There is a continuously increasing number of electrical installations designed to operatefrom a normal 'mains' system that are called upon, from time to time, to operate from a standby or emergency generator. Due to the different natures of these two forms of electricity supplies it is by no means certain that the requirements for electrical safety can be complied with. The article investigates this problem and questions the present methods of specifying generators


We report an experimental result on closed-loop subspace model identification of a cart-inverted pendulum system. Such a system as mentioned here is known as a typical unstable underactuated system, which is impossible of open-loop identification. Furthermore, any conventional SISO identification is not applicable to this system since this system is of single input and two outputs. Therefore, in this case, closed-loop subspace model identification is the only way of identification. Bode diagrams will show that there is fairly good agreement between an identified model obtained from closed-loop subspace identification and an initial model used for a stabilizing feedback controller at the frequency important for control of this inverted pendulum.


This article analyses the advantage and disadvantage of teachers bookselection system,the necessary and probability to build subject librarians bookselection system.It puts forward some suggestion of making more readers participate in bookselection system.


The research progress of dimethyldichlorosilane hydrolysis technology was summarized,including azeotropic acid hydrolysis,saturated acid hydrolysis and concentrated acid.Emphasis was given on the hydrolysis technology improvements on the recycle of the hydrochloric.Through the discussion of the advantage and disadvantage of these technologies,the prospect of dimethyldichlorosilane hydrolysis technology was presented.


In the Northern physiographic domain of the Espinhaco Ridge, in Bahia State, Brazil, blue quartzite is mined as a valuable dimension stone. The meter- to decameter-sized lenses are irregularly distributed within the whitish quartzites belonging to the Vereda Formation. Optical studies and microprobe analyses have identified dumortierite, kyanite, chromium-bearing muscovite, and lazulite as the main minerals responsible for the bluish and greenish colors. Phosphates, such as trolleite, augelite, svanbergite-goyazite and monazite, occur sporadically. Dumortierite and kyanite, the most abundant color-causing minerals, are mostly concentrated along millimeter-wide, plane-parallel to crossed sedimentary beds. The dumortierite is also found filling discordant fractures, evidencing the high mobility of boron during metamorphism. The estimated metamorphic conditions of P ≥ 3.5 kbar and T = 475 to 560oC are of higher greenschist to lower amphibolite facies. Rounded quartz grains inherited from the sedimentary protolith are conspicuous in the Northern part and absent in the Southern region of the studied area, which indicates increasing deformation southwards. In terms of the depositional milieu, the lithofacies of the Vereda Formation is interpreted as the initial filling product of a Mesoproterozoic rift associated with alluvial planes and lagoons or tidal planes in continental and coastal systems, where the boron that generated dumortierite could have been concentrated in sediments with contribution of evaporitic material.


Introduction: Minimally invasive radioguided parathyroidectomy (MIRP) combines technetium sestamibi scan, intraoperative gamma probe, methylene blue dye, and measurement of circulating parathyroid hormone levels. While MIRP is a well-established approach to neck exploration for hyperparathyroidism, there are little published data about patient satisfaction following this type of surgery. Methods: All patients in this study underwent either unilateral MIRP or bilateral neck exploration for primary or recurrent hyperparathyroidism. Postoperative prospective patient satisfaction surveys were collected and analyzed with regard to preoperative education, surgical outcomes, extent of procedure, and patient age and gender. Statistical analysis was performed to examine patient satisfaction trends for significance. Results: Of 68 study patients 34 completed the survey at the 1-week follow-up appointment, 4/68 mailed in the survey, 10/68 were contacted by phone, with the remaining surveys either returned incomplete or not filled out. Among the 48 completed surveys, most patients (85–100%) were satisfied with both operative and postoperative care aspects. Although patient dissatisfaction was higher among patients discharged on the same day and those hospitalized for <23 h, 96% of respondents indicated that additional hospitalization would not change their responses to survey questions. Elderly patients and women tended to have increased proportion of unfavorable responses to the survey items. There were no differences in patient satisfaction with regard to the operating room environment, time in surgery, time in recovery room, or incision size. Conclusions: The survey used in this study appears to be an effective instrument in assessing the level of patient satisfaction with regard to the surgical efficacy of MIRP, perioperative and postoperative patient care, and quality of preoperative education. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Interpersonal skills and communication, patient care, practice-based learning and improvement, professionalism, and systems-based practice. Republished with permission from: Stawicki SP, Schill KM, Flynn MB. Minimally invasive radioguided parathyroidectomy: Postoperative patient satisfaction survey. OPUS 12 Scientist 2007;1(2):31-35.


Topology Control in an Indoor Wireless Sensor Network using Realistic Propagation Models Gagan Goel Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2014 This thesis considers the problem of designing an energy-efficient communication backbone for a wireless sensor network deployed in an indoor environment. We propose and implement a Topology Control scheme to determine optimal sensor node transmission power levels that maintain a desired level of network connectivity. Power optimized singly connected network is constructed using a Minimum Spanning Tree based formulation. To achieve fault-tolerance, we employ a Matroid Intersection based approach to construct a Minimum Cost Rooted k-Outconnected Spanning Subgraph, basis for the computation of a Minimum Power k-Connected Spanning Subgraph, k > 1. Realistic wireless channel assumptions are made to construct the optimized network topologies. Field measurements are performed in an indoor office setup to characterize the channel parameters and hence evaluate the accuracy of various path loss models suitable for such propagation environments. Network simulations validate the necessity of exercising Topology Control to achieve network longevity.


In this work, we employed our newly established explicit photogain theory to probe physics in nanodevices at single device level. A single fitting of the explicit photogain theory to experimental photoresponses allows us to find important device parameters including surface depletion region width Wdep, doping concentration NA (or ND), carrier mobility <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu _{\text{p}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (or <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu _{\text{n}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), minority recombination lifetime <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\tau _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and surface recombination velocity Vsrv. These parameters are often difficult to calibrate using traditional semiconductor characterization techniques as the size of semiconductor devices scales down. The extracted parameters were verified with independent Hall effect measurements and other experiments. It shows that this technique is simple, nondestructive and accurate enough to probe the physics in nanodevices at single device level.


Measurements have been made of the temperature dependence of the attenuation at 9000 Mc/sec of two slow transverse, two fast transverse, and three longitudinal phonon modes in "perfect" natural-quartz specimens. The attenuation of the slow transverse waves follows the theory of Landau and Rumer. The attenuation of the longitudinal and fast transverse waves follow the theories of Maris and Shiren, which take into account the finite lifetime of the thermal phonons with which the microwave phonons interact, but some discrepancies still exist in the magnitude of the attenuation. The steps observed in the attenuation of imperfect quartz are identified as two peaks at 16\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}3\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K and 24\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}3\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K, sumperimposed on a phonon-phonon background. Possible mechanisms for these attenuation peaks are discussed.


Chondrostoma olisiponensis sp. nov. is described from the lower Rio Tejo Basin. It is a small species (all specimens examined less than 105mm SL) distinguished from the other species of Chondrostoma s.l. by the following combination of characters. Chondrostoma olisiponensis lacks a horny blade on the lower jaw, has a pronouncedly arched mouth, and lacks an intense reddish coloration at the base of the fins. It has elongated pelvic fins that reach the anus and often pass the anal-fin insertion in males, and dorsal, pelvic and anal fins usually have 8 branched rays. The new species has 36 to 43 scales in the lateral line, 7.0 to 8.5 scales above the lateral line, 13 to 16 circumpeduncular scales, denticulated (vs. smooth) grinding teeth surfaces, 6-5/5 pharyngeal teeth and 15 to 19 gill rakers. Chondrostoma olisiponensis is further distinguished from C. lusitanicum, a phylogenetically close species that lives in the same area, by having a higher body, a relatively longer head, and a larger eye. The origins of anal and pelvic fins are displaced anteriorly, while the origin of pectoral fins is displaced posteriorly. Pelvic and pectoral fins and last anal-fin ray are longer in the new species. Unlike the other species in the genus, C. olisiponensis shows external sexual dimorphism, with males having longer pelvic fins whose extremities pass the anus and often overlap with the anal fin. This description raises concerns on the recently proposed splitting of Chondrostoma s.l. since the morphological traits deemed characteristic of some genera are unsuitable for their diagnosis. The species should be considered Critically Endangered (CR) according to IUCN criteria B1ab(ii,iii,iv)c(iv)+2ab(ii,iii,iv)c(iv).


