1333 formed using either a Stealth (Boston scientific) or a Maverick balloon catheter (Boston scientific) when necessary. The S660 stents (Medtronic) of 2.5 mm in diameter were used for the vertebral artery, and the S670 and Velocity stents (Cordis Endovascular Systems) of 3.5-4.0 mm in diameter were used for the distal internal carotid artery. The results of stenting were compared with those of balloon angioplasty, which were performed in 37 lesions before November 1999 1 (table 2).


Enabling timing analysis in the presence of caches has been pursued by the real-time embedded systems (RTES) community for years due to cache's huge potential to reduce software's worst-case execution time (WCET). However, caches heavily complicate timing analysis due to hard-to-predict access patterns, with few works dealing with time analyzability of multi-level cache hierarchies. For measurement-based timing analysis (MBTA) techniques — widely used in domains such as avionics, automotive, and rail — we propose several cache hierarchies amenable to MBTA. We focus on a probabilistic variant of MBTA (or MBPTA) that requires caches with time-randomized behavior whose execution time variability can be captured in the measurements taken during system's test runs. For this type of caches, we explore and propose different multi-level cache setups. From those, we choose a cost-effective cache hierarchy that we implement and integrate in a 4-core LEON3 RTL processor model and prototype in a FPGA. Our results show that our proposed setup implemented in RTL results in better (reduced) WCET estimates with similar implementation cost and no impact on average performance w.r.t. other MBPTA-amenable setups.


Simple Summary Conventional therapies for the treatment of colorectal cancer induce several side effects that impact the effectiveness of current therapies as well as the quality of patients' life. In recent years, natural compounds with anticancer properties have gained attention as potential therapeutic agents for various cancers including colorectal cancer. However, several natural compounds such as polyphenols are facing obstacles for their use as anticancer drugs, such as intrinsic poor solubility, plasmatic instability, ineffective cellular uptake, and biological barriers. Currently, novel approaches in precision medicine and nanomedicine are being developed. In this context, to harness the full potential of natural compounds, researchers have explored the use of nanoparticles as a drug delivery system for targeted and enhanced therapeutic efficacy as well as limited side effects. This review provides data on recent advances in strategies using polyphenols-based nanoparticles for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) poses a significant challenge in healthcare, necessitating the exploration of novel therapeutic strategies. Natural compounds such as polyphenols with inherent anticancer properties have gained attention as potential therapeutic agents. This review highlights the need for novel therapeutic approaches in CRC, followed by a discussion on the synthesis of polyphenols-based nanoparticles. Various synthesis techniques, including dynamic covalent bonding, non-covalent bonding, polymerization, chemical conjugation, reduction, and metal-polyphenol networks, are explored. The mechanisms of action of these nanoparticles, encompassing passive and active targeting mechanisms, are also discussed. The review further examines the intrinsic anticancer activity of polyphenols and their enhancement through nano-based delivery systems. This section explores the natural anticancer properties of polyphenols and investigates different nano-based delivery systems, such as micelles, nanogels, liposomes, nanoemulsions, gold nanoparticles, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, and metal–organic frameworks. The review concludes by emphasizing the potential of nanoparticle-based strategies utilizing polyphenols for CRC treatment and highlights the need for future research to optimize their efficacy and safety. Overall, this review provides valuable insights into the synthesis, mechanisms of action, intrinsic anticancer activity, and enhancement of polyphenols-based nanoparticles for CRC treatment.


This paper considers horizontal technological spillovers and the supplier's hold-up behavior in a two-tier supply chain,and analyzes the interaction between the supplier's price commitment and manufacturers' RD strategy via a three-stage game.The main results are as follows:Technological spillovers between manufacturers amplify the impacts of the supplier's hold-up behavior.No matter the supplier commits to the wholesale price or not,manufacturers always have incentives to conduct cooperative RD;however,their cooperation will promote innovation as well as improve the profits of the supplier and the supply chain only when spillovers are large.The supplier's price commitment not only encourages innovation but also improves the profits of manufacturers and the supply chain;however,the commitment benefits the supplier himself only when the demand uncertainty is not too high.In addition,the supplier is more likely to commit to the wholesale price when manufacturers face high spillovers and mild competition or when manufacturers have strong RD capability.


Based on the results of 2004 Olympic Games, 2005 world swimming championships and 10th National Games Swimming Competition, a comprehensive analysis is done on the world's elite female athletes in the 800 m freestyle swimming about the physical distribution of projects and tactical characteristics. By the selection of the first to sixth's accomplishments, we make some changes and obtain the coefficients of velocity, which we can use to reflect the abilities of sub-athletes physical distribution of run-length features. Upon this theory, we review the tactical application of world elite athletes, identify the gap between Chinese athletes and the world elites, and provide the physical distribution model that is detailed, intuitive, "easy-to-control". Therefore we hope that Chinese athletes can learn from the reasonable physical distribution model, and apply to training practice. We also hope that this article can enhance the Chinese overall level of swimming, and provide the preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games as a reference.


A general method is examined, which unifies the eigenvoice approach and MAP adaptation. The a priori distribution for MAP is chosen to be anisotropic with the eigenvoices as preferred directions while still allowing adaptation into all other directions. This allows the exploitation of a priori knowledge about typical speaker variability within the MAP framework. This approach has two advantages: long term adaptation leads to the same good results as the MAP method, whereas for ultra-short adaptation in the range of 1-2 seconds an overfitting as for maximum likelihood techniques is avoided. The method is applied to large vocabulary continuous speech recognition. Results are to be compared with our transfer of the maximum likelihood eigenvoice method to LVCSR (Botterweck 2000). Even after only one recognized word significant improvements of the WER of up to 6% relative are observed for gender independent recognition. 14% improvements are obtained after 5 seconds.


Abstract Following our discovery of liquid crystals based on octahedral manganese(I), we have now extended these studies to the synthesis of what we believe to be unique examples of mesomorphic rhenium-based complexes. These complexes offer advantages over the related manganese(I) systems in that they are more thermally stable. Further, modification of the organic backbone has led to lower melting manganese materials.


The catalogue geohazard base of Česká geologická služba (CGS – Czech Geological Survey) is part of a geological data portal established in 2006. The geohazard database is a place where information about potentially hazardous geofactors in the Czech area is collected and shared. The base also contains the most important sources of data and references to respective regulations and law. Geohazards have been catalogued and described by CGS specialists representing various disciplines, depending on the origin and conditions in which geohazards were generated, geographical distribution, time character, associated processes, social impact, type of hazard, monitoring methods, etc. Geofactors of the natural environment belong to organic phenomena shaping and influencing the landscape and quality of nature, including the natural environment. In the Czech Republic, the risk of the occurrence of geofactors which have an impact on the natural environment are specified in respective directives and law. The term 'geohazard' refers to natural catastrophes connected with processes in the Earth crust. In this paper, 'geohazard' will be associated with anthropogenic natural phenomena and human activity connected with the existing risks for the football ground. The influence of man on the lithosphere can be reduced to 'anthropogenic geology', or more precisely, 'anthropogenic tectogenesis'. Among the natural factors influencing the movements of the crust are surface seismic movements, mainly the movement of surface strata during earthquakes, isostatic movements, formation of sinkholes when underground voids and caverns collapse, deformations in areas of active faults, deformations associated with volcanic activity and gravity forces (landslides, mud slides, stone slides). Among similar phenomena having an impact on the Earth's crust are also effects evoked by human


The greatest generators of harmonics in three-phase industrial power systems appear to be AC and DC motor drives, with the DC drive contributing to poor system power factor and the AC drive contributing the higher magnitude of harmonics per kilowatt output. A simple single-phase power circuit is used to demonstrate the effects of the harmonic current components generated by six pulse power converters on the AC voltage waveform. Harmonic mitigation using an AC line reactor is shown, and reactive power compensation and reduction of the fifth-harmonic component by means of a tuned filter is simulated. A review of US and UK current standards is given.<<ETX>>


OBJECTIVE
1. To quantify the value of myocardial regional wall motion and to study the inter-segmental integration pattern of the circumferential regional wall motion of the left ventricle using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in patients with normal global and regional left ventricular systolic function (LVEF≥55%) and compare results to groups with impaired left ventricular systolic function (LVEF ≤ 55%).
2. To prove that the inter-segmental integration pattern of normal myocardial regional wall motion is consistent and can be used effectively as a complimentary tool with visual estimation method to detect the impaired myocardial regional wall motion.


An innovative optical implementation of a feedforward artificial neural network is presented using Kerr-type nonlinear optical materials. Many Kerr-type materials have ultrafast response times and allow both weighted connections and nonlinear neuron processing to be implemented using only thin layers of Kerr-type material separated by free space. Nonlinear neuron processing results from the nonlinear Kerr-type effect (self-focusing or self-defocusing) and interference of the optical signals within the device. In addition, the Kerr effect is used to create optical connections by applying patterns of irradiance to thin layers of the nonlinear media. This is a result of a variation of the refractive index profile of the nonlinear media in response to the applied irradiance.


