The planning intention of many post-war urban areas was to create quiet and harmonious, healthy dwelling areas for mostly working class families. However, unpredicted effects such as safety issues (crime and feeling of being unsafe in public spaces) started to take place in many of these areas just a few years after realization (Van Wegen and van der Voort, 1991, p. 172-173). The urban design of the Dutch post-war areas, like too wide streets, a lot of space between the buildings, windows and doors do not face the streets and blind facades of the backsides of the shops have a negative influence on safety in public spaces (Rueb & van Nes, 2009). Thus, the main research question of this master thesis is: "Which urban design interventions can improve the public space in Osdorp-Oost, in order to increase the safety for the inhabitants". First, the features of public space in urban environment that contribute to safety are reviewed with the help of literature research. In this report, two approaches about safe urban design are compared. The first one is called Social Safe Design made by van den Voordt & van Wegen. This approach could be described by three factors: visibility, accessibility and attraction. The second approach was made by van Nes et al. It is actually an improvement of the first theory and could be described with the next keywords: accessibility, connectedness, vitality, identity and visibility. It was made with the help of space syntax analysis, which provides a strong scientific base for this approach. The literature review concludes that the second approach is more extended than the first one and will form a good starting point for the design of the graduation project. Next, in order to understand the main design concepts of the chosen location, in relation to safety, the social and special structure of Western Garden Cities (Osdorp-Oost) was described. Also the data research about the age groups, nationalities, incomes, housing prices and subjective and objective safety were review about the strategies that took place in order to improve the post-war neighborhoods was reviewed. Then in order to understand how the space is currently used in Osdorp-Oost and to link the location with the theory, different fieldwork analyses was performed. Safety related factors that were defined earlier in the theoretical framework such as: infrastructure, functions, the use of the ground floor, buildings heights, location of the entrances and green facilities were mapped and analyzed. In addition, in order to define safe and unsafe places in more detail in Osdorp-Oost, the inhabitant were interviewed about their perception of safe and unsafe places in the neighborhood. Four reference cases were analyzed as well: Wisgerebbuurt, Overtomse Veld, P. C. Hooftstraat and Ertskade in Amsterdam. The results of the performed analyses were implemented in several solutions for Osdorp-Oost in order to increase subjective and objective safety in Osdorp-Oost. The solutions were tested with space syntax analysis and the most suitable one was elaborated in to final design for Osdorp-Oost. The structure of the thesis is as followed. Chapter 1 forms an introduction of the project and describes motivation, problem field and problem statement. Chapter 2 describes the research approach, research questions and methodology. It also provides theoretical framework and location analysis. Chapter 3 describes the fieldwork. In the last chapter 4 the concepts and final design interventions for Osdorp-Oost are described. The chapter will finish with the final critical evaluation of the methods and design.


Objective To investigate the effect of maternal education on anemia of children.Methods 186 children under 5 years of age and their mothers were recruited.Information on birth weight,feeding pattern within 6 months after birth,addition of complementary foods,infectious diseases during the past two weeks and degrees of maternal education were collected.Results Compared with children whose mothers received high levels of education,children with low maternal education had a higher rate of anemia(14.1% 与 4.3%,P 0.05).Multiple variable logistic regression analysis revealed that maternal education,birth weight,feeding pattern within 6 months after birth and addition of complementary foods were independent risk factors for children anemia.Conclusion Maternal education was an independent risk factor for children anemia.


OBJECTIVE To analyze the effect of Zedoary turmeric oil on the expression of TNF-α, TLR2 mRNA and S100B proteins in mice with viral encephalitis and to explore the mechanism of Zedoary turmeric oil in the treatment of herpes simplex viral encephalitis(HSE). METHODS Forty New Zealand male mice aged 5 weeks were randomly divided into blank control group, Zedoary turmeric oil group, herpes simplex virus(HSV)-1 group, HSV-1+Zedoary turmeric oil group. HSV-1 group and HSV-1+Zedoary turmeric oil group were injected intracranial HSV-1 to make HSE model, and the blank control group and Zedoary turmeric oil group were injected with Vero cell culture medium supernatant in the same way. After modeling, blank control group and HSV-1 group were given normal saline, Zedoary turmeric oil group and HSV-1+Zedoary turmeric oil group were given Zedoary turmeric oil. The pathological changes of brain tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemistry, the levels of TNF-α and S100B in brain tissues were detected by ELISA, and the levels of TLR2 mRNA in brain tissues were detected by QT-PCR. RESULTS Compared with HSV-1 group, HSV-1+Zedoary turmeric oil group showed that the degeneration and edema of brain parenchyma cells decreased, and the invasion and infiltration level of monocyle macrophages such as lymplogyles and microglia in brain lesions decreased. Compared with HSV-1 group, the levels of TLR2 mRNA in HSV-1+Zedoary turmeric oil group were significantly lower(P<0.01). The levels of TNF-α and S100B in HSV-1+Zedoary turmeric oil group were significantly lower than those in HSV-1 group(P<0.01). CONCLUSION Zedoary turmeric oil may exert its therapeutic effect by inhibiting the expression of TNF-α, TLR2 mRNA and S100B protein in mice with viral encephalitis.


This paper aims to propose a new design framework tailored to support designers to develop new generation of wheelchairs, which should be able to be recycled. The proposed approach is based upon a chart-based collection of appropriate disassembly design guidelines as well as a framework for quantitative assessment. An estimated cost, related to the guidelines, is attributed to each basic dismantling transition. Then, an optimal disassembly sequence is selected. As the design process evolves, an estimative of the overall cost gives the designers guidance on selecting the better solution for their products. A case study is presented to illustrate the proposed approach.


In developed as well as less developed countries, traffic noise is one of the main sources of societal noise pollution. In this research, a series of field experiments are conducted on highways with new and old pavements. The variations of the traffic flow and traffic noise pressure levels together with the functional relationship between them are analyzed based on the noise data collected from the highways in an urban area. With the collected data, the maximum traffic flow and traffic noise pressure levels are determined in a time specified manner. Logarithmic functional relationships are found between the traffic noise pressure level and traffic flow for both the old and new pavements. It is also found in the research, the improvement in the road re-pavement may promote the absorption of the traffic noise. A single value index is developed for quantitatively and conveniently evaluating the acoustic quality of highways. The findings in this research may give some inspiration for construction and management of low noise highways.


The article reviews logical and mathematical problems, which were the starting point of what is now known as "analytical philosophy". The author proves that the moment of birth of analytical philosophy was Frege's invention of a notation for quantifiers and va-riables in 1879. Another source of analytical philosophy was rather declaration than proof of certain philosophical beliefs by Moore and Russell during the 1990s. Generally, an analysis of these sources serves to clarify what analytical philosophy is and what it is not, as well as why it appeared exactly at the beginning of the 20th century.


Dispatched client of the database may endeavour change those relationship «around the data so as will derive or understand those fragile information beginning with those threatening data get. Acceptance will be a system a client could use ought to whip right control instruments to database structure. An enlistment recognizable proof structure might be required to make sense of whether customers could utilize charged got to data with interpret sensitive information. In perspective of the space of the database semantic acceptance distinguishing proof system will be framed. That probability about getting access to span of the season of the customer is registered when each shot the customer acts those request. That client requests a will an opportunity to be blocked in the acceptance probability quality outperforms those pre-indicated edge restrain. By this, those will be abstained from beginning with surmising the fragile data. Thusly we make a model for evaluating acceptance subordinate upon those request progressions.


Antigen-specific T cells recognize antigen in association with class I or class II products of the MHC. T cell activation results from the formation of a ternary complex involving nominal antigen, the appropriate MHC molecule, and the TCR. Studies of the genetic structure of the TCR a and # chains have not provided a mechanism for the corecognition of antigen and MHC by the TCR (1). Research on this problem has therefore focused on two main areas; the specificity of the interaction between MHC molecules and nominal antigen, and the analysis of T cell receptors specific for well-defined epitopes. The interaction between MHC molecules and nominal antigen has been structure/function relationship 0 within and cells specificity independently MHC/antigen specificities, c TCR ,Q alter cell 12-14 d after restimulation, T cell clones were stained, using standard techniques, with theantibodies F23.1 and KJ16, 8C5, 10 .2.16, and AT83 (11). Thecells were analyzed on aFAGS IV (Becton DickinsonImmunocytometry Systems, Mountain View, CA) and the results are expressed on a logarithmic scale.


The purpose of this study was to determine the economic and environmental sustainability of a horizontal wind turbine prototype installed in a multifamily building. Economic sustainability was determined by primary classic economic study and environmental sustainability using the emergy approach. The classic economic analysis indicates that the project is not profitable (NPV = -2971.05 US dollars), and the environmental analysis (percentage of renewability: 0.18, emergy yield rate: 1.23; environmental load rate: 4.48; energy sustainability index: 0.275; energy investment ratio: 4.35 and emergy exchange rate: 0.32) indicates a high dependence of the system regarding imported machineries, an average efficiency regarding the use of local resources for the benefit of society, low environmental impact and an average production cost over other electricity production processes.


Vent termination requirements for gas appliances from state and model codes, UL listing requirements, and gas furnace certification requirements are reviewed and summarized, highlighting consistencies. Technical and historical bases for existing code requirements are also analyzed and a comparison of emissions from various combustion sources is presented. Direct technical bases for existing code requirements are limited. Some requirements of the codes, such as the height-above-the-roof requirement, appear in codes as far back as the early 1900's, and applied equally to gas, coal, and wood combustion. Recommendations for uniformity of the major model codes are made and the technical data development needs for requirements specific to gas appliances are discussed.