The authors discuss elements of the make-or-buy decision process and present a description of an expert system called MOBY which is a generic customizable make-or-buy decision advisor. MOBY was developed using the expert system environment/VM shell. The purpose of MOBY is to provide a framework for the make-or-buy decision and to allow a site developer to customize MOBY's generic knowledge base for a given location. This customizing is necessary because each make or buy decision is site- and product-specific. The customization is done by the addition and/or modification of focus control blocks, rules, and site-specific database.<<ETX>>


Herbert Brun (1918-2000) was a pioneer in the development of electronic and computer music. He was recognized within and beyond the field of music as an eloquent and original contributor of ideas relating composition and systems theory, language and thought, performance and everyday life. Brun wrote and spoke incisively on the function of the arts in our society: What are the social functions of "composer" and "listener"? What is the function of "time" in art? How does "communication" hasten the decay of new thoughts, and what significance does this have on creative and social acts? This book includes lectures given for non-professionals, articles containing new formulations and insights for professionals, and an audio CD featuring Brun's compositions.


The development of anaerobic digestion technologies for processing various residual streams (the organic fraction of landfill wastes, sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants, pig and cow manure, etc.) has led to an increase in the production of biogas. Biogas is mainly composed of methane and carbon dioxide, though other minor compounds and impurities are present, hence different treatments must be applied for its purification and conditioning. Amidst the various alternatives for its use and valorization, the most important are the following: direct use in the generation of heat and/or electric power, upgrading to biomethane, and syngas production (H2+CO), which is further used as raw material for producing liquid fuels and/or chemicals such as methanol. This work presents an overview on the different alternatives for biogas valorization, with special emphasis on catalytic reforming processes, such as dry and steam reforming, together with combined reforming routes including partial oxidation.


Objective
To study the protective effect of pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) on acute irradiated mice.

Methods
The 6-8 weeks old male ICR mice were randomly divided into five groups: irradiation alone group (IR), positive control group (amifostine WR-2721 250 mg/kg) and PDTC of 30, 60 and 90 mg/kg dose groups. Each group had 10 mice and the drug was given at 0.5 h before whole body irradiation. At 30 d post-irradiation of 7.5 Gy 137Cs γ-rays, the mice survival were observed. At 8 d post-irradiation of 5.0 Gy 137Cs γ-rays, the peripheral blood, hematopoietic system and organ indexes were observed to evaluate the radiation protective effect of PDTC.

Results
PDTC increased the 30-day survival rates and 60 mg/kg dose had the most obvious effect by increase the survival to 60%(6/10). The survivals of irradiation alone group and the amifostine positive control group was 10%(1/10) and 70%(7/10), respectively. Compared with the irradiation alone group, 60 mg/kg PDTC group had the significant difference in spleen index, WBC, HGB, PLT, bone marrow nucleated cells and colony forming unit of spleen(t=2.354, 4.793, 2.342, 6.542, 2.649, 3.982, P<0.05).

Conclusions
PDTC is effective in radiation protection with an optimum dose of 60 mg/kg.

Key words:
Pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate; γ-rays; ICR mice; Radiation injury


This chapter was inspired by an invited presentation of the author at the Chemindix conference in Bahrain in October 2010. This was the 8th. International Conference & Exhibition on Chemistry in Industry, promoted by the Saudi Chapter of the American Chemical Society and Aramco. The focus is on reviewing the application of nanotechnology to biofuels production and to the utilization of fuel additives, some of which are derived from renewable materials. To introduce the topic, the broader context of petroleum fuels and biofuels is presented. A smart future of oil refining would be to increasingly utilize margins to finance a transition away from oil towards future alternative providers of mobility, in particular biofuels. Future scenarios of liquid biofuels involve the market penetration of second and further generations of technologies and the continuous improvement of first generation processes. On the other hand, nanotechnologies are among the candidate technologies for the biofuels of the future. The nanotechnology field is vast and its applications unbound. This is followed by a brief review of nanotechnology developments, especially as they apply to liquid particles, beyond the more common solid particle applications. Algae growth, harvesting and conversion are presented and discussed, given the immense potential of their contribution towards an energy future where biofuels play a significant role. Most of the current effort in second generation conversion to liquid biofuels is based on biomass cellulosics to ethanol and biodiesel. Nano processes are being pursued and will be reviewed in the chapter. Likewise, the presently used processes to convert oils and animal fat into biodiesel are based on trans-esterification with methanol or ethanol, which inevitably generates glycerol, which must find a market or get disposed properly. Nano processes may be useful in addressing this issue. Speculative considerations are made about the role of liquid nanoparticles of fuel additives in enhancing the performance of additized biofuel/fuel blends, in connection with surface and combustion effects. Public concerns over the impacts of nanotechnologies on security, health and the environment are also mentioned and discussed. But, a cautionary optimistic view is presented on the huge benefits of a careful penetration of nanotechnologies in the realm of biofuels and fuel additives, and in many more applications, especially those dealing with human health.


The post-apartheid government of South Africa has committed itself to achieving fundamental transformation of the education system. The government has adopted policies and measures that aimed to bring about the goals of equity and redress, and to enhance democracy and participation of all groups in development and decision making processes at all levels. It is acknowledged that the democratic government has accomplished a lot in education within this short period and has made numerous strides in enhancing equity, redress and social justice; providing high quality education for all the people of South Africa; bringing about democratisation and development; and enhancing effectiveness and efficiency. However, despite these apparent achievements, this study shows that there have been a number of setbacks and contradictions in the policies which have affected the process of bringing about fundamental changes and transformation in the education sector. The setbacks and contradictions resulted from factors which have affected the type of policies developed to transform the education sector. They also affected the formulation and implementation of the policies, thereby limiting the achievements of the goals of transformation agenda in education. Hence, this study examined the politics of transformation and change in the education sector by examining the type of policies that have been put in place; their formulation, implementation and outcome. The main research questions are: • What kind or type of policies have been put in place to transform the education


43 It has been shown in theory that mid-block pre-signals can be used to increase the capacity of signalized 44 intersections. This is because pre-signals can reorganize how traffic is stored between the pre-signal and 45 the intersection downstream. However, different vehicle classes have different acceleration characteristics, 46 and the effectiveness of pre-signals hinges on the assumption of linear superposition, i.e., the total time to 47 discharge a mixture of distinct vehicle classes equals the sum of the times to discharge each vehicle class 48 separately. This assumption has not been tested in the field. In this paper, results from a natural 49 experiment are used to validate this assumption for the case of cars and buses. The effectiveness of pre50 signals to increase intersection capacity is also demonstrated. 51 TRB 2012 Annual Meeting Paper revised from original submittal. Xuan, Cassidy, Daganzo 3


Natural kaolinitic clay containing transition metals such as Fe and Ti in its lattice has been found to exhibit unusual regioselectivity in the liquid-phase chlorination of arenes with either Cl 2 or SO 2 Cl 2 as the chlorinating agent para-Chlorinated products are predominant for most of the substrates with an exceptional case of ortho-selectivity for the chlorination of aniline.


The composition pattern of amino acids of two flounders in same specification was studied with amino acid analysis and statistical analysis for the optimization of nutrient structure and feed formulation. The results showed that their EAA/TAA was 47%~48% and EAA/NEAA was 87%~93% which were fit for amino acid ideal pattern issued by FAO/WHO. The EAA composition pattern of Scophthatmus maximus was threonine 4.17,ileucine 4.06,lysine 8.78,phenylalanine 4.06,methionine 2.72,valine 4.22,leucine 8.06,histidine 2.33,arginine 5.94,while that of Paralichthys olivaceus was threonine 4.10,ileucine 4.00,lysine 8.85,phenylalanine 3.70,methionine 2.85,valine 3.95,leucine 7.85,histidine 1.95,arginine 6.20. Flounders have high nutritional value and close composition pattern of essential amino acids.


The thermal control system (TCS) is an integral part of spacecraft. Its purpose is to maintain all the components of a spacecraft within their respective temperature limits. Considering orbital position and attitude of spacecraft, different sources of thermal energy acting on a spacecraft; solar radiation, Albedo, earth emitted infrared, and heat generated by onboard equipment. Therefore, the thermal control system is different for every spacecraft. In general, there are two types of TCS, passive and active. Multi-layer insulation (MLI) is considered as a passive type. MLI closely spaced layers of aluminized Mylar or Kapton alternated with a course net material. Insulation reduces the rate of heat flow per unit area between two boundary surfaces and prevents a large heat influx. SC model in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is created by thermal desktop program, in order to launch a parametric study to check design of thermal control elements ( Radiators , Heaters , MLI ) by calculating the temperature field along the equipment panel and verify that the maximum and minimum temperature of the lower sheet of the panel is within the design range of temperature from 0 C up to 35 C .Verifying the optimum selection of the power of heaters and the correct distribution of them along the panel zones is performed..


