Biometrics technology determines the correct identity of a person by extracting human biological or behavioral characteristic data. As the possibility of hacking increases with the development of IT technology, interest in biometrics and authentication technology is greatly increasing. Currently, the most popular authentication technology is fingerprint recognition. For the sake of efficiency, fingerprint recognition is divided into two stages. In the first step, the inputted fingerprint image is subjected to a complicated preprocessing stage, and the fingerprint image is then classified. In the second step, the feature points of the classified fingerprints are extracted and compared with the fingerprint feature points stored in a database. Human beings can easily classify fingerprint patterns without complicated image processing. In this paper, we propose the use of a convolution neural network model combined with an ensemble model and a batch normalization technique after minimizing the number of the quality improvement processes required for a fingerprint image, which operates more similarly to human perception.


We study how potential attackers can identify accounts on different social network sites that all belong to the same user, exploiting only innocuous activity that inherently comes with posted content. We examine three specific features on Yelp, Flickr, and Twitter: the geo-location attached to a user's posts, the timestamp of posts, and the user's writing style as captured by language models. We show that among these three features the location of posts is the most powerful feature to identify accounts that belong to the same user in different sites. When we combine all three features, the accuracy of identifying Twitter accounts that belong to a set of Flickr users is comparable to that of existing attacks that exploit usernames. Our attack can identify 37% more accounts than using usernames when we instead correlate Yelp and Twitter. Our results have significant privacy implications as they present a novel class of attacks that exploit users' tendency to assume that, if they maintain different personas with different names, the accounts cannot be linked together; whereas we show that the posts themselves can provide enough information to correlate the accounts.


Cellulose, in the form of cellulose nanocrystals, cellulose nanofibrils, or bacterial cellulose, has emerged as a renewable material with countless potential applications in materials science and engineering (1). Its anisotropy and excellent mechanical properties, together with its biocompatibility and tunable surface chemistry, have made cellulose-based nanomaterials a cornerstone in a new generation of sustainable materials from biomass. Accordingly, extensive experimental efforts, assisted by multiscale modeling techniques, have been devoted to better understand structure–property relationships of nanocellulose materials (2). In PNAS, Molnar et al. (3) provide a molecular dynamics study on the atomic deformation mechanisms of cellulose crystals under different loading conditions to expand our fundamental knowledge on the mechanical properties of these nanocrystals, which is essential to truly unlock the potential of cellulose-based nanomaterials in engineering applications. The complex structure of cellulose crystals at the nanoscale influences the properties of cellulose materials at the macroscale level; therefore, fundamental understanding of nanoscale mechanisms through multiscale modeling provides guidelines for the bottom-up design of cellulose-based nanomaterials, based on structure–property relationships and future modification and shaping of cellulose (4) (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
( Right ) Schematic representation of the hierarchical structure of lignocellulose biomass down to cellulose nanocrystals. ( Left ) Diagram shows how the atomistic model of cellulose nanocrystals is the starting point for the bottom-up design of cellulose-based nanomaterials.

Cellulose chains self-assemble into helicoidally oriented fibrils that organize themselves into structures of higher order, resulting in a layered arrangement. This self-assembled structure resembles those observed in collagen, …

[↵][1]1Email: fmartinm{at}mit.edu.

 [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1


A finite state reactive system (for instance a hardware controller) can be specified through a set of ω-regular properties, most of which are often safety properties. In the game-based approach to synthesis, the specification is converted to a game between the system and the environment. A deterministic implementation is obtained from the game graph and a system's winning strategy. However, there are obstacles to extract an efficient implementation from the game in hardware. On the one hand, a large space must be explored to find a strategy that has a concise representation. On the other hand, the transition structure inherited from the game graph may correspond to a state encoding that is far from optimal. In the approach presented in this paper, the game is formulated as a sequence of Boolean equations. That leads to significant improvements in the quality of the implementation compared to existing automata-based techniques. It is also shown discussed to extend this approach to the synthesis from obligation properties.


In this paper, a new digital demodulation method was proposed for capacitance measurement in AC-based electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) systems. The proposed demodulation method can be carried out in the following steps: (1) measure the phase difference between the in-phase reference signal, i.e., the digital form of the excitation signal, and the digitalized measurement signal by using the SignalTap II Logic Analyzer integrated in FPGA development kits; (2) delay the in-phase reference signal by a specified number of sampling periods according to the phase difference obtained in step (1) to ensure that the adjusted reference signal is completely in phase with the digitalized measurement signal; (3) multiply the digitalized measurement signal with the delayed reference signal point-by-point within one sine wave period, and then accumulate the products to obtain the demodulation result. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed digital demodulation method has been analyzed and verified by experimental results. Compared with the commonly used digital quadrature demodulation method, the proposed method can save resources of logic, memory and multiplier elements in the FPGA to a large extent without decreasing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the measurement result.


Pyrano[2,3-b]quinolin-2-ones have been synthesized efficiently from 2-chloro-3-formylquinolines in a single step by treating
with sodium acetate and acetic acid under microwave irradiation. The structures of the compounds have been established by IR,
NMR and mass spectral data. Unexpectedly, 3-formylquinolin-2(1H)-ones were exclusively formed in very high yields by
changing the molar ratio of acetic acid and sodium acetate in just 1.5 to 2.5 min.


In addition to the nuclear measurements which must be made in a reactor, conventional measuremerts such as temperature, pressure, flow-through, and level are necessary. The instruments used for these measurements are described, and the specifications which they must meet for use in reactors are summarized. Methods for transmitting the measurements to recorders are also considered. The safety system is briefly considered. (J.S.R.)


Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 globally has prompted policymakers to evaluate the capacity of health care infrastructure in their communities. Many hard-hit localities have witnessed a large influx of severe cases that strained existing hospitals. As COVID-19 spreads in India, it is essential to evaluate the country's capacity to treat severe cases. Methods We combined data on public and private sector hospitals in India to produce state level estimates of hospital beds, ICU beds, and mechanical ventilators. Based on the number of public sector hospitals from the 2019 National Health Profile (NHP) of India and the relative proportions of public and private health care facilities from the National Sample Survey (NSS) 75th round (2017-2018), we estimated capacity in each Indian state and union territory (UT). We assumed that 5% of all hospital beds were ICU beds and that 50% of ICU beds were equipped with ventilators. Results We estimated that India has approximately 1.9 million hospital beds, 95,000 ICU beds and 48,000 ventilators. Nationally, resources are concentrated in the private sector (hospital beds: 1,185,242 private vs 713,986 public; ICU beds: 59,262 private vs 35,699 public; ventilators: 29,631 private vs. 17,850 public). Our findings suggest substantial variation in available resources across states and UTs. Conclusion Some projections shave suggested a potential need for approximately 270,000 ICU beds in an optimistic scenario, over 2.8 times the estimated number of total available ICU beds in India. Additional resources will likely be required to accommodate patients with severe COVID-19 infections in India.


Several studies have assessed in detail the combined effects of two RFs on particular outcomes; however, for most situations the relevant information is not available. Several scenarios were simulated considering the following variables (at the following levels): i) steepness of the increasing RRs of RFs when increasing the level of exposure (two levels: "low" slope and "high" slope), ii) level of correlation between exposures to RFs (three levels: "negative", "zero", "positive"), and iii) linearity of the functional relationship between RRs values and exposure to RFs (five levels: "high concavity up", "low concavity up", "lineal", "low concavity down", "high concavity down"). For these scenarios' biases were quantified when the (usual, convenient, and possibly wrong) assumption of independence is made. The results of this study could be useful for assessing the quality of PAF estimations in real life situations, when two RFs are considered simultaneously. *Correspondence to: Armando Humberto Seuc, National Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Infant Microbiology, Cuba, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


ABSTRACT The reliable estimation of the local scour depth at a bridge pier is essential for proper design and maintenance of bridge piers. Most local scour formulae have been developed based on the results of laboratory experiments. The formulae based on laboratory data do not often produce reasonable predictions for field piers because laboratory investigations are apt to oversimplify or ignore many of the complexities of the flow fields around the bridge piers. Validation of the formulae is necessary in order to ascertain which of the formulae are able to provide reasonable estimates of the local scour depth. In this study, six commonly cited formulae based on laboratory data or field data were selected for validation using 180 laboratory data sets gathered from the literature and 446 field data sets collected from four countries. The six formulae validated in this paper are the Colorado State University (CSU), Neill, Froehlich, Breuser, Laursen, and simplified Chinese formulae. Comparisons between the predicted and measured depths were performed using scour from the laboratory and field data. An artificial neural network technique was also applied in order to compare the tendencies between the field and laboratory data sets.


The emphasis placed in the existing South African school production function literature on better skilled teachers and better school management is discussed. Ordinary least squares and hierarchical linear production function models, using 2000 SACMEQ data, for the country and for a sub-set of historically disadvantaged schools, are constructed. Ways of making the results more readable for policymakers are explored. The importance of physical infrastructure, textbook and nutrition budgets is highlighted by the models. Correct allocation of teaching and management time in schools, less learner repetition, and better teaching methodologies stand out as important school and classroom management imperatives.