This paper presented the 5 th and 7 th power-harmonic filters using the tune and the line reactor design. PSpice program is used simulating the filters and making the real load (using 6-pulsd phase controlled converter) for experiment. Resulting waveform from the experiment can be used to analyze current, voltage spectrum, and THD (Total Harmonic Distortion)by using MathLAB Program. It is found that these methods make an insignificant difference in current and voltage spectrum.


a tradition trend in ceramic development is a time-dimensional co figuration which is expressed in pottery decorative or other pottery properties and which co-ordinates and interrelates the changes in the various sequences and styles of a specific pottery tradition. It is a phenomenon resulting from historical ontacts whose evidences may, or may not, be readily perceived. It appears to be subject to certain limitations f geographically continuous space in the same manner asthe pottery tradition."'


Background
The Depression and Somatic Symptoms Scale (DSSS), which is a free scale that includes a depression subscale (DS) and a somatic subscale (SS), was developed to evaluate depression and somatic symptoms simultaneously. This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the DSSS among patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP).

Methods
Two-hundred and twenty-five patients with CLBP were enrolled. Psychiatric diagnoses were made based on the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-Text Revision. The DSSS, Oswestry Disability Index, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Short Form 36 (SF-36) were administered. Cronbach's alpha was used to test internal consistency. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to identify cutoff scores for a major depressive episode (MDE).

Results
Subjects with an MDE (N=21) had greater severities of depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and disability as compared with those without an MDE. The Cronbach's alpha values of the DS and SS were 0.90 and 0.83, respectively. The DS and SS were significantly correlated with the Oswestry Disability Index, the HADS, and the SF-36 subscales. The DS had the greatest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.96) as compared with the SS and the HADS subscales. The cutoff score for an MDE was a DS score ≥15 (sensitivity and specificity: 100% and 88.7%, respectively).

Conclusion
The DSSS subscales were of acceptable reliability and validity. The DS can be used as a tool for evaluating the severity of depression and detecting an MDE in patients with CLBP.


For pt.I see ibid., vol.17, no.10, p.1981 (1984). The photoionisation cross section for a hydrogen atom placed in a uniform electric field is investigated as a function of the light frequency, Watson transformation allows one to represent the partial cross sections sum (i.e. the total cross section) as a sum of contributions of two series of complex cross section poles and the background term. Analytical formulae are obtained describing the cross section structure in various regions of photon energy and fields strength. The contribution of one of the series of poles is related qualitatively with the population of resonance states in the superposition of Coulomb and uniform fields (these states exist even for photon energies exceeding the zero-field atomic ionisation potential). The Fano parametrisation of resonance peaks is generalised for the overlapping resonance case. The second series of poles generates cross section oscillations corresponding to interference of photoelectrons ejected from the atom along the field axis with electrons moving in the same direction after reflection from the potential barrier bounding the classically accessible region. The interference structure proves to be suppressed compared with the short-range potential case where this mechanism of structure formation is unique. If the photon energy is less than 4 pi 2* (ionisation potential) then the resonance structure is significantly larger than the interference one in amplitude and differs in phase. When the photon energy is close to the ionisation potential the resonance peaks are strongly asymmetrical. A comparison is made with experiments where the structure is observed in the photoionisation of sodium and rubidium atoms.


The temperature of photovoltaic modules increases when it absorbs solar radiation, causing a decrease in efficiency. This undesirable effect can be partially avoided by applying a heat recovery unit with fluid circulation (air or water) with the photovoltaic module. Such unit is called photovoltaic / thermal collector (pv/t) or hybrid (pv/t). In this unit, photovoltaic cells were pasted directly on the flat plate absorber. An experimental study of a solar air heater with photovoltaic cell located at the absorber with fins and compound parabolic collector for heat transfer enhancement and increasing the number of reflection on the cells have been conducted. The performance of the photovoltaic, thermal, and combined pv/t collector over range of operating conditions and the results was discussed. Results at solar irradiance of 500 W/m2 show that the combined pv/t efficiency is increasing from 37.28 % to 81.41 % at mass flow rates various from 0.029 to 0.436 kg/s.


This study is mainly focused on using   quantitative design  conducted with 975 students and participants were randomly selected from 3 universities, 5 high schools, 2 middle schools and 1 primary school in Turkey and Iraq in order to analyze the suitability of English instruction from the perspective of learners towards  innovative  lean method. Within the context of the study, the students' attitudes and opinions towards innovative  Lean Educational method were revealed and  some recommendations were developed for especially  language teachers and researchers.


One of the unique features of several journals launched by me is that manuscripts regarding research proposals and research ideas are particularly welcomed for presentation. Now, a journal Challenges is created for this purpose. [...]


The response of an induction motor following a supply or load change consists typically of two stages, namely an initial acceleration/deceleration stage and a steady-state stage. Based on this observation, this paper presents a two-stage speed control method, which involves the control of current amplitude and frequency. The controller is easy to implement and is not affected by motor parameter changes. For evaluating the controller performance, this paper presents a modelling of the induction motor based on the two-axis theory of revolving frame transformation. This model takes stator current and load torque as inputs and gives speed as output. Satisfactory performance of the two-stage controller has been obtained from a simulation study on a 7.5 kW induction motor using the software Matlab/Simulink.


With the development of Motion Capture techniques,more and more 3D motion libraries become available. In this paper,we present a novel approach for motion retrieval based on data-driven decision tree with spatial-temporal features. First the 3D time spatial features of each human joint are extracted with the help of keyspace. Given the assumption of the features of each joint is independence,data-driven decision tree is automatically constructed to present the influence of each point during the comparison of motion similarity. Experiment results show that our approaches are effective for motion data retrieval.


It is commonly known that the directional pattern of the instrument landing system (ILS)-localizer antenna system, which constitutes the landing-course information for approaching aircraft, can be disturbed by reflections from large aircraft on the ground. Therefore, airport operators are interested in knowing configurations of landed and taxiing aircraft that lead to such ILS disturbance scenarios. Measurements on a real airport for investigating such scenarios are very cost-intensive and not sufficiently possible due to availability reasons. Therefore, a new scaled measurement setup is presented. Scaling down an aircraft by the factor of 144 requires a scaled ILS-localizer operating at a frequency of nearly 16 GHz, the development and realization of which is presented in this paper. Using this scaled ILS-localizer, measurements with an Airbus A380 and a Boeing B747 are conducted showing the feasibility of the scaled approach. Several configurations are shown where those aircraft lead to interferences of the ILS, exceeding allowed tolerances. A comparison of the reflection behavior of both aircraft shows only slight differences. Additionally, this paper presents the derivation of the bistatic radar cross section of both aircraft to be applicable to scenarios with arbitrary ILS patterns.


Cleaning being a major contributor to the operations and maintenance expenditure and also Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) issues. Improper and ineffective cleaning can harm the environment and poses greatest risk to health. The use of traditional cleaning products presents a variety of human health and ecological concerns; and may contribute to poor IEQ. As an effort to reduce the issue of operations and maintenance costs and IEQ issues in a building, it is important to establish a green cleaning programme to ensure that the buildings are cleaned in a green way. Numbers of scholars has pointed out the factors which had prevented the green cleaning implementation in hospital buildings. Nonetheless, the significance of these factors has yet to be practically explored in the Malaysian context. Hence, the aim of the paper is to identify the most critical factor that prevents the implementation of green cleaning in Malaysian hospital building. A questionnaire survey and personal communication (i.e. interview) was conducted which involved two groups of respondents. They are the hospital maintenance staff (Cleansing Service Department) and cleaning contractors. Frequency and criticality index calculations have been used to rank these factors according to the level of importance. The result showed that an "unclear components and requirements of green cleaning" indicated as the most critical factor that prevent the implementation of green cleaning in Malaysian hospital building. In the concern for a successful implementation of green cleaning, it is hope that the findings of these studies can be enlightenment to the cleaning contractors as well as the hospital maintenance management team in Malaysia.


Despite the National League for Democracy's resounding victory in Myanmar's November 2015 general election, the country's political future is far from clear. There remain major obstacles to a peaceful transfer of power from the military-supported government to one led by Aung San Suu Kyi.


Based on the grey incidence theory,this paper summarized current several representative grey incidence computation models and figured out their shortcomings respectively.From the insights of four grey incidence axioms,we established an Evolvement Model-computation model of grey incidence degree,which overcame the shortcomings of present models,and was proved to be scientific.The application of the model was illustrated in farmer's income structure of He'nan province.


Grid computing specially the emergence of Web Services Resource Framework accelerates the distributed ap- plication based on Web services. With the Web services based Image Processing system, some implementation tech- niques are discussed in developing grid projects. The multilevel architecture is adopted, the task scheduler invokes the remote service in UDDI registry, and the high computing resources process images, which improve the computing per- formance. WIP constructed on medical image application is easy to extend to other fields.


