Summary
1 Interspecific and temporal variations in presumed water-use efficiency, as measured by carbon isotope discrimination (Δ), were examined in a Greek semiarid herbaceous grassland, and the hypothesis tested that competition for water is a factor in determining vegetation structure.
2 Experiments were conducted for 3 years in an upland grassland consisting of exclusively C3 perennial species. The most abundant species were the grasses Poa pratensis L., Lolium perenne L. and Festuca valida (Uechtr.) Penzes; the forbs Achillea millefolium L., Plantago lanceolata L. and Taraxacum officinale Weber ex Wigg; and the legume Trifolium repens L.
3 Rooting depth did not explain plant Δ in this shallow-soil site, where soil moisture was concentrated in the top of the profile.
4 Although temporal variation for Δ was significant within most species, changes in ranking of species were slight throughout three growing seasons.
5 Δ Was negatively related to species biomass production, which means that species' abundances were positively related to species' water-use efficiencies. Δ Was positively related to leaf N content, which we interpret as an autocorrelation with water availability.
6 The results of this study are consistent with the notion that, in an environment where water is scarce, plants may compete effectively by increasing their potential water-use efficiency as measured by Δ, and that species abundance is regulated by competition-driven water depletion.


The term design means many things to many people. Engineering Design is somewhat more specific in being seen as an activity common to all the branches of Engineering. It is one which is taught, in one way or another, over the four years of an undergraduate course, culminating in a level of achievement appropriate to that of the industry in which the graduates are subsequently employed. Design can be seen as an intellectual process, initiated by a need which can be satisfied, by an idea in the mind of the designer, such that the idea can be implemented from currently available materials and processes, to result in a physical object representing it. The degree of success of the teaching programs depends on the closeness to reality of the Design Projects which should steadily increase in complexity from first year to graduation, as the student accumulates an ever-increasing competence in the Engineering Sciences. The modelling of the 'real-life' design environment with design/Construct Projects of increasing complexity and relevance, would appear to better achieve that smooth transition from student to practising Engineer, with the least trauma to all concerned.


Many irrigation districts along the Yellow River have been suffering shallow groundwater depression and agriculture-use water shortage. For comprehending response relationships of shallow groundwater level and various factors under different conditions of groundwater buried depth, the hydro-meteorological time series and the agricultural production data in Puyang area of Henan Province, China during 2006–2018 were collected for performing wavelet analysis of the relationship between the groundwater level and the four different factors, such as precipitation, air temperature, water stage of the Yellow River, and well irrigation water amount. It is shown that when the burial depth of groundwater varied from 0–10 m to over 10 m, the groundwater level was related with both the precipitation and air temperature from moderately to weakly and the delayed response times of the groundwater level to them extended from 2–4 months to more than 5 months. The groundwater level maintained a medium correlation with the well irrigation water amount as the burial depth increased, but the lag response time of groundwater level to well irrigation dramatically decreased when the burial depth exceeded 10 m. The dynamic response relationship between the groundwater and the water stage of the Yellow River was mainly affected by the distance away from the Yellow River rather than the burial depth and the influence of the river stage on the groundwater level was limited within the distance approximate to 20 km away from the Yellow River. The findings are expected to provide the reference for groundwater level prediction and groundwater resources protection.


The sensing and communication capabilities of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) allow for the design of safer Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), with capabilities for reduced crashes and drivers' injuries. To this aim, entities in the IoV can autonomously exchange Warning Messages (WMs) on the road status to help drivers, passengers, and vehicles to take immediate actions and reduce road accidents. WMs authentication, timely propagation, and integrity is a fundamental requirement, as the injection of false WMs or their delay by a malicious user can lead to accidents or traffic congestion. The currently available WMs authentication and propagation schemes focus on the security properties, without however accounting for the scalability issues related to the large number of entities connected in the IoV. In this paper, we propose Secure Warning Message Authentication and Propagation (SWAP), an authentication protocol specifically designed for WM propagation in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV). We introduce the Warning Message Authority (WMA), a novel entity responsible for secure WMs handling. Thanks to the WMA, WMs are managed by dedicated resources that allow for the timely delivery of safety-critical information, avoiding delays due to network congestion at the Trusted Authority (TA). We prove the security of SWAP by using the Random Oracle Model (ROM) and via security analysis. Compared to state of the art authentication schemes, SWAP reduces the number of communication bits by 100 bits, and provides a ten-fold decrease of the computation time.


This study examined the currently popular hypothesis that agoraphobics utilize repression as a method of avoiding anxiety-arousing cognitions. Contrary to previous expectations, none of the sample scored in the repression direction of Byrne's Repression/Sensitization Scale. Controversially, an opposite view of agoraphobics as sensitizers emerges from these data.


This paper presents the background and outcomes of Emergency Maternity and Infant Care (EMIC) program. Attention is given t o connections over time between the Children's Bureau, the Rankin-Robinson Bill (1918), the Sheppard-Towner Act (1921), and the Social Security Act of 1935, Title V, all o f which contributed t o EMIC. Based on this review, two hypotheses are advanced.


This thesis is structured in three chapters. In chapter 1, I address managerial opportunism towards workers. I present a theoretical model and test it. Results suggest that outside opportunities are key to hinder or stimulate managerial opportunism towards the workforce. In chapter 2, I study price-setting practices in the US title insurance industry. I test both the presence of a bilateral monopoly, insurers and lawyers, and the increase in the title insurers' market concentration levels. Results suggest that the increased concentration led to an increase in prices. In chapter 3, I explore the application of blockchain technology to land property institutions. I develop an analytical framework acknowledging the customizable nature of blockchain and discuss diverse initiatives currently being developed in several countries. I conclude blockchain is bringing some changes but it has not been disruptive to existing systems.


The occurrence of Diretmoides veriginae in the Indian water is reported for the first time. This fish has been reported earlier only from Northeastern Indian Ocean, Southern Taiwan, and South China Sea. Two specimens measuring 175 and 161 mm TL were collected onboard Fishery Oceanographic Research Vessel (FORV) Sagar Sampada using demersal trawl from two locations, Great Nicobar Waters (576 m depth) and Nicobar East Katchall Island (591 m depth). The meristic counts, body measurements and descriptions are presented and the specimens have been compared with the earlier reports and found out that the fish has a new distributional record for Indian waters.


We analyzed default likelihood of North-American corporate obligors in 1995-2014 using Moody's DRD quarterly data for both public and private borrowers. Emergency actions by the lender of last resort (LOLR) during 2008-2009 were a novelty so the impact on credit quality of bank portfolios and their loss provisions is not clear at all. To study the impact of emergency liquidity and lending we introduce an instrumental variable, responsible for available emergency liquidity, into the model. The study shows that the presence of emergency lending provisions produces significant impact on default probabilities by reducing the impact of macroeconomic conditions. This means that calibration of capital testing models should account for emergency liquidity (ELA) presence. We showed that given the limited amount of relevant historical data, ignoring ELA in historical fit causes an underestimation of default probability under stress and, apparently, underestimates stress capital requirements.


Objectives: ACL reconstruction using hamstring autograft (HA) has been found to have a high re-tear rate in high risk patients including those with a Pivot shift of 2 or higher and those with generalized ligamentous laxity (GLL). Because of this, the use of lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET) has gained traction in the sports community. Several studies have shown lower ACL graft re-tears with the addition of LET and is felt by many to be necessary when using a HA in high risk patients. However, no study has compared hamstring autograft + LET versus other graft types. The purpose of our study was to compare the surgical outcomes of HA+LET vs an all-soft-tissue quadriceps autograft (QA) without LET. We hypothesized that a QA would lead to similar graft re-tear and rotational instability rates as HA+LET. Methods: This retrospective study compared high risk patients including those with a Pivot shift of 2 or more and GLL undergoing ACL reconstruction with either a HA, HA+LET and QA. In this study, GLL was defined as patients with a Beighton score of 4 or more. Patients were included in the study if they were undergoing a primary ACL reconstruction with either hamstring autograft (HA group), hamstring autograft with extra-articular tenodesis (HA+LET group) or all-soft-tissue quadriceps autograft (QA group) and no other procedures other than meniscal work. All surgeries were performed by the senior surgeon and followed the same rehabilitation protocol after surgery regardless of what type of graft was used during the surgery. Graft choice was dependent on the when during the study the procedure was performed. Early in the study period, HA were used on most patients regardless of whether they were high risk or not. Later, HA+LET was performed due to emerging studies showing higher failure rates in high risk patients undergoing HA alone compared to those undergoing HA+LET. Finally, the senior author transitioned to using QA for most cases. Patient reported outcomes (PROs) were obtained on each patient preoperatively, 3,6,12 and 24-months after surgery. The PROs used in this study included the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and Lysholm scores. Clinical failure was defined by a patient who had a graft re-tear or those with a residual pivot shift of 2 or more after surgery. Pivot shift was tested for at the 6,12 and 24-month follow up. Other complications associated with the procedure were documented. Results: A total of 166 high risk patients underwent ACL reconstruction over the 7 year study period. There were 63 patients in the HA group, 47 in the HA+LET and 56 in the QA group. The demographics between the three groups was similar with an overall age of the patients in the study being 17.8 years. The mean Beighton score was 3.2 for the group with 24% of the population having GLL. The overall rate of Grade 2 or higher pivot was 82%. There was no difference between the groups with regards to percentage GLL or 2+pivot shift. All three groups had a higher percentage of women than men (HA group 66%; HA+LET group 62% and QA group 56%), but there was no significant difference between the groups. The QA group had a significantly larger graft diameter (9.6mm) compared to the HA group (7.9mm) and the HA+LET group (8.1mm) (p<.001). The number of meniscal repair and partial meniscectomy was similar between all three groups with 21.1% of the population undergoing meniscectomy and 48% of the entire population undergoing meniscal repair. The study was made up of 68.4% athletes for the HA group, 62.4% for the HA+LET and 72.6% for the QA group (p=.32). A significant increase in both IKDC and Lysholm scores were seen at every timepoint compared to preoperative levels. There was no difference between the three groups at any time point for either the IKDC and Lysholm scores. The preoperative IKDC score for the HA group increased from 51.7 to 90.3 at the 2-year follow-up. The HA+LET IKDC scores increased from 53.1 preoperatively to 88.4 at the 2-year follow-up. The QA group had IKDC scores of 49.8 pre op and 90.6 at 2 years. The Lysholm scores increased from 53 to 91.9, 54.8 to 89.4 and 51.9 to 92.6 preoperatively to the 2-year follow-up for the HA, HA+LET and QA groups respectively. The graft re-tear rate of the HA group was significantly higher than the HA+LET and QA groups (14.3%, 2.1% and 1.8% respectively). Residual pivot shift of 2 or more was found in 36.5% of the HA group, 14.9% in the HA+LET group and 19.6% in the QA group. The residual pivot shift in the HA group was significantly higher than the HA+LET and QA groups, but no difference was identified between the HA+LET and QA groups. Return to sport (RTS) was similar between the three groups with 80% of athletes returning to sport with HA grafts, 81% with HA+LET and 86% with QA grafts. The use of a QA in this high-risk population lead to a significantly faster RTS (8.6 months) compared to the HA and HA+LET groups; however, the addition of a LET did not lead to a shorter time to return to sport (10.7 months for the HA group and 11.7 months for the HA+LET group). There was no difference between the three groups for contralateral ACL tears, arthrofibrosis or infection. Conclusions: The use of an all-soft-tissue QA or the addition of an LET to a HA both lead to significant decreases in graft re-tear rate and residual pivot shifts of 2 or greater compared to a HA graft alone in high risk patients undergoing primary ACL reconstruction. However, the use of QA and LET do not improve the patient reported outcome scores at 2-year follow up compared to HA alone. RTS was significantly faster with QA compared to the HA and HA+LET; however, the addition of an LET to a HA did not increase the rate to which an athlete was able to return to play. In conclusion, high risk patients including those with GLL and pivot shifts greater than 2 should undergo ACL reconstruction with either a quadriceps autograft or have a LET added to a hamstring autograft.