This paper investigate the residual income, discounted cash flow and adjusted earning methods for achieving fair value of the company in the capital market and comparing the average value of companies in the initial publicoffering in the stock exchange. Research hypotheses have been tested by usingcomparison tests of student t-test, Wilcoxon signed rank and Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient. The findings of this research indicate that there is no significant difference between average fair values of companies based on the residual income method and average value of companies in the initial stocks offerings, but there is a significant difference between average fair values of discounted cash flow and adjusted earnings methods compared to the average value of companies in the initial stocks offerings. Furthermore, there is no significant difference between average fair value of companies based on the residual income and discounted cash flow methods and average fair value of companies based on discounted cash flow and adjusted earnings methods. Unlike, there is a significant difference between average fair value of companies based on the residual income and adjusted earnings. Key word: average value of companies, Residual income, discounted cash flow, adjusted earnings, fair value Introduction and problem statement Analysts and investors have mostly considered selection of the evaluation method which covers the characteristics of risk and expenditure in a finite time horizon to meet the needs of investors for achieving the price ofthe exchange in the last decade. Furthermore this evaluation which provides potential investor the fairest value for decision making is one of the discussed topics. Howeverthis is discussed that which evaluation method could meet investor's expectation? In evaluation there may be the value creation factors of company in terms of non-financial factor. Therefore, it is impossible to determine growth opportunities only by using the discounted cash flow or current value of cash flow, but it is required to consider other factors which have a role in the creation of the growth opportunitiesfor the company. Investors, creditors, personnel, clients and managers are beneficiary in business enterprise ability to create desirable cash flow. Valuation model based on the residual income introduced the value of company as a function of expected and current accounting figures. Ohlson(2001)[12], Penman a Sougiannis (2003)[11] believed that company value is influenced by three factors including the book value of company's ownership rights, residual income and others information to determine the fair value by determining the value close to intrinsic value in the capital market. Numbers of shares are daily bought and sold by participants in the capital market, but investors always ask themselves:


In the field of measuring the laser power, the traditional way is direct measuring based on thermal effects. In this method, the laser power can be measured from the temperature change of the sensor absorbing the laser light. However, it is difficult to operate when the power exceeds 10kW level because of the linearly scaling size of absorbing object and the relatively long recovery (cooling) periods, which results in the proposal and fast development of indirect measuring technique route. Using light pressure to measure laser power is one of the recent research hotspots of indirect measuring. The typical system design is a scale attached with a nearly perfect mirror that had shown the advantages such as high accuracy, fast response, real-time measuring and convenient calibration. Nevertheless, the commercial mirror (with a reflectivity of 0.997 as a typical value) and scale (with a 100nN resolution as a typical value) cannot achieve a stable measuring due to the feeble light pressure. In fact, the measuring uncertainty could be 7%-13% in practical operation. So it is reasonable and feasible to amplify the light pressure. In this paper, we propose a new structure design based on oscillation cavity which can improve the energy utilization and increase the number of reflections. The force measured by our system is expected to be 50 times more than that imparted by single reflection if the reflectivity of the mirrors installed on the oscillation cavity is larger than 0.99. This novel method can not only achieve higher sensitivity but also retain the advantages of indirect measuring such as fast response, real-time measuring. The resolution ratio could be at the level of 1W using the same scale as the sensor. The theoretical principles and system design will be introduced and analyzed in detail.


Mixture models are commonly used in biomedical research to account for possible heterogeneity in population. In this paper, we consider tests for homogeneity between two groups in the exponential tilt mixture models. A novel pairwise pseudolikelihood approach is proposed to eliminate the unknown nuisance function. We show that the corresponding pseudolikelihood ratio test has an asymptotic distribution as a supremum of two squared Gaussian processes under the null hypothesis. To maintain the appeal of simplicity for conventional likelihood ratio tests, we propose two alternative tests, both shown to have a simple asymptotic distribution of χ12 under the null. Simulation studies show that the proposed class of pseudolikelihood ratio tests performs well in controlling type I errors and having competitive powers compared with the current tests. The proposed tests are illustrated by an example of partial differential expression detection using microarray data from prostate cancer patients.


Recently, considerable efforts were deployed at Hydro-Quebec to retrieve all partial discharge (PD) files recorded with the PDA-H instrument over the last 25 years and which were scattered all over in plant computers. These initial raw data files have been centralized on a corporate computer, where all new measurements are now systematically saved. The statistical analysis of the first 10000 files has served as a framework for establishing five levels of discharges severity. This paper presents the results of this statistical analysis which proposes a two dimensional classification of the discharge severity. It also attempts to compare the statistical distribution of the maximum discharge apparent amplitudes with what can be found in the industry. Finally, a description is given to show how the evolution of partial discharges over the years is used in a more general diagnostic process


The United States, for the first time, finds itself losing its worldwide competitive position in industrial manufacturing and also in international engineering and construction. Some of the reasons are reviewed, focusing particularly on the role of the engineer in the management of technology. Both management issues and technological issues are assessed. Two‐thirds of U.S. manufacturing companies are headed by a person with no technical training while in Japan two‐thirds of the company heads have engineering or science education. It seems unfortunate that such training is not judged to be important by U.S. corporate heads. Problems of communication within the organizations appear to be a major constraint to improving manufacturing and examples of this are given in case studies. Organizations usually do not recognize the full extent of the communication problem, continuing to operate as in the past. Finally, the capability of engineers as technical managers is discussed and an education program to improve ...


In this study, the inversion layer mobility characteristics in Si-face 4H silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with nitrided and phosphorus-doped gate oxides were compared using Hall effect measurements. The inversion layer mobility was evaluated by applying a body bias and changing the temperature. The carrier scattering properties were determined for elevated temperatures (i.e., 473 K), at which point the impact of Coulomb scattering decreases and that of phonon scattering increases. The phonon-limited mobility of these MOSFETs was almost the same when plotted as a function of the effective normal electric field in the inversion layer, possibly representing the nature of the thermally grown SiO2/SiC interface. On the basis of this finding, the effect of phonon scattering was separated from the inversion layer mobility. The MOSFETs exhibited a remarkable difference in Coulomb scattering: the MOSFETs with phosphorus-doped gate oxide exhibited a more rapid increase in Coulomb-limited mobility with increasing surface carrier density than did the MOSFETs with nitride gate oxide. This resulted from the effective suppression of Coulomb scattering in the inversion layer, which is one of the reasons why phosphorus-doped gate oxide achieves higher inversion layer mobility than nitrided gate oxide. These results show that the inversion layer mobility of SiC MOSFETs can be modeled using a conventional framework of phonon, Coulomb, and surface roughness scattering. Therefore, the suppression of Coulomb scattering is key to further improving the inversion layer mobility of SiC MOSFETs.


Bioenergy production is a promising way to manage the organic waste material while generating the heat and electricity. Anaerobic digestion of the organic material is gaining attraction due to its easy operation and the cost effectiveness. Biogas plant is an efficient bio energy production which mainly practices in developing country to transform waste into gas through the anaerobic digestion. It is a renewable energy source which helps to fulfil the energy need especially for developing country. In this research, the small-scale biogas plant was designed and implemented for household need with cow dung as a substrate. Biogas composition was measured with a multifunctional portable gas analyser. The mean content of methane (CH 4 ) was 63.64% and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) was 29.04%. Substrate was allowed for store in varying time, i.e., one week, two weeks, and three weeks before the digestion process to increase the bacterial community. The longer the manure/cow dung is stored in a closed container before pass through the digester, the shorter the time for the anaerobic decomposition process.


How prepared are the transit agencies in the face of terrorism and security breaches? In the face of a nation whose sense of security has been shattered by the events of September 11th , what can transit ITS technology offer? The Bus Emergency Communication System/Bus Service Management System (BECS/BSMS) CAD/AVL system developed and implemented by Orbital TMS offers Chicago Transit Authority a variety of security features designed to meet the customer's needs. It is imperative for agencies to train their employees for emergency situations, to instill a security mindset and to have effective coordination and collaboration with fire and police departments. Modern CAD/AVL systems like BECS/BSMS provide critical functions to promote system security and passenger safety, respond to and recover from emergency situations, develop mitigation responses, perform post-mortem analyses of incident response, and analyze archived incident data. When a transit agency has effectively implemented security policy and procedures, it demonstrates its preparedness to respond during incidents and crises. The installation of BECS/BSMS included the implementation of features promoting response preparedness, such as backup power, communication systems, data storage systems, and GIS-based location data. Several support tasks are required during a response to emergency incidents. During the response phase to an incident, an agency must have the capability to: (1)Alert public safety officials; (2) Ensure attention and assistance to ridership; (3) Arrange for transportation alternatives; and (4) Collect and preserve details of an incident and the response taken.


Alcohol consumption in older adults is understudied compared to younger age groups. This is despite older adults being more vulnerable to alcohol-related harms at low consumption levels. Prevalence studies suggest that older adults drink more frequently than any other age group and between 1-15% drink harmfully. Little attention has been paid to the clinical identification of risky drinking among older clients. This article aims to increase awareness about older adults' alcohol use, including the associated harms, and will provide an overview of the assessment of risky drinking in clinical practice. It is recommended that clinical guidelines are developed for psychologists and other health professionals working with older adults on how to raise discussions about alcohol use and accurately identify misuse.


There are certain functions of the credit supply and demands in accordance which with the equilibrium rate and corresponding to it the equilibrium credit supply-demand situation are determined, the iterate process of defining equilibrium denotations is described and the stability conditions are determined.