PURPOSE: An immunoadjuvant, alternatives to antibiotic and a manufacturing method thereof are provided to plant novel lactobacillus which strongly controls harmful bacterial growth and has enhanced acid resistance under organic acid and natural mineral material condition. CONSTITUTION: A manufacturing method of an immunoadjuvant, alternatives to antibiotic comprises the following steps: manufacturing a mixture A by mixing 35-45 parts by weight of water, 15-25 parts by weight of foil fracturing syrup, 3-8 parts by weight of banana fracturing syrup, 3-8 parts by weight of pineapple fracturing syrup, 15-25 parts by weight of soybean cake, and 15-25 parts by weight of molasse(S1); manufacturing organic acid which is the first fermentation product obtained by inoculating 3-5 parts by weight of Aspergillus nicer NRRL 2322(ATCC 10577) to 100 parts by weight of the mixture and fermenting at 32-35 deg. Celsius for 5-10 days(S2); manufacturing a mixture including ion mineral by mixing and agitating 100 parts by weight of the first ferment with 5-10 parts by weight of scoria(S3); inoculating 3-5 parts by weight of Latobacillus platarum lactobacillus spawn with the mixture and manufacturing novel lactobacillus and amino acid chelated cluster ion mineral(S4); filtering the second fermentation product and developing the filtrate into the fluid immunoadjuvant and alternatives to antibiotic(S5); and developing the liquid product into powdered immunoadjuvant and alternatives to antibiotic(S6). [Reference numerals] (AA) Fruit, molasses, water; (BB) Inoculating fungus; (CC) Adding scoria; (DD) Inoculating lactobacillus; (EE) Filtrating(filtrate isolation); (FF) Adding, drying and pulverizing scoria or rice bran; (S1) Mixture A; (S2) First ferment; (S3) Agitated material; (S4) Second ferment; (S5) Liquid product; (S6) Powder product


We examined the effects of three fertilization treatments (CK, NPK, and NPKM) on soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), C/N ratio, and available nutrients [alkali extractable-N (AN), available phosphorus (AP), exchangeable K (EK)] in the plow layer (0–40 cm) in an apple orchard from 1988 to 2016 in North China, as well as the mechanisms of nitrogenous fertilizer action on soil acidification through a three-year experiment. The application of NPK and NPKM fertilizers improved SOC, TN, and available nutrients compared with the CK. The average C/N ratio decreased with the number of years of fertilization, and reached lowest in NPK treatment (6.80). By 2016, the soil pH in CK, NPK, and NPKM treatments was 6.17, 5.29, and 5.59, which were 0.16, 1.04 and 0.74, respectively, units lower than initial values. Compared with the previous 14 years (1988–2002), the latter 14 years (2002–2016) showed greater change rates of SOC, TN, C/N ratio, AN, AP, EK, and pH in all treatments. Further analysis showed that the highest net H+ production rate was found in the N900 treatment (136.8 kmol ha-1 y-1), followed by the N600 treatment (88.6 kmol ha-1 y-1), and the lowest appeared in the N300 treatment (50.6 kmol ha-1 y-1). Thus, long-term fertilization can remarkably increase SOC, TN, and available nutrients, especially in NPKM treatment; however, it also clearly decreased soil C/N ratio and pH due to the continuous excessive application of N fertilizers.


The law of intermediary liability in intellectual property reflects a constant struggle for balance. On the one hand, rights owners frustrated by the game of whack-a-mole have good reason to look for more efficient ways to stanch the flow of infringement. While this concern is not a new one, the global reach and decentralization of the Internet have exacerbated it. On the flipside, consumers, technology developers, and others fret about the impact of broad liability: it can impede speech, limit competition, and impose a drag on economic sectors with only a peripheral relationship to infringement. As the Supreme Court put it thirty years ago in the seminal Sony case, the law must seek a "balance between a [rights] holder's legitimate demand for effective – not merely symbolic – protection of the statutory monopoly, and the rights of others freely to engage in substantially unrelated areas of commerce."


sity of York since April 1992. He is responsible for the research and teaching activities of over 100 staa and over 400 students in the Department. The HEFC rated the Department's research at Grade 5*, and its teaching as Excellent in the most recent assessments. The Department won the 1996 Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. Dr Mander was principal investigator on the Structured Analysis and Z (SAZ) project (GR/F98642) and the subsequent case study (GR/J81655). His current research interests include a study of concurrent engineering problems in software development, and a continuing interest in the relationship between formal and structured methods of speciication. Steve King has been a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of York since October 1995. Before that he was a Research OOcer and part-time DPhil student in the Programming Research Group at Oxford University, and he has been working on Formal Methods, particularly the Z language, since 1984. While at Oxford, he was employed on the well-documented IBM CICS project, for which Oxford and IBM were awarded a Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1992. He has been a member of the ISO/BSI Z Standards Panel since its formation, and was recently appointed Deputy Convenor. His research interests are centered around the problems of developing code from Z speciications, and he has been involved in teaching Z courses since 1986, particularly to those in industry, but also at undergraduate and MSc level. He has been close to industry throughout his academic life { while at Oxford, he took a year's leave of absence to work full-time at IBM Hursley Park on the Z speciication of the CICS Application Programming Interface. The investigators propose to employ Dr Ian Toyn and Sam Valentine as researchers. Ian Toyn holds an open contract as a Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the University of York. He is an active member of the ISO/BSI Z Standards Panel, having regularly attended meetings since late 1995 and provided feedback on earlier documents. He is the primary author of the BCS-Award winning tool CADiZ, which supports typechecking, browsing and reasoning about Z speciications. Particular strengths of CADiZ include its user interface, which allows manipulation of formulae in a typeset document, its support for Z being direct (as opposed to translation to another notation), which promises to make reasoning about schemas easier, and the closeness …


Although multiple learning techniques exist to endow robots with different skills, open-ended learning is still an outstanding research problem in robotics. Open-ended learning would provide learning autonomy to robots such that they would not require human intervention to learn. This paper proposes a continuous learning framework consisting of a goal discovery module, a goal management module, and a learning module that can be used to implement open-ended learning in robotics. The framework is highly flexible, as it allows any clustering algorithm to be used for goal discovery and any reinforcement learning algorithm for goal learning. The experimental analysis conducted on a mobile robot supports the validity of the framework. Results show how the robot, when placed in a new environment, autonomously generates and learns new goals, thus forming a continuous learning framework capable of autonomously representing and learning skills in an open-ended way.


This paper demonstrates that the Cook-Levin Theor em is false, so the NPCompleteness, since a faulty hidden assumption is t acitly used in its proofs. I am so sorry. Mathematics Subject Classification (2010). Primary 68Q15; Secondary 68Q17.


A bobbin handling apparatus in which filled bobbins are stored in a storage-conveyor bin and discharged through a chute and into a hopper. The bin continues to feed bobbins until a predetermined weight of bobbins is in the hopper whereupon a control system stops operation of the bin and concurrently closes a closure associated with the chute to prevent any bobbins subsequently passing from the bin from entering the weighing hopper. Strands of yarn extending from the bobbins are severed by a cutter mounted on the closure. As a container of an overhead conveyor passes the hopper a sliding trap door of the hopper opens thereby discharging the bobbins in the hopper into the container.


Lupus erythematous is an autoimmune illness that mostly affects women and has no recognized cause. The classical period, the neoclassical period and the modern period are the three periods in the history of lupus erythematous. Important discoveries have occurred at each period allowing for a better understanding of a conditions.Pericarditis, valvular lesions and myocardial dysfunction, particularly mild pericarditis. As a result, echocardiography should be done on SLE patients on a regular basis. Vascular blockage, including coronary arteries can occur as a result of SLE related vasculitis early atherosclerosis or antiphospholipid antibodies. The immune system of the body becomes overactive and targets normal, healthy tissue. Inflammation, swelling and damage to the skin, joints, skin, kidney, blood, heart, and lungs are among the symptoms and medicinal treatment commonly used with the help of ayurvedic treatment, allopathic treatment and homeopathic treatment.


Inverse methods form the basis of many investigations of the structure of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system as they provide the basis for physics-based subsurface imaging from surface and/or nea...


Mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma is usually associated with a chronic inflammatory disease from which lymphoid tissue of MALT type arises as a prerequisite for lymphoma proliferation. No well‐characterized chronic inflammatory process has been identified in the larynx.


The concept and requirements of building energy efficiency were introduced. Operation principle of ground-source heat pump system was described. Through the project design and operation analysis of the ground-source heat pump in an office building, the enormous significance of ground-source heat pump systems in the field of building energy efficiency was clarified.


Over the past six decades, China has changed more than perhaps any other society in the modern era. Researchers have puzzled over many aspects of this transformation, but the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) authoritarian stability and the rise of a new Chinese middle class and disenfranchised new urban poor have attracted special interest. Although they employ different methodologies and very different disciplinary and analytic perspectives, both of these books probe shifting micro-level dynamics of social stratification and subnational differentiation in Chinese urban politics. In In Search of Paradise, Li Zhang, an anthropologist, focuses on the construction of class through the consumption of housing, while in Allies of the State, political scientists Jie Chen and Bruce J. Dickson look primarily at entrepreneurs' political identity and behavior. Zhang's primary argument, rooted in a rich ethnography of the private housing market in Kunming from 2000 to 2006, is that the spread of new kinds of private housing has both generated a new class system and given it a medium of expression. As work unit–funded "welfare housing" disappears, a new cycle of land acquisition, sales, construction, and conspicuous consumption of private housing has supplanted the last vestiges of Maoist residential organization. Class becomes "spatialized" as individuals' positions in the social hierarchy are increasingly correlated with where—as well as how—they live. Exclusivity and the protection of private goods, rather than the provision of public ones, dominate the new urban Chinese political, social, and economic landscape. Meanwhile, working-class families are displaced to distant suburbs, legions of rural migrants throw up new apartment towers under poor conditions, and thousands of young women scramble in dead-end—often subtly sexualized—jobs to sell as many units as possible to wealthypotentialbuyers.Thegeneral arcof this story is familiar, but Zhang's is the first book to delve so deeply into the details of all the processes at work. Zhang's concept of spatializing class (pp. 108–27) is also an important innovation. Urban Chinese living space has become stratified such that residents cluster into upscale "gardens," mid-range neighborhoods, and low-income "salary communities." Families are increasingly atomized within communities, as they spend more time in their individual units and interact less in public areas. The effect is both to segregate class across space—people from different social strata rarely encounter one another—and depoliticize class across the social spectrum. This has been encouraged by the CCP in its use of the ideological rhetoric of jieceng ("stratum") to replace the old language of jieji ("class"), confirming the ideational terms of China's political-economic realignment. Chen and Dickson examine data from an impressive original survey of entrepreneurs and private business people across five coastal provinces in order to give readers a snapshot of the political behavior of the new economic elite in late 2006 and early 2007. Drawing on this trove of quantitative information, they employ multivariate regression analysis, alongwithotherbasic statistical techniques, to assess the degree and character of Chinese entrepreneurs' political embeddedness, the extent of their support for democratic change or political reform more broadly, the factors behind their support for the CCP regime, and their choices regarding various modes of political action or activism. Just a few years after Jiang Zemin's controversial "July 1 Speech," roughly one in five entrepreneurs in Chen and Dickson's sample were members of a legislative or consultative political body. More than 60% belonged to governmentsponsored trade associations, underscoring the Chinese middle class's very high level of political embeddedness (pp. 52, 59). While entrepreneurs favor some basic political reforms, they clearly do not support systemic political change or any substantial move toward democratization. Finally, the authors found strong support for theCCPregime among most entrepreneurs—with the exception of those outraged or frustrated by corruption. Moreover, this support was rooted not in political embeddedness, or participation, but in subjective values:The less liberal or democratic a person's leanings and beliefs, the stronger his or her support for the regime.There was also substantial regional variation in regime support that Chen and Dickson note but do not sufficiently explain. Neither book breaks fundamentally new substantive ground for its authors, who all have published widely and deeply on closely related topics. But, taken together, these two books give readers an invaluable window into the dynamics of social change in Chinese cities—offering in the process several clues as to why China's "social volcano" (Martin King Whyte, Myth of the Social Volcano: Perceptions of Inequality and Distributive Injustice in Contemporary China, 2010) may exist but has not erupted. Urban Chinese society has been substantially reordered by reform. State-sector workers have lost benefits and status, entrepreneurs have gained material wealth and been incorporated into the polity, and migrants have borne the heavy burdens of building the new order while remaining in the social and political shadows. The local state, meanwhile, facilitates this process at key points, in exchange for the | |


