In this work adsorptive desulfurization of diesel fuel was investigated applying two Design of Experiments (DOE) methods. Experiments were carried out in a batch adsorption system using Chemviron Carbon SOLCARBTM C3 activated carbon as adsorbent. First DOE method employed was a full factorial with three factors on two levels and five center points, and second was Box-Behneken design with the same three factors but on three levels. Effects of individual factors and their interactions on sulfur concentration and sorption capacity were determined and statistical models of the process were developed. The first-order models predict the behavior of the system rather well but significant curvature was detected. Subsequently developed second-order models were able to give reasonably well descriptions of the system. The lowest achieved output sulfur concentration was 7.6 mg kg-1 with relatively low sorption capacity of 0.0861 mg g-1.


1. Schuppan D, Jia JD, Brinkhaus B, Hahn EG. Herbal products for liver diseases. A therapeutic challenge for the new millennium. HEPATOLOGY 1999;30:1099-1104. 2. Fleig WW, Morgan MY, Hölzer MA, and a European multicenter study group. The ayurvedic drug LIV.52 in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. Results of a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial [Abstract]. J Hepatol 1997;26(suppl. 1):127.


All currently available code-division multiple-access (CDMA) technologies used in second-generation and third-generation mobile cellular systems are interference limited and can be appropriately called first-generation CDMA, whereas next-generation CDMA should provide a nearly interference-free performance. This paper addresses the issues on spreading code generation that is suitable for next-generation CDMA systems. The real environment adaptation linearization (REAL) approach is proposed to generate perfectly orthogonal complementary (POC) codes characterized by multiple access interference (MAI)-free and multipath interference (MI)-free operation. The REAL approach takes into account almost all major impairing factors in real applications, such as multipath propagation, asynchronous transmission, random data signs, and burst traffic, such that a CDMA system using them can offer an interference-resist operation. Two important conclusions are drawn in this paper: First, implementation of an interference-free CDMA will not be possible unless using complementary codes, such as the POC codes. Second, to enable interference-free CDMA, the flock size of the signature codes should preferably be equal to the set size of the codes. A fast algorithm to generate supercomplementary codes (a subset of POC codes) is also presented, and their ideal orthogonality is explicitly proven.


We study the spontaneous formation of defects in the order parameter of a trapped ultracold bosonic gas while crossing the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) at different rates. The system has the shape of an elongated ellipsoid, whose transverse width can be varied to explore dimensionality effects. For slow enough temperature quenches we find a power-law scaling of the average defect number with the quench rate, as predicted by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. A breakdown of such a scaling is found for fast quenches, leading to a saturation of the average defect number. We suggest an explanation for this saturation in terms of the mutual interactions among defects.


A new category of SmallSat research missions, called Scouts, is introduced by ESA. Scout missions distinguish themselves from Earth Explorers by relying on the New Space paradigm, by giving industry and non-profit R&D/academia a more pro-active role. This allows a low-cost approach (≤30M€) and a rapid development cycle (3 years from KO to launch) while using disruptive sensing techniques. CubeMAP is one of the two first Scout missions selected for implementation. CubeMAP is a constellation of three identical 12U satellites, each being designed to perform limb-sounding measurements of atmosphere transmission. Each satellite carries a payload made of two kinds of instruments. The first one, the High-resolution Infra-Red Occultation Spectrometer (HIROS), is a high spectral resolution spectrometer operating in LWIR narrow spectral range (1 cm-1) with high resolution (0.005 cm-1). It is based on the measurement of the interferences between the observed Sun scene and an on-board Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL), whose signals propagate through a Hollow Wave Guide (HWG). This configuration limits the sensitivity to shot noise in a compact design with low volume and mass. The second one, the Hyperspectral Solar Disk Imager (HSDI), is a multi-spectral Sun Disk imager. It aims at providing accurate pointing reference to the payload as well as pressure and aerosol measurements. The overall payload allows a spectroscopic measurement of the atmosphere transmission with high vertical resolution (~ 1 km FWHM) between 6 and 50 km altitude


Napoleon was a ruler of strong political personality. The formation of this complicated self-contradicting personality was not only related to his natural temperament and childhood experience, but also to the swiftly shifting political situation of the French Revolution and his role in politics. His political personality had a twofold influence on France and its Revolution: On the one hand, he was a successor of the Revolution in that he inherited and promoted the revolutionary ideals and principles; while on the other, he became a convict condemned for betraying the Revolution to the European feudalism.


A study of 37 studies published during the period 1996–2003, all concerning international supply chain management focused on issues related to global supply chain strategies and internationalization of operations in general with special attention to practical business value and managerial implications. On a more detailed level the articles were classified along the following key areas: business process improvement, management of organizations, and information technology. It became apparent that most of the articles concerned special cases and domestic issues, which limits the impact of the international dimension. Practical implications that would provide the managers of global supply chains with new insights and operational guidelines are few. Some of these findings concern how the organizations should adapt to the removal of trade barriers, what kind of supply/demand chain structures are needed to respond to different customer needs, how to implement channel management and how to apply new concepts to supply chain planning in order to improve efficiency. Few of the studies documented breakthrough results, but those concerning actual cases delivered insights on how companies are tackling the challenges of international supply chain management.


When a publisher approached me and I write a humorous book on Australian history for 2001 it set off all kinds of alarm bells. Humour? Surely an attitude of guilt, shame, inadequacy, emotional puffery and perpetual childhood was the required angle, not my highly suspect staples of verbal liberation, rational comedy (attempted) and that ghastly tactless business about accepting adult responsibility. The publisher then said he had in mind something like 1066 and All That in Australian terms. The alarm bells turned into a siren.


The invention relates to a heat exchanger device and a functional device for the heat exchanger device, specifically to a heat exchanger device (1) having a coolant channel (2) which is separated from environment via at least one housing wall (4) and at least one function terminal (5). The invention further relates to a functional device (9) for the function terminal (5).


1. Current Radioactive Contamination Issues in the Arctic North and Operation and Infrastructure of the Russian Nuclear Fleet V.N. Lystsov, N.S. Khlopkin. 2. Worldwide Decommissioning of Nuclear Submarines: Plant and Problems P.L. Olgaard. II. Spent Nuclear Fuel. 3. The Development of a Comprehensive Understanding of the Handling and Transport of Submarines' Spent Nuclear Fuel Out of Northwestern Russia V. Abramushkin, et al. 4. The Lepse Project: Result of the European Commission Study for Retrieval of Spent Fuel - TACIS Program H. de la Bassetiere. 5. Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel in the Arctic Far North A.P. Hoskins, et al. 6. Multi-Purpose Casks for Power Station Fuel: A Flexible, Economical Naval Fuel Management System N. Mote. III. Low- and Intermediate-Level Liquid and Solid Wastes. 7. Application of IVO International Ltd's "Mobile Nuclide Removal System" (NURES) for Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment at the Paldiski Naval Training Center, Estonia and at the Repair and Technology Enterprise RTP "Atomflot", Murmansk, Russia J. Johansson, et al. 8. The Development of a Modular Plant for Processing Liquid Radioactive Wastes from the Nuclear Fleet: `Korvet' Project R.A. Penzin, et al. 9. Low and Medium Radioactive Solid Waste: Concept for the Development of a Waste Treatment Facility S. Merlin. 10. Catalytic Extraction Process (CEP) Applications to Mixed and Radioactive Wastes and Weapons Components: Potential for Use in Northwestern Russia M. Landrum, et al. IV. Risk Assessment and Monitoring Techniques. 11. Assessment of Radioactive Contamination in the Arctic: Status Report from AMAP P. Strand. 12. Spent Nuclear Fuel Issues on the Kola Peninsula K. Gussgard. 13. Time-Risk Methodologies for Examining Remediation Technologies for Waste Contamination Sites E.A. McBean, et al. V. Summary and Conclusions. 14. Integration of Technical Projects with Larger Political and Economic Contexts E.J. Kirk.


In this paper, we will study modular Abelian varieties with odd congruence numbers by examining the cuspidal subgroup of $J_0(N)$. We will show that the conductor of such Abelian varieties must be of a special type. For example, if $N$ is the conductor of an absolutely simple modular Abelian variety with an odd congruence number, then $N$ has at most two prime divisors, and if $N$ is odd, then $N=p^\alpha$ or $N=pq$ for some prime $p$ and $q$. In the second half of this paper, we will focus on modular elliptic curves with odd modular degree. Our results, combined with the work of Agashe, Ribet, and Stein, finds necessary condition for elliptic curves to have odd modular degree. In the process we prove Watkins's conjecture for elliptic curves with odd modular degree and a nontrivial rational torsion point.


Chemical compatibility and cation interdiffusion between the double perovskite cobaltites RBaCo2O6−δ (R = Gd, Pr) and proton-conducting electrolyte BaZr0.8Y0.2O3−δ were studied. Chemical interaction was found to occur already at 1100 °C as a result of the partial dissolution of RBaCo2O6−δ (R = Gd, Pr) in BaZr0.8Y0.2O3−δ. Analysis of the element distribution along the cross sections of diffusion couples RBaCo2O6−δ(R = Gd, Pr)|BaZr0.8Y0.2O3−δ showed strong interdiffusion of cations, with cobalt being the most mobile one. Its diffusion depth in the electrolyte reaches up to several hundreds of micrometers. The addition of NiO as a sintering aid to BaZr0.8Y0.2O3−δ promotes cation diffusion especially through the grain boundary mechanism, increasing the diffusion depth of Co. The possible implications of cation interdiffusion on the performance of proton-conducting SOFCs are discussed based on the results obtained.