A sensor network is usually required to support multiple missions to be accomplished simultaneously. Since missions might compete for the exclusive usage of the same sensing resource we need to assign individual sensors to missions. Missions are characterized by an uncertain demand for sensing resource capabilities. We model this assignment problem by introducing the Sensor Utility Maximization (SUM) model. SUM is NP-Complete and is a special case of the well known Generalized Assignment Problem (GAP). We compare a pre-existing algorithm developed for GAP with a new greedy algorithm which offers the best trade-off between quality of solution and computation cost.


Methods exist for predicting coke strength from the caking (thermal rheological) or petrographic properties of a metallurgical coal. These methods, which were derived for Carboniferous coals, frequently indicate that western Canadian Cretaceous coals would not make high quality coke yet both types of coals can produce excellent coke suitable for iron blast furnaces. This paper will discuss why western Canadian metallurgical coals exhibit lower thermal rheological values and how to predict the strength of the coke produced from them.


Background: A universal and systematic protocol is essential for accurate reporting of biomarker studies. For unity in reporting biomarker studies, many guidelines were introduced, Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies (REMARK) being one of them. Aim: The purpose of this review is to evaluate the quality of published articles of biomarkers that predict metastasis in lymph nodes in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) by the use of the reporting recommendations for tumor marker prognostic (REMARK) guidelines. Methods: Comprehensive search was done in MEDLINE via PubMed and Cochrane from January 2015 to December 2019 to identify manuscripts evaluating biomarkers predicting lymph node metastasis in OSCC. The significance of the univariate and multivariate analysis was assessed for each manuscript, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Thirty-six results were included for the qualitative synthesis. The mean REMARK score was 11.13 (range: 5.01–17.15). Biomarkers with the highest REMARK score were phospholipase C, cyclin D, CD44+/CD133+, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). While biomarkers such as LGALS1, NCOA7, and TMOD1 were associated with high risk of bias, hence its use as a biomarker predicting lymph node metastasis is questionable. Conclusions: In our review of 36 manuscripts, manuscripts examining biomarkers evaluating lymph node metastasis in OSCC need an improvement in their reporting. Biomarkers such as phospholipase C, cyclin D, CD44+/CD133+, and MMP-9 can be used as a predictor of lymph node metastasis in OSCC.


Background : Impaired renal function is a major concern in HIV-infected patients treated with tenofovir. We undertook this study to clarify how reduced renal function in patients on tenofovir treatment is handled in routine clinical practice. Methods : From a population-based cohort of Danish HIV patients we identified all patients who started tenofovir for the first time and estimated relative risk (RR) of discontinuation of tenofovir in relation to baseline and last estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, measured in ml/min per 1.73 m 2 ). For patients who for the first time had eGFR 50 or stop or dose modification. Results : 2,066 patients were included in the study. Patients with last eGFR<65 had increased risk of stopping tenofovir and the risk increased with decreasing eGFR (eGFR 60-65: adjusted RR 2.1; eGFR <50: adjusted RR 8.1). We identified 115 patients with eGFR<50. After 1 year only 12.3% were still on standard dose tenofovir and had eGFR<50. Conclusion : This study demonstrates that tenofovir treatment is stopped rapidly in patients who develop renal impairment. Patients with a normal baseline renal function have a low risk of treatment modification.


This study presents a cost-benefit algorithm for Expediting the Completion Time of End Product (ECTEP) in the Product Structure Diagram (PSD) using the Critical Path Method (CPM) and the time-costing method. The classic PSD provides essential information for the consequent Material Requirement Planning (MRP). Selecting an appropriate acquisition method (either a particular manufacturing process or a specific speed of assembly or a specific supplier) for each component part is one of the early tasks faced by a product/process design team and it is critical because the resulting decisions are then translated into the PSD and its subsequent MRP. This study incorporates a cost-benefit decision procedure into the PSD for determining the optimal component procuring alternatives that not only expedites the completion time of the end product but also maximises the benefits. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate its practical usage.


Android malware (malicious apps) families share common attributes and behavior through sharing core malicious code. However, as the number of new malware increases, the task of identifying the correct family becomes more challenging. Two prominent approaches tackle this problem, either using dynamic analysis that captures the runtime behavior of the malware or using static analysis methods that can reveal malicious behavior by analyzing the underlying logic and code patterns. A third emerging way is to use the various sources of identification features to analyze the architectural and external attributes of a malicious app. For example, two malicious apps can have different behavioral patterns but share common attributes. We hypothesize that this malware can belong to the same family but attempt to mislead dynamic and code-level static analysis tools by randomizing their behavior. In this work, we utilize a promising set of Android-oriented code metrics that guide a supervised classification learning process for identifying malware families in Android. Our empirical results on 2,869 malware apps, across 35 different malware families, show that these metrics are very effective to identify malware families. In particular, we achieve low false positive rate (1.2%) and AUC score of 0.984 for family identification by using Random Forest (RF) classifier.


Yelp is one of the largest online searching and reviewing systems for kinds of businesses, including restaurants, shopping, home services et al. Analyzing the real world data from Yelp is valuable in acquiring the interests of users, which helps to improve the design of the next generation system. This paper targets the evaluation of Yelp dataset, which is provided in the Yelp data challenge. A bunch of interesting results are found. For instance, to reach any one in the Yelp social network, one only needs 4.5 hops on average, which verifies the classical six degree separation theory; Elite user mechanism is especially effective in maintaining the healthy of the whole network; Users who write less than 100 business reviews dominate. Those insights are expected to be considered by Yelp to make intelligent business decisions in the future.


As well as planning activities, it is worth taking a step back to think about more ways that the setting itself can help boost learning and development. Elaine Hook explores resources and ideas across each area of the EYFS.


An analysis of the nitrides formed in an AISI 4140 steel nitrided by postdischarge microwave nitriding treatment was carried out by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), fast Fourier transform (FFT) and nanoanalysis. The steel samples were nitrided below of the eutectoid transformation point (590 °C), after nitriding the samples were cooling slowly inside in the reactor whit an argon atmosphere. The analysis were carried out in a FEG-TEM PHILIPS TECNAI F20 at 200 Kv. The results showed the morphology and size of the nitrides e-Fe 2-3 N and γ'-Fe 4 N, which had coherency whit the matrix. By other hand the following crystallographic relations were determined: (110) Fe-α ║ (1001) e-Fe 2-3 N ║ (110) γ'-Fe 4 N and [1-1 0]Fe-α ║ [1 0-1 0] e-Fe 2-3 N ║ [0 1 1] Fe 4 N.


The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) serves all fields of sciences and the arts by financing research projects. The DFG can support science by funding of individual grants, priority programmes, research groups and collaborative research centers. With these mechanisms of funding, clinical research is also supported. Some structural aspects of clinical research and a few thoughts for the improvement of clinical research are presented.


When an axially symmetrical fluid jet impacts on a horizontal plate vertically, a hydraulic jump is formed. Numerous studies are conducted on circular hydraulic jumps. However, the effect of the important and key parameter of fluid jet swirl on hydraulic jumps is not investigated. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of this parameter on the circular hydraulic jump. The results of this study, achieved by using experimental method, show that the higher the angular velocity, the higher the increase in the radius of the jump. Drawing the diagram of the dimensionless radius of jump based on the dimensionless number of swirl shows two categories of lines. The first category is the constant angular velocity lines with a negative slope and the second category is the constant flow rate lines with a positive slope. The results showed that increasing the angular velocity of the swirling jet has less effect on increasing jump radius than increasing the flow rate. Experiments also showed that the hydraulic jumps created by a swirling jet follow the trend results of modified Watson's theory with a nonsignificant difference.


Real flag manifolds are the isotropy orbits of noncompact symmetric spaces G/K. Any such manifold M is acted on transitively by the (noncompact) Lie group G, and it is embedded in euclidean space as a taut submanifold. The aim of this paper is to show that the gradient flow of any height function is a one‐parameter subgroup of G, where the gradient is defined with respect to a suitable homogeneous metric s on M; this generalizes the Kähler metric on adjoint orbits (the so‐called complex flag manifolds). 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification 53C30, 53C35.


