrees in NASA-related fields; (7) Establish measurable program goals and objectives; and (8) Improve financial management performance.


ABSTRACT Populist parties are often argued to be very skilled in using digital media to attract supporters and strengthen linkages with their followers. However, only rarely has research shown this linkage empirically. This study explores whether arguments about the relation between digital platforms and populist voting can be substantiated using comparative survey data in France, Germany and Italy. Digital media include a variety of online platforms that can affect populist vote in different ways. This article addresses the relation between the political use of digital platforms and the populist vote. First, it looks at how the use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and Mobile Instant Messaging Services (MIMS) is related to voting for populist parties. Second, it assesses whether the role of digital platforms is different for supporting digital 'immigrant' and digital 'native' populist parties. Third, it explores country differences in the relation between SNS and MIMS' use and the populist vote. Using original online surveys, the article shows that political activities on SNS and MIMS platforms (sending messages or posting, discussing or convincing others to vote for a candidate) increase the probability of voting for populist parties. However, it also finds that the political use of digital media is associated with the populist vote under certain (and limited) circumstances, that is only for a subset of populist parties. Finally, it identifies important differences in how SNS and MIMS are linked to the populist vote in countries presenting diverse institutional features, web regulations and constellations of media systems.


To overcome the disadvantages of low efficiency and bad interactive ability of image database browse system, a new method based on image database categorization and clustering is offered. By randomly sampling columns and grid segmenting rows of raw feature matrix, the approximate optimum sparse matrix of image database features is obtained. By the singular value decomposition (SVD) of this sparse matrix, the high dimensions of image database feature matrix can be reduced. Density estimation technique and hill-climbing strategy are used to define and extract image database clusters and categorization. Experimental results show that the method has interactive ability and good speed, and is not sensitive to noise data.


We synthesized mesoporous MnO2 nanospindles by a one-step hydrothermal process in an aqueous solution of KMnO4 and glucose. The structure, morphology, purity, and size of the products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and nitrogen adsorption/desorption (BET) measurements. The reaction time and concentrations of glucose influenced the final structures and shapes of the MnO2nanospindles. The length to diameter ratio of the MnCO3 precursor nanospindles can be easily tuned from 1.35:1 to 2.89:1. A possible formation mechanism for the mesoporous MnO2 nanospindles is proposed and discussed.


In all the music of Beethoven there exists no single passage that has generated more frequent comment than that moment in the Pastoral Symphony, near the end of the "Scene by the Brook" (Ex. 1), where the composer introduces the realistic songs of the nightingale, the quail, and the cuckoo. The span of the comment generated by these few measures is wide and in itself constitutes an amusing comment on the ambivalent and conflicting attitudes about this sort of thing in music. In the very first review of the Pastoral Symphony, in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in January 1810-just six months after the publication of the score--this passage was described with admiration.' The critic was none other than Friedrich Rochlitz, editor and co-founder of the AmZ. 2 He found especially ingenious Beethoven's interplay of three different birdsongs. The effect was "jocular" ("scherzhaft"), he decided, and was certain to win smiles. We do note, however, that since Rochlitz was writing in an era when many authors were severely critical of the new vogue for "Musikalische Mahlerei" -wherein the musical imitation of birdsongs was the very nadir of the vogue-his discussion of this passage is more than a bit defensive. Many writers have felt compelled to defend this passage, especially in the twentieth century. In the 1920s and 1930s, there developed a reactionary antagonism toward program music in general that colored people's view of the Pastoral Symphony. Robert Haven Schauffler, for example, in his Beethoven: The Man Who Freed Music (1929), complained that in various of the more programmatic passages in the Pastoral Symphony "the music degenerated into measures unworthy of a place in the nine symphonies."3 To this comment Donald Francis Tovey sallied, "when superior persons object to the childishness of the birds and the thunderstorm in Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony it is they who are childish in supposing that realism is in question at all."4


1 Internal Medicine-Interventional Cardiology, Department of Cardiology, Punta Pacifica Hospital, Affiliate of John Hopkins Medicine International, Panama City, Panama, 2 Biomedicine Research Unit, Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT Asociation of Public Interest), Panama City, Panama, Department of Cardiology, Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston, TX, United States, Department of Surgery & Centre for Advancing Clinical Research (CACR), Yamanashi University, Chuo, Japan, 5 Edogawa Evolutionary Laboratory of Science (EELS), Edogawa Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, 6 The Mary-Yoshio Translational Hexagon (MYTH), Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM), Chennai, India, Department of Biochemistry, College of Natural, Exact Science and Technology, Universidad de Panama, Panama City, Panama


A comparative analysis of legal and regulatory framework of civil service of seven countries representing various continents and public administration systems is drawn. Some aspects of civil service in foreign countries are considered, including the development of the concept of civil service, and principles and features of civil service. Foreign experience of different legal systems and legal culture allows studying legal peculiarities of the civil service reform.