The role of catecholamine (CA) in the pathogenesis and development of macular edemaof central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) was studied, and its relations with visual acuity were in-vestigated. Plasma concentrations of epinephrine (E) and norepinephrine (NE) were determined in30 consecutive eyes with CSC. Central macular thickness analysis was done by RTA and all the datawere compared with normal eyes and analyzed with SAS software package. Plasma concentrationsof E and NE were increased to (569± 123) ng/L and (721 ± 104) ng/L respectively in active CSCpatients, significantly higher than those in normal subjects (P<0.01), and decreased to normal inconvalescent stage. RTA analysis revealed that the retinal thickness of CSC patients was increasedat active and recovery stage as compared with normal subjects; and the plasma concentration of Ewas significantly correlated with central macular thickness (t = 2. 173, P < 0. 05 ). Also, centralmacular thickness measured by RTA was significantly correlated with the visual acuity (r =-0. 8046, P<0. 001) in CSC eyes. RTA analysis might be useful to quantitatively detect and evalu-ate prognosis in CSC patients. The plasma concentration of E, which was highly correlated withmacular edema, might play an important role in the early damage and the pathogenesis of CSC.


n recent years, students' experiences of college have become much more diverse, with some delaying post-high school enrollment, and attending both 2 and 4 year institutions. In new research which uses national survey data, Megan E. Patrick, John E. Schulenberg and Patrick M. O'Malley give an overview of trends in college attendance and its influences. Among their results, they find that youth from two-parent families were more likely to graduate from a 4-year than a 2-year college, and that those who used cigarettes, marijuana, or other illicit drugs in high school were more likely to drop out.


In the CR single-tuned amplifier in general, it is difficult to realize high selectivity and high amplification when a high tuning frequency is specified. We succeeded in reducing the body effect by using a high-frequency, field-effect transistor as the reactance transistor and grounding the CR tuned circuit which is a load to the driving circuit. When a double-tuned amplifier is constructed by cascading such a circuit in two stages, the frequency bandwidth can be enlarged. A stable amplifier was realized with the center frequency of 455 kHz and voltage gain of approximately 80 dB. This paper analyzes the frequency characteristics of such a CR double-tuned amplifier circuit, deriving the formula for realizing the required double-hump characteristics. When a single-hump characteristic is composed by aligning the double-tuned amplifier to the same tuning frequency, the selectivity is increased by approximately 55 percent compared with the characteristics of the singletuned amplifier, together with a considerable improvement in the roll-off characteristics. An experimental circuit was constructed. The measurement of the frequency characteristics agreed well with the result of calculation. The double-tuned amplifier circuit can be applied to the IF amplifier of the receiver.


This research was aimed to study 1)Incidence of family violence against elderly. 2)The level of family violence against elderly. 3)The type of family violence against elderly. 4)Factors related to family violence against elderly. 5)Factora affecting to family violence against elderly. The sample groups were 400 elderly in Bankhwao


Abstract White button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), Higher Basidiomycota, is a very important nutritional and medicinal species which is used for recycling agrowastes including wheat straw, reed plant wastes, waste paper, oat straw, waste tea leaves, some water plants and others. A. bisporus has many usages in human dietary and pharmaceutical fields due to its composition of essential amino acids, fatty acids, carbohydrates, low calories, crude fibers, trace elements and vitamins. Recently synthesized nanoparticles from A. bisporus were used to treat cancer, viral, bacterial and fungal diseases. The goal of this review is to highlight recent data about recycling wastes for Agaricus production and applications of A. bisporus as a reducing agent in the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles. Organically produced foods are currently highly desirable, but it can also be used for ecofriendly biosynthesis of nanoparticles.


【It has been known that the life time of cold forging dies is shorten by the cracks and wear produced during the operation. Thus it is required to mak the same new one too often, At this time of making new ont the cutting work and electical discharge machining were mormally used. But the precision of product is declined in every times of making the mew dies due to the diffefence in dimensional accuracy arised from the electical discharge machining. Especially it can't meet the delivery date because the production was delayed for making another die. Furthemore it has the problem of increasing the production cost. Therfore inthis study we tried to solve these problems using the hobbing method instead of electical discharge machining.】


A field bus and wireless control valve electric actuator consists of the performance characteristics,the description,testing methods was introduces,and through the signal input circuit and control circuit is connected signal output and controlled by a computer output work process.


Nowadays, the use of aluminium alloys is increasing in all domains of application, including industry, medical, electrical, and household appliances. In general, aluminium alloy is a lightweight material with great strength when compared to other alloys. According to the uses, the aluminium alloy must be strengthened by the inclusion of reinforced particles via the stir casting process. The purpose of this study was to create nanocomposite samples of AA8111/B4C/ZrO2 using a stir casting procedure. To prepare nanocomposite samples, the matrix of aluminium alloy AA8111 is supplemented with nanoparticles of boron carbide (B4C) and zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) in varied proportions. Optimize the stir casting parameters using a statistical approach such as the Taguchi technique to improve mechanical and wear attributes. The following process parameters were chosen: nanoparticle reinforcement quantity (4% to 10% with the step of 2%), melting temperature (800°C to 950°C with the step of 50°C), stir time (20 min to 35 min with the step of 5 minutes), and stir speed (400 rpm to 550 rpm with the step of 50 rpm). Wear and tensile strength tests are performed; the melting temperature is heavily impacted in the wear test, and the stir speed is heavily influenced in the tensile strength analysis. This experimental effort yielded a minimum wear of 0.085 mm3/m and a maximum ultimate strength of 167.6 N/mm2.


Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the mental health of the global population. The purpose of this study is to investigate anxiety levels of adult population in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: The study utilized a web-based cross-sectional survey design. A total of 236 participants were enrolled via snowball sampling method. Standardized tool coronavirus anxiety scale was used to collect the data regarding COVID-19 related anxiety. The data was collected during August-November 2021.Results: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20. The mean age of the participants was 26.64+8.38 years, with the majority being female (65.3%). Approximately half (48.3%) of the participants were healthcare professionals (HCWs). The results revealed that only 5.5% of the participants were anxious about COVID-19, with healthcare workers being the most anxious.Conclusions: During the COVID-19 crisis, appropriate supportive interventions should be implemented with the goal of providing targeted mental health services to those who are more likely to suffer from mental disorders. The psychosocial intervention and support strategy should cover specifically frontline workers who are tasked with the role of combating virus.