A redundancy allocation problem (RAP) is a well-known NP-hard problem that involves the selection of elements and redundancy levels to maximize the system reliability under various system-level constraints. In many practical design situations, reliability apportionment is complicated because of the presence of several conflicting objectives that cannot be combined into a single-objective function. As telecommunications, manufacturing and power systems are becoming more and more complex, while requiring short developments schedules and very high reliability, it is becoming increasingly important to develop efficient solutions to the RAP. In this paper, a new hybrid multi-objective imperialist competition algorithm (HMOICA) based on imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed for the first time in multi-objective redundancy allocation problems. In the multi-objective formulation, the system reliability is maximized while the cost and volume of the system are minimized simultaneously. Additionally, a response surface methodology (RSM) is employed to tune the ICA parameters. The proposed HMOICA is validated by some examples with analytical solutions. It shows its superior performance compared to a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and Pareto archive evolution strategy algorithm (PAES). Finally, the conclusion is given.


We present an explicit connection between the symmetries in a Very Special Relativity (VSR) and isometric group of a specific Finsler space. It is shown that the line element that is invariant under the VSR symmetric group is a Finslerian one. The Killing vectors in Finsler space are constructed in ...


An efficient algorithm for generating Voronoi diagram of 3D scattered point-set is proposed,which takes the data structure named "point-face-polyhedron" to store Voronoi cell,initializes the Voronoi cell of the first point,and the Voronoi cell of the new inserted point was generated after whose adjacent cells were changed accordingly through fission and reconstitution of cells.The experimental results show that this method can generate Voronoi diagram of 3D scattered point-set veraciously and efficiently.The topological neighbors inquiring for 3D scattered point-set can be realized efficiently based on this algorithm.


In this paper a novel 2/2 feedforward compensator is proposed and applied to control a second-order-like very slow process having 150 seconds settling time. The proposed compensator is capable of controlling the steady-state characteristics of the closed-loop control system and its dynamic characteristics. The MATLAB command "fsolve" is used to solve a set of nonlinear equations leading to tuning the proposed compensator. The resulting control system dynamics using the proposed compensator are completely satisfactory. The time response of the control system to a step input has no overshoot , the settling time is reduced to only 0.2 seconds and the steady-state error is as low as 0.01 for a unit step input.


A radiochemical method, previously applied to NaCl, KCl, and KBr crystals has been used to determine the oscillator strength ƒ of F-centers in RbCl. By extending theoretical calculations carried out by Smith and Spinolo, and by Iadonisi and Preziosi, estimates of ƒ for several alkali halides, including those previously mentioned, have been computed. The experimental results agree very closely with those obtained by Rauch and Heer and are in good accord with the theoretical estimates (the theoretical results are reported in brackets). ƒNaCl = 0.64 ± 0.02 (0.57); ƒKCl = 0.68 ± 0.02 (0.61); ƒKBr = 0.72 ± 0.02(0.57); ƒRbCl = 0.51 ± 0.05 (0.57). The experimental and theoretical results seemed to bear each other out and led to the conclusion that the ƒ values given in the literature, except those by Rauch and Heer, are overestimated.

On a determine experimentalement la force ƒ d'oscillateur du centre F dans RbCl en employant une nouvelle methode radiochimique (cette methode a ete deja utilisee pour la determination de ƒ dans NaCl, KCl, KBr). Les modeles theoriques du centre F, dans les halogenures alcalins, developpes par Smith et Spinolo et par Iadonisi et Preziosi, nous ont permis de calculer ƒ pour de nombreux cristaux. Les resultats experimentaux que nous avons obtenus s'accordent tres bien avec les valeurs de Rauch et Heer et avec les calculs que nous allons presenter (les valeurs theoriques sont donnees entre parentheses): ƒNaCl = 0,64 ± 0,02 (0,57); ƒKCl = 0,68 ± 0,02 (0,61); ƒKBr = 0,72 ± 0,02 (0,57); ƒRbCl = 0,51 ± 0,05 (0,57). Nos resultats theoriques et experimentaux se confirment l'un l'autre: par consequent nous pouvons conclure que toutes les valeurs de ƒ donnees en litterature (excepte celles obtenues par Rauch et Heer) sont surestimees.


A cost-effective multiple band resonator for a chipless RFID tag of the present invention may comprise a dielectric support plate of a dielectric material having a thickness and a predetermined dielectric constant; a pair of mutually parallel insulating parts to expose the surface of the dielectric support plate on one surface of the dielectric support plate; a waveguide signal line formed by coating a conductive material excluding a plurality of resonance patterns exposing the surface of the dielectric support plate along an area defined by the pair of the insulating parts; and a partially coated ground contact surface formed as one surface of the dielectric support plate excluding an uncoated area is partially coated within a ground contact area installed in the outside of the pair of the insulating parts with the conductive material and as the surface of the dielectric support plate is exposed in the uncoated area.


Viewing the Shoah and the creation of the State of Israel as a journey from catastrophe to redemption suggests the satisfying fulfillment and moral clarity of good triumphing over evil and hopes fulfilled that mark messianic dreams. 1 Yet two authors living three generations after these monumental events speak to a different vision. Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007) and Nicole Krauss's Forest Dark (2017) testify to a different Jewish existential reality that does not fit into the triumphal narrative. The geographic compass in both novels may point to Israel, but the moral compass tells another story about the loss of the emotional binaries and moral clarity of the Shoah-to-State-of-Israel narrative and the loss of these two touchstones as defining essences for Jewish identity. Both novels use parody and the comedic archetype of the schlemiel to express their rejection of the triumphal narrative and assert the existential Jewish historical narrative of perpetual ambiguity and liminality, the narrative of Jews who find themselves perpetually in troubled waters. I the papers concerning my great-grandparents, along a bag from museum gift shop. bag my I'll as Adam and Eve fatally overlooked the Tree of Life. Go on overlooking it, even while we can't live without the faith that it is there, always within us, its branches reach-ing upward and its leaves unfurling in the light. In this sense, the threshold between Paradise and this world may be illusory, and we may never have really left Paradise, Kafka suggested. In this sense, we might be there without knowing it even now.


The aim of this study was to determine the non-intentionally added substances – formaldehyde and trace metals – at 4% acetic acid conditions in rubber and metallic packaging/utensils. The temperature effect on migration in rubber and metallic packaging/utensils was monitored at 60°C and 100°C under acidic (pH < 3) circumstances. The concentrations were: formaldehyde – 23.1 μg kg–1, lead – 13.41 μg kg–1, cadmium – 0.15 μg kg–1, total arsenic – 2.02 μg kg–1 and nickel – 2.92 μg kg–1 at 60°C and formaldehyde – 148.9 μg kg–1, lead – 17.04 μg kg–1, cadmium – 0.14 μg kg–1, total arsenic – 7.25 μg kg–1 and nickel – 8.7 μg kg–1 at 100°C. A significant difference was noticed in formaldehyde and total arsenic between both temperatures (p < 0.01), which was not present in other trace metals. In conclusion, formaldehyde and total arsenic were more sensitive with cooking temperature than the other metals.


Periphery of QinghaiXizang plateau is one of the main strong earthquake region. It is also the variant belt of geophysical field and discontinuous crust belt, closely related to the strong earthquake occurrence as the results of previous studies. Thinking over these results, it is concluded that strong earthquakes usually occur in the variant belt of geophysical field and discontinuous crust belt, where contour lines change from denseness to scarcity,or slope belt. This result provides basic requirements for earthquake location predicting, potential seismic source zoning and earthquake parameter determing.


