Partition defective 3 (Par3) is involved in a variety of polarity events including establishment of apico‐basal polarity of epithelial cell, axon/dendrite specification of neurons and directional migration of cells with front‐rear polarity. Par3 is thought to regulate cell polarity as a scaffold protein by interacting with various partner proteins such as Par6, aPKC, Tiam1/2 and Numb. However, the mode of actions of Par3 in polarized migration remains largely unknown. To explore Par3 functions, we screened Par3‐interacting proteins by combining Par3 affinity column chromatography and shotgun analysis using liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS). We obtained about two hundred Par3‐interacting proteins from the rat brain cytosol fraction. Among them, we focused on FAK and PI3‐kinase, as both of them participate in directional cell migration. FAK associated with the PDZ domain and the coiled‐coil region of Par3 and p110 of PI3‐kinase associated with the coiled‐coil region of Par3. Par3 was partially colocalized with FAK in spreading cells. Depletion of Par3 by RNA interference inhibited adhesion‐induced activation of FAK and PI3‐kinase, and RNA interference‐resistant Par3 restored the inhibitory effects. In addition, Par3 was required for the adhesion‐induced cell spreading as well as for directional cell migration toward collagen. These results suggest that Par3 directly interacts with FAK and PI3‐kinase, enhancing their activities for polarized cell migration. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


An object of the present invention is to describe the voice-activated user interface for the application. A voice-activated user interface calls the voice recognition unit recognizes the audio input from the user. If the audio input is a command to call the validity judgment unit determines whether to determine the validity of the command before execution. .FIELD 1


The invention relates to an efficient plane and stereo digital video coding and decoding method. Through a coding method for extracting auxiliary components from adjacent queues and an adjacent macro block estimating coding and parity field difference coding method in a frame (field), the coding efficiency is improved greatly, the compression ratio is improved, and then a corresponding decoding method is formed by the coding methods; in a stereo video, an image in left and right video stereo signals is used as an efficient basic code, the other path of the signals is pretreated according to video difference, the horizontal difference and vertical difference or brightness residue texture or chromaticity residue texture of left and right video images are subjected to auxiliary component coding according to the definition requirements of videos to acquire the efficient stereo video coding method, and then the corresponding decoding method is formed by the coding method; and the definition and the stereo video code are uniformly treated, the signals lower than the definition and plane signals are used as efficient coding, the higher definition and stereo efficient coding is achieved through a mode of increasing auxiliary information, a plurality of the efficient coding methods can be combined, and then the corresponding decoding methods are formed by the coding methods.


The production of carbon fiber reinforced (CFR) anionic polyamide 6 (APA6) plates by thermoplastic resin transfer molding (T‐RTM) processing is highly sensitive to the presence of polymer additives such as flame retardants (FRs). However, APA6 is flammable, and therefore, it is mandatory to protect the polymer matrix, especially if the produced materials are intended for aerospace applications. Typically used FR for PA6 cannot be incorporated in the T‐RTM processes. With hexaphenoxycyclotriphosphazene, an incorporable and effective FR additive for CFR APA6 was discovered. Cone calorimetry measurements indicate a char formation‐based mechanism, and the flame retardancy was further confirmed with limiting oxygen index tests, classification by UL94 (V‐0), and FAR25 tests. The influence of this FR on the thermal (thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry) and mechanical behavior (flexural, compressive and ultimate tensile strength, and Charpy impact tests) on CFR APA6 produced via T‐RTM processing is evaluated and indicates no interaction with the APA6; it works as a passive filler. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Current histological text-books and current papers dealing with peripheral nerve show it to be surrounded by a connective tissue sheath, the epineurium. Within the latter the nerve fibres are divided up into bundles or fasciculi which are surrounded by connective tissue known as the perineurium. Between the individual nerve fibres the endoneurium ramifies. It is a curious fact that as long ago as 1876 Key & Retzius claimed that the nerve trunk is covered with endothelial-like cells and that this finding has been ignored by many subsequent workers. Our studies have demonstrated that this layer of endothelial-like cells not only surrounds the common nerve trunks but also their divisions, the nerve fasciculi. Glees (1943) showed photographs of nerves inwhich these cells can be clearly seen around the periphery of the nerve bundles. However, the author made no reference to them and probably assumed with other workers, that these cells simply represent a discontinuous layer of flattened fibroblasts of the perineurium. Our histological and histochemical studies of nerves indicate that these flattened cells may, in fact, extend completely around the fasciculi enclosing them in an intact protoplasmic membrane. It was decided to make an attempt to establish this fact. The term 'membrane' is used in its anatomical sense in this paper, that is a flattened sheet of tissue, not in the cytological sense, which has a very specialized connotation. The presence of this membrane has been acknowledged by several authors, e.g., Lehmann (1957), Huxley and Stampfli (1951) and Krnjevic (1954 b) anda detailed account of its structure and origin has been given.


Education is a very important aspect to develop the country to become more advanced. However, the constraints such as lack of education budgets have restricted many schools to invest in learning support equipment. One of the technologies in multimedia that can be used to build a learning system is media streaming that use a standard of implemented protocol is Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP). It can be used to build media streaming based learning model. This research will explain about the performance of RTSP if implemented in a classroom learning with capacity up to 50 hosts. Measurement is based on the performance aspect of the streaming process, including latency time, streaming lag, and CPU utilization. Parameters used to compare performance are media type, media format, media size, media quality, and number of clients. The combination of each parameter will produce different value of performance aspects. As a case study, foreign language subject is a learning activity that requires multimedia communication including video and audio, then this requirement can be solved with the development of media streaming based software using the RTSP. In the end it can be concluded about the feasibility of using RTSP to develop the learning system.


Classroom success and academic integration are essential indicators of academic success (Tinto, 2012). Since students with disabilities, compared to students without disabilities, often face additional transitional academic issues when entering college, Ball State University developed a Faculty Mentorship Program (FMP) for students with disabilities to facilitate their academic integration. This practice brief presents a study of a nine-year longitudinal analysis of 32,409 students in three groups: students with disabilities participating in a FMP, students with disabilities not participating in the FMP, and students without disabilities. Three academic success outcomes were tracked; one-year retention, and fourand six-year graduation rates. The article also provides a thorough discussion of the portability of the program with suggestions for implementation on other campuses.


OBJECTIVES
To estimate heroin overdose trends among insured individuals and characterize patients and healthcare utilization preceding overdose to inform scale-up of effective prevention and treatment.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective descriptive analysis.

METHODS
We analyzed 2010 to 2014 IBM MarketScan Databases and calculated annual heroin overdose rates. For a subset of patients, we describe their comorbidities, where they accessed health services, and select prescription histories prior to their first heroin overdose.

RESULTS
Heroin overdose rates were much lower, but increased faster, among the commercially insured compared with Medicaid enrollees from 2010 to 2014 (270.0% vs 94.3%). By 2012, rates among the commercially insured aged 15 to 24 years reached the overall rates in the Medicaid population. All patients had healthcare encounters in the 6 months prior to their first heroin overdose; two-thirds of commercially insured patients had outpatient visits, whereas two-thirds of Medicaid patients had emergency department visits. One month prior to overdose, 24.5% of Medicaid and 8.6% of commercially insured patients had opioid prescriptions. Fewer Medicaid patients had buprenorphine prescriptions (17.8% vs 27.3%) despite similar rates of known substance-related disorders. A higher proportion of Medicaid patients had non-substance-related comorbidities.

CONCLUSIONS
Heroin overdose rates were persistently higher among the Medicaid population than the commercially insured, with the exception of those aged 15 to 24 years. Our findings on healthcare utilization, comorbidities, and where individuals access services could inform interventions at the point of care prior to a first heroin overdose. Outpatient settings are of particular importance for the growing cohort of young, commercially insured patients with opioid use disorders.


The importance of the hydrology analysis and the economic assessment on the design of strengthening dangerous reservoirs is stated.Aimed at the existing problems of the design,the experience and method of improving the hydrology analysis and economic assessment was put forword.They can be referred for the relevent designers.


In legal scholarship, court judgments are pivotal in shaping jurisprudence. Situated within the field of digital humanities as it applies to legal texts, this article takes a closer look at the underlying themes in Supreme Court judgments by applying topic modelling to the judgments delivered by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka (LKSC) and the United Kingdom Supreme Court (UKSC). Using two custom datasets curated by (web) scraping the respective LKSC and UKSC websites, this article employs Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) with the Machine Learning for Language Toolkit (MALLET), a commonly used tool for topic modelling by digital humanists, to identify topics (themes) that represent the main areas of law in each jurisdiction primarily dealt with by the respective courts. 25 was selected as the number of topics after experimentation, and the topics identified in each jurisdiction were manually labelled. The results reveal the composition and evolution of judicial workloads, the shifting socio-political priorities in each jurisdiction, as well as the similarities and differences between the two courts. The findings have several implications for legal research and practice. These suggest that topic modelling can be used as a tool to organize and categorize judgments based on their themes, which can facilitate access and retrieval of relevant cases, and identify priority areas for judicial and legal training. They also challenge conventional legal taxonomies and classifications, and demonstrate the potential of computational methods for enhancing the understanding and analysis of law.


The invention relates to a chatter compensation method for hysteresis-loop nonlinearity of a digital-valve transmission mechanism, which comprises the following steps: a high-frequency chatter signal is superposed on the input signal of a digital valve, the frequency of the high-frequency chatter signal is identical or approximate to the natural frequency of the digital valve, the high-frequency chatter signal generates chatter, and the amplitude value of the high-frequency chatter signal is adjusted to reduce the hysteresis-loop nonlinearity of the digital-valve transmission mechanism. The invention provided the method which can effectively reduce or eliminate the hysteresis-loop nonlinearity of the digital-valve transmission mechanism.


