The proper calculation of dynamic thrust is a key issue in the design of rigid retaining walls in seismically active zones. Although the Mononobe–Okabe approach is widely used in practical applications, the pseudo-dynamic approach has been introduced in recent years, and provides a more realistic representation of an earthquake compared to the pseudo-static approach. Whereas studies in the past have focused on dry backfills, to the authors' knowledge there is no specific literature dedicated to pseudo-dynamic analysis for submerged soils; in certain studies dealing with waterfront areas, the pseudo-dynamic analysis – valid for dry soils – has been incorrectly extended to submerged backfills as well. In this paper, a more rational pseudo-dynamic approach is developed for fully submerged soil under the assumption that a restrained or free water condition exists within the backfill. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed analysis is perfectly consistent with the widely used pseudo-static approach...


The 10 mm thick AZ31B alloy is welded with AZ31 and AZ61 welding wires by TIG method. The appearance, the microstructure, the profile of the alloy elements and the patterns of welded joint with two type welding wires were analyzed by means of OM, SEM, X -ray diffraction,and etc. The result showed that the appearance was perfect with AZ31 and AZ61 welding wire, and the appearance of joint welded with AZ31 welding wire was better than with AZ61 welding wire. Al12Mg17 compound existed in crystal interface of welding line welded with AZ61 welding wire,but didn't with AZ31 welding wire. The highest hardness was in welding line with AZ61 welding wire,but in base metal with AZ31 welding wire. The strength of weld joint welded with AZ61 welding wire was 20% more than that welded with AZ61 welding wire.


Abstract An algorithm is developed to derive hydrostatically balanced geopotentials at significant levels from radiosonde reports of significant-level temperatures and mandatory-level geopotentials and temperatures. It minimizes the square of the nonhydrostatic differences in a layer where at least one significant-level datum is reported and can be viewed as being a ID analysis step that returns an estimate of the departures from hydrostatic balance within the layer. The piecewise-polynomial interpolation of the minimization procedure is used to produce an expanded geopotential profile in any layer where significant-level data are reported, and the integrated minimization error can be used as a quality-control measure. The algorithm's performance has been evaluated using the global radiosonde dataset for a given synoptic time, and it is found that it produces equivalent layer-mean temperature errors that are generally smaller than radiosonde observational errors.


FOR DECADES researchers have known that every strand of messenger RNA in a cell has five or six adenosine bases that are methylated, but nobody could figure out why this ubiquitous decoration exists. Now a team of scientists led by Chuan He at the University of Chicago have found an enzyme that can remove the methyl group from mRNA. This first report that RNA bases can be reversibly modified suggests that RNA methylation may have a role in regulating gene expression, reminiscent of the way methylation of DNA silences genes ( Nat. Chem. Biol., DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.687). Furthermore, the researchers found the enzyme that removes the methyl groups to be FTO, a protein that is linked to obesity and diabetes but whose cellular role was not clear. This finding suggests that RNA methylation helps regulate multiple biological processes. "This is an exciting result," comments Roger D. Cox, an obesity researcher at the U.K.'s Medical Research ...


Industrial vibration is one of the most common factors of the labor process that have a negative impact on the health of employees. The search and selection of sources to identify the features of the psychological state under the influence of vibration was carried out using bibliographic databases Scopus, MedLine, Web of Science, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, RSCI (Russian Science Citation Index), Cyberleninka. Data analysis has shown that there are relatively few studies of the psychological health of people working in contact with vibration, mainly they relate to clinical and paraclinical problems. The research results of domestic and foreign authors presented in the review indicate mental maladaptation, psychoemotional disorders, alexithymia, violations of the mnestic-attentional sphere and a low level of health-related quality of life, changes in psychoaffective status, the predominance of maladaptive coping strategies, destructive psychological defenses. In addition, the severity of pain, which are characteristic of vibration pathology, correlates with the severity of depression, anxiety, reduced stress resistance. The presented data indicate the need for active identification of psychological characteristics, monitoring of changes in psychoemotional status, the formation of personal profiles of both practically healthy people working in contact with vibration and patients with vibration pathology to prevent the consequences of exposure to industrial vibration.


The form and the role of cooperation within advertising relationships is the focus of this research. The theory posits that trust, commitment and cooperation are the core of the relationship and that the agency's performance and the advertiser's willingness-to-paymore for the agency's services are the outcomes. Cooperation is defined and tested as a higher-order construct with three facets: shared problem solving, information exchange and flexibility. Competing theories are presented: the shared-influence model and the sole-mediator model. The contrast between the models focuses on whether the influence of trust and commitment is: (1) entirely mediated through cooperation; (2) shared with cooperation; or (3) bypasses cooperation altogether. The results indicate that although cooperation has a strong influence on agency performance, both trust and commitment have direct and indirect (mediated through cooperation) influences on performance. This supports the shared-influence model. The results also indicate that cooperation can successfully be measured as a higher-order construct.


Management of Pastoral Development in the Third World by Stephen Sandford; Livestock Development in Subsaharan Africa: Constraints, Prospects, Policy by James R. Simpson; Phylo Evangelou Review by: K. M. Homewood Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 55, No. 3 (1985), pp. 346-348 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1160592 . Accessed: 02/08/2012 04:14


The rise time of the alternating current (ac) surface photovoltage (SPV) of n-type silicon (Si) contaminated by Fe and/or Cu aqueous solutions was investigated. After a rinse time of about 1000 min in Fe contaminated water, three monolayers (0.59 nm) of oxide were formed, with a resulting incorporation of Fe. The variation of ac SPV signals indicated the appearance of a negative charge corresponding to the increasing concentration of Fe on surface of the Si wafer. This negative charge can be accounted for by postulating a bridging mechanism between trivalent Fe ions, Fe 3+ , and quadrivalent Si ions, Si 4+ , forming an (FeOSi) - network in the native oxide. In contrast to Fe, Cu was deposited at the beginning of the rinsing on partially hydrophobic n-type Si surfaces as an Cu atomic layer or Cu particles (maximum Cu concentration: around 1 × 10 14 atoms/cm 2 ), resulting in a Cu-Si contact. Because the reduction potential of Cu 2+ is larger than that of Si, the process was accomplished through electron capture. It is postulated that the Cu-Si contact may have formed a Schottky barrier between the Cu and n-type Si, resulting in the occurrence a so-called barrier-type ac SPV. This may prove to be a promising method for fabricating atomic layer Schottky devices.


The Electronic Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program (eSCCIP), a psychosocial eHealth intervention for parents and caregivers of children with cancer (parents), was delivered in a community‐based psychosocial oncology center. Primary endpoints were intervention acceptability, feasibility, and accessibility, with a secondary exploratory focus on psychosocial outcomes.


At present,most of the world have suffered the threat of invasive alien species,the extent of injury is increasingly severe.This paper described the reasons for the formation of biological invasion and the damage resulted from invasion of alien species,summed up the prevention measures of the invasion of alien species and explored new directions of researches.


The invention discloses a hotel Bluetooth access control intelligent management method. The method comprises the following steps: an access control encrypted data packet is generated by registering through a front desk server; the front desk server sends the access control encrypted data packet to a hotel Bluetooth access controller and a mobile intelligent terminal; and the mobile intelligent terminal and the hotel Bluetooth access controller implement cipher authentication through Bluetooth transmission. The method has the following substantial effect: an existing door card hotel guest room management system is upgraded to form a hotel Bluetooth access control system, the front desk server can distribute a corresponding room and access control encrypted information corresponding to the room according to guest's check-in information, and the access control encrypted information is transmitted to the hotel Bluetooth access controller and the mobile intelligent terminal through a wireless communication network in packet form, so a room door unlocking function can be realized by a guest through the carry-on mobile intelligent terminal. The system using a variety of wireless communication technologies has the advantages of simple operation, convenient control and strong intelligence.


Development of particulate contrast agents for MRI can be separated into two categories: superparamagnetic and paramagnetic. Superparamagnetic agents, i.e., iron oxides due to the strong magnetic susceptibility and T2* negative ("dark") contrast have been studied for over twenty years. Although various off resonance inversion recovery 1, 2 and ultra short echo time 3-5 techniques may be invoked to yield "bright contrast" for iron oxide superparamagnetic agents, many challenging issues remain, particularly from a clinical perspective, such as "bloom artifacts" that mask nearby anatomy, substantial delays between IV administration and subsequent imaging, and increased off-target contrast due to the ultrahigh sensitivity of MR to iron oxide particles. In contradistinction, the development of paramagnetic nanoparticles, for positive ("bright") T1w imaging came to the fore in the late 1990's 6-8 and have continued to evolve forH imaging using gadolinium 9, 10, manganese 11, 12, iron oxide 13, and copper based 14 materials. On the paramagnetic front, the ubiquitous problem has been adequacy of relaxation, in simple words contrast strength The overall high biocompatibility and strong magnetic susceptibility of maghemite (Fe2O3) has encouraged such particles to be synthesized with a variety of insulating coatings, e.g., dextrans, or to be entrapped in numerous matrices of natural or synthetic origin. However, on the paramagnetic side, most metals have relatively weak magnetic susceptibility and must be amplified by concentrating 10s to 100s of thousands of metal atoms into a single particle. In many cases the free metal can have significant toxicities, e.g., gadolinium, the best paramagnetic metal due to its 7 unpaired electrons, is now recognized to cause nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), an untreatable and potentially lethal disease in patients with severe renal failure. Whether gadolinium, manganese, or copper, these metals must be tightly chelated and bioeliminated as an intact organo-metallic complex, as opposed to iron oxides, which can be recycled into the production of hemoglobin and myoglobin. The entrapment of gadolinium within the aqueous core of liposomes has long been known to provide only weak r1 relaxivity on an ionic or particulate basis. The presentation of gadolinium on the surface of particles in relatively high density was found to markedly enhance the utility of particles, both liposomes and perfluorocarbon nanoparticles, for detection of biomarker dense targets, such as intravascular thrombus, as well as sparse biosignatures, such as the v3-integrin presented by proliferating endothelial cells within a forming neovasculature. A high surface concentration of chelated gadolinium is required for acceptable T1w molecular imaging, but the positioning of the chelate beyond the surface of the membrane markedly enhanced relaxation by typically 300% (by increasing interaction of the metal with the mobile water milieu). In addition to position and density, the use of macrocyclic chelate chemistry (DOTA) is now favored over the use of linear molecules (DTPA) to diminish transmetallation and decrease the risk of NSF. While internalization of chelated gadolinium was not effective, new metal-rich nanoparticles were developed and have marked r1 particulate relaxivities. Colloidal iron oxide nanoparticles cross-linked magnetite-oleate (Fe3O4) into the acyl layer of phospholipid encapsulated oil nanoparticles to yield a strong T1w contrast with turbo-spin echo sequences