Most DNA transposons move from one genomic location to another by a cutand-paste mechanism and are useful tools for genomic manipulations. Short inverted repeat (IR) DNA sequences marking each end of the transposon are recognized by a DNA transposase (encoded by the transposon itself). This enzyme cleaves the transposon ends and integrates them at a new genomic location. We report here a comparison of the biophysical and biochemical properties of two closely related and active mariner/Tc1 family DNA transposases: Mboumar-9 and Mos1. We compared the in vitro cleavage activities of the enzymes on their own IR sequences, as well as cross-recognition of their inverted repeat sequences. We found that, like Mos1, untagged recombinant Mboumar-9 transposase is a dimer and forms a stable complex with inverted repeat DNA in the presence of Mg ions. Mboumar-9 transposase cleaves its inverted repeat DNA in the manner observed for Mos1 transposase. There was minimal cross-recognition of IR sequences between Mos1 and Mboumar-9 transposases, despite these enzymes having 68% identical amino acid sequences. Transposases sharing common biophysical and biochemical properties, but retaining recognition specificity toward their own IR, are a promising platform for the design of chimeric transposases with predicted and improved sequence recognition. T elements (TEs) are genomic units that can move from their original location to a new place in the genome. They are an important source of genome evolution and diversity and are useful tools for manipulating genomes. Members of the mariner/Tc1 family of DNA transposons are particularly useful in this regard, as they move by a simple cutand-paste mechanism and are present in a broad range of living organisms from protozoa and fungi to humans. To date, five naturally active eukaryotic mariner/Tc1 family elements have been described: Mos1 from Drosophila mauritiana, Famar1 from the earwig Forf icula auriculata, Mboumar-9 from the ant Messor bouvieri, Minos from the fly Drosophila hydei, and Passport from the plaice Pleuronectes platessa. In addition, four active mariner/Tc1 elements have been reconstructed from the sequences of inactive elements, e.g., Sleeping Beauty from the fish Danio rerio, Frog Prince from the frog Rana pipiens, Himar1 from the horn fly Haematibia irritans, and Hsmar1 from humans (reviewed in ref 2). mariner/Tc1 transposons have terminal inverted repeats (IR) and encode a single protein, transposase, required for transposition. The transposase has an N-terminal DNA-binding domain, which recognizes the IR in a sequence-specific manner, and a C-terminal catalytic domain. A transposase dimer brings the ends together in a paired-end complex (PEC). After DNA excision, the transposon integrates at a TA dinucleotide in a new genomic location. The resulting duplication of the TA target site either side of the transposon is a signature of mariner/Tc1 transposition. Sleeping Beauty, Frog Prince, Passport, and Minos transposases were shown to be active when expressed from a helper plasmid inside transfected or, in the case of Minos, microinjected cells, and recombinant Mos1, Mboumar-9, Himar1, and Hsmar1 transposases are able to transpose their elements in vitro. In those experiments, transposases were purified and refolded from inclusion bodies or expressed as soluble protein fusions with maltose binding protein at the N-terminus. Previously, we expressed a soluble mutant of Mos1 transposase, without a tag, in Escherichia coli. The purified protein has activity similar to that of refolded Mos1 transposase and was amenable to structural analysis, providing insight into the mechanism of Mos1 IR DNA recognition and cleavage. Unlike DNA transposons from other families, excision of Mos1 proceeds without formation of a hairpin intermediate. First, the nontransferred strand (NTS) is cleaved three bases within the IR, and then a second hydrolysis reaction cleaves the transferred strand (TS) precisely at the junction of the IR and the flanking DNA. We have compared the biochemical activity and biophysical properties of two closely related active mariner transposases, Mos1 and Mboumar-9, and tested the cross-reactivity of the enzymes on each other's inverted repeats. Like Mos1, purified Mboumar-9 transposase forms a dimer in the absence of DNA, but the protein is less thermally stable. Mboumar-9 transposase can bind to an IR DNA substrate and divalent metal ions, increasing its thermal stability. Mboumar-9 and Received: August 29, 2013 Revised: November 15, 2013 Published: January 9, 2014 Article pubs.acs.org/biochemistry © 2014 American Chemical Society 682 dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi401193w | Biochemistry 2014, 53, 682−689 Terms of Use CC-BY Mos1 transposases specifically cleave their own IR sequence to produce staggered ends but have minimal cross-reactivity on the other's IR. Our results suggest that these closely related enzymes could be used to design chimeric proteins with predictable DNA recognition properties and enhanced efficiencies as genomic manipulation tools. ■ MATERIALS AND METHODS Sequence Alignments. The transposase sequences were obtained from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, and the GenBank entries are CAH03740 for Mboumar-9 and AAC16614.1 for Mos1. The amino acid sequences were aligned using the TCoffee web server (EMBL-EBI). The integration site sequences were aligned using the WebLogo 2.8.2 server (http://weblogo. berkeley.edu). Mos1 Cloning, Expression, and Purification. An artificially synthesized (GeneArt) codon-optimized Mos1 gene of 1035 bp was cloned into the pET30a expression vector by NdeI and XhoI restriction enzymes sites. Protein expression was induced in E. coli BL21(DE3) strain with 0.5 mM IPTG for 24 h at 25 °C with 250 rpm agitation. Purification was conducted as described previously. Mboumar-9 Cloning, Expression, and Purification. A codon-optimized Mboumar-9 gene (1035 bp) was artificially synthesized (GeneArt) and cloned into the pET30a expression vector by NdeI and XhoI restriction enzyme sites. Protein expression was induced in E. coli BL21(DE3) strain with 0.5 mM IPTG for 24 h at 18 °C with 250 rpm agitation. Cells were pelleted for 1 h at 8000g and 4 °C. The cell pellet was resuspended to a concentration of 10% (w/v) in 20 mM PIPES (pH 6.8), 400 mM NaCl, 5 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, 1.3 Kunitz of DNase, 0.25 mg/mL lysozyme, and protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche) and incubated for 1−2 h (rocking) at 4 °C. The cell suspension was passed through a 0.8 mm needle prior to cell disintegration in a cell disruptor. Cell debris was pelleted for 1 h at 50000g and 4 °C. The supernatant was filtered through a 5 μm filter followed by a 0.45 μm filter before being loaded onto a POROS 20HS cation exchange column (PerSeptive Biosystems). Mboumar-9 transposase was eluted using a gradient from 400 to 1000 mM NaCl in 20 mM PIPES (pH 6.8) and 1 mM DTT. Mboumar-9 transposase eluted at 46 mS/cm conductivity, equivalent to ∼620 mM NaCl. Peak fractions were pooled and concentrated in a Vivaspin 6 30000 molecular weight cutoff PES (GE Healthcare) at 4 °C to a volume of <500 μL. Size-exclusion chromatography was conducted on a Superdex 200 30/100 GL column (GE Healthcare) connected to an ÄKTA purification system at 4 °C. Mboumar-9 transposase was eluted [5.7 μM in 50 μL of 20 mM PIPES (pH 6.8), 500 mM NaCl, 5 mM MgCl2, and 1 mM DTT] at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. Fractions containing Mboumar-9 were pooled, concentrated, snap-frozen, and then stored at −80 °C. The protein purity was estimated using ImageLab (Bio-Rad). Thermal Denaturation Assay. Mboumar-9 transposase was in a buffer containing 50 mM PIPES (pH 6.8), 500 mM NaCl, and 1 mM DTT. Mos1 transposase was in a buffer containing 50 mM PIPES (pH 7.5), 250 mM KCl, and 1 mM DTT. Mboumar-9 and Mos1 IR DNA substrates had staggered ends mimicking the products of DNA cleavage. These were prepared by annealing the 32or 28-nucleotide TS sequences of the Mboumar-9 or Mos1 IR, respectively (shown in Figure 1b) with the complementary 29or 25-nucleotide NTS. The two strands were cooled from 95 °C to room temperature overnight in a buffer containing 100 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 10 mM EDTA (pH 8.0), and 100 mM NaCl. In the reaction mixtures, the final transposase concentration was 5 μM and, where added, the DNA concentration was 7.5 μM and the MgCl2 concentration 5 mM. Reaction mixtures were incubated on ice for 30 min before the fluorescent dye Sypro Orange (Sigma) was added to a final concentration of 5×. Any aggregates were removed by centrifugation for 10 min at 13000 rpm. Each experiment was performed in 45 μL in a 96-well plate and repeated three times. The temperature was increased in an iQ5 thermo cycler (Bio-Rad) from 4 to 95 °C, in 1 °C steps with 30 s between steps. The point of the most rapid change in fluorescence (excitation at 485 nm and emission at 575 nm) corresponds to the melting temperature (Tm) of the sample. Firstand Second-Strand Cleavage Assays. Firstand second-strand cleavages were performed in a final volume of 20 μL. Reaction mixtures contained 25 mM HEPES (pH 7.5), 50 mM CH3COOK, 10% (v/v) glycerol, 0.25 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, 10 mM MgCl2, 50 μg/mL BSA, 20% (v/v) DMSO, 15 nM DNA, and transposase at 50, 100, or 200 nM. Reaction mixtures were incubated for 1 h at 30 °C, and reactions were stopped by the addition of 20 μL of loading buffer (90% (v/v) formamide and 20 mM EDTA). Samples were incubated at 95 °C for 5 min and transferred to ice, and 10 μL of each sample was loaded into each well of an 8% polyacrylamide denaturing gel containing 7.5 M urea and 1× TTE buffer (89 mM Tris base, 29 mM taurine, and 0.5 mM EDTA). Substrate sequences for the first-strand cleavage assay were labeled with IRDye 700 on the 5′ end of the NTS. Mboumar-9 Figure 1. Mos1 and Mboumar-9 are closely related active mariner transposases. (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequences of Mos1 and Mboumar-9 (Mbo9) transposases. Identical residues are shown


We investigate the use of a derivative-free control scheme called the multiple-delay proportional-retarded (PR) protocol to achieve fast consensus in a large-scale multiagent system. The delays are intentionally introduced in the PR with the purpose of creating derivative-like controllers that rely only on position measurements, thus mitigating undesirable noise effects. The main result places the spectral abscissa of the consensus dynamics at a desired locus and also achieves a user-defined spectral "separation," both of which directly influence convergence to consensus. Design rules and limitations arising from analytical derivations to achieve these results are laid out. Case studies are provided to demonstrate the concepts.


The stability of the (Bi,Pb){sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 10{+-}{delta}}-type compound has been evaluated under conditions of elevated temperature (500--860 C) and elevated oxygen fugacity (i.e., in O{sub 2}/Ar gas mixtures containing {le}20% O{sub 2} at total pressures of {le}207 MPa). At sufficient high oxygen fugacities and temperatures, the (Bi,Pb){sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 10{+-}{delta}}-type compound transformed into a mixture of a strontium-rich (Bi, Pb){sub 1}(Sr,Ca,Cu){sub 2}O{sub y}-type compound, a calcium-rich (Bi,Pb){sub 1}-(Sr,Ca,Cu){sub 2}O{sub y}-type compound, CuO, and a small amount of (Sr,Ca)O. The decomposition of the (Bi,Pb){sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca-Cu{sub 3}O{sub 10{+-}{delta}}-type compound was accompanied by a 2%--3% weight gain, which was consistent with an oxidation reaction. The conditions of oxygen fugacity and temperature leading to decomposition, and the resulting decomposition products, are compared for the (Bi,Pb){sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 10{+-}{delta}}-type and Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 1}Cu{sub 2}O{sub 8{+-}{Psi}}-type compounds.


Considerable quantities of Mycenaean pottery were recovered by the late Sir Leonard Woolley from the site of Tell Atchana (Alalakh) in the Hatay province of Turkey, close to the Syrian border. This paper brings together the largely unpublished, Mycenaean pictorial pottery from the site. The Atchana material contributes examples both of standard chariot scenes and other less familiar themes to the corpus of pictorial pottery. The question of the dating of early pictorial pottery is briefly reconsidered. In addition to its artistic and chronological interest, the material from Tell Atchana also highlights the existence of not inconsiderable quantities of Mycenaean pictorial pottery in the Near East as well as in Cyprus.


A multi-disciplinary team of Utah State University researchers is working to develop a sustainable biofuels research program that integrates via a business model, basic science, fundamental, and applied engineering research, pilot scale research facility, and commercial demonstrations of biofuel technologies. Biofuels are combustible gases or liquids (such as methane, alcohols, biodiesel, or hydrogen) that are the product of biological processes. The biological process is either a fermentation of biomass or the photosynthetic conversion of sunlight into the combustible gas or liquid product. Biofuels are attractive because they are renewable as long as there is sunlight and/or biomass (animal waste, food waste, garbage or any other organic material) and because they produce fuels that can be used in existing or slightly modified engines, boilers, and turbines. Further, biofuels are net CO2 neutral, consuming as much CO2 as is produced. Utah State University is focused on this approach to meeting our future energy needs. This presentation will report the first six month's progress on this multi-year initiative. We will report results of pilot studies indicating efficaciousness of using the nutrients in effluent from an induced blanket reactor (IBR) anaerobic digester, treating animal waste, to grow microalgae for biodiesel.


The paper examines the impact of waste materials: slag, fly ash and silica fume on the physical and mechanical properties of asphalt. Natural aggregat


A front bending type transporting structure for folding masts of a high-torque rotary drilling rig comprises a main machine assembly (1), a front bending luffing mechanism (2), and masts. The masts comprise a middle mast (4) and a lower mast (3), wherein the middle mast is connected with the lower mast in a hinged mode. The front bending luffing mechanism is arranged on the main machine assembly. The upper portion of the lower mast is hinged to the front bending luffing mechanism through a mast oil cylinder (5). The lower portion of the lower mast is hinged to the front bending luffing mechanism. In the transporting state, the front bending luffing mechanism matched with of the mast oil cylinder (5) to gradually move from the back leaning position to the front bending position, so that the masts gradually are transferred from the vertical position to the general horizontal slightly front bending position, and located below an in front of a navigation room of the main machine assembly. The middle mast (4) and the lower mast (3) are folded in the side direction. According to the front bending type transporting structure for folding the masts of the high-torque rotary drilling rig, the transportation length of the high-torque rotary drilling rig is shortened. Meanwhile, by means of the front bending structure, the transportation height is greatly lowered.