Background and Aims One of the most important structural abnormalities in the foot is the decrease in the height of the medial longitudinal arch when bearing body weight, which causes deformity in the ankle and its pronation. The present study aims to compare static balance, posture, and selected plantar parameters in adolescent girls with ankle pronation and healthy peers. Methods This is quasi-experimental and causal-comparative study. Participants were 32 active healthy adolescent girls and 32 adolescent girls with ankle pronation aged 14-17 years. The NewYork digital test was used to assess their posture. The Chippaux-Smirak index (CSI) was used to evaluate their foot arch, and the navicular drop test was used to determine the amount of foot pronation. Romberg test (with eyes closed) was used to assess their static balance. Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to check the normality of data distribution. Independent t-test was used to compare selected plantar parameters and static balance of two groups, and Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the postural abnormalities of the two groups. The data analysis was done in SPSS v. 22 software. The significance level was set at 0.05 Results Among postural abnormalities, the prevalence of forward head (1.1%), uneven shoulders (3.6%), lordosis (8.3%), kyphosis (1.6%), knee varus (0.8%), knee valgus (0.12%), heel valgus (6.2%) and heel varus (%1.2) were higher in girls with ankle pronation. There was significant difference between the two groups in the navicular drop of dominant foot (P=0.00) and non-dominant foot (P=0.03), the CSI of dominant foot (P=0.00) and non-dominant foot (P=0.03), and Romberg balance test score (P=0.00). Conclusion Adolescent girls with ankle pronation have more abnormalities compared to their healthy peers. The mechanical changes in their posture increased the development of lordosis, heel valgus, navicular drop, and CSI, and reduced their balance in them.


The article presents the results of experimental studies of the process of biomass heat treatment. The method of mathematical modeling of the biomass gasification process is improved on the basis of the thermodynamic model of Gibbs free energy minimization In most countries, their energy strategies involve an increase in the share of renewable energy sources, including using a sufficiently large biomass potential. The solution of the Lagrangian function made it possible to determine the composition of the generator gas and the efficiency of the process. The accuracy of the proposed mathematical is estimated. The obtained results of the work can be used to determine the optimal conditions for gasification in the development of biomass gasification technologies.


Submitted in July, 2013; Accepted in February, 2014 Abstract Grouping or unsupervised classification has variety of demands in which the major one is the capability of the chosen clustering approach to deal with scalability and to handle the mixed variety of data set. There are variety of data sets like categorical/nominal, ordinal, binary (symmetric or asymmetric), ratio and interval scaled variables. In the present scenario, latest approaches of unsupervised classification are Swarm Optimization based, Customer Segmentation based, Soft Computing methods like Fuzzy Based and GA based, Entropy Based methods and hierarchical approaches. These approaches have two serious bottlenecks...Either they are hybrid mathematical techniques or large computation demanding which increases their complexity and hence compromises with accuracy. It is very easy to compare and analyze that unsupervised classification by Genetic Algorithm is feasible, suitable and efficient for high-dimensional data sets with mixed data values that are obtained from real life results, events and happenings.


Three sorts of characterized chitosan were measured by visual titration and potentiometric titration with poly(vinyl sulfate) using Toluidine Blue as the indicator, to evaluate the stoichiometry and the accuracy. The measurement values for two dialyzed chitosans by both colloidal titration methods agreed with the values obtained by the acid-base titration. The relative differences between the acid-base titration and the colloidal titration were < 2%, and the relative standard deviation of the potentiometric colloidal titration was < 1%. For a oligo-chitosan (ChO) which consisted of several D-glucosamine oligosaccharides, the value obtained by the potentiometric colloidal titration was much smaller than the value from the acid-base titration. The inadequate result was due to the low stability constant of ChO–PVS. The observed values in the colloidal titration of ChO were evaluated for the content of each D-glucosamine oligosaccharide, and a critical unit that indicated the least unit of D-glucosamine oligo...


BACKGROUND
 The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has placed an unprecedented pressure on China's public health system. It is imperative to strengthen the capacity of early surveillance and early warning to build a sound public health system. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the multi-channel monitoring and early warning mechanism to improve the ability of real-time analysis and judgment.

 OBJECTIVE
 To explore the correlation of COVID-19 spread with Baidu search data in Beijing, so as to evaluate the possibility of monitoring the epidemic situation of COVID-19 with Baidu search data.

 METHODS
 This study compared the daily case counts of COVID-19 outbreak from January 20 to March 1, 2020 with Baidu search data for the same period in Beijing. After keyword selection, filtering and composition, the most correlated lag of the COVID-19 Baidu Search Index (CBSI) was used for comparison and linear regression model development.

 RESULTS
 Our findings showed a positive relationship of CBSI and the confirmed cases of COVID-19 (ρ=0.711, P < .001). The strongest correlation between COVID-19 confirmed cases and indices, CBSI, was at a lag of -11 days. The regression coefficient β1 of the established regression model was equal to 1.042 (P<.001), R2 was equal to 0.7, which indicated that Baidu search data could reflect 70% of the variation in COVID-19 cases.

 CONCLUSIONS
 COVID-19 Baidu Search index may be a good monitoring indicator for early detection of COVID-19 outbreaks.


We extend the maximum likelihood (ML) training algorithm to the minimum classification error (MCE) training algorithm for discriminatively estimating the state-dependent and mixture-dependent polynomial coefficients in the linear trended HMM. The main motivation of this extension is a greater degree of freedom in the modeled trajectory space associated with the trended HMM than that with the conventional, stationary-state HMM which describes only the (piecewise) constant "degraded trajectories" in the observation data. Hence, the discriminative training implemented for the trended HMM should have a strong power to disambiguate the observational trajectories generated from nonstationary sources corresponding to different speech classes. The properties of the MCE formulation for training the trended HMM is analyzed by examining the goodness-of-fit of the raw speech data to the polynomial trajectories in the model. Phonetic classification results are reported which demonstrate consistent performance improvements with use of the MCE-trained trended HMM both over the regular ML-trained trended HMM and over the MCE-trained stationary-state HMM.


This contribution reports on solutions, experiences and recent developments with the dynamic, on-demand provisioning of remote computing resources for analysis and simulation workflows. Local resources of a physics institute are extended by private and commercial cloud sites, ranging from the inclusion of desktop clusters over institute clusters to HPC centers. Rather than relying on dedicated HEP computing centers, it is nowadays more reasonable and flexible to utilize remote computing capacity via virtualization techniques or container concepts. We report on recent experience from incorporating a remote HPC center (NEMO Cluster, Freiburg University) and resources dynamically requested from the commercial provider 1&1 Internet SE into our intitute's computing infrastructure. The Freiburg HPC resources are requested via the standard batch system, allowing HPC and HEP applications to be executed simultaneously, such that regular batch jobs run side by side to virtual machines managed via OpenStack [1]. For the inclusion of the 1&1 commercial resources, a Python API and SDK as well as the possibility to upload images were available. Large scale tests prove the capability to serve the scientific use case in the European 1&1 datacenters. The described environment at the Institute of Experimental Nuclear Physics (IEKP) at KIT serves the needs of researchers participating in the CMS and Belle II experiments. In total, resources exceeding half a million CPU hours have been provided by remote sites.


This paper presents an approach to program comprehension in multi-language systems. Such systems are characterized by a high amount of source codes in various languages for programming, database definition and job control. Coping with those systems requires the references crossing the language boundaries to be analyzed. Using the EER/GRAL approach to graph-based conceptual modeling, models representing relevant aspects of single language are built and integrated into a common conceptual model. Since conceptual modeling focusses on specific problems, the integrated model presented here is especially tailored to multi-language aspects. Software systems are parsed and represented according to this conceptual model and queried by using a powerful graph query mechanism. This allows multi-language cross references to be easily retrieved. The multi-language conceptual model and the query facilities have been developed in cooperation with the maintenance programmers at an insurance company within the GUPRO project.


The conquest of Cyprus by the Ottoman Empire in 1571 had an impact on the growing Muslim population there. However, the majority Muslim population does not make Northern Cyprus adopt Islam as the official religion of the country. This article aims to analyze the roots of secularism in Northern Cyprus, some of which are caused by British government policies, the rise of Kemalism, the emergence of Alevism and Linobambaki, and the repression of Sufi orders at the end of Ottoman rule. Besides, the political situation in Turkey turned out to have an impact on Northern Cyprus, where Turkey sought to implement the Islamization policy there.


The response of choy sum (Brassica chinensis var. parachinensis) to water and nitrogen (N) stress is still uncertain and no growth and yield model exists specifically for this crop. Consequently, this study conducted a field experiment to determine the growth and yield of choy sum grown under several watering frequencies and N application rates. Measured crop parameters were then used to aid in the crop model development and in model validation. Choy sum growing under the once-a-day and once-a-week watering treatments did not experience water stress unlike the water-stressed choy sum grown under the once-every-twoweeks watering treatment. The optimal volumetric soil water content level and N application rate for maximum yield were determined to be 40% and between 30 to 40 kg N ha -1 , respectively. Model validation showed that the choy sum model had an overall mean estimation error of 7.3% for leaves dry weight, 28.9% for stem dry weight, 28.9% for roots dry weight, 41.7% for leaf area index, and -0.8% for plant height. The model errors could be due to the assumption of an open-field energy balance growing environment and the lack of accuracy on the leaf area index estimation.


Reports preliminary studies on the self-broadening of the 377.6 nm thallium line. In the short wavelength wing asymmetries and a satellite at about 377.1 nm are observed. In the long wavelength quasi-static wing the transition from the Lorentzian to the Van der Waals type wing is clearly observed.


Abstract This paper reviews the literature on Alzheimer's disease (AD) in persons with general intellectual disabilities and those with Down syndrome. It focuses on the prevalence, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and management of AD in these populations. The literature indicates that people with Down syndrome have a greatly increased risk of dementia from their early 40s, while people with general intellectual disabilities have similar rates of AD to the general population. Taking into account the life expectancy of people with intellectual disabilities and those with Down syndrome, guidelines are provided for estimating the proportion of service users in a population that are at risk of developing dementia. The difficulties around diagnosis are reviewed and a particular emphasis is placed on the range of psychometric measures that may contribute to assessment and diagnosis. The management of service users who develop dementia is also reviewed and the implications for service providers are highlighted.


