The present paper on 'Marketing of Services in Open Distance Learning (ODL) is a micro level study on Dr. BRAOU students'. ODL System in India still struggling for recognition and well acceptance, even after 45 years of its existence. ODL contribution to the Higher Education System is about 32 per cent whereas; Conventional Education is only 8 per cent. At present there are 14 single mode Open Universities and 117 Distance Education Centres (DECs) in India catering to the needs of higher learning with specialized services. But unfortunately, ODL system has not been recognized or received either on par with conventional education or DECs of Conventional Universities. It is in this context, the present study is aimed at: (a) to know the learner perception towards ODL system; (b) to strengthen and satisfy the customer (learner) through after sale (admission) services. To conclude, 41 per cent of respondents opined that the services of BRAOU are not at all satisfactory, 40 per cent satisfactory and only 19 per cent highly satisfied. Out of 41 per cent, 65 per cent of issues related to examination services, 25 per cent towards learner support services and 10 per cent regarding material production including other services. Further, this study also suggested that: (a) ODL institutions should improve after admission services through strengthening communication system,(b) counter services, (c) staff training for treating and responding learners properly and respectively, etc.


Balancing energy consumption and prolonging network lifetime are open challenges in Wireless Sensor Networks. In this paper, we design a novel load balanced routing protocol to maximize lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In order to balance the energy consumption among sensor nodes, we deploy multiple sinks simultaneously which are connected though wired or wireless infrastructure. We introduce a potential model and propose a routing scheme in which sensor nodes construct routes based on local topology information and the state information from sinks' broadcast messages. Sinks monitor their traffic load and adjust their own parameters to balance the traffic load in the network. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our protocol can significantly improve the performance of the system in following aspects: robustness, lifetime and reliability.


There is widespread interest within the scientific community to improve and utilize hand gesture recognition. The far-reaching applications of this technology touch the fields of robotics, medical practice, human computer interaction, and everything in between. Through the use of the Leap Motion Controller, a lightweight IR sensor, this project explored one practical application of this technology-controlling audio playback-using two different approaches. In the first approach, a simple music player web-application was created and manipulated by distinct hand gestures/poses. In the second, a 3D augmented reality environment was constructed using the Unity engine. This application uses hand-tracking to control a virtual music player interface. Although there are many useful utilities that facilitate the use of Leap Motion technology, we discovered in our trials that performance is still lackluster at times. There is still much room for improvement with this project and with handtracking/gesture recognition at large. Future work should seek to improve reliability and performance of the Leap Motion Controller and its' related applications. CCS CONCEPTS • Gesture Recognition • Gesture Control • Augmented Reality


Time-division multiplexed spectroscopic measurements using a continuous-wave quantum cascade laser array, emitting around 5.65 μm, have been performed, preparing the way towards highly sensitive and selective continuous emission monitoring and portable multi-gas detection systems.


Brazilian Journal of otorhinolaryngology 77 (1) January/feBruary 2011 http://www.bjorl.org / e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Dear readers, The Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology has been renewed for 2011. In this first editorial of the year, the Brazilian Association of E.N.T. and Cervicofacial Surgery announces a change in its Journal's Board. However, our Journal's fundamental characteristics will remain untouched. The main Brazilian journal of otorhinolaryngology aims at spreading knowledge and socializing experiences, research and studies, always prioritizing science in its content. Besides consolidating the progress already achieved, and very competently achieved by the previous board, we intend to adopt an editorial policy which will enhance even further our Brazilian Journal Otorhinolaryngology. The main goal of the present board is to increasingly encourage Brazilian scientific production, attracting the interest of authors from other parts of the world, in order to broaden our participation in the world scientific settings. In recent years, authors from numerous countries have sent us their papers, showing a growing interest in our journal. This is very favorable, for it leverages citations from the Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology, thus increasing the impact factor measured by the Journal Citation Report and our journal's international projection. All of this helps improve the grades of our graduate programs at CAPES. To further this evolution process, the journal's editorial board will count on new teams of coeditors and associate revisers, both made up of experienced professionals in specific fields of our specialty, with active participation in scientific research, enabling a more careful assessment of the papers sent for publication. We'd like to thank and welcome them to our team.


To adapt to the research teaching of chemistry experiment course for pharmaceutical majors,the evaluation system for student's scores was built in combination with the evaluation of teachers,evaluation of students and evaluation from other students.And the gauges tables were made for evaluation.


This study examined the social and spill-over benefits as motivating factors to investment in formal education in selected countries in Africa. The paper had three objectives, namely) to profile the key statistics of formal schooling; ii) examine the formal education and iii) link national goals of education with expectations in Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda. The major contention of the paper is that investment in education is not a matter of random choice but rather an imperative led by the fact that education holds returns and externalities to the largest society.  Authors reviewed theory of human capital, local and international publications on social and spill over benefits of education focusing on Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda. The analysis of government policies and other publications from these three African nations have shown that education is considered as a key sector in these developing nations. Nevertheless, the researchers found out that mostly only primary and secondary education are distinctively accorded considerable public financial resources which might be associated with the countries limited financial ability, competitive needs, national and global trends. However, the fact that Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda strive to become democratic, self-reliant and middle income nations by conquering long terms set visions in which caliber manpower, welfare, self-employment, reduced social inequalities, increase in average income, knowledge based society, ICT driven and sustainable economy are key characteristics; it is imperative to invest substantially in TVET and higher education. It is also recommended that Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda put in place strong institutions that objectively, effectively and rationally ensure the efficient use of all available resources towards maximum educational outputs (265 words). Key words : Social Benefits, Spill-over Benefits, Private Cost, Social Cost, Private Rate of Returns, Education, Cost- Best Analysis in Education, Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of arthroscopic treatment and nonsurgical treatment on ankle degenerative osteoarthropathy.

METHODS
Between July 2009 and June 2011, 58 patients (58 ankles) suffering from ankle degenerative osteoarthropathy underwent arthroscopic treatment (arthroscopic group, n=28) and routine treatment (control group, n=30). There was no significant difference in gender, age, body mass index, disease duration, and degree of ankle degenerative osteoarthropathy between 2 groups (P > 0.05). Mazur score, visual analogue scale (VAS), and Tegner activity scale were used to evaluate the effectiveness.

RESULTS
Incision healed primarily in arthroscopic group. The patients of 2 groups were followed up 1-2 years, averaged 1.5 years in arthroscopic group and 1.6 years in control group. At last follow-up, Mazur, VAS, and Tegner scores were significantly improved when compared with the preoperative scores in 2 groups (P < 0.05), but no significant difference was found at last follow-up between 2 groups (P > 0.05). According to Mazur scoring, the results were excellent in 8 cases, good in 14 cases, fair in 5 cases, and poor in 1 case, with an excellent and good rate of 79% in arthroscopic group; the results were excellent in 6 cases, good in 15 cases, fair in 6 cases, and poor in 3 cases, with an excellent and good rate of 70% in control group; and no significant difference was observed between 2 groups (u=0.98, P=0.77). Moreover, there was no correlation between Outerbridge classification and Mazur score in patients undergoing arthroscopic treatment (r=0.18, P= 0.34).

CONCLUSION
Arthroscopic and nonsurgical treatments of ankle degenerative osteoarthropathy can both achieve good effectiveness.


Sociologists and economists hold totally different opinions regarding collective action.Sociologists believe that as long as there are common interests in a group,the members of the group will together strive to achieve such interests;however,economists argue that since common interests are a kind of public goods,their non-exclusive property will give rise to group members' free-rider behaviour,thus resulting in the failure of collective action.Olson holds that the two kinds of different opinions have made the same mistake,namely,neither of them studies the influence the scale of the group,the structure of the members and institutional arrangement have on collective action.Olson pioneers in analyzing the factors effecting collective action under a series of conditions,which constructs the starting point of the theory of collective action.


Academic Learning: Perspectives, Theory, and Models: E. Bredo, The Social Construction of Learning. G.D. Phye, Learning and Remembering: The Basis for Personal Knowledge Construction. M.H. Dembo and M.J. Eaton, School Learning and Motivation. B.J. Zimmerman and R. Risemberg, Self-Regulatory Dimensions of Academic Learning and Motivation. P.D. Nichols and D.J. Mittelholtz, Constructing the Concept of Aptitude: Implications for the Assessment of Analogical Reasoning. Teaching "How to Learn" within Domains: M. Pressley, R. Wharton-McDonald, J. Rankin, P.B. El-Dinary, R. Brown, P. Afflerbach, J. Mistretta, and L. Yokoi, Elementary Reading Instruction. J.M. Royer, A Cognitive Perspective on the Assessment, Diagnosis, and Remediation of Reading Skills. S.L. Benton, Psychological Foundations of Elementary Writing Instruction. R.E. Burnett and L.M. Kastman, Teaching Composition: Current Theories and Practices. M.L. Franke and D.A. Grouws, Developing Student Understanding in Elementary School Mathematics: A Cognitive Perspective. S.R. Williams, Mathematics (Grades 7-12). K. Tobin, The Teaching and Learning of Elementary Science. J.J. Mintzes, J.H. Wandersee, and J.D. Novak, Meaningful Learning in Science: The Human Constructivist Perspective. Learning to Learn: G.D. Phye, Inductive Reasoning and Problem Solving: The Early Grades. R.E. Mayer, Incorporating Problem Solving into Secondary School Curricula. D.R. Olson, Critical Thinking: Learning to Talk About Talk and Text. Assessment of Classroom Learning: W.D. Schafer, Classroom Assessment. J.H.M. Hamers and A.J.J.M. Ruijssenaars, Assessing Classroom Learning Potential. V. Spandel, Reflections on Portfolios. Epilogue: Classroom Learning, Looking Ahead. Index.