At present,tourism culture resources are developed at rather below level,which is not commensurate to Hunan culture of complete types,rich connotation and distinguishing features.So the development of Hunan tourism culture resources are the important condition and measure to fasten Hunan modern tourism.The paper puts forward concrete thoughts to expand Hunan tourism culture on the basis of the elaboration of four distinctive characteristics.In order to realize this strategic emphasis,at last,this paper lists six basic measures.


The article highlights the alternative count of piano performance in the modern culture, marked by a different relationship to the interpretation: the continuation of the traditional needs of spiritual communion with the audi-ence and the artist cult virtuoso pianist. In support of audio and video recordings and press materials, statements of outstanding musicians was influenced by the virtuosity of the modern style of performance of outstanding rep-resentatives of the world of pianism. The characteristic trends in the choice of repertoire generation of young art-ists. Showing achievements of musicians in performance and create complex virtuosic transcriptions of classical and romantic repertoire. Traced motivations change in the estimates of audience performing style. In a review of opinions on contemporary pianists, to create a panorama settings and preferences are widely used press materials, and discussion forums on the Internet.


The article is dedicated to outer space as a space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, open for exploration and use by all. Celestial bodies are natural resources of the common heritage of humanity. Their exploration and use for the benefit and discovery of all countries is the result of the ownership of all mankind. However, since the end of the 20th century and especially in the 21st century, outer space has gradually become militarized. This is due to changes in the system of warfare, which is likely to be heavily transformed in the coming future. In this transformational system, all domains of warfare will be interlinked and outer space will play a significant role. One example of such processes is the Gulf War, also called the First Space War, in which the US Army successfully used the outer space systems for its Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) activities. Since then, outer space has become an integral part of US military operations. Consequently, other great powers like Russian Federation and People's Republic of China are also trying to develop the same capability to counter US dominance in outer space. Simultaneously, the US is continuing its counter-space capabilities to maintain the dominance in outer space. The growing dependence on outer space is not only applicable to the military operation but also to commercial and civilian activities. As a result, great powers are more actively engaging in various space and counter-space activities to pursue their national interests; such activity turns outer space into an arena for inter-state rivalry.


UDC 621.762.5:531.3:661.665.3 The kinetics of nonisothermal pressure sintering of boron carbide powder mixed with 20 wt.% silicon carbide in the controlled heating mode is studied. The isothermal sintering kinetics of the mixture at temperature of 2240 K under applied pressures of 36.1, 49.6, 63.2, and 72.2 MPa was analyzed to determine the Laplace pressure. It is found that the kinetics is controlled by steady-state creep mechanism in the matrix forming the porous body, with the viscous flow rate being proportional to the square of stress. The relatively low value of the evaluated Laplace pressure (5.6 MPa) explains the difficulties in producing boron carbide composites with pressureless sintering. The current values of temperature and height of the samples during pressure sintering were used to determine the heating rate and the temperature derivatives of relative density, which enabled to describe the pressure sintering kinetics in the terms of the theory of bulk viscous flow of the porous bodies in a die. The evaluated activation energy of the intermediate and late stages of pressure sintering of the composite for different heating rates ranges from 670 to 710 kJ/mol. These values indicate that the sintering kinetics is controlled by dislocation climb mechanism. The structure and fracture behavior of the sintered samples are shown to depend on the heating rate. The higher the heating rate during B 4 C–20% SiC sintering, the more heterogeneous is the distribution of


Aluminum toxicity is one of the most deleterious factors for plant growth in acidic soils because over 50% of the world's potentially arable lands are acidic. In recent years, considerable research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms of Al toxicity and tolerance in plants. This paper reviews the effects of different concentration of Al on plant shoot, root physiological parameters such as length, fresh and dry weight, pigment content and antioxidant enzyme such as Catalase Ascorbate and Guaiacol peroxidase, malonyldialdehyde content. Maize (Zea mays L.) seeds were sterilized and these seeds were then germinated in Petri dish. The germinated seeds were allowed to grow at 27°C in darkness, and 5 ml of test solution was added to each Petri dish on the second day. The test solution contained 0, 25, 50, 75, 100mM AlCl3. Aluminum toxicity caused reduction in growth in all treatments. The plants exposed to Al exhibited a substantial decline in growth, pigment content, activities of guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and leaf structure. Data show that 50 mM Al caused increased in MDA content.


Observations made in oxygen K emission of CO2 show that the symmetry selective character of resonant x-ray emission is excitation energy dependent. Electronically dipole forbidden O K emission line ...


One kind by at least two illumination devices to illuminate the light box (10), the box is preferred for advertising lighting, the light box has at least one transparent front (FS), the box comprising: at least two lighting devices (La1, La2 ); at least two drive devices (BG1, BG2), respectively, for driving a lighting device (La1, La2), wherein the drive device (BG1, BG2) each have a first contact (IN11, IN12), and the first interface (IN11, IN12) connected to each other and connected to the controller (SG), wherein two mutually different sensors (SE1, SE2) is connected to the controller (SG), and the illumination device (La1, La2) by the drive apparatus (BG1, BG2) in accordance with received via the first interface (IN11, IN12) control signal to control the.


A CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) integrates on the same silicon substrate the radiation sensor element (thin epitaxial layer) with processing electronics (based on CMOS transistors) on top. Total thickness of active volume of this stack is usually very small: typically 15 m for silicon and 5 m for interconnections (several metal-insulator layers). Excellent minimum ionizing particle tracking performance has been demonstrated with these devices and recent availability of high-resistivity epitaxy allows them to reach radiation hardness comparable to standard, fully depleted silicon sensors. MAPS can be thinned down to less than 30 m, without loosing their tracking performance. This allows not only very small material budget but also construction of non-planar detector layer: such thin silicon is flexible enough and can be bended to form a cylinder with a radius of the order of centimeter. However the structure is fragile, difficult to handle and to connect using standard methods (wire bonding). We propose a new method of packaging of such thin devices based on embedding in thin polymer film, with an application of modern silicon wafer processing technologies. In this solution, the sensor is protected from both sides by plastic material (10-20 m thick, insulator); metal paths deposited on top and directly connected to bonding pads through integrated vias in the polymer provide electrical connection. High-precision sensor Mimosa-18 (10 m pitch, 512x512 pixel array) has been chosen for the embedding process demonstrator. In this work, we present details of embedding process together with study of tracking performance of the sensor (charge collection properties, ENC, S/N ratio for MIPs) as a function of mechanical stress (bending). Possible extension of embedding process to larger area (tens of cm), multi-sensor structures and more than one metal layer interconnections will be also proposed and discussed.


Objective:To study the QOL in the moderate and severe cancer pain patients with the ear acupoints injection with stauntoniae.Methods:In the clinical study,179 patients with moderate or severe cancer pain were observed,randomly divided into two groups,88 in the treating group were treated by ear acupoints injection with stauntoniae and 91 in the control group took Oxycodon tablets orally to relieve cancer pain,time of the therapy was 7 days.The clinical results to relieve cancer pain and the QOL were compared between the two groups.Results:①Mean NRS of the treating group was 8.27±1.577 before the treatment,1.63±1.223 after the treatment,and in the control group it was 8.24±1.493 before the treatment,2.21±1.185 after the treatment,there were statistical significant differences fore-and-aft in both of the two groups(P0.01),compared the two groups after treatment,there was statistical difference(P0.05).②Mean KPS was improved from 64.40±5.991 to 73.22±6.613 in the treating group,and from 64.78±6.009 to 73.17±6.814 in the control group,there were statistical significant differences fore-and-aft in both of the two groups(P0.01);compared the two groups after treatment,there was no statistical difference(P0.05).③Both of the two treatments promoted the daily life,emotion,walking ability,sleeping,life joy and total integral through the BPQ investigation,compared with those after treatment,there were statistical differences pro-and-aft(P0.05);while daily life,emotion,sleeping,life joy and total integral of the treating group were better than those in the control group after treatment,there were statistical significant differences(P0.05).Conclusion:Ear acupoints injection with stauntoniae was effective to relieve cancer pain,and could improve the QOL better than the Oxycontin.


This case describes a successful management of external resorption combined with endodontic periodontic lesion. The combined use of periodontal surgery, mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and EMDOGAIN is a good approach to repair lesions with periodontal communication. It also describes the importance of diagnosis of such type of lesions and a need for a better classification of such conditions.


Based on experiments, a computer program is developed. The calculated results agree well with the experimental results. The flexural behavior of T shaped high strength concrete members subjected to axial compression and biaxial bending is studied. The main factors affecting the flexural behavior of T shaped high strength concrete members are loading angle, axial compression ratio and reinforcement ratio.


The rapid increase of network applications generates a lot of networked data. Classification in networked data is recently an important research issue of data mining field. The state of the art techniques of classification in networked data is surveyed. Firstly, the basic concepts of classification in networked data are introduced. Then, major classification algorithms of networked data are reviewed in detail. Next, one challenging issue, classification in sparsely labeled networks, is reviewed extensively, and various solutions to this issue are discussed. Finally, the future development and expectation of networked data classification techniques are summarized.


What is the cause of the masses of particles? Clearly an enigmatic question. This paper proposes that it could be the result of the loss of energy with collisions of particles. When particles collide, velocities change, and then there is always a sum loss of energy in the particles. If this energy loss is in seven dimensions, thirteen dimensions, or whatever, it makes the discovery of the mechanism more difficult. Herein we show how this particle collision could cause the mass of particles as we know them.


