Wrist photoplethysmography (PPG) allows unobtrusive monitoring of the heart rate (HR). PPG is affected by the capillary blood perfusion and the pumping function of the heart, which generally deteriorate with age and due to the presence of cardiac arrhythmia. The performance of wrist PPG in monitoring beat-to-beat HR in older patients with arrhythmia has not been reported earlier. We monitored PPG from wrist in 18 patients recovering from surgery in the post-anesthesia care unit, and evaluated the inter-beat interval (IBI) detection accuracy against ECG based R-to-R intervals (RRI). Nine subjects had sinus rhythm (SR, 68.0y ± 10.2y, 6 males) and nine subjects had atrial fibrillation (AF, 71.3y ± 7.8y, 4 males) during the recording. For the SR group, 99.44% of the beats were correctly identified, 2.39% extra beats were detected, and the mean absolute error (MAE) was 7.34 ms. For the AF group, 97.49% of the heartbeats were correctly identified, 2.26% extra beats were detected, and the MAE was 14.31 ms. IBI from the PPG were hence in close agreement with the ECG reference in both groups. The results suggest that wrist PPG provides a comfortable alternative to ECG during low motion and can be used for long-term monitoring and screening of AF episodes.


The purpose of this study is to observe the Form and Spatial Role of Dang-Ga in Jeong-Jeon of Jo-Seon Dynasty's Royal Palace. Dang-Ga is a kind of Dat-Jip. And the Dat-Jip is originally changed and developed by the composition of Buddhist-shrine, Curtain structure and the Inside-wall. But Dang-Ga has the different form with Dat-Jip of the temple and has the different spatial structure which are iterative with 3 layer in the inside space of Jeong-Jeon, composing the centrality in the spatial use. Also the spatial composition of the Jeong-Jeon's front yard organize the central axis.


This paper presents a detailed analysis of the power supply voltage (IR) drop in sub-nanometer designs for local, semi-global, and global lengths. The IR drop in carbon nanotube (CNT) based power interconnects is analyzed and their effects on the timing delay have been investigated. It is shown that the CNT based power interconnects have significantly less IR-drop in comparison to that of Cu based power interconnects for semi-global and global lengths. The interconnect delay is increased by almost ten times for ten fold increase in interconnect length due to IR-drop in Cu wires, whereas that of MWCNT based wires is only ∼50% for global lengths.


It is well known that if Gaussian elimination with iterative refinement (IR) is used in the solution of systems of linear algebraic equations $Ax = b$ whose matrices are dense, then the accuracy of the results will usually be greater than the accuracy obtained by the use of Gaussian elimination without iterative refinement (DS). However, both more storage (about $100\% $, because a copy of matrix A is needed) and more computing time (some extra time is needed to perform the iterative process) must be used with IR. Normally, when the matrix is sparse the accuracy of the solution computed by some sparse matrix technique and IR will still be greater. In this paper it is verified (by many numerical experiments) that the use of sparse matrix techniques with IR may also result in a reduction of both the computing time and the storage requirements (this will never happen when IR is applied for dense matrices). Two parameters, a drop-tolerance $T \geqq 0$ and a stability factor $u > 1$, are introduced in the effo...


Abstract:The Covid-19 pandemic, spreading first to Europe, then to Africa has drastically shifted priorities and created a large amount of uncertainty. The question of what shape recovery from the pandemic will take and what the new normal entails is still up in the air, but there are lessons we can already glean. In Nigeria, the pandemic brought to the fore gaps occasioned by decades of negligence of social infrastructure development including healthcare (hospitals), education (schools and universities), etc. and social services. Industry was ill-prepared and were more focused on donating to the government rather than anticipating and fulfilling their responsibilities to their employees and clients. The wide indiscipline of the populace (non-compliance with rules and regulation) has continued to propagate the spread of Covid-19, while Covid-19 amplified the sharp division along professional lines. This article will be taking an introspective path, reflecting on fundamental notions of responsibility, looking at individual accountability as the essence of good corporate citizenship. We will also be exploring University leadership, local and international partnerships, and the role of stakeholders in every sector. These insights will assist in reimagining individual and corporate responsibilities, and partnerships as Nigeria navigates the pandemic-induced "new normal."


(Received 22 October 1991; in final form 27 August 1992) Abstract--Waviness induced changes in light scattering patterns were numerically analyzed for several simulated engineering surfaces. The analyses were based upon the light scattering theory developed by Beckmann. In order 1Lo simplify the analyses, three sinusoidal waveforms of the same frequency but of three different amplitudes 'were selected as waviness profiles.


Abstract This article examines the educational ideas of Fred Morrow Fling (1860–1934). A practitioner of "scientific history," Fling believed that the principal goal of history education was to teach the historical method through the analysis of primary sources. Unlike his contemporaries, who saw sources as useful for adding interest to lessons, Fling valued them for what they revealed about the nature of historical evidence. He designed a method for using sources in the classroom and earned a national reputation as a champion of the source-method. This article examines his method in the context of his theories of education and history and explores the reasons for his eventual failure.


Collective Versus Statistical Aspects of Nuclear Motion.- Tests of Fundamental Symmetries in Compound-Nucleus Scattering.- Chaos in Nuclei.- Ericson Fluctuations Versus Conductance Fluctuations: Similarities and Differences.- Hot Nuclei - Landau Theory, Thermal Fluctuations and Dissipation.- Dissipation and Thermal Fluctuations in Heavy-Ion Collisions.- Multi-Dimensional Tunneling and Nuclear Fission.- Phase-Space Dynamics of Heavy-Ion Reactions.- Quantum Chaology: Our Knowledge and Ignorance.- True Quantum Chaos? An Instructive Example.- Toward the Fundamental Theory of Nuclear Matter Physics: The Microscopic Theory of Nuclear Collective Dynamics.- Mean Field Dynamics and Low-Lying Collective Excitations.- Rotational Motion in Warm Atomic Nuclei.- Collectivity and Chaoticity in Nuclear Dynamics.- Index of Contributors.


This chapter discusses the qualities of work ethics desired from a Muslim employee, whether local or migrant namely, diligence and trustworthiness. In relation to the above, reference is made to the Qur'an, in Surah al Qasas (28): verses 21 to 27. The verses contain the story of Prophet Musa (a.s.) who had, inter alia, assisted two women
in watering their flocks and thereafter, was employed by the family despite being a stranger because it was realised that he possessed the true qualities of a sincere worker.


We studied on the characteristics of many kinds of tank cars carrying hazard materials and performed structural strength evaluation for tank of asphalt tank car using finite element analysis. We analyzed the tank strength according to JIS E 7102(Design Method for Tanks of Tank Cars). It was found that the maximum stress obtained at the area supported by the saddle is much lower than the yield stress and the criteria of JIS E 7102.


The rapid growth of gasoline consumption in the USA for the last decades brings much concern to scientists and politicians. Therefore many researchers investigated the influence of the main factors ...


Objective
To explore clinical effects of heated humidified high flow nasal cannula (HHHFNC) and nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) in initial respiratory support to neonates with mild neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS).

Methods
A total of 73 cases of neonates with mild NRDS in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Xuzhou Central Hospital from June 2017 to November 2018 were selected as research subjects. According to random digits table method, they were divided into HHHFNC group (n=38) and NCPAP group (n=35), and they received HHHFNC and NCPAP non-invasive ventilation mode, respectively. The arterial blood gas analysis indexes, such as pH value, arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) and arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) before and after initial respiratory support were observed and compared by independent-samples t test between two groups or by pairwise t test within each group. Duration of non-invasive mechanical ventilation, rates of invasive mechanical ventilation treatment and non-invasive mechanical ventilation-related complications of two groups were compared by independent-samples t test or chi-square test. The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Xuzhou Central Hospital (Approval No. XZXY-LJ-20161122-010) and the informed clinical research consents were signed by the parents of NRDS children. There were no significant differences in the general clinical data between two groups, such as gender composition ratio, gestational age at birth, birth weight, age at enrollment, glucocorticoid utilization rate from 24 h before birth to 7 d after childbirth of pregnant mother, and treatment rate of pulmonary surfactant (PS) during HHHFNC or NCPAP treatment (P>0.05).

Results
①The arterial blood gas analysis indexes pH value and PaO2 at 1 h and 24 h after initial respiratory support in HHHFNC group were obviously higher than those before treatment, while PaCO2 at 24 h after initial respiratory support was obviously lower than that before treatment, and all the differences were statistically significant (pH value comparison: t=2.090, 2.945, P=0.040, 0.004; PaO2 comparison: t=8.250, 7.730, both P 0.05). ②There were no statistically significant differences between two groups in duration of non-invasive ventilation and rate of transferring to invasive mechanical ventilation treatment (P>0.05). The incidence of nasal injury in HHHFNC group was 0, which was significantly lower than that 17.1% (6/35) of NCPAP group, and the difference was statistically different (χ2=5.007, P=0.025).

Conclusions
HHHFNC is equally effective compared with NCPAP in initial respiratory support for mild NRDS and the incidence of nasal injury is significantly lower than that of NCPAP. Because the sample size in this study is relatively small, and stratified analysis based on the gestational age and birth weight of NRDS children has not been conducted, the clinical effect of HHHFNC and NCPAP in initial respiratory support for NRDS still needs multi-center, large-sample, randomized controlled trials for further research and confirmation.