This study explores the differences between the green bond markets of Norway and Sweden in an attempt to shed light on the markets' distinct evolution. First, the existence of green bond yield premiums in the primary and secondary capital markets is investigated. The primary market analysis finds a negative issue yield premium for green bonds in Sweden and a positive issue yield premium for green bonds in Norway, although none of them significant. Furthermore, the issue yield premium is discovered to have varied considerably over time. The secondary market analysis finds a significant negative ask yield premium for green bonds in Sweden and a significant positive ask yield premium for green bonds in Norway, providing evidence that Swedish secondary market investors have a higher demand for green bonds. The analysis further uncovers that issuer credibility plays an important role in green bond issuance, with bonds from governmental entities having negative premiums in both markets. The largest differences in premiums between the markets are found in the corporate sector. The final analysis of this thesis investigates whether these results can be explained by differences in Green Focus between companies in the two markets, where Green Focus is measured by the amount of sustainability related words in the companies' annual reports. The main finding is that companies who have issued green bonds in Sweden have a higher Green Focus than such companies in Norway, which is consistent with the results of the primary and secondary market analyses and with the growth in the Swedish green bond market.


A preliminary assessment of the facilities and equipment which will be required at a representative airport is provided so liquid hydrogen LH2 can be used as fuel in long range transport aircraft in 1995-2000. A complete facility was conceptually designed, sized to meet the projected air traffic requirement. The facility includes the liquefaction plant, LH2, storage capability, and LH2 fuel handling system. The requirements for ground support and maintenance for the LH2 fueled aircraft were analyzed. An estimate was made of capital and operating costs which might be expected for the facility. Recommendations were made for design modifications to the reference aircraft, reflecting results of the analysis of airport fuel handling requirements, and for a program of additional technology development for air terminal related items.


We introduce quasi-symplectic groupoids and explain their relation with momentum map theories. This approach enables us to unify into a single framework various momentum map theories, including ordinary Hamiltonian G-spaces, Lu's momentum maps of Poisson group actions, and the group-valued momentum maps of Alekseev–Malkin–Meinrenken. More precisely, we carry out the following program: (1) We define and study properties of quasi-symplectic groupoids. (2) We study the momentum map theory defined by a quasi-symplectic groupoid Γ ⇉ P . In particular, we study the reduction theory and prove that J(O)/Γ is a symplectic manifold for any Hamiltonian Γ-space (X J → P, ωX) (even though ωX ∈ Ω(X) may be degenerate), where O ⊂ P is a groupoid orbit. More generally, we prove that the intertwiner space (X1 ×P X2)/Γ between two Hamiltonian Γ-spaces X1 and X2 is a symplectic manifold (whenever it is a smooth manifold). (3) We study Morita equivalence of quasi-symplectic groupoids. In particular, we prove that Morita equivalent quasi-symplectic groupoids give rise to equivalent momentum map theories. Moreover the intertwiner space (X1 ×P X2)/Γ depends only on the Morita equivalence class. As a result, we recover various well-known results concerning equivalence of momentum maps including the Alekseev–Ginzburg–Weinstein linearization theorem and the Alekseev–Malkin– Meinrenken equivalence theorem between quasi-Hamiltonian spaces and Hamiltonian loop group spaces.


Photonic gradient metasurfaces are ultrathin electromagnetic wave-molding metamaterials that provide a route for realizing flat optics. However, the up-to-date metasurface design, manifested by imprinting the required phase profile for a single, on-demand light manipulation functionality, is not compatible with the desired goal of multifunctional flat optics. Here, we report on a generic concept to control multifunctional optics by disordered (random) gradient metasurfaces with a custom-tailored geometric phase. This approach combines the peculiar ability of random patterns to support an extraordinary information capacity and the polarization helicity control in the geometric phase mechanism, simply implemented in a two-dimensional structured matter by imprinting optical antenna patterns. By manipulating the local orientations of the nanoantennas, we generate multiple wavefronts with different functionalities via mixed random antenna groups, where each group controls a different phase function. Disordered...


In this research we investigate how models of innovation through design proposed by Roberto Verganti and Tim Brown could be applied to analyze the impact of innovative actions on the games console market. From the commonalities between the proposals of the two authors we can develop the analysis's model of innovation elements that we applied to evaluate the development of the Nintendo Wii console (example cited by both authors) and his main competitors, Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. Through analysis it was possible to see one of the reasons the position in sales of each console through the investigation of three innovative elements: meaning, technology and business. Quantitatives data was observed trough these elements, understanding each investment that each company made in pursuit of innovation since the launch of the consoles to the development of the new version that ends the time life of the model analyzed. We observed the actions of innovation of each company on your console in order to maintain or become sales leader in its category. What can be see is that the model developed for application in games consoles also suggests can be used in other artifacts, considering the historical context of the same. However, to enable this suggestion is necessary to test the model in different situations then proposed to reach a definitive conclusion on.


A technique based on Fourier transform infrared microscope (FT-IRM) was developed to detect the corresponding changes in chemical composition associated with thermostress among aging tissues of the desert moss Tortula desertorum. The results indicated that wild leaves could accelerate the rate of carbohydrate synthesis and decrease the permeability of plasma membrane during heating at 45 degrees C for 1 h. Those biological responses can alleviate the damage of heat stress, so called thermotolerance. And the ability has a positive relation to the leaf age among various wild leaves. However, the secondary protonema and leaves, cultivated in artificial incubator, were unable to adapt the change of temperature immediately and the permeability of cellular membranes was increased.


Weekly iron supplementation, given to young nulliparous women living in a malaria-endemic area, neither improved iron status nor increased malaria risk, suggesting that current iron recommendations may need revisiting for these women.


An 8 degree-or-freedom (DOF) redundant manipulator is designed and realized for uses in robot-human environments requiring obstacle avoidance. The extra two DOF provides the flexibility in kinematics for obstacle avoidance. The modular mechanical structure associates both simple mechanical construction and an easy forward kinematics solution. A motor-control module is implemented to perform a constant acceleration motion in accordance with the commands from a host computer. The inverse kinematics solution of the redundant manipulator is introduced by using the forward kinematics with the recursive least squares estimation (RLSE) method. The RLSE method is applied for the linearized model of the nonlinear kinematics around the operating point.<<ETX>>


This paper examines the implementation of the marriage tradition of Perang Bangkat in Kemiren Banyuwangi, East Java, from the perspective of Islamic law. This tradition has sparked debate among Muslims. Some of them consider that the tradition of war has deviated from the teachings of Islam, while others think that it was not against the teachings of Islam. This paper explains that the tradition is a marriage ritual between a pair of brides with the status of a sonship (youngest) married to a fellow surname, the firstborn with the firstborn and the youngest child with the firstborn in each family. The hope of his household life will be happy. Implementation of this ritual was carried out before the marriage ceremony took place and was done at the time of afternoon, when the sun began to sink, around the time of maghrib arrived. This paper further confirms that this tradition is permissible in Islam because it includes community customs that are not contrary to the rules of Islamic law (al-'urf as-sahih). Thus, the law to perform the ritual tradition is allowed as long as it does not harm one party and there is no element that contradicts to the Islamic law


Who has time to have a family ? Scientists are the «heroes» of our time. Science takes time Families take time. Who gives time ? My case -study consists of interviews with scientific workers of both sexes. They are asked how they juggle the time required in the production of scientific knowledge and family life. My findings indicate that it is women, who give of their time. International Master Dissertation by : Kirsti Baird Hultberg. Nature, Culture and Politics of Science and Technology. The Centre of Studies of Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK), University of Oslo


Community detection is a powerful tool from complex networks analysis that finds applications in various research areas. Several image segmentation methods rely for instance on community detection algorithms as a black box in order to compute undersegmentations, i.e. a small number of regions that represent areas of interest of the image. However, to the best of our knowledge, the efficiency of such an approach w.r.t. superpixels, that aim at representing the image at a smaller level while preserving as much as possible original information, has been neglected so far. The only related work seems to be the one by Liu et. al. (IET Image Processing, 2022) that developed a superpixels algorithm using a so-called modularity maximization approach, leading to relevant results. We follow this line of research by studying the efficiency of superpixels computed by state-of-the-art community detection algorithms on a 4-connected pixel graph, so-called pixel-grid. We first detect communities on such a graph and then apply a simple merging procedure that allows to obtain the desired number of superpixels. As we shall see, such methods result in the computation of relevant superpixels as emphasized by both qualitative and quantitative experiments, according to different widely-used metrics based on ground-truth comparison or on superpixels only. We observe that the choice of the community detection algorithm has a great impact on the number of communities and hence on the merging procedure. Similarly, small variations on the pixel-grid may provide different results from both qualitative and quantitative viewpoints. For the sake of completeness, we compare our results with those of several state-of-the-art superpixels algorithms as computed by Stutz et al. (Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 2018).