Food safety and food quality are important issues in the food industry. The food manufacturers are responsible to provide a high quality, clean and safe food to consumers. Mismanaging food safety and food quality may potentially lose the food's nutritional value and bring harm to consumers' health and put the food manufacturers' reputation at risk. Nestle is one of the world largest food and beverage companies located in 190 countries and offers more than 2,000 brands to their customers. One of the many reasons behind the success of Nestle is their strong leadership, with their vision and strategies, making a long-term commitment to the health and well-being of their customers. Nestle constantly identifies ways to improve the nutritional profile of their foods and ensure the food safety and food quality are their top priority concern. The paper presents the factors affecting food safety and food quality in Nestle. The paper also discusses how Nestle improves the food safety and food quality.


Comparative law is a thriving area in the study of the law which has attracted, in the last decades, a growing interest in legal scholarship and legal education. The expanding literature published in quality specialised outlets as well as a steadfast number of research events organised by universities, research institutes and other numerous organisations all attest the phenomenon. It is difficult to find an academic law curriculum which does not comprise a course in comparative law in some form, whether as an introductory course in the first years of study, or as a more substantial course at a later stage. A comparative perspective may also be embedded, in a more or less systematic way, in the study of the different subjects of law (i.e. contract law, commercial law, constitutional law, family law, procedural law…). Comparative legal studies are also increasingly being pursued at doctoral level. In a sense, 'we are all comparatists now', or bound to be.


Object analysis is the essential initial stage of the language-oriented dataflow analysis of industrial programs in the complete Modula-2 language . Objec t analysis produces an object program scheme whic h approximates a set of objects (variables and procedures ) and their structure relations : variable components and variable values (so-called substitutors) of POINTER and PROCEDURE types . It is impossible to implement the language-oriente d dataflow analysis of program which incorporates typ e transfer constructs in source code. Therefore, object analysis algorithm at first improves language constructs : machine-dependent constructs (type transfer, ADDRES S and WORD types) are converted to constructs of "pure " Modula-U language including UNION type and complementary rules of type compatibility . Object analysis also produces sound approximation of intermodular interaction taking into account modules whose source code is inaccessible for analysis .


The Charter of the United Nations (UN) was drafted while the devastating effects of World War II were still very much part of the dynamics in international relations. The world's leaders were determined never to let war happen again and had set their minds on the advancement of all peoples. To this end, they ratified arguably the world's most important political document when the Charter was signed in San Francisco in 1945.


Recent accountability policies seek to "grade" teacher preparation programs by the teaching evaluations of their graduates. This article addresses the problematic nature of the linear thinking underlying such reforms by examining the construction of teaching practices of Mauro, a first-year secondary science teacher who taught environmental and earth sciences. Drawn from a larger data set, the study uses concepts from rhizomatics, a non-linear theory of thought and social activity, and elements of postmodern grounded theory. Despite holding key factors constant across the two subject area settings, differences in the ways the teacher, students, and contextual conditions worked together helped produce strikingly different teaching practices in each set of classes. This study provides evidence that enacting pre-professional learning is a complex undertaking shaped by the ways the elements present in the school setting work together, and, thus, teaching is a collectively negotiated activity. The author offers implications for teacher preparation practice and policy, advocating for an ontological turn in teacher education research that focuses on processes of teaching rather than outcomes alone.


As Zionism emerged as the dominant expression of Jewish nationalism at the turn of the twentieth century, the Temple of Jerusalem became a powerful symbol in the movement's developing aesthetic. This ancient structure, the repository of the hope and expectations of Diaspora Jewry since the Exile, emerged in the hands of Zionist cultural figures adorned in a fascinating new framework. While still viewed as the ancestral heart of the Jewish people, the Temple in the imagination of fin-de-siecle Zionist artists, intellectuals and writers developed into a symbol of the dynamism of Jewish national renewal. After the success of the Zionist movement, the creation of the State of Israel and the completion of Theodor Herzl's national canonization, the novel Altneuland remained a mere curiosity. Keywords: Altneuland ; fin-de-siecle; Jerusalem; Theodor Herzl; Zionist imagination


In preparing a comment on these papers, it is the commonalities I seek though I am struck by some differences. The four research projects have been located in the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance site and are floated, as it were, upon the infrastructure of this site. This highlights benefits of the longitudinal demographic surveillance resource: the ability to select particular study participants (for example those in households where deaths have occurred), and gain entree into a village community that is part of the site. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the DSS infrastructure, though, is the established relationship between ongoing surveil- lance and the community that affords researchers relatively easy access into the lives of others. It also raises the stakes and demands that research is acceptable to the community so that neither the long-term relationship nor the viability of future research endeavours is jeopardized. Managing this is a cost that DSS sites have to bear. The papers share a background of poverty, disease, death, and survival. They share the same location, the same community and are conducted over a similar time period. They are different in that they ask contrasting questions from different theo- retical and disciplinary research traditions and apply differing methodological approaches. The common location and time period makes consideration of findings in combination possible, while the multi- plicity of approaches allows a nuanced and rich insight into some aspects of community life in Agincourt. The paper by Golooba-Mutebi & Tollman tables the issue of individuals' competing underlying beliefs concerning cause and effect and how this influences their actual health-seeking behaviour (1). This is not a new finding but it has an urgent relevance because of the unprecedented impact of the HIV epidemic in Southern Africa. The need to get people into treatment and prevention programmes begs the old question of how to make programmatic interven- tions appropriate and accessible. A cursory review of articles on health-seeking behaviour in the current medical literature suggests they do not incorporate the notion of competing health belief models. The paper highlights the potentially negative impact of competing belief models on people's readiness to access care and life-saving technology in the form of antiretroviral treatment, and how professionals and role models need to take this into account. The paper by Hunter et al. (2) talks to positive aspects of traditional beliefs and knowledge: how knowledge handed down through generations can empower families to survive in situations of dire need. It also speaks to the impact of poverty and disease in eroding not only survival but the knowl- edge base required for that survival. Meeting basic needs - water and fuel - would liberate time, in particular women's time, to engage in other activities that may enrich meals as well as lives. These papers draw attention to the intersection of interventions (social grants, antiretroviral treatment) with the social norms prevailing in communities. Case & Menendez examine social grants and the positive effect they have on household survival and functioning (3). In this instance, the positive out- come of pensions for the elderly may be because the grant is placed in the hands of people who attain status with age. Social grants for the elderly dovetail with the place of gerontocracy in many sub-Saharan societies. Local norms and mores keep individuals and groups within communities in their usual,


Microstructures in p-CuInSe2 single crystals tailored by a strong electric field have been studied using the methods of local cathodoluminescence, electron-beam-induced current (EBIC), capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics, and deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) spectra, and have been considered through a prism of elemental stability in the ternary compound. The shortest-wavelength cathodoluminescence radiation (ℏωm=1.023 eV) is observed from a layer of n type, the longer-wavelength radiation (ℏωm=1.01 and 0.973 eV), from p-type areas, both a p layer and the p-bulk crystal. The analysis of the spectra has allowed us to attribute experimental features to optical transitions associated with donor and acceptor levels of VCu, VSe, Cui point defects. The capacitance study by the C–V characteristics and DLTS spectra as well as the EBIC test have shown formation of diode-type or transistor-type microstructures. The |ND−NA| concentration profile, thermal activation, and emission energies of 22–25 and 17...


Attention is drawn to a simple method of improving the signal‐to‐noise performance ratio of photomultiplier tubes used in scintillation counting. Representative results are presented and the underlying physical principles are discussed briefly.


This study sought to examine the chronically middle-aged adults' quality of life in terms of physical, psychological, level of independence, social relationship, environment and spirituality, religion and personal beliefs. It also explored on their feelings and experiences toward the illness. This study used a concurrent triangulation type of mixed method to thoroughly explore the perceptions, difficulties and coping of chronically middle aged adults. WHO Quality of Life was used in quantitative data and interview and observation was utilized for the qualitative part. Percentage, weighted mean and ranking was used to analyse the data. Results show that chronically ill middle-aged need physical assistance, psychological support, and they have ambivalent feelings towards level of independence. On the contrary, they have a satisfying social relationship, secure environment to live, and an enhanced level of spirituality. Experiences of chronically ill middle aged adults arise into different meaning as to loss of control over the body, deprived healthy identity, devalued self, cyclic sadness, period of hopelessness and struggles, impact of uncertainty, support that enhance positivity, spiritual intensification and moving toward self sufficiency. An eclectic therapy is devised to address the specific needs of chronically ill middle-aged adults. Thus, a LIFE therapy as an eclecticism approach is devised based on the result of the study.


[Objective] To investigate the effects of Epimedium Icariine on activity of isolated small intestinal smooth muscle from rabbits.[Method] The routine experimental method of small intestinal(duodenum) smooth muscle isolated from rabbits is used to put in homothermal smooth muscle and connect with tension pickup,signal are input into BL-420E biological function experiment system,then add with different concentrations of Epimedium Icariine solution,the automatic contracting characteristic and changing law in taking Epimedium Icariine before and after are recorded.[Result] Epimedium Icariine of different density(10-4,10-3,10-2 mol/L)have a restraining effect on automatic contracting activity of isolated small intestinal smooth muscle whose scope have remarkable differences comparing to taking ethanol before and after.[Conclusion] Epimedium Icariine has a direct inhibitory trend on small intestine smooth muscle.