We calculated the vibronic reduction factor (Ham factor) for the physical system (molecules, crystals) with octahedral symmetry. The vibrations of the nuclei of the systems are described by the anharmonic states of the Morse potential and also by the anharmonic coherent states of the same potential. The linear vibronic coupling of these vibration states with the electronic states of the system are considered.


The "burden of the debt" still appears to be a matter of concern to the United States public, economic teaching notwithstanding. In the debates preceding the 1964 tax cut, such matters as the existing budgetary deficit and the swelling public debt evoked as much passion as confusion. In this paper we intend to focus on one question: will a tax cut designed to generate a full employment equilibrium necessarily increase the debt burden, as defined by Domar. In particular, we are interested in the impact of a tax reduction on the debt burden, given that a budgetary deficit exists; and under the condition that the monetary authorities have decided to tighten credit conditions. We shall assume throughout that interest rates are determined by the monetary authorities, and that their policy is dictated by balance of payments rather than aggregate demand considerations. it will also be assumed that the tax reduction takes into account any planned increase in the rate of interest. Finally, we assume that budgetary deficits are financed by borrowing from the nonbank public and not by new money.


This is a special issue of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis (AJCH). Ed Frischholz and I decided to obtain some expert opinions regarding the work of Irving Kirsch. We invited a number of authors who we hoped would be both pro and con on the issues that have been proposed by Dr. Kirsch. In addition, since there is a reasonable likelihood of a relationship between hypnosis and placebo factor, we wanted to extend the discussion originally raised by Kirsch into the arena of psychotherapy using hypnosis. I have long believed that if treatment outcomes are enhanced by placebo effects, it is important to examine how to best use these in the most clinically advantageous manner. Understandably, many of the critics of Kirsch's work were unwilling to participate as invited authors, and others were not affiliated with the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and were not comfortable with addressing the concept of hypnosis. Nevertheless, we brought together a group of authors who are knowledgeable and capable. These authors have been able to comment with objectivity that includes both support and opposition to the position championed by Kirsch and the relevant ramification of the issues he introduced. In addition, some of these authors have been able to firmly ground their positions to research clinical practice in the area of hypnosis. "Suggestion in the Treatment of Depression" by Irving Kirsch and Carol B. Low is the lead article that frames the issues originally authored by Kirsch (and others) and recasts them into the arena of psychotherapy utilizing hypnosis. Specifically, they illustrate the similarities of placebo and hypnosis, hypnosis' non-deceptive placebo, and conclude that "hypnosis is the most effective and best-elaborated set of procedures for administering suggestions effectively and without deception" (this issue, p. 227). And, they add, to do so without the potential dangers of antidepressants.


1 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2 Center of Excellence for Drug Research and Pharmaceutical Industries, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 3 Mohamed Saeed Tamer Chair for Pharmaceutical Industries, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article because it overlaps significantly with a previously published article [1]. The author agrees with this retraction.


One of the most controversial topics, which has attracted many researches and scholars in the recent decades is bilingualism. The aim of this research is studying the use of Persian and Kurdish in the formal and informal situations in Cherdavel Shirvan. To achieve this, 394 testee were selected randomly from Cherdavel Shirvan. The testees were selected according to the age group (children under 11, adolescent 12-16, youth 17-29, middle age 3050,and old above 51),education level (illiterate, primary, guidance school, high school, Diploma, associate diploma, bachelor, master, PhD), and gender (male and female). In this research, Parasher questionnaire has been used. The testees were required to determine the Kurdish and Persian on the basis of multiple choices "always", "often", "sometimes" and "never". The questionnaire contained and 36 questions, which are ordered according to the formality of fields (family, friendship, neighborhood, educational and official interaction) from informal to formal. After collecting the questionnaires, the data were processed by the software. Statistical methods such as X2, Kendall, pair T-test, and unilateral variance were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that using Persian and Kurdish by different age, education and gender groups is statistically significant.


Apparatus (10) data processing operable to obtain a utility (12) remote resolution data access to content regarding the next installment of content, the content broadcast data, including data content access at least a date and / or time to to be broadcast content and / or a specification of the delivery medium by which is to be delivered content, wherein the apparatus (10) includes: a phase (14) capture data arranged to receive an identifier (16) differently from content via the infrastructure used to deliver said content, to determine from said data the address of the utility (12) resolution; and a phase (20) communications coupled with said step (14) data capture and configured to receive an address resolution utility of this phase (14) data capture, to establish a communications link with the utility (12) resolution over the Internet, providing the identifier (16) captured content thereof, and receive data content access.


Complex pursuit-evasion games with complete information under state variable inequality constraints are investigated. By exploitation of Isaacs' minimax principle, necessary conditions of rst and second order are derived for the optimal trajectories. These conditions give rise to multipoint boundary-value problems, which yield open-loop representations of the optimal strategies along the optimal trajectories. The multipoint boundary-value problems are accurately solved by the multiple shooting method. The computed open-loop representations can thereafter be used to synthesize the optimal strategies globally. As an illustrative example, the evasion of an aircraft from a pursuing missile is investigated. The ight of the aircraft is restricted by various control variable inequality contraints and by a state variable inequality constraint for the dynamic pressure. The optimal trajectories exhibit boundary arcs with regular and singular constrained controls. The in-uence of various singular surfaces in the state space including a low-dimensional universal surface is discussed.