. A new approach for the detection and diagnosis of faults DC-motor using the fractionalized PID in multi-model controllers is presented in this paper. We propose to use the hysteresis algorithm switching law which allows adapting these regulators to the plant model in real time. Eight models corresponding to the healthy motor and seven faults were considered. Thus, a bank of eight controllers was designed by using an fractionalized controller. To detect and identify a fault, the response of the DC-motor is compared with each of response model and the supervisors select the adequate controller corresponding to the minimal index of the performance. A simulation results illustrates the efficiency of the proposed control approach ( Fractionalized PID) comparing with integer and fractional PID controllers. This approach can also be generalized to others fractional and integer systems in order to improve their performances and noise rejection


AbstractPreviously, in Part I of this study, the authors used latitude-by-latitude budgets of the vertically integrated finite-amplitude wave activity (FAWA) to describe the covariation of the zonal-mean state and eddy amplitude. In the austral summer within 40°–55°S, FAWA exhibits a marked 20–30-day periodicity driven mainly by the low-level meridional eddy heat flux, consistent with the recently identified baroclinic annular mode (BAM).The present article examines the spectra of eddy heat flux that produce the periodic behavior in the Southern Hemisphere storm track. Analysis of the ERA-Interim product reveals that the 20–30-day periodicity in raw FAWA and eddy heat flux is particularly robust during the warm season. A dry GCM is shown to reproduce qualitatively BAM-like eddy heat flux spectra if the zonal-mean state resembles that of the austral summer and if the surface thermal damping is sufficiently strong. The observed eddy heat flux cospectra in summer contain a few dominant frequencies for each o...


Monocular 3D object detection is a fundamental but very important task to many applications including autonomous driving, robotic grasping and augmented reality. Existing leading methods tend to estimate the depth of the input image first, and detect the 3D object based on point cloud. This routine suffers from the inherent gap between depth estimation and object detection. Besides, the prediction error accumulation would also affect the performance. In this paper, a novel method named MonoPCNS is proposed. The insight behind introducing MonoPCNS is that we propose to simulate the feature learning behavior of a point cloud based detector for monocular detector during the training period. Hence, during inference period, the learned features and prediction would be similar to the point cloud based detector as possible. To achieve it, we propose one scene-level simulation module, one RoI-level simulation module and one response-level simulation module, which are progressively used for the detector's full feature learning and prediction pipeline. We apply our method to the famous M3D-RPN detector and CaDDN detector, conducting extensive experiments on KITTI and Waymo Open dataset. Results show that our method consistently improves the performance of different monocular detectors for a large margin without changing their network architectures. Our method finally achieves state-of-the-art performance. The monocular detector is supervised by the point cloud based detector while directly simulating the feature learning behavior, without extra depth estimation and changing the original network structures.


As intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy number can reveal the degree of an attribute satisfy or dissatisfy a trapezoidal fuzzy number rather than a certain fuzzy concept, it is interesting to introduce it to resolve multi-criteria decision making problems. This paper reviews some existed intuitionistic trapezoidal aggregation operators and presents a new arithmetic aggregation operator, i.e. induced intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy ordered weighting aggregation operator which includes a general reordering step. Some operational laws about the operator are studied, as well as relationships between it and other existed aggregation operators. Then a multi-criteria group decision making process is developed utilizing the proposed operator and the intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy weighting arithmetic average operator, the validity and practicality of which illustrated by a numerical example about the evaluation of security of information systems from related literature.


Acutely implanted oxygen-recording polarographical depth electrodes were used to appraise changes in oxygen availability (O2a) in the brain of the Rhesus monkey. Modifications of oxygen availability induced by hypocarbia and hypercarbia in the normal and the infarcted brain are described. The most consistent finding was a reversal of the expected effects of low and high Paco2 values during the acutely ischemic period (evolving stroke) and an incomplete return to the normal response by five days (completed stroke).


The invention provides an illuminator which can output illumination light with high brightness by using phosphors. An illuminator 10 according to one embodiment includes laser light sources 22 and 28 for emitting laser light, at least two phosphor substrates 16 with phosphors 112, 114 and 116 arranged thereon which can be excited by laser light to emit fluorescent light, and an optical element 62 for spatially combining together the fluorescent light emitted from the at least two phosphor substrates 16.


The nanopositioning and nanomeasuring machine developed at the Ilmenau University of Technology was originally designed for surface measurements within a measuring volume of 25 mm × 25 mm × 5 mm. The interferometric length measuring and drive systems make it possible to move the stage with a resolution of 0.1 nm and a positioning uncertainty of less than 10 nm in all three axes. Various measuring tasks are possible depending on the installed probe system. Most of the sensors utilized are one-dimensional surface probes; however, some tasks require measuring sidewalls and other three-dimensional features. A new control system, based on the I++ DME specification, was implemented in the device. The I++ DME scan functions were improved and special scan functions added to allow advanced three-dimensional scan methods, further fulfilling the demands of scanning force microscopy and micro-coordinate measurements. This work gives an overview of these new functions and the application of them for several different measurements.


Abstract In this study, the precise positioning and alignment of arrays of two different guest molecules in a crystalline host matrix has been engineered and resulted in new optically active materials. Sub‐nm differences in the diameters of two types of 1D channels are sufficient for size‐selective inclusion of dyes. Energy transport occurs between the arrays of different dyes that are included in parallel‐positioned nanochannels by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). The color of individual micro‐sized crystals are dependent on their relative position under polarized light. This angular‐dependent behavior is a result of the geometrically constrained orientation of the dyes by the crystallographic packing of the host matrix and is concentration dependent.


The life of a surface film applied to the wall of a key groove formed in a movable scroll is made longer than conventional. The rotation preventing member (339) comprises an annular body (39c), a pair of first key parts (339a), and a pair of second key parts (39b). The first key parts are opposed to each other on both sides of the axis (L1) of the body, and only one sides of the first key parts extend along the axial direction of the body. The first key parts comprise a pair of first surfaces (P2) including the axial direction and the radial direction of the body. The second key parts are opposed to each other on both sides of a virtual surface (VP2) parallel to the first surfaces and including the axis, and the same side as the first key parts or the opposite side to the first key parts extends along the axial direction. The second key parts comprise a pair of third surfaces (P4) perpendicular to the first surfaces and including the axial direction. A recess (HL1) formed in the terminal surface (P31) on the side where the key part extends is provided in at least each of the first key parts of the first key parts and the second key parts.


Ventricle mitochondria have been isolated and assayed from normal and from thyroxine-treated, initially normal rabbits (20 μg T4 administered sc per 100 g body wt per day, for 1, 4, or 14 consecutive days). Repeated T4 treatment in vivo generally increased the net rate and degree of "succinate-linked" NAD reduction, as it did the QO2 of controlled and active states in the presence of succinate. After 4–14 T4 injections in vivo, the "succinate-linked" controlled state showed neither ATP requirement for NAD reduction nor respiratory inhibition by ATP, whereas both these phenomena were observed prior to hormone treatment. Nevertheless, in the succinate-linked active state, ATP inhibited the QO2 and augmented the NAD reduction, unaffected by T4 treatment. Rotenone inhibited the "succinate-linked" NAD reduction in all preparations. D( + ) Malate inhibited the "succinatelinked" NAD reduction irrespective of T4 treatment. Ninety second preincubation of euthyroid mitochondria with cysteine sulfinate, pyruvate, or...


Solar energy is rapidly gaining notoriety as an important means of expanding renewable energy resources. As such, it is vital that those in engineering fields understand the technologies associated with this area. Our project will include the design and construction of a microcontroller-based solar panel tracking system. Solar tracking allows more energy to be produced because the solar array is able to remain aligned to the sun. This system builds upon topics learned in this course. A working system will ultimately be demonstrated to validate the design. Problems and possible improvements will also be presented .Sustainable energy systems are necessary for the economic growth and a healthy environment. To overcome the issues about lack of energy sources the use of renewable energy resources needs to be enhanced manifold. The main purpose of this paper is to present a control system which will cause better alignment of Photo voltaic (PV) array with sun light and to harvest solar power. The proposed system changes its direction in two axis to trace the coordinate of sunlight by detecting change in light intensity through light sensors. Hardware testing of the proposed system is done for checking the system ability to track and follow the sunlight in an efficient way. Dual axis solar tracking system superiority over single axis solar tracking and fixed PV system is also presented. NOVATEUR PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY [IJIERT] ISSN: 2394-3696 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4APR.-2015 2 | P a g e INTRODUCTION Solar power is one of the most popular energy sources that available and can be converted into electricity by using solar panels. For solar panels to produce maximum output power, the incidence angle of the sunlight needs to be constantly perpendicular to the solar panel. However, most of the solar panels that used by the users in nowadays are in static direction. As the sun's position changes, low output power will be generated. In this paper, a two axis solar tracking system was proposed to keeps the solar panel perpendicular to sunlight by using two DC motors. Why we need to harvest the solar power? Because, the world population is increasing day by day and the demand for energy is increasing accordingly. Oil and coal as the main source of energy nowadays, is expected to end up from the world during the recent century which explores a serious problem in providing the humanity with an affordable and reliable source of energy. The need of the hour is renewable energy resources with cheap running costs. Solar energy is considered as one of the main energy resources in warm countries. Figure 1: Sun path at latitude of 31 In general, India has a relatively long sunny day for more than ten months and partly cloudy sky for most of the days of the rest two months. This makes our country, especially the desert sides in the west, which include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh etc. very rich is solar energy. Many projects have been done on using photovoltaic cells in collecting solar radiation and converting it into electrical energy but most of these projects did not take into account the difference of the sun angle of incidence by installing the panels in a fixed orientation which influences very highly the solar energy collected by the panel. As we know that the angle of inclination ranges between -90o after sun rise and +90o before sun set passing with 0o at noon. This makes the collected solar radiation to be 0% at sun rise and sun set and 100% at noon. This variation of solar radiations collection leads the photovoltaic panel to lose more than 40% of the collected energy. Fig. 1.1 shows the yearly sun path at the latitude NOVATEUR PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY [IJIERT] ISSN: 2394-3696 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4APR.-2015 3 | P a g e of30o. From the figure 1.1, one can estimate the exact position of sun in every month and at any time during the day. Figure 2: Solar angle of incidence The position is decided by two angles in spherical coordinates; the Altitude angle which is the angle of the sun in the vertical plane in which the sun lies, and the Azimuth angle which represents the angle of the projected position of the sun in the horizontal plane. These two angles will be discussed deeply later in this document. Fig. 1.2 shows a curve for the relationship between the solar radiation and the solar angle of incidence. This figure shows that solar radiations falling on the solar array will be maximum when the angle of incidence on the panel is 00 which means that the panel is perpendicular to the sun. SOLAR POWER IN INDIA In July 2009, India unveiled a US$19 billion plan to produce 20 GW (20,000MW) of solar power by 2020. Under the plan, the use of solar-powered equipment and applications would be made compulsory in all government buildings, as well as hospitals and hotels. On November 18, 2009, it was reported that India was ready to launch its National Solar Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, with plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013. INDIA'S LARGEST PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) POWER PLANTS 1. Reliance Power Pokaran Solar PV Plant, Rajasthan, 40MW 02011-06 June 2011 Commissioning in March 2012 2. AdaniBitta Solar Plant, Gujarat, 40MW 02011-06 June 2011 to be Completed December 2011 3. Moser Baer Patan, Gujarat,30MW 02011-06 June 2011 Commissioned July 2011 4. Azure Power Sabarkantha, Gujarat, 10MW 02011-06 June 2011 Commissioned June 2011 5. Green Infra Solar Energy Limited Rajkot, Gujarat, 10M W 02011-11-29 November 29, 2 011 Commissioned November 2011 NOVATEUR PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY [IJIERT] ISSN: 2394-3696 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4APR.-2015 4 | P a g e Figure 3: Tthe average solar radiations receiver by different regions in India.