Key words:
Continuous positive airway pressure; Heated humidified high flow nasal cannula; Nasal continuous positive airway pressure; Pulmonary surfactants; Respiratory distress syndrome, newborn; Infant, premature


In this paper,4500kW asynchronous motor was analyzed,the mathematical model and physical model of 3D stator temperature field were established,the boundary conditions of solved region and all parts losses of all parts were given.Theory of Fluid Similarity and 3D FEM(finite element method) is used to calculate the 3D stator temperature field of asynchronous motor,and according to the fluid velocity of in ventilation ducts,surface coefficient of heat transfer was obtained.The flowing patterns of cooling fluid are more complicated in radial ventilation ducts,and the velocity distribution of fluid fields and stator temperature were compared when cooling air goes into radial ventilation ducts at different incidence angle,some useful results are achieved.


It proposes solutions mainly aiming at the problems in the most existing recommending system such as cold start-up issues and user interests drift problem.This solution first uses association rule mining algorithm on existed customer data to generate rule base,then uses inference engine to generate inference results and select some products from these results.The selected products have higher similarity with the product which the user is browsing.This can help users find the necessary goods to meet users' personalized requirements,change users from visitors to buyers,improve users'loyalty through the website interact with users' thus increasing the efficiency of enterprises.


Significance Within host cells, intravacuolar pathogens are confined to a close-fitting phagosome that needs to be expanded to accommodate their growing number of offspring. Here, we provide a first insight into the underlying molecular mechanisms by showing that L. pneumophila encodes the phospholipase effector VpdC which generates lysophospholipids within the vacuolar membrane. Through their inverted-cone shape, lysophospholipids can promote membrane fusion at moderate levels but obstruct fusion at elevated levels. Consistently, we found VpdC overproduction blocked membrane expansion of Legionella-containing vacuoles, trapping the bacteria inside a spatially confined compartment and attenuating their virulence. Given that lipids are evolutionary inert, our study suggests that exploiting lysophospholipids for their membrane-bending capability might be a common strategy among pathogens to control membrane dynamics.


Infallibilism is commonly rejected because it is apparently subject to easy counter-examples. The author describes a strategy that infallibilists can use to resist this objection. Because the sentences used in the counter-examples to express evidence and belief are context-sensitive, the infallibilist can insist that such counter-examples trade on a vacillation between different readings of these sentences. The author describes what difficulties await those who try to produce counter-examples against which the proposed strategy is ineffective.


This article addresses the contradictory behaviour of the Russian Federation in reacting to the events of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. The Russian response saw significant aggression, but also seemingly involving inaction or even restraint in other areas. The question is what are some plausible explanations for this contradictory behaviour. In order to answer this question, relevant terminology is defined, then the subnational level is focused on and Most Similar System Design is utilised. Then cases involving significant aggression are considered, before moving on to those seemingly involving inaction or even restraint. Finally, these two elements are reconciled, producing a clear picture of the overall similarities, the inconsistencies and the crucial differences. The article finds the crucial differences to be the level of loyalty to the Kremlin and willingness to engage in collaboration or cooperation. The focus on loyalty to the Kremlin and the issue of willingness to collaborate is revealing.


Clinical Decision Systems utilize patient profiles to search for relevant medical support. Existing work on medical search has a primary topic on query expansion, which enriches queries by adding more useful terms. However, it performs well when queries are concise. In this paper, we aim to tackle verbose queries and propose a new automatic query reformulation method, which not only considers query expansion, but also includes query reduction. This improves the searching performance by refining the query to effectively avoid irrelevant results. The method is achieved by classifying each sentence into expansion and reduction categories with a weighted score model, which depends on the occurrence of medical and negative terms. The refined queries show promising results on experiments with TREC CDS datasets. In particular, the final performance makes improvements in terms of NDCG as 8.2% compared to the prevailing query expansion method, and 22.07% compared to the baseline of original query.


The White Paper "China's Efforts and Achievements in Promoting the Rule of Law" fully demonstrates China's achievements in the rule of law,at the same time,it opens out the practical logic and basic axioms of the development of China's rule of law.Has experienced tortuous history of development,in the past three decades' reform and opening-up,China's efforts and achievements in promoting the rule of law reflect the axioms of development of the rule of law.The regular understanding about the rule of law includes that political parties are the basic elements of the rule of law,the strategy "Governing the Country by Law,Construct the Socialist Rule-of-Law State",political values of respecting and protecting human rights,by the idea of limited government to the concept of government's responsibility,community building and social rights,ideology of People's democracy and People's rule of law,political civilization and harmonious society,and so forth.These basic concepts and ideas have been and are affecting the progress of the legal system and the rule of law practice,constituting the main line of ideological and cultural foundation of future development of China's rule of law,and China's rule of law also has a more ample connotation.In order to grasp the connotation of China's rule of law comprehensively,we must based on its magnificence system,taking political parties into its basic elements,deepening internal relations between human rights and the rule of law,establishing the significance that society ruled by law to China's rule of law,and developing legal education in order to expedite the building process of China's rule of law.


This paper exploits the variant of passivity to synchronize the motion of agents in nonlinear multi-agent systems in the predefined time chosen a priori. For this, we discuss the concept of predefined-time passivity using storage functions, which is efficacious in designing predefined-time stabilizing control laws. In particular, at first we address the single agent tracking problem and develop a state feedback controller to ensure the tracking error dynamics to be predefined-time passive. In addition, we prove that tracking error converges to zero in predefined time when the external input is zero. After that, this variant of passivity is exploited to design state feedback coupling controller for a nonlinear multi-agent system to ensure the synchronization of agents in predefined time. As an illustration to the proposed results, an example of Kuramoto model is provided.


Over the past twenty years, friction-welding technology, in particular the Friction Stir Welding (FSW) has become a potential industrial welding method that has been used efficiently for combining similar and dissimilar materials. The latter solution is very interesting in ship-building, where the use of aluminum in the superstructures allows lowering of the center of gravity for a better stability of the ship. In making dissimilar joints, the FSW technique is more cost and time efficient, allows to weld various sheet thickness with different joint configurations. In this work a coupled mechanical, metallurgical and electrochemical characterizations of dissimilar joints of aluminum alloy AW5083 and carbon steel S355 obtained by butt joint welding (FSW) were performed. The results showed that during the FSW process several well-defined microstructural zones are generated, that affected the mechanical performances and the corrosion behavior of the weld.


The prevalence of layered structures among the copper oxide superconductors has led us to search for new oxide superconductors with anisotropic structures to evaluate the relationship between structural anisotropy and superconductivity. Because of its layered structure, 1 we identified the dichalcogenide LiNb02 as a promising candidate for further study. The Nb oxidation state can be readily altered by deintercalation of Li, and we have reported magnetic measurements showing that the resulting LixNb02 (x<1) is a superconductor with transition temperature Tc=5.5K. 2 Interestingly it is the Meisner fraction rather than T c. which changes as x is varied in this compound. This suggests that as a result of deintercalation, the material separates into two distinct phases, one superconducting and one non-superconducting, although powder x-ray diffraction shows no clear evidence of differences between LiNb02 and deintercalated material. This type of behavior is often associated with the transition to the superconducting state as the composition is varied in transition metal oxides. 3 Since x-ray diffraction was unable to distinguish the two phases revealed by magnetic measurement, in the present study we use transmission electron microscopy (1EM) to examine LixNb02 materials. Because electrons are much more strongly scattered by a solid than are x-rays, electron diffraction will be better able to identify subtle changes in the crystal structure produced during deintercalation. TEM specimens were prepared by crushing the starting powders, suspending the finer particles in dry hexane, and then dispersing on a copper mesh grid with holey carbon film. 4 Except where otherwise indicated, all TEM work was performed using a room-temperature specimen holder. Diffraction patterns were obtained using an accelerating voltage of 100kV, while high-resolution imaging was carried out at 200kV and 800kV.


A novel mathematical model of fuzzy optimal control is presented,based on fuzzy set theories and combined Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition.The model has stronger self-adaptability and versatility,but it can acquire the superior solution in overall situation and reduce the complicacy degree of calculation,increase the calculation convergent efficiency etc.and it shows certain superiority.


So portentous a title as I have contrived for tonight's lecture ought to come furnished with an appropriately bombastic beginning. In fact, it does not. Instead of concentrating on a beginning, I thought that we might more profitably focus our attention on the beginning, that is, on a time long before the sophisticated legal/administrative system of England's high middle ages had evolved. It will be interesting to get what peeks we can at the jurisprudential assumptions of, say, preconquest Englishmen. As Tom Green has recently demonstrated in his book on the criminal jury, these assumptions could exhibit a durability that had functional consequences for many centuries. If through the jury they could prevail against contrary official versions of what the substantive law was, as Green has shown, how much more potent could they be when the government was not inclined to oppose their effectuation?


Abstract Following the global rejection of apartheid, from 1970–1990, South Africa was both expelled and suspended from membership from a significant number of international sports federations, including the International Gymnastics Federation. Confronted with isolation from the international arena, the South African Gymnastics Union initiated a series of unsanctioned 'rebel tours' involving both leading and emerging countries. The United States of America (USA) proved to be one of South Africa's most loyal friends and allies over the period in question. Unfazed by their listing on the blacklist of the United Nations Centre against Apartheid and the unsavoury title of being a collaborator of apartheid, this relationship survived until two years after the passing of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 by the USA Congress. The extent, form, implications, and interlinkages of this relationship are part of both countries' hidden history and deserve to be foregrounded with a view to its insertion into a larger transnational narrative.