Studies were carried out in a nonwoven roll goods plant to help eliminate subjective formation ratings. Tests were run on single layer samples with instruments measuring color, transmittance, haze and camera image gray scale values. High correlations are shown with air porosity, basis weight and formation ratings. Relationships to diaper glue bleed through, superabsorbent loss, and web tracking are reported. Some effects of process change are noted. Correlations critically depend upon measuring identical sample areas.


The country compulsory education is considered a new focus by all direction of entire society with the triple problem of agriculture.But it was not one genuine compulsory education ago.This problem is discussed by this paper according to society history background and the current puzzle of country compulsory education.


Radiology: Volume 000: Number 0—   2017 n radiology.rsna.org 1 1 From the Department of Neurosurgery (F.P., M.D.B., F.D.), Department of Neuroradiology (C.B., L.D.), and Radiotherapy Unit (V.P.), Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico "C. Besta," Via Celoria n.11, 20133 Milan, Italy; Department of Imaging and Radiation Therapy, Azienda Socio-sanitaria Territoriale di Lecco, Lecco, Italy (V.V.); Radiology Unit, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, Italy (L.M.S.); Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy (L.M.S.); Department of Interventional Radiology, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milan, Italy (G.M.); Department of Radiology, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Italy (L.S.); Department of Research and Development, MedCom, Darmstadt, Germany (G.S., V.K.); and Department of Neurologic Surgery, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Md (F.D.). From the 2016 RSNA Annual Meeting. Received May 25, 2016; revision requested July 25 and received October 31; accepted December 16; final version accepted February 26, 2017. Address correspondence to F.P. (e-mail: francesco. email@example.com).


Two basic principles governing the motivational regulation of automatic affective processing are described and relevant evidence is reviewed. According to the counter-regulation principle, attention is automatically allocated to information that is opposite in valence to current motivational states: A positive outcome focus increases the salience of negative information whereas a negative outcome focus induces an attentional focus on positive information. Counter-regulation in automatic affective processing prevents motivational states from escalating or becoming chronic. According to the control-dependency principle, processing of information is characterized by a problem focus (negativity bias) if goal pursuit is experienced as controllable, whereas experiencing a lack of control over important outcomes is accompanied by an enhancement focus (positivity bias). Control-dependency of affective processing promotes persistent goal pursuit in the face of controllable challenges, and facilitates the acceptanc...


I would like to thank Araujo1 and Meys2 and their colleagues for their validation studies of the ADNEX model. For women with at least one persistent adnexal mass who are scheduled for surgery, the ADNEX model can predict their risk of having one of five different types of adnexal mass: benign, borderline, Stage I ovarian cancer (OC), Stage II–IV OC and secondary metastatic OC3. The overall predicted risk of malignancy is obtained by adding the predicted risks of the latter four subgroups. Despite the fact that validation of a multinomial risk model is not straightforward4, both research groups carried out robust and well-reported studies. I have, however, some observations regarding the methodology and results of their assessment of the performance of the ADNEX model in differentiating between tumor subtypes. To this end, I requested further data from the authors and I would like to express my gratitude for their co-operation. The area under the receiver–operating characteristics curve (AUC) of the ADNEX model for discriminating between benign and all malignant tumors can be obtained by the standard approach, using the overall predicted risk of malignancy. Using this method, the reported AUC was 0.925 by Araujo et al.1 and 0.93 by Meys et al.2, which is in line with other validation studies of the ADNEX model3,5. Discrimination between tumor subgroups is of particular interest and several methods exist to calculate the AUC for models differentiating between two tumor subgroups, including the recommended 'conditional risk' method4. For example, to obtain the AUC for models differentiating between borderline vs Stage I OC, the conditional risk for Stage I OC is defined as the risk for Stage I OC divided by the sum of the risks for borderline and Stage I OC. Then, after excluding patients with histology other than borderline or Stage I OC, the AUC can be obtained by standard procedures using the conditional risk. Araujo and colleagues computed subgroup AUCs using the overall risk of malignancy instead of the conditional risk. The limitation of this is that the overall risk of malignancy is the sum of the risks of all four malignant subgroups, therefore incorporating risks for subgroups that are not of interest. Furthermore, when one is, for example, interested in the AUC for borderline vs Stage I OC, the overall risk of malignancy incorporates the risk for both subgroups. In this case, it is not clear how the overall risk of malignancy can assess optimally discrimination between these two subgroups. Table 1


The scientific development ideas have close relationship with the thoughts of MAO Ze-dong, DENG Xiao-ping and JIANG Ze-min. Mao Zedong's "revolutionary development idea" provides theoretical base for the proposition of the scientific development ideas, Deng Xiaoping's "construction development idea" sets up solid theoretical base for the formation of the scientific development ideas, and Jiang Zemin's "innovative development idea" is the direct thought source of the scientific development ideas. The scientific development idea is our party's new development of the guiding thoughts socialist modern construction.


With the wide use of polyethylene film, the influence of polyethylene microplastic particles produced by its weathering on the rhizosphere soil microenvironment has attracted more and more attention from scientific research circles. In this study, the effects of low (0.2% w/w), medium (1% w/w), and high (2% w/w) doses of polyethylene particles and the combined reed biomass (2% w/w) on soil environmental factors and bacterial communities and metabolites in the reed rhizosphere were evaluated by a 90-day pot microscopic simulation system. The shape and surface microstructure of polyethylene particles in each treatment group changed obviously. A high (2% w/w) dose of microplastics significantly increased the TKN, TOC, and TP in reed root soil. The addition of the biomass significantly improved the activities of urease and sucrase in the soil. The α diversity of bacteria was not significantly affected by the addition of LDPE microplastics and biomass, but the β diversity of the bacterial community and the relative abundance of the Candidatus_Roku Bacteria, Chloroflexi, Unclassified_Blastocatella_Genus were significantly changed by the addition of middle (1% w/w) and high (2% w/w) doses of microplastics. In addition, the spectrum analysis of the soil metabolites showed that the abundance of soil metabolites was changed in each treatment group, and the differential metabolites were significantly up-regulated or down-regulated. Our findings provide a scientific reference to elucidate the impact of LDPE microplastic particles on the inter-rooted soil microenvironment and improve our understanding of the potential risks of microplastics in soil ecosystems.


Nanocrystalline Ti0 2 thin films have been prepared using titanium isopropoxide precursor by sol-gel spin coating technique. The prepared TiO 2 films have been annealed at different temperatures. The structural properties of the films have been studied by using x-ray diffraction method, high resolution transmission electron microscope(HRTEM) and Raman spectra. The as deposited films have been found to be amorphous in nature. The crystalline quality has been observed to improve with annealing temperature. The annealed Ti0 2 films have been found to exhibit anatase phase. The grain size of the annealed TiO 2 films is found to be nearly 25 nm. The photoluminescence spectra of the films annealed at 550°C exhibit a strong band centered around 400 mn.


The utility model provides a diaphragm cavity structure of a diaphragm pump, relating to an improved diaphragm cavity structure. The diaphragm cavity structure of the diaphragm pump, disclosed by the utility model, has simplified manufacture craft and is convenient to assemble and disassemble. The diaphragm cavity structure of the diaphragm pump comprises a diaphragm cavity body; a diaphragm chamber cover is arranged outside the diaphragm cavity body; a diaphragm between the diaphragm cavity body and the diaphragm chamber cover is connected with a guide rod; a cushion block is arranged in the diaphragm cavity body. The diaphragm cavity structure of the diaphragm pump is structurally characterized in that the cushion block is fixed on the diaphragm cavity body by a radial top screw which is fixed on the diaphragm cavity body through a welding spot.


A rheological stochastic model to predict the cyclic stress-strain behavior of concrete subjected to uniaxial compressive loading is proposed. The model consists of rheological elements with random state variables with exponential distributions. The model has 3 parameters and can be calibrated by experimental data from only the monotonically increasing loading. It simulates well the main known characteristics of concrete response to cyclic loading, such as strain softening, path dependency, stiffness degradation, and the concept of envelope curve. The formulation is of the total strain type and all formulas are derived in closed form. The model is computationally efficient for predicting response to any arbitrary strain history. A flow chart for computer implementation is presented.


It is a common observation with regard to the scattered boulders and perched blocks, which are perhaps the most striking relics of a past ice-age in our country, that there is a general correspondence between the position of their longer axis and the direction in which they have been transported. When examined, it is usually found also that the striations upon them run length-ways, and correspond in direction with those on the solid rock beneath. From the Reports, for England, of the Boulder Committee of the British Association, and for Scotland, of the Boulder Committee of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, as well as from innumerable papers by private observers, an immense number of instances might be cited to show that the coincidence of the longer axis with the direction of movement is a very general characteristic of these masses. Frequently, also, it has been observed the sharper or lighter end of the boulder points in the direction towards which it was being moved, and the broader or heavier end in that from which it had come, showing that it was being carried or pushed forward in the position of least resistance. These facts are generally known and accepted, and the conclusion drawn from them in favour of the boulders having been transported by land ice, and not by floating ice in any form, may also now be taken as one of the commonplaces of glacial geology. But there is one point obviously bearing on this conclusion which seems not


Low Reynolds number flow of an incompressible fluid past an axially symmetric body in the presence of a uniform magnetic field is studied using a perturbation method. It is found that for small Hartmann number M an approximate drag formula is given by $ D^ \prime = D^\prime_0 \left(1 + \frac {D^\prime_0} {16\pi \rho vaU}M\right) + O(M^2),$ where D′0 is the Stokes drag for flow with no magnetic effect.