Dielectric properties of dithiol self-assemble monolayers (SAMs) under ac electric field were presented. Using a Hg-SAM/SAM-Hg junction, the ac impedances of dithiol SAMs were measured using a sinusoidal perturbation of 30 mV (peak-to-peak) with the frequency ranging from 1 Hz to 1 MHz at zero bias. The contributions from dithiol SAMs and solvent interlayers were separated due to their different behaviors at ac impedance. The peak position in the loss spectra (the plot of tg vs. frequency) moves to low frequency with the increase of chain length of dithiols. Using a correlation of peak position with the chain length, the active energies of 23-39 meV for dithiol SAMs of C6-C10 under an ac electric field were derived.


Schools across Australia can show their support for child safety awareness this month by participating in a nationwide Cybersmart Challenge activity, held to coincide with the annual Day for Daniel.


IN the administration of anesthetics to children needing orthopedic surgery, we are confronted with two problems. First and most important, the carrying of the patient through the operation with the minimum amount of shock and undesirable postoperative effect. Second, making the anesthetic as pleasant as possible for the patient. Many of these children need several operations before the desired results are obtained, and a disagreeable anesthetic experience at the first operation may upset the whole plan of the surgeon.


As of now, with the quick advancement of data innovation more information and pictures are accessible on the web. So there is a need to give some sort of verification to such critical information. At the point when the sender communicates the picture/information to the recipient, there might be gatecrashers present in the middle of who may catch the picture/information. In the wake of catching the picture, the interloper may see the significant substance in the picture. It may not be the issue now and again. Be that as it may, in the event that we consider the territories like clinical or military, the entrance of such pictures or information is unsatisfactory. In this paper the concentrated of Data Hiding procedure where the mystery information is installed in to the spread medium with the end goal that lone the sender and beneficiary can get to the shrouded information. The information concealing procedure can be utilized for an expansive scope of uses, as for giving copyright security to the movies, recordings, and so forth The information concealing method is safer and interlopers can't change the substance covered up inside the spread medium, despite the fact that if any adjustment is performed by gatecrasher it will be known by the sender and collector.


Scaling of degree of perceived foreign accent is common in studies of second language acquisition. Although interval scales are commonly used, it is not known whether accentedness is amenable to linear partitioning (i.e. described by a metathetic continuum) or whether accentedness is resistant to linear partitioning because it has degrees of magnitude or quantity (i.e. described by a prothetic continuum). This study determined if accentedness was a prothetic or metathetic continuum. Two groups of 10 native English listeners rated, in a self-paced experiment, degrees of perceived accent of native Italian speakers of English using both a seven-point equal-appearing interval scale and direct magnitude estimation (DME). DME scores were plotted against interval scores. This study found that accentedness (at least for Italian speakers) is amenable to linear partitioning. However, a wide dispersion of DME scores for `7' on the interval scale suggests a ceiling eA ect. A nine- or 11-point scale may better measure degree of perceived foreign accent. Individual listeners could reliably judge accentedness; however, inter-judge reliability was poor, possibly due to diA erences in listeners' internal standards of foreign accent or scaling artifact. Response biases occurred because foreign accent lacks a de® ned physical referent.


In anoxic sediments, the rhombohedral carbonates calcite (CaCO3) and rhodochrosite (MnCO3) form solid-solutions within a wide compositional range (e.g. Pedersen and Price, 1982) which have been suggested to be valuable indicators for the characterization of bottom-water redox conditions in the deeps of the Baltic Sea (Huckriede and Meischner, 1996). The formation of Ca-rhodochrosites seems to be related to oxygenation events (salt water inflows from the North Sea) followed by intense microbial activity at the sediment-water interface connecting the biogeochemical cycles of manganese, carbon, and sulphur (Huckriede and Meischner, 1996). The formation of mixed calcium-manganese(II) carbonates has been found in microbiological and inorganic precipitation experiments (e.g. Aller and Rude, 1988; Mucci, 1988). The exact formation conditions on a mechanistic and quantitative base, however, are still not fully understood. In the present study, the influence of precipitation conditions on Mn2+/Ca 2+ partitioning during the formation of the complete rhodochrosite-calcite (MnxCa(l_x)CO3) solid-solution ('RCSS') series from aqueous solutions is investigated at ambient temperature. Additionally, the possible effects of temperature (20-90~ and dissolved magnesium are considered. The present study extends the investigated boundary conditions for the formation of rhodochrosite-calcite solid-solutions from aqueous solutions.


lation when the encounters occurred. For example, Abulafia's 'Europeans' identified Caribbean and Canary islanders as 'barbarians' (or, more precisely, as various cognates of this term). They did not, however, identify them as 'primitive' or 'Stone Age', for those were perceptions of a later historical moment – one that emerged only after the shift from a degenerationist to a developmental view of the overall trajectory of human existence through time. Thus, when Abulafia – in his discussions of how 'Europeans' perceived these various islanders – alternates between using 'barbarian' and such latter-day social evolutionary terms as 'primitive' or 'Stone Age', he mistakenly suggests an equivalence between these terms and 'barbarian', as this latter term was used and understood at the time of the encounters. He thus blunts, rather than sharpens, our understanding of the late medieval and early modern meaning of 'barbarian'. While Abulafia's use of social evolutionary terms will jar with some readers, his use of 'European' is more likely to be overlooked, since this usage, although also anachronistic, is fully in line with accepted conventions of historical writing. Yet, however well established it may be to speak of 'Europeans' when depicting an era before the term became commonplace, the use of this term similarly blunts our comprehension of historical particularity. To see oneself or another person as a 'European' requires, at once, a sense of 'Europe' as a geographic unit and of its inhabitants as a 'people' – and these are anything but trivial or innocent notions. On the contrary, their emergence was part and parcel of the racialization of human variation. Projecting 'Europeans' back into the encounters of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries assimilates those encounters to the world that followed them historically and, in so doing, pre-empts examining how those encounters themselves contributed to the making of 'Europeans' and other racialized groupings. While the terms of identification that Abulafia deploys are not historically motivated, a second possible basis for their use is that they depict the objective facts of the encounters, independent of how anyone living at the time understood them – in the same way that we can say that some item of food eaten at the time of the encounters yielded so many calories, even though no one then alive measured or recognized 'calories'. Yet, for the use of 'European' to stand in this way – as an objective truth, let us say – would require showing that racial/continental groupings do in fact exist independent of their fabrication as social facts. And this would require addressing and dismantling the considerable scholarship that has shown us the historicalness of such groups in general and of 'Europeans' in particular. Similarly, for the use of social evolutionary terms to stand in this way would require taking on more than a century of anthropological critiques of social evolutionary theory – extending from Boas to LeviStrauss to Sahlins – in order to demonstrate, for instance, that social orders that have a reliance on 'stone tools' are, beyond this, of a common type. None of this daunting work of social theory is attempted in this book, however. As a final observation, I note that Abulafia joins those scholars who define themselves, at least in part, by using 'post-modernism' as a whipping-boy. Thus, following a now much-rehearsed formula, Abulafia offers as an exemplar of 'post-modernism' a brief quotation that is deeply incomprehensible – at least as he cites it. He then adds, as a punch line, that the surest means of understanding the quotation is to 're-read Hans Christian Andersen's ''The emperor's new clothes''' (p. xvi). In fact, the more usual approach of historians – that is, checking the source, to see if the quotation makes sense in its original context – is a route that Abulafia himself preempts, since he cites no source and names no author. This is unattractively smug. More importantly, what is overlooked here is that even the most readable prose, when it is produced and offered without a careful scrutiny of its own terms of representation, can equally serve as a hindrance to an effective dialogue with the past. In the case of Abulafia's own book, for instance, there is a great deal of valuable material struggling to be heard over the confusion produced by just such pseudo-accessibility.


Because of the epidemic in recent years, many people have to face home isolation, which means every suspected patient must stay at home. At this time, such solitary people need to be able to monitor and control their behavior. Using a camera is a very practical method. However, smart bracelets are relatively more convenient if you consider personal privacy or you must know the blood oxygen value or heart rate. In this research, it propose a low-cost indoor positioning system that uses a Bluetooth beacon, smart bracelet and an embedded system. In addition to knowing whether a person living alone is active in a specific environment, and knowing his heart rate or blood oxygen value when there are special conditions, it can also send early warning signals to specific observation units or relatives through instant messaging software.


This study examined the strategic objectives that industrial firms have for establishing industry-university technology relationships. Results from this multi-method, exploratory field study show that three clusters of firms surfaced: collegial players, aggressive players and targeted players. The implications of these findings for both industry and universities are discussed.


A novel 0.12μm DRAM technology is developed by dual spacer, line-type storage node(LSNC), and combined cylindrical shape and box shape storage node technology. These technologies have features of low parasitic bit line (BL) capacitance and high capacitance of memory cell capacitor while maintaining its mechanical stability. The low parasitic BL capacitance is achieved by using dual spacer with Si3N4 and SiO2. The high capacitance is realized by adding box type storage node to cylindrical shape of storage node. This combined storage node structure gives much better mechanical stability of capacitor. Furthermore, LSNC eliminates one of the challenges of COB stack cell.