The relationship between coverage and canopy reflectance of rape in seedling,budding and early flowering stage in Xifeng district of Qingyang City was studied.The result showed that rape coverage had a distinct correlation with the spectral reflectance of 450,550,650,850 and 1 650 nm band.And especially in budding stage,this correlation was very significant.In addition,the correlations of ten normal vegetation indexes with coverage were proved,which are more significant than those with single band reflectance.By using the best two VI monitoring models about coverage were constructed,and the fitting degrees are better.But in seedling stage the differences of linear and non-linear regression models are indistinct,in budding stage the linear equation is better,and in early flowering stage the exponential equation is better.


This paper explores the accuracy of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), with particular reference to Australian published DEMs. Direct comparisons were made between cartometric and automatically measured photogrammetric DEMs at various grid spacings with an accurate and dense set of ground truth data. The cartometric DEMs were found to be more accurate than the photogrammetric DEMs for the small study site in this paper, with RMS errors in elevation of approximately 3.5 m and 4.5 m, respectively, and maximum absolute errors in elevation of approximately 12 m and 28 m, respectively. An important factor for environmental prediction studies is slope, and RMS errors in slope were approximately 6 percent and 20 percent for the cartometric and photogrammetric DEMs, respectively, with maximum absolute errors in slope of approximately 75 percent and 290 percent, respectively. However, use of suitable postprocessing such as filtering may reduce the errors in photogrammetric DEMs to at least the same magnitude as cartometric DEMs. The cartometric DEMs were found to satisfy the USGS specifications for Level 2 data.


Introduction: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) has been recognized as a useful operation and undergone in all over the world, but stress shielding is still an issue that occurs with the advance of the bone mineral density (BMD) loss around femoral implant. This phenomenon possibly complicates the revision surgery due to difficulty of implant fixation and may increase the risk of fracture around the implant. The mechanism of stress shielding probably relates with local changes of mechanical stress property, which may possibly affect the bone remodeling status, i.e. osteoblast/osteoclast activity. However, the actual bone remodeling status in stress shielding region is unclear. 18F-fluoride PET, which we utilized in this study, is capable of evaluate bone remodeling status reflecting the osteoblasts activity. We previously reported its utility for evaluating septic and aseptic loosening of implant1. We hypothesized that18Ffluoride PET may show some specific property in stress shielding region. The purpose of this study was therefore to evaluate the local bone remodeling activity in THA cases with stress shielding using 18F-fluoride PET, and to reveal relationship between bone turnover and stress shielding. Methods: We enrolled total of 88 hip joints from 70 cases (female, 53; male, 17) of THA (primary; 77, revision; 11). The exclusion criteria were infection, hip resurfacing arthroplasty, and cases with massive osteolysis. The average age was 69(30-87) years and the average duration after THA was 11.2(1-35) years.18F-fluoride PET was performed for each case at least one year after THA, and then radiographic evaluation and clinical evaluation was performed at the same period (3 month before or after PET scanning). Gruen classification was applied both for X-ray and 18F-fluoride PET images. (PET) SET-2400W (Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan) was used for PET scanning. A whole-body image was obtained 40 minutes after the injection of 185MBq of 18F-fluoride. The average standardized uptake value (SUVaverage) and the maximum (SUVmax) was measured by a coronal image for each joint. All SUV obtained from each zone on the prosthetic side were divided by the SUV from the metaphysis on the same side to compensate the differences individual bone turnover. (Radiographic evaluation) In the plain X-ray of bilateral hip joints with standing position, the existence of stress shielding was evaluated by two individuals. When agreement was obtained between observers, we identified the existence of stress shielding. Results:


Abstract : Aerosol deposition in the rat lung has been determined as a function of particle size between 0.034 and 1.2 microns aerodynamic diameter. 22Na- Labeled aerosol was produced as monodisperse particles by a modified version of the Sinclair-LaMer glycerol generator. Particle size was determined by light scattering and was verified by light and electron microscopy. Anesthetized rats were fitted with a tracheal tube, thus avoiding oral or nasal influences on lung deposition. Respiratory minute volume as determined with this surgical preparation was about 97 ml/min. This value and the breathing pattern were practically identical to those found in nontracheotomized rats, similarly maintained at a body temperature at 37.5 C (colon). For particles between 0.6 and 1.2 microns, lung deposition varied from 14% to 20%. Fifteen minutes after inhalation, organ distribution of 22Na outside the lung was similar at two different particle sizes and in agreement with other studies based on intraperitoneal injection. Critical comparison of present lung deposition values in the rat with existing data on man showed close agreement with those studies in man giving low lung deposition values (20%), for particles with aerodynamic diameter between 0.6 and 1.2 microns. Particles less than 0.14 micron in size showed lung deposition values of 7 to 8%; this may be a particular characteristic of the rat.


By setting up a mechanical model of a wheel under braking, the control law of antilock braking for a wheel was analysed and studied in this paper based on the sliding mode control theory. A new analytical expression for the control law of antilock braking system was proposed. With the numerical simulation on the model described, the dynamic characteristics of the antilock braking system with the control law stated above was qualitatively illustrated. The results of this study can be referred to as a theoretical base and computational method for the dynamic design of an antilock braking system.


This article studies the limiting spectral distributions of random birth-death Q matrices. Under the strictly stationary ergodic condition, we prove that the empirical spectral distribution converges weakly to a non- random probability distribution. Furthermore, in the situations without strictly stationary ergodic condition, we study a class of random birth-death Q matrices, corresponding to generalizations of the Beta-Hermite ensembles, and establish the existences as well as convolution formulations for their limiting spectral distributions. In particular, for the random birth-death Q matrices corresponding to the Beta-Hermite ensembles, the limiting spectral distribution is the convolution of the semi-circle law and Dirac measure δ -2.


The purpose of this study is to investigate accounting professionals' perceptions of (1) importance of education phases and environmental conditions in development of ethics awareness, (2) approaches in accounting ethics education in university and professional pre-qualification, and (3) coverage of accounting ethics education. Data was collected from public accountants via an online questionnaire during November and December, 2011. The questionnaire was developed based on a review of earlier studies. A total of 219 accountants replied to the survey. The findings demonstrated that most of the respondents (i.e. practicing accountants) have not taken ethics education previously. Secondly, the results provided evidence that all stages of education life, ranging from kindergarten to university, are important and contribute to the development of ethics awareness. Environmental factors are also important in the development of ethics awareness. Giving ethics as a stand-alone course is considered the most appropriate approach in teaching ethics. Responses indicated that "auditing" is the most and only course in which ethics should be taught. Moreover, the respondents approved the inclusion of ethics within various stages of the certified accountancy curriculum.


The impact of the prosumers on the replacement strategies of the transformers from the electric distribution networks imposed by the Eco-design Directive of the European Commission is studied in the paper. Thus, an original decision-making methodology, integrating two stages, is proposed considering various penetration degrees of the prosumers. In the first stage, the "importance" classes of aged transformer replacement are identified following a clustering process. An optimization model, having as objectives the maximization of the energy-saving and post-payback period, was used to determine the optimal solution associated with the rated power of the transformers from each class. The obtained results demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed methodology for a transformer fleet with 20 units belonging to a Romanian Distribution Network Operator.


Summary In order to improve depth positioning and structural accuracy, we b uild an anisotropic velocity model for imaging Northeastern (NE) Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). We assume vertical transverse isotropy (VTI) and derive Thomsen's δ by comparing seismic and well data. Both welltie and checkshot data indicate a twolayer δ trend in NE Garden Banks: low δ shallow and high δ deeper. The interface between the two δ zones corresponds to a distinct seismic reflector – the base of a mass transport complex which is also a local maximum in the velocity. Using this two-layer δ model and a scanned Thomsen's e model, we carry out anisotropic (VTI) imaging. The VTI imaging reduces misties by more than 80% compared to the original isotropic imaging.


Background: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) remains a devastating disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract of the preterm infant. There is currently no biomarker that can diagnose NEC early with high sensitivity and specificity. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have emerged as a non-invasive biomarker in many diseases. We hypothesized that fecal VOC profiles would be significantly different between control and NEC pups in a mouse model of experimental necrotizing enterocolitis. Methods: Experimental NEC was induced in five-day-old C57BL/6J …


The European integration project has shaped a legal reality where the importance of particular Member State nationalities is dwarfed in relation to that of EU citizenship. Currently the Member States' nationalities, short of being abolished in the legal sense, mostly serve as access points to the status of EU citizenship, which has also come to influence the rules for the acquisition of the Member State's nationalities. Six Member States already provide for different naturalisation procedures for the acquisition of nationality for those already in possession of the EU citizenship status. The majority of the assumptions regarding Member State nationalities stand to be profoundly questioned today. EU citizenship is no longer a merely derivative status, leading to the need for re-conceptualisation of its relationship with the nationalities of the Member States, if not opening a new chapter in the process of European integration.