The purpose of this paper is to extend Bunnell's (2016) thesis that international education teachers (IETs) are forming a 'global educational precariat'. The paper draws upon interview data from a larger study of international teachers in two international schools in Shanghai, China. In order to substantiate and develop Bunnell's thesis, narrative inquiry was employed as a guiding methodology, which ensured that data analysis remained rooted in the participants' lived experience but also allowed for triangulation, thereby enhancing validity. Findings confirm Bunnell's thesis by highlighting a lack of agency, financial insecurity, and the marginalisation of professional identities as common experiences of IET precarity. The findings also challenge the notion of a global educational precariat by arguing that it may be more appropriate to conceptualise IETs in terms of a localised educational precariat rather than a global class in and of itself. The paper ends by sketching a research agenda that would involve comparing teachers' experiences in different types of international schools in China and other contexts.


Cationic AM/DMC copolymer(CPAM)is an organic macromolecular polymer having many uses,the molecular weight and cationic degree were important items which decide the CPAM characteristics.The CPAM was synthesized from monomer acrylamide(AM)and methacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride(DMC)in redox initiator system.The process parameters such as reaction temperature,pH value,dosage of initiator,AM and DMC concentration were studied.The results showed that the optimal synthesis parameters for producing higher molecular weight and cationic degree of CPAM were as follows:monomer concentration was 35%,DMC concentration was 15%,initiator was 0.4%,reaction temperature was 35℃ and pH value was 6.


nvasive species often exhibit resistant characteristics. Even theextreme ecological conditions of tidal salt marshes,highsalinity, and anoxic soils,do not exclude invasive species. Theinter-tidal,salt marsh habitats of San Francisco Bay were invadedby a non-indigenous smooth cordgrass,Spartina alterniflora, whichwas intentionally introduced from the Atlantic seaboard for erosioncontrol in the early 1970s (Callaway and Josselyn 1992). Thisinvader hybridized with native California cordgrass,Spartinafoliosa, and produced hybrid swarms that can potentially spreaddown the inter-tidal gradient and cover the naturally open mud(Ayres et al,1999). The salt marshes and inter-tidal areas of San Francisco Bay areinvaluable. Only a small fraction of the original extent of thishabitat remains. Most has been diked, drained, and filled over thelast century (Macdonald 1977). The remaining salt marshes of SanFrancisco Bay are home to valuable native species,including twofederally listed endangered animal species,the salt marsh harvestNew Zealand Mud Snail InvadesWestern United States. . . . . . . . . . 42ANS Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45San Francisco Bay and Beyond:Invasive Spartina Continues to SpreadAmong Pacific Estuaries. . . . . . . . 46Upcoming Conferencesand Meetings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47


Cardiovascular disease is a cause of premature morbidity and mortality in people with diabetes. Methods to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in diabetes have included control of glycaemia, reduction of conventional cardiovascular risk factors, and aggressive cardiological treatment for existing cardiovascular disease. ACE inhibitors have been used for control of hypertension, diabetic nephropathy, and for patients with a low ejection fraction. The Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study examined the effects of 10 mg ramipril or placebo in 9297 high risk patients aged 55 or over. Diabetes was a pre-defined subgroup, and 3577 patient with diabetes were recruited who had evidence of vascular disease or had diabetes and one other cardiovascular risk factor (cholesterol>5.2, hypertension, microalbuminuria, smoking). The primary combined endpoint of myocardial infarction, stroke and cardiovascular death was significantly reduced by 25%, with a one third reduction in stroke. This reduction was seen both in patients with and without previous cardiovascular disease, and the benefit was greater than could be attributed to any decrease in blood pressure. The development of overt nephropathy was also reduced. This suggests that treatment with ramipril has vasculoprotective and renoprotective properties in people with diabetes, and should be prescribed or diabetic patients with existing cardiovascular disease or who have a high risk of disease because of the presence of cardiovascular risk factors. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Oil shale can produce oil and shale gas by heating the oil shale at 300–500 °C. The high temperature and the release of organic matter can change the physical and mechanical properties of rocks and make the originally tight impervious layer become a permeable layer under in situ exploitation conditions. To realize the potential impact of the in situ exploitation of oil shale on groundwater environments, a series of water–rock interaction experiments under different temperatures was conducted. The results show that, with the increase of the reaction temperature, the anions and cations in the aqueous solution of oil shale, oil shale–ash, and the surrounding rock show different trends, and the release of anions and cations in the oil shale–ash solution is most affected by the ambient temperature. The hydrochemical type of oil shale–ash solution is HCO3-SO4-Na-K at 80 °C and 100 °C, which changes the water quality. The main reasons are that (1) the high temperature (≥80 °C) can promote the dissolution of FeS in oil shale and (2) the porosity of oil shale increases after pyrolysis, making it easier to react with water. This paper is an important supplement to the research on the impact of the in situ exploitation of oil shale on the groundwater environment. Therefore, the impacts of in situ mining on groundwater inorganic minerals should be taken into consideration when evaluating in situ exploitation projects of oil shale.


The optical absorption spectra of the Co2+ ion have been studied in magnetic and nonmagnetic fluoride salts with perovskite structures. The temperature dependences of the Co2+ ion absorption band, e.g., 4T1g→4T1g (P), maxima show effects due to the ordering of these magnetic materials. These effects are observed as shifts in the band maxima in addition to changes of purely thermal origin. The magnetic effects occur in the vicinity of the Neel temperatures in both cobalt salts and in magnetic salts such as RbCo0.05Mn0.95F3, where the cobalt ion is an impurity. Magnetic effects have also been observed in the structure of the optical transitions.


Ion-shadowing and -blocking experiments on a cylindrical single crystal of Pb reveal a strongly orientation-dependent disordering (melting) of the surface with increasing temperature. The thickness of the disordered surface layer is found to diverge logarithmically as the bulk melting point is approached. The process of disordering is shown to be driven by an orientation-dependent difference in free energy between the surface in its ordered and liquid states.


Practicality is one of the basic attributes of University Chinese course.Practical orientation of University Chinese course has necessity and feasibility from the macro social needs,the college students'upgrading of individual quality and the author's teaching experience herself.This orientation should be highlighted.


Importance. An important place in modern reform context of the Russian Federation higher school system is acquired by the process of organizing historical and local studies activities aimed at the development of citizenship and patriotism, socialization and self-realization of student youth. New approaches to this students' activity type construction is invariably based on the historical experience gained by teachers and scientists in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods based on the regional approach use to problem study. In this regard, the necessity of students' historical and local studies activities development periodization developing in the system of domestic higher education institutions is justified. The research purpose is to identify the stages of the Lugansk region student youth historical and local studies activity, carried out from the beginning of the 1920s to the modern period, on the basis of the developed criteria.
Research methods. The research was based on the dialectical principle of historical development, using paradigmatic, systemic, synergetic, cultural and cultural approaches, theory of activity, theory of humanization, method of documentary sources analysis, comparative historical, dialectical methods of scientific research.
Results and Discussion. In the process of analyzing a number of criteria (trends in the higher education development, local studies activity development level in the state and the region, the essence of state policy in relation to historical local studies; ideological postulates produced by the political elite and determining the development of the entire socio-cultural sphere in various historical periods; socio-cultural factors that determined local studies activity in universities; socio-economic factors) identified and characterized five stages of the development of historical and local studies activities, each one had its own distinctive features.
Conclusion. The conclusion about changes influence occurred in the socio-political life of the state and the national higher school system on each stage nature is made.


Forensic Odontology as a forensic science involves the proper management, evaluation and presentation of dental evidence in the interest of justice. The fieldwork of dentist as a part of expert team in official Institutes of expertise is restricted to dental data analysis only, but can extend to other areas if circumstances so require. However, despite their important role in the human identification process, identification and interpretation of bite marks and lip impressions as related traces, in the examination and evaluation of bodily injuries affecting the stomatognathic system, in addition to other duties, a large number of forensic institutions does not have a forensic dentist in their team of specialists. This situation probably implies lack of adequate technical and scientific analysis and underestimation of available evidences. A multidisciplinary approach with dentist in expert staff means benefits to the victim and their families, allowing the outcome of the investigation probably to identify and punish the offender. The aim of this study was to review the literature to present the role of forensic dentists, holders of specialized knowledge, as members of the official framework of expert performance, demonstrating their contributions, peculiarities and importance. It was possible to observe the remarkable relevance of Odontology in diverse aspects of the criminal sphere besides the unanimous agreement on the need for the presence of this professional in the official forensic Ribas-e-Silva V, Terada ASSD, Silva RHA RBOL 2015: 2(1):68-90 88 Institutes. However, despite several published works on peculiarities of this theme, the challenge of new researches includes improvement in the accuracy of parameters due to minimize some limitations.


Identical spherical outgoing ion‐acoustic solitons are launched from two separated spheres. The solitons collide in the plane midway between the spheres. The collision is inelastic in that a soliton‐like object is created during the collision. Many of the characteristics of the interaction of the solitons are found to be similar to those of solutions to the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation. Similar observations were obtained for cylindrical outgoing ion‐acoustic solitons and were contrasted with cylindrical pseudo‐wave interactions.