The aim the study was to prepare and evaluate stomach specific mucoadhesive tablet of ondansetron HCl to remain in the stomach for 12hrs. The mucoadhesive tablets were prepared by wet granulation method using HPMC K100M, carbopol 934p, chitosan and xanthan gum as mucoadhesive polymeric material. Characterization of drug, drug andexcipient compatibility among the formulation component were assessed by FTIR and DSC. It was concluded that A6 batch prepared by using HPMC K100M and chitosan showed good release of drug. It passes as per dissolution acceptance criteria for sustained release formulation. It also showed good mucoadhesive strength.


The Doha negotiating mandate specifies that non-trade concerns (NTC), such as food security, rural development and environmental protection, shall be taken into account in the WTO agriculture negotiations. The emphasis of the negotiation mandate on NTC is crucial to the overall balance of the mandate and was decisive for many Members when they embarked on the multilateral reform process in agriculture. How NTC should be taken into account is a matter for negotiations. This contribution aims at clarifying certain concepts and providing a basis for such negotiations, focusing on the market access pillar. The paper briefly lists the NTC important to many Members and reviews certain characteristics common to these concerns. The paper explains why the market access provisions are of particular relevance to NTC and how the market access modalities should reflect such concerns.


The article is concerned with reflections of cultural influences of different levels at conscious and unconscious aspects of conflict behavior strategies. On the basis of experimental data including long-term research at post-governmental enterprises the factors of forming cognitive shift providing sustainable positive changes in conflict interconnections is revealed.


Development of a method to selectively label platelets in whole blood in vitro or in vivo is a highly desirable goal. The authors have investigated the labeling with I-123, I-131, and In-111 of an IgG/sub 1/ monoclonal antibody, 7E3 (MAb) that specifically inhibits the interaction of dog platelets with fibrinogen-coated beads and blocks ADP-induced aggregation of dog platelets. The MAb, typically 100 ..mu..g, was radioiodinated using the chloramine T method. Following a G-25 or P-6 column purification, labeling yields of approx. =70% were achieved (2 I/MAb). The MAb-DTPA conjugate was labeled with In-111 in >80% yields with a specific activity of 10-30 ..mu..Ci/..mu..g (approx. =0.1 In/MAb). Retention of inhibiting activity in the fibrinogen-coated bead assay was excellent for both I-123 and In-111 labeled 7E3. In dogs, the blood pool activity persisted for up to 24 hr and some urinary excretion (In-111) and deiodination (I-123) were observed in vivo. When In-111-MAb was incubated with whole blood (0.13 ..mu..g/ml) and the mixture then clotted with thrombin (l..mu../ml), 68% of the radioactivity remained with the clot despite repeated washing. Preliminary in vivo data in dogs suggest that the label becomes localized at the site of vascular injury and/or thrombus formation. The authors concludemore » that radiolabeled monoclonal anti-platelet antibodies may show promise for imaging vascular lesions and thrombi.« less


The digestibility of several dietary proteins in rainbow trout was estimated by the method using inert reference substance, Cr2O8, as an indicator10). As shown in Fig. 1 and Table 2, the digestibility of dietary protein varied to some extent with days, size of fishes, and with the method of collection of feces in the same diet; the digestibilities determined by analyzing the feces excreted into pond water were higher than those estimated from the feces collected by stripping. Among animal diets tested, a white fish meal-protein showed the highest value in digestibility, whereas protein of a whale-meat meal showed considerably low value; this might be due to high content of protein in the test diet. In vegetable diets, protein of a soybean meal showed high value of digestibility.


Now computers are widely used in teaching,and the CAI software does change our teaching.Among many kinds of program design tools, Delphi is one of the most powerful to design programs.This paper gives an example to introduce how to design the CAI software with Delphi.


This paper elaborates on the significance of "Approaching to Every Village" radio television project and the necessity of the allocation of a knowledge-based leadership for the radio television stations of counties and towns,discusses the causes for adhering to the principle that the projected be constructed by village and managed by county,and points out that the project should be strictly managed and regulated.


insurance sustainable with regard to the demographic development, technical innovations are increasingly focused on. In this regard, in Germany, great hopes are particularly placed in age-appropriate ambient assisted living (AAL) systems, i. e. smart home solutions such as fall detectors, communication services etc. However, service robotics is also coming increasingly to the fore. This new generation of robots is characterised by being able to provide services in everyday environments thanks to a high degree of autonomy, sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and lightweight design. In contrast to AAL systems, robots are also able to interact physically. Thus, they offer a versatile support potential with regard to care of the elderly.


"Little Boy" is the nickname of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. In Murakami's formulation, Little Boy is also Japan in relation to the United States and the passive consumer of capitalist excess, but also the wide-eyed child of manga and anime. In this exhibition, Murakami presents a wide range of art, artifacts, and imagery and thereby stakes a claim on the artistic consciousness and conscience of the twenty-fi rst century. For some time I have believed that manga and anime will do for visual culture in this century what African American music did for music in the last century: provide the peoples of the world with a common expressive medium. Th e work Murakami has assembled supports that conjecture, though only time will tell if it is correct. Japan's visual arts work at a fundamental level that demands our fullest attention and respect. I disagree, however, with Murakami's arguments—and those of other contributors to the exhibition catalog—about the driving force behind those arts. But let us put that aside for now and consider the work, and the argument, as Murakami arranges it in the handsome bilingual catalog (English and Japanese). Th e catalog's presentation is well considered and seductive. First Murakami gives us a twopage spread of Okamoto Tarō standing, arms outspread, in front of his large avant-primitive sculpture, the iconic Tower of the Sun, created for Expo '70 in Osaka, Asia's fi rst world's fair. (Th e sculpture was represented in the exhibition by a shoulder-high maquette and a ceiling-high photograph.) Okamoto was the son of a manga artist and a writer, studied in Europe at the University of Paris, and became a household name for uttering "Art is explosion" in a TV commercial. Th en Murakami shows us the opening animation for Daicon IV, an eight-minute anime fi lm made by amateurs—who play a signifi cant role in manga and anime culture—and shown at the Twenty-Second Japan Science Fiction Convention in 1983. Th e fi lm is a collage of cultural references: Godzilla, an atomic explosion, a magic sword, Darth Vader, a cute girl in a bunny costume (who surfs the sky standing on the sword), space stations and satellites, Batman and Robin, ray weaponry, cherry blossoms, Mt. Fuji, robots cute and not, and a happy ending. Having given us a monument and a visual encyclopedia, Murakami turns to broadcast TV, presenting a sci-fi slapstick anime series from 1975–76 called Time Bokan. Each week the good guys fi ght the bad guys and vanquish them in a mecha battle, only to have the bad guys reappear intact the following week. Each episode ends with the highly stylized image of a mushroom cloud resembling a sepulchral skull. It is this image that Murakami has appropriated for his own Time Bokan—Pink. Here, the image has become even more stylized and is now completely "fl attened" (all shading gone), appearing in white on a hot pink background and balanced beneath a smaller black version of itself that has been turned upside down, with R E V I E W & C O M M E N T A R Y


commodate his views on the primacy of philosophy with the constraints of PRC politics after rejoining the Party in 1949 until his death in 1966. A brief concluding chapter assesses the significance of Li's brand of Marxism in China and within the broader spectrum of world Marxism. Knight's study rests on solid scholarship, drawing on the entire panoply of Li's writings and translations, the extensive secondary literature produced by contemporary Chinese scholars, interviews with Li's surviving colleagues, and the broad Western literature on the history of Marxist ideas.