The invention discloses an interest point display method of an electronic map, comprising the steps as follows: a request for displaying the interest point at an appointed area of the electronic map is received and whether the icons or the texts of the interest points are superposed or not when the interest points of the area are displayed is judged; if so, the interest points of the area are alternatively displayed according to classification; if not, the interest points of the area are directly displayed; correspondingly, the invention also discloses a movable terminal. The embodiment of the invention can optimize the display of the interest points in the electronic map, and leads certain area on the electronic map to be clearly displayed even when excessive interest points exist.


To the Editor:
 The report of Weibel et al. (Pediatrics 56:380, September 1975)concerning long-term antibody levels after monovalent or combined measles,mumps, and rubella virus vaccines presents numerous observations, but leaves one of the more interesting ones incompletely explored.
 Of particular interest to us is an apparent disparity in levels of rubella antibody five years after rubella immunization of seronegative children and adult women. Among 74 children followed up for duration and level of


The lack of an adequate methodology that can be automated to perform the fixture design activities had created a void in the bridge linking CAD and CAM activities. This research addressed this concern by developing a methodology (for fixture design) that can be automated. The development of such a methodology supports the argument that there exists a means to automate the fixture design task. A functional IDEFO model of the fixture design task was built after interacting with fixture design experts. This functional model was used as a basis for developing the three phased methodology. The developed methodology includes the preliminary design phase, the functional analysis phase and the validation phase. In the preliminary phase, the geometry and topology of the product are studied, features are identified and the given tolerances analyzed. The focus in the functional analysis phase (or Phase II) was to design the support, locator and clamping aspects of the fixture. Based on the output from Phase II (as well as the product design information, process sequence, etc.), the fixture design is validated in an automated manner in the last phase. Methods to automate the various activities in each of the three phases were developed in this research. A prototype fixture designer, TAMIL, was built to demonstrate the feasibility of the representations, algorithms and techniques developed in this research.


The article deals with the German obligatory unemployment insurance (so-called AVAVG, enacted in 1927) in the interwar period. This scheme replaced an older system, introduced in 1918, based on monetary provisions distributed under means-tests and financed from taxes. The prospective unemployment rate was underestimated. Because of this fact the insurance scheme had the serious trouble of showing a deficit. Financing became an important issue in the political struggle among political parties, and governments were not able to enforce any fundamental curative reform of this scheme before 1933.


Objective: To evaluate the nutritional state of aged patients in hospital by means of MNA-SF and to compare difference of the traditional nutritional assessment index among patients with different MNA-SF scores. Methods: 753 aged patients were randomly selected to assess their nutritional states by MNA-SF,and to collect and analyze the traditional nutritional assessment index. Then according to the teeth status,the patients were grouped to compare the nutrition index. Results: Among the aged patients,the incidence of malnutrition,the risk of malnutrition and good nutritional status were19. 39%,39. 71% and 40. 90% respectively. BMI,AMC,CC,hand strength and ADL scores were significantly different( P 0. 05) between three groups. The better nutritional status the patient had,the higher level of BMI,AMC,CC,hand strength and ADL scores the patient got. As well,the patients had better nutritional status with the better teeth status( P 0. 05). Conclusion: Incidence of malnutrition and the risk of malnutrition of the aged patients in hospital are high,and the level of their traditional nutrition assessment index are low. The teeth status also affect the patient's nutrition status.


Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risk management is an effort made to manage the risks of work accidents to minimize the risk of work accidents in a company. The aim and target of OHS risk management is to create an OHS system in the work environment that involves all parties, so as to reduce the number of workplace accidents and create a safe workplace. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further research on the implementation of the OHS risk management system in the company. In this research, identification and analysis of accident risk have been successfully carried out, as well as making suggestions for risk mitigation in a company in the corrugated carton box sector. In addition, work accident investigations have also been carried out to determine the cause of a work accident and detect latent sources of hazards that were not detected in the risk identification process.


Half-semimetallicity has been predicted to occur in zigzag-shaped graphene ribbons embedded in BN sheets. Using first-principles density-functional calculations a physical explanation is given, showing that the magnetism of the edge states in graphene strips and polarity effects in BN strips team up to give a spin asymmetric screening that induces an electronic reconstruction and half-semimetallicity at the interface, with a gap of at least a few hundreds of millielectron volts for one spin orientation and a tiny gap of tens of millielectron volts for the other. The dependence with ribbon widths is discussed, revealing that a range of ribbon widths is required to obtain the half-semimetallic state. These results prove that unconventional physical effects similar to those observed at insulating oxide interfaces, can also exist in lower dimensions, opening alternative routes for tuning electronic properties at nanointerfaces.


No BRITISH PLAYWRIGHT SINCE Wilde has earned quite the notoriety Joe Orton won rapidly in the mid-Sixties. Within four years he wrote seven plays for which he was acclaimed, financially rewarded, condemned. Entertaining MT. Sloane set the tone of his brief career. Terence Rattigan called it the best first play he had ever seen, and helped finance a West End run; the 1965 reaction to dirty plays killed it after five months. Paradoxically Orton himself contributed to this backlash under one of his pseudonyms: in a letter to the New Statesman Edna Welthorpe confessed her nauseous disgust over such a display of perverted filth. When Loot won an award as the best play of 1966, Edna and two other disguises argued in Plays and Players about why the play should never have won any distinction at all. Indeed Orton did more than write ribald drama; he also needed to live it.


The modulation wave vector $\ensuremath{\delta}{\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{b}}}^{*}$ of deuterated thiourea is measured as a function of temperature and for several electric-field values, using neutron diffraction. The only commensurate phase stabilized by the field is found to correspond to $\ensuremath{\delta}=\frac{1}{8}$. High-order commensurate phases such as $\ensuremath{\delta}=\frac{2}{15}, \frac{4}{29}, \mathrm{and} \frac{6}{43}$ are not observed, in contrast with a recent high-field x-ray diffraction study. The disagreement between the two techniques is ascribed to radiation damage caused by the x-ray beam itself. Perliminary results on an x-ray irradiated sample are presented.


Holo Taiwanese Opera Troupe has produced a series of intercultural performances in Taiwanese Opera since the troupe adapted Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol's (1809-1852) The Government Inspector in 1996. In fact, there is a huge controversy over these intercultural performances which fuse western drama with traditional Taiwanese performing art because such a kind of theatrical hybridity lacks the spirit of the original and damages the aesthetics of native performing art practice. In 2002, Holo adapted William Shakespeare's Hamlet into a six-hour-long performance, Tai Tzu Fu Chou (The Prince's Vengeful Plan), which the troupe tried to explore new source for traditional Taiwanese Opera and expected to bring something new to Taiwanese audience. However, The Prince's Vengeful Plan is considered "cultural collage" as well as an unsuccessful intercultural performance. Besides, The Prince's Vengeful Plan is accused to blaspheme Shakespeare because the performance merely maintains the frame of the original and distorts the spirit of the original. According to Rustom Bharucha, the most problematic aspect of intercultural performance is "de-historicizing tendency", and such a condition explains why Holo's The Prince's Vengeful Plan cannot transcend the original. In order to detect the problems of intercultural adaptation in Holo's The Prince Vengeful Plan, we cover the related issues in three aspects: (1) to discuss the development of Taiwanese Opera in Taiwan; (2) to explore the cultural conflicts when the text of the source culture is adapted into the performance of the target culture; and (3) to see how and why the spirit and aesthetics of Shakespeare's verses in Hamlet are distorted in Holo's theatrical adaptation. After that, we expect to conclude the impossibility of adapting Shakespeare's play into traditional Taiwanese Opera in the case of Holo's The Prince's Vengeful Plan.


Quantitative structure-toxicity relationships (QSTRs) between various physicochemical parameters of substituents in new herbicidal N-phenyl-3,4-dimethylphthalimide derivatives and their discriminate score (DS) for chronic and acute toxicities against mouse and rat evaluated using TOPKAT calculation were discussed quantitatively. From the basis on the findings, it was shown that carcinogenicities of female was higher than that of male and mouse had higher tendency than rat. The STR analyses results of Hansch-Fujita type equations suggested that mouse (female & male) and rat male except rat female are dependent on LUMO energy commonly in carcinogenicity. The selective carcinogenicity factor of two species between male mouse and female mouse is dependent on optimal value (ca. ) for length of -substituent mainly. According to Free-Wilson approach, in the case of rat male, alkyl and aryl substituents were superior and in the other case, contribution of fluoro group substituents were superior to chronic toxicity.


Abstract The normal stress values have been calculated for the pseudo-plastic region and the dilatant region of the steady-state flow of PVC plastisols. The viscosity–shear rate data had been taken from the literature and analyzed previously to quantitatively describe the presence of an immobilized layer. In the present work the normal stress in the pseudo-plastic region was evaluated as a force acting against the expansion of the immobilized layer caused by the osmotic pressure. The osmotic pressure is that which arises from the concentration difference between the mobile phase and the immobilized layer. The calculated normal stress increases with increasing shear rate. The trend is similar to that observed with other systems such as polymer solutions and polymer melts. In the dilatant region the dilatational stress acting on the immobilized layer is present in addition to the above osmotic pressure; the normal stress is counteracting the dilatational stress and the osmotic pressure. Therefore, the calculated sum of the latter two forces gives the magnitude of the normal stress. The normal stress values have been found to be constant, independent of shear rate.