We have developed a system to quantitatively measure the permeation of gases through thin flexible substrates with high sensitivity. The system consists of two chambers, a high pressure side and an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) side, separated by the flexible sample to be analyzed. The system is calibrated using a combination of a National Institute of Standards and Technology traceable calibrated He leak and a variable aperture calibrated orifice. The base total pressure for the UHV side is 1–3×10−10Torr. The partial pressure of individual gases that we are studying is <10−10Torr. The sample to be measured is secured between the two chambers using two 2.75 conflat flanges, two copper gaskets, and two indium "O" rings. The key factors that impact sensitivity and quantification are (1) reducing the residual partial pressure of the gas of interest to as low a value as possible on the UHV side of the system, (2) sealing the plastic sample between the two chambers with no detectable gas leakage around the sample or ...


1.1   Background: Thyroid goiter can appear in some developing countries, related with iodo deficiencies. The main complications associated with goiter is airway obstruction, but cardiogenic shocks have not been reported previously.

 1.2   Case: We report the case of a 59 year-old woman who comes to general surgery consultation for an anterior cervical mass associated with weakness, fatigue, and relative incapacity to complete her activities. At physical exam a thyroid goiter was suspected and ultrasound confirms this. Symptomatology was attributed to thyroid function disturbance and hormonal levels of TSH, T3 and T4 were confirmed as normal. Preoperative evaluation by Internal Medicine service was requested. One week later patient come to this evaluation with increased symptomatology, pallor, bradycardia, tachypnea, and parents refers a syncope too. At physical exam she was diaphoretic, with Glasgow of 12 points, pallor, cardiac frequency of 40 beats per minute and arterial pressure of 80/40mmHg, yugular ingurgitation, dyspnea, tachypnea of 27 breaths per minute, diminished peripheral pulses and distal cyanosis. CT scan refers a compressive mass dependent of left thyroid hemisphere without occlusion of airway and we appreciate a compression of left carotid artery. Patient does not improve with medical management and a cardiogenic shock secondary to carotid sinus stimulation was suspected, reason why an emergency thyroidectomy was scheduled. Hemi-thyroidectomy was completed without complications and after 24 hours' patient was recovered and asymptomatic, confirming our suspects.

 1.3   Conclusion: This case is a very rare presentation of multinodular thyroid goiter, without previous similar reports, but with high relevance to consider it in a similar scenario because the delate in urgent surgical management could worsen outcomes.


Injection-type hybrid active power filter (IHAPF) shows great promise in reducing harmonics and improving power factor with a relatively low-capacity active power filter (APF). This study analysed the topology characteristics of IHAPF and established the electrical model. To improve the performance of IHAPF, generalised integral proportional-integral (PI) control is proposed. The control method is generally useful and applicable to any other active filters. Compared with other control methods, the proposed control shows the advantages of higher control precision. It is implemented in an IHAPF with a 50 kVA APF in the laboratory. Both simulation and experimental results show that the new control method is not only easy to be calculated and implemented, but is also very effective in reducing harmonics.


The aim of this collection is to develop cross-disciplinary discussion between the different groups dealing with issues surrounding death in Western society. The book is divided into two parts. The first focuses on the practice of health care for the dying. After a chapter on sociological perspectives, it examines QALYS, the impact of the law on practice, ethical decision-making and palliative care, and the pastoral care of the dying and bereaved. This part concludes with two substantial chapters on the theological arguments for and against euthanasia. The second part focuses on scientific, religious and philosophical contributions towards an understanding of death. This is a very useful but ultimately frustrating book. Some chapters are of the guideline variety, taking us through important pastoral and decision making approaches, but not reflecting a great deal on the nature of that care or the meaning of the experience. Others are reviews of different perspectives, e.g. on different religious views, and others reviews of recent research, e.g. on near-death experiences. These do not provide much in the way of fresh insights or, in the case of near-death experience, any more


Micro-electromechanical systems and nano-electromechanical systems have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. The flow and heat transfer behaviors of micromachines for separation applications are usually different from that of macro counterparts. In this paper, heat and mass transfer characteristics of rarefied nitrogen gas flows in microchannels are investigated using direct simulation Monte Carlo with improved pressure boundary conditions. The influence of aspect ratio and wall temperature on mass flowrate and wall heat flux in microchannels are studied parametrically. In order to examine the aspect ratio effect on heat and mass transfer behaviors, the wall temperature is set constant at 350 K and the aspect ratio of the microchannel varies from 5 to 20. The results show that as the aspect ratio increases, the velocity of the flow decreases, so does the mass flowrate. In a small aspect ratio channel, the heat transfer occurs throughout the microchannel; as the aspect ratio of the microchannel increases, the region of thermal equilibrium extends. To investigate the effects of wall temperature (T w ) on the mass flowrate and wall heat flux in a microchannel, the temperature of the incoming gas flow (T in ) is set constant at 300 K and the wall temperature varies from 200 K to 800 K while the aspect ratio is remained unchanged. Results show that majority of the wall heat flux stays within the channel entrance region and drops to nearly zero at the halfway in the channel. When T w T in , the molecular number density of the flow drops rapidly near the inlet and the temperature of the gas flow increases along the channel. As T w increases, the flow becomes more rarefied, the mass fiowrate decreases, and the resistance at the entrance region increases. Furthermore, when T w >T in , a sudden jump of heat transfer flux and temperature are observed at the I exit region of the channel.


Abstract We have tracked the proper motions of ground-state λ7mm SiO maser emission excited by radio Source I in the Orion BN/KL region. Based on dynamical arguments, Source I is believed to be a hard 20 M⊙ binary. The SiO masers trace a linear bipolar outflow (NE-SW) 100 to 1000 AU from the binary. The median 3D velocity is 18 km s−1. An overlying distribution of 1.3 cm H2O masers betrays similar characteristics. The outflow is aligned with the rotation axis of an edge-on disk and wide angle flow known inside 100 AU. Gas dynamics and emission morphology traced by masers around Source I provide dynamical evidence of a magnetocentrifugal disk-wind around this massive YSO, notably a measured gradient in line-of-sight velocity perpendicular to the flow axis, in the same direction as the disk rotation and with comparable speed. The linearity of the flow, despite the high proper motion of Source I and the proximity of dense gas associated with the Orion Hot Core, is also more readily explained for a magnetized flow. The extended arcs of ground-state maser emission bracketing Source I are a striking feature, in particular since dust formation occurs at smaller radii. We propose that the arcs mark two C-type shocks at the transition radius to super-Alfvénic flow.


Coincident with the onset of condensation during chondrogenesis in the embryonic limb is the appearance of specific binding sites for hyaluronan on mesenchymal cells. The use of hyaluronan hexasaccharides can disrupt the interaction of native hyaluronan with potential hyaluronan receptors. Matrix retention during chondrogenesis and by differentiated chondrocytes is mediated via hyaluronan binding to cell surface receptors. We have identified the glycoprotein CD44 as a receptor on articular chondrocytes. The binding of hyaluronan to chondrocytes alters the phosphorylation of CD44 and may regulate actin association.


reported to be visiting these flowers. This limits the possibility of good cross-pollination, although wind is another factor which would be aiding in its pollination. To overcome this problem, the species has developed the mechanism of sequential opening of its flowers. An average of six flowers develop fully on a branch and they open in a sequential manner. The first flower opens towards the base of the branch with the subsequent flowers opening away from the first flower. No two flowers on a branch were observed to be at the same stage of development at any given time (Table 1). The next flower opens only after the earlier flower has undergone pollination which is characterized by stigma losing receptivity and the perianth colour gradually changing to scarlet crimson 5. The amount of pollen delivered by natural pollinators is likely to vary independently of the stage of flower development. However, only the pollen delivered at the stigma-receptive stage has chances of siring seeds, thereby making seed production pollen-limited. As has been reported elsewhere 5 , the low seed set in the species is a consequence of pollinator limitation and the stigma-receptive stage is characterized by the perianth colour being crimson at the tip, yellow in the middle and greenish at the base. The sequential opening of flowers ensures that every flower receives adequate attention from polli-nators since the number of fully opened flowers (at the stigma-receptive stage) at any given time would be considerably less compared to if all the buds on a branch would bloom simultaneously. The species seems to have made a compromise between low seed set and good quality seed (through cross-pollination). The low seed set does not affect the chances of multiplication of the species as it can still multiply through its tu-bers, but cross-pollinated seed ensures newer gene combinations which enable the species to colonize diverse climatic regions, from the tropics to sub-temperate/sub-tropic regions. The alti-tudinal range of the species is up to 2100 m above mean sea level and in India it is spread from the hotter southern parts to the milder mid-hill zones of Antioxidant property of the bulb of Scilla indica Scilla indica (Baker), Liliaceae 1 , is commonly known as 'Bhuikanda', 'jan-gali pyaj' (wild onion) or 'koal-kand' in Hindi and Indian squill in English. In the Ayurvedic pharmacy, a mixture of 2 species is used, Urginea indica Kunth and S. indica Baker. …


This paper considers Multimedia which takes an important effect in historical traching.Its necessity can be proved by the following aspects that is arousing students' learning interests,comprehensively bringing students' thoughts into play,developing students's thinking ability of creativity,having a good advantage in the process of teaching,raising teaching efficiency,making students all-round development,etc.