Previously we reported that Lys, Asp, and Glu residues at positions 66 and 92 in staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) titrate with pKa values shifted by up to 5 pKa units in the direction that promotes the neutral state. In contrast, the internal Lys‐38 in SNase titrates with a normal pKa. The crystal structure of the L38K variant shows that the side chain of Lys‐38 is buried. The ionizable moiety is ∼7 Å from solvent and ion paired with Glu‐122. This suggests that the pKa value of Lys‐38 is normal because the energetic penalty for dehydration is offset by a favorable Coulomb interaction. However, the pKa of Lys‐38 was also normal when Glu‐122 was replaced with Gln or with Ala. Continuum electrostatics calculations were unable to reproduce the pKa of Lys‐38 unless the protein was treated with an artificially high dielectric constant, consistent with structural reorganization being responsible for the normal pKa value of Lys‐38. This reorganization must be local because circular dichroism and NMR spectroscopy indicate that the L38K protein is native‐like under all conditions studied. In molecular dynamics simulations, the ion pair between Lys‐38 and Glu‐122 is unstable. The simulations show that a minor rearrangement of a loop is sufficient to allow penetration of water to the amino moiety of Lys‐38. This illustrates both the important roles of local flexibility and water penetration as determinants of pKa values of ionizable groups buried near the protein–water interface, and the challenges faced by structure‐based pKa calculations in reproducing these effects.


Phosphorus is the main limiting factor of eutrophication. How to control the phosphate concentration in rivers and lakes is of great significance to control eutrophication. it is considered that adsorption is an economical, efficient and simple phosphorus removal method. However, how to select the appropriate adsorption material is the key to its application. The application of biochar to the removal of phosphate from water can provide a new way for the treatment of agricultural and forestry waste, livestock manure, activated sludge and invasive plants. The phosphate-absorbing biochar can be used to improve soil improvement. Methodology is of highly advantageous but difficult in phosphate removal from practical waste water. The current paper reviewed domestic and international research results pertaining to phosphate removal by biochar. The ability of biochar to remove phosphate was summarized. The mechanism of phosphate removal by biochar or metal modified biochar was explained. The effects of pH, temperature, co-existing ion, initial phosphate concentration and other reaction conditions on the removal of phosphate by biochar were analyzed, and the characteristics of the desorption of phosphate were briefly described. Lastly, to realize the industrial application of biochar in contaminated water, it was pointed out that the mechanism of modification and phosphate removal be further researched, and experiments should be conducted using natural water bodies with complex forms of phosphorus or adsorption columns, and the research and risk assessment about phosphate-absorbing biochar as a soil amendment should be further strengthened, and the cost of biochar manufacturing should be estimated.


The branch of science and machinery which is concerned with computational understanding of an intelligent human behaviour is called Artificial Intelligence. This blend of science and machinery has proven to be of great benefit to human activities and medical science. Our aim is to accentuate that can antimicrobial resistance be fought by Artificial Intelligence. The various studies indicate that Artificial Intelligence can be a solution to the issue of antimicrobial resistance which is rising at a great pace throughout the world.


2505 Background: Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte-associated Antigen 4 (CTLA4) is a T lymphocyte receptor responsible for negative regulation of cellular immune responses. CTLA4 blockade with CP-675,206 may break peripheral immunological tolerance and induce anti-tumor activity.

METHODS
We studied the safety, pharmacokinetics (PK), immune properties, and clinical activity of CP-675,206 in 39 pts with measurable disease (34) and no evidence of disease (5) (melanoma 34; renal cell 4; colon 1) after a single IV infusion at one of 7 dose levels: 0.01 (3 pts), 0.1 (3), 1.0 (3), 3.0 (8), 6.0 (5), 10.0 (11), and 15 mg/kg (6). Five pts at the lowest dose cohorts were re-enrolled at a higher dose level, for a total of 44 administered doses.

RESULTS
Therapy was delivered as planned. CP-675,206 proved safe and overall was well tolerated. Common adverse events included dermatitis (17, 39%), fatigue (17, 39%), pruritus (11, 25%), and diarrhea (11, 25%). DLTs were G3 diarrhea (1 at 6 mg/kg; 3 at 15 mg/kg) and G3 dermatitis (1 at 15mg/kg). The single dose MTD is 10 mg/kg. All observed autoimmunity except vitiligo (asthma, dermatitis, diarrhea, hypophysitis, and hyperthyroidism) was manageable and reversible. Plasma CP-675,206 concentrations were measured by ELISA. Peak concentrations and systemic exposure increase with dose. Concentrations remain >10 μg/mL (target efficacious concentration) for >4 weeks at doses ≥6 mg/kg; t½ is 25.6 days. Immune activation was assessed in a whole blood assay determining secreted IL-2 levels in response to Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A (SEA). CP-675,206 administration increased mean SEA reactivity 1-hr post-dose at all dose levels with a dose-response trend (P < 0.03). There were 2 CRs (18+, 8+ mo), 1 PR, and 6 SDs (3+ to 16 mo) among 34 pts with measurable disease.

CONCLUSIONS
CTLA4 blockade can be induced with a single injection of CP-675,206. Related autoimmunity is reversible. Observed anti-tumor activity may be associated with breaking peripheral tolerance through this mechanism. [Table: see text].


Speeches 1933-1971; correspondence concerning personal papers of Professor W.C. Kernot of the University of Melbourne, including copies of some letters to Kernot from Louis Brennan regarding Brennan's invention of a torpedo 1884-1887; files concerning staff policies and problems of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission 1936-1963; material regarding the East family; index to East's personal papers held in the La Trobe Library.


A correlation between the helicity amplitudes for the ${A}_{1}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\rho}+\ensuremath{\pi}$ and $B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\omega}+\ensuremath{\pi}$ decays is obtained with the help of an effective Lagrangian, invariant under chiral $\mathrm{SL}(8,C)$. Recently available experimental data agree with the relation obtained.


The effects of the variation of the size of isolation mesa of AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors (HFETs) on the device characteristics are presented for the first time. Studies on the direct current and pulsed drain and gate current-voltage characteristics demonstrate a correlation between the pinchoff voltage and the size of the isolation mesa. In this paper, devices fabricated on narrow mesas (i.e., 16 × 40 μm2 fins) and also a device fabricated on an array of very small size mesas (i.e., 16 × 7 μm2 islands) are compared with AlGaN/GaN HFETs of traditionally sized mesas (i.e., 70 × 100 μm2). All these devices show maximum extrinsic gate transconductance greater than 220 mS/mm, whereas the pinchoff voltage is observed to become less negative by reducing the size of the individual mesas. The island-isolated HFETs also enjoy a relatively higher gate transconductance.


Hydrocyanic acid gas fumigation was discovered in 1886. From 1886–1893 it underwent decided improvement as a fumigant for citrus trees; 1893–1900, greenhouse, nursery stock, stored products and mill fumigation were introduced; 1907–08, orchard fumigation was standardized; 1910–13, sodium cyanide displaced potassium cyanide; 1912, portable machine generator invented; 1913–14, vacuum fumigation developed; 1916, liquid hydrocyanic acid first used for fumigating; 1923, calcium cyanide dust experimented with as fumigant.


Between January 1990 and June 1992 in France, obstetrician-gynecologists at Pr Magnin University Hospital in Poitiers inserted an IUD immediately after a legally induced abortion in 90 women aged 16-44. Five women were nulliparous. 16.7% had more than three children while 37.8% had had three pregnancies. 40% were living under unfavorable socioeconomic circumstances. 20 women were single, had no profession, and had children. 47.8% smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day, 10% of whom smoked 30-60 cigarettes a day. Tobacco contributed to hypertension in three cases, high cholesterol in one case, and obesity in two cases. 32.3% of the women had contraindications to combined oral contraceptives (OCs), especially hypertension and smoking. 21% were using OCs when they last conceived. 47.8% had had 2-3 pregnancies. 11% chose the IUD for personal convenience. Nine months to three years later, 89% of the women were still using the IUD. Complications or discomfort were reasons for removal among the remaining 11%. The complications included inflammation of the fallopian tube(s), IUD expulsion, retention of the trophoblast, and undiagnosed excessive bleeding. Other reasons were genital infection and desire for tubal ligation. 41% of the women did not return either after the IUD insertion. None of them had gynecological troubles, however. These findings show that postabortion IUD insertion is a practical and effective solution to recurrent abortion.