As we live in information society, data are enormously increasing in all the fields including health care with human related biological data. After the successful achievement of Human Genome Project (HGP) in 2003, the complete human genome sequence (reference genome set for any individual) was made available in NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) and its size is about few GB. From 2005 – till now, one of the initiatives, the Personal Genome Project (PGP), generates 1000s of individual genome sequences of few terabytes in size and are making available in its own website. Both are freely available through Internet. If the sequencing is done for individuals of 7.4 billion world population, the genome size will exceed in Exabytes. Those data sets are so large and complex and traditional data processing applications are inadequate to handle such ―Big data‖. Through analyzing and comparing these huge amount of genomic sequences paves way to understand the complex diseases and find the personalized medicines. In the near future, the biological and computer science researchers will face a big challenge to store, manage and analyze this increasing size of data. Therefore, now and then, researchers are in position to store and manage these biological Big data in Cloud computing and do analysis or analytics by handling those data online (instead of storing it in hard drives). The present study reviews on Human Genome big data analytics with the above-mentioned services and methods will insight the bioinformaticians for human genetic variants analysis among individuals and that will pave the way to find personalized medicine for our societal benefits. Keywords— Big data; Human Genome Project; Personal Genome Project; R and Bioconductor; Cloud computing


Tree Augmented Na¨ýve Bayes(TAN) is a robust classification model. However, so far some researchers still attempt to improve the performance by considering directions of edges, because traditional learning method merely takes into account log likelihood, which is not suitable for learning classifiers, when learning a tree topological structure. In this paper, we analyze search spaces of TAN, research equivalent classes in them. Accordingly, we point out it is not necessary to pay attention to the dependent directions between conditional variables for these directions do not play a role in maximizing log conditional likelihood. For application, we propose a novel framework for learning TAN classifiers. Finally, we run experiments on Weka platform using 45 problems from the University of California at Irvine repository. Experimental results show that classification accuracy and stability do not change statistically in our leraning framework.


The invention discloses a kind of nursing in neurology to move support,Including supporting plate,The lower surface of supporting plate is provided with locking universal wheel,The upper surface middle part of supporting plate is provided with ring-shaped guide rail,This Multifunctional nerve internal medicine nursing moves support,It is simple in construction,It is easy to use,It is vdiverse in function,Good assisted care effect can be played to patients in neurological department,The setting of locking universal wheel facilitates the fixation and movement of the present invention,Drawer can be deposited to some medical supplies,Nursed the sick to medical personnel and bring facility,The article that the setting of antislip ring effectively can prevent from being placed on storage tank upper surface falls,First expansion link and the second expansion link can carry out lift adjustment according to different use environments,Improve the practicality of the present invention,The setting of ring-shaped guide rail combination arc shaped slider allows medical personnel very easily to take out the medical supplies being placed in drawer.


The properties of the fully damped (deep-inelastic and orbiting) and fusion (evaporation and fission) processes have been investigated in three entrance channels leading to the same {sup 47} V compound nucleus at high excitation energies. No entrance channel effect has been observed in either the evaporation residue or the fission-like yields in contrast to the {sup 28}Si + {sup 12}C and {sup 24}Mg + {sup 16}O reactions in which the orbiting process still persists. The asymmetrical elemental distributions of the fully energy relaxed fragments are well described by fusion-fission models based respectively on the scission point and saddle point pictures. Finally a general discussion of the competition between orbiting and fusion-fission mechanisms in light heavy-ion reactions is presented in the framework of their calculated available number of open channels.


Wild rice has adapted to weather and unfavorable environments under natural selection.It has been well recognized as a natural gene bank that conserves a lot of specific genes presently not available for extinct in the cultivated rice.In the present paper the current researches in molecular mapping of useful genes of yield,disease and pest resistance,environment stress resistance from wild rice resources and their potential application of breeding and biotechnology were summarized so that it could provide the base for utilization of wild rice resource.


Abstract:This essay brings together the perspective of theatre history studies and fan studies in order to ask what it meant to be a celebrity fangirl in the late nineteenth century and thus to historicize fandom and recover forsaken aspects of nineteenth-century theatre culture. By invoking the unique traces of fan experience and fan practices such as recollections left by a self-declared "theatre maniac" or fan letters written to Helena Modrzejewska, this essay investigates Polish female, middle-class fandom of this theatre superstar. Despite emigrating to the United States in the mid-1870s, during the following decades Modrzejewska, known to American audience as Modjeska, guest-performed in Polish lands on a regular basis to great enthusiasm of local audiences. Even though no organizations like the US Modjeska Club ever emerged among Polish spectators, there were equally devoted circles of Modrzejewska's fangirls. They can be compared to other female theatre fans at the turn of the twentieth century, such as the matinée girl in the United States and the psikhopatka in Tsarist Russia. Fangirls shared hierarchies of values, which often collided with social expectations, and together they tended to explore and test alternatives to roles prescribed to them by society. The essay proposes to imagine these women as social and theatre "pirates" who both challenged accepted gender norms of behavior and questioned their own alleged female limitations, as well as advanced forms of reception that were abolished in the process of the "embourgeoisement of theatre."


The present paper, taking Shanghai as an example, aims to introduce the application of GIS (Geographic Information System) technology in urban electromagnetic radiation management and develops a management system. The system is developed based on the data of the electromagnetic radiation sources, the geographic information and the strength of the radiation accordingly. The background, targets, requirements, structure, functions and application of the system are displayed in detail too. It is expected that the Shanghai electromagnetic radiation management system put forward here will be helpful for the managing behaviors of the city.


This is a publication of PhD Mariana Cortez's research work on the graphic composition of children's books in Portugal and Brazil, from 1980 to 1990 and during the first decade of the twenty- first century. The above mentioned corpus is based on the selection of authors Manuela Bacelar, from Portugal, and Roger Mello, from Brazil, two reknown writers of children's literature who excellently intertwine verbal and visual texts to convey meaning. In order to achieve this goal, both authors make use of a wide range of strategies and relations among semiotic systems. Cortez examines Bacelar's "O Dinossauro", "A Sereiazinha" and "Sebastiao" as well as Mello's "Jardins", "Desertos", "Fita Verde no Cabelo" and "Vizinho, Vizinha". Since Bacelar and Mello play different roles in each of their books, it is worth analyzing the contents of their publications.


The state of the art, including advances reported at the Specialist Conference on the technology of visible electroluminescent diodes, is reviewed.


The invention discloses a negative material preparing method of high-content Sn-Co alloy composite Li ion battery in the Li ion battery domain, which comprises the following steps: matching tin and cobalt oxide according to the proportion in the alloy composition; introducing fitful proportional carbon powder as reducer; grinding the composition evenly; placing the composition in the inert argon gas to obtain nitrogen gas environment to heat to 800-1200 deg.c for 1-6 h at 5-30 deg.c per min; de-energising; cooling the furnace to indoor temperature. The invention simplifies the preparing technology and reduces the cost, which produces high-specific content and stable circulation property Sn-Co Li ion battery negative material.


This Project is about designing the controls of an Overcurrent relay using microcontroller. Relay is an electrical switch. Generally it operates on electromagnetic principle for switching action. Over current (OC) relay is a type of relay which performs its switching action based on an input current to it. When the input current exceeds a particular pick up value the relay operates. Microcontroller based relays are gaining popularity as these have no mechanical contacts. These can operate at very high speeds. Any kind of characteristics can be obtained by using these. In a typical microcontroller based relay there is a current transducer, a controller, current transformer and a circuit breaker. Microcontroller reads load current via CT, transducer and ADC. When current is above pickup it gives a signal to circuit breaker to trip. Microcontroller can be programmed to obtain IDMT characteristics


Research on traffic forecasting in transportation has received worldwide concern over the past three decades. While there are comprehensive review studies on traffic forecasting, few of them explore the research advancement in this field from a visual perspective. With the help of CiteSpace and VOSviewer, this study uses scientometric review to identify the evolution and emerging trends of the research in the field. Totally, 1536 bibliographic records with references are extracted from Web of Science and used as the datasets to form the author network, institutional network, keyword network, and co-citation network. The visualization of the results characterizes the research progress in the field. It can be found that Eleni I. Vlahogianni receives the highest citation frequency, China and the United States contribute most of the journal articles. Some influential institutions and articles are also identified. With the author keyword network, the words "recurrent neural network", "convolutional neural network", "spatio-temporal correlation", "traffic pattern", and "feature selection" are identified as the emerging trends. Also, the document citation bursts reveal that the applications of combined models and the study of traffic flow forecasting in atypical situations are becoming the emerging trends. This study provides a valuable reference for the research community in this field.


This work proves that the ordinary Petri nets synthesized with knitting technique are structurally bounded, consistent, conservative and safe (when each home place holds one token) using the well-known linear algebra approach. It also provides a procedure for finding P- and T-invariants for Petri net synthesized using the knitting technique. We also present examples for P-invariants.


An aneurysm in a branch of the renal artery within the hilus of a 44 year old woman was successfully obliterated without affecting the circulation in the parenchyma. The surgical treatment consisted of applying Scoville clips designed for intracranial aneurysms to the neck of the sac of the aneurysm. Postoperatively the patient has remained free of her previous hypertension for over four years.


With the growing energy crisis and environmental problem, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is known as a direct route for producing cleaner fuels. Moreover, Fe-based catalyst is suitable for the production of...


The use of reclaimed water to cope with water scarcity has become one of the main alternative resources in water‐deficit countries. Reclaimed water represents a significant component in integrated water resources management in the city of Madrid (Spain). Madrid City Council replaced the usual drinking water irrigation system by a reclaimed water one. This study assessed the effects of reclaimed water irrigation on micronutrient concentration (B, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) in the soil–plant system of two urban green areas in Madrid. Results showed that reclaimed water used in Madrid was adequate for irrigation regarding the studied micronutrients. Nevertheless, micronutrient concentration were slightly higher in reclaimed water than in drinking water. Soil organic matter (SOM) and pH had strong influence in some of the micronutrient concentrations in soils and in its bioavailability and transference to cedars (SOM ↔ B Soil, Cu Soil, Fe Soil; pH ↔ B Soil, Fe Soil, Mn Soil). There was no significant correlation between micronutrient concentration in irrigation water and in cedar leaves. Thus, foliar concentration of the studied micronutrients did not exceed toxic limits, even after 15 years of reclaimed water irrigation. Moreover, despite one park was irrigated with reclaimed water 10 years more than the other, reclaimed water irrigation plots did not show major differences in micronutrient concentration between the two parks.