An object of the present invention is to provide a drug-containing chewing gum. Comprising a A core, at least one of a chewing gum containing a pharmacologically active ingredient (API), at least one inner polymer film coating is coated onto the core, then, the inner polymer film coating outer coating of at least one hard is applied to the upper, providing a chewing gum. Suitable pharmacologically active ingredient is nicotine. The core, at least one inner polymer film coating and / or in at least one of the outer coating of the hard, may be incorporated flavoring. Formed gum, as well show a sustained effect over a long period of flavorings, flavoring in the coating becomes dominate the flavoring in the core, (a) flavorings in the coating with a pharmacologically active ingredient in the core it is possible to increase the chemical or pharmacological formulation avoids contraindications problems, and (b) a pharmacologically active ingredient and controllability of the release of the inactive excipients between. .BACKGROUND


Purpose:To investigate the pathogenesis,diagnos is and treatment of hashimoto's disease(HD) complicated with papillary thyroid c ancer (PTC ). Methods:Clinical data of 12 cases of HD complicated with PTC un dergoing surgery were analysed retrospectively and followed-up for one half to 8 years. Results:In this series papillary thyroid cancer occurred in 25 % (12/48) in patients with HD, but correct preoperative diagnosis was obtained i n 3 (25%) of 12 cases.All patients had thyroid nodules and received thyroidectom y,3 cases underwent functional cervical clearance of lymph nodes. All patients w ere followed up for 6 months to 8 years and there was no death , no recurrence and no metastasis. Conclusions:HD can develop into PTC .The clinical diagnosis of coexistence of HD and PTC is still difficult. The key to diagnosis and rational treatment includes detailed understanding its clinical features, routine examin ation of serum antibodies and ultrasonography, selected scintigraphic thyroid s can or FNAB and finally quick frozen pathologic section in operation. HD complic ated with PTC should be treated surgically.Intraoperative frozen section diagnos is should be performed routinely so that HD complicated with PTC can be diagnose d.The operation procedure should be individualized.All patients should be given small dosage of thyroxine.


CFD software was used to simulate velocity field and temperature field of the airflow around outdoor air conditioner units in the high-rise building.Considering the influence of local meteorological conditions,the simulation results were compared in the situation of with or without wind outside.According to the dissipation of the heat of condensation of outdoor units,it was found the influence among outdoor units of each storey.Finally,a conclusion was brought out that the design of outdoor air conditioner units in this high rise building is rational,and the operational state of outdoor units is fine.


type="main"> We investigate the welfare implications of monetary policy arrangements in a small open economy, considering firms' bank-based finances that are widely observed in emerging ASEAN countries. The impact of an unexpected change in the lending rate spread, or a lending rate spread shock, depends on the presence of banking activity in the economy. This presence is important in Malaysia and Vietnam, where welfare effects of this type of shock are at least comparable to those of foreign monetary policy shocks. We also find that a rigid exchange rate arrangement amplifies the effect of a shock.


Objective
To study the application of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in the evaluation of the stability of carotid atherosclerotic plaque (CAP).

Methods
162 patients with CAP were selected as study group.Meanwhile, 34 patients with carotid artery strong echo plaques were selected as control group.The color doppler ultrasound was used to observe the CAP.

Results
The proportions of lipid type, fiber type, calcification and ulcer plaque in the study group were 21.60%, 33.33%, 34.57% and 10.37%, which were higher than those of the control group (5.88%, 2.94%, 2.94% and 2.94%), the differences were statistically significant (χ2=4.537, 12.859, 13.629 and 3.855, all P 0.05). The plaque diameter (4.13±0.75)mm diagnosed by CEUS was significantly larger than that of conventional ultrasound [(3.62±1.14)mm], the difference was statistically significant (t=4.757, P=0.000).

Conclusion
The CEUS can qualitatively detect the atherosclerotic plaque angiogenesis, can quantitatively assess plaque, evaluate the stability of the plaques, and the sensitivity is high.

Key words:
Ultrasonography, doppler, color; Angiography; Atherosclerosis; Stability


Annexin V assay is a well-known method for the evaluation of cell apoptosis. However, there is a wide range of available kits at the market that are of different quality and price. In this study, staurosporine-induced apoptosis model was used in order to compare low-cost and high-cost Annexin V detection kits from three different producers. Briefly, two human cell lines (KG-1 and NKT) were treated with staurosporine for 1, 3 and 6 hours and then evaluated for the apoptosis induction using 3 different detection kits by flow cytometry. Both cell lines showed significant (P<0.05) increase in cell apoptosis after 3 hours (20% and 13%, respectively) and 6 hours (50% and 20%, respectively) of incubation with staurosporine. No significant changes in the proportion of apoptotic cells were observed by comparing the data detected using low-cost or high-cost Annexin V assays. In conclusion, tested low-cost Annexin V detection kits could be safely used for an objective and fast flow cytometric assessment of the apoptosis in human or animal cells.


Chromosome numbers forAster brachyactis, A. frondosus, andA. laurentianus were determined to be 2n=14. The latter two are the first documented records for these taxa. The basic chromosome number for sectionConyzopsis is confirmed asx=7.


In the condition of UAV′s real-time staring reconnaissance,the geographical tracking algorithm of UAV EO/IR Payload is designed for smart getting and tracking target in vision field by selecting point from map or image.As the result of simulation and flight test,it′s proved that the algorithm is effective on controlling payload to meet requisition of smart getting and tracking target.


This paper describs how travel time variability (unreliability) is determined by the variations both in demand and capacity. One group of factors affecting travel time variability is adverse weather, such as rainy weather. During rain, drivers need to adapt their driving behavior to the prevailing conditions by reducing speeds and increasing the gap distance between vehicles. It is expected that rainy weather conditions also influence travel time variability on freeways. Empirical investigation on the basis of a large database of travel times on various freeways and one year of weather data shows rainy weather conditions, on average, result in around 50% higher travel time variability compared with that under normal weather conditions. It is found that rainy weather conditions have little or no effect on travel time variability below a certain critical transition inflow, but progressively impacts travel time variability. It is also found that rainy weather conditions result in lower critical transition inflows compared with that under normal weather conditions. This might imply that different traffic control strategies and applications should be considered under rainy weather conditions.


We report a synthesis and study on carbon supported PtCo3 and PtCu3 alloy nanoparticle catalyst for ORR. The chemical composition of alloys was carried out with EDS. The electrochemical measurements were conducted using a thin-film RDE method. Recently, we have demonstrated that dealloyed PtCu3 nanoparticle exhibits 3-4 times higher mass activity and 4 times higher specific activity for ORR than Pt. Here, the dealloyed PtCo3 also shows about 4 fold increase in specific activity, but 2-3 fold in mass activity than Pt/C. The in-situ generated Pt rich surface of Co rich Pt alloy nanoparticle catalyst tested for ORR activity. Geometric effects based on Pt surface constitution were assumed for the high activity for ORR. PtCo3 nanoparticle catalyst seems to be an interesting opportunity for further studies for ORR. The thermodynamic instable deposition of Co and the robust Pt ECSA are probably the large advantages to other Pt alloys.


Entrepreneurial marketing as relatively new research field engages with market- ing in an entrepreneurial context as it has been found that marketing activities determine the survival, success and development of small- and medium sized enterprises.Current research regards the entrepreneur's personality and behavior as well as the characteristics and limitations of entrepreneurship itself as determinants for marketing in entrepreneurship. Besides our research could unveil that the prod- ucts and service characteristics impact the configuration of marketing activities, it even seems that these have a comparable stronger influence on marketing in entrepreneurship.In our case the intensive interaction between the network actors is directed and affected by the product and service characteristics as well as the entrepreneur's values and beliefs. These two variables in the entrepreneurial context foster strong customer relationships. As the state of the art literature in entrepreneurial marketing does not adequately support our findings, we suggest a new theoreti- cal conceptualization, which understands entrepreneurial marketing as "play of forces". The dimensions in which the entrepreneur moves in a marketing context are: entrepreneurship as private kingdom – marketing as expression of customer orientation and the actor's values and beliefs – product and service characteris- tics.


The embodiment of the invention discloses a data processing method and device of smart cards, which relates to the field of communication. To improve the performance of the smart cards, the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention has the following steps: according to the marks of backup areas, determining valid character backup areas and invalid character backup areas; acquiring the character backup item data stored in the valid character backup areas as first character backup item data; according to the first character backup item data and data acquired from a modification area, acquiring second character backup item data; writing the second character backup item data in the invalid character backup areas; erasing data in the valid character backup areas; and using the backup areas where the second character backup item data are written as the valid backup areas, using the backup areas where the first character backup item data are stored as the invalid backup areas, and updating the marks of the backup areas. The invention is suitable for the data processing of the smart cards.


Recent work in word spotting in handwritten documents has yielded impressive results, largely using supervised learning systems, which are dependent on manually annotated data, making deployment to new collections a significant effort. In this paper, we propose an approach that utilises transcripts without bounding box annotations to train segmentation-free query-by-string word spotting models, given a partially trained model. This is done through a training-free alignment procedure based on hidden Markov models. This procedure creates a tentative mapping between word region proposals and the transcriptions to automatically create additional weakly annotated training data, without choosing any single alignment possibility as the correct one. When only using between 1% and 10% of the fully annotated training sets for partial convergence, we automatically annotate the remaining training data and achieve successful training using it. In terms of mean average precision, our final trained model then comes within a few percent of the performance of a model trained with the full training set on all our datasets. We believe that this will be a significant advance towards a more general use of word spotting, since digital transcription data will already exist for parts of many collections of interest.