Abramovitz, Moses. Inventories and Business Cycles. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, I950. Pp. xxxvi63 2. $6.oo. Amherst College American Studies Staff. Problems in American Civilization. 6 vols.: Pragmatism and American Culture; Puritanism in Early America; Industry-wide Collective Bargaining-Promise or Menace?; Hamilton and the National Debt; The Causes of the American Revolution; Roosevelt, Wilson and the Trusts. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co.,


Self‐assembly of colloidal nanoparticles at water–oil interfaces offers an efficient way to construct multi‐dimensional arrays. Self‐assembly is generally induced by using adsorbing molecular "modifiers" or co‐solvents to remove the nanoparticles' surface charge. Here, it is shown that cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), which is commonly used in bulk quantities in colloidal synthesis, can induce self‐assembly of negatively charged colloidal nanoparticles at water–oil interfaces, even at sub‐micromolar levels but it does this by providing charge screening rather than removing the surface charge. Since this is a physical effect, CTAB can promote assembly of nanoparticles regardless of their morphology or material composition. In the specific case of nanoparticles which allow CTAB to adsorb, such as Au, the self‐assembly mechanism switches from charge screening to chemical adsorption as the concentration is increased. These both explain previous observations of spontaneous interfacial assembly and open up further possibilities for deliberately constructing functional nanoparticle arrays without the need for additional modifiers or co‐solvents.


Feldspar placer deposits are considered to offer an economical alternative raw-materials basis of effordable fluxes for stoneware production. The deposits of Wadi Abu Had in the Eastern desert of Egypt were studied as an example. After simple classification by screening the middle fractions between 5 and 2 mm showed a suitable high alkali content and minimised content of colouring elements as Fe, Ti, Mn, Conventional stoneware batches with 10 mass-% talk resulted in low sintering bodies with good ceramic properties at 1250 and 1275°C firing temperature respectively and 1 h maturing. Bulk densities of 2.23 g/cm 3 and cold crushing strength values of 31 N/mm 2 were obtained. The colour of the fired bodies was grey.


The aim of this thesis is to present and explain relationship between freedom of an individual and authority of a state in a thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. First of all, I introduce basic principles of Rousseau's political philosophy with focus on the concept of general will. Secondly, I identify and analyze different kinds of freedom and authority present in Rousseau's philosophy. Finally, I discuss selected critiques of Rousseau's concept of freedom.


The objective of this study is to determine if the Aerosol Inhalation Monitor (AIM) can assist patients in learning correct inhaler technique and assess retention. A 9-month study was conducted in 5 Midwest pharmacies. Patients were eligible if they had filled a prescription for a metered-dose inhaler within 6 months. Consenting patients demonstrated their inhaler technique using the AIM. If they used improper technique, patients were trained and allowed to retry. Positive test patients (2 consecutive proper technique demonstrations without aid of the gauges) were assessed in 2 to 3 weeks for retention. Of 33 patients, 2 used their inhaler correctly without training. After 2 training periods, 48.5% of these patients failed to demonstrate correct technique. The AIM can assist pharmacists in inhaler technique training and can promote partnerships in the care of asthma patients by determining the need for spacers, alternative delivery methods, or further training.


A simple, labor-efficient screening procedure was developed for identifying metribuzin [4-amino-6-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-3-(methylthio)-1,2,4-triazin-5(4H)-one] tolerant southernpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] germplasm in the greenhouse. Of 1241 southernpea plant introduction (PI) accessions screened, two (PI 293569 and PI 427221) tolerated metribuzin. In additional greenhouse experiments, the two selected southernpea accessions were slightly more tolerant than the susceptible cultivar 'Lady' or the moderately tolerant cultivar 'Big Boy'. However, several accessions from related Vigna species tolerated 1.5 ppmw metribuzin, twice the concentration that killed the southernpea selections.


Purpose – Although there has been increasing optimism about the potential for social media platforms such as Twitter to support educators' professional learning, it is yet unclear whether such promises hold true. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explore school administrators' use of Twitter for professional learning. Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative case study draws data collected from 17 school administrators from throughout the USA and Canada. In addition to individual, semi-structured interviews, administrators' tweets were collected for two weeks. This resulted in 1,460 tweets. Analyses were aimed at perceptions about Twitter, the knowledge shared, and its impact on practice. Findings – Findings presented a paradox: although administrators were enthusiastic about the social and professional benefits associated with Twitter, they did not share or apply much knowledge commonly associated with administrator work. Topically, administrators' tweets tended to focus on technology, r...


FIELD: paint and varnish industry. SUBSTANCE: device comprises vessels for components made of water-proof bags. Each bag stands on the pad provided with a support to which the bag is suspended. The supplying pipelines with pumps are connected to the bottom section of the bags and tank for finished mixture through the mixing head. The supplying pipelines have batching valves connected with a control device. The volume of the bags decreases when they are emptied. The device can have balance, vibrator, and printer. EFFECT: enhanced reliability. 6 cl, 1 dwg


A coating of fast absorption or fast dissolution on an implantable device and methods of making and using of the coating are provided.


The discussion paper aims to solicit response from different stakeholders, including supervisory agencies, for understanding the risks and likely benefits of collaborative business models between banks and FinTech with an added emphasis on bringing coherence in multiple supervisory priorities like promoting FinTech,addressing climate-risks and sustainable development (SDGs).Though business models for collaboration vary in different jurisdictions, few important examples can be taken to identify common elements that can be replicated in other jurisdictions. The risks inherent in such business models especially in the context of immaturity of such business models, incompatible governance framework, moral-hazard and opaque incentive structures, among others, need to be carefully weighed in terms of benefits relating to market efficiency through better product design and wider distribution. Further questions for discussion are presented in the Annex.


For the first time, iron oxide on carbon aerogel, amine functionalized carbon nanotube, black carbon and carboxylic acid functionalized carbon nanotube in the presence of H2O2 was reported as an efficient and stable catalyst for the selective oxidation of sulfides and alcohols. The catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectroscopy. In the next step, catalytic reactivity toward sulfide to sulfoxide and alcohol to aldehyde/ketone oxidation in the presence of H2O2 was studied and discussed.


LaB 6.0-6.14 and CeB 6.0-6.12 crystals were prepared by the floating zone method. Their thermionic emission properties were examined in the temperature range of l100-1500°C. Increasing the boron contents hardly influenced the emission characteristics, but decreased the evaporation rate which determines the life time of the cathodes. Therefore, the boron-rich LaB 6 and CeB 6 crystal cathodes are expected to have longer life time than the stoichiometric commercial cathodes.


At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a federal agency supporting basic biomedical research, decision makers are faced with the challenge of identifying ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of research support services and challenges of doing "more with less" resources. The Office of Research Services (ORS), Office of Quality Management (OQM) provides support in solving these challenges through development of the Campus Operations Decision Support (CODS) simulation model. The model consists of a variety of software tools and techniques to model a campus 3D "virtual world" that can be used in a variety of applications to better understand and enhance the delivery of services to support the research mission at NIH. The project includes sub-models that aid in analyzing pedestrian and traffic movement onto and within the campus, visitor screening, the NIH shuttle bus network, and provides for future extensibility to additional research support activities.


After a brief survey of the early history of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery from the perspective of the provenance of archaeological artifacts, this article offers a table of the so-called "E" series fragments from Qumran, that is to say those PAM photos containing only fragments coming from controlled excavations.  What remains to be done is to identify each fragment of each text contained in the "E" series photographs.


We demonstrate here that the use of either the acid-alkali or Longin method alone does not fully extract contaminants from bone-collagen fractions. We present our methods and results of extracting bone collagen that involve successive use of both of these methods.


A major limitation of the widely used evolutionary optimization (EO) methods is their inability to handle constraints directly. To address this issue, penalty function methods have been used in most EO applications involving constrained problems such as those of the water distributions networks (WDNs). However, the disadvantage of penalty function methods is that the parameters involved require great expertise in calibration with numerous time consuming trial runs. In addition, penalty parameters are case sensitive and do not necessarily steer the EO search toward the best solutions in every situation. This paper presents a penalty-free multi-objective evolutionary approach (PFMOEA) for the optimization of water distribution networks. The basis behind this approach is to involve the pressure dependent analysis (PDA) in developing a multi-objective evolutionary search. PDA is capable of simulating both normal and pressure deficient networks and provides a quick and precise means to identify the feasible region of the solution space. The proposed PFMOEA couples the renowned NSGA II with an enhanced seamless version of EPANET 2 which is capable of PDA. The PFMOEA has been applied to several WDN benchmarks. Excellent results in terms of the initial network cost and number of hydraulic simulations required were obtained. Comprehensive discussions along with comparisons of solutions from previous studies are presented herein.


- This paper presents the first results of 3D simulations of the seismic response in the Caracas basin using the spectral element method. The seismic response of the basin is obtained by the excitation of an incident plane wave which is efficiently implemented via its traction and velocity at the rock sediments interface. A generalized filtering perfectly matched layer allows for a better absorption of surface waves in elongated basins. Our simulations clearly show combined effects from the topography and the basin, with diffracted waves coming from the mountains, and low frequency energy trapped in the deepest part of the basin. Spectral ratio exhibits focalization and 3D amplification effects.


Computer game is a competing type game, each game player specific characteristic data stored in the memory card of each game player. Specific characteristic data against the game result can switch from a memory to another. The memory card can be separated from the computer system. Further the computer system may be connected with the network. Therefore, the game player skills are accurately displayed and stored clearly. In addition to rely on each skill online game players simultaneously displayed on the display unit for all game players. At the same time, all game players can rely on the network at the same time play the same game, a game player can recognize another skill game players on the network.