A new series of non-disc-like oxovanadium(iv) Schiff base complexes of the type [VO((4-C n H2n+1O)2salcn)], where n = 14, 16 or 18 and salcn is N,N ′-bis-salicylidene-1,2-cyclohexadiamine, containing 4-substituted alkoxy tails in the side aromatic rings, have been synthesised and their mesogenic properties investigated. The compounds were characterised by FT–IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, UV–Vis and FAB mass spectrometry. The mesomorphic behaviour of the compounds was studied using polarised optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The molecular organisation in the mesophase was determined by X-ray diffraction. It was found that the ligands did not show mesogenic behaviour, but their complexes exhibited a thermally stable enantiotropic highly ordered three-dimensional plastic mesophase with a columnar structure in the extended temperature range 155–166°C. The clearing temperature of the complexes was found to be lower than in the structurally analogous copper complexes. A density functional theory study was carried out using DMol3 at BLYP/DNP level to obtain a stable optimised structure. A square pyramidal geometry for the vanadyl complexes has been proposed.


PURPOSE
To analyze bronchial carcinoid characteristics that might influence patterns of disease recurrence and overall survival in patients with these tumors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In a retrospective review, the actuarial rates of local relapse, regional relapse, and overall survival were determined in patients who had undergone resection of bronchial carcinoid tumors. The evaluable files for 87 patients (50 male, 37 female; age range, 15-82 years) who underwent resection of bronchial carcinoid cancer at the authors' institution between 1980 and 1993 were reviewed for pathologic findings, extent of disease, and recurrence patterns after surgery.

RESULTS
The actuarial 4-year overall survival, local control, and regional control rates in the entire cohort of patients were 89%, 92%, and 94%, respectively. Univariate analyses revealed that an atypical histologic pattern was the only tumor-related factor that substantially affected local and regional control. Atypical histologic pattern and tumor size were among the multiple factors that independently affected overall survival.

CONCLUSION
Atypical histologic findings in patients who had undergone complete resection of bronchial carcinoid tumors were associated with increased local-regional disease recurrence and decreased survival compared with recurrence and survival in patients with typical histologic findings.


Process for reducing the thermal neutron IC soft error rate of the scheme, by the protective layer located above the top metal layer and the metal layer is in direct contact with the integrated circuit are doped to provide an integrated circuit, an integrated circuit, and for reducing the avid sub soft error rate (the SER) a method wherein the protective layer is doped with additional thermal neutron absorbing material. The thermal neutron absorbing material may be selected from the group comprising Gd, Sm, Cd, B group and combinations thereof. The protective layer may comprise a plurality of sub-layers, a plurality of sub-layers of these sub-layers include an additional thermal neutron absorbing material.


In this talk we entertain the possibility that the synthesis of general covariance and quantum mechanics requires an extension of the basic kinematical setup of quantum mechanics. According to the holographic principle, regions of spacetime bounded by a finite area carry finite entropy. When we in addition assume that the origin of the entropy is a finite dimensional Hilbert space, and apply this to cosmological solutions using a suitable notion of complementarity, we find as a consequence that gravitational effects can lead to dynamical variation in the dimensionality of such Hilbert spaces. This happens generally in cosmological settings like our own universe.


s of NIU Consensus Development randomized clinical trials and medicalConference on Effect of Corticosteroids practice databases. lnternat J Technol for Fetal Maturation on Perinatal Assessm Health Care 1993; 9: 440-49. outcomes. Bethesda MD: National 59. Racine AD, Joyce TJ and Grossman M: Institute of Health I 994;47-52. Effectiveness of health services for 49. National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit. 1991 pregnant women and infants. The Future Report. Oxford: National Perinatal of Children 1992; 2(2): 40-57. Epidemiology Unit, 1992. ffi. Boyle MH, Torrance GW, Sinclair JC and 50. Soll RF and McQueen MC: Respiratory Horwood SP: Economic evaluation of distress syndrome. In JC Sinclair and MB neonatal intensive care of very-low-birthBracken (Eds): Effective Care of the weight infants. N Engl J Med 1983; 308: Newborn Infant. Oxford: Oxford University 1330-37. Press, 1992; 325-55. 61. Destsky AS: Are clinical trials a cost51. HIFI Study Group. High-frequency effective investment? J Am Med Ass 1989; oscillatory ventilation compared with 262: 1795-1800. conventional mechanical ventilation in the 62. Robertson C, Sauve RS and Christianson treatment of respiratory failure in preterm HE: Province-based study of neurologic infants. N Engl J Med 1989; 320: 88-93. disability among survivors weighing 500 52 Cryotherapy for Retinopathy of through 1249 grams at birth. Pediatrics Prematurity Cooperative Group: 1994; 93: 636-40. Multicenter trial of cryotherapy for 63. Cotterill Pet al: Comparison of alternative retinopathy of prematurity: Preliminary relative weights for diagnosis-related results. Pediatrics 1988; 81: 697-706. groups. Health Care Financing Review 53. Shannon K: Recombinant erythropoietin 1986;7: 37. in anemia of prematurity: Five years later. 64. Rogowski J et al: comparison of alternative Journal of Neonatology 12 Vol. 17, No. 2, April June 2003


Despite advances in laparoscopic surgery for liver resections, an open approach remains the most frequent approach for complex liver resections for benign and malignant conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of patients undergoing open liver resections at a single tertiary HPB centre.

 All patients undergoing open liver resections between March 2018-July 2020 were included. Clinical and pathological data was reviewed for all patients and data collected including demographics, indication for surgery, complications, length of hospital stay and 30- and 90-day mortality.

 A total of 51 patients underwent open liver resection with median age of 65 (IQR 60.5-70.5). Indication for surgery included CRC metastasis (45%), HCC (27%), Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (8%), Cholangiocarcinoma (8%), other metastasis (8%). The median hospital stay was 8 days (IQR 6-15). Complications were noted in 17 patients (Clavien-Dindo Classification III (8%) and IV (12 %). 6 patients had post op bile leaks, 4 with grade B and 2 with grade C bile leaks. 8 patients had post hepatectomy liver failure (5 Grade A, 2 Grade B, 3 Grade C). No mortality was noted at 30 and 90-day time-points.

 Our outcomes in terms of morbidity, mortality and hospital length of stay are similar to that in published literature.


It is known that code readability has an impact on software quality. This paper introduces a preliminary list of 33 good practices for code readability that could be taught in object oriented programming courses of informatics programs. In this set are included practices with both positive and negative impact, the latter mainly from bad smells. A survey was made with OOP teachers in order to assess the significance of teaching a set of good practices. The results showed that teachers consider it important to teach the defined set. Such result was statistically significant. Still, the same level of significance was not awarded to all practices. Some additional results are presented.


In the world of practice, we recognize the importance of providing meaningful or helpful feedback on individual performance. The same is true in the world of scholarship. How we advance our knowledge in the field of human resource development (HRD) depends on many things, among which is high-quality research. Our ability to provide constructive feedback on our fellow researchers' scholarship is essential for us, not just as a reviewer but also as a writer. With good feedback, we are better positioned to make improvement. This editorial serves two purposes: (a) to provide an opportunity for scholars to engage in a deep and critical reflection on our own practice as a reviewer, and (b) to provide some guidelines for constructing an effective review. It is hoped that this editorial will provide you with a reference tool and, more importantly, prompt your actions toward self-improvement. In the reminder of this editorial, I will address three questions related to peer reviews: Why, What, and How.


Water-balance predictions made using four codes (UNSAT-H, VADOSE/W, HYDRUS, and LEACHM) are compared with water-balance data from a test section located in a semiarid climate simulating a monolithic water-balance cover. The accuracy of the runoff prediction (underprediction or overprediction) was found to affect the accuracy of all other water-balance quantities. Runoff was predicted more accurately when precipitation was applied uniformly throughout the day, the surface layer was assigned higher saturated hydraulic conductivity, or when Brooks-Corey functions were used to describe the hydraulic properties of the cover soils. However, no definitive or universal recommendation could be identified that would provide reasonable assurance that runoff mechanisms are properly simulated and runoff predictions are accurate. Evapotranspiration and soil-water storage were predicted reasonably well (within ≈25 mm∕yr ) when runoff was predicted accurately, general mean hydraulic properties were used as input, and the...