Aimed to describe the clinching join-abilities of galvanized steel with aluminium alloy and titanium alloy, extensible die clinched joints were prepared for similar and dissimilar sheet materials combinations. The quality of the clinched joints was analysed from the aspects of material forming, load-bearing capacity and failure modes. The failure mechanism of the clinched joints was researched from macroscopic and microscopic aspects. The results show that the sheet materials which have better strength and hardness, are suitable to be used as upper sheets in the clinching process. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2017319]


Aims: To determine whether cardiac autonomic dysfunction represents a risk factor for diabetic retinopathy (DR) development and progression in persons with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Methods: The study comprised 154 normoalbuminuric persons with T1DM divided into two groups according to the DR presence: one with and another without DR. Cardiovascular autonomic functioning was accessed by conventional and spectral data analysis. Student's t-test and Fischer's exact test were used to access between group differences. Cox's proportional hazards regression analysis was used to examine the baseline variables predictive for development or progression of NPR 18 months after. Results: The group with DR had longer disease duration compared to the group witout DR (20 vrs 11.5 years, p<0.001), heart rate coefficient of variation (HRV-CV) at rest and during deep breathing, as well as its vagal nerve mediated modulation, were lower in participants with DR (p=0.001; 0.004 and <0.001, respectively). No difference in glycaemic control, lipid status or hypertension rate was observed. Twenty-one (13.36%) participants developed non proliferative DR or progressed to proliferative DR. For each increase in the HRV-CV of 1%, the 18 months risk from retinal deterioration was reduced by 33.4% and by 12.7% for the same HRV-CV increase during deep breathing while the increase of parasympathetic nerve activity output of 1 ms 2 results in 8.6% DR risk reduction. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that DR should not be considered merely a metabolic control manifestation and that HRV-CV might be the top predictor of retinal deterioration in normoabuminuric persons with T1DM.


The fast development of photoactivation for cancer treatment provides an efficient photo‐therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment, but traditional photodynamic or photothermal therapy suffers from the critical issue of low in vivo penetration depth of tissues. As a non‐invasive therapeutic modality, sonodynamic therapy (SDT) can break the depth barrier of photoactivation because ultrasound has an intrinsically high tissue‐penetration performance. Micro/nanoparticles can efficiently augment the SDT efficiency based on nanobiotechnology. The state‐of‐art of the representative achievements on micro/nanoparticle‐enhanced SDT is summarized, and specific functions of micro/nanoparticles for SDT are discussed, from the different viewpoints of ultrasound medicine, material science and nanobiotechnology. Emphasis is put on the relationship of structure/composition‐SDT performance of micro/nanoparticle‐based sonosensitizers. Three types of micro/nanoparticle‐augmented SDT are discussed, including organic and inorganic sonosensitizers and micro/nanoparticle‐based but sonosensitizer‐free strategies to enhance the SDT outcome. SDT‐based synergistic cancer therapy augmented by micro/nanoparticles and their biosafety are also included. Some urgent critical issues and potential developments of micro/nanoparticle‐augmented SDT for efficient cancer treatment are addressed. It is highly expected that micro/nanoparticle‐augmented SDT will be quickly developed as a new and efficient therapeutic modality which will find practical applications in cancer treatment. At the same time, fundamental disciplines regarding materials science, chemistry, medicine and nanotechnology will be advanced.


In the course of investigation of Shakhbazian compact groups we studied the group ShCG 191 which has been identified also as the Abell cluster A1097. By its richness it may be classified as a rich compact group or a poor cluster. We determined redshifts of 14 objects in the area of the cluster and found that two of the supposed members of the group are stars. Redshifts of 12 galaxies show that the system is gravitationally bound. The V and R magnitudes of 23 member galaxies and their morphological types are determined. We present in this paper also the surface brightness contours of member galaxies in the central area of the cluster, the curves of isophotal twisting and the Fourier parameter a4. It is shown that some galaxies in the cluster are interacting with each other. Physical parameters of the group are close to those of ShCGs.


ABSTRACT Stackelberg game-theoretic approaches are applied extensively in engineering design to handle distributed collaboration decisions. Bi-level genetic algorithms (BLGAs) and response surfaces have been used to solve the corresponding bi-level programming models. However, the computational costs for BLGAs often increase rapidly with the complexity of lower-level programs, and optimal solution functions sometimes cannot be approximated by response surfaces. This article proposes a new method, namely the optimal solution function approximation by kriging model (OSFAKM), in which kriging models are used to approximate the optimal solution functions. A detailed example demonstrates that OSFAKM can obtain better solutions than BLGAs and response surface-based methods, and at the same time reduce the workload of computation remarkably. Five benchmark problems and a case study of the optimal design of a thin-walled pressure vessel are also presented to illustrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed method for bi-level optimization in engineering design.


The size and species composition of the soil seed-bank in a remnant patch of each of three structurally and floristically distinct rainforests (Complex Mesophyll Vine Forest, Complex Notophyll Vine Forest and Semi-Evergreen Vine Thicket) were assessed. Seeds of 94 species germinated from 12 surface soil samples collected from each site. All three seed-banks were composed mostly of herbs characteristic of roadsides and agricultural land, and pioneer rainforest trees and shrubs. Agglomerative classifications indicated that the seed-bank samples from each rainforest remnant had a characteristic species composition and could be distinguished reliably from seed-bank samples drawn from other sites. Seeds of species present in the standing forest were poorly represented in the seed-banks except for one long-lived pioneer tree, Dendrocnide photinophylla, at one site. The seed-bank from the seasonally dry vine thicket was significantly larger (4000 seeds m-2) than those from the two moister sites (400–600 seeds m-2, contained more seeds of roadside and agricultural herbs, and fewer seeds of rainforest pioneer and secondary shrubs and trees. We suggest three explanations for the different seed-bank structure observed in the seasonally dry forest site. First, with increased deciduousness in rainforests, seed-banks are increasingly subject to invasion and domination by seeds of rapidly maturing herbs. Second, long-lived seeds that germinate in canopy gaps would be less likely to accumulate under deciduous forests because they would he exposed annually to conditions suitable for germination. Third, chronic disturbance by cattle and pigs produces sites suitable for the establishment of rapidly maturing herbs, and possibly disperses their seeds into the forest.


This paper shows how the classical braided Turk's Head knot can be changed from a cylindrical configuration into a single-sided Mobius band. Realizations are shown using latigo leather and colored paper strips, respectively.


Abstract Intact female rats were treated chronically with estradiol benzoate (EB) until a state of constant estrus (CE) was achieved and maintained. When compared to female rats on the day of estrus, estrogen-treated rats in constant estrus demonstrated a 33% decrease in the concentration of immunoreactive β-endorphin (IR-BE) in the plasma, and a 45-50% decrease in the content and concentration of IR-BE in the anterior pituitary and hypothalamus. The content and concentration of IR-BE in the neurointermediate lobe of the pituitary were similar in each group. Column chromatography revealed that the reduction in IR-BE in the plasma and anterior pituitary of EB-treated CE female rats appeared to be due to a reduction in peptides coeluting with β-endorphin and β-lipotropin, whereas the reduction in IR-BE in the hypothalamus represented a decrease in a peptide which coeluted with β-endorphin. These data suggest that constant estrus, induced by prolonged treatment of intact female rats with estrogen, resulted in a reduction in central and peripheral levels of IR-BE in these animals as compared to female rats on the day of estrus.


Objective To discuss CT manifestations of cystic meningioma and improve understanding of the disease.Materials and Methods Materials and Methods CT appearances of 12 cases with cystic meningioma verified by pathology were analyzed retrospectively.Results 12 cases were benign tumors,4 cases were located in the side of cerebral falx or sinus,4 cases in the convexity of the brain,3 cases in the sphenoidal crest,1 case in the tentorium of cerebellum.The main CT findings were as follows: 5 cases were obvious enhanced in the substantial parts;4 cases with wall nodular enhancement obviously;3 cases with ring enhancement in cyst;there were peritumoral edema area in 3 cases and hyperostosis in 4 cases.Conclusion CT can display the location,configuration,size,inner characteristic structure of cystic meningioma,which are very helpful for the diagnosis and differentiation diagnosis of the disease.


This piece of work dealt with the concept of 'biogas upgrading' or enrichment of the CH4 contained in a sweetened biogas to proportions and features comparable to those of synthetic natural gas (SNG). For this, the behavior of three lab made catalysts (Ni/Al2O3, Ru/Al2O3, and Ni–Fe/Al2O3) was tested in a CO2 methanation reaction (Sabatier reaction) under different feeding conditions (with and without methane). In the first set of experiments (without methane), the good catalytic behavior of the solids was validated. All three catalysts offered similar and increasing CO2 conversions with increasing temperature (range studied from 250 to 400 °C) at a constant WHSV of 30 × 103 STPmL·gcat−1·h−1. The CH4 selectivity remained close to one in all cases. Considering their total metallic load, the Ru (3.7 wt%)-based catalyst stood out remarkably, with TOF values that reached up to 5.1 min−1, this being six or three times higher, than those obtained with the Ni (10.3 wt%) and Ni–Fe (7.4–2.1 wt%) catalysts, respectively. In the second set (cofeeding methane), and also for the three catalysts, a high correspondence between the conversions (and selectivities) obtained with both types of feeds was observed. This indicated that the addition of CH4 to the system did not severely modify the reaction mechanism, resulting in the possibility of taking advantage of the 'biogas upgrading' process by using H2 produced off-peak by electrolysis. In order to maximize the CH4 yield, temperatures in the range from 350–375 °C and a H2:CO2 molar ratio of 6:1 were determined as the optimal reaction conditions.