Gardenia leaf-spot mainly infected the middle and lower leaves of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis making the leaves blotchy and withered.The disease occurred from March to November and became serious when the temperature was over 25 ℃.The pathogen(Phyllosticta gardenicola Saw.,P.gardeniae Tassi)overwintered as conidiocarp or hyphostroma on the infected leaves.The result of the test showed that the control effect was over 90% when 50% Carbendazim WP(diluted 1 000 times)and 30% LDN flowable formulation(diluted 2 500 times)were sprayed three times.


This study proposes a method of processing cascade impactor data, called the "calibration matrix method," and compares it with usual methods. This method takes into account the real collection efficiency curves obtained from cascade impactor calibration, in contrast to the usual methods which assume that cascade impactor collection efficiency is ideal. The comparison between the new and usual methods was carried out for sodium fluoride aerosols generated with five different nebulizers (Multisonic®, LS260 kit2601®, Sidestream®, PariLC+® and Aeroneb Go®) and one dry powder (terbutaline, Astra Zeneca, France), sized with the 8-stage Marple Model 298 Personal cascade impactor. Particle size distributions were represented as differential and cumulative distributions. Statistical differences were highlighted between the calibration matrix method and the usual methods in terms of MMAD and respirable fractions for all aerosols. The largest differences were 28% in terms of MMAD and 64% in terms of respirable fraction.


All of the known Mozambique Cancellariidae are discussed and figured. The species are Scalptia obliquata (Lamarck, 1822), Scalptia crossei (Semper, 1861), Scalptia contabulata (Sowerby, 1833), Scalptia bicolor (Hinds, 1843) and Fusiaphera eva n. sp. Trigonaphera Iredale, 1936 is placed in the synonymy of Scalptia Jousseaume, 1887 and Cancellaria asperula Deshayes, 1830 is placed in the synonymy of Scalptia obliquata (Lamarck, 1822).


The operator and the predicate uses of "provable" are the results of distinguishing levels strictly.The operator use of "provable" looks "provable" outside a proposition,while its predicate use inside.Whether Gdel's Self-Reference Proposition leads to paradox depends on how to understand the essential concept improvable.In normal inference,if concept improvable is taken as a sentential operator,Gdel's Self-Reference Proposition can not lead to a paradox.Otherwise,if it is taken as a predication,Gdel's Self-Reference Proposition can lead to a paradox.


The research was conducted in the years of 2020-2021 during the growing seasons such as 2021A started from September 2020 till the end of January 2021 and 2021 B started from February till end of June 2021, in Busogo sector, Musanze District, Northern Province. The purpose of this project was to assess the impact of fertilization and drying methods such as sun drying, dry shelter and kitchen drying on aflatoxin contamination in maize before and after harvesting. The area from which this project was conducted was chosen due to the availability of a lot of number of maize growers who cultivate them not only for consumption but also for trade purpose either processed or non-processed. During this study, a total of twenty-four samples were collected, examined and evaluated for aflatoxin levels in both seasons. In the season 2021A and 2021B sample collection equivalent to twelve in each season was done then dried them within 30 days by using different drying methods such as dry shelter, kitchen drying, sun drying. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four treatment of fertilizer combination in four replications was used in this study and all experimental plots were planted with one maize variety (H628) purchased from Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board. Except samples from maize cultivated without fertilizer, level of aflatoxin infection was found to be higher 10 Parts per billion. The East African countries community standard limit of 10 parts per billion which indicate a health risk to the consumer, when comparing the three drying methods employed in this study, the kitchen drying method produced lower levels of aflatoxin (1.6 parts per billion) than the dry shelter (3.2 parts per billion) and sun drying methods (2.9 parts per billion), samples taken from the control plot (T4) stands for no fertilizer application resulted greater levels of aflatoxin with an average of 25.75 prts per billion compared to other treatments which yielded aflatoxin levels of at lower than 10 parts per billion. The use of kitchen drying can be recommended as well as mixture of both organic and inorganic fertilizers when growing maize in order to reduce the level of aflatoxin.


The influences of optical property assumptions on DCS flow index measurements were evaluated by phantom experiments, computer simulation and in-vivo measurements. The results suggest tissue scattering influence is greater than that of absorption.


We investigated the brain potential in relation with the recognition of Muller‐Lyer (ML) illusionary figure, which was a famous optical illusion. Although it is frequently assumed that the ML illusionary effect could be derived from its geometrical construction, it derives the same length miss‐estimation effect on the sense of touch; haptic illusion. Moreover it occurs in people who are blindfolded or congenital blind. Thus somehow higher information processing than the optical one within the brain could be expected to involve with the recognition of ML figure while few brain studies have demonstrated it. We then investigated the brain waves under subjects' perceiving ML illusionary figure. As a result the marked difference of the brain potential between ML and the control condition around the midline of parietal brain, where the multi‐modal perception information was thought to associate within the brain, was observed. This result implies that the anticipatory processing on the perception of ML illusiona...


Purpose: To Identify and catalog the sustainable practices adopted in the Amazon Region. Sustainable development in the Amazon region is fundamental for the balance between human presence and the preservation of nature. Every productive chain that involves Amazon needs to avoid the degradation of the region.

Theoretical framework: The theoretical bases that supported the research were extracted from scientific articles indexed by SCOPUS, from books about sustainability practices in the Amazon.

Methods: We perform a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) using the PRISMA protocol. The study covered articles published in SCOPUS from 1989 to 2022. As an inclusion criterion, the articles should cover topics related to sustainable development practices in the Amazon region. The articles were cataloged by journal, study area, economic sector, and sustainability practices.

Results and conclusions: Researchers from Latin America, mainly from Brazil, are the ones who are most dedicated to studying sustainable practices and actions in the Amazon region. The studies indicate a connection between production activities and actions that seek and are concerned with environmental sustainability. The researcher's interest in the Brazilian Amazon forest was identified, with emphasis on studies of sustainable forest management, deforestation, the study of rubber, geographic information systems for better monitoring of the region to contribute to planning and management, and the study of environmental degradation driven by the deficiency of government management.

Research implications: The sustainable actions and practices characterized in the Amazon examined show what is being studied by the scientific community globally in the Amazon region and in which economic segments the practices of technological sustainability can be observed.

Originality/value: Expands understanding of sustainable actions and presents proposals and recommendations for studies up to 2050 in the Amazon.


strictures when discovered may be overcome by forcible syringe pressure, the anatomic limitations of grossly palpable obstruction, possibly amenable to plastic surgery, may be more definitely determined, and at the completion of plastic operations on the tube, it is possible to test the patency of the reconstructed lumen." Blair Bell (Oxford Surgery, Vol. 5, page 242) states that salpingostomy is seldom indicated for a closure of fimbriated extremity due to primary salpingitis, as the uterine end of the tube is frequently blocked in this condition. In cases where the infection has spread to the covering of the tube, from such conditions as appendicitis, the lining membrane of the tube is usually intact and salpingostomy is indicated. In extreme cases, where both tubes are damaged beyond repair, but one or both ovaries are in fair condition, one may try extirpating the tubes and planting a piece of ovary in each uterine corou. A few successful cases of this kind have been reported (Graver's Gynecology, page 265), but the chance is a long one. Conditions of the ovary leading to sterility do not offer an attractive field for surgery. Perhaps organotheraphy offers a more hopeful outlook. In conclusion, I would urge a more careful study of women complaining of sterility, emphasizing especially the value of the inflation of the tubes as a means of diagnosis. In cases of non-patency where there is no evidence of serious damage to the lining of the tubes, and where the ovary seems to be normal, I would advise salpingostomy followed by gas inflation at regular intervals to preserve the patency of the new ostium. WVe have to admit that the results of this work in the past have not been very brilliant, but I believe that we may fairly look forward to good results in the future, provided that only those cases are submitted to operation in which common sense tells us that there is a reasonable expectation of a cure.


Fenbendazolum dry suspension was used to deworm the nematode in digestive tract of the grazing Tibetan-sheep under the nativre condition. The result showed that the negative rate of egg was 99% at the dos of 10mg/kg. It was recommended preparation in preventing and curing of parasites in large sheep flock.


The detection of Singlet oxygen (1O2) is of great interest to develop cancer therapies, because it can initiate a plethora of events that result in cell death. Singlet oxygen sensor green (SOSG) is considered the preferred probe because of its claimed high selectivity to Singlet oxygen (1O2). Although many researchers have used SOSG to detect 1O2 generation in Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) processes, the effect of ultrasound irradiation on SOSG has not been comprehensively evaluated. In this study, we conducted systematic experiments to determine SOSG activation in the presence of ultrasound irradiation. We found that the SOSG exhibited the abnormal physicochemical phenomena in distilled water in the presence of ultrasound. The fluorescence intensity of SOSG increased significantly when exposed to ultrasound alone. The results showed that there was a linear positive correlation between the treatment duration of different ultrasound intensities or SOSG concentrations and the fluorescence intensity of SOSG, respectively. In addition, scavenger tests also indicated that hydroxyl radicals (•OH) might be involved in the activation of SOSG. In conclusion, our results suggest that the influences of experimental conditions to SOSG must be fully considered, and that SOSG may not be a suitable probe for 1O2 in SDT.