After an interdisciplinary review of literature on the contagion phenomena, the author focuses on the simplest of all compartmental epidemiological models in order to test its applicability and its heuristic value in the empirical analysis of various cases of social contagion. The case study, the first «Black Monday » of 2015 of the Milan Stock Exchange, shows that in contexts similar to on-line trading where investors have no face-to-face interactions and anonymity is the rule, panic is contagious and spreads in a very specific way: exchange volumes and their reading in combination with buying and selling orders become the main contagion carriers


Covering problems belong to the foundation of graph theory. There are several types of covering problems in graph theory such as covering the vertex set by stars (domination problem), covering the vertex set by cliques (clique covering problem), covering the vertex set by independent sets (coloring problem), and covering the vertex set by paths or cycles. A similar concept which is partitioning problem is also equally important. Lately research in graph theory has produced unprecedented growth because of its various application in engineering and science. The covering and partitioning problem by paths itself have produced a sizable volume of literatures. The research on these problems is expanding in multiple directions and the volume of research papers is exploding. It is the time to simplify and unify the literature on different types of the covering and partitioning problems. The problems considered in this article are path cover problem, induced path cover problem, isometric path cover problem, path partition problem, induced path partition problem and isometric path partition problem. The objective of this article is to summarize the recent developments on these problems, classify their literatures and correlate the inter-relationship among the related concepts.


A growing number of corporations are considering IP Virtual Private Network (VPNs) for interconnection between different sites. Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is one of the technologies used in network-based IP VPNs to establish backbone tunnels---label switched paths (LSPs) between an ingress---egress pair of nodes. In order to provide service differentiation, separate LSPs, that carry only real-time VPN traffic, can be deployed. These real-time LSPs can then be routed, based on the strict service level agreement (SLA) requirements that apply to real-time applications. In this thesis we address the following traffic engineering problem: How to route primary and protection real-time LSPs so that the SLA requirements expressed in terms of latency, jitter, bandwidth guarantees, and resilience are met? We formulate a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization problem that takes into account the SLA requirements in one step---the integrated model. The integrated model is NP-complete and has a large number of variables and constraints.


The most troubled sector of recent times is Ready-made Garments (RMG) sector of Bangladesh which is the backbone of our economy. This labor intensive industry has accommodated 4.5 million workers 80% of whom are women in the last fiscal year. So there are about 5,000 garments factories scattered across the country. 78% of our foreign earnings come from this sector. This sector keeps our economy moving, but the industry has been facing numerous problems. Poor working conditions, bad industrial relations, low wage, the arrogant and ruthless attitude of the owners or management and lack of solid and positive initiative on behalf of successive governments has made this sector questionable in the world market. It has lost GSP (Generalized System of Preference) advantage in the U.S market which has created an image crisis for the industry. This is fear of loosing GSP advantage in the EU market as well. To save the employment generation and one of the largest foreign currency earning sectors, BGMEA, BKMEA and Government should adopt an integrated approach on the one hand and boost up the image of this industry on the other.  Key words: Ready Made Garment, GSP, Suspension of GSP,


This paper describes a modulation scheme for TH- UWB systems using pulse position modulated (PPM). For this scheme, a set of overlapped and orthogonal signals are transmitted simultaneously in the same time slot resulting in a composite pulse. And the signals have been discussed analytically for AWGN and multi-path channels. The proposed scheme can achieve an excellent BER performance by using one signaling over another.


The utility model relates to a brown coal drying and combusting system with a gas exhaust heat energy and water recovery function. The brown coal drying and combusting system with the gas exhaust heat energy and water recovery function at least comprises a dryer, a coal grinder, a coarse powder separator, a fine powder separator, a powder coal bunker, a wind-powder mixer and a boiler, and further comprises a mixing chamber, a gas exhaust air heater, a gas exhaust deep water recovery device and a coal powder collector, wherein the dryer, the coal grinder, the coarse powder separator, the fine powder separator, the powder coal bunker, the wind-powder mixer and the boiler are in series connection with one another in a communicated mode sequentially, and the coal powder collector is communicated with the fine powder separator and the powder coal bunker respectively. An inlet of the primary side of the gas exhaust air heater is communicated with the coal powder collector through a gas exhaust draught fan. The gas exhaust deep water recovery device comprises an atomizing flusher and a water mist recoverer. An inlet of the primary side of the water mist recoverer is communicated with an outlet of the primary side of the gas exhaust air heater directly or indirectly. An outlet of the primary side of the water mist recoverer is communicated with a desulfurizing device. The brown coal drying and combusting system with the gas exhaust heat energy and water recovery function has the advantages of mainly realizing recovery of heat energy and water in gas exhaust in efficient brown coal power generation technology and being capable of realizing water resource utilization in an economical mode, which is significant to water-deficient areas abundant in coal.


We have demonstrated that the light extraction efficiency of an organic light emitting device is a strong function of device geometry. Specifically, we have found that the ratio of the extracted mode to the substrate-guided mode varies from 22% to 55% depending on the location of the recombination zone. Our simulation results also indicate that more light is trapped in the substrate as the optical length of device increases. We further show that the light intensity profile varies from a Lambertian shape to a non-Lambertian shape depending on the device geometry due to the cavity effect.


The off-line front-end apparatus of the Selective Production of Exotic Species (SPES) project, developed at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL) in Italy, involves a number of subsystems and procedures that are potentially dangerous for both human operators and equipments. Among the most potentially dangerous systems are: the high voltage power supply, the ion source complex power supplies, the target chamber handling mechanisms and the laser source. In order to prevent possible injuries to the operators and damages to the equipments, a safety interlock system and logic monitoring have been developed, tested and are now in operation. The solution is based on Schneider Electrics Preventa family safety modules with capability to control the power supplied to critical subsystems in conjunction with safety detectors for critical variable monitoring. Moreover, a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC),model BMXP342020 from the Schneider Electrics Modicon M340 family, is used to monitor the status of the syste...


Transgenic potato tubers that overexpressed either a cytosolic or an apoplastic invertase in the wild type or AGPase antisense background were used to analyse the effect of invertase activity on cell expansion, starch granule formation and turgor pressure during tuber development. Although the transgenic plants did not develop a visible phenotype in aerial regions the size and number of tubers were significantly modified in the various lines. Transmission electron and light microscopy were performed to monitor starch grain size and number, cell size and cell wall thickness. Water potential, osmotic pressure, and, indirectly, turgor pressure were determined during the final stages of tuber development. Glucose levels were high in transgenic tubers that overexpressed a yeast-derived invertase. The number of starch grains per cell was almost identical in all transgenic lines. However, the amount of starch was modified in the transgenics as compared to the wild type. As expected, the size of starch grains was reduced in all lines that expressed an AGPase antisense mRNA. These results indicate that invertase activity and glucose levels do not affect initiation of starch grain formation during the early stages of tuber development, but growth of starch corns in the later stages of tuber maturation.


This article deals with the impact of electromagnetic field close to conductors of high voltage poles. The results of this article are based on computer simulation an on-site measuring. The recommendations for persons close to high voltage poles and overhead lines were deduced according to obtained results.


Objective To study epidemic factor and corresponding intervention measure of children with obesity. Methods 1000 cases of children in our city from January 2010 to December 2012 under 6 years of age were seleced. The form of questionnaire and follow-up study was taken by the general information questionnaire survey tools,obesity, standard,the intervention plan.General information was collected. Results The incidence of overweight,obesity in male was higher than that in female respectively,with statistical difference(P0.05).The incidence of overweight,obesity in children of different ages was compared,with statistical difference(P0.05).Gender,age,family history of obesity,family history of asthma,hypertension,high blood fat,high sugar,high calorie eating fast progress,outdoor activities are the independent risk factors of children obesity. Conclusion The cause of children′s simple obesity is a function of many factors.According to the influencing factors,give targeted intervention,help them to overcome the psychological barriers,so that in the treatment of obesity in psychology also can get healthy growth.


Muhammadiyah has consistently been using the method of hisab wujûd al-hilâl (the calculation resulted in a matter of time and the position of beginning new moon of Qamariyyah) for about four decades from 1970 to the present time. This steadiness implies that this method turns to be an ideological identity of Muhammadiyah in determining the first day of the fasting month of Ramadhan. Here, this Islamic mass organization believes that a political effort with a particular identity will have a huge impact on making the method of hisab wujûd al-hilâl as a reliable reference to decide ru`yah (seeing the new moon when the sun set sat on 29 of the Qamariyah month), and on encouraging majority of Muslim in Indonesia to use it.


Chromosomes are essential genomic information carriers. The identification of chromosome abnormalities is an essential part of diagnosis and treatment of genetic disorders such as chromosomal syndromes and many types of cancer. There are different types of chromosome aberration like mapping of the common duplications, deletions, and translocations. One of the most considerations in the field of chromosome analysis is the segmentation. Currently available cytogenetic imaging software is designed to classify only normal chromosomes (9). The automation of chromosome analysis is involving segmentation of chromosomes and classification into 24 groups (8). The segmentation and overlap of chromosomes are a major step toward the realization of homolog classification. Resolving chromosome overlaps is an unsolved problem in automated chromosome analysis and the analysis is complicated by the occurrence of clusters of overlapped chromosomes. Current systems for automatic chromosome classification are mostly interactive and require human intervention for correct separation between touching and overlapping chromosomes, and so are unable to segregate overlapping chromosomes. In this paper, propose an automatic procedure to obtain the separated chromosomes. The overlapped chromosomes are segmented by found the interesting (concave and convex) points with the help of chain code algorithm and the interesting points (1) are located on contour of the image and then the curvature function is found to find out concave points and the possible separation lines are plotted by using all concave points and finally construct hypotheses for possible separation lines between concave points. The segmentation is carried out by means of a curvature function scheme, which proved to be successful.