Abstract The mechanism of the decomposition of formic acid HCOOH on ZnO(10 1 0) surfaces was investigated using the ab initio molecular orbital method. Furthermore, the role of the dynamic bending of the surface formate anion HCOO − in the decomposition reaction was also examined. The lattice Zn atom interacts with the C–H bond of the adsorbed formate anion and cleaves the C–H bond to yield adsorbed CO 2 and ZnH species. However, similar results are not obtained with the lattice O atom or surface OH species. The energy barriers of C–H bond cleavage and CO 2 desorption from the surface were calculated to be 45.5 and 11.2 kcal/mol, respectively, at the MP2 level. H 2 formation is a bimolecular process: another formic acid from the gas phase attacks the ZnH surface species and produces an H 2 molecule. The calculated energy barrier is 2.2 kcal/mol and the exothermicity of the reaction is 11.3 kcal/mol at the MP2 level. These results indicate that the rate-determining step of the dehydrogenation decomposition of formic acid is cleavage of the C–H bond. Both the decomposition reaction and the dissociative adsorption of HCOOH occur more easily on hydrogen-covered surface than on a clean surface.


The HDB3 code(High Density Bipolar of order 3 code)has the features of no DC component,little low frequency component and less than three zero string,making the extraction of clock signal is more accessible.Through analyzing the principle of HDB3 coding and decoding,a new coding and decoding method based on FPGA is proposed.All the modules are programmed and simulated by Verilog HDL.And the hardware circuit is designed and tested.The HDB3 coder and decoder have been applied to related experimental equipment.


Background: The use of total thyroidectomy in benign thyroid disease treatment is not universal. A total of 60 total thyroidectomies performed for benign thyroid diseases. The Aim of the study was to evaluate the role of total thyroidectomy in patients with presumed bilateral benign thyroid disease, with special emphasis on the incidence of two major post-operative complications namely hypoparathyroidism and recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy. Methods: It was a prospective study, A total of 60 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for benign thyroid diseases between January 2016 to January 2018 were studied in department of general surgery at St Martha's hospital, Bangalore. The patients were followed up for a period of nine months for post-operative complications. Results: Most of the patients were in the fifth decade of life, Female outnumbered males. Female: male ratio was 4.5:1. Amongst the 60 patients in the present study, the incidence of transient recurrent unilateral laryngeal nerve palsy was seen in 5 %, temporary hypocalcemia in 20%, permanent hypocalcemia in 3.3%, and permanent unilateral laryngeal nerve palsy in 1.66%. Malignancy detected after histopathological examination was in 8.33% of the patients. There was no wound infection, hematoma, bilateral RLN palsy and post-operative mortality. Conclusion: Total thyroidectomy for benign thyroid disease can eliminate any subsequent risk of malignant change in thyroid glands. A low complication rate can be achieved with meticulous surgical technique. Total thyroidectomy can be performed safely and can be considered as valuable option for treating benign bilateral thyroid diseases.


INTRODUCTION
Malaria is a public health problem in the Urabá region recording rates of infection above those of the Antioquia department. The burden of vivax malaria is 78.7% and the profile of vivax malaria in this region has scarcely been studied.

OBJECTIVES
To analyze the clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients hospitalized for vivax malaria in Apartadó.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We reviewed the medical records of patients with vivax malaria hospitalized in the Antonio Roldán Betancur hospital from 2004-2007. Results. Of 359 patients with vivax malaria who required hospitalization, 23.1% (83/359 patients) had the following complications: severe anemia, 51.8% (43/83); severe thrombocytopenia, 15.6% (13/83); hyperbilirubinemia, 7.2 % (6/83). Some patients met several criteria for complicated malaria simultaneously, including one case of acute respiratory distress syndrome. The most significant laboratory changes were decreases in the hemoglobin, hematocrit and platelet levels, with increased levels of transaminases and bilirubin. Only 4.82% (4/83) of patients with complicated malaria were treated with intravenous quinine, no one died.

CONCLUSIONS
The elevated frequency of complicated vivax malaria found in the Uraba region in this study is noteworthy, particularly in children under 5 years. The results highlight the need to strengthen, amongst the health staff, the knowledge of the guidelines for the clinical care of malaria patients, in order to make a correct clinical diagnosis and provide appropriate treatment.


The journey through life is laden with ironies. But perhaps the greatest irony of all is that feces, which are disgusting to virtually everyone, are also absolutely vital to life. Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) has proven to be a lifesaving technique for Clostridia difficile infection [1,2]. And it might have therapeutic value for a host of other incompletely treated conditions. A search of thewebsite, Clinicaltrials.gov, on 27May 2019 with the keywords, fecal transplant, found listings for 307 trials. Pubmed lists nearly 2000 manuscripts on this topic. Quite a few physicians and scientists apparently now accept that disgusting and lifesaving are not mutually exclusive terms. Joshua Lederberg coined the term, microbiome, for the microbes living in and on each of us [3]. In addition to bacteria, the microbiome includes viruses, fungi, and sometimes other organisms such as helminths. We now appreciate that the microbiome is essential for health. Our microbes are a source of vitamins and neurotransmitters. Most importantly, our microbes educate our immune system. Mice which are raised in a germ free environment have shrunken lymphoid organs and an impaired immune response [4]. We should not forget that our gut microbiome metabolizes many of the medications that we ingest [5,6]. The microbiome even alters the efficacy of anti-cancer therapy, such as checkpoint inhibitors [7,8]. Anyone who has ever taken an antibiotic knows that drugs alter bugs, but the range of drugs altering bugs is being increasingly explored. And we are just starting to explore how bugs alter drugs. Acetaminophen was one of the first recognized examples [5], but many more have followed [6]. Medical literature includes reports on FMT for C. difficile colitis [1] and other refractory bowel infections [9], ulcerative colitis [10,11] Crohn's disease [12], irritable bowel syndrome [13,14], sclerosing cholangitis [15], constipation [16], cirrhosis [17], hepatic encephalopathy [18,19], psoriatic arthritis [20], graft versus host disease [21], diabetic neuropathy [22] and metabolic syndrome [23–25], although data are sparse and sometimes negative or inconclusive for some of these indications. Additional indications are under study or were under study based on listings with clinicaltrials.gov and as shown in Table 1. While FMT is a movement with tremendous momentum (pun intended), we are lackingmany answers.What is the best route (e.g. oral, rectal, jejeunal) to deliver FMT? (ForC. difficile infection, delivery by colonoscopy appears to be superior) [2]. How frequently must FMT be repeated? How durable is the effect? Can FMT be used as a strategy for prevention rather than treatment? Does pretreatment with antibiotics help or hinder the engraftment of FMT? Are there risks from future antibiotics? How safe is FMT? Could there be unanticipated long-term side effects? Not all healthy donors are equally effective for specific diseases; more work needs to be done to identify the bacteria or ratio of bacteria that result in benefit. In addition, recently Khoruts and Brandt appropriately contended that intestinal microbiota transplantation might be a more appropriate designation for this therapeutic approach [26]. FMT is invaluable as a proof of concept regarding the microbiome's role in health and disease, but it is clearly not the ultimate approach to treat microbiome-driven diseases. One obvious problem is the esthetics of fecal transplant. But there are also dangers. FMT can certainly transmit viral diseases [27] and in theory, it could transmit prions or other incompletely detected infectious vectors. On 13 June 2019, the New York Times reported that the Food and Drug Administration was investigating an FMT-related death from E. Coli sepsis in an immunocompromised host in a trial in which guidelines were not followed. (https://www.nytimes. com/2019/06/13/health/fecal-transplant-fda.html). As a consequence, some FMT clinical trials were being halted. It should also be emphasized that some stool banks screen more rigorously than others for disease. Data support the safety of FMT even in immunocompromised hosts [28]. The mechanisms by which FMT could restore health are multiple. In the case of C. difficile, FMTmight simply restore a healthy gut ecosystem such that the pathogen no longer has a major competitive advantage. In obesity, gut bacteria affect the metabolism of ingested food and therefore have a profound effect on the availability of food derived calories. But bacteria could also affect neurotransmitters and thus have a fundamental effect on appetite. Bacterial mimicry of self-antigens, enhanced bowel permeability, changes in immune homeostasis such as a reduction in regulatory T cells or an expansion of TH17 T cells, and activation of lymphocytes or other immune cells from the lamina propria to remote organs are additional explanations as to how the intestinal microbiome contributes to health or disease [29]. If the gut microbiome is vital to health, but FMT is not likely to be the ultimate solution, what alternatives exist? Rather than


Robotic manipulation stands as a largely unsolved problem despite significant advances in robotics and machine learning in the last decades. One of the central challenges of manipulation is partial observability, as the agent usually does not know all physical properties of the environment and the objects it is manipulating in advance. A recently emerging theory that deals with partial observability in an explicit manner is Active Inference. It does so by driving the agent to act in a way that is not only goal-directed but also informative about the environment. In this work, we apply Active Inference to a hard-to-explore simulated robotic manipulation tasks, in which the agent has to balance a ball into a target zone. Since the reward of this task is sparse, in order to explore this environment, the agent has to learn to balance the ball without any extrinsic feedback, purely driven by its own curiosity. We show that the information-seeking behavior induced by Active Inference allows the agent to explore these challenging, sparse environments systematically. Finally, we conclude that using an information-seeking objective is beneficial in sparse environments and allows the agent to solve tasks in which methods that do not exhibit directed exploration fail.


The subject of the study is the peculiarities of economic relations between economic entities in the conditions of a creative economy formation and development. of The purpose of the article is the author's vision of the peculiarities of the creative economy and the assessment of the real state of its development in Ukraine and the development of proposals for its promising directions and the solution of strategic tasks. Methodology of the work – is the position of theories of creative economy and creative industries, the concept of cultural capital. On the basis of the system approach, factors that influence the character of innovation and creative processes in Ukraine are identified. Using the methods of statistical and expert analysis, the trends of the real state of the creative economy in the country are determined. The methods of structuring and synthesis identify the strengths and weaknesses of the potential of the development of a creative economy in Ukraine and elaborate proposals for strengthening the role of creative resources in ensuring economic growth and solving social problems. The results of the work – an assessment of the state of development of the creative economy in Ukraine and the impact of factors that complicate the achievement of the goals set and require the strengthening of state policy to address the problems accumulated in society and the innovation system. Conclusions – the modern Ukrainian economy needs specific, different from the traditional economy, approaches to the definition and implementation of state policy to strengthen the development of creative industries and the formation of a model of a creative economy. Particular emphasis should be put on the creative direction in the reform of education, in particular, in the STEM-education actively involved creative, artistic disciplines by the generic term Arts.