The chemistry of the steroid hormones looks and sounds too complicated for the medical man, but as the years go by and these substances are more and more widely used some idea of the chemical nature and relations of the various compounds now available should be useful. Recently the steps leading to the isolation or discovery, of the natural and synthetic oestrogens, and the proof of their formulae, have been reviewed by Doisyl and by Dodds' respectively. Memories of the organic chemistry learnt in pre-clinical years are generally hazy, but most of us can recall the straight chain (aliphatic) hydrocarbons methane, ethane, etc.-and probably it does not tax us too much to recall that the sixth member of this group (hexane, C6H14) can be converted into a hexagonal ring structure or aromatic compound, and that in saturated hydrocarbons all the available valencies, apart from those joining the neighbouring carbon atoms in the chain, are taken up by hydrogen atoms. If two hydrogen atoms are removed from neighbouring carbon atoms these two carbons are now linked by a double bond and the molecule is said to be unsaturated. An unsaturated compound is referred to by the suffix -ene, so that according to the number of double bonds in the hexane ring, or cyclo-hexane, one may have cyclo-hexene, -hexadiene, and -hexatriene. Cyclo-hexatriene is more widely known under the familiar name of benzene, and in view of what follows it should be remembered that if a hydroxy group is attached to the benzene ring phenol is obtained. So much for the basic units from which are built up the complex steroid molecules. Fortunately all the sterols also have a readily understood basic unit-the cyclo-pentenophenanthrene ring, which is illustrated in Forinula I.


Abstract Let and denote Markov processes on being the results of the following transformations of a symmetric -stable process on : the first one coincides with the process killed at the stopping time and the second one is determined by its transition probability density defined for , , and by the equality , where g is transition probability density of the process . If those transformations lead us to the same process. In the case of they are different. Some properties of these processes are investigated. We restrict ourselves, in this paper, to the case of .


The paper presents the difficulties in establishing the bioequivalence of formulations containing pentoxifylline, following a high variability of both absorption and metabolism. The paper presents the case of two true outliers giving discordant results even after the evaluation of the sum of active substances (i.e parent drug and metabolites).


The manuscript "CP-DSL: Supporting Configuration and Parametrization of Ocean Models with UVic (2.9) and MITgcm (67w)" describes the implementation of a Domain Specific Language approach for the configuration of ocean models in the form of a new language CP-DSL. The subject of this paper addresses an important topic regarding the often complex configuration process of ocean models with a number of strongly conflicting issues like user friendliness for users with a wide range of expertises, the wide variety of competences involved in the construction of accurate and efficient ocean models which affect both the way the software is developed but also its optimal configuration, and the fact that different models have quite different configuration processes, where the expertise of an advanced user of a specific model does not easily translate to that of another model. Although I believe a number of interesting ideas and techniques to address these challenges are presented in this manuscript, a number of issues in the presentation make it quite hard to evaluate what has actually been achieved.


In this paper we propose a phase-constrained fractional order P I λ controller based on a second-order-plus dead time process and a new tuning method. The design is derived in several constraints: a flat phase constraint, a gain crossover frequency and a phase margin. With the specified phase margin, it can reach the corresponding upper boundary of gain crossover frequency and the stability region. The complete surface of stabilizing controllers is achieved by guaranteeing the open-loop system to fulfil the pre-set phase margin. Afterwards, a stability line on the relative stable surface can then be obtained. For a set of controllers on the stability line, the flat phase constraint is used to make sure the uniqueness of the designed controller. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated with several numerical examples.


Experiments with a model explosive shock tube are described. Flow of a dense air plasma with speed 25-l0 km/sec is obtained by means of an explosive gas compressor. Photographs of flow over models were taken when the flow behind the shock wave becomes opaque. The experiments were conducted in a laboratory explosion chamber, (auth)


"Wind,flowers,snow and moon" are the images depicted most in Tang and Song poems,which most experts and scholars have always been trying their best to translate into English,properly both in form and content.This thesis is to appreciate and analyze some typical and famous lines with the topic of "flowers",especially the aspects of moral integrity,postures,fragrance and colors of flowers described in Tang and Song poems,so as to seek more appropriate ways and methods of translating Tang and Song poems into English.


A facile and feasible electrochemical sensing platform based on electrochemically reduced graphene oxide nanoribbons (ERGONRs) was designed for electrochemical investigations and determination of a non-ergoline dopamine agonist, pramipexole dihydrochloride monohydrate (PPX), in pharmaceutical formulations and biological fluids. Newly synthesized graphene oxide nanoribbons were characterized by SEM, AFM, XRD and EDX. The solution of graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONRs) was placed on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and reduced electrochemically in phosphate buffer solution of pH 6 to obtain the electrochemically reduced graphene oxide nanoribbon modified glassy carbon electrode (ERGONR-GCE). Significant electrooxidation of PPX was observed at the ERGONR-GCE in phosphate buffer of pH 6.0 compared to that at the bare GCE. The effect of accumulation time, pH and scan rate was studied and various electrochemical parameters were evaluated. The plot of pH versus Ep yielded a slope of 57.65 mV per pH in the pH range of 3.0–8.0 indicating the participation of an equal number of electrons and protons in the electrode process. A differential pulse voltammetric method was developed for the determination of PPX in bulk, pharmaceutical formulations and urine samples. PPX showed a linear relationship between the peak current and the concentration in the range of 0.01–15 μM with a LOD of 2.8 nM and a LOQ of 9.4 nM. The fabricated electrode also showed good selectivity and excellent sensitivity. The proposed method is simple, rapid and inexpensive and hence could be readily adopted for the analysis of PPX. The results were subjected to statistical analysis.


for an Invited Paper for the MAR07 Meeting of The American Physical Society Molecular Dynamics Underlie the Nature of MRI Signals: The NMR Shutter-Speed CHARLES S. SPRINGER, JR., Oregon Health & Science University Motions of the spin-bearing molecules can have profound effects on the very nature (the exponentiality) of the macroscopic NMR signal. Quantitative mechanistic protocols often involve varying the equilibrium molecular kinetics (usually by temperature change) relative to the "NMR time-scale" (SS−1), usually ill-defined as the absolute difference of resonance frequencies [|∆ω|] in sites between which spins are exchanged. This holds true for the equilibrium water molecule exchange between tissue compartments and distinct populations. However, in vivo studies must [by regulation] be isothermal, and the tissue H2O MRI signals remain essentially isochronous [∆ω = 0]. In NMR, an equilibrium process is manifest in the context of its "exchange condition." It only "appears" to be fast or slow by comparison of its actual rate constant with its system "shutterspeed" (SS). [A nonzero ∆ω is the first, but not only, SS: its dimension is reciprocal time.] The process kinetics can be measured only if its NMR condition is varied at least partway between the fastand slow exchange limits. In an isothermal study with no catalyst, this can be accomplished only by varying the pertinent SS. An MRI contrast reagent (CR) increases the laboratory frame H2O relaxation rate constant, Ri [≡ (Ti)−1; i = 1,2]. For an isochronous exchange process, the SS is the intrinsic |∆Ri| for the sites. In quantitative dynamic-contrast-enhanced (DCE) studies, analytical pharmacokinetic modeling is accomplished on region-of-interest (ROI) or pixel by pixel H2O signal time-courses following bolus CR injections. Accounting for the equilibrium transendothelial and transcytolemmal water interchange processes (a three-site exchange situation) is crucial for modeling accuracy: the relevant SS values vary during the CR bolus passage. This is so for DCE studies of cancer, multiple sclerosis, and myocardial blood flow variation. It is necessary for the successful discrimination of malignant and benign breast and prostate lesions. One can expect a SS for almost any NMR experiment. This includes diffusion weighted and rotating-frame longitudinal relaxation of in vivo H2O signals. In these latter cases, the pertinent SS can be manipulated solely by adjustment of pulse sequence parameters, leading to completely non-invasive protocols.


ABSTRACT This paper has for general context the development of a computer assisted design tool for building foundation. Our objective is to propose at the designer's disposal the treatments and the representation of the data appropriate for the design context for the currently studied project. This design context depends on the design stage for the buiding, the available knowledge of soil properties, the design team and the design method. Since the generating process called largely upon the know how of the designers themselves, we have followed the knowledge elicitation approach with its formalisation. In the paper, we present more specifically the formalisation phase. It is based on the buiding of an expertise model structured on four levels entitled « Strategy. Task, Inference, Domain ». Each level with its specific results has been detailed.


The purpose of this study is to suggest the positional meaning of buildings locating in the T-shaped road which is having a distinctive quality. For this study, we researched the reason of generation of the T-shaped road and prepared between the positional meaning to the results of case studies. Firstly, we sought the symmetric forms of buildings which are connected with visual relationship. Secondly, we found out the entrances locating in the middle of the T-shaped road which are connected with accessible relationship. Thirdly, we discovered the setback of buildings which are connected with belonging relationship. This study is expected to contribute the design of buildings locating in the T-shaped road.


57 ABSTRACT An improved system is desired for examining fluores cent material. The method comprises the steps of illu minating material with radiation at a fluorescent excita tion wavelength of said material and at an intensity sufficient to cause bleaching of the material; detecting over a time interval commencing with initial illumina tion of the material, fluorescent emission produced by the material during bleaching of the latter by the radia tion; and integrating over the interval the fluorescent emission detected during the bleaching of the material. Means are provided for illuminating the material to cause bleaching, for detecting fluorescent emission produced during bleaching, for measuring the decay time interval, and for integrating a signal from the de tecting means over a time interval.


BackgroundAs a major cause of morbidity and mortality treatment of venous thromboembolism is important, with the correct use of anticoagulants it is possible to greatly reduce both mortality and mo ...