The goal of this study is to examine the influence of the 'big five personality traits' on the variables of Art of Virtual Leadership on a utilities organization operating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is managing remote workers and virtual teams. The study also investigates the psychometric properties of the newly developed Art of Virtual Leadership measurement instrument. As for the originality of the study, it is the first to examine the affect of the well established 'big five personality traits' on the newly developed Art of Virtual Leadership dimensions in the UAE. The paper is aspiring to assist firms in the UAE to identify which of the 'big five personality traits' are likely to influence the Art of Virtual Leadership dimensions, which in turn could assist managers to communicate, supervise and lead employees from a distance. A path analysis was performed, applying SEM, using AMOS. Overall the findings support the positive relationship between the 'big five personality traits' and the variables of the Art of Virtual Leadership, with the exception of neuroticism. As anticipated, neuroticism showed a negative relationship with the dimensions of improve virtual communication and handle virtual meetings. Moreover, the study has found agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience to be the most important traits for managers leading remote workers and virtual teams. Finally, the data supported the psychometric properties of the newly developed Art of Virtual Leadership dimensions.


The Impact Message Inventory (IMI) is a unique clinical and research instrument that describes an individual's interpersonal behaviors through the internal reactions and perceptions evoked in others. The present article describes an extensive analysis of a revised 8-scale, circumplex version of the IMI (the IMI-C) across a combined sample (N = 1,109) from 8 studies. Overall, the IMI-C demonstrates adequate psychometric and structural properties; principal-components and multidimensional scaling analyses suggest that the scales generally conform satisfactorily to a circular ordering, and conservative confirmatory factor analyses suggest some departure of the IMI-C scales from true circumplexity. It is argued that the IMI-C represents a substantial development for researchers who wish to study interpersonal impacts in counseling and psychotherapy research.


The strobilurins and oudemansins are natural β-methoxyacrylates which inhibit mitochondrial respiration and, as a result, have fungicidal activity. A knowledge of the structures (configuration and conformation) and properties of these compounds has allowed the preparation of analogues in which both fungicidal activity and stability have been improved.


Alpha continuous air monitors (CAMs) will be used at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to measure airborne transuranic radioactivity that might be present in air exhaust or in work-place areas. WIPP CAMs are important to health and safety because they are used to alert workers to airborne radioactivity, to actuate air-effluent filtration systems, and to detect airborne radioactivity so that the radioactivity can be confined in a limited area. In 1993, the Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) reported that CAM operational performance was affected by salt aerosol, and subsequently, the WIPP CAM design and usage were modified. In this report, operational data and current theories on aerosol collection were reviewed to determine CAM quantitative performance limitations. Since 1993, the overall CAM performance appears to have improved, but anomalous alpha spectra are present when sampling-filter salt deposits are at normal to high levels. This report shows that sampling-filter salt deposits directly affect radon-thoron daughter alpha spectra and overall monitor efficiency. Previously it was assumed that aerosol was mechanically collected on the surface of CAM sampling filters, but this review suggests that electrostatic and other particle collection mechanisms are more important than previously thought. The mechanism of sampling-filter particle collection is critical to measurement of acute releases of radioactivity. 41 refs.


In order to understand humanitarianism from an Indonesian perspective, three key issues need to be examined; the philosophical, institutional and legal frameworks of humanitarianism; the challenges faced in implementation of humanitarianism; and the sources of hope for the future. This essay argues that, despite a low level of political will to enhance the quality of engagement in humanitarian activities, Indonesian society has witnessed increase in genuine popular solidarity in humanitarian activities. This increase gives hopes to overcome a wide range of challenges faced by the humanitarian sector in the future.


STUDY OBJECTIVE
To investigate the immunohistochemical localization of betaA subunit of activin A in human term placenta, as a marker for placental infection/inflammation and elevated temperature, in parturients laboring during two analgesic regimens.

DESIGN
Prospective, randomized controlled study.

SETTING
Delivery room.

PATIENTS
56 healthy, ASA physical status I and II primiparous women in labor.

INTERVENTIONS
Parturients were assigned to receive patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) with 0.2% ropivacaine or patient-controlled intravenous analgesia PCA with meperidine.

MEASUREMENTS
Histologic and immunohistochemical placental evaluation for white blood cell infiltration and activin betaA staining were made. Maternal temperature elevation above 37.6 degrees C and leukocytosis above 15,000/microL were recorded.

MAIN RESULTS
Temperature was not significantly increased in parturients receiving PCEA over those who received (PCA) with meperidine (31% vs 11%, respectively; P = 0.1). There was also no association between temperature elevation during epidural analgesia and increased white blood cell count (>15,000/microL) or presence of polymorphonuclear and/or lymphocyte aggregation in the placenta. Immunohistochemical staining with antisera against the betaA subunit of activin was present mainly in the placental cytotrophoblast, syncytiotrophoblast, and vascular endothelium, and was not associated with an increase in maternal temperature. No significant difference was noted between the two analgesic techniques with regard to maternal temperature elevation. Intrapartum temperature elevation was not associated with histologic signs of placental inflammation or with expression of activin betaA in the placenta.

CONCLUSION
Other mechanisms may be involved in the etiology of temperature elevation during labor.


We report lateral electric-field-driven sizable changes in the magnetoresistance of Co/Cu/Fe tri-layered wires on BaTiO3 single crystal. While the observed change is marginal in the tetragonal phase of BaTiO3, it reaches over 40% in the orthorhombic and rhombohedral phases with an electric field of 66 kV/cm. We attribute it to possible electric-field-induced variations of the spin-dependent electronic structures, i.e., spin polarization, of the Fe via interfacial strain transfer from BaTiO3. The contrasting results for the different phases of BaTiO3 are discussed, associated with the distinct aspects of the ferroelectric polarization switching processes in each phase.


Topic similarity computation model is a research hotspot in fields of information retrieval and text classification.From the view of information granularity,it is very clear that similarity computations of topic identification are under different granularity.According to this principal,this paper integrates traditional content topic identification with event topic identification,and presents a new topic similarity computation model,i.e.,first carrying out content identification,secondly event identification.The experiments show that this model can obtain satisfactory classification result.


This report has examined the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the state of the pan-European populist Radical Right. Such parties are generally considered admirers of Russia and Vladimir Putin's regime and ties between the Kremlin and the European populist Radical Right parties have grown stronger over the last decade. Because of such ties, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has presented new challenges for radical right-wing populist parties, putting many of them under strain and forcing them to adapt to the new context produced by the war. In this report, we have asked how such parties have navigated the new context produced by the war and the impact it may have had on them, both nationally and at the EU level. Special attention has been paid to the reactions of right-wing populist parties to this war and the political and electoral consequences of the conflict for such parties. The analysis in this report includes a total of 37 populist Radical Right parties across 12 West European and 10 East European countries, plus Turkey.


A number of studies have examined the effect of study characteristics on mean technical efficiency as the dependent variable. This article departs from these earlier studies by using second-stage inefficiency covariates as key exploratory variables and study characteristics as control variables in a meta-regression. Unlike the vote count method of quantitative review, the parameters of the key variables have desirable properties and enable statistical inferences to be drawn. Additionally, the dependent variable employed is mean technical inefficiency. This is demonstrated using data on technical inefficiency of primary studies in Ghanaian agriculture, fitted to fractional regression models. The appropriate functional form of the fractional regression model is discussed with policy implications.


The motivation for fiscal decentralisation in a vast number of countries is to tackle the challenges facing modern government in its desire to provide public services in an effective and efficient manner. The study deals with the general theoretical framework of fiscal decentralisation and continues to focus on the significance of fiscal decentralisation in governance in a majority of countries, including South Africa. With particular reference to South Africa, the right of citizens to have access to publicly provided goods and services is entrenched in the Constitution. The Constitution further provides for cooperative governance and recognizes the three spheres of government as distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. Provincial and local governments are also mandated to perform an important function of delivering services to the people in a manner that ensures equity. Since the attainment of democracy in 1994 there has been some progress and remarkable changes, as well as challenges. The Constitution is instrumental in the assignment of functions to each sphere of government including revenue raising powers to provincial and local governments. However, a situation exists that significant revenue raising powers lie with the central government compared to the provinces and municipalities which are assigned less taxing powers. The intergovernmental fiscal system in South Africa provides for the distribution of nationally raised revenue to sub- national governments to deal with a variety of issues including addressing vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalances and the delivery of services. The existence of vertical fiscal imbalances is a result of, amongst other factors, the concentration of broad taxing powers at the national sphere of government, while provinces and municipalities have limited access to own sources of revenue. Despite the inadequacy of revenue sources at the disposal of provincial and local governments, many expenditure responsibilities are decentralised. As a result, challenges such as the delivery of services at sub-national government level, capacity issues and unfunded mandates are experienced.


Deep learning algorithms have been widely applied to the recognition of remote-sensing images due to their excellent performance on various recognition problems with sufficient data. However, limited data on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images degrade the performance of neural networks for SAR automatic target recognition (ATR). To address this problem, this paper presents a new deep feature fusion framework by combining the Gabor features and information of raw SAR images and fusing the feature vectors extracted from different layers in our proposed neural network. Gabor features improve the richness of SAR image features. The number of free parameters of neural networks is largely reduced by utilizing large-scale convolutional kernel factorization and global average pooling. Moreover, the fusion of feature vectors from different layers helps improve the recognition performance of neural networks. Experimental results on the MSTAR dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. The proposed neural network can achieve an average accuracy of 99% on the classification of ten-class targets and even achieve a high recognition accuracy on limited data and noisy data.