Pronunciation is, unarguably, an essential factor that decides the success of communication. Poor pronunciation not only affects the speakers' self - confidence but can also cause a misunderstanding or even communication break - down in the worst case. Consequently, it has gained considerable attention in English learning and teaching. Both teachers and language educators have struggled to make sure their learners can pronounce at the most satisfactory level. A variety of techniques and methods have been discussed. In this paper, the author has examined the advantages of group work as an alternative way to improve English majors' pronunciation skill in her own educational setting with specific characteristics of its own students. The results show that group work can help increase the learners' amount of practice time and their engagement in the lessons, boost their learning motivation. Besides, some suggestions have also been made to exploit this technique most efficiently, which include rearrangement of physical setting, applying suitable assessment methods, practical guides and reasonable grouping of students. Due to limited time, resources and the scope of this paper, the study has been done basing on the review and analysis of related literature and the real conditions of her school. However, the findings will certainly bring more insights and serve as encouragement for teachers and educators to apply in similar language teaching contexts.


Abstract The gas-phase IR spectrum of the ν 2 ( A 1 , 1610.33 cm −1 ) band of the deuterated isotopomer of diazirine, D 2 CN 2 , a three-membered ring compound which belongs to the molecular symmetry point group C 2 v , has been studied at a resolution of about 0.005 cm −1 . This vibrational mode which can be approximately described as NN stretching is widely perturbed. This is due to various interactions with the tetrad consisting of the binary combinations ν 6 + ν 7 ( A 1 ), ν 7 + ν 9 ( A 2 ), ν 5 + ν 6 ( B 2 ), and ν 5 + ν 9 ( B 1 ), which form a relatively isolated pentad together with ν 2 in the wavenumber region 1560–1610 cm −1 . A simultaneous upper state analysis of ν 2 from a pentad model including these resonances has been performed and a set of spectroscopic parameters has been obtained. Since the four combination bands of the pentad are dark states, only band centers could be determined; in addition for ν 5 + ν 9 and ν 7 + ν 9 also the term ( B − C )/2 has been obtained. A number of Coriolis interaction constants and the vibrational resonance (with ν 6 + ν 7 ) parameter have been calculated as well.


Prostatic carcinoma is a common and growing public health problem. Cyclin D1 is a cell regulatory protein, which is believed to play an important role in both tumorgenesis and grading of many cancers. The role of Cyclin D1 as a prognostic factor in cancer prostate is controversial. The present study was done on a total of forty cases of prostatic carcinoma removed by radical prostatectomy. Immunohistochemical expression of Cyclin D1 was evaluated in all cases. Correlation between the intensity of Cyclin D1 expression and patient's age, serum PSA level, PIN, Gleason grades, Gleason scores and stages of prostatic carcinoma was evaluated. All cases (100%) revealed foci (>10 % of cancer cells) with positive nuclear staining for Cyclin D1 with different grades of intensity ranging from moderate to strong, while positive Cyclin D1 expression was observed in the nuclei of PIN of 30 cases with grades of intensity ranging from weak to strong. No significant correlation was found between the intensity of Cyclin D1 expression and patient's age, PIN, Gleason grades, Gleason scores or stages of prostatic carcinoma, while a significant correlation between intensity of expression of Cyclin D1 and preoperative serum PSA level was observed. Cyclin D1 expression might affect PSA expression, which is considered an important tumor marker. Cyclin D1 plays an important role in the pathogenesis and evolution of prostate cancer rather than the prognosis, thus Cyclin D 1 is not a reliable prognostic factor in cancer prostate.


Internet of Thing (IoT) based devices require the design of ultra-low power Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) to sustain the long battery life. In present work, for execution different types of SRAM cell methodologies Cadence Virtuoso tool is used and all considered methodologies read and write operations have been supervised out. These SRAM cell methodologies various parameters also have been calculated, there are read static noise margin (RSNM), write static noise margin (WSNM), read delay, write delay, read power and write power. For low read, write power dissemination and faster read and write working new 7T SRAM cell methodology is proposed. It has been recognized that new 7T SRAM cell methodology as collated to 6T to 9T SRAM cell methodologies read power consumption reduced by 1.60* to 4*. New 7T SRAM cell methodology as collated to traditional 6T, 8T and 9T SRAM cell write power consumption is decreased by 2.3* to 2.6*. It is also noticed that as collated to 6T, 8T and 9T SRAM cell methodology that new 7T SRAM read delay suppressed by 2.40* to 2.60* and its write delay is also suppressed by 3.80* to 99*. As collate to 6T to 9T SRAM cell methodologies write operation robustness of new 7T SRAM cell is 3.0* to 6.5* perform in better way. New 7T SRAM cell has the tradeoff that its read operation robustness is 6* to 14* lesser as collate to 6T, 8T and 9T SRAM cell methodologies. Due to low power consumption and less delay new 7T SRAM cell methodology is suitable for Internet of things (IOT) based devices.


Contingent Uncertainty, Strategic Uncertainty, and Coordination Thomas Wisdom Department of Behavioral Science, Hokkaido University Keigo Inukai Department of Economics, Hokkaido University Kengo Kurosaka Department of Economics, Hokkaido University Wataru Toyokawa Department of Behavioral Science, Hokkaido University Yoichi Hizen Department of Economics, Hokkaido University Tatsuya Kameda Department of Behavioral Science, Hokkaido University Abstract: Uncertainty about the coordination of common efforts (e.g. team projects, alliances) often coexists with uncertainty about other variables (e.g. weather, market fluctuations, political instability). In certain coordination games in which equilibria can potentially arise at any common effort level, ex ante equilibrium selection (particularly of high-effort, high-payoff equilibria) has been a persistent game theoretical challenge. This is largely due to the strategic uncertainty of each participant about the behavior of others, in the absence of communication and credible commitment. We performed experiments in which exogenous noise was added to the decisions of participants in a minimum-effort coordination game. Results indicate that this added contingent uncertainty can prevent perfect coordination at the lowest-payoff equilibrium, and thus make coordination at higher-payoff equilibria possible.


On the basis of theorem that the two Abel p-groups are isomorphic only when if their elementary decomposed columns are identical,the full prerequisite for isomorphism of the two pm-order Abel p-groups is that the numbers of pn(0 n m-)order elements are equal.


In this paper, a flywheel drive is proposed with 2-axis active position, regulation having one unit of a bearingless motor. Other three-degree-of-freedom is supported by passive magnetic bearings. Basic force and stiffness characteristics are investigated by magnetic field analysis.


Abstract The continuous emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria poses an urgent risk to human health and dictates the need for new antimicrobials. Along this line, we have been working on developing inhibitors of SecA, a key component of the bacterial Sec-dependent secretion machinery. Herein, we describe the synthesis and antimicrobial evaluation of 6-oxo-1,6-dihydropyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives as potential SecA inhibitors.


Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) measured by enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT) in children with type 1 diabetes without diabetic retinopathy. Methods: In this prospective and comparative study, 41 diabetic children without diabetic retinopathy and 42 age-matched healthy subjects were enrolled. The SFCT was measured by EDI-OCT. Correlations between SFCT and diabetic parameters such as fasting glucose level, HbA1c, age, or duration of diabetes were also evaluated. Results: The mean SFCT value was 375.3 ± 66.5 μm in the eyes with diabetes and 356.4 ± 52.0 μm in the control group. The SFCT was not correlated with fasting glucose level, HbA1c, age, or duration of diabetes. Conclusion: This study showed that SFCT of diabetic children are similar to those of healthy controls. In addition, SFCT are not affected by fasting glucose level, HbA1c, age, or duration of diabetes.


Hypotheses of a Mesopotamian origin for the Vedic and Chinese star calendars are unfounded. The Yangshao culture burials discovered at Puyang in 1987 suggest that the beginnings of Chinese astronomy go back to the late fourth millennium BCE. The instructive similarities between the Chinese and Indian luni-solar calendrical astronomy and cosmology therefore with great likelihood result from convergent parallel development and not from diffusion.