The poweRlaw package provides code to fit heavy tailed distributions, including discrete and continuous power-law distributions. The fitting procedure follows the method detailed in Clauset et al.1. The parameter 1 A. Clauset, C.R. Shalizi, and M.E.J. Newman. Power-law distributions in empirical data. SIAM review, 51(4):661– 703, 2009 values are obtained by maximising the likelihood. The cut-off value, xmin, is estimated by minimising the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff statistic.


The invention discloses a photovoltaic power station system with low voltage ride through and anti-islanding protection functions. The photovoltaic power station system comprises a photovoltaic power generation system array, a first breaker, a three-phase inverter, a filter, a parameter detecting module, a loader, a second breaker, a transformer, a power grid and a controller. The output current of the photovoltaic power generation system array sequentially passes through the first breaker, the three-phase inverter and the filter to be input into the input end of the parameter detecting module, one path of the parameter detecting module is connected with the loader, the other path of the parameter detecting module is connected with the power grid through the transformer and the second breaker, the parameter detecting module can detect switch signals of the second breaker and the voltage V and the frequency f of the coupled point between the parameter detecting module and the loader and input the switch signals, the voltage V and the frequency f to the input end of the controller, one path of the output end of the controller is connected with the inverter to provide PWM signals to the inverter, and the other path of the output end of the controller is connected with the first breaker. The photovoltaic power station system combines the low voltage ride through function and the anti-islanding protection function, so that the purpose of improving the stability and the safety of the photovoltaic power station system is achieved.


The ambient intelligence paradigm has evolved significantly during the last few years and aims at developing context-aware and adaptive systems that enable people to use personalized services. Context-awareness, semantics enriched services and adaptivity are among the features that characterize ambient intelligence systems. In this paper, we describe an ontology-based user model that captures and formally describes profile and context information, and enables rule-based reasoning on the available data to support personalized context-aware navigation services. We also describe how the proposed model is used as a basic building block for the development of a contextual guide for users in indoor environments, C-NGINE (contextual navigation guide for indoor environments).


Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare perinatal outcomes among women with conservatively treated preterm premature rupture of membranes at 24 to 32 weeks of gestation in the presence or absence of vaginal bleeding. Study design: This is a secondary analysis of 581 women with and without vaginal bleeding within 1 week of admission with preterm premature rupture of membranes at 24 to 32 weeks of gestation who were enrolled in a multicenter trial of antibiotic therapy during conservative treatment. The main outcome was latency to delivery. Other outcome variables included clinical abruptio placentae, amnionitis, perinatal death, severe intraventricular hemorrhage, and respiratory distress syndrome. Results: Outcome data were available for 581 patients (n = 50 with bleeding). Latency to delivery was not affected by the presence or absence of bleeding. In general, a history of bleeding was associated with higher frequencies of subsequently diagnosed abruptio placentae (12% vs 3.5% ; P = .01), perinatal death (16% vs 4.9% ; P = .006), intraventricular hemorrhage (14.3% vs 5.9% ; P = .03), and respiratory distress syndrome (69.4% vs 40.4% ; P .0001), when compared with those women with nonbleeding events. Women with bleeding were less likely to be black (42% vs 60% ; P = .002) and had a lower mean gestational age at preterm premature rupture of membranes (27.6 vs 28.5 weeks; P = .02) when compared with white, Hispanic, and other. After an adjustment of data was made for potentially confounding factors, women with recent bleeding were more likely to be diagnosed with abruptio placentae at delivery (odds ratio, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.03-7.8; P = .04), and their infants were more likely to have respiratory distress syndrome (odds ratio, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.5-6.6; P = .004). Conclusion: Vaginal bleeding before preterm premature rupture of membranes is associated with increased rates of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and abruptio placentae, but not with reduced latency to delivery.


The invention relates to coal tar processing wastewater treatment method and system. The treatment method comprises materialization treatment comprising the following steps of: (1) removing free oil and emulsified oil which are contained in wastewater, filtering, regulating the pH value of the wastewater to 3-4, and then separating out depositions; (2) extracting and dephenolizing; (3) regulatingthe pH value of the dephenolized wastewater to 9-10, filtering, then carrying out steam stripping and deaminization by using steam, and besides, carrying out reextraction on extract phase containing phenol to respectively recover an extracting agent and phenate, and then recycling the extracting agent and decomposing the phenate to obtain crude phenol; and (4) cooling the deaminized wastewater, regulating the pH value to 7-8, and then filtering after adding a desulfurizing agent to remove sulfides. The water quality of the materialized wastewater achieves the requirement of a biochemical treatment system; meanwhile, the invention can recover a given amount of useful matter comprising the phenol, ammonia and the like and make the extracting agent recycled so that the economic benefit of wastewater treatment is improved.


Network design must carefully consider how routers and circuits are interconnected to form an overall system with as few single points of failure as possible. Social network analysis can be applied to the design of computer networks. In this paper the centrality measures are used to analyse the efficiency and the resiliency of computer networks.


In the title compound, C21H16ClN3O2, the pyrazolone ring and the O=C—C=C—N mean plane [maximum deviation = 0.022 (2) Å] are nearly coplanar, making a dihedral angle 4.56 (8)°, while the phenyl and pyrazole rings subtend a dihedral angle of 19.75 (8)°. The compound is in the enamine–keto form and its structure is stabilized by an intramolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond. In the crystal, molecules are linked via C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, forming chains along [010]. Between the chains there are π–π interactions [inter-centroid distances = 3.3902 (9) and 3.5956 (11) Å], linking the chains to form sheets parallel to (10-1).


This issue of the International Journal of Circumpolar Health contains four important articles on the health of the Native peoples of the North. These crosssectional studies form the essential foundation for planning interventions and the rationale design of public health policy. Two reviews focus on Alaska Natives, one on the Greenland Inuit and another on Kivalliq Inuit of Northern Canada. These separate populations have common, escalating burdens of degenerative chronic disease. Rising rates of diabetes, increased prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease are associated with dynamic and dramatic transformations in the traditional diet, activities of daily living, and the cleanliness of the arctic waters, land and air.


The paper presents new approach in investigation of complex waves supported by lossless nonreciprocal waveguiding structures. A three dimensional technique together mini-max nonlinear optimization have been developed for direct visualization of these waves. Numerous examples demonstrating typical features of pseudo-evanescent complex modes are discussed.


Objective To investigate the clinical effect of lamivudine combined with matrine in patients with HBV-related early liver cirrhosis.Methods Eighty-two patients with HBV-related early liver cirrhosis were selected and divided into two groups with 41 cases for each,patients in observation group were given lamivudine and matrine,and other patients in control group were given lamivudine.Liver function,indicators of HBV and liver fibrosis were compared after treatment for 48 weeks.Results The indicators of liver function and liver fibrosis of observation group were significantly better than those of control group(P 0.05);the negative rates of HBV-DNA and HBeAg of observation group were 87.8% and 57.1% respectively(P 0.05).Conclusion The method of lamivudine combined with matrine in treating HBV-related early liver cirrhosis has a good effect and deserves to clinical application.


ABSTRACT The Mallee Bore area in the northern Harts Range of central Australia underwent high‐temperature, medium‐to high‐pressure granulite facies metamorphism. Individual geothermometers and geobarometers and average P‐T calculations using the program Thermocalc suggest that peak metamorphic conditions were 705–810C and 8–12 kbar. Partial melting of both metasedimentary and meta‐igneous rocks, forming garnet‐bearing restites, occurred under peak metamorphic conditions. Comparison with partial melting experiments suggests that vapour‐absent melting in metabasic and metapelitic rocks with compositions close to those of rocks in the Mallee Bore area occurs at 800–875C and >9–10 kbar. The lower temperatures obtained from geothermometry imply that mineral compositions were reset during cooling. Following the metamorphic peak, the rocks underwent local mylonitization at 680–730C and 5.8–7.7 kbar. After mylonitization ceased, garnet retrogressed locally to biotite, which was probably caused by fluids exsolving from crystallizing melts. These three events are interpreted as different stages of a single, continuous, clockwise P‐T path. The metamorphism at Mallee Bore probably occurred during the 1745–1730 Ma Late Strangways Orogeny, and the area escaped significant crustal reworking during the Anmatjira and Alice Springs events that locally reached amphibolite facies conditions elsewhere in the Harts Ranges.


Aim. The aim of my doctoral thesis was to estimate the accuracy of coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) in quantifying calcified and non-calcified coronary artery atherosclerotic plaques in comparison with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Moreover, the ability of coronary CTA in predicting the IVUS-derived plaque tissue characterization ("virtual histology", IVUS-VH) was assessed.
Background. Coronary CTA proved to be reliable in detecting and quantifying non-calcified coronary plaques. However, calcified plaques are still challenging its diagnostic accuracy, due to the partial volume averaging effect, leading to overrepresentation of high attenuation objects. Intravascular ultrasound-VH uses spectral analysis of IVUS radiofrequency data to construct tissue maps that classify plaques into four major components: a) fibrous, b) fibro-fatty, c) necrotic core, and d) calcium. It is one of the most promising tools developed for in vivo plaque tissue characterization and correlates well with histology. Computed tomography plaque characterization demonstrated to be a feasible but challenging task. Currently, there are no published studies comparing coronary CTA plaque analysis with IVUS-VH.
Methods. Forty-four patients with stable angina pectoris who underwent 64-multi-detector CTA, invasive coronary angiography, and IVUS have been enrolled. The coronary tree segments under investigation at coronary CTA after comparison with invasive angiography and IVUS, based on landmark branches detected with all these three techniques have been selected. Coronary CTA images with a dedicated workstation in multiplanar reformatted reconstructions on a plane perpendicular to the vessel longitudinal axis were analyzed, blinded to invasive angiography and IVUS results. For comparison with IVUS, the plaque area, as well as the lumen and vessel cross sectional area (CSA) at 3 mm intervals in the segments under investigation were investigated. Atherosclerotic plaques were characterized based on CT attenuation values (HU) and their components classified as necrotic core (HU 0-29), fibro-fatty (HU 30-79), fibrous (HU 80-129), and calcified (HU ? 130). .
Results. Coronary CTA was considered of diagnostic quality in 39 patients, 42 vessels. Intravascular ultrasound-determined mean vessel CSA, mean lumen CSA, mean atherosclerotic plaque area and burden were predicted by coronary CTA: R2 0.6 (p <0.0001), 0.5 (p <0.0001), 0.3 (p <0.0001), and 0.2 (p = 0.04), respectively. After selecting the sections with a calcified plaque component, coronary CTA was still able to predict IVUS-derived vessel CSA, mean lumen CSA, mean atherosclerotic plaque area and burden: R2 0.5 (p <0.0001), 0.6 (p <0.0001), 0.2 (p = 0.02), and 0.2 (p = 0.04), respectively. Finally, coronary CTA plaque tissue characterization was able to predict IVUS-VH-derived atherosclerotic plaque components: R2 0.8 for necrotic core (p = 0.02), 0.5 for fibro-fatty (p = 0.04), 0.5 for fibrous (p = 0.04), 0.7 for calcified (p = 0.02).
Conclusions. Coronary CTA is a robust tool in measuring vessel and lumen CSA in presence of calcified and non-calcified atherosclerotic coronary plaques. "Virtual histology" is feasible with coronary CTA and its plaque characterization predicts IVUS-VH results.