Two recent books by one of Brazil's most prolific scholars are much more similar in intent than their titles-governo Jodo Goulart and De Marti a Fidel-suggest. Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira has written about Brazil's reaction to the Russian Revolution, the United States's role in Brazil and in Latin America, social democracy and its leaders in Brazil, and the reunification of Germany. His work is characterized by his political engagement as a socialist, a nationalist, and an internationalist. O governo Joao Goulart was originally published in 1978, toward the end of the military dictatorship, when the discussion of redemocratization was intensifying. Bandeira entered this discussion because he had been closely involved in the Goulart regime of 1961-1964 as a journalist-he was head of the politics section of Rio de Janeiro's Didrio de Noticias and an aide to S6rgio de Magalhaes. Magalhaes was vice president of the federal Chamber of Deputies and a leading member of the Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (Brazilian Workers' party-PTB). Through Magalhaes he became friends with other leading social democratic nationalists whose testimonies form much of the basis of this book. As a defender of the Goulart regime, Bandeira was sentenced to five years in prison, of which he served ten months. His book was among the first to argue that the events of April 1, 1964, were not a "revolution" as the military alleged but a coup d'etat that succeeded not because of the weakness of the Brazilian left but because of U.S. efforts to overthrow a democratically elected and popular government. Bandeira was one of the first historians of the period to suggest that Janio Quadros had resigned the presidency in 1961 not because he was emotionally unstable but in the hope that either a popular reaction or a military coup would award him dictatorial powers. When neither happened in the short run, Joao Goulart, a former minister of labor under Getflio Vargas, undertook what Bandeira considers the most radical reforms in Brazil's history.


Has been developed a polarization mode dispersion compensator for singlemode optical fiber using artificially created difference of phase velocities propagation of basic extraordinary and ordinary waves in spiral-bended optical fiber, coiled tight turn to turn on the dielectric core.


Wisdom is recognisable for its facets of fair judgment, experience, carefulness, and compassion—but also a degree of risk taking. The wise people I know make choices that are based on likely consequences. They consider all options but are also decisive. They are fair minded, having little ego to get in the way of what might be best for others. Wise people make good role models, although they most likely hate this. Shakespeare had it right: "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

The risk taking is important; wise people are not interested in "covering their backs." The jury judging Dhanuson Dharmasena rapidly acquitted him as innocent against charges that he had committed female genital …


The real time in vivo detection of dopamine and other neurotransmitters in awake behaving animals is a long-standing goal. Carbon nanomaterials have emerged as promising candidates for electrochemical detection of dopamine. Diamond-like carbon films have wide water window, low capacitive background current and high chemical stability. By combining ultrathin tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) with Ti under layer the electron transfer properties can be enhanced without deterioration in the desired properties of ta-C. Such a bilayer thin films can also be modified with other carbon allotropes, such as graphene. To the best knowledge of the author this reports for the first time a ta-C electrode modified with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for electrochemical detection of dopamine. Ti/ta-C bilayer electrodes with varying taC top layer thickness were fabricated and optimized in terms of electron transfer properties. Both types of electrodes were subjected to cyclic voltammetry experiments, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy. The ta-C thickness was found to affect the electron transfer kinetics, while the dopamine detection limit of 5 μM remained unchanged. The electron transfer properties were found to improve with decreasing ta-C thickness and best performance was observed with 7 nm ta-C thickness. At a thickness below 7 nm the electron transfer properties start deteriorating due to excessive oxidation of the Ti/ta-C interface. The ta-C electrode showed poor selectivity towards dopamine. An order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity and a significant increase in selectivity towards dopamine was achieved. The rGO modified electrodes were able to detect 500 nM DA without any data treatment. Modification with rGO also resulted in significant improvement in electron transfer kinetics of dopamine. The amount of added rGO and the stacking of the graphene sheets were found to affect electron transfer in both inner and outer sphere systems. Finally oxidative treatments of the rGO resulted in increased current response and selectivity towards dopamine of all rGO electrodes, highlighting the role of oxygen containing functional groups in the electro-oxidation of both L-ascorbic acid and dopamine. By combining the stability, good electron transfer properties, and the reasonably low capacitive currents of the Ti/ta-C bilayer electrode with the more electrochemically active rGO, an electrode with low detection limit and improved selectivity towards dopamine was achieved. This electrode also exhibited wide enough water window and sufficiently low capacitive background currents for electrochemical detection of dopamine.


We examine and attempt to classify presently available image processing software products. Next, we suggest that the advent of extremely inexpensive image processing hardware puts new demands upon image processing software. These include ease of use, ease of adaptation to new tasks and transportability. Finally, we illustrate the discussion by presenting in some detail a system whose novelty is an unusually low cost, combined with surprising performance, ease of use and versatility.


The effect of water stress in different degree on Castanea henryi seedling were studied in this paper Under water stress, the relative water content, superoxide dismutase(SOD), catalase(CAT) activities in leaves of Castanea henryi seedling were decreased, and the activity of peroxidase(POD), the relative plasmamembrane permeability and the contents of malondildehyde (MDA) were increased SOD,CAT and POD activities in the leaves treated with 6 BA were increased, and the contents of MDA and ABA in leaves were decreased Thus 6 BA reduced the damage of activated oxygen on membrane by water stress


Foliar spraying was found to be an effective method to rapidly increase boron levels in most vegetative and reproductive tissues in grapevines. The reduction of fruit-set deficiency symptoms with a pre-bloom or bloom spray was immediate but not complete. Foliar sprays applied during the previous fall were more effective in reducing such symptoms than pre-bloom or bloom sprays. This may be due to the earlier incorporation of boron in reproductive tissues, especially dormant buds. Grapevine foliage is also more tolerant to boron postharvest in the fall, when 1 pound per acre of actual boron can be safely applied. Spring and summer sprays of boron should be limited to 1/2 pound per acre per application to avoid phytotoxicity.


The non-linear behaviour of the SI memory circuit has been described in this chapter. This, in turn, was used to identify the major source of distortion in these circuits. Specifically, it was shown that distortion in SI circuits is the result of variations in the settling behaviour of the current memory cell from one sampling instant to the next. These variations are a direct result of the operating point of the current memory cell being a function of the time-varying input current signal. As a means of quantifying the amount of distortion generated by a current memory circuit under specific input conditions, an upper bound on the THD was developed. Several examples demonstrated the simplicity of using the formula for the THD bound. Moreover, the bound in each example was checked against the THD computed from a HSPICE simulation and, in one particular case, compared to some experimentally observed results. For all these cases, the actual THD measure was within the proposed bound confirming our theoretical predictions. We conclude that SI circuits will operate with the least amount of distortion when the sampling (or clock) rate is made much larger than the frequency of the input signal. This is also true for its linear behaviour (i.e. magnitude and phase errors) and suggests that for best performance, a highly oversampled situation should be used. Finally, it should be noted here that the THD bound and its development are valid for all sampled-data systems, regardless of its circuit implementation.


MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) is the next generation of messaging services in multimedia mobile communications. MMS enables messaging with full multimedia content including images, audios, videos, texts and data, from client to client or e-mail. MMS is based on WAP technology, so it is technology independent. This means that enabling messages from a GSM/GPRS network to be sent to a TDMA or WCDMA network. In this paper a methodology for implementing MMS client on embedded platforms especially on Wince OS is described.


The factors which control the balance between proliferation and cell death in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. The kinetic state of the tumor growth was investigated in the present study with references to transforming growth factor (TGF)-α and -β1 in 50 resected HCCs without preceding therapies. Three-micrometer sections were cut from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumors. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), Lewis Y antigen (LeY), TGF-α, and -β1 were immunohistochemically stained and quantitatively assessed with an image analyzer. By means of immunohistochemical staining, a reciprocal correlation was observed between PCNA and LeY. A similar pattern was found between TGF-α and -β1, although not so strikingly as in the case of PCNA and LeY. The expressions of LeY and PCNA labeling index (LI) ranged from 0 to 56.1% and from 0 to 52.8%, respectively. A correlation was observed between LeY and tumor size (r = 0.302, p 0.05). The positive area ranged from 0 to 61.6% for TGF-α, and from 0.6 to 71.5% for TGF-β1. Analysis of these data showed a significant correlation between TGF-β1 and tumor size (r = -0.327, p 1 (r = -0.431, p Y could yield more accurate data to determine the kinetic state of the tumor growth compared with either alone. In addition, TGF-β1 might act as a suppressive factor in the growth of HCC


Roll angle is one of the important parameters for the guidance of rotating carrier, and the precision of measurements is positively related to the precision of hitting for two-dimensional guidance. In order to improve the precision of measurements of roll angle and eliminate the influence of measuring errors in online data, it is necessary to make fusion of the roll angle measurements from Beidou receiver. In this paper, a new roll angle fusion method based on high confidence fusion strategy is proposed. By designing the high confidence fusion strategy and its fusion process, a set ofhigh confidence fusion strategy is formed naturally, which integrates the general data fusion methods such as variance, information entropy, Euclidean distance and so on. Based on the high confidence fusion strategy, adaptive weighted optimization and normalized fusion are carried out. In the final, the high confidence integrated decision-making results with rejection probability are obtained as a results. The experiment test shows that the method proposed can significantly enhance the accuracy and reliability of roll angle estimation.


The feasibility of having chaos-based communication in a MIMO system is presented. A promising chaotic symbolic dynamics modulation is chosen, and an Alamouti space-time code scheme is used with 2 transmit and 2 receiver antennas. The diversity technique is combined with chaotic modulation to improve the performance of the system. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated, and then the analytical BER expression is derived.


Major depression (MDD) is a common psychiatric disorder with a 6 months prevalence of approximately 5% [1]. The initial therapeutic approach for patients with depression comprises the use of medication and/or psychotherapy. In patients who continue to be disabled despite thesemeasures, suitable alternatives are the use of other medications from the same or different drug classes, augmentative pharmacological regimes, the combination of antidepressant agents from different classes and eventually electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The main objectives of treatment are the remission of symptoms, restoration of daily function and the prevention of relapses and recurrences. While the majority of patients respond favorably to treatment, 10–20% will have chronic and treatment resistant forms of the disease. For this refractory population, surgical treatment has been used as part of the therapeutic armamentarium. Modern neurosurgical management of depression has mainly taken three forms: Ablative procedures designed to disrupt presumed pathologically active circuits, deep brain stimulation (DBS) and vagal nerve stimulation (VNS), with cortical stimulation also being investigated. In this chapter, we will review the clinical outcome of DBS. The diagnostic criteria of major depression, indications for surgical procedures, outcome with stereotactic lesions and VNS will described in detail in other chapters of this book.