PURPOSE: To study the clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of nine patients with corneal and scleral involvement associated to connective tissue disease. METHODS: Description of anterior segment abnormalities observed in nine patients with connective tissue disease, five of them previously diagnosed and four with the ocular involvement being the first manifestation of the disease. All patients were evaluated at the Corneal and External Diseases outpatient clinic of the Federal University of Sao Paulo - Escola Paulista de Medicina (UNIFESP-EPM) between July/1999 to December/2000 and were submitted to a complete ophthalmologic examination, clinical evaluation and laboratory investigation. Clinical or surgical treatment was indicated according to the ocular disease evolution. RESULTS: The clinical diagnoses of the patients with anterior segment inflammatory disease were rheumatoid arthritis in seven patients (77.8%), systemic sclerosis and Wegener´s granulomatosis in each of the remaining patients (22.2%). The most frequent ocular manifestation was scleritis (66.6%), followed by peripheral ulcerative keratitis (55.5%) and dry eye syndrome (44.4%). Eighty-nine percent (89%) of the patients required immunosuppressive therapy to control the ocular inflammatory disease. Remission of the ocular symptoms were observed after 3 months of the beginning of imunossupressive therapy on average. In 55.5% of the patients a surgical approach (conjunctival resection, application of cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive, penetrating keratoplasty and scleral patch graft) was necessary. CONCLUSION: The finding of corneal and scleral involvement associated with connective tissue disease is a sign of the disease activity and usually requires imunossupressive therapy. The ophthalmologists should be aware of these conditions in order to early diagnose and apply the appropriate treatment.


Health care systems can be tough on sexual and gender minority (SGM) patients. My teachable moments didn't happen in PA school or as a practicing PA but rather while my partner or I have been sitting in a paper gown on an exam table. We face the same challenge every visit: to ensure our health concerns are addressed while navigating assumptions—from the patient registration forms through the clinical interaction, the patient satisfaction questionnaire, and the lack of tracking of our health outcomes—that we are heterosexual. These are the four critical opportunities within the delivery of health care services when knowing sexual orientation and gender identity can impact a patient's health. Ideally, patient registration should allow SGM patients to ensure their legal rights in visitation, advance directives, billing, preferred name, and so forth. The clinical interaction requires history taking that is culturally competent and knowledgeable in SGM health. Patient satisfaction evaluations should capture the experiences of SGM patients, and health outcomes should be tracked. Some SGm patients seek care in specialized environments at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community health centers (http://bit.ly/fV5e9Z). Others turn to resources like the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association's provider directory (http://bit.ly/gS84FO). These options aren't accessible everywhere, however, and PAs are already encountering SGM patients—even when we don't know it. According to census data, same-sex households exist in 99.3% of US counties.1 Similar data on gender identity aren't available but are increasingly being collected in health surveys. Just 10 years ago, the Healthy People (HP) initiative identified 29 specific objectives for which sexual orientation appeared in the data templates while, with the exception of the HIV/AIDS Surveillance System of the CDC, data identifying people by sexual orientation were not collected by any national survey or system. Gender identity and transgender health were notably omitted from HP2010.2,3 However, HP2020 contains objectives pertinent to LGBT health throughout many topic areas, and LGBT health is one of 13 new topic areas. According to the National Coalition for LGBT Health, HP2020 is remarkable for its emphasis on identifying, measuring, tracking, and reducing health disparities through a determinants-of-health approach (http:// bit.ly/i3lSGf). The shortage of health care providers who are knowledgeable and culturally competent in LGBT health is of particular relevance to PAs. HP2020 recognizes this as a social determinant affecting the health of LGBT patients. PAs can reduce the need for specialized environments by becoming knowledgeable and culturally competent in SGM health. I've seen many excellent LGBT health resources; and I suspect it's not a lack of information driving the shortage of knowledgeable and culturally competent health care providers. But I am confident that a growing body of data makes it increasingly easy for PAs to become appropriately informed. In addition to HP2020, there are other resources worth highlighting. My favorite textbook for primary care providers is The Fenway Guide to LGBT Health published by the American College of Physicians (http://bit.ly/hJIwmV). For an in-depth assessment of LGBT health data, the Institute of Medicine will be publishing a consensus report on LGBT Health Issues and Research Gaps and Opportunities later this month (http://bit.ly/6idzM0). national LGBt Health Awareness Week (which occurs annually in March) helps to bridge the gap between the growing body of data, clinicians, and our LGBT patients (www.lgbthealth.net). On the most basic level, we are reminded not to assume that all of our patients are heterosexual and cisgendered, and we are encouraged to improve our interpersonal and communication skills, one of the core PA competencies, by learning how and when to talk with our patients about sexuality and gender. A successful LGBT health awareness campaign will encourage LGBT patients to seek increased access to knowledgeable and culturally competent care. Will you be ready? Whether your role is clinical, research, or administrative, take a moment to ask yourself, do you know who your SGM patients are? And do you know when and why it matters? PAs can reduce the shortage of health care providers who are knowledgeable and culturally competent in SGM health and should avoid making any assumptions about patients' sexual orientation and gender identity. SGM patients need to receive the four critical opportunities for data collection in patient registration, clinical interaction, patient satisfaction, and health outcomes. Their health depends on it. JAAPA


There is a clinical impression that patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have a higher level of physical fitness and lower body mass index (BMI) than average. However, there is a lack of literature examining the relationship between cognitive fitness and ALS risk. In this study we explored the associations of both physical and cognitive fitness with future risk of ALS.


The protective measures from the perspective of families in situation of sexual violence This paper presents the results of a survey with five families who experienced situations of sexual violence against children and adolescents. It was carried out one year after the families received application of protective measures according to the Law Statute of Infancy and Youth. A semi-structured interview with six women, relatives of the victims, was the instrument used. The results showed that after the period of one year four of the five families had not received any intervention and one of them had been exposed to repeated evaluations by various institutions in the protection network. The families expressed emotional distress by the lack of support, ignorance and alienation from the process, and disappointment in relation to legal institutions and service. They also showed that their expectations regarding the protection system involves the formation of bond that allows the recognition of their pain and their expression as autonomous individuals.


Among Muslim scholars, Abu Hamed Muhammad Ghazali, emphasis on selfknowledge and introspection in recognizing the factors and obstacles in the realization of moral acts has special prominence. His view about why man's moral knowledge does not necessarily lead to corresponding moral acts is close to Aristotle's view which considers overcoming weak will as well as the existence of knowledge to be necessary in this regard. Ghazali provides six stages for the formation of moral acts which, in order to be traversed requires not only that the factors of realization of moral acts are available but also that any present obstacles be removed. Five obstacles can be extracted from Ghazali's sayings in Ihya e Ulumid Deen, (Revival of the Religious Sciences). By analyzing Ghazali's views about each of these obstacles especially Satan and his theory regarding good and bad thoughts in man, one can assume that he regards the origin of all of these obstacles to be internal, and not the presence of an independent and external factor which finds its way into man. If such a view is accepted, it will have important influences on accepting, knowing and defining moral factors and obstacles, as well as on man's moral training and it can also be proposed as a comprehensive view, even beyond the boundaries of a particular religion and denomination.


The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI3K)/Akt intracellular signaling pathway plays important roles in both normal physiological and pathogenic processes by regulating the expression of genes involved in cell survival,differentiation,growth,movement,and apoptosis.In particular,the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway has been implicated in the development and progression of haptic fibrosis.In this review,we summarize the current knowledge of the mechanisms by which PI3K/Akt signal transduction regulates extracellular matrix degradation,hepatic stellate cell activation,and sinusoidal capillarization,all of which play important roles in the formation of hepatic fibrosis.This information not only reveals the complex interplay of mulitple cellular processes and signaling factors underlying the disease condition,but also highlights the potential therapeutic benefit of inhibiting the PI3K/AKT pathway to prevent and treat liver fibrosis.


PURPOSE: A method for detecting leakage of dangerous gas is provided to reduce damage of lives and property to minimum by preventing the accident by leakage of the dangerous gas in advance with confirming leakage of all sorts of dangerous gas easily. CONSTITUTION: In the method for detecting leakage of dangerous gas, a gas detecting tape(1), a sticking type tape(2) and a detecting reagent(3) are included. The gas detecting tape(1) is manufactured by sticking the powder or sheet type materials soaked into the detecting reagent(3) on the sticking type tape(2). The detecting reagent(3) is composed of a chromophore, an oxide accelerator and a metal oxide restrainer etc. The size and shape of the gas detecting tape(1) are controlled according to the size of a gas pipe. If the gas detecting tape(1) is sticked on a joint of the gas pipe and an instrument with the danger of gas leakage, the color of the tape(1) is changed when it is contacted with the leaked gas.