The singer's bearing was made from the combination of internal and external causes of singer's personality features of psychology,and there were four expressional characters:concealed,obvious,stability,plasticity.It required the singers held the balance of those four features,through the bearing to embody the performing personality.


Every day in New York City, between 90,000 and 100,000 young people, almost all of them Black and Latina/o, must show up to school thirty to forty-five minutes before their first class begins. They are not showing up for a free breakfast program, and they are not showing up for extracurricular activities being held before first period. They show up early because they attend schools with metal detectors and scanners. The process of getting through these controls can take thirty minutes on a good day – and on other days, well over an hour.


ABSTRACT This paper is based on a study about managers of daycare centres in Israel, which provide early childhood education (ECE) for the ages of birth to three years old. It focused on the daycare managers' professional and female identities. On the background of the relatively low educational standards in the centres, the study strives to make the managers' voices heard. The study which applied a qualitative methodology, reveals that although the participants' female identity is embedded in their professional identity and their daily routine, they are unaware of it. Two contexts are discussed: the managers' relationships with the staff and the parents, and the managers' manoeuvring between the organizational-economic constraints, which affect their professional and female identity substantially. These findings are of importance since they project on a population hardly studied previously and give it a voice. On a broader level, they might help policymakers dealing with ECE.


There is a trade-off between mechanical and self-healing performance for cross-linked self-healing materials. Herein, we design a polyurethane material containing triple synergy dynamic bonds to ad...


Thermal noise arising from mechanical loss in high reflective dielectric coatings is a significant source of noise in precision optical measurements. In particular, Advanced LIGO, a large scale interferometer aiming to observed gravitational wave, is expected to be limited by coating thermal noise in the most sensitive region around 30–300 Hz. Various theoretical calculations for predicting coating Brownian noise have been proposed. However, due to the relatively limited knowledge of the coating material properties, an accurate approximation of the noise cannot be achieved. A testbed that can directly observed coating thermal noise close to Advanced LIGO band will serve as an indispensable tool to verify the calculations, study material properties of the coating, and estimate the detector's performance. This dissertation reports a setup that has sensitivity to observe wide band (10Hz to 1kHz) thermal noise from fused silica/tantala coating at room temperature from fixed-spacer Fabry–Perot cavities. Important fundamental noises and technical noises associated with the setup are discussed. The coating loss obtained from the measurement agrees with results reported in the literature.
The setup serves as a testbed to study thermal noise in high reflective mirrors from different materials. One example is a heterostructure of AlxGa1−xAs (AlGaAs). An optimized design to minimize thermo–optic noise in the coating is proposed and discussed in this work.


Describes the reasons for and efforts of a specialty subcontractor to achieve ISO 9001 recognition. The decision process and corporate reorganization required to position the company for the writing of the quality manual are detailed. The tie-in between a Total Quality Management system with employee input and the development of a quality manual that met the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard are discussed and the dovetailing of the two is shown. ISO 9001 is an internationally recognized quality standard consisting of 20 key parts and almost 300 subparts that required answering in the development of the quality manual. Condaire Inc., is primarily a regional mechanical contractor, headquartered in St. Louis, with annual sales volumes in the midteens and a field workforce ranging from 40 to 100 pipefitters, plumbers, and support trades; the firm is 52 years old. Condaire's markets are primarily industrial piping, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and plumbing in the automotive, manufacturing, f...


Rubber composites containing carbon black as a general fillers and multiwalled carbon nanotube, graphene and graphite as specific fillers were fabricated. Carbon materials were modified chemically and physically through an acid, heat and latex treatment to enhance the dispersion in rubber matrices. The acid, heat and latex treatment of carbon nanomaterials improved the mechanical properties, such as hardness, modulus, fatigue properties, electrical and thermal conductivity compared to pristine carbon materials. The modified graphene showed the most enhanced hardness, modulus and electrical conductivity but a significant decrease in the fatigue property and elongation. The modified carbon nanotube showed better thermal conductivity than the others, whereas the electrical and thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites decreased due to the formation of surface defects of multiwalled carbon nanotube by chopping.


One of the challenging problems in the cloud environment is many-task computing paradigm as they contain large volumes of datasets and loosely coupled tasks. The data possession scheme using the cooperative provable model (CPDP) was based on homomorphism that provided reliability by automatically maintaining the multiple photocopy of information. In specific, the CPDP scheme for huge files still required to address the cluster network model for dynamically updating the CPDP parameters. Another scheduling scheme based on the multi-objective (MOS) scheme was specifically designed and applied using the ordinal optimization (OO) method for clouds. In addition, MOS also used different memory and disk requirements, increasing the workload while performing multi-tasking. To increase the performance during multi-tasking, Genetic Clustering with Workload Multi-task (GCWM) scheduler scheme is introduced. GCWM scheduler is based on clustering of similar workload using the genetic concepts which minimizes the computational cost and complexity involved during computation. GCWM scheduler scheme is applied to cluster 'n' tasks with initial population (i.e.,) tasks, selection, crossover and mutation operators for workload management. The fitness function in GCWM scheduler scheme cluster similar task in cloud zone and communicate with each other effectively. Genetic Clustering with Workload Multi-task scheduling scheme uses distributed computing resources. GCWM Scheduler ensures the multi tasking operation with efficient users' communication. Genetic Clustering Based Workload Multi-task scheduling scheme is experimented on the factors such as throughput, workload management efficacy, relative cost, and multi-task cluster effect.


s of the 21 th Annual Meeting of the Society for Organic Petrology: 2004, Volume 21 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 27 September – 1 October, 2004 164 STEP-BY-STEP ORGANIC PETROLOGY OF RECENT LAKE SEDIMENTS DURING SEQUENTIAL PYROLYSIS H. Sanei 1 , F. Goodarzi 2 , and L.D. Stasiuk 2 1 School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Canada, email@example.com 2 Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, Canada There is an increasing amount of interest in quantitative and qualitative analyses of organic matter (OM) in Recent sediments. This arises from the importance of OM with respect to the chemical properties of sediments. The strong affinity of metals with OM in Recent sediments is well known. This affinity is related to the formation of an organo-metallic complexes with humic and fluvic organic matter. Hence, the measurement of total organic carbon (TOC) is often regarded as the most important parameter in defining and interpreting geochemical data, especially when dealing with trace elements. The susceptibility of organic carbon to complexation with metals in lake sediments can be greatly influenced by the presence of woody material, reworked OM, and coaly particles. These high carbon particles are not capable of bonding with most trace elements. Hence, using TOC in the interpretation of elemental data can be misleading, in areas where Recent sediments are influenced by coal and black shale outcrops or by high runoff from forestland. Using the Rock-Eval 6® pyrolysis method, Sanei et al, (in prep.) have found that the significant positive correlation between TOC and metals in recent sediments arises mainly from the portion of organic matter related to the thermally labile S1 compounds (Figure 1). In sediments containing high proportions of allocthonous refractory organic matter, the correlation between TOC and metals is minimal. The organic matter assemblage contributing to S1-compounds in Recent sediments is not well characterized. This is due to the fact that the Rock-Eval method is designed for rock samples that have previously undergone a thermal, diagenetic history. Hence, the conventional definition of S1 and S2 compounds (Figure 1) in a source rock study may not apply to the Recent sediments. This study aimed to characterize the organic assemblage of the Recent sediments attributed to the S1 and S2 pyrolysis peaks obtained from the Rock-Eval 6 technique. Two highresolution sediment cores were obtained from the deepest parts of Wabamun Lake in central Alberta, Canada. The sediment samples were subjected to organic petrology study using reflected and fluorescent light microscopy. The characterization of the sediment samples was carried out before and after the thermal heating pyrolysis stages of the RockEval 6 machine. The steps in this process were as follows: Step I: The organic assemblage of the bulk sediment before pyrolysis shows a mixture of high, intensely fluorescing liptinitic materials as well as vitrinitic and inertinitic particles (Figure 2). The liptinitic materials are very well preserved, often showing perfect structure of the cell walls (Figure 2). The sediment samples before pyrolysis are notably enriched with a 'bitumen stain-like' amorphous OM and other various, presumably pigment products, with strong yellow, green, and red fluorescence (Figure 2). The liptinitic, Copyright © 2004 The Society for Organic Petrology (TSOP)


The present paper deals with phytochemical, antioxidant and antimicrobial studies on Terminalia paniculata, a potential medicinal plant from Sheshachalam hills (Chittoor), Andhra Pradesh, India. The stem bark, leaf and fruit samples were screened for phytochemical composition, antioxidant content and antimicrobial evaluation. The phytochemical studies revealed that the presence of phenolic compounds especially alkaloids, coumarins, terpenoids etc., while antioxidant studies revealed that high content of antioxidants present in methanolic extracts when compare to ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extracts. The antimicrobial studies revealed that the most susceptible microorganisms were found to be Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus cereus, Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, salmonella typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. Phytochemical analysis of various test extracts revealed that the phenolic compounds especially alkaloids and coumarins are responsible for antimicrobial activity. Terminalia paniculata could be exploited in the infectious management of various diseases.