Objective To discuss the CT features of graft ischemic damages after liver transplantation and estimate the value of multi-slice CT in the etiological analysis. Methods There were 43 patients who presented hepatic artery or portal vein stenosis or thrombosis in dynamic enhancement CT exams. Among them, 23 received hepatic arteriography and indirect portography; 17 had graft ischemia or infarction which was confirmed by histopathology or follow-up examinations. We retrospectively analyzed the CT features of hepatic ischemia and infarction after liver transplantation, and estimated the value of CT angiography (CTA) in etiological diagnosis. Results All the ischemia and infarction areas of the graft distributed in the subcapsular parts, which demonstrated patchy or wedge-shaped hypo-attenuation on plain CT scan, with lower or none enhancement on contrast-enhanced CT scan. The hepatic artery or portal vein branches in those areas were lessened, thinned or non-enhanced. CTA demonstrated hepatic artery or portal vein complications in all these cases, including hepatic artery complication (70.59%), portal vein complication (5.88%), and hepatic artery complication complicated with portal vein complication (23.53%). The distribution of ischemic damages related to the site of blood vessel lesions. Compared to DSA, the sensitivity, specificity, predictive value of positive cases (PVP) and predictive value of negative cases (PVN) of CTA in diagnosis of main trunk of hepatic artery and portal vein lesions (stenosis and thrombosis) were all 100%. The sensitivity, specificity, PVP and PVN of CTA in diagnosis of hepatic artery branches stenosis and thrombosis were 100%, 80.00%, 72.73% and 100%, respectively. Conclusion Combined CTA with dynamic enhancement CT examination not only could present the hepatic ischemic damages, but also could accurately demonstrate the state of blood vessel lesions which lead to hepatic ischemia or infarction. Hepatic artery complication is the main reason for hepatic ischemia.


THE RELATION between the artist's personality and his work, while obviously intimate, can never be made wholly explicit. Creativity is too elusive, too fundamentally mysterious, to afford a point-by-point correspondence between the man and the art. Yet the artist's role has shifted historically on the question of the individual's degree of identification with his books or paintings or music. From the anonymous art of the Middle Ages, dedicated to the glory of God, one may trace a movement toward ever greater concern with the artist as a person, toward a highly individualized art dedicated to the glory of self. In some instances this tendency has resulted in a relative disregard of the work, its overshadowing by the symbolic importance of the artist's person. Rimbaud, for example, has perhaps been more influential as the prototype of a role-the alienated, rebellious writer at odds with society-than as a poet to be read for his poetry. As Trilling notes in the passage above, F. Scott Fitzgerald may stand as an exemplar of self-exploitation in the novel. His life and


Aims In Russia the paradigm of alcoholism as a disease is still in contrast to the general perception of alcoholics as weak-willed. This article studies alcoholism and recovery in Russia through the case study of the Russian Alcoholics Anonymous online group. It studies how people who are seeking help for their drinking problems in this online community come to incorporate a new self-understanding of being ill with alcoholism. Design The data were collected from a Russian online support group for people struggling with alcoholism. The source material consists of 617 posts by more than 35 individuals. The data was analysed with qualitative content analysis using the RQDA software. Results The online group acts as a virtual space where people can anonymously talk about alcoholism and engage with AA's 12-Step program. Typically, a new forum member goes through a process of admitting one's problem with alcohol and coming to a new understanding of oneself as a person suffering from a chronic disease. This process includes creating a new relation to alcohol, a new understanding of one's reasons for drinking and a commitment to stay sober and to help others to recover. Conclusions The online community creates a space for engagement with AA's 12-Step program and service work of supporting other alcoholics in recovery in the context of Russia, where face-to-face AA groups and other recovery programmes are scarce. When the state cannot deliver the services for problem drinkers or recovering alcoholics, people may turn to the Internet to find alternative information and social support.


This study aims at verifying the feasibility of the analysis of particulate matter samples collected with hourly time resolution by a Streaker sampler device, using cheaper and more affordable instrumentations like energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometers. The 'hourly' samples are not analysable with the available commercial laboratory ED-XRF spectrometers, because the aerosol deposit forms a continuous streak that has to be analysed 'point-by-point' with a collimated beam of a few mm size. For this specific application, a custom-made compact XRF spectrometer, designed at the INFN LABEC laboratory in Florence and typically used for in-situ analysis of cultural heritage, has been used. This ED-XRF system is based on the combined use of two X-ray tubes with different anodes (Mo and Ti), a 30-mm2 silicon drift detector and a helium flow to reduce the attenuation of low energy X-rays.

A set of elemental thin standards containing elements from Na to Pb has been analysed in order to determine the best experimental conditions, the sensitivity and the detection limits of this system. The results of quantitative analysis on certified aerosol samples, on particulate matter samples collected for 24 h by a low volume sampler and on Streaker samples ('fine' fraction, PM2.5) are in good agreement with those obtained by PIXE and polarized optics ED-XRF measurements. This study demonstrates that a specialized custom-made ED-XRF system may represent a promising solution for elemental analysis of Streaker samples, even for low-Z elements, although PIXE technique still remains unrivalled as regards sensitivity and measurement throughput. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The field of a plane wave diffracted by two parallel, thin, highly conducting sheets, equivalent to semi-infinite planes, has been measured close to the diffracting edges for various spacings between the sheets. For one spacing, experimental results are compared with values derived from the theory of Clemmow for two parallel, infinitely thin, perfectly conducting half-planes.


The contributors to this volume place in context Freud's evolving thinking; focus on what it tells us about love, female sexuality and conventional morality; discuss the role of the therapist in the genesis of the patient's transference love; explore the differences between revering, reliving and enacting; and examine Freud's theory in the light of current developments in psychoanalytic thought. The essays illuminate a persistent problem in all modalities of psychotherapy: unfortunate, often tragic, enactments of erotic transference and countertransference.


Abstract Planning of stormwater management strategies often requires estimating the concentration or mass load of pollutants in storm runoff generated from urban areas. In Australia, it is common practice to use simple methods that adopt a constant event mean concentration (EMC) for all storms under analysis. Alternatively, a stochastic concentration may be used to introduce variability between storm events. A comparison is made between three of these "Mean EMC Methods" and five proposed methods. Each method was evaluated in terms of accuracy in predicting suspended solids EMCs against data measured for a road surface located in Toowoomba, Queensland. The cumulative error in estimating the total load for a sequence of storm events was also assessed. The Mean EMC Methods demonstrated low accuracies compared to the proposed alternatives.


If the tonsil fossa be very deep it may be advisable, as is often recommended, to pack it with a roll of gauze before applying the sutures, but this is very seldom required, and is never necessary if a little of the aponeurotic tissue lining the fossa be picked up by the needle as it passes between the pillars. I employ plain catgut, which is absorbed in a few days, so that the sutures do not require removal.


Assessing default risks for Chinese firms is hard. Standard measures of risk using market indicators may be unreliable because of implicit guarantees, the large role played by less-informed investors, and other market imperfections. We test this assertion by estimating stand-alone 1-year default probabilities for non-financial firms in China using an equity-based structural model and debt costs. We find evidence that the equity measure of default risk is sensitive to a firm's balance sheet health, profitability, and ownership; specifically, default probabilities are higher for weaker, less profitable, and state-owned firms. In contrast, measures based on the cost of debt seem largely detached from fundamentals and instead determined by implicit guarantees. We conclude that for individual firms, equity-based measures, while far from perfect, provide a better measure of stand-alone default risks than borrowing costs.


As part of the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence funded by the German Research Foundation at the Leibniz University Hanover, the Institute of Micro Production Technology (IMPT) developed an optical polymer platform for active and passive optical components. At the IMPT injection mold, four-inch diameter wafer-like substrates are fabricated using the laser direct structurable (LDS) high performance thermoplastic materials polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK). The manufactured substrate is structured by mold inlay, which are manufactured in the clean room facilities at the IMPT. The structured substrates are fabricated by lithography and electroplating processes. Cavities down to the sub-micron range can be created. Therefore, passive optical components such as wave-guides or optical gratings will be created on the PEEK substrate. The optical waveguides can be manufactured using PECVD processes, depositing silicon nitride as waveguide-material. Polymer-based wave-guide materials such as poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) can be spin coated into cavities created on the surface of the substrate. In conclusion, the highly performable PEEK-substrate offers a wide range for passive optical components. Concerning active optical components, the laser activatable substrate can provide an electrical infrastructure through laser activating and electro-less deposition technologies for e.g. laser-diodes, photocells or active filters. Additionally, thermal couplings realized by LDS-MID structures can passively manage energy intensive and thermally demanding components such as laser-diodes.


Innovative approaches to searching for hidden meaning in data have recently emerged. In some cases, however, the support of privacy is compromised and consistent privacy protection remains elusive. Privacy perceptions and requirements differ from person to person and over time, leading to diverse privacy preferences within a community. This paper reports on a privacy-enhancing database architecture that is premised upon this view of privacy and on Australia's Use and Disclosure National Privacy Principle. The approach extends to supporting privacy under Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.


Adaptive Layer Switching (ALS) has been presented in earlier work as a method of switching the access mechanism in the MAC layer during the network operation. It has shown good performance especially under varying traffic conditions of the smart grid. In this paper we extend the evaluation of ALS with focus on a small network. The selected topology is evaluated with uplink and downlink, UDP and TCP traffic. The results are compared and discussed. The performance of the switching process as well as performance of the network during switching is given.


In this article, a generic framework was proposed to effectively characterise the pyrolysis kinetics of any household furniture materials. To examine the validity of this method, two wooden polymeric samples, (1) furniture plywood and (2) particle board, were experimented through thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses, as well as cone calorimetry. The framework comprises of three major parameterisation procedures including (1) using the Kissinger method for the initial approximation, (2) modification of modelling constants and (3) optimisation by comparisons with the experimental results. The finalised pyrolysis kinetics was numerically investigated through computational fluid dynamics simulation of the cone calorimeter. Numerical predictions were validated against the experimental data for three different cone radiation intensities. Good agreement was achieved between the computational and experimental results in terms of heat release rate, ignition time and burn duration. The proposed framework was capable of establishing quality pyrolysis kinetics that fully replicates the complex thermal decomposition of solid combustible materials.