The dilemma There has been increasing concern about Governmental collection of information for statistical analysis (World Mediane, ISJune 1973; British Mediane, 7 April 1978; the Sunday Times, 2 July 1978). Recently the Central Ethical Committee of the BMA refused to agree that General Practitioners should record information about pre-school children containing details about the mother's obstetric history. Again, the


Recent studies have shown that stimulus history can be decoded via the use of broadband sensory impulses to reactivate mnemonic representations. It has also been shown that predictive mechanisms in the auditory system demonstrate similar tonotopic organization of neural activity as that elicited by the perceived stimuli. However, it remains unclear if the mnemonic and predictive information can be decoded from cortical activity simultaneously and from overlapping neural populations. Here, we recorded neural activity using electrocorticography (ECoG) in the auditory cortex of anesthetized rats while exposed to repeated stimulus sequences, where events within the sequence were occasionally replaced with a broadband noise burst or omitted entirely. We show that both stimulus history and predicted stimuli can be decoded from neural responses to broadband impulse at overlapping latencies but linked to largely independent neural populations. We also demonstrate that predictive representations are learned over the course of stimulation at two distinct time scales, reflected in two dissociable time windows of neural activity. These results establish a valuable tool for investigating the neural mechanisms of passive sequence learning, memory encoding, and prediction mechanisms within a single paradigm, and provide novel evidence for learning predictive representations even under anaesthesia.


The student of the earliest literary works of our Western culture, those of Greece, soon learns that not all of them are literature in the strict sense. The Homeric poems are not works that were composed with the aid of writing materials. They bear within themselves very patently the marks of oral composition and recitation, and the Greek traditions about them are hardly intelligible on any other interpretation. European poetry, however, soon exchanged oral composition for that based on the use of writing materials, and our literatures in the Western world are to the present day predicated in an extraordinarily intimate fashion on this newer technique and its consequences. So much is this so, that for many scholars over many centuries the implications of oral composition for the understanding of Homer were forgotten. Not all had been oblivious, to be sure-one need mention only Gilbert Murray and the Chadwicks to refute that-but there was a need for some new impulse to make the matter vivid enough to be vital in Homeric studies. This new impulse was external and analogous, as it turned out. An American classical scholar originally of the University of California, Milman Parry, knew well enough the method of composition of the Homeric poems and knew too that there existed in the modern world and in a geographical area not far removed from Greece an oral epic. In the comparatively peaceful period between the two World Wars he went to Yugoslavia and in the mountains of the southern part of that country and of Albania he recorded and investigated the South Slav epic. He and his collaborators and pupils found there a technique remarkably similar in many details to that which had been postulated for Homer. It was possible to go on and to apply profitably to Homeric interpretation other details of the technique of the South Slav epic singers. Much of the needed reexamining of several of these literatures based on oral composition has been done by Maurice Bowra in his masterly and suggestive


Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) Multimedia Application Format (MAF) specify how to combine the variety of DMB contents with associated information for a presentation in a well-defined format that facilitates interchange, management, editing, and presentation of the DMB contents. The current metadtata specification for DMB MAF [3] is based on TV-Anytime metadata tools. In this paper, we overview the general application scenarios of DMB MAF and then explore the TV-Anytime metadata tools and usage examples proposed for DMB MAF.


The invention relates to N-substituted phenyl-N'-substituted heterocyclic urea compounds and application of the same as anti-cancer drugs and especially discloses N-substituted phenyl-N'-substituted heterocyclic urea compounds which are used as a VEGFR-2 kinase inhibitor and represented by formula (I) and application of the compounds in preparation of drugs used for treating diseases mediated by VEGFR-2. In the formula (I) as described in the specification, R1, R2 and R3 are selected from the group consisting of halogen, cyano-groups, hydroxyl groups, and substituted or unsubstituted C1-C6 straight chains, C1-C6 branched chain alkyl groups, C3-C7 cycloalkyl groups, C6-C10 aryl groups and C6-C10 heteroaryl groups or C6-C10 heterocyclic radicals containing one or more selected from the group consisting of N, S and O atoms, wherein substituent groups are selected from the group consisting of amino groups, halogen, C1-C6 alkyl groups, hydroxyl groups, C1-C6 alkyloxy groups, nitro groups, cyano-groups, mercapto groups, C1-C6 alkylthio groups, halogen-C1-C6 alkylthio groups, heterocyclic radical, heteroaryl groups, heterocyclic alkyl groups, heteroaryl C1-C6 alkyl groups, C1-C6 alkanoyl groups and carbamoyl groups; and ring A is substituted or unsubstituted pyrimidinyl groups, pyrazinyl groups, pyridyl groups, thienyl groups or thiazolyl groups, wherein substituent groups are selected from the group consisting of halogen, cyano-groups and hydroxyl groups.


Information transfer which reveals the state variation of variables usually plays a vital role in big data analytics and processing. In fact, the measures for information transfer could reflect the system change by use of the variable distributions, similar to KL divergence and Renyi divergence. Furthermore, in terms of the information transfer in big data, small probability events usually dominate the importance of the total message to some degree. Therefore, it is significant to design an information transfer measure based on the message importance which emphasizes the small probability events. In this paper, we propose a message importance transfer measure (MITM) and investigate its characteristics and applications on three aspects. First, the message importance transfer capacity based on MITM is presented to offer an upper bound for the information transfer process with disturbance. Then, we extend the MITM to the continuous case and discuss the robustness by using it to measuring information distance. Finally, we utilize the MITM to guide the queue length selection in the caching operation of mobile edge computing.


We monitored reverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling and LV function during the first 6 months of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in 34 patients (mean age = 55.3 ± 13.6 years, 28 men) with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), left bundle branch block, in stable New York Heart Association class III, and on fixed drug regimen who underwent implantation of CRT systems with or without cardioverter defibrillator back‐up. QRS‐complex duration was reduced from 169.69 ± 19.6 ms (SD) to 144.1 ± 23.4 ms during CRT. Parasternal M‐mode and apical 2D‐echocardiography was performed before and 3 and 6 months after device implantation. LV enddiastolic (EDD) and endsystolic (ESD) diameters were measured, and biplane LV enddiastolic (EDV), and endsystolic (ESV) volumes and ejection fractions (EF) were calculated using a modified Simpson formula. Significant decreases in LVEDD (P = 0.0064 at 3 months and P = 0.021 at 6 months), LVESD (P = 0.023 at 3 months, and P = 0.003 at 6 months), and LVESV (P = 0.006 resp. P = 0.007), and increases in LVEF (P = 0.003 at 3 months and P < 0.001 at 6 months) were observed. Mean LVEF increased from 23% at baseline to 39% at 6 months. CRT induced prominent reverse LV remodeling and significantly increased LVEF within a few months in patients with DCM.


The original description of Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) 1969 was generated from the ascertainment of medical and death records of over 600 children with rhabdomyosarcoma. Although the clinical definition of LFS has evolved over the decades, the occurrence of sarcoma in at least one affected TP53 gene mutation carrier is common to many families. However, the genotype:cancer phenotype association of sarcomas in mutation carriers remains poorly understood. This lecture will review some of the phenotypic characterizations of sarcomas in LFS and explore recent exciting advances that suggest a role for various genetic/genomic and epigenetic modifiers of the underlying germline TP53 mutation in defining these clinical phenotypes. The challenges and opportunities to enhance early tumor detection and modify disease risk will also be discussed. Citation Format: David Malkin. Modeling sarcoma susceptibility: The Li-Fraumeni syndrome paradigm [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Conference on Advances in Sarcomas: From Basic Science to Clinical Translation; May 16-19, 2017; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(2_Suppl):Abstract nr IA02.


Intestinal barrier is the first line of defense that separates our body from the external environment. Its function is to maintain intestinal tissue homeostasis, regulating the passage of molecules and protecting from harmful microbes. Intestinal barrier is made up by the mucus layer, critical for the limitation of the exposure to the gut microbiota and by intestinal epithelial cells sealed by inter-epithelial tight junctions A strong cause-effect relation between intestinal permeability alterations and both intestinal and systemic diseases (like obesity, type 2 diabetes and NAFLD) is becoming evident, suggesting that restoring proper gut permeability by targeting the intestinal epithelial barrier could represent a successful intervention. The present study proposes the use of a superabsorbent hydrogel, based on naturally derived building blocks to restore gut permeability, likely acting on the intestinal epithelial barrier, directly or indirectly.


Hydroelectric power is both an efficient and reliable form of a clean source of renewable energy. It can be an excellent method of harnessing renewable energy from small rivers and streams. A Pico hydroelectric power system of a cross-flow turbine type is designed and simulated in this study. Model parameters such as runner diameter, runner length, blade spacing, radius of blade curvature, shaft diameter, water jet thickness, turbine speed, turbine power and the number of blades that play major role to achieve the turbine maximum efficiency were determined theoretically. The designed Hydro-electric power system's maximum efficiency was estimated to be 87% with a head of 6390 mm at a flow rate of 0.089 . Numerically, analysis of the designed power generation system was carried out using (structural analysis and design) STAAD pro connect software and ANSYS tool. The performance evaluation results using the STAAD pro software for the system water reservoir sitting stanchion simulation indicated that the stanchion will not fail while carrying the load. Similarly, the numerical analysis of the designed cross-flow turbine type in this work using the ANSYS tool revealed that the shaft will be able to withstand deformation due to torsion when subjected to a maximum torque of 51.46 Nm. Hence the designed hydroelectric power system will be efficient to produce a 5kVA electrical power


The purpose of this research is to highlight the phonology studies by one of the experts on Islamic fiqh, Abu Shijae Muhammad Bin Ali (Abn Alddahan Alfaqih Alfardi) through the introduction of his book ' Taqwim alnazar fi masayil khilafia dhayiea, wa nabadh modhabia nafiea ' which is a fiqh book. This research also highlights his words on sounds and the classification of sounds articulation, sound sections, and defects of speaking, which comes within the phonology studies by the experts of Islamic fiqh, in which their studies and books had excelled with diversity, cognitive and scientific integration. The research conclusions : _ How Abn Alddahan had figured out the natural way for classified language sounds into silent sounds and spoken sounds. _ Abn Alddahan Alfaqih Alfardi's description of sounds articulation and how it matches with the description by Saybawih and who came after him. Except that is Abn Alddahan has taken his own way by shortened the description of sounds articulation in a way which it won't be far from what Saybawih and the audience had said. _ Abn Alddahan Alfaqih Alfaradi considered one of the first who had talked about the sound sections and types by its notion today in the modern phonology science.