The necessity of genotoxicological studies in water requires modern and practicable concepts for a prospective environmental protection. Up to now, genotoxicological studies prefer only the observation and detection of basic genotoxic effects in enriched surface water samples and the fruitless search for the involved water contaminants. In this publication, a new test strategy for the detection and the assessment of genotoxicity in water will be introduced. This strategy allows the detection and the verification of positive results and is therefore able to assess the evidence of these results for the water quality more accurate. The aim of this strategy is the detection of basic genotoxic effects (primary DNA damages), the clarification of the biological mechanisms, and the search for the reasons with modern analytical methods. The involved water contaminants and their mode of action will then be better understood. A test strategy in three steps will be proposed. In the first step genotoxicological indicator tests such as comet assay, alkaline filter elution, or the SOS-umu-test are used to get information about the basic status of the tested water samples. In the second step, the positive results of the primary DNA damages will be verified with mutation tests such as the micronucleus assay. The involved biological mechanisms will be biochemically characterized, and the biological active substances will be preclassified. Finally, in the third step the observed mechanisms will be confirmed with modern chemical methods such as HPLC MS-MS, These modern techniques are also able to detect and quantify the genotoxic compounds preclassified in step two.


Abstract:  The effects of natural flow restoration on metals fate and transport in the Upper Tenmile Creek Watershed, Montana, were modeled using the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). This 50‐km2 watershed has over 150 historic abandoned mines, including mine waste rock and tailings, as well as adits discharging acid mine drainage, and is the primary drinking water supply for the City of Helena. Water supply diversions almost completely dewater some stream reaches during summer low flows, but the city is considering a new drinking water source and restoration of natural flows in Tenmile Creek as part of acid mine drainage remediation and broader aquatic habitat restoration. One dimensional steady‐state simulation of total recoverable cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in the mainstem was performed, and the model was calibrated to June 2000 base‐flow data. Representative low‐flows in August and high‐flow snowmelt conditions in June were modeled using mean monthly natural flow estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey and representative USEPA metals concentrations data. The modeling showed that total recoverable metals concentrations, and especially loads, can vary significantly among input locations and over time in the watershed. Some data gaps limit evaluation of variability and increase uncertainty in several locations. Model results indicated, however, that natural low‐ and high‐flow restoration by itself can reduce some metals concentrations in the mainstem compared to June 2000 values, which were influenced by significant water diversion. Some values (such as Zn) may still exceed standards during natural August low flow due to the remaining high concentrations and loads in the primary inputs to the mainstem. Others (such as Cu) can increase during high flow due to remaining mine waste sources and loading of particulate Cu associated with erosion and transport of solids. Greater than 50% reduction in concentrations and loads from some of the main tributaries may be necessary to meet all standards, especially for potential particulate loads with higher flows in June.


Radio detection and ranging (RADAR) technology has attracted a lot of attention recently, especially for hand gesture recognition. Contactless hand gesture recognition can be applied in many areas, such as in-car entertainment systems and clean room operations. In this work, a computationally efficient and fast hand gesture feature extraction approach based on frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) RADAR is proposed, which is highly beneficial for real-time applications. Unlike conventional image recognition, the features of the hand gesture are extracted directly in an efficient manner. Our approach adopts 2-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to form a Range-Doppler matrix, and background modelling to remove clutter. Furthermore, we use best bin selection to locate the target in the Range-Doppler matrix in order to obtain both range and velocity of targets. Fourier beam steering is employed to obtain the angle of targets. Four classifiers are trained to perform hand gesture recognition. Cross-validation is used to evaluate their performance. Experimental results indicate that the features extracted by our approach can be fed directly into the classifiers for recognition which leads to an average recognition accuracy of 98.74% across all classifiers. Compared to image based recognition, the additional feature extraction process can be skipped, saving significant processing time. Our approach could be useful in many areas such as in-car entertainment systems, smart homes and others.


This work reviews a channel model based on COST259 suggestions. The model is able to cope with micro and macrocellular environments. It is directionally driven via placing scatterers around base station and mobile station. Major goal of the model is to cope with the MIMO case which is not an explicit goal of COST259. Therefore modifications and extensions to the literature had to be done. The model introduces double scattering and copes with polarisation.


This paper introduced the general development situation and frequently-used anaerobic fermentation technologies of biogas project in China,summarized the existing problems in the development of biogas project in China,and finally put forward some countermeasures for accelerating the development of the large-scale and medium-sized biogas projects.


This 2-page fact sheet is a minor revision written by A. R. Blount, R. D. Barnett, P. L. Pfahler, J. W. Johnson, G. D. Buntin, and B. M. Cunfer, and published by the Agronomy Department, January 2017.
SS-AGR-42/AG147: Rye and Triticale Breeding in the South (ufl.edu)


Objective To explore efficient methods applied for treating severe organic phosphorus pesticide poisoning. Methods To apply atropine combined with PAM to treat 95 cases. Results 89 cases were cured with a 93.7 cure rate and a 6.3 death rate; while in contrast group only 53 cases were cured with a 77.9 cure rate and a 22.1 death rate(P0.05). Conclusion During the emergency treatment, atropine combined with PAM should be applied; intubation should be used for those failed in respiratory system and vitamin B can help decrease the harm to central nervous system and peripheral nervous system.


A notion of size for subsets of the spectrum of a function algebra is described, relative to which each open subset of the Shilov boundary has the same size as the spectrum. Let A be a function algebra; denote its spectrum (space of nonzero, continuous, complex-valued hotnomorphisms, with the weak*-topology) by T,A, and its Shilov boundary by FA. In a topological sense, TA may be much smaller than ~^A; for instance it is easy to construct function algebras for which YA is zero-dimensional, while the dimension of ~LA is as large as we please (see Stout (8, p. 372)). In this note we describe another natural notion of size, an analytic notion derived from the theory of several complex variables, relative to which YA and £? have precisely the same size. This generalizes and simplifies some of the recent results of Huckleberry and Stoll (3). The proof uses techniques similar to the function algebra techniques in (3). We will make use of the /14iolomorphic functions introduced by Rickart (4), (5), (6), which may be defined by transfinite induction as follows: Let A0=A, and assume that the class Av has been defined for all ordinal numbers v<p. A function/defined on a subset E of ~LA will belong to the class A^ if for each x 6 £ there is a compact neighborhood K of x, such that/)(ATi£) is the uniform limit of functions which are defined on KnE and belong to classes Av for v<p. We say that a function h defined on a subset E of SA is ^4-holomorphic if it is an element of the class A^ for some ordinal number p and denote the collection of such functions by Jt?A(E); we refer to Rickart (6) for general information about /1-holomorphic functions (and to Stout (8) for general facts concerning function algebras).


The plastic resistance of a concrete-filled column commonly is given as a sum of the components and taking into account the effect of confinement. The stress state in a composite column is determined by taking into account the non-linear relationship of modulus of elasticity and Poisson's ratio on the stress level in the concrete core. The effect of confinement occurs at a high stress level when structural steel acts in tension and concrete in lateral compression. The stress state of a composite beam is determined taking into account non-linear dependence on the position of neutral axis. In order to improve the stress state of a composite element and increase the safety of the construction the appropriate strength of steel and concrete has to be applied. The safety of high-stressed composite structures can be achieved by using high-performance concrete (HPC). In this study stress analysis of the composite column and beam is performed with the purpose of obtaining the maximum load-bearing capacity and enhance the safety of the structure by using components with the appropriate strength and by taking into account the composite action. The effect of HPC on the stress state and load carrying capacity of composite elements is analysed.


Halo-based galaxy group finde r (H G G F ) is an effective a lgo rith m th a t accomplishes the task o f galaxy group find ing based on galaxy coord inates, red sh ift and mass etc. , and provides great help in the research o f galaxy group fo r  m ation and evolution. H ow eve r, cu rren t pure O penM P im plem entation o f the a lg o rith m is lim ite d by the resource o f the underly ing single compute node when dealing w ith large-scale group find ing problems. One o f the possible so lutions is using resources fro m m u ltip le nodes to reduce execution tim e w h ile so lv ing large-size galaxy group find ing problem . T h e re fo re ,it is essential to redesign and im plem ent the a lgorithm . T he m ajor hu rd le fo r such an a ttem pt is rem oting m em ory access due to sem i-random galaxy access in the a lgo rith m w h ich damages the performance in m ulti-node envi ronm ent. T o tackle such a p rob lem , we paralle led the a lgo rith m w ith adjacent galaxy lis t design and used un ified para lle l C (U P C ) to im plem ent it. 2. 25 ,2 . 78 and 5. 07 tim es speedup fo r the kerne l were achieved w ith 4 ,8 and 16 nodes re spectively. M eanw h ile , the m em ory requirem ent on each node was also reduced s ign ifican tly . E xperim ents o f O penM P version o f the a lg o rith m on SGI U V 2000 show th a t due to the nature o f the program and the features o f N U M A arch i tectu re , program s w ith random m em ory access behavior like H G G F m ay no t read ily benefit fro m the large num ber o f threads and shared m em ory provided by such machines. T w o-leve l para lle l design th a t takes advantage o f lo ca lity p rin c i ple on d is tribu ted m em ory c lusters m ay be a be tte r solution.


Of the estimated 7117 languages in the world, approximately 1500 (21%) are indigenous to the Pacific. Despite composing approximately one-fourth of the world's linguistic diversity, the representation of these languages in academic publication is scant, even in periodicals focused on Pacific Island studies. We investigated 34 periodicals that focus on research in Oceania. We report on (1) journal names; (2) how many are currently in circulation; (3) how many accept submissions in Indigenous Pacific languages; (4) what percent of the most recent articles were actually in Indigenous languages of the Pacific and (5) which languages those were. Five of the 34 journals allowed submissions written in Indigenous Pacific languages. Three of the five journals specified Hawaiian as an accepted language of publication; one Sāmoan and one Tahitian and any other Indigenous language of Polynesia. We were able to collect data on four of the five journals, which averaged 11% of recent publications in an Indigenous language. None accepted submissions in Indigenous languages from the Pacific outside of Polynesia.