Laminar shear stress is known to confer potent anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and antiadhesive effects by differentially regulating endothelial gene expression. The identification of Krüppel-like factor 2 as a flow-responsive molecule has greatly advanced our understanding of molecular mechanisms governing vascular homeostasis. This review summarizes the current understanding of Krüppel-like factor 2 action in endothelial gene expression and function.


A lot of studies have tried to explain racism in terms of prejudice or personal attitudes. Discrimination, which could be described as the form in which racism finds expression, is considered as stemming from more or less psychological attitudes of the individual; it has nothing to do with the economic system or any other determinant although it finally impinges upon the former. Looking back at the origins of racism one finds: first, that racial discrimination already existed in the ancient world;1 secondly, that during the colonial era racism was used as a tool in exploiting the colonial peoples through imposing upon them a system of discrimination ;2 thirdly, that racial or national minorities have been historically and are in the present either dominant or dominated depending on their economic role in the society in which they have lived or are living;3 fourthly, that it is this last factor, the economic one, that seems to underlie the psychological or, what some call, the irrational origin of racism. Racism has been considered till now the domain of sociology, anthropology, or ethnology. Some studies have recently pointed out the economic foundations of racism. They have dealt particularly with dominated racial minorities like the Africans in South Africa or the Negroes in the United States.4 Bourgeois sociology, in explaining such different racial phenomena as anti-semitism in Nazi Germany, apartheid in South Africa, or the Negro problem in the United States, limits itself to 'psychological, sociological, geographical, historical' determinants.5 I know of no attempt to deal with racism in all known historical forms as primarily an economic phenomenon. The purpose of this essay is to present a sketch of such a general theory of racism from a marxian point of view. It must be emphasized that the theory attempted explains racism in the capitalist system, both from a historical perspective as well as under present conditions.


A solution for the dynamics of global textures is obtained. Their gravitational field during the collapse and the subsequent evolution is found to be given solely by a space-time dependent deficit solid angle.'' The frequency shift of photons traversing this gravitational field is calculated. The space-time dependent texture metric locally contracts the volume of three-space and thereby induces overdensities in homogeneous matter distributions. There are no gravitational forces unless matter has a nonzero angular momentum with respect to the texture origin which would be the case for moving textures.


We present a global approach about chronic benign pain. It includes definitions, statistics related to it and it's goal is to show the diverse forms of treatment which constitute our "therapeutical baggage" for the treatment of such entity. In an effort to simplify things for the reader, this article has been divided into two great pillars, the first, which includes the pharmacological approach to chronic benign pain and the second, that shows many of the non pharmacological techniques that till now have been used likewise.


In theoretic part of bacheloric thesis is written about family culture, school and extramural institution for improvment of the youth's spare time and possibilities how to spend spare time. Problem with abuse of habitudinal substances is also mentioned. Practical part presents exploration of spending youth's spare time at the second degree of primary school Božena's Němcova in Přerov.


Abstract : The scientific literature on the detection of deception indicates that the use various physiological signals and testing approaches such as the guilty knowledge, or control question tests, yield results better than chance though lacking in sensitivity, specificity, and resistance to countermeasures (Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph, 2003, "The polygraph and lie detection." Washington, DC: National Academy Press). Recent approaches that use brain imaging and other new technologies still rely on the emergence of a natural lie response that is presumed intrinsic to all people. While some people do intrinsically emit anxiety during deception, data do not support the ubiquitous nature of such a response. While serving on the National Academy of Sciences Committee to review the scientific evidence for the validity of the polygraph, we developed an alternative analytic approach to the detection of deception. The approach differs from previous approaches in two fundamental ways. First, we proposed to use Pavlovian conditioning techniques to instill a unique but innocuous physiological response (e.g., a micro-eye blink) when they are exposed to an untrue statement. Second, we proposed to develop a sensitive and specific digital signal processing algorithm for each person individually based on the pattern (e.g., timing, frequency components, symmetry across the right and left ocular regions) of responses that best discriminated that individual's perception of a true (e.g., I kick a ball with my leg") versus untrue (e.g., "I kick a ball with my arm")statement. If no such response template is found, evidence is secured that one cannot test for deception. If signal detection analysis suggests a response template is apparent, this template is used to evaluate whether subsequent test items (e.g., "I was born in June") are true or untrue. (Test items are personally relevant questions for which we have ground truth.)


The aim of this research was to study the initial phase of secondary school education organized by religious orders in Croatia in the 16th and 17th centuries. The year 1503 was very important for our secondary education, when the Pauline order arrived in Lepoglava and opened the first educational institution, i.e. a grammar school in continental Croatia. Furthermore, the Jesuits also excelled at educational work, as they set up the secondary education in Zagreb, Rijeka and Dubrovnik. The Jesuits based their work on a unique educational programme that they were implementing in all European countries in which they opened their monasteries and schools. This is how the grammar schools in Croatia reached the level of other educational institutions in Europe. The Franciscans adjusted their secondary education to the context of their monasteries, so their grammar schools were less demanding, in rank with lower Jesuit grammar schools.


A nonparametric scheme for detecting a constant signal embedded in m-dependent noise is cousidered, aud the performance of the detector in both the asymptotic case and the case of a finite number of samples is investigated. It is shown that the design of the detector with a finite amount of data can be radically different from the design based upon the asymptotic limit.


In the last two decades, the Islamic world has witnessed something of an Islamic revival. Indonesian Muslims to a certain extent are likewise affected by the euphoria of Islamic revivalism; and there is much evidence to suggest that Islam, like other religions in Indonesia, is also experiencing a revival. As a result frequently since the end of the 1980s, Muslims have succeeded in influencing the making of government domestic policy for the interests of Islam and Muslims. For this reason, it is interesting to consider how Muslims' increasing pressure on the government affect the course of Indonesia's foreign policy, so far as Islamic issues are at stake. This paper attempts to delineate the "role", or more appropriately the position of Islam in Indonesia's foreign policy by taking into consideration several cases, involving Islam directly or indirectly. DOI:  10.15408/sdi.v7i3.701


This paper presents an identification method for errors-in-variables systems with input-output measurements affected by white and mutually correlated noises. The procedure, based on a frequency-domain approach, allows to uniquely determine both the characteristics of the noises affecting the data and the transfer function of the process under investigation. A numerical example is reported in order to illustrate the suggested technique and to verify its numerical implementation.


Calcium fluoride nanoparticles with various amounts of erbium ion dopants were prepared by CTAB/C4H9OH/C7H16/H2O reverse micro-emulsion method. The nanoparticles were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), absorption and fluorescence spectra. The XRD patterns indicate a typical cubic fluorite structure and no other impurities. TEM results show the synthesized particles having uniform grain size and without agglomeration. FTIR spectra reveal that there are some amounts of -OH, NO−3 and other organic functional groups on the particle surfaces before the annealing process. Many absorption peaks and bands are present in the absorption spectra, corresponding to the rich energy levels of erbium ion. The Red-Shift of absorption bands and Blue-Shift of fluorescence peaks can be attributed to the weakened energy level split as a result of the decrease in crystal field strength.


The purpose of the Polish Act on Claims for Damages for Remedying the Damage Caused by Infringements of Competition Law, based on and implementing EU law – the Damages Directive, was to enable undertakings to effectively use private enforcement of their damages claims from competition law offenders. Infringement of competition law is classified as a tort according to the said Act on Claims. Therefore, the Act on Claims refers to tort liability rules. The conditions of classic tort liability in domestic law do not have exactly the same dogmatic meaning and scope as the conditions of public or private liability for the infringements of domestic and EU competition law. In practice, their application by national courts may rise many questions regarding conformity between domestic and EU law. This paper aims to analyse one of the key conditions of tort liability, that is, the fault of both the undertaking – the offenders, as well as the fault * Doctor of law, Administrative, Public and Commercial Law Faculty at the Koźmiński University in Warsaw; attorney at law at Maruta Wachta Sp. J. law firm; email: m.mackiewicz@ kmm-law.pl, email@example.com; ORCID: 0000-0001-8005-2342 Article received: 6 June 2019, accepted: 9 September 2019.


The chemical reactions of recoil tritium atoms from ng low concentrations of LiBr. The ratio of the specific radioactivities of aromatic and aliphatic components varies as much as a factor of 4 as the volume fractions of each are varied from 0.025 to 0.0975. This variation ~s caused almost entirely by an increase in the specific tritium radioactivity of the aromatic ring at low mole fractions of the aromatic component and was observed both for aniline and benzoic acid in mixtures with ethanol and acetone. The experimental observations are consistent with a model for competitive recoil tritium reactions that assumes the energetic reactions occur with single molecules, independent of neighbors, and in propontion to the concentration of each molecular species. The relative probabilities of T for H substitution vary with the energy of the tritium, but the fraction of bond-forming interactions and the energy degradation spectrum in non-bonding interactions are generally similar for all molecules in the higher kinetic energies.


To clarify the retardative mechanism of protein denaturation by the addition of saccharides during cold storage of minced fish meat (Surimi), the behavior of electrolytes in sucrose solution was studied by the electrochemical method and the following results were obtained. 1) The electrical conduction of electrolytes in sucrose solution is small in comparison with that of electrolytes in water. This is caused by the decrease in the migration of ions. 2) The degree of dissociation of electrolytes in sucorse solution is exactly equal to that of electrolytes in water. 3) The relation between conductivity and viscosity of the solvent, as to the sucrose solution, follows WALDEN's rule. 4) The denaturation of actomyosin during storage under various circumstances is retarded also by the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG).