Three element-oriented Bayesian networks models are built to estimate the fault section of a power system. Each of them is composed of noisy-or and noisy-and nodes. The three models are used to locate three types of fault elements: transmission lines, transformers and bus bars respectively. The learning algorithm for network parameters is analogous to the back propagation algorithm of neural networks. Taking the sum of the mean-squared error between the expected values and the computed results of target variables as the minimizing optimization function, it adjusts the network's parameters continuously. According to the operation information of protective relays and circuit breakers, fault credibility of elements in the blackout area is calculated based on the structure of the Bayesian network. By comparing the resultant beliefs of possible fault elements, the fault element(s) is identified. The proposed approach can deal with uncertainties in fault section diagnosis, and the models have clear semantics, rapid reasoning, etc. The testing results for a real power system have shown that the fault diagnosis models are correct, efficient and are promising to be used in a large power system for on-line fault diagnosis.


We propose a formal model for argumentation-based dialogues between agents, using assumption-based argumentation (ABA). The model is given in terms of ABA-specific utterances, trees drawn from dialogues and legal-move and outcome functions. We prove a formal connection between these dialogues and argumentation semantics. We illustrate persuasion as an application of the dialogue model.


Since 1967, computer-controlled test systems have been used with great success for the rapid and automatic test and evaluation of parameters of multiconductor telephone cables ranging in lengths from 200 to 20 000 ft. These parameters are important in the design and manufacture of cables by determining transmission efficiency, crosstalk, and noise. These systems have evolved into a second-generation version with improvements in measurement techniques and operational utility. In addition to measurements of mutual capacitance, capacitance unbalance to ground, and pair-to-pair, measurements of capacitance unbalance to shield and resistance parameters such as mutual conductance, conductor resistance, and resistance unbalance can now be made with the same system. This paper describes the structure of these automatic systems and some of the current and future capabilities.


Suicide among adolescents is a major public health problem: it is the third leading cause of death in the US for ages 13-18. Up to now, there is no objective ways to assess the suicidal risk, i.e. whether a patient is non-suicidal, suicidal re-attempter (i.e. repeater) or suicidal non-repeater (i.e. individuals with one suicide attempt or showing signs of suicidal gestures or ideation). Therefore, features of the conversation including verbal information and nonverbal acoustic information were investigated from 60 audio-recorded interviews of 30 suicidal (13 repeaters and 17 non-repeaters) and 30 non-suicidal adolescents interviewed by a social worker. The interaction between clinician and patients was statistically analyzed to reveal differences between suicidal vs. non-suicidal adolescents and to investigate suicidal repeaters' behaviors in comparison to suicidal non-repeaters. By using a hierarchical ensemble classifier we were able to successfully discriminate non-suicidal patients, suicidal repeaters and suicidal non-repeaters.


An attempt has been made to study the dependence of various characteristics of relativistic charged particles, produced in 4.5 A GeV/c 12C- nucleus interactions on the multiplicity of grey particles. The results reveal that the peaks on η -distributions shift towards the smaller values of η with increasing multiplicity of grey particles. The results also reveal that the value of mean normalized pseudo rapidity density is less than unity in the projectile fragmentation region; while the value of this parameter is found to increase in the target fragmentation region. Finally, it is observed that the clusterization of final state relativistic charged particles occurs significantly in 4.5 A GeV/c 12 c-nucleus reactions.


The present invention provides an apparatus comprising a first structure allowing the short-circuit and a method of making the first embodiment of the device. The first device may comprise a substrate and a plurality of OLED circuit elements disposed on said substrate. Each OLED may include a circuit element adapted to electrically short-circuited in response to the pixel connected to the electric fuse is disconnected. Each OLED circuit elements may include a pixel, the pixel may include a first electrode, an organic electroluminescent EL material disposed between the second electrode and the first electrode and the second electrode. The OLED of each of the circuit elements may not be any other circuit elements OLED of the OLED circuit elements are electrically connected in series.


What is the real role of sustainability standards in supply chains? This was a question we had been grappling with for a long time at the ISEAL Alliance, the global membership association for sustainability standards that I head. Hence, we began in late 2014 to interview companies to learn from all kinds of businesses as to what they saw as the value of working with credible standards systems. We wanted to know if certification made good sense from a business perspective.


A recent editorial in Nature 1 urged scientists to rise above politics and restate their value to society. It is a suggestion that may work if what is of value could be agreed upon by scientists, their paymasters and ordinary citizens. Generating data or evidence-based knowledge is what scientists are supposed to do. That probably is the enduring value of science. However, to the two biggest paymasters of the scientific profession – Government and industry – that kind of value means little. Science that delivers technologies for war or profit, preferably both, is of value to them. To complicate matters, to an average citizen all data-based knowledge has now become a domain for 'experts'. Consequently, when bad or bogus knowledge is touted as 'scientific' or 'expert advice', the value of all knowledge is undermined. Unfortunately, in the post-truth world 'expert advice' is often nothing but lies cloaked in bad or fraudulent statistical data. A closer examination of the ideology that drives this rampant misuse of data in the name of science is therefore necessary.


It is well known that for some tasks, labeled data sets may be hard to gather. Therefore, we wished to tackle here the problem of having insufficient training data. We examined learning methods from unlabeled data after an initial training on a limited labeled data set. The suggested approach can be used as an online learning method on the unlabeled test set. In the general classification task, whenever we predict a label with high enough confidence, we treat it as a true label and train the data accordingly. For the semantic segmentation task, a classic example for an expensive data labeling process, we do so pixel-wise. Our suggested approaches were applied on the MNIST data-set as a proof of concept for a vision classification task and on the ADE20K data-set in order to tackle the semi-supervised semantic segmentation problem.


Excerpt Much knowledge on the epidemiology of the various cardiovascular disorders, particularly coronary heart disease (1), has been gained in recent years. Data on prevalence, incidence, and mort...


Rock desertification pervades the karst regions in Southwest China.In spite of a moderate annual precipitation there,temporary droughts occur frequently under the special geological background.In a study reported in this paper,we used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250m Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from 2000 to 2004 as an indicator of vegetation growth to qualify how vegetation in this region responded to precipitation when rock desertification occurred.Our results suggested that climatic droughts exerted the major influence on vegetation growth under an annual precipitation of 900 mm,while geological droughts were found to be more influential under an annual precipitation of 900 mm.A positive correlation was observed between NDVI and precipitation in the rock desertification regions.The typical karst rock desertification regions were largely distributed in the upper reaches of the Wujiang River and the Panjiang River.


Abstract : (U//FOUO)Unexploded ordnance (UXO) resulting from munitions failures creates significant safety and environmental hazards. Smaller munitions, such as BLU-97 bomblets, are notorious for their tendency to dud (Pellerin, 2006). A typical submunition fill, such as PBXN-107, uses cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) in an acrylate binder as the main explosive component. RDX is persistent in the environment and is prevalent on and near Department of Defense (DoD) training ranges (Pennington et al., 2006; Jenkins et al., 2006). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a drinking water guideline limit for RDX of 2 g/L. As a potential solution to the persistent environmental problems of UXO, cyclic N,N-dinitrourea derivatives may provide an attractive replacement for currently used energetics like RDX. Many cyclic N,N-dinitrourea derivatives have similar explosive performance parameters to RDX but are more hydrolytically reactive. The objective of this project was to develop and characterize an energetic fill formulation incorporating cyclic N,N-dinitrourea derivatives as a replacement for currently used energetics like cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX). This energetic fill would readily decompose into benign products when exposed to moisture (i.e., high humidity or precipitation).Three cyclic N,N-dinitrourea derivatives were investigated for use in self-remediating energetic fills; tetranitroglycoluril (TNGU), hexanitrohexaazatricyclododecanedione (HHTDD), and 2,4,8,10-tetranitro-2,4,8,10-tetraazaspiro[5.5]undecane-3,9-dione (TNSUK). TNGU was chosen for scale-up because of its straightforward synthesis, rapid degradation under humid conditions, relative stability in dry conditions, and explosive performance greater than RDX (detonation pressure and detonation velocity.


As opposed to the traditional market model, which is based on possession, the 'Sharing Economy' is based on sharing and utilizing services and products among others. Airbnb founded by Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky in 2008, is one the best example of the Sharing Economy. The purpose of this paper was to determine and compare the market revenue and occupancy rates of the selected cities in the National Capital Region from 2016-2019. Secondary Data was from AirDNA - a paid service tool intentional for Airbnb researchers. One-way Anova was the statistical test used in this study, followed by an honestly significant difference (HSD) test. This research paper covered seven (7) selected cities in the National Capital Region. These are the City of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasay, Parañaque, Pasig, and Quezon City. The results revealed that in the year 2016-2019 Manila appeared to have the highest percentage of occupancy rate, while Makati City gained the highest amount of Market Revenue.


Design of an Infrared (IR) Optical Detector using the alloy Mercury Cadmium Telluride (HgCdTe) is presented. The proposed structure mainly has three layers, two of them are IR absorbing layers with different cut-off wavelengths while the third layer is sandwiched between the two photosensitive layers to prevent the transfer of carriers across the layers and thus acting as an electrical barrier. The simulation results, depict current densities at different wavelengths, considering both cases of recombination and no-recombination indicate that this detector is suitable for photodetection in the infrared region in two transmission windows, namely mid-wave IR (2–5 µm) and long-wave IR (6–12 µm).