Background: This study was aimed to investigate the perception on working conditions and utilization of clinical research coordinators (CRCs) among investigators and sponsors. Methods: The participants of this cross-section study were 114 investigators and 138 sponsors including clinical research associates (CRAs) who have worked with CRCs. Data was collected with paper or electronic form of self-administered questionnaires and analyzed with descriptive statistics and χ 2 test or t test. Results: Among investigators and sponsors, 56.1 % and 95.0 % perceived regular full-time positions as proper type of CRC employment, respectively. Those who perceived monthly salary with incentive as proper payment system were 67.5 % of investigators and 68.8 % of sponsors. The proper salary for 2-year CRCs and 5-year CRCs were significantly higher in sponsors than investigators. Investigators perceived CRCs could handle 3 studies as the same time and 5 studies per year. In regard to the difficulty in utilizing CRCs, 68.4 % of investigators perceived lack of experienced CRCs and 84.8 % of sponsors did frequent turnover. Those who responded pooling CRCs by hospital or clinical trial centers as a good solution to hire CRCs easily were 81.6 % of investigators and 58.0 % of sponsors. Conclusion: Almost all investigators and sponsors perceived CRCs were helpful for improving the quality of clinical trials. We recommend each institution or clinical trial centers could introduce the central CRCs' employment and management with proper salary and workload based on the results to maintain experienced CRCs and lessen the turnover of CRCs.


Coastal Andhra Pradesh in southern India is prone to tropical cyclones. Access to key resources can reduce the vulnerability of the local population to both large-scale disasters, such as cyclones, and to the sort of small-scale crises that affect their everyday lives. This article uses primary fieldwork to present a resource accessibility vulnerability index for over 300 respondents. The index indicates that caste is the key factor in determining who has assets, who can access public facilities, who has political connections and who has supportive social networks. The 'lower' castes (which tend to be the poorest) are marginalized to the extent that they lack access to assets, public facilities and opportunities to improve their plight. However, the research also indicates that the poor and powerless lower castes are able to utilize informal social networks to bolster their resilience, typically by women's participation with CBOs and NGOs. Nevertheless it is doubtful whether this extra social capital counterbalances the overall results which show that — despite decades of counteractions by government — caste remains a dominant variable affecting the vulnerability of the people of coastal Andhra Pradesh to the hazards that they face.


Factorization is the operation of transforming a production in a Linear Context-Free Rewriting System (LCFRS) into two simpler productions by factoring out a subset of the nonterminals on the production's righthand side. Factorization lowers the rank of a production but may increase its fan-out. We show how to apply factorization in order to minimize the parsing complexity of the resulting grammar, and study the relationship between rank, fan-out, and parsing complexity. We show that it is always possible to obtain optimum parsing complexity with rank two. However, among transformed grammars of rank two, minimum parsing complexity is not always possible with minimum fan-out. Applying our factorization algorithm to LCFRS rules extracted from dependency treebanks allows us to find the most efficient parsing strategy for the syntactic phenomena found in non-projective trees.


Chemometrics is defined as the application of mathematical and statistical methods to chemical systems. Systems theory is seen to be useful for organizing and categorizing the inputs to and outputs from chemical systems. Advances in measurement science in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in analytical chemistry, created a need for a multivariate approach to data analysis. Early chemometrics emphasized the use of structure‐finding methods for existing data sets. In many instances, data sets can be obtained from designed experiments. Such data sets are more likely to contain the desired information and the data can usually be acquired at less cost. Renewed interest in statistical process control will provide many new, more robust data sets in the future.


Although organic farming is an important topic for society, at the European level there have been few achievements so far. Despite its constant increase, the demand for organic food in Europe is outweighing the development of this sector. As such, we aim to assess the interaction between conventional and organic agriculture, as well as their impact on the value of agricultural production at the European level. The main objective of this article is the assessment of the impact of organic farming, as compared with conventional agriculture, on sustainable development of European countries. Therefore, we used panel models based on data collected from the Eurostat database. We found that an increase of 1% of the organic farming areas will generate a contraction in agricultural production of 0.278%, whereas a 1% increase in the production of fertilizers would generate an increase of 0.260% in agriculture production. Moreover, an increase of 1% in the production of plant protection substances and in gross capital formation would generate increases of 0.1190% and 0.0933%, respectively, in agriculture production. The obtained results depend mainly on the characteristics of work on land, as some agricultural engineering methods (crop rotation, pest control, use of fertilizers etc.) influence productivity and production.


An embryonic party system is developing at the European level along with a steady increase in the powers of the European Parliament, the only supranational assembly in the world to be elected by direct universal suffrage. For national parties, this raises the question of their integration within this transnational party system. In addition, in the absence of any real European electoral campaign, European elections since 1979 have always appeared to be little more than the sum total of a number of national elections. This integration, which is seen in affiliations to European political parties and to the corresponding groupings in the European Parliament, has historically been much more complex in France for the right than for the left.


We evaluate the hypothesis that viscous relaxation has been an important process for modifying the topographic profiles of ancient large impact basins on the moon. We adopt a representative topographic profile of the Orientale basin, the youngest large impact basin on the moon, as an estimate of the initial topography of older basins of similar horizontal dimensions, and we predict the topographic profiles that would result from viscous relaxation according to a number of simple analytical representations of the rheological response of the moon to surface topography. At wavelengths greater than the thickness of a high-viscosity lithosphere, both a decrease in viscosity with depth and the partial to complete isostatic compensation of topographic relief have pronounced effects on the wavelength-dependent relaxation times and must be considered in modeling viscous relaxation for features as large as impact basins. The effect of a decrease in viscosity with depth is to enhance the rate of viscous relaxation at long wavelengths, while the rate of relaxation decreases substantially for the fraction of long-wavelength topography which is isostatically compensated as an initial condition. These models are applied to two pre-Nectarian basins on the moon, the Tranquillitatis basin on the lunar nearside and the much larger and older South Pole-Aitken basin on the farside. The topographic profile of Tranquillitatis, after correcting for the effect of mare basalt fill, is consistent with significant viscous relaxation of relief prior to the oldest episode of mare volcanism preserved as a surface unit. The large topographic relief of the larger farside basin, on the contrary, is not consistent with significant viscous relaxation and implies a mean crustal viscosity at least a factor of 10 higher than for the central nearside over the time interval during which substantial viscous relaxation of older nearside basins such as Tranquillitatis probably occurred. A difference in typical crustal temperature profiles between the farside and nearside is the most likely explanation of such a viscosity difference; such a nearside-farside asymmetry in near-surface temperature may date from the time of crust-mantle differentiation and may have persisted because of the different histories of late-stage impact basin formation and mare volcanism on the two hemispheres.


Thin wall welded titanium tubes require high quality and reliability, because they are used as an important element in power plant condensers or desalination plants. Direct current (DC) TIG welding power source was conventionally used for titanium tube making but the products did not satisfactorily meet the severe quality requirements. The investigation on application of high frequency pulsed current power source to titanium tube making was made and its results were successfully used in a mill production process. The main features of the high frequency pulsed arc welding confirmed in the application tests were as follows:(1) High quality weld bead with superior surface smoothness was obtained.(2) Tube making speed was improved because welding arc stability was maintained even at the speeds over 10m/min.


There has been a marked reduction in the number of patients showing tubercle bacilli which are resistant to streptomycin when combined therapy with PAS is employed.


An outbreak of a respiratory disease in cattle was reported in February 2010 at the Rwanda Agriculture Board research station at Nyagatare in Eastern Rwanda. The tentative diagnosis based on clinical and postmortem signs suggested infection with Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP). This paper presents a comparison of diagnostic techniques and their suitability in detecting early and asymptomatic carriers of CBPP. Serum was prepared from jugular vein blood and used to identify CBPP-infected animals using competitive ELISA (c-ELISA) assay and this was later confirmed with Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) of mycoplasmal DNA and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). In order to confirm PCR positivity and enhance sensitivity, nested PCR was performed. In this study, 81 animals were examined by c- ELISA of which 52 were positive, 18 negative and 11 doubtful. Nasal swabs taken from the same 81 animals were examined by both PCR and LAMP for CBPP infections and 17 (20.9%) were found positive by all the three diagnostic techniques. c-ELISA positive and PCR-negative were 35 (43.2%) while c-ELISA- negative and PCR-positive was zero. Two samples were c-ELISA negative and LAMP positive while 35 samples were c-ELISA positive and LAMP negative. Of the 11 doubtful results by c-ELISA, LAMP technique confirmed positivity of 4 samples while PCR confirmed 2. These findings show that more false positive results were obtained with c-ELISA while LAMP indicated more sensitivity than both PCR and c-ELISA suggesting that LAMP, when used with clinical and post-mortem signs, is a suitable test for monitoring and surveillance programmes of CBPP in cattle.


The three stages and four combinations are key to successful bilingual education. The three stages refer to the content while the four combinations refer to the methods leading to a successful instruction. The application of both can result in the significant vitality and vigor of bilingual education.