Background: Even in the era of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated disease, smoking remains an important cause of head and neck cancer (HNC). As genomic data emerges, it is important to examine whether there are molecular and genetic differences in HNC based on the history of smoking. Objective: This study aimed to characterize the genetic and molecular differences in a sample of patients with HNC based on smoking history. Methods: We used data from the Cancer Genome Atlas via cBioPortal for cancer genomics, and selected patients with a confirmed diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, independent of HPV status. Smoking history was defined as non-smokers (never smokers, n = 122) vs. smokers (current and previous history of smoking, n = 393). The genetic and molecular differences of interest were single nucleotide variation, copy number alteration, DNA methylation, mRNA expression and protein. Due to multiple testing, we report false discovery rate (FDR), with statistically significant FDR rate = 0.05. Results: The patients who were mainly White (85.8%), male (73.6%), diagnosed with stage IVA-C cancer (54.5%), and had a mean age of 60.8 years. There were significantly different copy number alterations on 10 genes, and the alterations were enriched in smokers (FDR < 0.05). Among these genes, two (FADD and CTTN) were significantly highly methylated in non-smokers (FDR<0.05), and one gene (ANO1) was marginally highly methylated in non-smokers (FDR=0.057). Four genes (PPFIA1, FGF19, CCND1 and LTO1) were highly expressed in mRNA in smokers (FDR< 0.05), while one gene (FADD) was marginally highly expressed in mRNA in smokers (FDR=0.079). FADD DNA methylation was negatively correlated with FADD mRNA expression in both non-smokers (Pearson r= -0.53, p<10−9) and smokers (Pearson r= -0.57, p<10−35). Among smokers, significant lower overall survival rate (p=0.033) among patients with FADD altered (median=35.3 months, CI 25.9-71.2) than those FADD unaltered (median=64.8 months, CI 48.2-89.3). Additionally, the CCND1 gene was highly mRNA expressed in smokers (FDR=0.007), and CCND1 mRNA expression was positively correlated with protein expressed in smokers (Pearson r=0.33, p<10−4) but not in non-smokers. For the CTTN gene, we found a significant high methylation in non-smokers (FDR=0.006) compared to smokers, but no significant difference in mRNA expression between smoking groups (FDR=0.17). Smokers with altered CTTN tended towards worse survival (p=0.069, median=35.8 months, CI 25.9-90.1) than unaltered CTTN ones (median=57.4 months, CI 48.2-88.8), and no difference in non-smokers. Conclusions: We found some significant genetic and molecular differences in HNC based on a history of smoking, especially for genes linked to mRNA overexpression. [which regulates tumor necrosis, apoptosis, and cell cycle] The findings suggest that there may be genetic and molecular differences in patients with HNC based on their history of smoking. However, further research is needed to confirm these findings in a larger study sample.
 Citation Format: Rong Jiang, Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, Tammara L. Watts. Characterizing genetic and molecular differences in head and neck cancer based on history of smoking [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-AHNS Head and Neck Cancer Conference: Innovating through Basic, Clinical, and Translational Research; 2023 Jul 7-8; Montreal, QC, Canada. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2023;29(18_Suppl):Abstract nr PO-022.


Various methods have been proposed to evaluate hydrophobicity of silicone rubber used for sheds of polymeric insulators. CIGRE WG D1.14 has proposed Dynamic Drop Test (DDT) method to evaluate the hydrophobicity changes of the materials. In this paper, we measured static contact angle, hydrophobicity class in spray method, and drop velocity of water droplets, in order to observe the change in hydrophobicity of silicone rubber surface suffered to local arc discharge at DDT. Because of the hydrophobicity decreases due to the local arc discharge, the water droplet changes from a spherical to a water film. In particular, changes of initial state in hydrophobicity can be observed by measuring the drop velocity of water droplets. And the correlation was confirmed with the cumulative charge of local arc discharge. Therefore, the water drop velocity was effective for the evaluation of hydrophobicity change.


Nano-amorphous Mg_2Ni-Ni alloys have been synthesized by ball milling the powders of Mg_2Ni alloys and Ni. XRD and SEM analysis were used to characteristic the microstructure and phase of milled Mg_2Ni/Ni composite. Electrochemical properties were evaluated by simulated battery testing with the alloys as negative electrode, it was found that the discharge capacity of Mg_2Ni/Ni composite, especially initial discharge capacity, was obviously improved with the increase of milling time. Compared with Mg_2Ni/Ni composite, the enhancements in discharge capacity and cycle life were observed in nano-amorphous Mg_2Ni-Ni alloy synthesized by ball milling for 150h.


Security is crucial all around. Access into institutions, examination centers, organizations or even estates ought to be controlled and closely monitored through a verification system. The method of authenticating a student for an examination has an obvious problem such as presentation of fake clearance card, impersonation and so on and the unethical manner associated with the examination is a grim issue that requires the stakeholders in academic area to seek for alternative means of authenticating student for examination, because the manual paper-based clearance process is fundamentally flawed. Sequel to that, a dependable and effective system is designed to tackle the issues of the convectional technique. The system will verify the understudy using fingerprint biometrics technique and generate a report which can serve as an attendance.


Differentiation between systemic inflammatory response syndrome and sepsis in surgical patients is of crucial significance. Procalcitonin (PCT) and C‐reactive protein (CRP) are widely used biomarkers, but PCT becomes compromised after antithymocyte globulin (ATG) administration, and CRP exhibits limited specificity. Presepsin has been suggested as an alternative biomarker of sepsis. This study aimed to demonstrate the role of presepsin in patients after heart transplantation (HTx). Plasma presepsin, PCT, and CRP were measured in 107 patients serially for up to 10 days following HTx. Time responses of biomarkers were evaluated for both noninfected (n=91) and infected (n=16) patients. Areas under the concentration curve differed in the two groups of patients for presepsin (P<.001), PCT (P<.005), and CRP (P<.001). The effect of time and infection was significant for all three biomarkers (P<.05 all). In contrast to PCT, presepsin was not influenced by ATG administration. More than 25% of noninfected patients had PCT above 42 μg/L on the first day, and the peak concentration of CRP in infected patients was reached on the third post‐transplant day (median 135 mg/L). Presepsin seems to be as valuable a biomarker as PCT or CRP in the evaluation of infectious complications in patients after HTx.


The effect of particle size on sample total weight loss percent, gas loss, and oil yield of oil shale has been investigated at 1 – 2 Cmin constant heating rate. Particles size was varied from sizes of 37.5, 31.5, 25.0, 19.0, 9.5 mm of particle has been used during the pyrolysis of Ellajjun oil shale specimens. The total weight loss percent decreased from 28% to 21% at 550C final pyrolysis temperature, as particle diameter increased from 9.5 mm to 37.5 mm. Gas loss percent also decreased from 9% to 6% in the investigated range. Oil yield measured on Fischer Assay basis was found to decrease from 90% to 67% with increase particle size. Atmospheric distillation of the produced shale oil has shown a decrease in the naphtha and gasoline fraction by 4% on volume basis, whereas the percentage of diesel fraction decreased from 50% to 42% when particle diameter increased. On the other hand, the percent kerosene produced from large particle size pyrolysis was found to be 34%, while 22% volume distilled was reported for smaller size. Sulfur and density decreased with increase particle diameter. The sulfur in liquid hydrocarbon decreased from 10.9% wt. in liquid hydrocarbons to 9.9% wt. as particle size increased.


The forewing venation homologies of magnifica Huang, Schubnel & Nel, 2020 (genus Legendreia) and its claimed bearing on the origin of the taxon Titanopterida are investigated. New data on two Permian stem-orthopterans, drewi Beckemeyer, 2011 (genus Loxoedischa) and reticulata Zalessky, 1934 (genus Iasvia), are provided to complement a sample of Permian and Triassic stem-orthopterans relevant to the case. Various forewing venation homology conjectures (HCs) are assembled in sets which themselves are contrasted using the minimum number of transformations they imply as an optimality criterion. None of the sets including the HC favoured in the original description of magnifica convincingly challenge the view that the Titanopterida derived from the Permian tcholmanvissiids, together forming the Pantcholmanvissiida. Moreover, the most parsimonious set involves an HC different from that provided in the original description of magnifica and well supported by morphological evidence. It predicts that the species is not particularly related to the Pantcholmanvissiida. Instead, further comparison reveals that it is a relative of caeliferans (grasshoppers and locusts), and, incidentally, the earliest one.