An annual runoff forecast method based on harmonic analysis was investigated and examined using annual runoff data (1956-2007) of Tangnaihai hydrological station in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.Annual runoff could be perfectly modeled by harmonic waves.For forecast term of 2-3 years,harmonic analysis method may give very good forecast of annual runoff,but for longer forecast term,it cannot give accurate prediction.


Delayed graft function (DGF) is defined as need for dialysis early posttransplant. DGF is related to ischemia–reperfusion injury (IRI) that diminishes allograft function and may be complement dependent. Here, we investigate the ability of C1 esterase inhibitor (C1INH) to prevent IRI/DGF in kidney transplant recipients. Seventy patients receiving deceased donor kidney transplants at risk for DGF were randomized to receive C1INH 50 U/kg (#35) or placebo (#35) intraoperatively and at 24 hours. The primary end point was need for hemodialysis during the first week posttransplant. Assessments of glomerular filtration rate and dialysis dependence were accomplished. Complications and safety of therapy were recorded. Similar characteristics with no significant differences in cold‐ischemia time or risk factors for DGF were seen. C1INH did not result in reduction of dialysis sessions at 1 week posttransplant, but significantly fewer dialysis sessions (P = .0232) were required 2 to 4 weeks posttransplant. Patients at highest risk for DGF (Kidney Donor Profile Index ≥85) benefited most from C1INH therapy. Significantly better renal function was seen at 1 year in C1INH patients (P = .006). No significant adverse events were noted with C1INH. Although the primary end point was not met, significant reductions in need for dialysis and improvements in long‐term allograft function were seen with C1INH treatment.


The concept of stochastic resonance introduced the idea that the presence of noise in nonlinear systems may have benefic effects. In this paper different regular topologies of populations of FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons have been investigated with respect to the presence of noise in the network. Each neuron is subjected to an independent source of noise. In these conditions the behavior of the population depend on the connection among the elements. In population of uncoupled neurons the so-called stochastic resonance without tuning was observed. Moreover, we show that globally coupled neurons have increasing response-to-stimulus coherence for increasing values of the coupling strength. In locally coupled neurons the performance depend on the neighborhood radius and in general are higher than in the case of uncoupled neurons.


Eastmond's book is a convenient entrée into Georgian history and its scholarship through the media of its architecture, art history, epigraphy and numismatics. These materials are interwoven with political narrative in such a way as to provide a detailed historical commentary on the material culture and social customs of an important medieval civilisation that has not always received the attention it deserves. Eastmond's argument is directed at royal iconography in the ecclesiastical monuments, their architecture and their interior ornamentation. The subject matter is divided according to political epochs, with interpretive questions left to two final chapters. Chapter I deals with royal imagery in the church during the pre-unification period (888–1008), which, if I am not mistaken, reveals a considerable Armenian influence in terms of architecture, masonry and sculpture (pp. 9–39). Chapter II covers the interior decoration of the churches during the early period of the Georgian monarchy (1008– 1184), including the Sioni Church at At'eni, the monastic church at Gelati, and the Church of Macxvariši at Lat'ali, with some attention to numismatics. The artistic programmes of these buildings are seen against the backdrop of monarchial and aristocratic politics and patronage. The seventh century At'eni church appears to be of particular significance as a transitional monument: sculpture is absent, and the programme has portrait-like paintings of numerous aristocratic donors. The subject of Chapter III the reign of Queen Tamar (1184–1213), whose iconography can be understood as a form of special pleading in the unusual circumstances of her reign: Tamar's gender, a competitive aristocracy and the threat of the aggressive Saljuq sultanate made her position vulnerable and at times dangerously unstable (pp. 93–184). The ornamental programmes in the churches she built were designed to inspire confidence in her regime (pp. 144–154). The monuments studied are the rock-cut monastic Church of the Dormition at Vardzia, the monastic church of Natlismcemeli, the church of St. Nicholas at Q'inc'visi, the Church of the Mother of God at Betania, and finally the church of the Mother of God at Bertubani. The emphasis in Eastmond's discussion is mainly on the portraits of Tamar and her immediate family in the royal panels. At Betubani Tamar is given the title of 'king of kings' (mepeta mepe) and Georgi III Laša as 'Georgi, king of kings, son of Tamar' (p. 176). Eastmond's commentary goes to the heart of the matter in describing the methodologically difficult problems of


The subjectivity of human is constructed by Gong-fu, as is the essence of XU Fu-guan's philosophy. In his "modern explanation" to the thoughts of Confucian and Daoism, he points out various ways of Gong-fu of moral subject and artistic subject constructed in life, with human nature theory as centre and individually body and mind as the site. The humanistic world built on the ground of human nature theory by him makes great sense to solve the crisis of culture of humanity.