Despite steady progress, stroke remains a leading cause of death and disability in China. The availability of high quality current information on stroke represents one of the most effective weapons in treating and preventing this great scourge. We are delighted of the launching of Stroke …


A high‐quality encapsulation process is crucial to ensuring the performance and long‐term reliability of photovoltaic (PV) modules. In crystalline Si technology‐based modules, poly (ethylene‐co‐vinyl acetate) (EVA) is the most widely used PV encapsulant. Its encapsulation process is usually performed in a flat‐bed vacuum bag laminator. In certain types of laminators, cooling press can be applied to the module cooling process after the module encapsulation, leading to a much higher cooling rate (~100 °C/min) than conventional natural cooling due to the application of water cooling circulation and mechanical pressure on the modules. In this work, the effect of the cooling press on the encapsulation properties of PV modules with EVA as the encapsulant are assessed on the aspects of residual stress in the modules, peeling strength between glass and EVA, and the resulting EVA gel content after encapsulation. The results show that the cooling press influences the encapsulation properties of PV modules. In particular by applying the cooling press after encapsulation, the residual normal stress in the Si solar cell in the encapsulated module after cooling can be reduced by as much as 22 ± 2 to 27 ± 3% depending on the EVA gel content, whereas the peeling strength between front glass and EVA is increased by ~ 10%. This work should help the further optimization of PV module encapsulation processes aimed at improving module encapsulation quality. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper contributes to the literature on interest group politics by analysing the adoption of lobbyist registers among 40 member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and European Union. After a long period of rare adoption, 12 countries have decided to enhance transparency by regulating access to policymaking. Statistical results and case studies demonstrate that the presence of high levels of corruption and the structure of the civil society are significant functional explanations for the regulation of lobbying activities. At the onset of the spread of adoption of such regulation and in spite of international organizations' advocacy, there is no evidence for any mechanism of countries' interdependence, indicating spurious diffusion.


Clinical informatics has been undergoing radical transformation. What are the causes and the drivers of this transformation? Which task can be solved well, and which cannot? How we should implement data analysis in clinical informatics projects in new reality? What is an importance of interpretability (comprehensibility) and explanation of data analysis methods in clinical informatics? At the workshop, we will try to answer some of such questions and setup a framework for later discussion.


The organic EL panel may include a transparent conductive film, a functional layered product and a counter electrode including a light emitting layer of at least one layer on a substrate film made of are sequentially stacked, the light-emitting layer which is superposed on the transparent conductive film and the counter electrode layer is part emits light. The organic EL panel is formed on the substrate beneath the light-emitting unit also has at least one auxiliary electrode covered directly on the transparent conductive film. Has a transparent conductive film thickness that exceeds the thickness of the auxiliary electrode also functions laminate are coated with a transparent conductive film side


Based on the agricultural meteorological observation data of winter wheat and summer maize in the middle region of Shaanxi Province from 1992 to 2010,the growth stage changes of two major crops,winter wheat and summer maize,had been analyzed.The results showed that the entire growth period of winter wheat in this region reduced by 2.96 days per decade.The changing trends in most sites are very similar,but the rate is different.The periods from sowing to emergence,turning green to jointing,jointing to heading,turning green to ripe were shortened,but the periods from heading to milky maturity,milky maturity to ripe,sowing to overwintering were extended.The entire growth period of summer maize was extended by 4.29 days per decade significantly.The periods from sowing to three leaves,seven leaves to jointing,milky maturity to ripe were extended,but the changing rate of other growth periods of summer maize were not obvious.


This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the effect of political connections on tax avoidance practices, as well as the effect of electoral year moderation on the effect of political connections on tax avoidance practices of companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange between 2013 and 2019. The results of the analysis of 108 samples show that the political connections of the board of commissioners have a negative insignificant effect on tax avoidance. The electoral year cannot moderate, strengthen, or weaken the influence of the board of commissioners' political ties to tax avoidance. Furthermore, this study also discovers a significant negative effect of the board of commissioners' political connections on tax avoidance in companies with a high level of leverage.


A known ligand precursor, prepared by an improved method from 1,3-bis(bromomethylbenzene), a base, and (R,R)-2,5-dimethylphospholane-borane, was deprotected with DABCO and used to prepare chiral m-xylene-based PCP pincer complexes. Reaction with Ni(DME)Br2 and NEt3 gave square planar Ni(DuPinPhos)(Br) (9), which was crystallographically characterized. Heating with [Ir(COE)2Cl]2 yielded the dinuclear hydride complex [Ir(DuPinPhos)(H)(Cl)]2(μ-C6H4(CH2-dimethylphospholanyl)2] (10), which contained both pincer chelates and a bridging bis(phospholane). Nickel complex 9 was a catalyst precursor for enantioselective alkylation of secondary phosphines with 2-bromomethylnaphthalene using the base NaOSiMe3. The dynamic behavior of a catalytic intermediate, the P-stereogenic terminal phosphido complex Ni(DuPinPhos)(PPhIs) (Is = 2,4,6-(i-Pr)3C6H2), was characterized by variable temperature NMR spectroscopy.


Evaluation of aorta morphology and function in presence of aneurysms or dissection is crucial for a correct treatment choice between surgical resection and percutaneous stent-graft deployment. We developed and tested a new method for automated dynamic aorta segmentation from computed tomography (CT) images from which static and dynamic parameters of aortic morphology and function can be automatically extracted. To detect the aortic surface in a 3D domain we applied a level set segmentation scheme that incorporates gradient-based, weighted expansion and mean curvature dependent regularizers. Three subjects were imaged using a multi-detector CT scanner (Siemens, Sensation Cardiac): one normal and two patients affected by an aneurysm in the ascending and descending aorta respectively. Extracted parameters showed significant differences between them. This preliminary study proves feasibility for an accurate and dynamic aorta segmentation from which several indexes of aortic morphology and function can be automatically extracted. This may be of benefit to patients with aortic aneurysms and dissection.


Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are very potential formulations for topical delivery of antifungal drugs. The main objective for this investigation is to develop and optimize the SLNs of Acitretin for the effective topical delivery. Acitretin loaded SLNs were prepared by hot homogenization followed by the ultra sonication using Taguchi's design and based on the results further investigation was made using central composite design (CCD). The lipid Dynasan-116, surfactant poloxomer-188 and co surfactant egg lecithin resulted in better percent drug loading and evaluated for particle size, zeta potential, TEM, drug entrapment efficiency, in vitro drug release and stability. All parameters were found to be in an acceptable range. In vitro drug release of optimized SLN formulation (F2) was found to be 95.63±1.52%, whereas pure drug release was 30.12 after 60 min. The optimized formulation was incorporated into the gel. The drug content of Acitretin gel formulation was found to 99.86 ± 0.012% and the diameter of gel formulation was 6.9 ± 0.021 cm and that of marketed gel was found to be 5.7 ± 0.06 cm, indicating better spreadability of SLN based gel formulation. The viscosity of gel formulation at 5 rpm was found to be 6.1 x 10± 0.4 x 10 cp. The release rate (flux) of Acitretin across the membrane and excised skin differs significantly. It is assumed that SLN based gel due to its appropriate physicochemical properties, high skin permeation ability, higher accumulative uptake in skin and improved skin tolerability may be more suitable as a novel regime for topical administration of Acitretin. This topically oriented SLN based gel formulation could be useful in providing site-specific dermal treatment of psoriasis with minimal drug systemic availability and high skin tolerability.


Nonstationary input processes are utilized in simulation to model time-varying patterns of events. The focus of this article is on modeling and simulating nonstationary arrival processes. In particular, we discuss nonparametric, parametric, and semiparmetric methods for modeling and simulating nonhomogeneous Poisson processes. In addition, we present methods for modeling and simulating nonstationary non-Poisson arrival processes.

Keywords:

modeling and simulation;
Poisson process;
semiparametric method;
mean-value function


In economics, the prevailing framework to explain preferences under uncerta- inty is the Expected Utility theory. Despite its widespread use, the Expected Utility theory is not free from problems. Experimental and empirical works shows that, in real life, the choices of individuals among risky alternatives conflict with the axioms of the Expected Utility theory. This study, in the light of experimental studies, investigates the problems with the Expected Utility theory regarding the individuals'preferences under risk.


The parametrized dynamics of a standard nonlinear model neuron with self-interaction is discussed. For units with a self-excitatory connection a hysteresis effect is observed, and the underlying mechanism is identified as that of a cusp catastrophe. This is true for discrete as well as for continuous dynamics. For the discrete dynamics of self-inhibiting units there appear period-doubling bifurcations from stationary states to stable period-2 orbits.


Abstract Biology-oriented-synthesis (BIOS), is a chemocentric approach to identifying structurally novel molecules as tools for chemical biology and medicinal chemistry research. The vast chemical space cannot be exhaustively covered by synthetic chemistry. Thus, methods which reveal biologically relevant portions of chemical space are of high value. Guided by structural conservation in the evolution of both proteins and natural products, BIOS classifies bioactive compound classes in a hierarchical manner based on molecular architecture and bioactivity. Biologically relevant scaffolds inspire and guide the synthesis of BIOS libraries, which calls for the development of suitable synthetic methodologies. These compound collections have enriched biological relevance, leading to the discovery of bioactive small molecules. These potent and selective modulators allow the study of complex biological pathways and may serve as starting points for drug discovery programs. Thus, BIOS can also be regarded as a hypothesis-generating tool, guiding the design and preparation of novel, bioactive molecular scaffolds. This review elaborates the principles of BIOS and highlights selected examples of their application, which have in turn created future opportunities for the expansion of BIOS and its combination with fragment-based compound discovery for the identification of biologically relevant small molecules with unprecedented molecular scaffolds. 1 Introduction 2 Structural Classification of Natural Products 3 Implications and Opportunities for Biology-Oriented Synthesis 4 Applications of Biology-Oriented Synthesis 4.1 Chemical Structure and Bioactivity Guided Approaches 4.2 Natural-Product-Derived Fragment-Based Approaches 5 Conclusions and Outlook


studies using a variety of methods (transcranial Doppler ultrasonography,133Xe inhalation, and single-photon emission computerized tomography) have shown a reduction (∼10–20%) in cerebral blood flow (CBF) during non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep and an increase (∼20–35%) during rapid-eye-


In this paper, the "No.2" of Lycium barbarum leaf regeneration system was thoroughly discussed. The leaves of "No.2" of Lycium barbarum were used as the experimental materials. Several factors such as hormone concentration, explant condition illumination condition and so on were investigated to optimize the regeneration system in vitro. The experimental results showed that leaf situation could greatly affect "No.2" of Lycium barbarum regeneration frequency. The best explants were 35 days apical leaves from the cultural plantlets. The high frequency of shoot regeneration was observed when leaf explants were cultured on 1/2 MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L 6-BA and 1.0 mg/L IBA. Firstly, the leaves were cultured in dark. After 8 days, the explants were transferred under light and began to directly regenerate adventitious buds in about 28 days. The maximum number of the adventitious buds were observed within 35 to 45 days. The shoot differentiation frequency was more than 90.0%. When the shoots grow to 1~2 cm high, they were cut from leaves, then transferred on 1/2 MS+0.6 mg/L NAA+0.2 mg/L IBA and developed into whole plants. This regeneration system could applied to Lycium barbarum transgenic manipulation.