Since the mid-1990s, research on attitudes has been shaped by a dualism that has gained enormous popularity across all areas of psychology: the implicit-explicit dualism (see Gawronski & Payne, 2010). This dualism has its roots in the development of a new class of indirect measurement instruments, which are distinguished from direct measurement instruments based on self-report. A central feature of these instruments is that they rely on experimental procedures adapted from cognitive psychology, such as sequential priming and response interference tasks (for an overview, see Gawronski & De Houwer, 2014). Researchers often label these instruments implicit measures and self-report measures explicit measures. A central characteristic of implicit measures as applied to the study of attitudes is that evaluative responses are inferred from objective performance indicators, such as participants' speed and accuracy in responding to attitudinal stimuli. Based on this characteristic, it has been argued that implicit measures are capable of assessing attitudes that people are either unwilling or unable to report. Resonating with these concerns, self-report measures have been criticized for their susceptibility to socially desirable responding (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960; Paulhus, 1984) and for being unable to capture mental contents that are inaccessible to introspection (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Implicit measures have been claimed to overcome these limitations, because (a) responses on implicit measures are much more difficult to control compared to explicit measures, and (b) implicit measures do not require introspection for the assessment of mental contents. Although these assumptions are very common in the attitude literature, the available evidence suggests that differences between implicit and explicit measures cannot be boiled down to self-presentation and unawareness (Gawronski, LeBel, & Peters, 2007). Instead, the exponentially growing body of research in this area suggests that interpretations of different outcomes on the two kinds of measures require more nuanced theoretical frameworks. The current chapter provides an overview of extant theories and research on


Abshact. The narrow peaks at positive 2 energies, observed in (K, n) reactions, are described in a simple model with the A channel taken explicitly into account. Because of the EA coupling, the 2 hypernuclear bound slates acquire a width and ale shifted upwards in energy. This leads to peaks in the DWIA cross section for the (K, n) reaction comparable with the observed ones. The width and position of the peaks agree with the complex eigenvalues of the unstable bound states in the 2 channel. The Z hypernuclear states observed in (K, n) reactions are narrow in spite of the strong ZA conversion process EN+ A", and their energy is positive (see 11) for a recent review). Whereas several factors contribute to the narrowness of the states (see [Z] for recent review), their positive energy remains a puzzling problem. What distinguishes the Z hypernuclear states is the XA conversion, and one should expect it to play a crucial role in the problem of the positive energies. If one describes the XA conversion by the absorptive part of the I: optical potential Y, then the Schrodinger equation for the I: wavefunction I#= with this potential admits normalizable unstable bound states (UBS). The possibility of identifying the observed narrow I: states of positive energy with UBS, discussed in detail by Gal et a1 [3], appears to have been abandoned, after Morimatsu and Yazaki [4] (see also [5]) demonstrated that UBS do not show up in the (K, n) cross section calculated in DWIA with VI. However, the optical potential may not be the proper tool for describing the XA conversion in the (K, n) reaction. In fact, we show in the present paper by applying the scheme used by Fano [6] in the theory of autoionization of atoms, that due to the I:A conversion the I: bound states acquire a width and are shifted towards positive energies, and that it leads to the appearance of peaks in the (K, n) reaction, some of which are situated at positive energies. A possible link between our approach and the idea of UBS is pointed out. We examine the effect of ZA conversion in a very simple model of the hypernucleus, in which the hyperon moves in a fixed sp potential produced by the nuclear core. The hyperon may be either I: or A, and we have a two-component wavefunction Y and a 2 x 2 Hamiltonian matrix


This white paper delves into the challenges faced by IT Project Managers (IT PMs) due to restricted application and database access within organizations. Predominantly operating in an application-driven environment, IT PMs play a crucial role in aligning IT projects with organizational objectives and stakeholder expectations. However, the prevalent "Need to Know" policy in many organizations hinders IT PMs from gaining comprehensive insights into the projects they oversee. Such limitations not only pertain to application enhancements but also extend to backend projects like data migration and API enhancements. Restricted access can impede effective communication with technical teams, influence estimation accuracy, alter escalation strategies, and affect stakeholder interaction and end-user understanding. By investigating real-world scenarios, this paper seeks to understand the implications of these restrictions, propose mitigation strategies, and recommend solutions to optimize IT Project Management practices. The overarching aim is to enrich the discourse on improving IT PMs' efficiency and efficacy by reassessing access policies.


This article carries out an comprehensive evaluation on the seismicity and seismotectonic environments of Bohai Sea,sums up the new viewpoints on the division of potential seismic source zone,calculates the seismic risk,and makes an analysis on the seismic ground motion zontation.On this basis,the shape parameter of seismic risk curve,that is K,is introduced to delineate the seismic risk zone.The differences of seismic risk caused by seismic activity environment are demonstrated by the seismic risk curves at different sites.The ratios of ground motion for 3 exceeding probabilities illustrate the necessity of seismic risk zonation.The results show that:(1) There exists no fixed proportion between the ground motion of different exceeding probabilities,and it is effected by regional seismic environment,the combination of seismic risk zonation and seismic ground motion parameter zonation is a proper and comprehensive representation of seismic risk.(2) For the general engineering,the small earthquake is deduced from the ground motion with a exceeding probability of 10% in 50 years on the seismic ground motion zonation map,and their exceeding probability in different region are inconsistent with each other,and the fortification goals have no scientific guarantee.The ground motion of ductility level for the offshore platform design deduced from that of strength level also has no consistent exceeding probabilities.(3) The combination of seismic risk zonation and seismic ground motion zonation or compiling the seismic zoning map against collapse is the scientific choice for the general engineering,and for the offshore platform,the explicit exceeding probability of ductility design earthquake should be determined.


Scientific studies have contributed, over the last years, to an expansion of the Image concept, in articulation with new developments in Computational Media, based in a stratification around technical digital properties, which frame its existence to the form of digital information – extending it beyond a visual surface idea. Biometric data, artificial intelligence, bitcoin, glitches or machine learning are examples of instantiation tools used by artists to explore elements of mediation included in Post-images. This chapter addresses today's perspectives in Contemporary Imagetics emerging from the field of Digital Media Art (DMA), curating contributions from classic postproduction techniques to computational media instantiations and contextualizing imagery creation practice in DMA.


Water pollution contributes the major environmental pollution in many countries which shows great impact on human life and biodiversity. The important source of water pollution is industrial effluent. General contaminants in effluent water are heavy metals, phenols, dyes, harmful organics, ligands and suspended solids .Treatment of effluent water plays vital role in many industries, the treatment of adsorption proved to be most important well known and economical process. The ability of certain solids of preferentially concentrate specific substance on their surface is the basic principle for adsorption. Water with high content of iron can be very objectionable. In our research work the activated carbon prepared from tamarind seeds was employed to take up selected heavy metal that is iron ions. Tamarind seeds which are an agricultural waste and also waste product in many industries was activated by phosphoric acid treatment, is investigated for the removal of iron ions from textile industrial effluent sample.


This research seeks to increase understanding regarding the midwife-woman relationship. Midwives provide care within a context that is intimate and highly emotional. Additionally, it is often in a one-to-one setting that is private. To work successfully in this space they need to have a high level of self-awareness and reflexivity to be responsive to the situations that may arise. A positive relationship has been shown to influence the outcome for the woman and her baby (Hunter, 2005; Pembroke & Pembroke, 2008; Thomas & Dixon, 2012; Walsh, 1999), and increase the job satisfaction for the midwife (McAra-Couper, Gilkison, Crowther, Hunter, Hotchin & Gunn, 2014).


Foreign exchange reserves are important indicators of ability to repay foreign debt and for currency defence, and are used to determine credit ratings of nations. The quantity of foreign exchange reserves can change as a central bank implements monetary policy.Foreign exchange reserves are mainl y held by a country to maintain the balance between the demand and supply of money, help the central bank to intervene in the market during crises and also to p reserve confidence in the ability of an economy to meet its external obligations. The pa per models estimates the quantity of reserves using monthly data from April 1999 to March 2008. The model has five explanatory variables: exchange rate volatility, lo g of export volatility, IIP, log of money share in GDP and interest rate. The size of t he economy (for which the Index of Industrial Production serves as a proxy) and vol atility of exports have positive coefficients and are significant predictors of fore ign exchange reserves, as are share of broad money in GDP and the opportunity cost of reserves (captured by the T-Bill rate). On the other hand, reserve holdings should b e negatively correlated with exchange-rate volatility since central banks no lon ger need a large reserve stockpile to manage a fixed exchange rate, but result seem to co ntradict the hypotheses.


We find that for shopping trip decisions, consumers' driving time knowledge (how long it takes to get there) is both more accessible from memory and more accurate than their corresponding driving distance knowledge. In memory-based judgments, chronically more accessible time knowledge had a dominant influence on distance judgments. Given a map, consumers still relied on their time knowledge to infer trip distance. Moreover, consumers' estimated time and distance judgments showed inflated correlations regardless of underlying actual correlations, which may approach zero in urban environments. Consequently, there appears to be an asymmetric reliance on time knowledge when making trip decisions. Copyright 2003 by the University of Chicago.


Land Registration in the twenty-first century: the statutory framework. The objectives and principal provisions of the Land Registration Act 2002. Land Registration Act 2002. Land Registration Act 1925 (parts retained under transitional provisions). Law of Property Act 1925 (relevant sections). Land Registration Rules 2003. Adjudication Rules. Land Registration Fee Order 2003. Transitional Provisions Order 2003 and Paper Office Order 2003


ABSTRACT The potential amount of informal risk capital available in a particular geographic region depends on the amount of capital which individual investors plan to commit and on the number of investors in that region. The first of these aspects is evaluated by means of structured direct interviews; the population size is estimated by using a capture/recapture statistical methodology.


According the characteristics of Satellite networks,a Zone-diffusion Dynamic routing protocol(ZDRP) is proposed,the ZDRP operates in dynamic and on-demand mode to switch messages in the unit of zone and setup path between source and destination,The OPNET simulation software is used to simulate and validate ZDRP both in single layer and bilayer constellation model,By comparing with other protocols,the results show that the average network setup time and the path searching time of ZDRP are better than OSPF and RIP,the end to end delay and the package loss rate are better than Flooding route protocol.


This intensively researched paper is a study of nearly 3000 patients initially evaluated at primary care centers for low back pain.[1] Some were diagnosed with a component of neuropathic leg pain and another group had what the authors consider to be nociceptive referred leg pain. Such patients had non‐neuropathic pain in a leg in association with low back pain. The authors conclude that there is "some evidence of higher levels of morbidity in low back leg pain patients with neuropathic pain." This is hardly earthshattering. Primary care providers if they find evidence of neuropathic leg pain should be aware that this is more serious than if there is nociceptive leg pain. However, there is no overarching statistic that the authors of this paper present to confirm this conclusion. "More research is needed" is hardly helpful. They state that there is "some consistent evidence for worse back and leg pain related disability in LBLP (low back leg pain) patients with neuropathic pain." Such conclusions are consistent with other published evidence, but the authors sought to confirm this by studying only those patients who presented to primary care centers. For a study that relied heavily on careful collation of scientific studies, there is a paucity of statistical inclusion in the results.