Objective To assess the outcome of a regimen of a reduced dose of mifepristone followed by one or two doses of vaginal misoprostol as a non‐surgical method for termination of pregnancy.


At present,our country is in historical period when the system and the society make the transition.The incidence of public safe emergencies rise constantly.In the public safe emergencies process in handling,the public security organ and the media are the main object which the public first seeks help?Under the premise of identical purpose to safeguard social public interests,both sides have the cooperation foundation.However,because the professional characteristic is different,conflict also sometimes occurs.In order to reach the purpose of winning together,the relations between the public security organ and media are coordinated by four kinds of strategies of information communication,information issue,information control and information sharing.


This paper presents the results of automated extraction of crop characteristics from hyperspectral earth observation data. The data was acquired with an airborne AHS imaging spectrometer in the framework of the joint European AgriSAR 2006 campaign. The AgriSAR campaign was directed by the ESA and took place at the DEMMIN test site in northeast Germany, an agricultural area dominated by large monocultures. An important objective of this campaign was to establish to what degree novel radar and optical technologies are able to provide accurate agro-meteorological parameters for precision farming purposes.
Parameter retrieval in this study was performed with the CRASh approach, a software module based on the inversion of radiative transfer models. CRASh was developed at DLR as part of an automated operative processing chain for future hyperspectral missions. Validation of the model inversion results was performed with field measurements of leaf area index and leaf chlorophyll content which were carried out for winter wheat, winter barley, winter rape, maize, and sugar beet at two time steps during the 2006 growing season. Although spatial patterns of the model results generally coincide with the trends observed in the field, absolute accuracy of the fully automatically extracted variables appeared insufficient for precision agriculture purposes. The unsatisfying results are ascribed to a combination of causes, including angular anisotropy across the swath-width of the flight lines, the configuration of the applied bands, and the large number of model inversion solutions inherent to an automated environment in which little additional information on the observed canopy is present. Employing the airborne version of CRASh and incorporating a priori information on land cover and variable distributions is expected to drastically increase the retrieval performance.


A combined experimental/numerical project recently initiated at the Colorado School of Mines to investigate the effectiveness of water mist as a firesuppression agent in various fire scenarios and low-gravity conditions is outlined. Preliminary results obtained in the development of a polydispersed mist model are discussed. These results, while limited (one-way coupled), provide interesting insight regarding the mist evaporation dynamics that is directly relevant to the, issue of droplet penetration in the presence of obstacles.


A brief history of agateware is given. A modern potter has now resumed making this particular ware, but it is noted that she is simulating the original lead glaze, which is now illegal. The technique of working the clay, forming the ware, and firing is briefly explained. This pottery is being marketed as reproduction with the potter's mark clearly evident, but a china authority identified one piece of her work as authentic Whieldon. -- AATA


ABSTRACT Halomonas salina strain CIFRI1 is an extremely salt-stress-tolerant bacterium isolated from the salt crystals of the east coast of India. Here we report the annotated 3.45-Mb draft genome sequence of strain CIFRI1 having 86 contigs with 3,139 protein coding loci, including 62 RNA genes.


Bacteria belonging to the genus Methylobacterium, popularly known as pink pigmented facultative methylotrophic (PPFM) bacteria, are well known for their distinct ability to use single-carbon compounds like methanol, formate and formaldehyde, and also a variety of multi-carbon substrates lacking carbon-carbon bonds. These bacterial groups are ubiquitously distributed, especially in phyllosphere and rhizosphere, and their occurrence have been reported in more than 100 species of plants so far. PPFMs have profound influence on soil fertility, crop growth and yield. The ability for phosphate acquisition, nitrogen fixation, iron chelation and phytohormone production indicate the possibility of developing them as promising biofertilizer candidates. In addition, many of them possess biocontrol activity against several phytopathogens. PPFMs induce several physiological changes in plants, making the plants more resistant to biotic and abiotic stress. They can therefore be promising alternatives to conventional chemical inputs in sustainable agricultural systems.


The parameters of a radio environment map play an important role in radio management and cognitive radio. In this paper, a method for estimating the parameters of the radio environment map based on the sensing data of monitoring nodes is presented. According to the principles of radio transmission signal intensity losses, a theoretical variogram model based on a propagation model is proposed, and the improved theoretical variation function is more in line with the attenuation of radio signal propagation. Furthermore, a weight variogram fitting method is proposed based on the characteristics of field strength parameter estimation. In contrast to the traditional method, this method is more closely related to the physical characteristics of the electromagnetic environment parameters, and the design of the variogram and fitting method is more in line with the spatial distribution of electromagnetic environment parameters. Experiments on real and simulation data show that the proposed method performs better than the state-of-the-art method.


Network-based data mining techniques such as graph mining, (social) network analysis, link prediction and graph clustering form an important foundation for data science applications in computer science, computational social science, and the life sciences. They help to detect patterns in large data sets that capture dyadic relations between pairs of genes, species, humans, or documents and they have improved our understanding of complex networks. While the potential of analysing graph or network representations of relational data is undisputed, we increasingly have access to data on networks that contain more than just dyadic relations. Consider, e.g., data on user click streams in the Web, time-stamped social networks, gene regulatory pathways, or time-stamped financial transactions. These are examples for time-resolved or sequential data that not only tell us who is related to whom but also when and in which order relations occur. Recent works have exposed that the timing and ordering of relations in such data can introduce higher-order, non-dyadic dependencies that are not captured by state-of-the-art graph representations [12, 16–18, 20, 26]. This oversimplification questions the validity of graph mining techniques in time series data and poses a threat for interdisciplinary applications of network analytics. To address this challenge, researchers have developed advanced graph modelling and representation techniques based on higherand variable-order Markov models, which enable us to model non-Markovian characteristics in time series data on networks. Introducing this exciting research field, the goal of this tutorial is to give an overview of cutting-edge higher-order data analytics techniques. Key takeaways for attendees will be (i) a solid understanding of higher-order network modelling and representation learning techniques, (ii) hands-on experience with state-of-the-art higher-order network analytics and visualisation packages, and (iii) a clear demonstration of the benefits of higher-order data analytics in real-world time series data on technical, social, and ecological systems. ∗Corresponding author 1 TARGET AUDIENCE The target audience of this tutorial are data scientists from academia, industry and government, who face the challenge of analysing time series data on complex networks. A number of works have generalized graph mining, network analysis, and graph summarisation techniques to the time dimension [1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 13, 21, 22]. While these works provide scalable methods that can be applied to large data sets, they have in common that they are based on a representation of temporal network data as sequences of time-aggregated graph snapshots. This makes them particularly suitable for low-frequency data, i.e. data in which links have coarse-grained time stamps that naturally lend themselves to a snapshot representation. Going beyond the scope of such methods, this tutorial specifically targets data scientists that need to analyze highresolution temporal network data, where links carry finegrained, possibly unique, time stamps. Such data pose a fundamental challenge for state-of-the-art dynamic graph mining algorithms. Current methods discard information on the microscopic timing and ordering of links, which is, however, the foundation of so-called time-respecting paths [6], i.e. it is needed to answer the question who can influence whom. For a sequence of two links A → B and B → C, a node A can only influence C via a (transitive) time-respecting path via B if A → B occurs before B → C. Such a transitive path from A to C does not exist if the ordering of links is reversed. As shown by a number of recent works, the specific ordering and timing of events in realistic temporal network data can give rise to non-Markovian characteristics in the sequence of links [12, 16–18, 20, 26]. This results in complex, non-dyadic dependencies between nodes that are neglected by existing graph mining and network analysis techniques. Addressing this important issue in the analysis of temporal network data, this tutorial addresses data science researchers and practitioners who (i) wish to adopt a network perspective to reveal higher-order dependencies between the elements of complex systems, (ii) extract higher-order features for machine learning tasks, or (iii) look for methods that go beyond the dyadic perspective taken by existing dynamic graph mining and social network analysis techniques. ACM SIGKDD'2018, August 2018, El London, UK R. Lambiotte et al. Takeaways. Big data practitioners will learn about (i) the emerging challenges of modelling increasingly complex data (as opposed to big data) as networks, and (ii) state-of-the-art tools for analysing and visualising higher-order dependencies in relational data that are typically studied from a network perspective. Machine learning researchers will see how to construct optimal graphical representations that best preserve information on higher-order dependencies in the raw data. Government urban planners and policymakers will gain hands-on experience with visualisation and interactive exploration tools that enable anomaly detection in time-evolving traffic networks, as well as simulations of species invasion through global shipping networks. Students new to the interdisciplinary field of network science will learn through intuitive examples how cutting-edge network analytics techniques can be used to uncover rich information hidden in time series data on complex systems. Impact. By introducing higher-order network analytic methods, the tutorial broadens the choice of network-analytic techniques towards methods that account for higher-order dependencies in complex systems. The methods introduced in this tutorial are of high relevance for a wide variety of attendees at SIGKDD. Bridging the machine learning, network science, graph theory, and interdisciplinary physics perspectives on pattern recognition in relational data, our tutorial fosters the interdisciplinary exchange between data mining and network science researchers with different backgrounds. Prerequisites. Attendees should have a basic understanding of mathematical and statistical concepts equivalent to the high-school level. A basic understanding of graph-theoretic concepts is a plus; however, all theoretical methods and abstractions will be introduced along the way and visually illustrated in examples. For the hands-on python exercises, attendees should have basic programming skills (python or other scripting languages) at the level of an introductory programming class. A short tutorial on essential concepts needed in the hands-on sessions will be made available to attendees before the tutorial. A pre-configured jupyter notebook that simplifies the handling, analysis and visualisation of static and dynamic network data will be made available to attendees before the tutorial. 2 TUTORS' INFORMATION Dr. Renaud Lambiotte Affiliation: University of Oxford, United Kingdom E-mail: email@example.com Address: Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Andrew Wiles Building, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6GG, United Kingdom Phone: +44 1865 280608 Dr. Martin Rosvall Affiliation: Umeå University, Sweden E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Address: Department of Physics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden Phone: +46 70 239 1973 Dr. Michael Schaub Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA E-mail: email@example.com Address: Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Office: E18-425C, Cambridge, MA, 02139 Phone: +1 857 320 5174 Dr. Ingo Scholtes* corresponding author Affiliation: ETH Zürich E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Address: ETH Zurich, WEV G 213, Weinbergstrasse 56/58, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland Phone: +41 44 632 81 98 Dr. Jian Xu Affiliation: Citadel LLC E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Address: 28S.319-D, 131 S Dearborn Ave, Chicago, IL, USA Phone: +1 574 485 7282 3 TUTORS' BIO AND EXPERTISE Dr. Renaud Lambiotte is Associate Professor at the Mathematical Institute of University of Oxford. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Université libre de Bruxelles, and was postdoc at ENS Lyon, Université de Liège, UCLouvain and Imperial College London. He further held a professorship in Mathematics at the University of Namur. His main research interests are the modelling and analysis of processes taking place on large networks, with a particular focus on social and brain networks. He also acts as an academic editor for PLoS One, European Physical Journal B and Advances in Complex Systems and is review editor for Frontiers in Physics. More info at http://xn.unamur.be/ Dr. Martin Rosvall is Associate Professor in Physics at Umeå University, Sweden, and is also the head of the highly interdisciplinary Integrated Science Lab. After a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen (2003–2006), he was Postdoc at University of Washington in Seattle (2006–2008), and Assistant Professor in Physics at Umeå University. He performs high-impact research in network science and complex systems research, and is a leading authority in network inference. He has pioneered mapping flow pathways and develop novel algorithms and tools that take advantage of today's data explosion for revealing important organizational patterns in complex systems. Martin is co-founder of the data analytics start-up Infobaleen. Infobaleen provides custom-fit machine-learning tools that empowers people by making complex data simple to use and understand. More info at http://www.tp.umu.se/~rosvall/ Higher-Order Data Analytics for Temporal Network Data ACM SIGKDD'2018, August 2018, El London, UK Dr. Michael Schaub is a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT and the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford. He obtained his PhD in applied mathematics and an MSc in bio