With over one hundred thousand games apps, it's important to make a mobile game app stand out. The most basic way to do it is grabbing people attention through the icon. It's the first thing people see in apps store. It represents the face of the game. The mobile game app icon must communicate the right impression and the right message. This research studies the top grossing mobile games apps icons designs. Analyzing their forms, contents, and contexts to understand how they are designed.


The short-circuit transformer's behaviour can be easily predicted from its leakage reactance. The relationship between the height of the core window and leakage reactance of the transformers according to almost all of the analytical methods is assumed to be constant under different heights of the core window. This approach is not significantly accurate during severe cases such as those has small differences between the core height and winding height. Finite element analysis is computer software which can help manufacturers and engineers to speed up the process of optimising electrical machines. In this work, a finite element method is used to see the effect of the window height on the leakage reactance of the transformer under the different heights of the window of the core. The three-dimensional methods are used to evaluate the leakage reactance of the transformer for different heights of the core window. The results show that the transformer's leakage reactance widely varies during the change in the height of the core window for the same geometry of the windings and electrical parameters of the transformer. Hence using analytical methods could result in inaccurate results. Moreover, considering the same ratio between the window height and windings height is no longer valid for all of the transformers.


A B S T R A C T The influence of two training systems on growth, cropping and fruit quality of three pear cultivars was estimated in the experiment conducted during 2001-2005 at the Fruit Experimental Station near Wrocl aw, South-Western Poland. The experiment was carried out on 'Dicolor' 'Erika' and 'Radana' trees on Quince S1 rootstock planted in a randomized split-plot design in 4 replications with 7-8 trees per a plot. The trees were trained in two systems: Drilling form and V-Guttingen and were spaced in rows at 1.7 m and 1.2 m, respectively, whereas a distance between the rows was 3.5 m. Results showed that pear trees trained as a V-Guttingen gave higher yield per hectare. Tree form had no influence on fruit quality. Trees in V-Guttingen system had thinner trunks than in Drilling. Significantly higher cumulative yield was obtained for 'Erika'. The smallest fruits had 'Dicolor'.


An explanation of aerodynamic lift still is under controversial discussion as can be seen, for example, in a recent published article in Scientific American [1]. In contrast to an approach via integral conservation laws we here review an approach via the classical Kutta-Condition and its relation to boundary layer theory. Thereby we summarize known results for viscous correction to the lift coefficient for thin aerodynamic profiles and try to remember the work on triple-deck or higher order Boundary Layer theory, its connection to interactive boundary layer theory, viscous/inviscid coupling as implemented to well-known engineering code Xfoil. Finally we compare its findings to simple 2D numerical solution of full Navier Stokes equations (CFD)models. As a conclusion, a clearer definition of terms like understanding and explanation applied to the phenomenon of aerodynamic lift will be given.


We report on a high-energy diode pumped Yb:KGW femtosecond system delivering 0.2 mJ, 420 fs pulses at repetition rates up to 3 kHz. A single 15 W fiber-coupled diode pumps the amplifier leading to a compact reliable system for industrial applications.


The LHC (or the Tevatron) should initiate the experimental measurements of the particle(s) associated with electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). These discoveries will likely provide a limited view of the nature of the Higgs mechanism. A Linear Collider will be a crucial tool in advancing the understanding that the LHC/Tevatron begins. Our current model of the electroweak interaction is precise and agrees with LEP/SLC/Tevatron measurements to high precision. The recent measurements of WW production at LEP2, shown in Figure 1, illustrates this very convincingly. The many measurements of electroweak processes can be expressed as a measurement of the remaining free parameter of the Standard Model, the Higgs mass (MH ). Figure 2 shows the Summer 2001 plot of the change in the χ2 of the fit to the electroweak data as a function of this mass. This curve says the Standard Model Higgs, if it exists, has a mass less than 190 GeV/c2 with 90% confidence. The shaded region has been ruled out by direct searches at LEP2, where MH > 113.5 GeV/c2. The suggestion one can draw from these measurements and theoretical considerations is that the data is in excellent agreement with a light Standard Model Higgs boson.


Across the Empire, authorities competed to channel fiscally exploitable movements of goods and people through their dominions. Because it combined high traffic volumes with strong political fragmentation, this chapter focuses on Thuringia. Issuing letters of passage was one of the most effective means of monopolizing the legitimate means of movement. In practice, however, the issuance of passports and similar documents implied a bureaucratic burden and a symbolic subjection that not all were willing to accept. Distinctions between designated and forbidden roads were another hallmark of the early modern roadscape. By criminalizing the use of certain roads, authorities hoped to channel flows to their benefit, but local communities and travellers often had their own views on which roads were licit. The rulers' deputies on the ground played a key role in a context where conflicts of interest and petty corruption were common, with their position often oscillating between unchecked authority and downright helplessness.


This paper addresses the problem of blood vessel segmentation of lung on two-dimensional (2D) CT images and three-dimensional (3D) modeling. To this end, a new methodology for blood vessel segmentation is developed. Proposed methodology includes three steps: (1) Lung lobes extraction, (2) Blood vessel segmentation, (3) 3D modeling. Iterative global thresholding, vessel continuity checking and vessel tracking algorithms, developed in the scope of this methodology, are the main contributions of this study. Proposed methodology was implemented on real data and obtained results show that the accuracy of segmented vessels was improved in comparison with existing studies.


Charge exchange of neutral C3F6 by a variety of atomic and molecular ions in the 1 to 25 eV range of collision energies is used to characterize the energies associated with formation of [C3F6]+˙. The internal energy of the nascent [C3F6]+˙ ion, assessed by observing the degree to which it fragments, increases with the recombination energy of the charge-exchange reagent. The existence of excited states of the reagent ions is identified from the fragmentation behaviour of [C3F6]+˙ in the cases of [CS2]+˙, NO+, O2+˙, [NH3]+˙ and possibly [CH4]+˙. In addition, the data confirm that the [C3F6]+˙ parent ion fragments from both the ground state and a long-lived isolated electronic state. The latter is populated by near-resonant charge transfer. Translational excitation contributes relatively little to internal excitation of the charge-exchanged product ion and even less in the case of the isolated state.


The agricultural residues are increasing every day, which have been a major problem, as they are a source of environmental pollution and vectors in disease transmission. One solution to this waste is treated on biodigesters, with the possibility of generating power plus biofertilizer. These systems are already being adopted by some producers with good prospects for development and incentives for such technology. This study aimed to verify the influence of ambient temperature variation in biogas production with use of dairy cattle manure and poultry litter in a continuous biodigester experimental brand Bioköhler. The study was conducted at the Experimental Station Antonio Carlos dos Santos Pessoa belongs to UNIOESTE – Campus Marechal Cândido Rondon, between the period May-June 2013. As a GIACOBBO, G., et al. _____________________________________________________________ Acta Iguazu, Cascavel, v.2, Suplemento, p. 55-69, 2013 56 result it has the largest biogas production was found at week 6, and 4.68 m3 and the average outside temperature was 18.58 °C, it was observed that the temperature outside the biodigester influences the internal temperature, changing consequently the production of biogas.


A communication assisting apparatus is provided for mediating data transfer between a first data processing apparatus and a second data processing apparatus. The communication assisting apparatus includes a first connection unit, a memory and a second connection unit. The first connection unit is connected by wire with the first data processing apparatus, and receives data from the first data processing apparatus. The memory stores therein the data received by the first connection unit. The second connection unit is connected by wireless with the second data processing apparatus, and transmits the data read out from the memory to the second data processing apparatus. The communication assisting apparatus further includes a processing section which reads out the data stored in the memory according to a state of communication with the second data processing apparatus.


Distinguishing between chaotic and stochastic dynamics given an input series is a widely studied topic within the time series analysis due to high demand from the practitioners in various fields. Due to one of the fundamental properties of chaotic systems, namely, being sensitive to parameters and initial conditions, chaotic time series exhibit features also observed in randomly generated signals. In this paper, we introduce distance as a measure of similarity between segments based on the ordinal structure. Furthermore, we introduce a new fuzzy entropy, Fuzzy Permutation Entropy (FPE), which can be used to detect determinism in time series. FPE immunes from repeated equal values in signals to some extent, especially for chaotic series. With specific embedding dimensions, it can be employed to distinguish chaotic signals from noise. We show an example for white Gaussian noise, autoregressive moving-average, continuous or discrete chaotic time series, and test FPE's performance with additive observational noise. We show an application of FPE on rolling bearings' fault diagnosis.