The Design Implementation Framework, or DIF, is a design approach that evaluates learner and user experience at multiple points in the development of intelligent tutoring systems. In this chapter, we explore how DIF was used to make system modifications to iSTART, a game-based intelligent tutoring system for reading comprehension. Using DIF as a guide, we conducted internal testing, focus groups, and usability walk-throughs to develop iSTART-3, the latest iteration of iSTART. In addition to these evaluations, DIF highlights the need for experimental evaluation. With this in mind, we describe an experimental evaluation of iSTART-3 as compared to its predecessor, iSTART-ME2. Analyses revealed an interesting tension between system usability and user preference that has important implications for instructional designers.


The hematosides (sialyl-lactosylceramides) of rat small intestine were separated as their acetylated derivatives. The isolated fractions were characterized by mass spectrometry and degradative methods, and the two major fractions also by NMR spectroscopy. From these results hematosides with different sialic acid and ceramide type could be assigned to thin-layer chromatographic bands. This allowed a structural interpretation of the chromatographic patterns observed for different parts of the small intestine. Thus, epithelial cells of ileum contained only hematoside with N-glycoloylneuraminic acid. Duodenum lacked this compound and instead the epithelial cells contained hematoside with N-acetylneuraminic acid. In non-epithelial tissue or both duodenum and jejunum-ileum the major hematoside had N-acetyl-neuraminic acid. The hematosides of epithelial cells had ceramide containing 18 : 0 trihydroxy base combined with 16, 20, 22, 24 : 0, and 24 : 1 hydroxy fatty acids (major part) or non-hydroxy fatty acids. In the non-epithelial hematosides the ceramide consisted of 18 : 1 dihydroxy base combined with 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 : 0, and 24 : 1 non-hydroxy fatty acids.


The expression "Code Napoleon" is not incorrect. The First Consul contributed hugely to the design of Code civil des Francais. The topic which shows most clearly his work is that on family law, itself situated at the junction between the political and the social. However, Bonaparte goes beyond the 18th-century structures which tended towards legislative immobility. And although he respected the concepts of the Ancien Regime, he was nevertheless to adopt certain revolutionary principles – not only was he the originator of the maintenance of divorce in French legislation but he also managed, despite almost unanimous opposition, to ensure the adoption of divorce by mutual consent. He was however to reject other principles adopted during the Revolution, notably the equality of succession between legitimate and illegitimate children and the emancipation of the wife with respect to her husband and that of the children with respect to their father. Though conservative, this attitude was nevertheless bearer of innovations. Indeed, his conservatism was not moral but political. Bonaparte was not intending to protect morals but rather the State. In this respect, public order in France rested on the restoration of the authority of the head of the family, (which had been destroyed by the Revolution), but without sacrificing the interests of the wife when the interests of the state were not under threat. As a defender of the rationalism of the Enlightenment, he attempted to counterbalance general interest via the protection of individual interests when it served the cause of civil peace. Thus, whilst the Councillors of State in complete unanimity denounced "Bastards" (in accordance with the commonly-held view of the period) because they were a threat to the family and so the State, Bonaparte, without separating himself from general opinion, gave "bastards" a certain legitimacy when they could procure an (adoptive) filiation to families deprived of descendants.


AbstractThe latest techniques to become widely available commercially to design engineers and others who specify surface coatings are those for ionization assisted physical vapour deposition; titanium nitride being the main coating material at this time. The background to this new technology is outlined and information is provided about the main commercial processes. An indication is given of potential problems which can arise, leading to performance variability. Details of applications reported by users are included. It is intended that with the aid of this guide engineers, designers, and other potential users will have a clearer picture of the technology involved and its strengths and weaknesses.


Hyperspectral unmixing (HU) is a very useful and increasingly popular preprocessing step for a wide range of hyperspectral image analyses. However, the HU study has been constrained by the limited hyperspectral images (especially the ones with ground truths). In this paper, we propose a method to label the hyperspectral images. Besides, we summarize the most commonly used hyperspectral images for the HU study, including their scenes, hyperspectral sensors, resolutions, etc. Although those images and their ground truths are widely used in tens of HU papers, it is worth emphasizing that most of them are, unfortunately, not available on the web. Such case hinders the progress pace of new HU methods. Thus, we give a thorough summarization of 18 real images and their ground truths, including the endmembers and abundance maps, and provide them on the web. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that summarizes and provides the real hyperspectral images and their ground truths for the HU study.


The Life in Science "Weeds making waves" (D. S. Johnson, 18 April, p. [255][1]) told the story of a middle school project that made a boat out of the highly invasive reed Phragmites australis . The teacher lashed together the reed stems to make a boat that was "twice as long as the truck bed


At present,though the sincere consciousness of the listed company of our country is being strengthened constantly,the overall level of sincere construction is still relatively on the low side,there still a considerable amount of listed companies have dishonesty behavior in various degree at home,caused the directly conflict and violate to rule and supervision requirement of security market.Should draw sincerity build experience of listed company in developed country,strengthen the sincerity build mechanism of our country,strengthen the environment restrain on sincerity,strengthen the behavioral punishment to breaking promise,make the listed company more complete in sincere construction.


Frostbite is defined as the damage sustained by tissues while subject to temperatures below their freezing point (typically −0.55°C); in the broader sense it can include non-freezing cold injuries, where tissues do not freeze but are subject to a sustained and injurious cooling.Cold injuries were historically associated with military work in the field, but in the past 20 years the number of civilian cases has increased. 3 The unusually cold winters in northern Europe in early 2010 caused many cases of frostbite in the United Kingdom, central Europe, and Scandinavia. The severity of frostbite injury is proportional to the temperature, duration of exposure, and amount and depth of frozen tissue. The term frostbite covers a wide range of injuries, from minimal tissue damage to substantial tissue necrosis that can result in amputation. Recent advances in treatment mean that frontline medical staff must be able to recognise and treat frostbite effectively. What factors predispose to frostbite?


Two new interference alignment algorithms for MIMO interference channel (IC) are proposed. Both the algorithms are based on maximizing useful signal subspace and suppressing interference power (MUSI). The first algorithm is based on the convex optimization. Interference leakage is constrained and the useful signal subspace optimization function is built. Semidefinite programming relaxation and rank 1 decomposition techniques are used for searching the precoder and decoder. The second algorithm is optimized on the Grassmann manifold. Conjugate gradient method is used for searching on the Grassmann manifold. Alternating optimization method between precoder and decoder is used for both the algorithms. Simulation results show that both the proposed algorithms perform well at high SNR.


Introduction Resistant pathogens, especially coagulase-positive staphylococci are a major challenge in both humanand veterinary medicine. The importance of MRSA in swine production for human medicine has grown in the last years (1,2). The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of MRSA in German pig farms in the Dutch-German border region (Euregio) of Lower Saxony, Germany. Materials and Methods From May to Oct. 2009 54 pig farms were tested for the presence of MRSA. Five barn dust samples or ten nasal swabs were taken per farm. After 24-h enrichment culture in selective broth, all cultures were streaked onto Columbia-blood agar and a chromogenic medium for the detection of MRSA (bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France). Methicillin-resistance was tested by cefoxitin disc agar diffusion and was confirmed by mecA-specific PCR (5) and all MRSA isolates were typed by S. aureus protein A (spa) sequence-based typing (6). Results 31 farm were positive (57,4 %). Among these, 26 farms were detected positive by barn dust, 5 by nasal swabs. 22,2% of the barn dust samples were positive and 43,6% of the nasal swabs were positive. The geographic distribution of MRSA positive and negative farms is shown in Fig. 1.


Using traditional methods of statistical modelling for investigation of economic and social systems it is possible to set the task of creating an efficient procedure for generating incidental parameter values constituting factors of a simulation model, to effectively use up-to-date information technologies, to ensure continuous control of the behaviour of the specific economic system that is being researched. The traditional scheme of simulation modelling is the generation of a mass of incidental parameter values featuring the changes of model factors (Figure 1).


It is the purpose of this paper to prove error estimates
for the approximate description of macroscopic wave packets in
infinite periodic chains of coupled oscillators by modulation equations,
like the Korteweg--de Vries (KdV) or the Nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS)
equation. The proofs are based on a discrete
Bloch wave transform of the underlying infinite-dimensional system of coupled ODEs.
After this transform the existing proof for the associated
approximation theorem for the NLS approximation used for
the approximate description of oscillating wave packets in dispersive PDE systems
transfers almost line for line. In contrast, the proof of the approximation theorem
for the KdV approximation of long waves is less obvious. In a special situation
we prove a first approximation result.


The effectiveness of aspirin in treatment of the common headache has been evaluated in a group of university students employing a blind Latin‐square design. A total of 322 headaches was reported by 100 subjects during the 12 week study. The dosages of aspirin and the per cent of treated headaches showing some degree of relief were: 650 mg. (81 per cent), 325 mg. (68 per cent), 163 mg. (57 per cent), and placebo (57 per cent). Only the percentage associated with the 650 mg. dosage differed significantly from the others. Also, significantly fewer subjects who received the 650 mg. dosage took additional analgesics as allowed by the study. In addition, observations were made concerning the nature and treatment pattern of the headaches. These included their distribution according to time of day of onset (peak 4 to 6 P.M.) and anatomical location (bilateral frontal and generalized most frequent), and measurement of the average time lapse from onset of headache until medication was taken (average 67 minutes).