The presence of TP53 mutations is associated with an unfavorable outcome in patients allografted for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), leading some to question the benefit of an allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo‐SCT) for this patient group, although this has not been studied in a large cohort.


In 2006, A. Stakhov introduced a new coding/decoding process based on generating matrices of the Fibonacci p-numbers, which he called the Fibonacci coding/decoding method. Stakhov's papers have motivated many other scientists to seek certain generalizations by introducing new additional coefficients into recurrence of Fibonacci p-numbers. In 2013, I. Włoch et al. studied (2,q)-distance Fibonacci numbers F2(q,n) and found some of their combinatorial properties. In this paper, we state a new coding theory based on the sequence (Tq(n))n=−∞∞, which is an extension of Włoch's sequence (F2(q,n))n=0∞.


Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an international public health crisis affecting medical care for many chronic disease populations, including those with cirrhosis. Routine care transformed to safely allow elective endoscopic procedures by obtaining a pre-endoscopy viral PCR nasal swab to minimize endoscopy staff exposure. Little data exists on the prevalence of asymptomatic cirrhotic COVID-19 positive patients or a comparison to the general community prevalence. We used pre-procedure testing data to estimate an asymptomatic prevalence in patients with cirrhosis. Methods: This is a retrospective review of all patients with cirrhosis undergoing ambulatory endoscopy at two hospitals and two endoscopy centers at Atrium Health in Charlotte, NC from 4/1/ 2020 through 12/31/2020. Pre-procedure SARS-CoV-2 RT PCR nasal swab testing was a mandatory requirement during these months. The number of positive nasal swabs were recorded. Patient demographics, clinical and laboratory data, COVID-19 clinical course, 90 day follow up for hospitalizations, decompensation, and/or "long haul" COVID-19 complications were recorded. Publicly available data on all elective Atrium Health positive pre-procedure and statewide prevalence rates were also recorded for these dates. Results: A total of 398 cirrhotic patients were scheduled for ambulatory endoscopy procedures with confirmed pre-procedure PCR testing, with 3 positive results (1.0%). All three developed mild symptoms and were automatically enrolled in Atrium Health virtual hospital observation for a minimum of 10 days, per protocol. Table 1 indicates clinical course and outcomes. During the same time period, the average daily positive rate of Atrium Health pre-procedure testing was 2.5% (range 0-11%). Available state data indicates the positive rate ranged from 5.4%-15.4%. Conclusion: This is the only known study evaluating the prevalence of asymptomatic cirrhotic COVID-19 patients for elective endoscopy. The prevalence in our cirrhosis population was much lower than the general patient pre-procedure positive rate and reported statewide community prevalence. The three positive cirrhosis patients in this study had a benign COVID-19 course. This data suggests that patients with compensated cirrhosis with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection may have a mild clinical course. It also indicates a very low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in cirrhotic patients presenting for outpatient elective endoscopy suggesting routine screening in this population is unnecessary.


FAMILIAL hypercholesterolemia, an example of a single-gene disorder that produces both hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis in man,1 2 3 is characterized by four cardinal features: hypercholest...


Children with special health care needs are those who have a health condition that requires health or related health services over and above what is expected to be required for the majority of children who are typically developing. Children with special health care needs have a range of conditions that may require medical technology. For the purposes of this article, emergency preparedness for children with special health care needs who require oxygen, tracheostomy care, and ventilator care will be discussed.


Effects of window blind with metal-lamellas on radiowave propagation are addressed. Measurements of insertion loss at frequency range 5 - 50 GHz are presented. The measurements were done for various inclinations of lamellas of the window blind structure for both vertical and horizontal polarization. Comparison of measurements with numerical predictions is presented. The results give idea about additional insertion loss imposed by window blinds for indoor signal reception.


medical literature there is a report of a patient who underwent orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) for presumed idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, but on pathologic examination, the explanted heart revealed extensive CS [9]. The clinical diagnosis is difficult to make, since the manifestations depend on the location and extension of granulomas, and symptoms and signs vary and are non-specific. The ECG may be normal or show any degree of heart block and any type of arrhythmia with nonspecific ST ‑ T changes [10]. Echocardiography may show an abnormal wall thickness, diastolic or systolic dysfunction, chamber dilation, Abstract ! Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease which affects many organs, including the heart. Cardiac sarcoidosis has a reported incidence of about 25% and carries a poor prognosis. It can occur in the form of conduction abnormalities, pericardial and valvular heart disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. The diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis is difficult, requiring a high index of suspicion and the use of electrocardiography, echocardiography, nuclear medicine imaging, myocardial biopsy and magnetic resonance imaging. Corticosteroids have been the cornerstone of treatment of cardiac sarcoidosis, but other immunosuppressives have also been used, along with standard heart failure therapy, antiarrhythmic medications, pacemakers and implantable defibrillators. Cardiac transplantation is an option for patients who do not respond to medical treatment. We briefly review the current armamentarium for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac sarcoidosis.


An atmosphere of fear and secrecy created by gagging clauses in local contracts has deterred staff from speaking out about fraud in the National Health Service, a nursing union claimed last week.


The submitted paper deals with a simple method allowing easy calculation of static characteristics of passive radial or axial permanent magnetic bearings. There are two ways leading to an increase of the loading capacity: by asymmetrical arrangement of the bearing, or by its shielding with the help of a ferromagnetic jacket. The calculation algorithm is illustrated by numerical examples. K e y w o r d s: passive magnetic bearing, application of permanent magnets, magnetic levitation, stiness of magnetic bearing.


Abstract Outdoor tourism is on the growth agenda of public strategies and public-private development partnerships in many peripheral areas of the world, raising high expectations for job creation and rural development. Based on participant observation in an outdoor tourism cluster project and qualitative interviews with other tourism and regional development actors on the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark, this research asks how the micro-entrepreneurs and volunteer event organizers contribute to rural destination development, and how their contributions can best be supported by regional development actors. Drawing on the concepts of placial engagement and translocal connections, the research shows that micro-entrepreneurs' and volunteer event organizers' mobility and multi-local place engagement, combined with their orientation towards goals other than profit maximation, represent a strong rural place-development potential – a potential that tends to be undervalued by established tourism and regional development actors. The small-scale outdoor tourism actors show strong collaborative and networking behaviour regarding business, product, and place development. In addition to (modest) tourism-generated income and (often part-time) employment, they contribute by providing new residents, business diversity and flexibility, translocal resources and knowledge, as well as actively engage in place-making and branding. These diverse qualities can be argued to strengthen innovation, attractiveness and community resilience in economically challenged rural areas. The relevance of using a translocal perspective on tourism entrepreneurship and rural destination development is exemplified by the article in its presentation of the wider development contributions of the micro outdoor tourism actors which are important to acknowledge for regional development actors to build on them strategically.


We consider an Ornstein-Uhleneck process associated to self-normalized sums in i.i.d. symmetric random variables from the domain of attraction of N(0,1) distribution. The proofs use recursive equations similar to those that arise in the area of stochastic approximation.