Direct α-allylation of a variety of ketones and aldehydes with 2-allylisourea took place in the presence of a catalytic amount of a palladium(0) complex under neutral and mild conditions. Scope and limitations of this novel method have been investigated.


During the last decades of the 20th century, the condition of oak species throughout Europe generally deteriorated. In southern Sweden, oak decline represents a recent phenomenon with complex temporal and spatial patterns. In this region, crown defoliation of the most common oak species, pedunculate oak Quercus robur, increased by >20% from 1988 to 1999. In 1999, 59% of the oaks were considered damaged, i.e. showing >25% crown defoliation. However, a trend of improving crown conditions was observed in southeastern Sweden during 2000–2008. Available research suggests unfavorable climatic variability as the main cause of negative dynamics in oak crown conditions. Studies have demonstrated the important role of climatic extremes (e.g. cold winters during the dormant season and drought events during vegetation season) in initiating decline phenomena, and a strong correlation between crown condition dynamics and tree-ring increments. Phytophthora quercina (class Oomycetes, kingdom Chromalveolata), a soil-born pathogen of oak, is present in declining oak stands with soil pH (BaCl2) >3.5. The role of Phytophthora spp. in initiating the decline in southern Sweden remains unclear, since most oak stands in this region have more acidic soil conditions (pH <3.5). Similar to other European studies, our results point to the multi-factorial nature of oak decline and the importance of stand conditions in decline dynamics. This paper reviews recently published studies on the topic and presents a simple conceptual model of oak decline. We discuss future research themes that may advance our understanding of oak decline.


SHIFT A.APPAREIL A PROGRESSIVE TYPE FRICTION DISC. B.CARACTERISE IN THAT IT INCLUDES A HARD DRIVE 7 DISK DRIVEN 13 A DRIVEN SHAFT 8 LAYING OVER-THE HARD DRIVE 13 AND MECHANISM MOVEMENT CAUSED oscillate DISC MAKE FOR MEDIA IN ONE DIRECTION 12 EXCLUDING THE RECORD RESULTS IN 13 OF DRIVE DISC 7 BY AN INITIAL OPERATION OF SHIFT LEVER , AND dRAG DISC 13 DRIVEN BY AN OPERATION SUBSEQUENT TO MAKE A SHIFT. C.L'INVENTION CONCERNS A SHIFT DEVICE TYPE PROGRESSIVE A FRICTION DISC.


In this study, we documented the midlatitude F2-layer response to five strong geomagnetic storms with minimum Dst < –150 nT that occurred in solar minimum years using hourly values of the F2-layer critical frequency (foF2) from four ionosondes located in different hemispheres. The results were very limited, but they illustrated some peculiarities in the behavior of the F2-layer storm. During equinox, the characteristic ionospheric disturbance patterns over the Japanese station Wakkanai in the Northern Hemisphere and the Australian station Mundaring in the Southern Hemisphere were consistent with the well-known scenario by Prolss (1993); however, during a December solstice magnetic storm, both stations did not observe any noticeable positive ionospheric disturbances. Over the "near-pole" European ionosonde, clear positive ionospheric storms were not observed during the events, but the "far-from-pole" Southern Hemisphere station Port Stanley showed prominent enhancements in F2-layer peak electron density in all magnetic storms except one. No event produced noticeable nighttime enhancements in foF2 over all four ionosondes.


Wavelet denoising and the separability index of state feature class are proposed to evaluate the denoising effect. While introducing the Fisher standard discriminant rate F to measure class separability, the Fisher standard discrimination rate of each characteristic parameter after noise detection by using the rigrsure-sln soft threshold for airflow pulsation and fan noise signal are improved obviously. In this paper, the G-P algorithm is used to calculate the relationship among airflow pulsation, fan noise and vibration signal. It is found that rigrsure-sln soft-threshold method is better than other threshold method for denoising the airflow pulsation and the fan noise signal. The phase diagram of the airflow pulsation and the noise collection signal of the ventilator are disordered due to the influence of noise, and the signal after wavelet denoising shows a clear and regular chaotic attractor.


The Lower Hybrid (LH) couplers on reactor like tokamaks will have to be situated far away from the main plasma, to reduce the heat load they receive. On ITER for example, the LH couplers, as well as any component inside the vacuum vessel, will be situated at the first wall, 5 cm behind the poloidal limiter [1]. The total distance between the couplers and the separatrix, dcp, will be ~15 cm during the burn phase. Extrapolating roughly from simulations of the plasma edge of ITER [1], it is easily seen that, at this radial position, the plasma density is likely to be less than the cut-off density (ne,cut-off ~ 3 x 10 17 m for 5 GHz) necessary for good coupling of the LH waves. The density in front of the grill, ne,grill, will have to be increased locally, if we want to couple efficiently the LH waves. On Tore Supra, long distance shots have been achieved with good coupling for dcp up to 14.8 cm [2]. This paper shows the detail of these experiments, and emphasises the importance of ne,grill on the coupling of the LH waves, bringing out the need to control actively the plasma in front of the grill.


1039Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most prevalent comorbidity among breast cancer survivors. In older breast cancer survivors, the risk of dying from CVD is similar to the risk of dying from breast cancer. In addition to pre-existing CVD, it has been suggested that breast cancer survivorship may be associated with increased risk of incident CVD due to direct and indirect effects of cancer treatments and shared risk factors between the diseases. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the risk of CVD in breast cancer survivors, compared to the general population, in terms of both incidence and mortality. Methods: Relevant articles were identified by structured searches in Embase, Pubmed, CINAHL, and Web of Sciences up until January 22, 2016. Eligible studies were those reporting on CVD incidence and/or CVD mortality in women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer compared to a matched general population sample. Meta-analysis was performed by calculating a meta-rate ratio (mRR) ...


Abstract The Miidera-gire is an ancient paper sheet with different, elegant calligraphy on both sides. One side contains a part of a Buddhist scripture from around the ninth to the twelfth century and written in cursive hand, while the other side contains a part of Monzen (an anthology of Chinese literary works). The paleographical style of this Monzen seems to be older than that of the Buddhist scripture and is similar to some Chinese manuscripts written in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907). However, amid these elegant calligraphic writings, there exist many copies and counterfeits that were written several centuries later. We, therefore, measured the radiocarbon age of the Miidera-gire by using accelerator mass spectrometry. The calibrated radiocarbon age indicated 666–776 [cal AD] (2σ error), thus leading to the conclusion that the Monzen was first written on the obverse side, and long afterwards, the Buddhist scripture was written on the reverse side. Since only a few incomplete books of Monzen were written before the ninth century, this calligraphy is one of the oldest of the existing Monzen manuscripts.


[Objective] To study the clinical efficacy of Bisoprolol in the treatmant of chronic heart falure. [Methods] (n =52) were treated with Bisoprolol and common anti-heart-failure drugs ,and the control group (n =48) were treated with the common drugs alone, then we compared the results after treatments in the treated group with those in the control group. [Results] The total effective rate of the treated group is 92.3%, The total effective rate of the control group is 87.5%, the treated group was remarkably superior to the treated group. All data in the treated group such as cardiac function?blood pressure?heart rate,premature ventricular beats were better than those in the control group significantly (P 0.05). [Conclusion] Bisoprolot with common anti-heart-falure drugs is more effective in the treatment of cardiac falure.


New high-quality thermoelectric devices with amorphous silicon/magnesium silicide (a-Si/Mg2Si)-stacked hetero-structure thin film layers have been fabricated using both radio frequency sputtering and rapid thermal annealing techniques. The thermoelectric properties of the a-Si/Mg2Si hetero-structure layers were found to be much superior to those of the a-Si layer.


Divergence exponents of the first-order quantum correction of a two-dimensional hard-sphere Bose atoms are obtained by an effective field theory method. The first-order correction to the ground-state energy density with respect to the zeroth-order is given by $\mathcal{E}_1/\mathcal{E}_0\sim |D-2|^{-\alpha}|\ln\gamma|^{-\alpha'}$, where D is the spatial dimension, and γ is the gas parameter (γ = naD). As D →2, α = α′ = 1. We show that the first-order quantum correction of the energy density is not perturbative in low dimensions of D < 2.2 regardless of any gas parameter which is much less than unity.


An extended edition of the poem "Roman de Fauvel" by Gervais du Bus, made by Chaillou de Pesstain and completed in 1317–1318, includes 169 musical numbers, of which 30 are based on the Notre Dame school's conductus. This is the most extensive reception of the conductus in the notated sources of the beginning of the 14th century. The article reveals the reasons for the appeal of "Roman de Fauvel", a satirical allegory of contemporary political and church life in France, to the conductus. Most of the pieces are monophonic and attributed to the "prosa" genre by the compilers of the manuscript. On the example of two proses, the author of the article traces the transformations that took place in relation to the primary conductus, preserved in earlier manuscripts. Monophonic pieces, in which the conductus is used, fit into the general development trends of the conductus genre at the end of the 13th–beginning of the 14th century. Five compositions are polyphonic; they are designated as "motez" by the authors of the manuscript. Almost all of them reveal the influence of the conductus genre: at the level of a single party, and in a number of the motets — at the level of the composition. The sign of belonging to the "Roman de Fauvel" becomes the "fauvelization" of many conductus, which consists in adding (or re-writing) poetic lines linking the content of Notre Dame school's conductus texts to the central figure of the novel, Fouvel, and thereby updating them.