In this research, X-ray diffraction of the powder (PVP polymer, Eosin B dye, and silver nitrate) and (EB/PVP, AgNO 3 /PVP, EB/AgNO 3 /PVP) films have been studied. Casting method is used to prepare homogeneous films on plastic petri dishes. All parameters accounted for the X-ray diffraction; full width half maximum (FWHM), Miller indices (hkl), size of crystalline (D), Specific Surface Area (S) and Dislocation Density (δ).The nature of the structural of materials and films will be investigated. The XRD pattern of PVP polymer was amorphous structure with two broader peaks and the Eosin B dye and silver nitrate have crystalline structure. While the mixture between these materials led to appearing some crystalline peaks into XRD pattern of PVP polymer.


A precise diagnostics of hearing damages is still a challenge, especially because of limitations of present audiological methods. In this paper, the authors presented the main assumptions of the new method to record auditory responses evoked by high rate of acoustic stimulation. Continuous Loop Averaging Deconvolution (CLAD) is a technique for reading the overlapping recorded responses using the mathematical model of deconvolution developed by Delgado and Ozdamar (2004) and improved by Bohorquez and Ozdamar (2006). Such an option of acoustic stimulation and auditory evoked potential acquisition is getting a new tool for evaluation of the adaptation processes in the hearing organ.


Brucea javanica seed oil is an antineoplastic drug,which has clear curative effect,less toxicity and an expanse foreground in clinic applications.Research on the chemical components,methods of extraction,determinations of contents,pharmacological activities and clinical applications of Brucea javanica seed oil were summarized.Some clues for further research on Brucea javanica seed oil have been provided.


This research has conducted to find out the best position of lime branch used for cutting. Completely randomized block design was used in this present study with three cutting source position such as terminal, middle and apex of branch. Shoot time formation, bud length, leaf number, root length and root number were measured in this experiment. The result of this experiment showed that apex and middle of branch gave cuttings with earlier shoot formation (12 days) compare to terminal part of branch (14 days). In contrast, cuttings from middle of branch showed better result in terms of shoot length, leaf number, root length as well as root number compare to terminal and apex of branch .


The author describes the evolution of the image of a monster in modern English-language literature. Special attention is given to literature of the 20 th and 21 st centuries, works of British writers such as Angela Karter and Jeanette Winterson, and American writer of Greek origin Jeffrey Eugenides. The central characters of these authors' novels, in different ways, possess some traits of monstrosity, which becomes a manifestation of their Otherness. Some novels show zoomorphic features ( Night at the Circus , Passion ), or special physiological characteristics ( Middlesex ). In each case, a monster realizes its otherness in a certain way and expresses it. In addition to the main character, there are other personages having traits of monstrosity, which provides the complexity and diversity of the problem raised. The methods of the representation of Otherness, the attitude to the Other and different ideas the author expresses through such a character are the subject of this research. The author uses these works as examples demonstrating the evolution of the values associated with the Other in contemporary literature. It is possible to trace evolution of the patterns of the gender Other image from the alien and hostile, being in the area of pathology and madness, to the exclusive, and not the same as others but still deserving recognition and respect. Particular attention is paid to the problem of relations between Otherness and Monstrosity in English and American literature of the 20 th and 21 st centuries.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the role of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) in regulating GnRH mRNA expression in cultured human endometrial stromal cells using a modified semiquantitative competitive reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

DESIGN
A controlled study.

SETTING
Clinical and academic research setting in a university medical center.

PATIENT(S)
Women undergoing hysterectomy for nonmalignant indications.

INTERVENTION(S)
Confluent stromal cell cultures treated with steroid hormones were stimulated with IL-1beta and attenuated by anti-IL-1beta antibody or IL-1 receptor antagonist.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
The human endometrial stromal cell expression of GnRH and its receptor were determined by PCR. Interleukin-1beta-mediated regulation of stromal cell GnRH mRNA expression was determined by quantitative competitive PCR.

RESULT(S)
The GnRH and GnRH receptor mRNA expression were amplified in cultured stromal cells by PCR and two rounds of nested PCR, respectively. Treatment with IL-1beta stimulated stromal cell GnRH mRNA expression at concentrations of IL-1beta above 10 IU/mL. Recombinant IL-1 receptor antagonist and anti-IL-1beta antibody attenuated the increase of gene expression of GnRH initiated by IL-1beta.

CONCLUSION(S)
These results provide indirect evidence that IL-1beta may play a crucial role at the level of embryo-maternal interaction by regulating stromal cell expression of GnRH and its receptor, both known to be important in mediating trophoblast invasion and placental hormone regulation.


Fan Transform is a new scrambing method and in this paper we do Fan Transform to the color image in position and gray, in this way the image became desultory and the image's texture characteristics and statistical information were also changed, since the Fan Transform have inverse transform we can also restore the original image[8]. And the difficulty of cracking scrambling is related to the type and the times of transform, and Fan Transform has many types, so it increases the difficulty of cracking, and thus enhances security of it.


This paper reports a study designed to observe how a learning community arose when a group of learners of English focused on a common project. The students' task was to participate as speakers in an international conference. Undergraduate students in a course of Business English at a small private university in western Mexico worked in teams to research and develop a topic to be sent as a proposal to the conference.The study used Interaction Analysis with a qualitative focus to observe participant interactions. Video and audio recordings were supplemented with participant interviews and questionnaires. Analysis shows that in the course of the project, the students learned not only business terminology, but also how to work together.


To empirically examine the relativity between the public services and economic development of Xiamen and the affect degree of it,this paper uses the Granger causality test,cointegration regression equations,ect.based on the quantitative measurement of the public services development level of Xiamen for the past 30 years from 1981 to 2010.The inspection result shows that the public services and economic development of Xiamen have a steady equilibrium relationship,and the improvement of the public services level offers significant promotion for economic development.


Abstract Patients suffering from upper limb amputation experience a significant reduction in their ability to perform various tasks. The currently available myoelectric prostheses seek to reinstate the lost abilities of the amputees. However, most users abandon their devices due to high cost, large size, heavy weight, complexity, and limited functional control. This paper presents a multifunctional prosthetic hand that can perform six hand activities deploying a single-channel surface electromyography (sEMG) sensor. EMG signals for fifteen subjects (five amputees and ten intact) were acquired for six contraction levels of forearm muscles using the designed sensor. These levels were further classified to recognize six predefined hand gestures by a fuzzy logic classifier. The proposed system showed an excellent success (> 95%) and other performance parameters above 96%. The intended classification-based control scheme was further realized in real-time to achieve six grip patterns for the developed prosthetic prototype. The hand was tested on five subjects (two amputees and three intact) showed a percentage of success above 91% for accomplishing the dexterous grasping operations. The proposed approach is modest, efficient, and provides a low-cost solution to amputees with multiple degrees of freedom with a single channel EMG system.


Introduction: During 2009-2013, the percentage of poor people in East Java was always above the national level. Based on this background, this study aims to examine and analyze the effect of investment, Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), and labor absorption on the number of poor people in districts and cities in East JavaMethods: This study uses the path analysis method. This method was chosen because it is able to explain the direct and indirect effects between the independent variables and between the independent variables and the dependent variable based on a model built from previous theory and research.Results: The results showed that investment directly had a positive effect on GRDP and employment. Meanwhile, GDP has a direct negative effect on the number of poor people, and employment has a direct positive effect on the number of poor people. So that investment indirectly has a negative effect on the number of poor people through PDRB, and investment indirectly has a positive effect on the number of poor people through employment.Conclusion and suggestion: Regencies or cities whose economy is dominated by the industrial, service and trade sectors such as Sidoarjo regency, Gresik regency, Surabaya city, Malang city and the majority of other cities in East Java Province, which so far have low labor absorption, require labor intensive investment. so as to be able to absorb more labor which in turn will reduce the number of poor people.


The city of Iznik, called Nikaia or Nicaea in ancient times, is located in northwest Anatolia, Turkey. Nicaea is renowned especially for the first Council of Nicaea convened by the Roman emperor Constantine in ad 325 in an attempt to unify the Church. During an international field course on the geophysical exploration of archaeological targets we detected the remains of a small previously unknown Byzantine church on a fallow lot of land inside the city. The church is oriented parallel to the ancient Hippodamian street grid that deviates from the modern street system of the quarter by ~45°. We found the contours of the nave, two aisles and three apses as well as evidence of a partly refilled grave. The geophysical measurements indicate that the foundations of the church consist of low‐porosity hard rock with a low magnetic susceptibility, probably limestone or sandstone embedded in fluvial sediments. The field study is based on ground‐penetrating radar (GPR), magnetics, electric resistivity tomography (ERT) and microgravimetry. It highlights the strength and necessity of combining different geophysical methods in exploring and characterizing archaeological sites. In fact, the foundation walls of the church do not show any magnetic anomaly but could be delineated clearly only by GPR. The wall remains appear as highly resistive spots in ERT. By converting the three‐dimensional GPR image into an electric resistivity model we could verify that the ERT results fully correspond to the ruins found by GPR. The structure interpreted as a loosely refilled grave is indicated mainly by a weak gravity anomaly (~9 μGal) and a diffuse reflection pattern in GPR. Electric forward modelling shows that this structure leads to an additional increase of a high resistivity anomaly, which is primarily caused by foundation rocks, but it cannot be resolved within the ERT pattern a priori. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This book aims to contribute into the contemporary "struggle for
memory" by documenting the various encounters between
antisemitism, history and collective memory. Its primary purpose is
to explore various strategies by means of which the anti-Semites
relate to historical events and concepts. It is an attempt to
contribute to the discussions about the uses and abuses of historical
and collective memory. In their analyses of antisemitic discourse,
the authors strive to offer new perspectives on how has history been
revised and rewritten in the antisemitic thought.
The authors present a collection of case studies that inquire into
the antisemitic concepts of history. Ivo Budil has analyzed the
writings of Benjamin Disraeli and Ernest Renan to show how was
the image of Jews shaped in the early racial ideology of the
nineteenth century and what role did the various interpretations of
history play in the formation of this image. A detailed insight into
the thought of contemporary Czech antisemitism is offered in the
two following chapters. Both of these chapters demonstrate the
encounters between antisemitism and historical memory on
particular examples from the Czech history. Věra Tydlitatova shows,
how the contemporary Czech far-right circles relate to the historical
personality of the Brst Czechoslovak president Tomas Garrigue
Masaryk and his legacy. The next study "Neo-Nazis on the Nation's
Boulevard" analyzes how the Czech far-right scene views the events
of Velvet revolution and in particular, the day of 17th November, in
which the revolution itself started. I am showing, how the most important Czech public holiday was "discovered" by the neo-Nazis
and how did it move from the periphery to the center of the neo-
Nazi and far-right discourse. Such analyses offer some crucial
conclusions about the way the Czeh far-right constructs its own
identity and relationship towards the mainstream society.
The last chapter, written by Pavel Hosek, offers an insight into the
question, how do the Jewish, rabbinic thinkers respond to
antisemitism. Thoughts of one of the most important 20th century
Jewish thinkers, Abraham Joshua Heshel, his re@ections on the
problem of antisemitism and his response to this virulent hatred are
thus closely explored.