In this paper, we compare three initialization schemes for the KMEANS clustering algorithm: 1) random initialization (KMEANSRAND), 2) KMEANS++, and 3) KMEANSD++. Both KMEANSRAND and KMEANS++ have a major that the value of k needs to be set by the user of the algorithms. (Kang 2013) recently proposed a novel use of determinantal point processes for sampling the initial centroids for the KMEANS algorithm (we call it KMEANSD++). They, however, do not provide any evaluation establishing that KMEANSD++ is better than other algorithms. In this paper, we show that the performance of KMEANSD++ is comparable to KMEANS++ (both of which are better than KMEANSRAND) with KMEANSD++ having an additional that it can automatically approximate the value of k.


Abstract: There are a number of plastic materials used in the construction industry that are known either to emit volatiles to indoor air or to leach organotins, both of which can affect comfort, health and productivity. Emissions or leaching can depend on the composition of the plastic material involved along with the various parameters associated with it. Within these plastics, there are chlorinated and chlorosulfonated polyethylene, chlorinated polyvinylchloride, and polychloroprene rubber, all which are the main subjects of interest for this chapter. Their properties, uses and health effects are briefly presented and some alternative materials for their use are presented.


The flexure inspection of printed circuit boards during assembly and operation is the object of the article. The goal is to identify high stresses which can lead to destruct especially the soldered connections during final product operation using strain gauge technique. This is demonstrated on some examples. It is shown how important is the proper wires installation leading from strain gauges to measurement unit. The tests are performed according IPC guidelines but some remarks are given to guidelines specification.


Winning the coin toss at the end of a tied soccer game gives a team the right to choose whether to kick either first or second on all five rounds of penalty kicks, when each team is allowed one kick per round. There is considerable evidence that the right to make this choice, which is usually to kick first, gives a team a significant advantage. To make the outcome of a tied game fairer, we suggest a rule that handicaps the team that kicks first (A), requiring it to succeed on one more penalty kick than the team that kicks second (B). We call this the $m - n$ rule and, more specifically, propose $(m, n)$ = (5, 4): For A to win, it must successfully kick 5 goals before the end of the round in which B kicks its 4th; for B to win, it must succeed on 4 penalty kicks before A succeeds on 5. If both teams reach (5, 4) on the same round -- when they both kick successfully at (4, 3) -- then the game is decided by round-by-round"sudden death,"whereby the winner is the first team to score in a subsequent round when the other team does not. We show that this rule is fair in tending to equalize the ability of each team to win a tied game in a penalty shootout. We also discuss a related rule that precludes the teams from reaching (5, 4) at the same time, obviating the need for sudden death and extra rounds.


This paper researches the influencing factors to two Numbers:Pick 3 of Sports lottery and 3D of welfare lottery on the angle of time series including two aspects of short and long time span.We find that:the Numbers has been close to recession period;the demand elasticity of Pick 3 is 3.35;Players is client to spent straight prize in to non lottery areas and box prize in buying lottery;the relation between Pick 3 and 3D is more complementary than competitive;the Accident of Limiting Odds and Numbers for Pick 3 in May 2008 cost enormously.By adopting relative theories on the Industry Agglomeration Effect and Co-marketing,in order to increase the sales of Pick 3,we put forward suggestion as below:new derivative bets should be launched;the Pay-out rate should be increase to 60%;Sports Lottery Center and Welfare Lottery Center should carry out Co-marketing together;Crisis of lottery should be on guard and be responded properly.


The droop control method is usually employed in the DC microgrids to share the load current demand among multiple sources due to its advantage of being independent of a communication network. However, the performance of the droop control method is affected by the mismatched transmission line resistance and the offset in the nominal voltage reference. This paper presents the design and optimization of the droop coefficient of converters, using the genetic algorithm to enhance the current sharing and the DC bus voltage regulation performance. The proposed approach is tested on the single bus multi-source electrical power system (EPS) for the more electric aircraft (MEA) applications. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated using a detailed simulation model of the MEA EPS developed in MATLAB Simulink.


Research on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy claims that culture drives students' attitudes and behaviors to determine what learning contexts best scaffold learning but operationalizes race/ethnicity. This study extends the developmental range of this work and compares race/ethnicity and self-reported group orientation as predictors. In total, 138 high school (Study 1) and 118 college (Study 2) students completed a math task after a learning session. Race/ethnicity alone was not predictive. High group orientation students performed best after communal learning, while low scorers did best after competitive learning in both studies. This was true for Black participants only. More nuanced examination of these issues is needed.


ABSTRACT The family of palms (Arecaceae) comprises around 2,400 species distributed throughout the world, from which nearly 100 species have been reported to occur in Mexico. Given their importance and the lack of information about their distribution patterns in the country, we applied stacked species distribution models to estimate the current distribution patterns of palms in Mexico. Only 47 species had enough presence records for their modeling. About 50% of the models showed that Annual Precipitation had the greatest contribution to the potential distribution. From the species analyzed, 63% are distributed in the southeast of the country with Roystonea regia as the species with the greatest extent (367,550 km2) and Coccothrinax readii occupying the smaller potential distribution (9,850 km2). It was possible to identify regions of the country with high species richness and where the establishment of new natural protected areas would help to the conservation of palm trees in Mexico. The southeast of Mexico represents the highest richness (>10 species) with about 130,000 km2, and the central slope of the Mexican Pacific, a fragmented landscape with a medium potential distribution (>5 species). Our results represent an important step to guide the establishment of conservation areas for the family Arecaceae in Mexico.


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A series of zwitterionic polystyrene (PS) and poly(THF) telechelics having a pair of a cyclic ammonium and a carboxylate end groups have been prepared by making use of a living anionic and cationic...


Considering the characteristics of aluminum alloy MIG welding process,nine-point controller was developed to control weld pool width.The structure and the principle of nine-point controller were analyzed.Based on the mathematic model of step response between pulse current and weld pool width,the simulations on three controlles of PID,fuzzy and nine-point controller used to control aluminum alloy MIG weld pool width were studied.The simulation results show that nine-point controller not only has the best stability and robust than PID and fuzzy controller,but also assure the control accuracy and provides the theoretical basis to realize the intelligent control for aluminum alloy pulsed MIG welding process.


We shall prove an unconditional basic result related to the value-distributions of {(L′/L)(s, χ)}χ and of {(ζ′/ζ)(s+ iτ)}τ , where χ runs over Dirichlet characters with prime conductors and τ runs over R. The result asserts that the expected density function common for these distributions are in fact the density function in an appropriate sense. Under the generalized Riemann hypothesis, stronger results have been proved in our previous articles, but our present result is unconditional.


The article is devoted to the anniversary of Vladimir Ivanovich Burenkov, PhD, leading Scientist of Ocean Optics Laboratory of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article describes the contribution of V. I. Burenkov in the development of ocean optics.


The objectives of this study were to explore community circumstances, traditional postpartum care and passing of knowledge in postpartum care of Bann Hua Suea, Tambon Hua Suea, Mae Tha District, Lampang. Understanding community relevance will assist in gathering information on locality protection and improve traditional medicine. Qualitative research methods, observation, interviews and group discussions were employed for data collection. The key informants included seven elderly persons and those who had experienced traditional postpartum care. Triangulation was used to ensure validity and precision. The findings showed that Bann Hua Suea, a 400-year-old village, was urbanizing. However, a close relationship among relatives was preserved. Most of the community members worked in the agricultural sector. The indigenous culture with regard to religion, occupation and health cares was kept alive. The traditional post-delivery care is called yu-duean-fai or "lying by fire." The knowledge was passed on within the family. The findings indicated that traditional postpartum care is based upon beliefs regarding a balance of elements and holistic care of the northern style of traditional medicine. Furthermore, the herbs selected were associated with the local ecology. Key words: health care, indigenous medicine, postpartum care


This work was supported by MEC Grant No. FPA2008-
00319/FPA and by European Commission Contracts
No. MRTN-CT-2004-503369 and No. ILIAS/N6 RII3-
CT-2004-506222.


In this paper, we discuss the development of complex gaming systems by freshman college students using a rapid game development method called the GM-method. The method combines agile software engineering techniques with non traditional instructional methods and non traditional assessments of student performance. The GM-method we discuss herein provides freshmen with the cachet and magnetism of complex game development without sacrificing the development of core programming skills. The focus of the DWC classroom experience is on the development of competency, independent learning skills, massive knowledge assimilation, rapid product development and teamwork.


Aiming to address the problems of low working efficiency and high damage rate of high and low roller peeling equipment in the process of fresh corn harvesting in China, this paper theoretically analyzes the mechanical motion process between the peeling device and the corn ear, and a high–low roll peeling structure is proposed. This structure incorporates elastomeric rubber material, a roller segmentation design, and an adjustable spiral frame, and the selection of relevant parameters is given. To determine the optimal operating parameters for the fresh-corn-peeling device, a three-factor, three-level orthogonal test was conducted using the Box–Behnken central grouping method in Design-Expert 12 software. The test factors were peeling roller speed, peeling roller tilt angle, and vibrating plate frequency. The evaluation indices considered were the bract peeling rate (BPR) and the grain breaking rate (GBR). Based on the theoretical analysis results, a test bench for the fresh-corn-ear-peeling device was established and the parameter combination for optimal peeling quality was determined according to the actual work situation. The results show that the impact on the BPR and GBR, from large to small, is in the following order: peeling roller speed, peeling roller tilt angle, and frequency vibration plate. The optimization module was used to optimize the operating parameters and used the following integers to obtain the optimal operating parameter combination: the peeling roller speed was 480 r·min−1; the peeling roller tilt angle was 8°; the vibrating plate frequency was 260 times·min−1; the corresponding BPR was 91.75%, which was 0.66% points lower than the optimal value; and the GBR was 1.55%, which was 0.08% points higher than the optimal value. Notably, this fresh-corn-peeling equipment exhibited superior performance in terms of peeling fracture results compared with standard peeling equipment. Therefore, this study provides valuable technical support for the optimal design and selection of fresh-corn-peeling equipment.