The rates of desorption of He from various micas have been measured over an extended temperature range, using a sensitive small mass spectrometer. Below 500°C, the desorption probably involves many individual processes, each characterized by a different effective rate coefficient. As a consequence, the over‐all desorption rates are seemingly temperature independent. At elevated temperatures, the desorption rates correspond more closely to a single diffusion process, and are distinctly temperature‐dependent. On the basis of electron microscopic results and approximate estimates of the total amount of He evolved from various specimens, it is concluded that the high‐temperature process consists of the permeation of silicate sheets of a thickness intermediate between the individual structural ``parcels'' and the macroscopic sheets. The desorption of 14CO2 was followed by a tracer technique and interpreted as a surface process. Approximate 14CO2 transmission rates through mica sheets finally were measured and ...


This study compares state-of-the-art regression-based models to machine learning methods in terms of forecasting performance in asset pricing on a small data set. The performance comparison is conducted on the market for CAT bonds, where we use a large sample of CAT bond issues to forecast risk premia. First, we evaluate the performance of regression models based on the literature. We then test whether the accuracy of those models can be improved through different variable selection algorithms or penalization methods. Afterwards, we use the machine learning methods random forest and neural networks to forecast CAT bond premia. We obtain three main results. First, the application of selection and penalization methods to linear regression models yields only minor differences in forecasting performance. Second, random forest outperforms regression models in terms of forecasting performance. Third, machine learning methods perform quite well on a relatively small data set.


The national innovation-driven development and the promotion of economic quality and efficiency become more and more rapid. To accelerate the cultivation of innovative and entrepreneurial talents and to deepen reform of the innovation and entrepreneurship education, this paper establishes a network centrality model of innovation and entrepreneurship ability indicators extracted from the materials of the published academic documents, interviews materials, excellent and award-winning business plans based on the Social Network Analysis (SNA). According to the centrality value of each indicator, this paper filters out 22 key indicators of innovation and entrepreneurship ability which can be classified into four categories of technical skills, entrepreneurial consciousness, personal ability, financial and management literacy, and draws out the horizontal and vertical ability map of innovation and entrepreneurship from perspectives of personal and life cycle respectively.


—In recent times, there has been a significant increase in interest towards automatic text summarization in the field of natural language processing. The primary objective of text summarization is to provide a condensed version of a lengthy text that contains important information, enabling users to quickly understand the main content of the document without having to read through the entire text. This research paper presents an all-inclusive overview of the latest advancements in text summarization techniques. The different methods for text summarization, including extraction- based, abstraction-based, and hybrid approaches, are discussed. Additionally, the paper covers the various evaluation metrics that are utilized to determine the effectiveness of text summarizers, along with the datasets that are commonly used for training and testing purposes. In addition, we present a comprehensive survey of state-of-the- art text summarization models, including deep learning-based approaches such as transformers and graph-based models. We also discuss the challenges and open problems in text summarization, such as generating coherent and readable summaries that capture the essence of the original text. Finally, we conclude by discussing potential applications of text summarization, such as in news articles, scientific papers, and social media posts. We hope that this paper provides a useful resource for researchers and practitioners interested in text summarization and its applications.


The invention relates to a method for monitoring a secondary air system of a motor vehicle arranged in an exhaust system and an apparatus therefor. The object of the present invention is to improve the detection of leakage and failure of a secondary-air system of a motor vehicle arranged in an exhaust system. The object is inventively achieved in that is captured between a secondary air pump and a catalyst of the gas pressure in its time profile by means of a pressure sensor (Block 1), that a frequency analysis of the time course of the gas pressure is performed (block 5) and that by evaluating the frequency analysis a fault in the secondary air system is determined.


Because of limited availability of fruit puree as main ingredient in several product, the fruit puree is need to be imported. Indonesia is one of leading countries in banana production. Banana is high in carbohydrates and potassium but lacks in terms of shelf life. Optimization of surplus banana production is needed to be improved by making puree. The effect of pretreatment such as blanching method (steam blanching and hot water blanching) and peeling effects (with peel and without peel), sucrose syrup addition (0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%), variety (pisang uli and pisang raja), and storage temperature (4°C and 25°C) were observed in this study. The experimental study was used to determine the best pretreatment process to inactivate enzyme and determine the best variety and concentration of sucrose syrup, and effect of storage temperature to quality of banana puree. Data showed that the best method to inactivate enzyme is steam blanching method with peeling treatment of banana skin before blanching due to lowest browning index value and combination of pisang raja variety and sucrose syrup level as high as 10% give the highest panelists overall acceptance and lower water activities. Data also showed that the best storage temperature for banana puree is 4°C because the microbiology quality can be acceptable within one week storage.


Project-based learning (PjBL) is a learning model that involves students in problem-solving activities and peaks to produce realistic value-added products. KIT is one of the products that can be made by students by using PjBL to achieve 3H (Hands, Heads, and Hearts-on) activity. This study is about PjBL that student can make a practical laboratory KIT on the theme of cigarettes to increase 3H activity. The method was quasi experiment with pretest posttest control group design. The research subject of this study was VIII grade class consisted of 34 students in the experiment classroom and 35 students in the control classroom. The study revealed that the improvement of 3H activity in the experimental classroom was higher than in the control classroom. Based on questionnaires and interview results, the student gave positive responses towards making project such us an practical laboratory KIT using PjBL. Thus, PjBL could rise 3H activity which is better than students who do not use PjBL. This study is expected to be developed to be used on other themes than cigarettes.


Produced originally as the content for an opening speech and associated workshop at the ITAA/SAATA Conference in Kochi, India in August 2018, the following contains a review of theoretical contributions from authors based in India between 1993 and 2018. In particular, the wide-ranging contributions of Os Summerton and Pearl Drego are described, along with a review of the activities of Father George Kandathil and of others on the subjects of the guru, ethics, universal consciousness and conflict strategies. Two themes are extracted: practical ideas and models, and the cultural and spiritual nature of Indian society, with an expansion of Berne's concept of autonomy into five components that are linked to Indian philosophy.


Objective To investigate the value of procalcitonin( PCT) to guide the antibiotic treatment strategies in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease( AECOPD). Methods 112 patients with AECOPD were divided into the PCT group( n = 37),the routine therapy group( n = 40) and the no-antibiotic treatment group( n = 35). On the base of similar routine treatment,the PCT group were treated with antibiotics according to serum PCT levels. When the level of PCT was less than 0. 25ng / ml the antibiotic treatment was stopped. The routine therapy group received antibiotics based on the physician's decision. Duration of antibiotics use and hospital stay and clinical efficacy were observed. Results The duration of antibiotics use and hospital stay was shorter in the PCT group than in the routine group. There was no significant difference in clinical efficacy between the two groups. Conclusion PCT guidance can reduce the duration of antibiotics use and hospital stay in the treatment of AECOPD patients.


ABSTRACT This article deals with an analysis of the representation of American cities in Soviet animated films of the Cold War (1946–63). The space-oriented discourse of popular geopolitics was a resource for constructing the Cold War enemy. The authors point out that the images of skyscrapers served as the main signifier of Americanness in Soviet animation. Among their principal functions were othering and dehumanising 'enemy number one', supporting the positive collective identity of the Soviet people and legitimising the Soviet way of life. The image of skyscrapers is discussed as a political symbol, which Soviet propaganda treated as an embodiment of America. This image incorporates the negative characteristics of the American enemy: exploitation; economic and social inequality; racism; the dictatorship of the magnates of Wall Street; egoism and hostility among persons; dominance of mass culture; incitement of base instincts in a person; and cult of violence and war.


The invention discloses an agricultural aircraft simulation device with a rotary type objective table, comprising an annular rotation platform for placing collection objects, a translation track installed above a collection object, a sliding seat moving along the translation track, a vibration seat installed in the sliding seat, a limiting cavity arranged inside the vibration seat, a shaking member positioned in the limiting cavity, a locking device cooperating with the shaking member, a rotation member installed on the bottom of the shaking member, a swinging arm hinged on the bottom of the rotation arm, and an information collector installed on the swinging arm. The agricultural aircraft simulation device with the rotary type objective table collects the needed information in an all-around manner in a flight environment approximating to the reality through simulating various postures of the unmanned aircrafts, controls the collection object to rotate by combining with an annular rotation platform, and simulates more complicated flight condition.


Centro de Investigaciones sobre: "Envejecimiento, Longevidad y Salud" Summary. The miocardiopaty spongiform is a new form of illness miocardica of the non classifiable type, of genetic origin that is characterized by prominent trabeculaciones and recesses miocardicos that affect the wall apical fundamentally and lateral of the left and less frequent ventricle the right. Clinically it is manifested by heart inadequacy, arrhythmias and phenomena embolicos. The ecocardiografia and the magnetic resonance constitute the key methods for the diagnosis. An uncommon case is presented in a patient geriatric that debuts with a crisis of quick ventricular heart and symptoms of sharp heart inadequacy. It is evidenced by ecocardiograma the diagnosis of this entity that is presented more frequent in adolescents and young adults, and


Abstract algebra material is difficult to be understood by students in grade VII who just graduated from Elementary School. Mathematics book used by the teacher in teaching algebra at grade VII not represent the material concretely. The current research aimed to:(1)Producethe realia media based mathematics'work sheet that may help the students in understanding algebra concretely;(2)analyze the effectiveness of work sheet use; (3) analyzethe students appeal onmathematicswork sheet. This research used Borg and Gall research approach and development. It was conducted inJunior High school (SMP)IT Fitrah InsaniandSMPIT DaarulIlmiBandarLampung.The data was collected by distributing questionnaires and tests, then the data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The result of the effectiveness test of work sheeton learning was 0.64which meant normalizedGainwasin middle classification, then the effectiveness was effective, the appeal testwas in success level of 3.17which meant the work sheet was in the category of interesting to be learned.Thiswork sheet may increase the average of post-test score to the pre-test score with the increase average of 59.92%. The realia media based mathematicsworksheetwas proven be able to increase the learning outcomes of algebra material the students grade VII of Junior High School inBandarLampung City.