In present work the syntheses of derivatives of 9α, 11α tritium labelled estradiols are described. Estron, estradiol, 17α-ethynylestradiol and its 3-isopropylsulfonyl ester were synthesized with high specific activity. Comparing the specific activities of all products it was obvious that tritium is exchanged in considerable amount in the strongly alkaline medium of ethynylation step. We believe that this exchange is attributed to tritium in benzylic positions.


Industries today need to stay ahead in competition by servicing and satisfying customer's needs. Quality of the produced products to match as per customer demands is the key goal for a product manufacturing company. A product produced with variation in characteristics, than the anticipated are called as defect. In the mild steel coil manufacturing plants, large amount of data is generated with the help of many sensors deployed to measure different parameters which can be used for defect diagnosis of the coils produced. In case of mild steel coil, deviation of the final cooling temperature of the coil from desired temperature produces defective coils. The paper presents machine learning approach and the methodology for cooling temperature deviation defect diagnosis that consists of four phases namely data structuring, association identification, statistical derivation and classification. We also provide comparative results obtained with various data mining algorithms like decision trees, neural networks, SVM, ensemble techniques (boosting and random forest) in terms of performance parameters and prove that random forest outperforms rest of the techniques by achieving an accuracy of 95%.


d2x -.<(l-x2) dx +x=O (-<>0), dt2 dt its existence and uniqueness for any value of ,< is well known [1] 0 and it is also well known [1] that the unique periodic solution is orbitally stable. For ,l=0.l, 1.0 and 10, Van der Pol sought for the orbits of the periodic solutions by the graphical method [2]. From the behavior of these orbits, the properties of the periodic solutions of (1) are suggested somewhat, but, of course, the further and more minute properties of the periodic solutions are not known from these results. When ,< is sufficiently small [3] or large [4], the properties of the periodic solutions are known considerably in detail, but, when,< lies between these two limits, hardly any property of the periodic solutions seems to be known yet. In this report, in order to contribute to this respect, making use of the method of the previous paper [5], the author calculated the periodic solutions of (1) for .<=0 (0.2) 1.0, correct to three decimal places. From this result, the various properties of the periodic solutions for .<=0 (0.2) 1.0,-the shapes of the orbit and the oscillation, the amplitude and the period of the oscillation, . the characteristic exponent h of the orbit, etc.-are found. The remarkable results newly ascertained compared to those of Van der Pol are as follows: With increasing .< till 1.0, 1 ° the amplitude varies--probably increases-very slowly; 2° the period increases normally; 3° the stability increases very rapidly, and the sum of the characteristic exponent and the damping coefficient ,< varies very slowly.


Self-efficacy is an important factor influencing an investor's decision.This paper tried to study the effect of self-efficacy on investor participation with Chinese household finance survey data.This paper used Propensity Score Match,logit regression and Fama-French method to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and participation.The result showed that the effect of self-efficacy on investor participation is significantly positive.Because the definition of self-efficacy relies on the selection of ordered zone,the paper gave seven different definitions and found that under different kinds of definition self-efficacy has positive influence on investor participation.


To display the huge IP-level topology of Internet and explore its topological character,a method called GNTSD generating network topology via Skitter′s Data was proposed.The two key algorithms about filtering IP path of the specific area and extracting IP nodes and links were put forward and analyzed.Based on the method,an analytical tool called IPTView was realized based on GNTSD.The hash technique was widely used to improve the efficiency of the algorithm in this method.The IP-level topology was displayed in manner of 3D graph.And some parameters like numbers of IP node/link and degree of node were counted and analyzed.The experiment results show that the method is feasible which can generate the view of IP-level topology of the specific country or area from tens of millions of IP paths fast and accurately,and that GNTSD is a general method that can obtain the IP-level network topology of any region in the world.


This paper presents mechanism and factors of semi-dry flue gas desulfurization, and solutions to the problems, and the effects of parameter on SO2 removal are investigated, such as Ca/S molar rate, approach to saturation temperature, spout water, flue gas moisture, limestone particle diameter, SO2 inlet consternation and ash recycle. And then, using hop-pocket to assist removing SO2 is also introduced. Aiming at problems that semi-dry SO2 sorbent efficiency is lower and Ca/S molar rate is high, the paper gives several technologies about advancing SO2 sorbent efficiency, in order to improve semi-dry flue gas desulfurization.


An economical two-cycle solvent extraction process has been developed on a bench scale for the separate recovery of thorium and uranium from monazite sulfate liquors. Thorium is extracted in the first cycle with a primary amaine in hydrocarbon diluent and uranium in the second cycle with a secondary or tentiary amine in hydrocarbon diluent. The principal advantages of the process over conventional precipitation methods are the essentially complete recoveries of both thorium and each other and from rare earths and phosphate. The rare earths can also be recovered and separated from phosphate by amine extraction if desired. (auth)


surely only make sense if we ignore the practices of other pre-industrial societies in which the beating not only of servants but of wives, children, and animals has been a normal way of symbolizing social hierarchies. There are other indications that B.'s concerns are those of the contemporary West, e.g. his search for statistics and regret that no reliable ones can be found (e.g. pp. 65ff., on male/female ratios among slaves). Only occasionally do these preconceptions lead to dubious conclusions, as when he suggests that the purpose of imperial legislation protecting slaves was primarily to stop them from rebellion, in view of' the fears of slave resistance seen earlier' (p. 129): B. is certainly right to play down the role of 'humanitarianism' in such legislation, but the persons over whom the emperor wished to extend his control through these regulations were not so much the slaves as their masters. Elsewhere B.'s approach leads to sensible and interesting conclusions on Christianity's failure to mitigate the physical abuse of slaves (p. 121), or on Augustan manumission legislation, seen as an ' acculturative programme of incentives, rewards and penalties' (p. 95). While B. takes pains to warn his readers about difficulties in interpreting the evidence, some questionable lines of interpretation, particularly of literary texts, appear to be taken for granted. There is no discussion of the nature of Tityrus' 'slavery' in Eclogue I; of Petronius' Satyricon B. remarks 'the realistic substratum of which is certain'; of Plautine slaves he says 'Such a conception can have only derived from the observed behaviour of slaves in everyday life'; and Appendix 5 accepts the view that the fable served as a vehicle for social protest. There are also some conceptual problems which remain undiscussed. Assertions to the effect that 'slavery was a fundamental component of Roman society', 'are not matters of concern here' (p. 14 and n. 6); and while 'detailed economic questions are also omitted', B. takes it for granted throughout that slavery is not so much about controlling people as about exploiting their labour (pp. 18, 139). In a work of this length there is no scope to consider every question, and the inevitable omissions do not detract from its value as an excellent introductory survey.


Introduction Fractures in old age is a major health problem with considerable disability and mortality. Antipsychotic drugs (APs) have been associated with falls and fractures in elderly individuals. Methods The study performed was a retrospective analysis with 97 participants. Subjects were everyone over the age of 65 with fractures radiologically confirmed, hospitalized in Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology "Sf. Ap. Andrei" Galaţi, România, in May 2017. The objective was to evaluate the association between APs and the risk of fractures in elderly persons. Results and discussion16 participants with confirmed fracture (16.50%) was associated with exposure to psychotropic medications. Those who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), in particular, are linked to greater susceptibility to bone fractures: 10 out of 16 participants. Conclusion The mechanism leading to this increased risk is unclear. Clinical studies examining causality or mechanisms of the observed association between antipsychotic drug use and excess risk of fractures are needed. Confounding by indication, other drugs used or comorbidity cannot be excluded, this association is relevant for clinical practice because fractures and antipsychotic drug use are prevalent in vulnerable older individuals.


TO THE EDITOR: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a novel, highly infectious, single stranded RNA virus. An inappropriate immune response characterised by the excess production of pro-inflammatory cytokines ('cytokine storm') is common in severe cases of COVID-19 [1]. Such severe disease is frequently complicated by coagulopathy, often progressing to DIC and multi-organ failure [2]. The 'cytokine storm' accompanying severe COVID-19 as well as increased serum ferritin levels may be important sources of endogenous oxidative stress [3, 4] Such excess oxidative stress may lead to tissue damage in the lungs and elsewhere by generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) [5]. The potential role of red blood cells (RBCs) in the pathophysiology of COVID-19, especially their possible contribution to hypoxia and to the thrombotic complications remains uncertain. Both anemia and increase in RBC distribution width have now been associated with increased mortality in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection [6, 7]. In addition, increased oxidation of structural proteins and impairment of membrane lipid homeostasis is reported in RBCs of COVID-19 positive patients, which may alter RBC deformability, potentially contributing to the thromboembolic complications seen in severe forms of COVID-19 infection [8]. To further investigate the possible role of RBC dysfunction in COVID-19, we measured ROS in RBCs of patients infected with COVID-19 at our hospital and the effect of the anti-oxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). To look for evidence of increased adherence of RBCs to endothelial cells (ECs) and platelets in COVID-19 which might contribute to thrombosis, we measured RBC surface expression of adhesion molecules CD44, CD242 (ICAM-4) and CD47, as these red blood cell surface proteins have been implicated in interactions with blood vessels and/or platelets [9]. We also measured surface expression of CD147, as a surrogate marker of the lactate transporter monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1) [10].