The utility model discloses a chipless cutting machine for a plastic pipe. The chipless cutting machine is characterized by being provided with an upper pneumatic cylinder and a lower pneumatic cylinder, wherein pneumatic guide rods of the pneumatic cylinders are respectively and fixedly provided with a cutting blade by a connector; concave openings are arranged at edges of the upper cutting blade and the lower cutting blade; and a guide body is arranged between the upper cutting blade and the lower cutting blade. The cutting machine is also provided with a fixed pneumatic cylinder for fixing the plastic pipe; and a guide sleeve is arranged below a pneumatic guide rod of the fixed pneumatic cylinder and is formed by two guide bodies with semicircular concave openings. In addition, the chipless cutting machine is provided with a PLC (programmable logic controller) which is in control connection with the pneumatic cylinders. The cutting machine is arranged on a vertical plate; the fixed pneumatic cylinder and the guide sleeve are arranged at the other side of the vertical plate; and the vertical plate is provided with a through hole for placing a plastic pipe and is arranged on a working platform. The chipless cutting machine is applicable to cutting of the plastic pipe, is good in cutting quality and high in efficiency, and realizes automatic operation.


The kinetics of the reaction of CaSO3 with SO2 have been investigated in the temperature range 450–640°C. The reaction corresponds to the model of uniform attack of the reactant surface. Initial rates correspond to a control by interface chemical processes; activation energy is 30 Kcal. mol; the reaction is first order with respect to SO2. Diffusion, presumably solid state diffusion through the covering sulfate layer, progressively becomes strongly rate-limiting, but the reaction can be conducted to completion.


Lithology identification is the basis for sweet spot evaluation, prediction, and precise exploratory deployment and has important guiding significance for areas with low exploration degrees. The lithology of the shale strata, which are composed of fine-grained sediments, is complex and varies regularly in the vertical direction. Identifying complex lithology is a typical nonlinear classification problem, and intelligent algorithms can effectively solve this problem, but different algorithms have advantages and disadvantages. Compared were the three typical algorithms of Fisher discriminant analysis, BP neural network, and classification and regression decision tree (C&RT) on the identification of seven lithologies of shale strata in the lower 1st member of the Shahejie Formation (Es1L) of Raoyang sag. Fisher discriminant analysis method is linear discriminant, the recognition effect is poor, the accuracy is 52.4%; the accuracy of the BP neural network to identify lithology is 82.3%, but it belongs to the black box and can not be visualized; C&RT can accurately identify the complex lithology of Es1L, the accuracy of this method is 85.7%, and it can effectively identify the interlayer and thin interlayer in shale strata.


Optimization time integrators have proven to be effective at solving complex multi-physics problems, such as deformation of solids with non-linear material models, contact with friction, strain limiting, etc. For challenging problems with high accuracy requirements, Newton-type optimizers are often used. This necessitates first- and second-order derivatives of the global non-linear objective function. Manually differentiating, implementing and optimizing the resulting code is extremely time-consuming, error-prone, and precludes quick changes to the model. We present SymX, a framework based on symbolic expressions that computes the first and second derivatives by symbolic differentiation, generates efficient vectorized source code, compiles it on-the-fly, and performs the global assembly of element contributions in parallel. The user only has to provide the symbolic expression of an energy function for a single element in the discretization and our system will determine the assembled derivatives for the whole model. SymX is designed to be an integral part of a simulation system and can easily be integrated into existing ones. We demonstrate the versatility of our framework in various complex simulations showing different non-linear materials, higher-order finite elements, rigid body systems, adaptive cloth, frictional contact, and coupling multiple interacting physical systems. Moreover, we compare our method with alternative approaches and show that SymX is significantly faster than a current state-or-the-art framework (up to two orders of magnitude for a higher-order FEM simulation).


Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurring in the hospital in noncritically ill patients involves a broad spectrum of clinical conditions and medical scenarios that are better appreciated by systematic association studies. Methods: We extracted all diagnoses and drug prescriptions from an i2b2 clinical data warehouse for patients who stayed in an academic hospital between 2013 and 2017, and had at least two plasma creatinine measurements performed during the first week of their stay, and analyzed the association between AKI occurring outside the intensive care unit (ICU), as identified using the AKIN classification criteria, and International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 diagnosis codes and drug categories. Results:16,662 hospital stays for unique individuals were extracted. The prevalence of AKI outside the ICU was 8%, with a distribution of frequencies that greatly varied according to the departments. 4% of patients with AKI died during their hospital stay (OR 6.17, 95% CI [2.59–17.9]). ICD-10 diagnosis codes were related to infections, kidney cancer, heart failure, respiratory failure, and chronic kidney disease. Drugs targeting the renin angiotensin system and loop diuretics had the larger size effect on AKI. The ICD-10 code N17/"Acute kidney failure" was recorded in average in only 16% of the cases with AKI, and its frequency ranged from 0 to 80%, according to the hospital department; the lack of encoding did not impact mortality. Conclusion: A systematic search for the associations of AKI with prescribed drugs and medical diagnosis using a phenome-wide approach allows to describe in depth the epidemiology of AKI outside the ICU.


Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus are commonly nonadherent to therapy, according to a recent study published in Arthritis Care & Research.


Some of the recent attempts for improving and transforming engineering education are reviewed. The attempts aim at providing the entry level engineers with the skills needed to address the challenges of future large-scale complex systems and projects. Some of the frontier sectors and future challenges for engineers are outlined. The major characteristics of the coming intelligence convergence era (the post-information age) are identified. These include the prevalence of smart devices and environments, the widespread applications of anticipatory computing and predictive / prescriptive analytics, as well as a symbiotic relationship between humans and machines. Devices and machines will be able to learn from, and with, humans in a natural collaborative way. The recent game changers in learnscapes (learning paradigms, technologies, platforms, spaces, and environments) that can significantly impact engineering education in the coming era are identified. Among these are open educational resources, knowledge-rich classrooms, immersive interactive 3D learning, augmented reality, reverse instruction / flipped classroom, gamification, robots in the classroom, and adaptive personalized learning. Significant transformative changes in, and mass customization of, learning are envisioned to emerge from the synergistic combination of the game changers and other technologies. The realization of the aforementioned vision requires the development of a new multidisciplinary framework of emergent engineering for relating innovation, complexity and cybernetics, within the future learning environments. The framework can be used to treat engineering education as a complex adaptive system, with dynamically interacting and communicating components (instructors, individual, small, and large groups of learners). The emergent behavior resulting from the interactions can produce progressively better, and continuously improving, learning environment. As a first step towards the realization of the vision, intelligent adaptive cyber-physical ecosystems need to be developed to facilitate collaboration between the various stakeholders of engineering education, and to accelerate the development of a skilled engineering workforce. The major components of the ecosystems include integrated knowledge discovery and exploitation facilities, blended learning and research spaces, novel ultra-intelligent software agents, multimodal and autonomous interfaces, and networked cognitive and tele-presence robots.


Some embodiments are spacing from each other by dielectric material, comprising a memory cell having a charge trapping regions that are stacked vertically. The dielectric material may comprise a high-k material. One or more of the charge trapping region may comprise a metallic material. Such metallic materials may be present as a plurality of discrete insulated islands nanodots like. Some embodiments include a method of forming a memory cell, two charge trapping regions on the tunnel dielectric is formed, the region is arranged perpendicular to each other, the region closest to the tunnel dielectric, other with deep traps than one such region. Some embodiments include an electronic system that includes a memory cell. Some embodiments include a method for programming a memory cell having a charge trapping regions that are stacked vertically.


2α, 3α-Epithio-5α-androstan-17β-ol (10275-S) has been known to possess a potent and long-acting anti-estrogenic activity in rodents. In this experiment, 1.25mg 10275-S injected once subcutaneously into the ovariectomized and estradiol-treated mice caused a complete block of vaginal cornification for 24.3 days in spite of the successive treatment with estrogen. Pre-treatment with 10275-S in ovariectomized mice either 4 or 24 hr before tritiated estradiol injection caused significant inhibition of accumulation of radioactivity in the uterus. Pre-incubation of uterine cytosol from immature rat with 10275-S competitively suppressed the formation of estradiol-macromolecule complex maximally around the 8S region, and 50% suppression was obtained at 4.4×10-7M, about 70-fold over the estradiol. Under the same conditions, 10-5M progesterone or testosterone gave no effect on estradiol binding at the 8S region. The relation of these in vitro results to the in vivo activities of this steroid was discussed.


Crowdinvesting is a recently emerged business practice recognised as an alternative method of raising risk capital in the early stage financing of start-ups and small enterprises. It involves a collection of relatively small amounts of money contributions from a general public, via platform operator. In return, investors acquire equity or debt financial instruments issued either by project holder seeking finance (direct crowdinvesting) or a special purpose vehicle established by the platform operator or a third party which in turn invests in financial instruments issued by the project holder (indirect crowdinvesting). Authors provide a brief insight into business models employed by the platform operators and explore whether some of those models from the legal point of view may fall within the scope of Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. Having in mind the broad scope of this Directive, possible legal consequences of qualifying platform operator as a manager of alternative investment fund as well as the role of the manager as stipulated in the Directive, paper examines whether the crowdinvesting entity may be qualified as ''a collective investment undertaking'' and whether it invests in accordance with a ''defined investment policy'' which are crucial prerequisites for such qualification. Possible application of the de minims exclusion as well as holding company exemption and securitization special purpose entity exemption are taken into consideration.


Dallas — For psoriasis patients just starting treatment, as well as those who've had poor results from conventional systemic therapies, biologics are a good first-line treatment option. But what about those who've had good results with methotrexate and cyclosporine and are forced to consider alternatives?