A steep rise in workload and recruitment has turned the spotlight on skills issues again, this time with great scrutiny of the reasons for shortages and a general lack of diversity. Jon Masters reports.


The construction of a 20-MeV betatron is described. Tests made to measure the magnetic field and to locate the orbit position, etc., are fully discussed, and details are given of some new measurements on the out-of-phase fields at the instant of electron injection.


A general design procedure is presented for stripline Y-junction circulators employing solid dielectric between ground planes. The resonator design and impedance matching are derived in a form suitable for computer evaluation. The procedure is applicable to cases where either the circulator bandwidth or the ground plane spacing is specified. An experimental S-band switching circulator illustrates the technique.


Wireless body area networks (WBANs) have the huge potential to enhance people's lives. They are already present in many application domains, for instance sport and fitness, but they are wide spreading in particular in health and rehabilitation. However, there are still challenging issues that limit their wide diffusion in real life: primarily, the limited lifetime due to the batteries that usually supply the devices. This limitation affects usability and force the data processing to be simple to match the power constraints. This work tries to address the energy limitation by enabling both efficient and complex signal-processing applications and extension of lifetime. We present a power management strategy combining an ultra-low power wake up radio with context awareness. The context aware power manager based on activity recognition decides which nodes must be activated exploiting a nano-power wake up radio and power management policies. Result shows that by using both approaches it is possible to extend battery life of sensor nodes from few hours to an entire week.


As the thermal conductivity of thin plates composed of tightly compressed heterogeneous layers varies continuously in the form of an exponential function, we present a nonlinear dynamical model of the fractal growth of thermal diffusion. We also analyze the quantitative relationship between the probability of growth and the disturbance term, predict the control action of the environmental disturbance term on fractal growth, and use Matlab simulation to verify the control effectiveness of thermal fractal diffusion. The results facilitate the selection of appropriate control areas and control parameters for the thermal diffusion variable coefficients. In addition, variation in the fractal dimension reflects the influence of environmental disturbance on the complex process of thermal fractal diffusion.


This study addresses residual stress and its effect on the performance of thermoset filamentary composites. Both cure shrinkage and thermal shrinkage in the matrix generate various residual stresses. In this work, a molecular additive was used to nearly eliminate the cure shrinkage of the cast thermoset resin and thereby to significantly reduce the residual stress in the composite. In spite of the reduction in residual stress, the damage accumulation behavior was un changed : transverse cracking studies of (02/902) s laminates showed identical crack onset and crack accumulation in both control and experimental composites (with and without additive, respectively). The surprising lack of effect of reduced residual stress on damage accumulation is explained by considering the effect of the additive on elastic constants and fracture sensitivity.


The authors describe the knowledge engineering software package of their ARKTOS project. The ARKTOS project involves acquiring knowledge from sea ice experts as visual cues for sea ice features and classification rules and ultimately building an intelligent sea ice classifier. To assist in the knowledge acquisition, evaluation, and refinement phases, the authors have designed and built three Java-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs): arktosGUI, arktosViewer, and arktosEditor. arktosGUI facilitates feature-based knowledge refinement, focusing the experts' attention on individual features, specific attributes, and rules. It allows inspection of ice features visually, numerically, and symbolically and attribute impact analysis. The objective of arktosViewer is, on the other hand, to enable quick, region-based evaluation of the classification. It displays annotated, gridded images, maintains a bookkeeping of the evaluation sessions, and allows the experts to record their observation. Finally, the arktosEditor module has a rule indexing and search mechanism to go with its complete rule and threshold editing capabilities. This tool allows the experts to better edit and organize the rule base. The software package helps the authors design and refine ARKTOS as an intelligent knowledge-based system, and also address research issues in explicit encoding of domain expertise and capture of visual cues and semantics for intelligent image analysis in remote sensing, especially for computer-aided SAR sea ice image analysis.


A Heisenberg model is employed in a theoretical study of the effect of a magnetic impurity layer embedded in a semi‐infinite ferromagnet. Using a Green's function formalism we find that, in addition to bulk spin‐wave modes, there may be localized spin‐wave modes associated with the impurity layer and with the surface. The spin correlation functions are also calculated as a function of the impurity‐layer distance from the surface. Results are also deduced for the temperature dependence of the magnetization in different layers of the ferromagnet.


It has been found that stochastic resonance can filter out the image noise and enhance the image. However, since the stochastic resonance has a characteristic that the high frequency energy is shifted to the low frequency, the denoised image will lose detail and become blurred. Because the noise and detail of the image are mainly distributed in the high frequency band, image denoising and detail retention can be regarded as the processing of high frequency. This paper applies the frequency segmentation feature of wavelet transform to decompose gray image into wavelet domain, and the high frequency part is processed by two-dimensional stochastic resonance, the processed high frequency subband and the original low frequency subband are subjected to two-dimensional inverse wavelet transform to obtain the denoised image. The purpose is to remove the image noise, and preserve the image details at the same time. In this paper, the mean square displacement(MSD) is used as the index to measure the amount of noise removal, and the edge sharpness (EAV) is used as an index to measure the image clarity. The experimental results show that the MSD and EAV of the algorithm are superior to those of the traditional noise reduction techniques.


Simplified asymptotic equations for the interaction of high-frequency, small-amplitude waves in a chemically reacting gas are developed and analyzed. The equations for nonlinear acoustic simple waves in a reacting mixture are solved explicitly, and reveal substantial wave amplification through combustion for a wide range of activation energies and heat release. The asymptotic equations for the resonant interaction of almost periodic wave trains in a reacting gas are also developed. One prominent new effect of acoustic resonance documented through numerical experiments is the transfer of energy from cold spots to hot spots through resonant interaction; this leads to more dramatic wave amplification through combustion than in the case of nonlinear simple waves. The asymptotic regime discussed here, involving a balance of small amplitudes and small wavelengths for fixed activation energy, illustrates in a simplified context some of the main new phenomena being analyzed in the current theoretical combustion l...


Postgraduate year 2 (PGY2) internal medicine (IM) pharmacy residency programs have significantly grown over the past several years, and there is a perception that the IM clinical pharmacist job market is saturated. Thus, there is a need to confirm that the job market can support these graduates.


Multiple myeloma (MM) often occurs in middle-aged, elderly and obese patients with ectopic accumulation of fat cells in the bone marrow. Bone marrow adipocytes (BMAs) display unique immunomodulatory properties instead of simply providing energy substrates, which can cause distinct change of bone marrow microenvironment. Although BMA accounts for 70% of the total volume of bone marrow, the mechanism on how BMA affects tumor progression remains elusive. This study aims to explore the pathogenesis of BMA in promoting myeloma and new potential treatment strategies targeting bone marrow microenvironment.
 Newly diagnosed MM patients in our cancer center and their relative healthy controls are recruited. A significant increase of BMA quantity in multiple myeloma patients was observed. Moreover, analysis of transcriptome sequencing data of BMA derived from MM patients demonstrated a distinctive gene expression profiles (Fig A). It worth to note that, expression of fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4, also known as A-FABP or aP2), a member of the FABP family abundantly expressed in adipocytes, functions as a lipid-binding chaperone that regulates trafficking and cellular signaling of fatty acids, and plays an important role in linking lipid metabolism with immunity and inflammation, was increased significantly in BMA of MM patients (Fig B). To further explore the role of FABP4 in pathogenesis in MM, FABP4 knockout (KO) mice and their wide-type (WT) littermates were adopted, and fed with standard chow (STC) or high-fat diet (HFD, 45 kcal % Fat, D12451). FABP4 deficiency significantly attenuated the tumor burden and MM-related osteolytic lesions in mice fed with HFD (Fig C-D). Moreover, levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNFα, IL-6, RANKL and DPP4 were significantly reduced in FABP4 deficient adipocytes (Fig E). Flow cytometry analysis showed that the infiltration and pro-inflammatory polarization (M1/M2) of macrophages (MΦ) decreased significantly in FABP4 KO bone marrow (Fig F). In addition, FABP4 promoted the infiltration of Th1 and Th17 cells, while impaired the recruitment of Th2 and Treg cells (Fig G). Furthermore, administration of exogenous FABP4 recombinant protein significantly increased the fatty acid uptake and oxygen consumption of myeloma cells (Fig H). In contrast, pharmacological inhibition of FABP4 with BMS309403 alleviated the invasion and metastasis of MM in mice fed with HFD (Fig I-J).
 In summary, BMA increased in MM patients, reshapes the metabolism and immunity in bone marrow microenvironment through regulating FABP4 functions. FABP4 enhanced the energy and lipid metabolism of myeloma cells, and manipulated the bone marrow microenvironment to pro-tumor environment, therefore promoted the proliferation and migration of myeloma cells. This study will not only clarify the critical role of BMA in MM pathogenesis, but also provide therapeutic potential of FABP4 selective inhibitor BMS309403 for multiple myeloma treatment, especially for obese MM patients.
 Figure 1 Figure 1.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Subduction of the Paleo‐Pacific Plate caused widespread Mesozoic magmatism, lithospheric deformation and thinning, and mineralization along the continental margin of East Asia. However, the details of this subduction process remain unclear. To investigate the regional geodynamic evolution and subduction processes of the Paleo‐Pacific Plate, we carried out a geochronological, geochemical, and Sr‐Nd‐Hf isotopic study of Middle‐Late Jurassic adakitic lavas in the Hailar Basin, northeast (NE) China. These rocks have relatively high Sr contents (434–877 ppm), low heavy rare earth element and Y (6.81–14.37 ppm) contents, and high Sr/Y ratios (56–83), which are characteristic of adakites. The rocks are classified into Middle Jurassic high‐K and Late Jurassic low‐K adakitic lavas. The high‐K adakitic lavas were derived by dehydration melting of thickened garnet‐bearing amphibolite‐facies lower crust. In contrast, the low‐K adakitic lavas could be considered as pristine slab‐melts that were likely generated by hydrous melting of subducted eclogitic oceanic crust, followed by limited interaction between the slab melt and peridotite as a consequence of flat‐slab subduction. Combined with previous data, our results demonstrate that the late Mesozoic magmatism in NE China records the entire temporal‐spatial evolution of subduction of the Paleo‐Pacific slab from initial shallowing of the subduction angle to flat‐slab subduction, followed by basalt‐eclogite phase transformation and finally slab rollback.