Parathyroid cancer is an uncommon endocrine malignancy representing 0.005% of all cancers with the less than 1% frequency in all primary hyperparathyroid patients. The treatment of choice is radical surgical resection – parathyroidectomy and en bloc resection of surrounding tissues. Radiofrequency ablation, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are therapeutic palliative options without evidence of effectiveness. In parathyroid carcinoma hypercalcaemia rather than local infiltration or metastases presence is the main cause of death. At this work we introduce a 10 years case history of a patient with hormonally active disseminated parathyroid cancer in whom the use of radiotherapy allowed for long lasting hypercalcaemia control. The case we present and data reported by others though covering a small number of patients may indicate potential positive role of radiotherapy in parathyroid carcinoma both in case of residual local or metastatic disease.


Step-by-step graphics and short, bite-sized explanations Covers all major cardiac abnormalities including hypertrophy, arrhythmias, conduction blocks, and preexcitation syndromes Begins with a section on physiology of the heart and the basic set up of ECG recording Features top tips on what to look for, complete with illustrated examples Supported by a companion website featuring additional practice tracings


A power generation running machine comprises a bottom plate, and two supports on the bottom plate, wherein, one of the supports has the adjustable height; one power generator is arranged on each support, or one power generator and a roller are respectively arranged on the two supports; and a transmission belt is wound on the two power generators or on the power generator and the outer circle of the roller. The power generator includes a rotor and a stator, wherein, a radially magnetized cylindrical magnet is arranged on the rotor; and a non-magnetic column with embedded coils is fixedly and coaxially connected with the stator shaft. When an exerciser walks or runs on the transmission belt, the rotors of the power generators are driven by the transmission belt to rotate, and the stator coil cuts magnetic lines of the rotor magnets to generate inductive potential, wherein, the magnitude of the inductive potential is in direct ratio to the rotation speed of the rotors. The inductive potential can be stored in a battery or supplied to the outside. The power generation running machine can be used for keeping fit of exercisers and can convert the most of energy consumed by the human body into electrical energy, so that the power generation running machine has wide application prospect.


Abstract Measurements of the longitudinal acoustic (LA) Raman mode have been combined with small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and nitric acid etching, followed by gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) to examine the morphology of bulk-crystallized linear polyethylene (LPE). It has been shown that in some slow-cooled samples, Raman spectroscopy can provide a direct measure of the all-trans molecular length and hence the actual thickness of the crystalline regions. For other samples (high molecular weight, slow-cooled and quenched) the Raman data taken in conjuction with those from SAXS and GPC give a direct indication of the bulk morphology provided that the differences between the different techniques are interpreted in terms of the degree of coupling between amorphous and crystalline regions. Secondly, comparison between SAXS and GPC data alone suggests that the distribution of the amorphous phase follows a completely different pattern in the two classes of samples investigated. The slow cooled samples ex...


The screening out of cells specially abnormal cells by microscope is a very useful method for cytology diagnosing. Since inspecting pathological changes of cells by microscope is very slow, thereby study a new auto-microscope system with function of image processing is very necessary. This system has the following functions: 1) the microscope stage should be scanned in x and y directions, and a step distance of scanning is corresponded to a field of view of the microscope. 2) For autofocusing, first the micro-structure is low contrast, otherwise focus depth is very small. Therefore, autofocusing for biological microscope is different to common industrial microscope with low time and high contrast. 3) The microscope must possess image processing functions to recognize and screen out cells. 4) The system possesses function for auto-photograph. Because the field of view of the microscope is very small, if all fields of view are photographed one by one, then several hundred thousands or several millions fields of view will be photographed. But there is no target in most of fields of view, i. e. , only a few is useful, so, it is necessary to screen out and auto- photograph them automatically. On the other hand, transmissivity of different targets is different, so the exposure time must be adjusted automatically. Besides that, this kind of camera must hold sufficient film, i. e. a large cassette must be disigned. The micrscope system with these functions is a complex auto-controlling system.


In this paper, we address learning rates for the density level detection (DLD) problem. We begin by proving a "No Free Lunch Theorem" showing that rates cannot be obtained in general. Then, we apply a recently established classification framework to obtain rates for DLD support vector machines under mild assumptions on the density.


In this study, a computational technique is used to investigate the ability of a new MEMS gas actuator (MIKRA) for detection and sensation of the gas mixture. In this actuator, the temperature difference of two arms inside a rectangular domain at rarefied condition induces a Knudsen force which is relative to physical properties of the gas. Both 2d and 3D approaches are applied for the simulation of the flow inside the model. In order to define the flow feature of a low-pressure gas inside the micro gas actuator, a high order equation of Boltzmann should be solved to attain reliable results. Since the domain of this micro gas is non-equilibrium, Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is applied for the simulation of the model. According to obtained results, a three-dimensional model presents more reliable results and the effect of a gap for three-dimensional model clearly demonstrates the impact of this parameter on the effective Knudsen force. and Computer Materials Science. different Innovation Project of Mechatronics and Automobiles. around the questions about nanomaterials applications inperformance materials. His research group is focused on the synthesis of highly aligned Nanofibers and magnetic Nanofluids for employing in various cases such as piezoelectric devices, polymeric membranes, smart and responsive materials, sensors and actuators.


The amplitude-preserved converted wave prestack migration can not only make the structure accurately imaging,but also provide more reliable data for AVO analysis.Based on P-wave one-way wave-equation,the paper gave P-SV converted wave one-way wave-equation.On the basis of imaging condition of deconvolution,the converted wave amplitude-preserved prestack time migration formula on common-shot gather was deduced by using Kirchhoff-Helmholtz integration.Since the result of final inverted integration showed the information of reflection coefficient,the converted wave migration formula with product-type's imaging condition on common angle gather was also deduced,which makes the amplitude peak values on postmigration gather become the function of incident angles,and also greatly increases the computational stability at the same time.The test of theoretical model showed that using amplitude-preserved converted wave prestack migration can make the postmigration amplitude peaks truly reflect the size of original reflection coefficients.


The Jaria Pika Gas field is a domal anticlinal structure in the northeast of Iraq NW trending, about 3.6 km long and 1.9 km wide. The 55 m thick gas bearing Jeribe Formation is the main reservoir. This study intends to well log interpretation to determine the petrophysical properties of the Jeribe Formation in the Jaria Pika Gas Field. Total porosity, effect porosity, and secondary porosity have been calculated from neutron, density, and sonic logs. Porosity is fair to good in the Jeribe formation. From RHOB-NPHI and N/M cross plot, the Jeribe Formation is composed mainly of dolomite, limestone with nodules of anhydrite. The Fatha Formation contains considerable amounts of anhydrite layers, so it's represented the cap rocks for the Jeribe Reservoir which is recognized based on the reading of Gamma-ray log, Density log, Neutron log, and Sonic log. The Jaria Pika is considered as gas field as the Jeribe reservoir rocks are gas saturated ones.


The malicious activities in the darknet are an emerging threat to the cyber space. Darknet sites operate using TOR(The Onion Router) hidden services which provides the feature of disguising the users of the transaction in the darknet market place. Hence identifying and monitoring such illegal activities in the marketplace has become a tedious task for the cyber and law enforcement officials. This paper presents a prototype for a framework which analyse the traffic flow in the darknet as finding the exact sender and receiver is almost impossible as the TOR is increasing the layers of security to the maximum extent making it impossible to track the users in the transactions. Here we give a methodology using webcrawlers and extract the data from the darknet sites to find the domain of the traffic flow through which the broad area of traffic can be sorted out which would be beneficial for the cyber and law enforcement agencies to find the illicit trade in the darknet market places


In order to determine the content of free solanesol in tobacco leaves quickly and efficiently,a rapid Ultra-high Pressure Liquid Chromatography(UPLC) method was developed.By ultrasonic extraction with methanol,the extracting solution was membrane filtered to analyze by UPLC.The extract was eluted with methanol onto a short 1.7 μm BEH C18 column,and solanesol was separated rapidly in 5 min.According to the ion peaks of m/z 613.57 and 631.58,qualitative analysis was carried out by Electrospray Ionization-Quadropole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry(Q-TOF-MS).The results showed that the linearity range of the proposed method was 0.765-76.5 μg/mL,the RSD% was 2.62%,and the average recovery rate was 91.1%.The method was appropriate for quick and sensitive determination of free solanesol in tobacco.


X-band and millimeter wave ESR measurements have been performed on (DI-DCNQI) 2 Ag single crystals. X-band ESR measurements were carried out with the static magnetic field up to 1 T. Electron param...


The purpose of this study is to observe histopathologic changes in the bilateral craniomandibular joints after allowing 6 weeks of consolidation by varying the amount of distraction in rabbit mandible. Eight rabbits weighing about 2 to 3 kg were used. After corticotomy was performed on the left mandibular body between the first premolar and the second premolar region, a unilateral fixation device was placed. Then, a 7-day period was allowed without distraction
of the device. The mandible was lengthened 0.5 mm/day. Corticotomy and lengthening of mandible were not performed in control group. After the completion of the lengthening process, a 6-week-consolidation period was allowed. Then, the rabbits were sacrificed, and histologic examination of the craniomandibular joints was performed. Proliferative changes were observed in the craniomandibular joints in all groups. With the increasing amount of distraction, hypertrophy of the cartilage layer became more severe, bone formed was dense and enchondral ossification was clearly shown in subchondral bone. Hypertrophy of the cartilage layer was also seen in the non-distracted side as the distracted side in the experimental group. These results indicate that when physical force is applied constantly to joints, the proliferation of articular cartilage and bone formation are present. When more than 6 weeks of consolidation period is allowed at the time of performing distraction for more than 5 mm, articular changes, especially, in the contralateral side should also be noted.