Over a period of three decades, from 1928 to 1959, the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) formed an unconventional working team and a complex laboratory of progressive ideas for designing the city. During the founding years of the organization and the transatlantic emigration of many of its major figures during the second half of the 1930s, a profound engagement with the most important trends in the European and North American debates on planning had become the critical foundation for their common task. The organization's consequent basic convictions and demands summed up the most effective maxims of the discipline since the turn of the century. Officially, CIAM tried to distinguish itself from traditional urban planning and instead advocated modern urban planning as the antithesis to everything that existed previously. Seen from a historical perspective, however, numerous points of connection – in particular to the garden city movement – become very clear. The various members of CIAM were deeply influenced ideologically by Ebenezer Howard's visions for urbanism. Personal contact to representatives of the garden city movement, active involvement in its institutions, and broad implementation of Howard's ideas in the context of European and North American planning led CIAM from the analysis of the functions of the existing city to a comprehensive design of the modern city.


Lasing conditions for He I in a cold recombining helium plasma are numerically discussed including optical thicknesses. A collisional radiative model is used to calculate population densities. We discuss the effect of self absorptions by the background residual gas on the lasing conditions quantitatively. The optical thickness is essential in the calculation and affects the population inversions between level pairs of the singlet state drastically, while those of the triplet state are not affected very much. In the optically thin plasma, the laser lower levels of the singlet state depopulate mainly through radiative transitions. On the other hand, they depopulate mainly through electron collisional deexcitations in the optically thick plasma. Results of the calculations are verified by the spectroscopic observations of an arc-heated magnetically trapped expanding plasma jet generator which we developed. The requirement for the background pressure in which the lasing is possible is discussed quantitatively.


This project aims to develop an original approach to investigate the damage at the molecular level on biomolecules from the indirect irradiation effects. We will construct a new device to put biomolecules in the gas phase, based on the soft laser desorption from microdroplets directly into vacuum, and this source will be coupled with an irradiation platform.


Several general results are obtained for a system of spins on a lattice in which the various lattice sites are occupied at random, and the spins, if present, interact via a general Heisenberg or Ising interaction decreasing sufficiently rapidly with distance. It is shown that the free energy per site exists in the limit of an infinite system, is a continuous function of concentration, and has the usual convexity (stability) properties. For Ising systems with interactions of finite range, the free energy is an analytic function of concentration and magnetic field for a suitable range of these variables. The random Ising ferromagnet on a square lattice (or simple cubic lattice) with nearest‐neighbor interactions is shown to exhibit a spontaneous magnetization at sufficiently high concentrations and low temperatures.


The description of Lee Kian Joe' of a subcutaneous variety of phycomycosis due to a member of the genus Basidiobolus led to the realization that concepts of the pathogenicity of the class were in need of revision. Although this condition was first described as an Indonesian disease, cases have been repoi-ted from Uganda and Kenya.̂ ^ In West Africa there have been reports from Nigeria,''' ^ Ghana,̂ Senegal,* the Ivory Coast,' and the Cameroons." Lynch and Husband report a case from Sudan." One case only has been reported from India.'"


In 1956 Fantl, Sawers & Marr noted that the plasma of a patient with Christmas disease neutralized an inhibitor of factor IX. They suggested that in some cases this disease may be due to the presence of an abnormal form of factor IX. Such a concept is in accord with the current view that defects of protein synthesis fall into two broad groups: those in which there is deficient synthesis of normal protein and those in which a structurally abnormal protein is produced. Since that time abnormal forms of almost all the coagulation factors have been described. These are reviewed here with particular emphasis on their clinical significance.


PURPOSE: To provide a magnetic memory device which can reduce the possibility that information is miswritten to a memory cell adjacent to a selected memory cell. CONSTITUTION: The magnetic memory device includes a magneto-resistance effect element which is arranged above a semiconductor device and stores information. A 1st wire is arranged between the semiconductor substrate and the magneto-resistance effect element in a 1st direction. The 1st wire is formed so that the width of a surface facing the magneto-resistance effect element in plane is smaller than the width of the surface opposite from the surface. The 1st wire has a function of applying a magnetic field to the magneto-resistance effect element. A 2nd wire is arranged above the magneto-resistance effect element in a 2nd direction different from the 1st direction. The 2nd wire has a function of applying a magnetic field to the magneto-resistance effect element.


Part 1 Background: the global spectrum beginnings of globalization - 1963-79 the coming together of the markets - 1979-89. Part 2 Global asset choices: table d'hote - the basic international menu a la carte 1 - zeros and asset-backed securities a la carte 2 - synthetics, warrant-linked and other exotica derivatives (future, options an swaps) foreign exchange and the global investor. Part 3 Eurobonds and related markets: the primary eurobond market the secondary market issuers, investors and intermediaries in eurobond markets euro-equities eurocurrency. Part 4 Major national markets: money market paper major bond markets major equity markets. Part 5 Making the global system a reality: clearing and settlement systems regulation and the future of the system. Appendices: national bond markets - statistics and instruments eurobond calculations FRN calculations convertible and warrant calculations swap calculations international portfolio measurement issues.


In recent years there has been an explosion of interest by companies in developing approaches to instill values in their decision-making processes and to manage and report on their social performance. The emerging field of social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting (SEAAR) is characterised by considerable differentiation not only in terminology, but also in methodology and focus. This article aims to analyse the key conceptual and methodological differences between internally focussed approaches to SEAAR, dealing with ethics (behavioural) issues, and externally focussed approaches to SEAAR, dealing with social (stakeholder) issues. In their discussion of the benefits and potential pitfalls of exclusively internally or externally focussed approaches the authors suggest two organisational metaphors as heuristics - the cultish and the chameleon organisation. The authors then propose an integrative approach to SEAAR which will overcome this dissonance and initiate a mutually reinforcing process that, in the long-term, can build both internal trust and cohesiveness and external credibility. The suggested approach is characterised as social and ethical alchemy since the aim is to achieve more than the sum of the two separate parts - a business ethics programme and a social reporting process - by creating leverage and synergy between the key components.


Interactions between two colliding spin-one-half radicals with nearly parallel Z projections are considered in the case of strong Heisenberg spin exchange. The average value of the transverse spin polarization is shown to distribute equally between interacting radicals after the collisions. This is equivalent to the exchange of the polarization in 50% of the collisions. Collisions between parallel spins are shown not to represent a kinetic bottleneck when spectral narrowing follows from electron spin exchange. Thus, in applying the Kubo–Anderson model to the system of interacting radicals, every spin collision, regardless of spin orientation, results in random movement among various sites of different resonant frequencies and thus to spectral narrowing. We conclude that limiting discussions of spin exchange to antiparallel spins and mutual spin flips may lead to a false impression of spin dynamics and spectral narrowing by Heisenberg spin exchange.


Among the Nightmare Fighters: Americans Poets of World War II. Diederik Oostdijk. Columbia, SC: U South Carolina P, 2011. 304 pp. $49.95 (hardcover).Among the Nightmare Fighters offers an illuminating if partial survey of World War II's importance in the history of American poetry and poetics. Oost- dijk argues that, despite their stereotype of belonging to a "silent generation," mid-twentieth-century poets who experienced the war either first-hand or on the home front did in fact speak out, albeit often "in a quiet and undemonstrative way" and sometimes years afterward (3). Their reticence, he explains, stemmed partly from having witnessed "events [ . . . ] too devastating to capture in words" but also from a belief that "the history of World War II was already fixed in the American imagination and that their personal musings would have no major im- pact" (2-3). To illustrate the value of what soldiers, veterans, and conscientious objectors did manage to write, he focuses on a single "tight-knit circle of poets," "a generation of white, male, so-called academic poets who published their po- ems in the Kenyon Review, the New Yorker, and Partisan Review" and who "came to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s" (5). These writers-including John Ciardi, James Dickey, Anthony Hecht, Randall Jarrell, Lincoln Kirstein, Robert Lowell, Howard Nemerov, Karl Shapiro, and William Stafford-"collectively [ . . . ] show that the effects of war are ultimately shattering to all individuals caught in it," es- pecially any simple "equation of war and masculinity" (5).The book is carefully organized. Its four parts each take up one of "four fixa- tions in the works and lives of the poets of World War II that are distinct but inter- related" (13): the literary "traditions" that intertextually "haunted" them, namely, the example of "the English poets of World War I," the Anglo-American high mod- ernists, the New Critics, and W. H. Auden (70); a "preoccupation with the self" that "resulted in many autobiographically tinged poems" (75); a rejection of "the soldier as a masculine ideal" and a redefinition of manliness as founded in "intel- lectual curiosity, broadmindedness, and [ . . . ] independence from social pres- sure" (176); and uncertainty whether to write or remain silent about their "traumatic experiences" during the war years (234). Each of the book's four parts is further subdivided into four chapters, some of which are wide-ranging and oth- ers of which delve in an extended manner into particular writers and bodies of work. Throughout, Oostdijk blends careful close reading and historical recon- struction. He makes particularly good use of archival material, and is able to rein- troduce familiar lyrics, such as Lowell's "Christmas Eve under Hooker's Statue," as well as to bring to light war-themed poems that his favored authors wrote but, for whatever reason, chose not to publish, such as Ciardi's "Sarko," in which he "speaks as and for a Holocaust survivor" (118).In some cases, Oostdijk's narrative revisits well-trod terrain. It is no surprise, for instance, to hear that "Jarrell aimed to create a type of democratic poetry that re- flected the reality of people's daily lives, mostly as victims of forces they could neither change nor fully understand, written in a language that was immediately accessible" (111), nor is it jolting to hear that Lowell, despite his "erratic" and per- haps "opportunistic" flip-flopping between support of and opposition to the war, nonetheless consistently "channeled his confusion" about his identity and place in the world into strong public stands on politics and religion (108). More impressive, as well as admirably balanced, are his retelling of other, trickier stories, such as Shapiro's flirtation with Catholicism and Dickey's occasional, insufferable bouts of hypermasculinity. Among the Nightmare Fighters truly comes into its own, though, at moments when its author's enthusiasm for the subject at hand becomes palpa- ble. …