This paper introduced a new class of hybrid multivariate marginal median filters. The proposed approach combined the noise suppression capabilities of the componentwise median filters and the edge preservation properties of the vector median filters. The proposed filter class was based an the use of multiple marginal orderings of the input data set. This assured that the optimal projections were included in the computations. It was shown in the examples that the proposed filters outperform other median filters in random noise suppression and in the preservation of the shapes.<<ETX>>


A simple technique is developed for measurement of power frequency deviation. It is based on multiplication of two signals having different frequencies and then filtering out the higher order frequency component. The lower order frequency component is converted into a square wave and modulated with a high frequency pulse train. The number of pulses corresponding to one time period of square wave is calibrated in terms of difference of frequency of the two signals. The results showed a linear relationship between frequency deviation and a pulse count. The technique is not sensitive to harmonic noise because of its ability to filter out all the higher order components.


You don't need acres ofland to have d very nice avia1y garden_ Indeed, the vast majority of the AFA members keep their birds on an ordinary tractsized lot of about 50 or 60ft by 80 or 100 ft. Some members have even developed nice avia1y gardens in a condominium environment. We will feature a variety of situations where birds and plants have been put together in a pleasing way. There will be, of course, the occasional estate-sized layout that involves many acres and an heroic investment but mainly we want to show you what can be done with the more common backyard that the majority of us putter around in. Sel and Aletta Long have a beautiful aviary garden established on a Southern California lot measuring 60ft by 100ft. Most of the backyard is given over to aviaries and the surrounding garde n. The main aviary complex is 34ft long by 12ft wide with its length running parallel to the wall across the back of the prope rty. This aviary is divided down its length so in actuality the re are two flights 34 ft long by 6ft wide. The flight to the front (nearest the house) is well planted and filled with an assortment of finches that are not very destructive to plants. The rear flight is not heavily planted because the Princess of Wales Parakeets keep all growing things gnawed down. This rear flight extends two feet above the six foot wall on the boundary of the property which is a clever labor and material saving method of construction. Inside this flight is a smaller e nclosure that is made of wire with a two inch square mesh. This allows the weavers to have complete run of the flight but preve nts the larger and more destructive parrots from getting into the weaver's nesting area. The weavers can fly full speed through. the two inch mesh while the Princess of Wales can't squeeze through it under any circumstances. The major plant species in this flight is a large dead and dried out tumbleweed. The weavers have started several nests in the tumbleweed and the parrots show no interest at all. The parrots seem interested only in green and growing plants. The front flight, on the other hand, is well planted and contains a small waterfall and pond. This flight, of course, contains no parrots. The plants are so well grown that they fill the aviary to the point that it is difficult to really see all the birds. The best method to observe these birds is to sit quietly in the shade of the patio and just watch. Under these circumstances the birds seem not to know anyone is about and they carry on their normal affairs. This is a wonderful way to enjoy aviary birds and also a good way to learn a great deal about their behavior. Some of the larger plants in this flight were planted before the aviary wire was stretched across the top. The large plant behind the waterfall is a species of Scheff1era, an evergreen shrub or small tree of the tropics that does well in the moderate climate of Southern California. It can also serve as a very nice potted plant to be kept indoors or in a greenhouse in colder climates. Another large plant in the flight is a variety of podocarpus, a good looking evergreen shrub that is widely distributed throughout the Southern Hemisphere with one species found in Asia. Podocarpus are grown outdoors in Florida and Southern California where they make fine specimens and attractive hedges. A well-drained soil with peat or leaf mold is ideal. This plant can withstand an occasional light frost and does well in shade. Also inside the aviary are several clumps of Nandina domestica often called "heavenly bamboo" although it is not a bamboo at all but is in the Barberry family. It is a very graceful plant that can grow to about eight feet and is easy to maintain. With exposure to the sun, the leaves turn various shades of red and are quite colorful. In the shade it remains green. Much of the ground cover inside the aviary is comprised of air plant also known as spider plant which is usually found in hanging planters. It is called spider plant because long stems hang down from the planters then terminate in a spidery looking clump. It is not often seen on the ground but in this case makes a good cover for the dirt of the aviary floor. Also covering much of the floor is a variety of Korean Grass that clumps up and can grow very long blades. One of Long's favorite scenes is when a small finch picks up the tip of a blade of this grass then flies off to its nest with the grass in its beak. After flying three or four feet (the length of the blade) the finch hits the end of the rope, so to speak, and gets snapped around and hovers at the end of the tether. Eventually, of course, the finch lets go then perches to ponder this puzzling form of grass. This Korean Grass is recommended for those aviculturists with a sense of humor and dumb finches with strong necks. Actually, it is completely amazing how many little birds live in peace and plenty in this well planted enclosure. Not all of them can be seen at once. They all find their favorite hiding places and remain out of view much of the time, usually being seen only as they flit from bush to bush or, as occasionally happens, perch on an exposed twig to take a little sun. When one enters the aviary, however, as I did before Long could stop me, and vigorously beats the bushes with a hefty stick, the air explodes into life with hundreds of little blurs swarming about one's head like gnats. The birds suffered no ill effects at all and even Long, once she recovered from a dead faint, was none the worse for wear. And I did learn that the aviary ·contained Lavender, Shaft-tailed, Green Singers,Nuns,Stars, Strawberries, Cordon Blues, Orange-cheeked and other finches along with some Napoleon and Orange Weavers, a Button Quail or two, Pekin Robins and a few species that were too quick to identify under the circumstances.


This is a conceptual paper that evaluated competitive strategies and firm performance through a review of existing literature. The Resource – Based view, the capability – based view and the Market – Based view were analyzed as the theoretical perspectives of the study. The porter's generic strategies and the value discipline model were used to describe the competitive strategy options available to business firms as well as the qualitative and quantitative measures of firm performance. The empirical studies showed inconsistencies in the research findings for which knowledge gaps were identified. The study had proposed a conceptual model with two conceptual hypotheses. The paper concluded that though the generic strategies have a positive effect on the performance of business firms and that the individual effect of each of the generic strategies on firm performance varies from one industry to another. It was recommended that further studies be done on the effect of hybrid strategies on firm performance and that firm characteristics as a moderating variable should be studied in the competitive strategies - firm performance relationship. The authors also recommended that further studies should analyze the effect of the value discipline model since most authors seemed to prefer the generic strategies of power. Keywords: Competitive Strategies, Cost Leadership, Differentiation, Focus Hybrid Strategy CITATION: Onditi, E. O. (2018). Competitive Strategies and Firm Performance: A review of Literature. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 5(4), 1869-1879 .


A sheet beam is designed using the code EOS. We compare even magnetic field and wiggler magnetic field and then get some interseting results.


Cyber-Physical Systems represent digital systems based mainly on the interconnection between the physical world and cyberspace. Physical processes are controlled and monitored through networked computers. Feedback loops between the physical and computing environment are involved, including sensors and actuators. Thus, the CPS design involves the analysis of the interrelated dynamical physical processes, computation resources, networks, and software. CPS is application-oriented, by its nature so the necessity of available services composition appears frequently. The CPS services, resources and capabilities can be placed at the system and node level. In this context, the Communication Cost is an important performance criteria for accessing their resources, even in a composite form. In this paper an interoperability framework, for Cyber-Physical Systems capabilities, using REST and SOAP web services is presented. The interoperability capabilities of the framework are ensured by both of the convergence of IP and non-IP networks for services access and by the services composition facilities. For a scenario of multiuser access at the composed services, the interoperability framework response time is evaluated, because it brings an important contribution in the determination of Communications Cost, in a QoS approach.


Corporate Diversification is one of managers choice to improve their firms' performance. This study analyze firms' performance of diversified company with Economic Value Added (EVA) and Market Value Added (MVA) in a sample of 47 firms' from year 2013 to 2014. EVA and MVA have benefits than financial ratio measures because EVA and MVA method calculated cost of capital from the company and market value. Result of this study found that average EVA and MVA value of diversified company has positive. Positive value indicate that company success to improve their performance through diversification strategy.


The present study investigates some of the immunogenetic bases for tolerance of anti‐allo‐delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses as induced by pre‐inoculating allogeneic cells via portal venous (p.v.) route. BALB/c mice were injected with totally allogeneic C57BL/6 or H‐2 incompatible BALB.B spleen cells via p.v. route. These mice not only failed to exhibit anti‐H‐2b DTH responses, but also abrogated the potential to generate H‐2b‐specific DTH responses as induced by the subsequent immunization with H‐2b spleen cells via subcutaneous (s.c.) route. The p.v. presensitization with allogeneic spleen cells differing at either class I or class II of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) resulted in the tolerance induction of DTH responses to the respective allogeneic class I or class II MHC antigens. Moreover, the p.v. administration of the class I‐positive allogeneic cell fraction depleted of class II‐positive component into recipients differing at both class I and class II was capable of inducing anti‐class I DTH tolerance. These results indicate that anti‐allo‐class I or class II DTH tolerance can be induced independently and that the existence of class II antigens on p.v.‐presensitized cells is not necessarily required for the tolerance induction of anti‐allo‐class I DTH response.


Defensins are a class of cationic peptides which is widely found in plants and animals,and are a representative sub-clan of antimicrobial peptides family(Antimicrobial peptides are a kind of short-chain peptide of broad-spectrum antimicrobial effects) and a very conservative host defense molecules.So far,a variety of defensins have been found.Human beta defensin(hBD) play an important role in these defensins,and have a strong bactericidal activity,chemotactic activity,regulatory function of phagocytic cells and acquired immune etc.In addition,several researches also found that hBD have an anti-tumor activity,and are closely related with oral carcinoma.Therefore,hBD may provide a new strategy for the prevention and treatment of the tumor.