In this work we bring the results of the new Timiryazevskaya 42 triticale cultivar potential productivity analysis at different amount of nitrogen fertilizer application. Field experiments held in between 2016 and 2018 on podzol soil showed that increase of fertilizer dose led to the increased yield from 14% to 140%. Timiryazevskaya 42 variety is responsive to the high levels of mineral fertilizer. Dose equal to 150 kg of active ingredient (AI) per 1 hectare (ha) applied during sowing forms an average 12,5 tons per hectare yield of grain. Analysis showed that by using two parameters spike realization coefficient (SRC) and spike mass in the bloom, one can predict the yield maximum and the level of plant potential realization in the middle of vegetation period. Wherein, under favorable weather conditions, the dependence of the studied parameters and the obtained biological productivity at different doses of nitrogen fertilizers is much higher. In 2018, Timiryazevskaya 42 showed the greatest dependence (r = 0.82) of yield on SRC. A study of the formation of crop structure elements showed that the highest correlation (average for three years) was found between biological productivity and the amount of grain per spike (r = 0.62), and between biological productivity and productive bushiness (r = 0.89). Keywords— spring triticale, potential productivity, biological productivity, nitrogen fertilizers, spike realization coefficient


In this paper, the binary tomographic reconstruction problem is considered. Binary tomography aims to reconstruct binary images from their projections. Possible applications can be the field of human X-ray angiography, where the aim is to reconstruct images representing blood vessels or heart chambers, using X-ray tomography methods. Injecting a contrast agent with high linear attenuation coefficient into the part of the body being examined and seek for the presence or absence of the contrast agent in certain positions. Other common applications of this field are electron tomography and industrial non-destructive testing. To reconstruct a binary image from their projections, an improved algebraic approach is proposed in this paper. An energy-minimization reconstruction model is used; this model employs a loss function to be minimized. This loss function combines three features that can be extracted from the given projections. First, data fitting term based on the given projections; second, the first two image moments that are extracted from the given projections; and third, a term that enforces the binary solution. The first two terms are expressed in terms of a linear system and the third is expressed as anon linear cost function. The projected gradient descent algorithm is then employed for this minimization process. Experimental evaluations show that reasonable results can be obtained from minimal number of projections.


Bekasam is a traditional fermentation product made from rabbit meat that is an adaptation of fish fermentation which are often consume in several regions in Indonesia. The fermentation process is spontaneous and the bacteria growing are dominated by Lactid Acid Bacteria. The aim of this study was to study the antimicrobial activity of lactic acid bacteria isolated from rabbit meat bekasam against gram-positive pathogenic bacteria (Staphilococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes) and gram-negative (Salmonella thypimurium, Eschericia coli). Eleven isolates of LAB were isolated from rabbit meat bekasam and the antimicrobial activity was measured during fermentation. The results showed that the highest inhibition of antibacterial activity was obtained from isolate 6.1 which the clear zone were 16.4 mm for S. Aureus, 12.5mm for L. monocytogenes, 15.2 mm for S. thypimurium and 13.1mm for E. coli.


Intravascular photoacoustic (IVPA) imaging, which combines the advantages of high ultrasonic resolution and strong optical absorption contrast, seems to be an alternative method to detect lipid pool and atherosclerotic lesion. A highly sensitive miniaturized ultrasound transducer is required for receiving of intravascular photoacoustic signals. As the core part of the transducer, lead-based piezoelectric materials have been most popular for IVPA applications because of their excellent piezoelectric behavior. However, in view of environmental protection and human safety issues, the use of lead is a problem due to its toxicity. Therefore, it is of urgent need to develop lead-free piezoelectric materials that can be used as intravascular PA signal receivers. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the feasibility of KNN-based single crystals to be implemented in IVPA applications for the detection of lipid pool and calcification.


This study focuses on the organic-rich rocks in the Central Uplift of the South Yellow Sea Basin (SYSB) using the CSDP-2 borehole, which was drilled through the integrated Lower Triassic–Silurian s...


China plays an important role in climate governance and reaching the carbon neutrality in the world. The paper stated the energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission of China. Following that, the paper analyzed the influencing factors of carbon emissions in China by using LMDI model. In the end, the paper this paper put forward countermeasures and suggestions, which include promoting the synergistic upgrading of industrial structure, optimizing the energy consumption structure, and practicing the low-carbon concept.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an overall review of quality function deployment (QFD) in the past nearly 30 years; to clarify widespread misperceptions about QFD; to adapt its use to the product development model of contract manufacturing; and to simplify the complexity of QFD and effectively integrate its contents.Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopts "action research" (AR) as its research methodology. The action research was conducted using a "research/consultant strategy" in a series of projects of collaboration with contract manufacturing companies.Findings – The paper corrects widespread misperceptions about QFD, and adapts QFD to a specific product development model.Research limitations/implications – The paper uses a participatory and interpretive approach to develop and explain the new QFD model, but the authors are restricted by the highly confidential nature of the R&D information, and not authorized to publish actual case study data. The research value lies in the d...


High‐energy Si and Ge implantations have been used to form thick (∼1 μm) amorphous films which permit direct electrical characterization of the layers after solid phase regrowth. The dislocation loops observed at the original amorphous–crystalline boundary after regrowth are fundamental to the preamorphization process and three dominant deep levels at Ec−0.40 eV, Ev + 0.47 eV, and Ev + 0.26 eV have been found to be spatially localized in the same region as the dislocation loops. The level at Ev+0.47 eV is most likely to be responsible for the spatially localized generation current also arising from the same region. The level at Ev+0.26 eV and a level, which was less dominant in the deep level transient spectroscopy measurements, at Ec−0.19 eV show features consistent with a defect displaying charge state controlled metastability. The density of these levels implied a high degree of reconstruction around the perimeter of the loops. The effects due to nitrogen decoration of the dislocations have also been i...


The multi-layered and multi-scalar nature of the term 'community' makes it a useful tool for both particularistic studies and cross-cultural comparisons, connecting scales of community to regional scales of settlement, exchange and mobility. This paper explores three general themes of community: community as place, as identity and as network. A case study of Neolithic communities in eastern Hungary and Lower Austria demonstrates a spatial and geoarchaeological approach to understanding the relational aspects of places, networks and identity to develop a social archaeology of communities.


Low cost technology for Plant Tissue Culture is promoted worldwide especially for the production of flowering or ornamentals crops like Lillium asiatic. As tissue culture media plays an important factor in deciding the cost of in vitro plants a continuous quest to find the substitutes of media components is in process. In an attempt to lower the cost of the in vitro micropropagated plants of different varieties of exotic Lillium asiatic, we developed an efficient low cost medium "KFA and KFA plus" (Flyash" as the main source of inorganic constituent; Patented), which could replace the widely used expensive Murashige and Skoog's medium. The comparison was done on four major criteria: % bud break, % shooting, % rooting and cost. When cultured on KFA and KFA plus, 70% bulblet formation was observed in KFA and 86.6% bulblet formation in KFA plus as compared to 83.3% in MS medium supplemented with IAA (0.8mg/l) + BAP (1.5mg/l). Healthy response and an average of 1.6 bulblets/explant were obtained. Healthy rooting in 70% bulblets cultured on KFA plus medium supplemented with same concentration of PGR was observed as compared to 50% rooting in MS medium. Cost of media was reduced 10 times by using KFA plus as culture media as compared to MS ready media (Hi media, India) and very encouraging results in relation to growth and multiplication was obtained. Therefore, use of flyash media resolves our main aim to produce low cost plants as well as the reduction of disposal problem of thermal power plant waste, leading to phytoremediation.


Using the effective potential approach for composite operators, we have analytically evaluated the truly nonperturbative vacuum energy density as obtained by using a model infrared finite gluon propagator which was suggested by lattice simulations. The truly nonperturbative vacuum energy density is defined as the truly nonperturbative part of the full gluon propagator integrated over the deep infrared region (soft momentum region). With this definition, it is a manifestly gauge invariant quantity. We have explicitly shown that the corresponding effective potential has always an imaginary part which means that the vacuum of this model is unstable. Thus this model cannot have a true ground state.


The judicious Hooker, in sonorous phrases, vouched for a Tudor system of statecraft that won wide allegiance to the Crown, the Church, and the Law. "Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is in the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; all with uniform consent admire her as the mother of their peace and joy." With Hooker marched Sir Thomas Smith, and the two doughty champions of the harmonious and decently reasonable middle way have been given an honoured place in history. Few would challenge their right to stand as typical Elizabethan apologists, dedicated to the principles of law and degree and duty. The fact is, however, that the close and continued admiration and study of the golden age of Elizabeth has made inevitable the discovery of numberless contrasts between the rule of the Tudors and the sad destruction born of the Stuarts. These contrasts have been so frequently made and multiplied that the shaping spirit of the his...


In contemporary markets, styling becomes increasingly important for companies to stand out among competitors. Designers take the primary role of styling. Currently, designers are lack of objective tools to styling. They largely rely on their experience and intuitions to styling. To support designers to styling, this study firstly investigates the effects of a highly recommended method: decomposition strategy. Furthermore, to address the problem of fixations in the method, this study introduces a new way to defixate designers: presenting partial pictures of product examples. The experiment is designed and conducted to investigate the effects. The results show that the decomposition strategy can guide designers to get inspirations from examples, consider visual consistency of their designs and understand the styling tasks. The results also reveal that presenting partial pictures of product examples can promote designers to create more original designs, guide designers to pay more attentions on details and make designers evaluate their works more positively.