A method is described for searching for videos similar to a query. The video frames are segmented into shots by clustering consecutive frames based on their color histograms. Segmentation performance is improved by adding temporal information to the color data. Videos are represented by their temporal distribution of the colors, and the distance between videos is estimated based on the effort needed to transform one distribution into another. The distance is used to search videos similar to a query. The search is speeded up by using a filtering method based on the inequalities in distances. Testing of the method showed that the performance of the similarity search is improved by incorporating the temporal information.


Over the past few years much progress has been made in the data base management (DBM) area. An indication of the interest in this area is the publication of a large number of DBM books within a short span of time. Another indicator is the organization of annual conferences (such as the International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, SIG-MOD International Conference on Management of Data and IFIP TC-2 Working Conference on Data Base Management Systems) devoted fully to DBM. Due to these activities , voluminous amounts of literature have been published. This paper attempts to summarize most of the recent developments and to provide pointers to the relevant literature. Data Models And Languages Since the underlying data model of a data base is of fundamental importance, evolution of different data models is still continuing. The greatest need is to evolve a high-level data model which would enable the data base designer to directly incorporate in the schema a major portion of the semantics of the data base. The trend has been definitely toward entity-based models. Apart from the well-known hierarchical, network and relational data models , many others have also been proposed. Some of these are entity-relationship model [Chen 1976], entity-property-association model [Pirotte 1977], information space model [Kobayashi 1975], DIAM II [Senko 1975], semantic net-The author is a member of the software and data base engineering group in the A good comparison of data models can be found in [Kerschberg 1976a]. A new data model, which permits the representation of the different roles which a real-world entity may play, was introduced in [Bachman 1977]. A comparison of the role model with the relational, DBTG and DIAM models is given. Earlier, Falkenberg introduced the object-role model, in which objects and roles are the basic concepts (associations and types are derived using them). Falkenberg pointed out that the distinction between properties and relationships is fuzzy, hence users are likely to commit mistakes in classifying facts as properties or relationships. He has also shown that the incorporation of these concepts could result in lack of evolvability [Falkenberg 1976a]. Kent has illustrated the difficulties involved in trying to define or apply some constructs (such as entities and relationships) precisely [Kent 1977]. Hardgrave has pointed out some of the confusion regarding the mathematical basis of the relational model (with respect to column-headings, interchange of columns and single-column relations) and has proposed the use of …


Objective To compare of the effects on hemodynamics and left ventricular function in rats after acute myocardial infarction(AMI) between carvedilol and metoprolol.Methods 147 models of AMI in rats were randomly assigned to myocardial infarction control group(MI group),metoprolol group(group B) and carvedilol group(group C) following the ligation of anterior descending.Sham-operated rats were selected randomly as non-infarction control.According to observation time points,each group was subdivided into two groups: MI48h group,MI4W group,B48h group,B4W group,C48h group,C4W group,S48h group,S4W group.Group B received intragastric metoprolol infusion and group C received intragastric carvedilol infusion at 24 hours after ligation.The hemodynamics in each group were measured at 48 hours and 4 weeks after ligation.Results ①MI48h group had decreases in systolic blood pressure(SBP),diastolic blood pressure(DBP),mean aortic pressure(MAP),left ventricular systolic pressure(LVSP) and the maximum rise and decline rate of left ventricular pressure(±dp/dt),compared with S48h group,there were statistical significant differences(P0.05 or P0.01).②Compared with S4W group,the heart rate,LVSP and ±dp/dt in MI4W group decreased more significantly(P0.05 or P0.01),and left ventricular end diastolic pressure(LVEDP) elevated significantly (P0.01),while SBP,DBP and MAP did not differed appreciably.③ Compared with MI48h group,SBP,MAP,LVSP,±dp/dt and heart rate in C48h group decreased significantly(P0.05 or P0.01),while LVEDP remained the same,the hemodynamic indices in B48h group did not differ.④Compared with MI4W group,SBP,DBP,MAP and LVEDP for C4W group decreased significantly(P0.05),while ±dp/dt,±dp/dt/LVSP elevated significantly(P0.05 or P0.01),and LVEDP and heart rate for B4W group decreased significantly.Conclusion As abnormal hemodynamics and left ventricular function worsened after AMI in rats,long-term(four weeks) use of carvedilol or metoprolol can improve left ventricular function and hemodynamics,but carvedilol is superior to metoprolol in improving left ventricular function.


OBJECTIVE
To study the effect of thrombolytic therapy in term of success and failure on the type of ST elevation MI, using streptokinase.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
This was a comparative study, conducted at Department of Cardiology, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, from October 2006 to October 2007. Patients with first acute myocardial infarction were divided into group A (successful thrombolysis) and group B (unsuccessful thrombolysis) using ECG criteria.

RESULTS
Total number of patients were 200. Group A included 136 (68%) patients and group B included 64 (32%) patients. There were total 88 (44%) patients of anterior MI with 47 patients in group A and 41 patients in group B (34.6% vs 64.0%, p < 0.001). There were total 110 (55.0%) patients of inferior MI with 88 patients in group A and 22 patients in group B (64.7% vs 34.4%, p < 0.001). Lateral myocardial infarction was diagnosed in 2 (1%) patients with 1 patient each in group A and group B (0.7% vs 1.6%, p = 0.583).

CONCLUSION
Anterior MI was associated with a higher rate of thromblysis failure while inferior MI and lateral wall MI was associated with a higher rate of successful thrombolysis.


This study focused on the implications of livelihood diversification on pastoral conflicts between Pokot and Marakwet Communities of Kenya. The Pokot and Marakwet communities are traditionally pastoralists living in Kenya's North Rift region. Nomadic pastoralism has until recently been their most feasible and reliable source of livelihood. Sharing of common and limited water, pasture and other pastoral resources has fuelled competition and conflicts between the communities thus making pastoralism as a source of livelihood difficult to pursue and its future becoming more uncertain. This has in recent years prompted a number of members from the two communities to consider diversifying their sources of livelihood into crop and dairy farming, formal employment as well as business. Whether such decision has resulted in a reduction or escalation of ethnic conflicts between the communities was the focus of this study. The current study had a sample size of 220 selected through purposive and stratified sampling. Data was collected by use of interview schedule and analyzed descriptively and inferentially. The results of the study were reported in percentages and presented in tables and figures. The pursuit of alternative sources of livelihood by some members of the two (away from pastoralism) had resulted in a reduction in incidences of pastoral conflicts between the two communities. But the fact that new sources of livelihood such as crop farming and charcoal trade is leading to depletion of resources such as water, farmlands and forests, which coincidentally are also targeted by pastoralists is paving for new frontiers of conflicts. Accordingly this study has recommended for the development of an integrated resource use and management framework to forestall the emergence of new conflicts.


AGFW e.V., the German District Heating Association, has revised worksheet FW 308 »Certification of CHP plants«. The revised version of FW 308 contains stipulations for the certification of complex CHP plants. The new CHP Act (KWKModG) which came into force on 1 April 2002 fails to answer the question of whether such complex CHP plants are to be licensed as a (full) plant, or whether the individually coupled modules are eligible for separate licensing under the CHP Act (KWK-ModG). Under the new CHP Act, only electricity generated simultaneously with useful heat attracts a subsidy. In order to receive the subsidy, the operator must obtain a licence certificate for its CHP plant. It must substantiate the CHP plant's eligibility for subsidy by an expert opinion stating the utilisation ratio and the power-to-heat ratio. The expert opinion must be drawn up in accordance with acknowledged industrial practice. Under Β 6, sub-paragraph 1, no. 4, clause 1 of the new CHP Act, the principles and calculation methods of Worksheet FW 308 are deemed to constitute acknowledged industrial practice. This primarily concerns FW 308 (no. 4 - 6) in the version published in the German Federal Gazette in August 2001. The legislature expanded this static reference to FW 308 by adding »in the respectively valid version« shortly before the legislative process was completed. However, the AGFW does not have the power to take the legislature's place in expanding the new CHP Act by the new version of the FW 308. The effect of the standard interpretation is that FW308 now represents legal practice instead of industrial practice. The planned amendment to FW 308 gives plant operators neither legal nor investment security in their decision on modernisation of their complex CHP system.


Indonesia is an agricultural country but the level of imports of food raw materials
is still high. This is because the production of corn is still volatile. This problem
also occurs in research areas that experience fluctuating corn production to decline
so that research is needed in order to find out the factors that inhibit corn
production using surveys and laboratory analysis, with sampling using purposife
sampling based on the unit of land obtained. Data were processed using the
method of comparative analysis or "weight factor matching" and discrete analysis.
The "weight factor matching" comparison method is used to determine the land
suitability class and the limiting factor based on the assessment of several
parameters used is obtained from the comparison results. Descriptive analysis
method is used to explain land suitability classes and limiting factors to land
suitability. From the research results it is known that the land suitability class for
maize in the study area has a S2 class with an area of 1119 Ha or 16,% and a S3
class of 5550.8 Ha or 83.3% of the total area of the study area. Land suitability
class S2 has a limiting factor for effective soil depth, soil pH, total N, P2O5, K2O
and covers land units. S3 land suitability class has limiting factors for soil
drainage, P2O5, effective soil depth, and slope
Keywords: Corn, Land Unit, Land Suitability, "Weight factor matching"