In view of the present situation for college students physical knowledge reduction and instrument intelligent instrument,on the basis of comprehensive analysis,put forward the corresponding countermeasures.


A central link segment of a simple n-vertex polygon P is a segment s inside P that minimizes the quantity maxx∈Pminy∈sdL(x,y), where dL(x,y) is the link distance between points x and y of P. In this paper we present an O (n log n) algorithm for finding a central link segment of P. This generalizes previous results for finding an edge or a segment of P from which P is visible. Moreover, in the same time bound, our algorithm finds a central link segment of minimum length. Constructing a central link segment has applications to the problems of finding an optimal robot placement in a simply connected polygonal region and determining the minimum value k for which a given polygon is k-visible from some segment.


The low load and attrition problem of the existing 75 t/h circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler with two-stage window blind separator is given herein. According to the customer's requirement and the site condition, combined with the feature of the boiler , retrofit scheme using water-cooled square separator which is compact designed is proposed.


Ensembles are an important tool for researchers to provide accurate forecasts and proper validation of their models. To accurately analyze and understand the ensemble data, it is important that researchers clearly and efficiently visualize the uncertainty of their model output. In this paper, we present two methods for visualizing uncertainty in 1D river model ensembles. We use the strengths of commonly used techniques for analyzing statistical data, and we apply them to the 2D and 3D visualizations of inundation maps. The resulting visualizations give researchers and forecasters an easy method to quickly identify the areas of highest probability of inundation.


The human γδ T cell receptor (TCR) is normally expressed on lymphoid tissue. Since expression of different molecules of the T cell system has been described for human brain cells, we examined the expr


Traffic sign recognition (TSR) is a major challenging task for intelligent transport systems. In this paper, we present a multiclass traffic sign recognition system based on the Bag-of-Word (BOW) model. Despite huge success of BOW method, ignoring the spatial information is a weakness of this model and affects accuracy of classification. We have proposed a Spatial Histogram for traffic signs that preserves the required spatial information. In addition, we used an extended codebook construction method to extract key features from all of sign categories efficiently and achieved a recognition rate of %88.02 through 62 sign types with a short execution time.


Introduction: Hypothyroidism is characterized by a broad clinical spectrum ranging from an overt state of myxedema, end-organ effects and multisystem failure to an asymptomatic or subclinical condition with normal levels of thyroxine and triiodothyronine and mildly elevated levels of serum thyrotropin. Thyroid hormone is involved in hemoglobin synthesis in adults and maturation of hemoglobin in fetus and by affecting hematopoietic process, hypothyroidism results in anemia through slowing the oxygen process. Therefore in this study, we planed to assess the haematological profile in hypothyroid patients and haematological changes. Material and Methods: This is a cross sectional with four groups. Group 1 (n=37): Newly diagnosed hypothyroid subjects, Group 2 (n=37): Hypothyroid subjects with < 5 years, Group 3 (n=37): Hypothyroid subjects with > 5 years, Group 4 (n=37): Controls. Results: There was significant difference in Vit B12, Folic acid, Hb%, HCT, WBC count, Platelet count, RDW%, MCH, MCHC. But there was no significant difference in RBC count, MPV, MCV. However, there was significant difference in Vit B12), Folic acid, HB%, WBC count, MPV, Platelet count, RDW%, MCH, MCHC of newly diagnosed hypothyroids when compared to controls. In hypothyroids with less than five years of history and in medical treatment, there was significant difference in Folic acid, HB%, HCT, MPV, Platelets, RDW% when compared to controls. Further, the Folic acid, HCT, MPV, Platelets, RDW% in hypothyroids with history of more than five years without regular treatment between group when compared to controls. Correlation analysis showed significant association of visceral fat with vitamin B12 in newly diagnosed hypothyroid subjects (r = 0.23), and total leukocyte count (r = -0.42) in newly diagnosed hypothyroid subjects. Conclusions: The body fat distribution and hematological parameters was altered in hypothyroidism and there was significant association between visceral fat and Vitamin B12 in newly diagnosed hypothyroidism. Further, there was no restoration in individuals with irregular treatment.


This is a special issue devoted to a discussion about Asian theories of communication. Five of the articles are from presentations at the Biennial Scientific Conference of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) held in July 2000 in Singapore. This conference was organized jointly by the School of Communication Studies of the Nanyang Technological University and AMIC. It is common knowledge that Western theories and approaches have heavily influenced Asian communication studies. However these theories rarely address the specificities of the cultural context in which Asian communication takes place. Many of the teachers of communication and media studies in Asia require their students to read mostly texts based in Western countries. This is partly because there have been few theoretical works on the Asian communication environment and practices. Moreover many of these teachers have had their training in Western countries. This influences the selection of teaching material and the content of their teaching. According to Dissanayake (1988), one of the earliest scholars to study the issue of Asian communication theory, 71 per cent of the material used to teach communication theory in ASEAN and 78 per cent of the material used in South Asia were of North American origin. Nordstreng and Traber (1992), after an exhaustive survey of educational material for communication studies in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Arab world, concluded that Anglo-Saxon textbooks dominate the teaching curricula in these regions. According to them, textbooks in communication studies should play a dual role. One is cultural emancipation, which cannot happen as long as the field is dominated by foreign (AngloSaxon) literature. The other is to create a better awareness of the cultural and political diversity in the world. Communicators therefore should not only share a national perspective but also should pay attention to other cultures of the world. The national and international interests should complement each other. The search for an Asian perspective therefore does not imply the outright rejection of Western theories. What is at issue is the uncritical acceptance of Western models and the neglect of the cumulative wisdom embodied in Asian literature. Theories and models of communication should reflect the cultural ethos of Asian people.


Control and synchronization of the chaotic broadband carriers of two different chaotic systems is reported in this paper. The YUWANG autonomous chaotic system is a three-dimensional system that possesses a quadratic cross-product and a hyperbolic nonlinear term in its algebraic structure. The Ai-Yuan-Zhi-Hao system consists of six control parameters in addition to three nonlinear terms. Firstly, linear feedback controllers are designed to regulate the trajectories of the state vectors of the two systems to asymptotically stable states based on the Routh-Hurwitz stability criteria. Secondly, hybrid feedback controllers are designed for identical and non-identical synchronization of the two systems. Numerical simulation of the models shows that the coupled systems are effectively controlled and synchronized by the designed controllers. The synchronized signals holds possibilities of applications in secure communication system for image encryption, signal masking and chaotic modulation.


I would like to thank the authors for pointing out errors in some peripheral aspects of [1], and for their corrections. These issues were actually considered in [1], without any formal proof, and by describing differences with respect to the main protocol. In fact, the hard problem attacked by [1] was how to get bounded (or modulo K implementation of) vector clocks in the context of causal broadcasting (previously an open problem). The analysis of [1] proceeded through the steps of, first, the identification of a sliding causal window mechanism (in practical terms, expressed by a predicate which triggers the "wait" statement in the "receive" message handler) and the consequent implementation of this mechanism in a PAK protocol along with its correctness proof. The second problem attacked has been to devise the relation between the width of the causal window and the use of credits in a protocol which allows more concurrency at the expenses of wider causal windows. Protocol variants presented in [1] were therefore marginal in a broader perspective, as solutions of the previous problems, namely, the dentification and the implementation of the sliding causal window mechanism, actually represent the basic building block of any variant, masking the complexity of the hard problem (i.e., getting a modulo K implementation of the vector clocks). The two variants presented in this paper are not an exception and, therefore, they rely on these solutions both in the protocol description and in their formal proof. The interested reader can also find other protocol variants which use the modulo K implementation of vector clocks as the only O(n) data structure managed by each process.


Mighty River Power (MRP) operates a diverse fleet of geothermal power plants, including two geothermal power plants with condensing steam turbines. The cooling water used to condense the exhausted steam is condensed geothermal steam, recirculated through a mechanical draft evaporative cooling tower. The use of condensed geothermal steam as cooling water presents both opportunities and challenges when compared to the use of surface water or groundwater for cooling. The condensed steam has low levels of dissolved solids, and very low levels of suspended solids reducing the likelihood of mineral scale formation and erosion within the cooling water system. The presence of hydrogen sulphide in the geothermal steam (and the condensed steam) presents several challenges to the management of the cooling water system, including the build-up of sulphur deposits, the management of sulphur metabolising bacteria and the limited choice of sulphide compatible biocides. This paper discusses the implications of these challenges to the management of cooling water systems using condensed geothermal steam including discussion of significant cooling water events resulting from these challenges.


Approximate solutions of Richards' equation are developed for rational forms of the soil hydraulic conductivity and moisture retention functions using a perturbation expansion method. A novel approach is devised in the perturbation technique whereby a priori introduced parameters are estimated in an optimal context to ensure the accuracy of the perturbation solution at all times and for all flow conditions. The perturbation model describes the one‐dimensional nonlinear nonsteady infiltration for arbitrary initial conditions under either a time‐dependent surface flux or a constant head boundary condition into either a semi‐infinite or a finite medium bounded from below by a shallow water table. The optimal perturbation approach proved to be an effective method by which closed‐form linear solutions can be adapted to nonlinear soils through proper scaling factors. The results show that the first‐order linear term of the optimal perturbation solution is sufficiently accurate for practical applications, especially for shallow water table conditions. They offer the means to analyze the effect of nonuniform initial conditions and the influence of the water table on the infiltration process. Practical results in terms of well‐defined soil water parameters and the antecedent moisture content include algebraic expressions for the surface moisture content variation under variable rainfall conditions, time‐to‐ponding expressions and infiltration equations for deep and shallow water table conditions, and a prediction formula for the water table recharge rate.