The aim of this work was to study the effect of probiotic (Lactobacillus planterium) supplementation in diet on productive and physiological performance, intestinal microbial examination, histomorphology and economic efficiency of growing rabbits. A total of 36 four weeks old White New Zealand (NZW) rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups with 3 replicates (4 rabbit in each). The first group was fed a basal diet as a control group according to NRC (1977). The 2 nd and 3 rd groups were fed on basal diet supplemented with 0.25 and 0.5 g of probiotic / kg diet (Lactobacillus planterium 1×10 6 CFU/g), respectively during the experimental period (4-12 weeks of age). The Results revealed that by supplementation of rabbit diets with probiotic (Lactobacillus planterium) has positive effects (P≤0.05) on both body weight and feed conversion ratio. Moreover, the results indicated that there was significant (P≤ 0.05) increase in serum total protein, serum albumin and serum globulin of the treated groups as compared to the control group. Addition of probiotic to rabbit diets caused to improve production of mucus, beneficial microflora count and clearly decreased Escherichia coli count in intestine when compared with control group. Conclusively, it can be concluded that probiotic (Lactobacillus Plantarium) at the tested levels can be applied in rabbit rations to improve the productive and physiological performance, as well as, gut health under Egyptian environmental conditions.


Aim: To compare the difference in periprosthetic bone density between cemented and uncemented total hip replacement at a minimum follow up of 10 years. Patients and methods: We looked at a cohort of 17 patients who have had bilateral total hip replacement with cemented Charnley total hip on one side and uncemented Furlong total hip on the other side between 1984 and 1994 (minimum follow up 10 years). Harris and Oxford hip scores were used to determine the function, SF 36 was used to measure quality of life and Dual energy X-Ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan was used to quantify bone mineral density adjacent to the prosthesis. The results from the DEXA scan for cemented and the uncemented hips were analysed using Paired samples two tailed t-tests. To compare the Harris hip scores, a non-parametric Wilcoxon test was used. Pearson correlations were carried out to examine the relationship between the bone density measures (averaged for each zone) and the quality of life measures. Results: Bone mineral density was higher on the Furlong side in Gruen Zones 2, 3, 5 and 6 of the proximal femur and DeLee Charnley Zone 1 of the acetabulum. In all other zones there was no statistical difference. Comparison of Harris hip scores and Oxford hip scores showed no statistically significant difference between the two hips (p = 0.108). Age is negatively correlated with bone density in Gruen zones 6 and 7 and acetabular zones 2 and 3. Conclusion: Bone density is better preserved around the uncemented HAC coated stem compared to the Charnley cemented stem.


Abstract Non-steady-state flow of water through plant tissues is a complex process to study because of the number of hydraulic parameters involved and the geometric intricacy of the tissues. The importance of understanding water flow through plants together with the increasing power of computers and numerical solution methods have suggested revisiting earlier mathematical approaches to the transport process. In this paper, equations are derived for a one-dimensional case including terms for resistance and capacitance with particular consideration of an inductance term for kinetic energy used in the acceleration of water. Calculations of power into each component for several test cases suggest that the inductance term is not likely to be very important for flow in plant tissues. Lastly, equations for a three-dimensional case are derived and expressed for rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems.


Geometric morphometric analyses were performed on the Neotropical ostracod Cytheridella including recent populations from Florida, Yucatán, Colombia, and Brazil. Generalized least-squares Procrustes analyses were applied to left and right valves of adult females and males and to A-1 to A-3 juveniles. The analyses show that the prevailing shape variability is in the outline of the valves. Further characters defining the variability range are the anterior pore conuli 2 and 4 (LM 2, LM 4) and the connection point between transversal sulcus and the extension of the posterior lobe (LM 6). Relative Warps Analysis enabled delineation of the whole-shape disparity and revealed a geographical pattern in the morphological variability that is apparent in adults and juveniles. Females show greatest morphological disparity, whereas juveniles are more variable on the population scale. Differences in hard- and soft-part morphology identify the specimens from Yucatán as new a morphospecies. Different hydrological or hydrochemical conditions may have led to the evolution of the new species. Cytheridella has occurred in the Neotropics since the Oligocene with a similar distribution to that in the Recent. Avian dispersal may repeatedly reintroduce C. ilosvayi to Yucatánian populations possibly explaining the sympatric occurrence of 2 Cytheridella morphospecies. Our findings promote the benefit of investigating morphological variability quantitatively to detect regional morphotypes and ultimately to contribute to evaluations of biodiversity.


Introduction: Low quality sleep and insomnia can lead to impaired daily functioning, increased human errors, and
occupational accidents. Shift work is one of the factors affecting insomnia and sleep quality. The aim of this study was to
investigate the relationship between sleep disorders and blood pressure and shift working in Shahid Mohammadi hospital staff.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 263 clinical staff of Shahid Mohammadi hospital in
Bandar Abbas city in 2019, who were selected using random sampling method. In addition to demographic data, Maureen
Insomnia Severity Index, shift working status, and blood pressure of the participants were recorded. Data were analyzed using
spss version 24 software and logistic regression, chi-square, and t-test tests.
Results: The results showed that 39(14.8%) participants had normal sleep and 118(44.9%), 90(34.2%), and 16(6.1%) of the
subjects had mild, moderate, and severe sleep disorders, respectively. Sleep disorders were higher in women compared to men
(P-Value⩽0.05). Compared to day workers, the odds ratio of sleep disorders in shift workers was 3.50 (P-Value⩽0.05). There
was no significant relationship between hypertension and shift working and sleep disorders (P-Value≥0.05).
Conclusion: Since the prevalence of insomnia in hospital staff is high and shift working increases the risk of sleep
disorders, shift working schedules should be considered and adjusted.


Rank data occurs quite regularly in the context of market research studies, opinion polls, sports, etc. In this paper, we discuss the problem of estimation of the true rank when the rank given by the respondents are subject to error. Various error structures are discussed like, transposition errors, cyclic errors etc. and methods to analyze data with these error structures are derived. Analysis of data with a completely general error structure is also discussed. It is seen that in all the cases considered, the posterior marginal distribution of the true rank can be conveniently obtained using Sampling Importance Resampling (SIR) technique. A real life rank data set is analysed to illustrate the methodology. Note: For softcopy of this paper, please contact the authors - email: email@example.com


Measurements from load tests may lead to numerical models that better reflect structural behavior. This kind of system identification is not straightforward due to important uncertainties in measurement and models. Moreover, since system identification is an inverse engineering task, many models may fit measured behavior. Traditional model updating methods may not provide the correct behavioral model due to uncertainty and parameter compensation. In this paper, a multi-model approach that explicitly incorporates uncertainties and modeling assumptions is described. The approach samples thousands of models starting from a general parameterized finite element model. The population of selected candidate models may be used to understand and predict behavior, thereby improving structural management decision making. This approach is applied to measurements from structural performance monitoring of the Langensand Bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland. Predictions from the set of candidate models are homogenous and show an average discrepancy of 4 to 7% from the displacement measurements. The tests demonstrate the applicability of the multi-model approach for the structural identification and performance monitoring of real structures. The multi-model approach reveals that the Langensand Bridge has a reserve capacity of 30 % with respect to serviceability requirements. 1 PhD Student, email@example.com, IMAC, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Station 18, Bâtiment GC, CH1015, Lausanne, Switzerland 2 PhD, firstname.lastname@example.com, IMAC, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Station 18, Bâtiment GC, CH1015, Lausanne, Switzerland 3 Professor, F. ASCE, firstname.lastname@example.com, IMAC, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Station 18, Bâtiment GC, CH1015, Lausanne, Switzerland


Based on the series of figures of merit, we have designed the superresolution phase-only pupil filters to control the irradiance distribution in the focal region of an optical system. The performance of these filters has been examined in terms of two point resolution by applying modified Sparrow criterion. It is observed that the presence of these pupil functions enhancing the resolution of an optical system beyond the diffraction limit.


Individual scaffold limbs on 5-year-old 'Red Prince Delicious' apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) trees on five rootstocks were unpruned or pruned in Aug. 1981 or Feb. 1982 using three severities at each time. Responses to summer and dormant pruning were similar; no significant interactions occurred. In Dec. 1982, branch circumference was inversely related to pruning severity. Compared to the control, all pruning severities decreased shoot number and increased mean shoot length in 1982; only the most severe pruning suppressed total shoot growth. Flowering and fruiting in 1983 were inversely related to pruning severity.