Schistosomiasis (known as Bilharziasis) is the disease caused by a blood born fluke (trematode) of the genus Schistosoma. The intermediate hosts of all digenetic trematodes are snails and schistosomes are no exception. Adult schistosome worms live in a mammalian host, Schistosomiasis is the second most prevalent tropical disease in Africa after malaria and is of great public health and socio-economic importance in the developing world. This study is to clarify that Natural product extracts with non-toxic medicinal properties should be explored for possible intervention in schistosomiasis as a disease involving impairment of metabolism of infected subjects. These inspire more hope for reducing the intensity of schistosomal infection by reduction in worm burden, ova count, granuloma size and number leading to improvement in histopathological picture of liver, spleen and kidney as a result of reducing inflammatory and fibrotic reactions of schistosoma. Services Related Articles in ASCI Similar Articles in this Journal Search in Google Scholar View Citation Report Citation How to cite this article: Sanaa Ahmed Ali , 2011. Natural Products as Therapeutic Agents for Schistosomiasis. Research Journal of Medicinal Plants, 5: 1-20. DOI: 10.3923/rjmp.2011.1.20 URL: http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=rjmp.2011.1.20 Received: April 13, 2010; Accepted: May 15, 2010; Published: July 14, 2010


Introduction: Nursing plays an important role in the vaccine room, lacking adequate knowledge. Objective: To know the practice of the nursing team in the vaccine room in two municipalities in the interior of Pernambuco. Methodology: This is a descriptive, exploratory study, with a qualitative approach, developed in the primary care network of the municipalities of Arcoverde and Buíque, PE, carried out in the vaccination rooms of the Basic Health Units (UBS) and in the PNI coordinations of the municipalities. In the data collection, interviews were carried out with health professionals, following a semi structured script. After data collection, they were systematically analyzed and separated by categories, and then static analysis and comparison with the literature were carried out. Results: They showed that nurses are limited to supervision only, as well as there is a deficit in relation to the storage of immunobiologicals, in the same way that the physical structure is not adequate for carrying out practices. Conclusion: For the proper functioning of a vaccine room, it is necessary that the nursing team is trained, as well as an appropriate physical structure.


ABSTRACT The extant literature recognize that social relations and networks strengthen corporate innovation, but the contribution of the top management teams and the channel of social status and network location in corporate innovation is not well addressed. By constructing firm-to-firm matrices by top management team members' experience with the data set of China's A-share listed companies, we find that higher status and better network location with more structural holes foster corporate R&D investment and the number of invention patents, although the effect on total innovation outputs is not significant. What's more, the external and internal tunnels are further explored by testing the effect of information booming and absorptive willingness. It is confirmed that the positive impact of structural holes on corporate innovation is magnified with the penetration of high-speed rail and internet as well as high compensation incentive. This research supports the structural holes advantage theory, expands the research of the social networks, and provides reference for corporate innovation practice by taking advantages of structural holes from the top management teams.


The creep of MgO single crystals loaded in compression was stu<lied under conditions where plastic buckling was likely to occur. The degree of end constraint characteristic of these tests strongly affects the possibility of buckling. Experiments suggest that buckled columns creep at a lower rate than do columns tha.t remain straight. At temperatures around 1300°C fllld a.bove, the creep rate appears to be particularly sensitive to the nature of the crystal surface prior to deformation. At 1200°C the stress dependence of the creep strain rate can be represented as a power law with a stress exponent of 4.7. This is in reasonable agreement with Chang's theory of creep ~y diffusion controlled dissolution of dislocation dipoles and loops.


• Road: stock at 31/12 and 1st registrations of goo ds vehicles, performance (P-km, Tkm), air emissions (CO Tonne); • Rail: performance (P-km, T-km), air emissions (CO Tonne); • Inland waterways performance (T-km), air emission (CO Tonne); • Road accidents: Number of injuries and fatalities in road traffic accidents, Number of injury road traffic accidents, fatalities and in juries per 100000 inhabitants. Four charts: • Freight transport by inland waterway (thousand to nne), 1998-2008; • Freight transport by inland waterway (million ton ne-km), 1998-2008; • Port hinterland transport of containers, 1998-200 8; • Road accidents: Fatalities per 100 000 inhabitant s, 1997-2007. Informal document WP.6 No. 4 (2010)


In the crystal structure of the title compound, C7H6Cl2N2O2, the dihedral angle between the mean planes of the benzene ring and the hydroxamic acid group is 40.1 (1)°. The molecules are linked via O—H⋯N/O and N—H⋯O/Cl hydrogen bonds, forming two-dimensional layers parallel to (100).


Wehaveperformed 12 CO(1{0), 12 CO(2{1), 13 CO(1{ 0), 13 CO(2{1), C 18 O(1{0), C 18 O(2{1), HCO + (1{0) and H 13 CO + (1{0)observationstowardstwoselectedareasinthestar forming complex NGC 6357 with angular resolutions from 21 00 to 55 00 . In particular, we have mapped the molecular gas around thetwoHiiregionsG353.1+0.6andG353.2+0.9inthe 12 CO(1{ 0) and 13 CO(1{0) transitions with a resolution of 43 00 . This improvesonthecoarser 12 CO(1{0)observationspreviouslycar- ried out by others. We have also studied the physical properties of gas along strips through the molecular cloud/Hii region in- terfaces.


Protection may be a second-best policy when the domestic sector is imperfectly competitive. But the optimal tariff depends on labor market institutions too. The author considers two theoretical settings. The first is fully centralized wage bargaining, where all workers are unionized and wage differentials are redistributed among workers (the Scandinavia case). The second is negotiation at the firm level, where workers are unionized in imperfectly competitive sectors only, and wages may differ from sector to sector (the Latin America case). He uses the case of the competitive labor market as a benchmark. In Scandinavia, free trade maximized welfare. The central trade union internalizes the consequences of imperfect competition in the domestic sector. Since prices in this sector are a mark-up over labor costs, there is a wedge between the sectoral productivities of labor and, therefore, an inefficient allocation of manpower. By choosing a moderate wage, the central trade union replicates the effects of a subsidy to the imperfectly competitive sector so that no government intervention is required. In Latin America, decentralized wage bargaining increases the wedge between the sectoral productivities of labor. While wages in the export sector are constrained by harsh competition in world markets, trade unions in the domestic sector can get higher wages without completely squeezing labor demand. An import tariff improves manpower allocation by reorienting demand toward the domestic sector. Since the second-best tariff is strictly positive, opening the economy leads to a drop in welfare. The author's analysis sheds some light on the political economy of protection. Particularly, it suggests that trade liberalization is more likely to raise welfare in the Latin America case when its accompanied by changes in labor market institutions.


We review the class of cellular automata known as lattice gases, and their applications to problems in physics and materials science. The presentation is selfcontained, and assumes very little prior knowledge of the subject. Hydrodynamic lattice gases are emphasized, and non-lattice-gas cellular automata – even those with physical applications – are not treated at all. We begin with a review of lattice gases as the term is understood in equilibrium statistical physics. We then discuss the various methods that have been proposed to simulate hydrodynamics with a lattice gas, leading up to the 1986 discovery of a lattice gas for the isotropic NavierStokes equations. Finally, we discuss variants of lattice-gas models that have been used for the simulation of complex fluids.


The characterization by various experimental techniques of homoepitaxial growth and photonic properties of ZnO epilayers was exhaustively analyzed. The photonic properties of ZnO as promising material for the realization of polariton lasers were investigated by angular dependent reflection spectroscopy. The fitting of the polariton dispersion curve with the experimental results provided us information about the longitudinal-transverse exciton-polariton splitting and damping constants. In addition, the valence band symmetry was examined by angular resolved magneto-optical photoluminescence. From our theoretical and experimental results we extracted evidence that the topmost A valence band possesses Г7 symmetry. Micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed even in homoepitaxially grown samples the existence of compressive or tensile strain which varied not only in the ZnO layers but also in the templates. In contrast, the untreated substrates were uniformly strained. Sporadically crystal perturbations culminating in the formation of separated growth domains were observed. Additionally, resonant Raman scattering was performed, showing a strong enhancement of the 2E1(LO) mode for resonant excitation of the I8 bound exciton complex. We suggest that the resonant Raman scattering led to a longer lifetime of the resonantly excited phonon mode due to a strong exciton-phonon interaction.


Many wheelchair people depend on others to control the movement of their wheelchairs, which significantly influences their independence and quality of life. Smart wheelchairs offer a degree of self-dependence and freedom to drive their own vehicles. In this work, we designed and implemented a low-cost software and hardware method to steer a robotic wheelchair. Moreover, from our method, we developed our own Android mobile app based on Flutter software. A convolutional neural network (CNN)-based network-in-network (NIN) structure approach integrated with a voice recognition model was also developed and configured to build the mobile app. The technique was also implemented and configured using an offline Wi-Fi network hotspot between software and hardware components. Five voice commands (yes, no, left, right, and stop) guided and controlled the wheelchair through the Raspberry Pi and DC motor drives. The overall system was evaluated based on a trained and validated English speech corpus by Arabic native speakers for isolated words to assess the performance of the Android OS application. The maneuverability performance of indoor and outdoor navigation was also evaluated in terms of accuracy. The results indicated a degree of accuracy of approximately 87.2% of the accurate prediction of some of the five voice commands. Additionally, in the real-time performance test, the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) values between the planned and actual nodes for indoor/outdoor maneuvering were 1.721 × 10−5 and 1.743 × 10−5, respectively.