The behavior of a rarefied gas between two parallel plates with different remperatures is studied numerically for the whole range of the Knudsen number on the basis of the standard Boltzmann equation for a hard sphere molecule and the diffuse reflection. The velocity distribution function of the gas molecules, the temperature and density distributions in the gas, and the heat transfer between the plates are presented. The results of various approximate analyses are also shown for comparison.


The researches covered various topics examining the various aspects of sadness and unhappiness in human life, as well as dealing with the bright side in their lives such as feeling happiness, joy and tolerance, the necessity of optimism, hope, and satisfaction with aspects of life and enjoyment of it or some of it, as well as patience and steadfastness as well as the positive aspects in a person's relationship with his brother man, his family and friends And the external reality around him to create a state of adaptation, suitability, harmony, self-harmony and social support, to make the human being more positive and effective. The importance of tolerance stems from being a moral virtue and a fundamental issue in our current political, social and cultural life, because people today are in greater need for effective tolerance and positive coexistence between people more than ever before due to the rapprochement between cultures and interaction between civilizations that increases day after day thanks to the information and communication revolution.


Previous studies have indicated a possibility to implement Lean thinking and tools within service-oriented organisations. The term Lean originates from Toyotas production system. Lately it has been ...


The attending article presents and discusses the debate within the cognitive constructivist theories, which have as main representatives Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. Such theories of rationalist and structuralist tradition maintain continuity between judgment and moral action and, at the same time, launch points of discussion on the complexity involved in the theme. New work fronts suggest the integration of other elements: culture, affectionateness, and the self, beyond the structures that may compound a referential that explains the relations between the aspects involved in moral behavior. Lastly, despite the criticism indicating a promising path in the search about judgment and moral action, considering its complex character, there are still limits in the making of the theoretical and methodological frameworks that articulate different perspectives of moral psychological analyses.


Objective: To construct serial standards for detecting human hepatocyte growth factor mRNA expressionabsolutely with real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(FQ-PCR) .Methods: The target fragment of HGF cDNA was constructed with total RNA isolated from liver tissue and amplified by conventional RT-PCR and then was Jinked with pGEM-T Easy Vector to construct recombined plasmid and to transformate to E. Coli DH 5α. Its specificity was testified by direct PCR,α-complementation and Ampicillin screening, EcoR Ⅰ single restriction enzyme cleavage and sequencing method. The concentration of purified recombined plasmid was verified by detecting absorbance in λ260nm and men was diluted to serial standard concentrations for FQ-PCR. Results: The target fragment of HGF cDNA was constructed successfully.The recombined plasmid contained the target fragment is stable and keeps its specificity and sequence completion. Conclusion: Reference standards for real-time FQ-PCR are constructed successfully.


The further development of civilization is decelerated by lack of energy resources. This is especially significant for the construction industry. Considerable energy savings can be achieved by using specially prepared raw materials. Examples of these raw materials are volcanic rocks of the Republic of Buryatia. The modern complex approach to solving problems also requires additional development of resource-saving technologies, which imply the widespread use of associated industrial products, designed to significantly reduce the energy intensity of cement and concrete production without a fundamental change in technology. The paper deals with the use of natural pearlite and fly ash of Gusinoozersk thermal power plant (TPP) to obtain composite binders. It was investigated that natural pearlite and fly ash can be used as part of a multi-component fine cement and low water requirement binder (LWB). Compositions of binders were obtained with super plasticizers based on sulphonated naphthalene-formaldehyde polycondensates C-3 and based on polycarboxylates Sika Viscocrete. It is shown that the mechanism of action of these additives on the properties of the composite binders appears in the range up to 15 nm.


Neutron diffraction measurements have been made on a 304 stainless steel U-bend specimen using the General Purpose Powder Diffractometer on the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne National Laboratory. This experiment was undertaken as a demonstration to show the capabilities of neutron diffraction for the evaluation of strain fields in a stressed specimen. Collimation masks were positioned around the specimen to define the volume from which scattering was observed. Data were obtained from five different positions through the U-bend thickness by shifting the specimen position in the incident neutron beam between data runs. Diffraction data were analyzed for six different crystallographic planes for each data run: (111), (200), (220), (311), (331) and (420). Although the data clearly show variations in strain vs position, additional runs would be needed to completely map the strain field through the thickness and some improvement in resolution would be desired. Although the data may not warrant it, a least squares procedure was applied to the strain data to obtain the principal strains, radial and transverse, as a function of position. Results obtained vary as generally expected, but additional data are needed to clarify some of the detail observed. This report is tutorial in its presentation,more » intended for those having no experience in neutron diffraction. Valuable experience was obtained which would be useful in planning and executing additional experiments at IPNS. 9 tabs.« less


In India, there are about 6 companies who have treasury stock. Such companies are Reliance Industries, JP Associates, Mahindra & Mahindra, BPCL, IOC and United Spirits. In case of IOC, there are two such trusts. In India, the chances of creation of the treasury stock arise only in the case of Mergers & Acquisition between two companies with 'cross holding'. And, such treasury stock will be held in a separate trust. These companies with treasury stock hold this distinct advantage. This may encourage them to look at the opportunity of sale of these treasury stock at appropriate time.


In October the National Water Commission released its biennial report on water reform. There are a number of big issues the report tackles. In this article, Bernard Keane provides his view on the biggest.


According to the 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS), released in unclassified form in October, Russia is an 'acute' threat but China is the pacing challenge for the Department of Defense. The modernisation of China's armed forces remains the principal driver of US policy attention and capability development. The US has led the international response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. US officials have played key roles in coordinating defence assistance to Ukraine, and the US has delivered significant stocks, including anti-armour weapons, various air and missile defence systems, and HARM anti-radiation missiles and artillery (particularly HIMARS rocket artillery). The US Army is focused on regenerating its capability for large-scale combat operations under its MultiDomain Operations (MDO) concept. Integrating lessons drawn from Ukraine delayed the official publication of MDO as army doctrine, though the updated document – FM 3-0, Operations – was eventually published in October. The US Navy 'Navigation Plan' outlined goals, including 12 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, 66 tactical submarines, 96 large and 56 small surface combatants, as part of a force design for 373 crewed vessels, plus approximately 150 uninhabited surface and subsurface platforms, to be achieved by 2045. The US Air Force unveiled the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider bomber in December 2022, but a timeline for the public display of a prototype crewed element of the Next-Generation Air Dominance project remains unclear. The FY2023 DoD budget request prioritises the Pentagon's plan to build advantage by investing in innovation and modernisation as well as industrial capability. The Pentagon is also looking to improve recruitment and retention, and the FY2023 budget includes a 4.6% pay raise for both military and civilian personnel. Canada and the US agreed to upgrade infrastructure and systems associated with the North American Aerospace Defense Command.


In this paper, a novel fast coding unit depth decision algorithm based on convolution neural network is presented for JVET future video coding. JVET employs quad-tree plus binary-tree (QTBT) block partitioning structure, which can support much more flexibility for coding units partition shapes, and improve the coding performance significantly than the HEVC standard. However, the flexible partitioning structure also introduces a tremendous computation complexity. To address this issue, we model the QTBT partition depth range as a multi-class classification problem, and try to predict the depth range of 32×32 block directly, rather than to judge split or not at each depth level. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first framework to formulate the QTBT partition range as a multi classification task, and optimized by an end-to-end learning model. For training optimization, we design an objective function consists of class penalty term and L2 HingeLoss function, which leverage the characteristics of category settings, can further boost the classification accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method, which can achieve 42.80% complexity reduction with only 0.65% Bjontegaard Delta bitrate (BD-rate) increase.


Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) standard is based on the IEEE 802.16-2005. It provides wireless broadband for fixed and mobile terminals. The demand for broadband wireless services is increasing day by day. In this paper performance analysis of physical layer of WiMAX system are evaluated by using different modulation techniques like QPSK 1⁄2, 16 QAM 1⁄2 and 64 QAM. By using different modulation techniques we compare the results of downlink BER, downlink SNR and uplink SNR on the behalf of different FFT size like 128, 512, 1024 and 2048. In this paper we considered the effects of varying the FFT size were observed on the downlink BER, downlink SNR and uplink SNR.


In our first participation in the NTCIR Workshop, we focused on the evaluation of the relative effectiveness of different indexing approaches (word-based, N-gram-based, and yomior pronunciation-based) for Japanese IR and the benefits of their fusion. Our MIMOR ("multiple indexing for method-object relations in IR") system has already proved very effective in CLEF 1 . The