Teen motherhood continues to be high in the US and the UK relative to most other western European countries. While recent research has clarified how effective policies to reduce teen motherhood might be (Kearney (2009)), there remains little evidence that quantifies the causal effects of teen motherhood on such mothers and their first born children. This paper provides estimates of the causal effect of teen motherhood on worklessness and does so by exploiting the availability of two sources of exogenous variation in maternal age at first birth, which have not previously been used in this literature. Despite the strength of our instruments, we find no significant causal effects.


Introduction: Ancestral lineage of many African Americans (AA) includes West African descent. Previous research has shown a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and...


This article addresses the gender division of war and the significance of men and masculinity in processes of militarisation. Three phases of the continuum of war are considered. In periods of war-readiness, societies see a diversion of spending from social provision to the armed forces, accompanied by an increase in patriarchal ideology and authority. The actual waging of wars calls for the delivery of extreme but disciplined violence, and combat training shapes masculinity to this purpose. Armed conflict often involves a massive sexual assault on women. Women have recently intervened internationally to argue that if peace is to be more than a mere cessation of hostilities, 'security' must be redefined to mean the satisfaction of human needs, including comprehensive safety for women. Women's peace movements, worldwide, are theorising that gender power relations are significant among the causes of war, and transformative change in how we 'live' gender can be a significnt resource for peace.


The Topical Collaboration funded one of Prof. Alford's graduate students, Jun (Sophia) Han, by providing 75% of her support. The work reported here was wholly or partly supported by the Topical Collaboration. Additional support, e.g. for postdoc Kai Schwenzer, came from Nuclear Theory grant #DE-FG02-05ER41375.


We investigate the induced growth of a Ag layer on a Cu(111) surface by variable low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy between 100 and 140 K at submonolayer coverage. Without any interference by the scanning process, the Ag atoms form a two-dimensional gas on the Cu(111) surface. Imaging the surface at elevated voltage induces nucleation and growth of one-dimensional Ag stripes of monolayer height, eventually filling the surface of the imaged area completely. The stripes consist of rods of atoms with a preferential length of (1.88 ± 0.10) nm, corresponding to approx. seven or eight Ag atoms on eight to nine Cu hollow sites. At a ratio of approximately 1:3, rods of double length are the second most observed species. The rods stack in the ⟨112⟩ directions at the √3 distance of Cu(111). Although all equivalent three surface directions are observed, their abundance is not equally distributed, such that the rod direction aligned with the fast scanning direction predominates. At slow growth rates, it is...


We show how losses in photodetection and in quantum-state measurements can be numerically compensated after the measurements have been performed. When the overall efficiency exceeds 1/2, our recipe works for all quantum states. For smaller efficiencies, however, the convergence of the compensation procedure depends on the quantum state under investigation.


vegetation patches without any biological and ecological significance, and provide meagre monetary benefits. In this context, question arises whether these small degrading groves or sometimes clusters of a few trees are really insignificant? Do they have any role to play in the local landscape? Whether or not conservation is necessary to protect them from further degradation? Seeking an answer to these questions would be easier if we consider/conceptualize grove as a small fragment of forest or remnants of a past forest landscape. Forest fragmentation is the process whereby a large, continuous area of forest is both reduced in area and divided into two or more fragments. The decline in size of the forest and the increasing isolation between two remnant patches of the forest have been cited as one of the major causes of declining biodiversity 11 . Once a vast forest tract is fragmented, organisms have to face many adverse situations. These include opening up of habitat to the outer world, exposure to harsher climatic conditions, resource crunch, immigration of new members/ competitors, etc., which ultimately lead to migration or extinction of a good number of species from the area. Therefore, ideally fragmentation is not desirable at any level. However, practically fragmentation is an obvious fact and is gaining momentum day by day all over the world. Therefore, how the species survive in a fragmented landscape, what are the adaptations taking place to the community due to fragmentation and conservation importance of fragmented landscape, are some of the burning issues in fragmentation research. Fragmented patches serve as an integral part of the local landscape matrix 12 . Amidst the agriculture field and monoculture plantations, forest patches maintain the local biodiversity by increasing the likelihood of the survival of the indigenous members. For a sacred grove which is nothing but a fragmented forest patch nowadays, this biodiversity value is more significant as they contain many primary forest species due to their antiquity in origin 5 . Although secondary forest species as well as introduced species are also available due to higher order effect, primary members are noticed because of their longer life span. However small a grove could be, it influences the local biodiversity by providing shelter to a large number of small organisms such as arthropods, insects, microbes, amphibians along with the charismatic larger ones. It is evident that a couple of trees or even a single tree can support other life forms efficiently 13 .


Helper T cells play an important role in the immune response of the hosts infected with nemotades and the function is performed by the complicated cytokine network.Various cytokines play different parts in nematodiasis,and Th2 cytokine are predominant in most nematodiasis which provide protective immunity against nematodiasis.The recent progress of study on the cytokines related with nematodiasis was reviewed in this article.


The planetary transmission (40) has a pair of planet gears (30,32) that is rotatably and fixedly connected to one another and mounted on a planet carrier (34). The planet gears mesh with respect to the ring gears (36,38) respectively. The difference in the number of teeth of the ring gear (ZH1,ZH2) corresponds to the difference in the number of planet gear.


In this article, Judith Irwin reports on the findings and recommendations of 'Meeting a Critical Need: Telecommunications Education and Training in Central Europe', a report recently published by the US Business-Higher Education Forum. The report focuses on the experiences and potentials of the Interdisciplinary Graduate-Level Program in Telecommunications, an education programme designed to assist training and development in the countries of Central Europe in a wide variety of aspects of the telecommunications industry including regulation, management, marketing and technology.


Current density-voltage (J-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of P3HT/n−-silicon heterojunction diodes were investigated to clarify the carrier conduction mechanism at the organic/inorganic heterojunction. The J-V characteristics of the P3HT/n−-Si junctions can be explained by a Schottky diode model with an interfacial layer. Diode parameters such as Schottky barrier height and ideality factor were estimated to be 0.78eV and 3.2, respectively. The C-V analysis suggests that the depletion layer appears in the n−-Si layer with a thickness of 1.2 µm from the junction with zero bias and the diffusion potential was estimated at 0.40eV at the open-circuit condition. The present heterojunction allows a photovoltaic operation with power conversion efficiencies up to 0.38% with a simulated solar light exposure of 100mW/cm2. The forward bias current was enhanced by coating the Si surface with a SiC layer, where the ideality factor was improved to be the level of 1.45∼1.50.


Plasma copolymerization of toluene with tetrafluoromethane or octafluorocyclobutane was carried out in a capacitively coupled tubular reactor with external electrodes. The polymer structure was characterized by means of XPS, IR, and pyrolysis/GC/MS and the condensates of the gases in the plasma reaction chamber were measured by GC–MS. It is observed that the monomers undergo a plasma states polymerization in a glow discharge and only those monomer fragments with sufficient reactivity join the copolymerization. The types of fluorine-containing groups in the polymer structure are related to the chemical structure of the flurocarbons. The fluorine content depends upon the discharge power, the system pressure, and the fraction of fluorocarbons in the monomers


Organizational changes may occur slowly and incrementally, or relatively rapidly and all at once. Drawing on Rene Thom's theory, a catastrophe model of organizational change is developed, which inc...


In this research, Collectivism's influence on Japanese employee's volunteerism in IT Multinational Enterpise (MNE) was investigated with empathy mediating. Previous research on Hofstede's cultural dimensions were mostly conducted at national levels. However, in this study, Yoo's Cultural value Scale (CVSCALE) was used to analyze colletivistic tenedencies at individual levels and its influence on volunteerism. A total of 220 self-administering online surveys were distributed to IT MNE employees in Tokyo, Japan for three weeks period. 160 usable surveys were collected and analyzed with SPSS 21.0. Findings indicate collectivism positively influenced volunteerism in individuals with empathy as possible antecent of volunteerism. In conclusion and application, the significance of this research lies in indicating collectivism's positive influence on volunteerism and empathy as possible antecedents of volunteerism in Japanese employees even though Japan has displayed stronger individualism than the rest of East Asian neighbors.


Abstract β-Dicarbonyl compounds 2,4-pentanedione (I), 1,3-cyclohexane-dione (II), 1,3-diphenyl-1,3-propanedione (III), methyl acetoacetate (IV), dimethyl malonate (V), methyl cyanoacetate (VI), and malononitrile (VII) were submitted to electrocatalytic oxidation mediated by Ce IV anodically generated from cerous methanesulfonate, Ce(CH 3 SO 3 ) 3 . I, II, III, IV, and V decompose yielding their respective carboxylic acids, methyl alcohol and CO 2 , via a proposed tricarbonylic intermediate. Four electrons per mole are consumed in these reactions. VI and VII proved to be unreactive. The reactivity order found was I≅III>II>IV>V. The substrates that form larger quantities of enol in reaction medium (β-diketones) are the most reactive, followed by the β-ketoester that forms less enol and the diester that forms no enol. An enol–Ce IV complex is formed and the electron transfer is postulated as being "inner sphere."


Objective To investigate the levels of serumal and urinous adipenectin in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and to explore their roles in this disease.Methods ELISA technique were employed to determine the serumal and urinous adiponectin concentration in the SLE patients and healthy group.Results The concentration of serumal and urinous adiponectin in SLE patients especially who suffer from kidney impairment and activing-phase are much higher than the stable-phase SLE patients and the healthy group.Condusion Adiponectin is a protective cytokine,it indicates that the higher level of adiponectin in SLE patients especially who suffer from kidney impairment and activing-phase may delay the disease especially lupus nephritis.


We have developed a new structure thermopile-type thermal power sensor for the millimeter wave range (dc to 60 GHz). It consists of a ceramic substrate, metal and microcrystalline-SiGe thin films. Both fast or high-sensitivity sensors can be manufactured.