The invention discloses a secondary side phase-shifting controlled full-bridge converter, belonging to the technical field of electric energy converters. The secondary side phase-shifting controlled full-bridge converter comprises an inverter circuit, a high-frequency transformer, a rectifier network, a filter circuit and a load, wherein the rectifier network is a bridge-type rectifier circuit comprising four diodes D5-D8. According to the secondary side phase-shifting controlled full-bridge converter disclosed by the invention, the rectifier network is improved; and two output ends of a secondary side of the transformer are respectively connected with a fifth switching tube S5 and a sixth switching tube S6 in series. The secondary side phase-shifting controlled full-bridge converter is suitable for high-voltage and high-power application occasions and can be used for realizing soft switching of all switching tubes and effectively inhibiting the voltage and current peaks of the switching tubes; in addition, by using secondary phase-shifting control of the transformer, the condition that exciting current flows through a circuit in the phase-shifting process only is realized. Therefore, circular current loss is reduced and the difficulty of realizing zero-voltage on-off of a lag bridge arm is overcome.


Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a pleiotropic cytokine that orchestrates an array of local and systemic effects. For instance, acute exposure to a high dose of TNF-α results in septic shock and fever. We have used interleukin-1β (IL-1β)- and interleukin-6 (IL-6)-deficient mice, along with their wild-type equivalents, to define a role for TNF-α in fever. Briefly, the mice produced prostaglandin E2-dependent fevers in response to recombinant murine TNF-α (rmTNF-α). Furthermore, rmTNF-α (12 μg/mouse ip) triggered a febrile response in IL-1β-deficient mice as well as in their corresponding wild-type controls. In contrast, the IL-6-deficient mice were resistant to rmTNF-α (4.5 μg/mouse ip), although their wild-type counterparts readily mounted a fever. In the IL-6-deficient mice, moreover, the febrile response to rmTNF-α could be restored by a central administration of rat recombinant IL-6 (500 ng/mouse icv). We thus conclude that TNF-α can trigger fever independent of IL-1β but dependent on IL-6. We also suggest that central, rather than peripheral, IL-6 (plasma IL-6 was measured 2 h after pyrogenic challenge) is essential in TNF-α-induced fever.


Biofilm formation and chronic infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa depend on lectins produced by the bacterium. The bacterial C-type lectin LecB binds to the two monosaccharides L-fucose and D-mannose and conjugates thereof. Previously, D-mannose derivatives with amide and sulfonamide substituents at C6 were reported as potent inhibitors of the bacterial lectin LecB and LecB-mediated bacterial surface adhesion. Because D-mannose establishes a hydrogen bond via its 6-OH group with Ser23 of LecB in the crystal structure and may be beneficial for binding affinity, we extended D-mannose and synthesized mannoheptoses bearing the free 6-OH group as well as amido and sulfonamido-substituents at C7. Two series of diastereomeric mannoheptoses were synthesized and the stereochemistry was determined by X-ray crystallography. The potency of the mannoheptoses as LecB inhibitors was assessed in a competitive binding assay. The data reveal a diastereoselectivity of LecB for (6S)-mannoheptose derivatives with increased activity over methyl α-D-mannoside. 102 All so far reported fucose-based inhibitors of LecB bear unmodified terminal α-L-fucosyl residues, an epitope which is recognized by numerous lectins of the host immune system, e.g. the selectins, DC-SIGN, MBL and others. In order to potentially increase target specificity and reduce interference with host lectins, high affinity mannose-based LecB inhibitors 2 and 3 with a camouflaged mannosyl residue through capping at C6 were recently reported. Figure 37: The LecB ligand methyl α-D-mannoside (1) forms a hydrogen bond through its 6-hydroxy group with Ser23. Mannose derivatives 2 and 3 are high affinity inhibitors of LecB, although unable to establish a hydrogen bond with Ser23. Mannoheptose derivatives 4 and 5 were designed to allow possible hydrogen bond formation of their 6-hydroxy group with Ser23 and attachment of additional pharmacophores (R). In contrast to its low affinity for this lectin, D-mannose forms an additional hydrogen bond in the crystal structure of its O6 with LecB at residue Ser23. Interestingly, this hydrogen bond does not contribute significantly to the overall binding affinity at ambient conditions (section 3.2.1). This observation could result from a high degree of flexibility of 1 in the unbound state, and thus increased entropy costs upon binding, a concept well established for the C-type lectin E-selectin and its carbohydrate ligand sialyl Lewis. Extension of mannose-derived ligand 1 with additional pharmacophores at C6 allows the targeting of adjacent protein surface and potent inhibitors, e.g. 2 and 3, were obtained. Although these compounds are LecB inhibitors with more than 20-fold improved affinity, the hydrogen bond with Ser23 cannot be established due the lack of O6. Additionally exploiting the interaction of Man-O6 by increasing O


Plastic deformation in passivated Al-1 wt %Cu thin films was studied in situ using a straining device in the transmission electron microscope. Both edge and screw dislocations were found to have caused slip on inclined {111} planes. Multiple slip was frequently observed as two or more sets of intersecting slip traces. Microstructural investigations of both unpassivated and passivated Al-1 wt %Cu films indicate that grain size and encapsulation by passivating layers are major contributors to strength of a thin film with a particular thickness. Additional strengthening is also provided by interactions between dislocations on multiple slip systems. The roles of grain orientation and precipitates in plastic deformation are also discussed.


One of the possible lines of action for the internationalization of universities is that of international co-operation for development. This definition generally implies a concept of aid to the so-called third countries: the thesis here supported is that co-operation for development should have criteria of reciprocity, made possible above all through exchanges. International institutions promoting exchange programs tend not to foresee an attention to the dimensions of potential change within people and organizations which happens as a result of contact. In accordance with the UN development objectives (Millennium), with the UNESCO report (Our creative diversity) and with the definitions of global ethics of the European Council, we think that the conceptual and practical tools offered by intercultural relations' literature and praxis should be used and disseminated not only among students, faculties and staff, but also embodied by local communities in the perspective of shared responsibility. The intercultural dimension of exchange and co-operation is, in our vision, a key to the internationalization process: it is necessary to stabilize , through adequate reflection, all the practice of change in order to open the traditionally closed systems of higher education. This paper will try to identify areas of application of good practices which emerged from international research on students', faculties and workers' exchange and on change agentry with intercultural sensitivity, which is at the basis of a new concept of co-operation for development.


Abstract : The program, participants (34 from seven countries) and abstracts of the papers presented at the workshop are given. The papers cover a wide range of phenomena in which electric and magnetic fields exert a significant influence and which offer potential for beneficial technological applications. Comments and recommendations by the participants are presented. These include an expression of the dire need to better understand the mechanisms involved and the use of electric and magnetic fields to: (a) produce new materials, (b) process amorphous, nonequilibrium, nanocrystalline and composite materials, and (c) fabricate special architectured structures. Also, the establishment of a Center on the general subject of the effects of electric and magnetic fields was strongly urged to promote interaction and cooperation among the research workers in the field and to develop the state-of-the-art required for technological applications.


This study was aimed to determine the income of farmers who carry out a partnership system during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Lekopancing Village, Tanralili District, Maros Regency. The research was conducted on March to April 2021. The type of research used is descriptive quantitative. The sample in this study were farmers who partnered with the X's company were 2 farmers, the Y's company were 12 farmers and the Z's company were 8 breeder. Data was collected through interviews with the help of a questionnaire as the research instrument. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted to the incomes of farmers who partnered with companies X, Y, and Z, other than that it influence price fluctuations. The income earned by farmers with partnership patterns on a business scale of 3000 tail is the highest breeder who partners with PT. Z was USD 1,564.63 and USD 0.52/tail/period. As for the business scale of 4000, the highest is PT. Y of USD 2,285.97 and USD 0.76/tail/period.
Keywords: Agricultural management, Broiler chicken, Income, Partnership system, Poultry farming.


Animal welfare is not more than the comfort of animals in its habitat satisfying its necessities of life, innate and learned, in relation with the environment without abuse or stress. Animal welfare conditions have an important relationship for all animals, especially for dairy cattle that, among farm animals, are the ones with the most contact and correct handling needs to maintain the feeling of comfort. The objective of this work was to evaluate the importance of animal welfare indicators related to the production of dairy cattle to reach a practical conclusion and a great help for animal's producers. It is concluded that every animal need to satisfied its five "freedoms of life" conditions to guarantee the welfare feeling taking in consideration that harmonic stability of the animal with its environment is fundamental for dairy cattle, the daily routine in a dairy farm must be stable to avoid "surprises" in animals which guarantees the psychic stability of them since changes in this routine "shock" the animals generating stress states that affect the quantity and quality of milk produced and feeding, holding and management systems have to be in accordance with the breed and environmental conditions


Very fast transient overvoltage (VFTO) not only influence the operating reliability of GIS, but also causes great threat to the insulation of the high-voltage equipment, especially to windings of the transformer. Taking a 550kV GIS substation as the object, VFTO characteristics, generation mechanism and influencing factors are studied in the paper. Based on the structure of GIS, the simulation model of GIS internal structure is established, and the fast transient overvoltage caused by GIS disconnector operation is simulated. The influences of the structure parameters on the fast transient overvoltage is analyzed, and the influence factors of VFTO are analyzed from the point of view of internal and external GIS.