To deal with the problem of inefficiency and unreliable of lifting proposal planning,crane motion simulation technology in virtual scene is researched.First,a real-time parameterized automatic assembly method oriented to motion simulation is presented,the minimum assembly unit is analyzed and the tree structure of nodes for the whole crane is built.Secondly,the kinematics math model of auto crane is built,then the automatic motion simulation and interactive motion simulation is developed based on OSG.Finally,a super crane lifting operations simulation system is developed based on above technologies.Results indicate the system will contribute to increase efficiency and validity of lifting proposal planning.


The potential of the chlorophyll fluorescence technique in screening eleven rice varieties for chill-sensitivity was assessed by measuring the change in the rate of rise of variable fluorescence (FR) and the maximum yield of variable fluorescence, FVAR/ (FMAX/-F0/) after 8 days chilling at 10. The changes in both fluorescence parameters with chilling agreed well with visual assessments of injury carried out at the end of the chilling period. Furthermore, it was found that in the majority of the rice cultivars tested their chilling sensitivity agreed well with the rate of rise of chlorophyll fluorescence (FR/) measured at 25. The method of chlorophyll fluorescence was rapid, reproducible, sensitive and non-destructive and it should be a valuable new tool in screening large numbers of closely related rice varieties for chilling sensitivity.


Background/Aims: Fibronectin type III domain-containing 5 (FNDC5) protein is involved in the beneficial effects of exercise on metabolism. FNDC5 attenuates hepatic steatosis induced by high fat diet (HFD). Here, we examined the effects of FNDC5 on liver fibrosis and underline mechanisms. Methods: Experiments were carried out on wild-type and FNDC5-/- mice, primary mouse hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and human hepatic stellate cell line (LX-2). The mice were fed with HFD for 6 months to induce liver fibrosis. Oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) were used to induce the activation of hepatic stellate cells and fibrosis in mouse HSCs and human LX-2 cells. H&E, Masson's trichrome staining and Sirius red staining were used for liver sections. Protein and mRNA expressions were evaluated with Western blot and RT-PCR, respectively. Results: FNDC5 deficiency aggravated the HFD-induced liver fibrosis and HSCs activation in mice. It exacerbated the HFD-induced inhibition of AMPK phosphorylation, upregulation of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), and deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) in liver of mice. Administration of FNDC5 attenuated oxLDL-induced AMPK deactivation, HSCs activation, CTGF and TGF-β upregulation and ECM deposition in mouse HSCs. The beneficial effects of FNDC5 on oxLDL-induced AMPK dephosphorylation, HSCs activation and ECM deposition were prevented by the inhibition of AMPK with compound C in human LX-2 cells. However, the effects of FNDC5 on hepatic fibrosis in vivo in this study cannot be distinguished from its effects on adiposity and hepatic steatosis. Conclusions: FNDC5 deficiency aggravates HFD-induced liver fibrosis in mice. FNDC5 plays beneficial roles in attenuating liver fibrosis via AMPK phosphorylation-mediated inhibition of HSCs activation.


Under the background of the knowledge-based economy,the importance of the knowledge management on the enterprise is increasingly prominent.This paper expounds the connotation,significance and contents of enterprise's knowledge management capability evaluation,and starting from two angles of personal knowledge management and organizational knowledge management,constructs an enterprise's knowledge management capability evaluation system with 36 evaluation indexes in 6 aspects.


Research purposes:The analysis of the impact scope and level are made to the buildings during the tunnel construction.The impact level and the protection standards for the buildings are presented based on the analysis of an example. Research conclusions:(1) The surface subsidence calculated by Peck Formula is consistent with the actual situation,so Peck Formula has better applicability in Wuhan.(2) Damage level of the building caused by tunnel construction mainly depends on the buried depth of the tunnel,the distance of building to the tunnel and strata loss caused by the construction.The less buried depth of the tunnel and the less distance of building to the tunnel cause larger loss of strata,resulting in larger deformations of surface and building.(3) Damage levels of the buildings caused by tunnel construction can be divided into five categories.To the Ⅰand Ⅱ extent affected buildings,it does not need to take the measures for protection and treatment.To the extent Ⅲ-Ⅴextent buildings,it must take effective measures for protection.


We have developed a three‐dimensional vowel chart that should fit into a quadrilateral IPA vowel chart better and later we have added more visually effective functions to it. On the chart we can see not only the locations of F1 and F2 with two scales of x and y, where x is F1 and y F2, but also F1, F2, and F3 as well, with three scales of x, y, and z, where x is F1, y F2, and z F3. Thus, this enables us to compare the vowel locations of any language (multilingual vowel presentations), vowels uttered by male with those of female (thus, gender difference), vowels of adults with those of children (thus, age difference), foreign language learners with target vowels, or vowels uttered by the same language learners. This time, we focus more on the roles of the respective formants, particularly on the roles of F3 and F4. It has been clarified that F3 is more related to lip‐spreading. We want to show that F4 may be more related to lip‐protrusion. For this purpose, we have further added a selection of F3 and F4 fu...


The Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) is considered to be an effective method to improve traffic flow. However, the comfortability and economy need to be paid more attention to besides stability and safety. In this paper, a CACC strategy is proposed for an electric vehicle platoon to improve the economy, following performance, safety, and comfortability characteristics, based on the model predictive control (MPC) with simulated annealing-particle swarm optimization (SA-PSO) algorithm. Firstly, the braking force distribution strategy of electric vehicles is designed to improve the efficiency of regenerative braking. Secondly, based on the variable vehicle spacing with fixed time headway, a vehicle platoon following strategy is established to meet the following performance and safety. Thirdly, an MPC controller is used to control the states of the vehicles in the platoon to satisfy the performance. A multi-objective function of the MPC controller is established, including the economy, following performance, comfortability, and safety of the vehicles in the platoon. The SA-PSO algorithm effectively solves the problem of the discrete variables in the objective function. Simulations are conducted to validate the sufficient conditions of the economy, following performance, comfortability, and safety. Simulation results demonstrate that the economic efficiency of the CACC strategy with the economic index is 16.5% higher than that of the existing ACC strategy. Meanwhile, the other characteristics can also meet the control requirement.


Let E be a self-similar set satisfying the open set condition.Professor Xu conjectures in his doctoral degree thesis that if H~s(E)|E|~s,then for any x∈E,the inequality■(E,x)(H~s(E))/(|E|~s) holds,where s=dim_H(E).The above conjecture is negatively answered in this paper.


This paper describes a teaching model designed for improving the group interaction and leadership skills of outdoor leaders during wilderness trips. The teaching can involve lecture, discussion, and experiential work. An understanding of the following elements enables students to increase their knowledge of group dynamics: (1) stages of group development; (2) an explanation of expedition behavior that clarifies appropriate group behavior during wilderness trips; (3) giving and receiving feedback; (4) describing and labeling conflict strategies, including a group exercise involving a hypothetical situation of survival that forces students to examine their behavior in dealing with group conflict; (5) conflict resolution skills; (6) aspects of group dynamics including communication task and group maintenance skills, emotional issues, and cohesion building; (7) group role functions including task roles, group building roles, maintenance roles, types of dysfunctional behavior, and group manipulation defenses; (8) explanation of the functions of defense mechanisms in groups; and (9) the use of a group dynamics checklist that gives feedback on the group's luarning. Appendices include a diagram illustrating leader control conditions and group control conditions and a copy of the checklist on the internal dynamics of groups. (LP) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" GROUP DYNAMICS IN THE OUTDOORS A MODEL FOR TEACHING OUTDOOR LEADERS


This study was intended to identify the information search behavior according to the risk perception and clothing involvement. The data were collected via a questionnaire from 369 students of Semyung University in Checheon and data were analyzed by frequency, factor analysis, Cronbach`s alpha and multiple regression. The results of this study were as follows; 1. Multiple regression revealed the fact that each type of involvement dimensions were influenced by the risk perception dimensions. Among four involvement dimensions, importance of clothing was the best influenced factor according to the risk perceptions. 2. Also information search behavior was influenced by risk perception and fashion involvement. Among four information search behaviors, industry providing search was the best influenced factor by the risk perception and clothing involvement.


Although Heusler alloys have been known for more than a century, but since the last decade there has been a quantum jump in research in this area. Heusler alloys show remarkable properties, such as ferromagnetic shape memory effect, magnetocaloric effect, half metallicity, and most recently it has been shown that it can be used for direct conversion of heat into electricity. Heusler alloys Ni-Mn-Z (Z=Ga, Al, In, Sn, Sb), show a reversible martensitic transformation and unusual magnetic properties. Other classes of intermetallic Heusler alloy families that are half metallic (such as the half Heusler alloys Ni-Mn-Sb and the full Heusler alloy Co2MnGe) are attractive because of their high Curie temperature and structural similarity to binary semiconductors. Unlike Ni-Mn-Ga, Ni-Mn-In and Ni-Mn-Sn transform from ferromagnetic austenite to non-ferromagnetic martensite. As is consistent with the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, the martensitic phase transformation can be manipulated by a magnetic field, leading to possible applications of these materials enabling the magnetic shape memory effect, energy conversion and solid state refrigeration. In this paper, we summarize the salient features of Heusler alloys, like the structure, magnetic properties and potential application of this family of alloys in industry.


This study aims to examine relationship of the capital market reaction to the Covid-19 virus spreading. This study uses 15 selected articles published in 2020 and 2021 in the science direct journal database. This study found that government response during pandemic can help increase investor confidence to invest in capital market during Covid 19. However, before a vaccine or other medical solution is found, the market will tend to be uncertain. How top management responds to capital market shocks can be an indication of the quality of corporate governance. The further research can also involve corporate governance aspect in relationship of the capital market reaction to the Covid-19 virus spreading during a pandemic, especially in poor and developing countries.