Reducing the footprint of greenhouse gases and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from combustion systems means that they have been operating under lean or ultra-lean fuel–air premixed conditions. Under such conditions, self-excited large-amplitude pulsating thermoacoustic instabilities may occur, characterized by deafening combustion noises and even "violent" structural vibrations, which is, therefore, highly undesirable in practice. By conducting chemical reaction-thermodynamics-acoustics-swirling flow coupling investigations, we have numerically explored the generation and mitigation mechanisms of self-excited pulsating oscillations in a methane-fueled swirling combustor in the presence and absence of an outlet nozzle. Hence, a large-eddy simulation was performed on a fully three-dimensional compressible flow via an open-source platform, OpenFOAM. Furthermore, a thorough assessment was made to understand the fundamental physics of the interaction of the swirling flame, either constructively or destructively, to the acoustic pressure perturbations by examining the local Rayleigh criterion/index. A further explanation was made on implementing the outlet nozzle that can mitigate such periodic pulsating combustion via attenuating the fuel fraction fluctuations, vortices processing, and changing temperature field. It was also found that the dominant pulsating mode is switched from the 1/4 standing-wave wavelength mode to the 3/4 wavelength mode. Finally, more physical insights were obtained by conducting a proper orthogonal decomposition analysis on the energy distribution between the thermoacoustic modes.


A conductive particles existing in a high electric field could deteriorate the performance of insulating system due to electric discharge via the particles. In the case when the particles are around of the high voltage electrode, the position of the particle affects the aspect of the electric discharge. Corona onset and breakdown voltage from a metallic wire particle were investigated under the condition of the wire particle with a length of ranging from 6 to 12 mm and a diameter of 0.25 mm inserted a parallel plate electrode with a spacing of 20 mm or 30 mm. When the particle was close to the negative electrode, corona discharge occurred stably and the corona onset voltage was increased with the gap length bellow 0.8 mm. In contrast, when the particle was close to the positive electrode, breakdown always occurred without stable corona discharge. At the middle region between the electrodes, the corona onset voltage kept almost constant.


As the current pandemic has demonstrated, it is vital to be able to design synthetic antibodies very quickly. This process is costly and time-consuming in vitro, but can be significantly expedited with in silico techniques. Antibodies (and proteins in general) can be modelled as chains, or sequences, of amino acid residues. Each sequence encodes a unique three-dimensional structure that determines the antibody's ability to bind to target antigens, like SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, to rapidly respond to a pandemic, we need an effective way to generate antibody sequences that are promising binding candidates.


The role of MSMEs is big for the Indonesian economy. The government should help MSMEs to developed themselves during the Covid-19 pandemic. The best thing to do is to maximize the role of digital platforms for MSMEs so that they can collaborate with online platforms and increasing their sales.


A survey of bilingual education by the local normal university was conducted in the aspects of the bilingual curriculum,the foreign language level and the feedback of bilingual education implementation.The paper compare the evaluation difference of bilingual education among arts and science students in common universities and normal universities.The major effects and how to improve the effectiveness of bilingual education were researched and analyzed,which will help to improve bilingual education for the future reference.


The promotion and uptake of Electronic Healthcare Record (EHCR) systems has been much slower than originally envisaged due to a number of factors. These include, the widespread under-investment in clinical computing, fragmented markets with attendant low profitability exacerbated by a lack of proven standards together with the need to protect investment in existing (legacy) IT systems. Furthermore the inability of the standards bodies to take a more global perspective with a clear strategy in place offers insufficient hope for the future. The divergence between a top-level generic architectural approach and a more bottom-up data driven approach continues to divide the IT community in healthcare. In the meantime technological developments, such as XML and the Internet, have continued and point to some approaches that might provide a way forward and protect current investment in existing (legacy) systems. Perhaps the first action should be to reduce the high expectations of having a record architecture standard adopted on a widespread basis followed by putting more emphasis on those areas where progress can be made. This paper proposes a pragmatic and evolutionary approach based on XML to handle the semantic interoperability with technical interoperability provided by a range of technologies from TCP/IP and middleware solutions based on CORBA, DCOM, and more recently, Web portals.


Abstract : This report summarizes the results of a task to evaluate Software Engineering Environments (SEE) at defense contractors. Ten major contractors were contacted. All of them currently are involved in SEE developments, although at different levels. Some still are in the early definition phases, while others have a SEE in place. Four of them were evaluated. The SEEs were evaluated along three different dimensions: their functionality, their architecture, and their usage. All four SEEs support Ada and offer training courses. However, the SEEs are weak in their support of testing functions. The four evaluated SEEs are in a state of evolution. Although SEEs can potentially be important factors in quality and productivity improvements, and DOD-STD-2167A mandates the use of a SEE, building a SEE is a costly and lengthy process. Therefore, a methodology is needed for evaluating contractor SEEs and for determining the cost/benefit tradeoffs. This task is the first step towards defining a SEE evaluation methodology for SDD contracts.


The increasing competitive pressure as a result of technological development, globalization, changing customer demand led to survival challenges of many banks in the developing countries and demanded for improvement in quality customer service and speed to enhance profitability performance and cost reduction. This study is aim to examine the moderating effects of information technology (IT) capability on the relationship between business process reengineering (BPR) factors and organizational performance of Nigerian banks. Field study survey has been conducted under natural research setting. The sample of the data was received from commercial banks, microfinance banks and primary mortgage financial institutions in Nigeria. The tool of analysis used in this study was hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS software. The findings showed that IT capability moderated the relationship between BPR factors such as change management, customer focus, management commitment and overall organizational performance of bank. Also, the result revealed that IT capability moderated the relationship between IT investment, management commitment and customer service management performance of bank. The outcome of this study provides important insight to researchers for further understanding on the effects of BPR factors and IT capability on organizational performance.


The aerobic oxidation of aldehyde was investigated using a continuous flow microreactor under 5 bar of oxygen at room temperature. High-throughput screening of experimental conditions resulted in the development of an improved protocol. The synergistic use of a large range of salts and Mn(II) catalyst was found to be a very efficient catalytic system for selective aldehyde oxidation. Indeed for short residence time (i.e. 6 min.), a quantitative conversion of 2-ethylhexanal was obtained with a selectivity toward carboxylic acid of 98%.


At the present stage of excavation design,the embedded depth of braced structure should meet the requirement of circular sliding stability when the bottom is soft soil. By increasing the embedded depth of support structure, the requirements of stability could be meet. In the normal design, the support structure must penetrate the soft soil layer when the bottom exist soft soil. While when the excavation is narrow and long, because of the obviously spatial effect, there is no need to determine the embedded depth based on the general circular sliding stability. In this paper, based on one the project example, calculate and analyze the similar stability using strength reduction method through the finite element software Plaxis and Midas.


ABSTRACT In this article, we processed Sentinel-2 images in order to obtain high accuracy land cover maps for two complementary study areas. The first is represented by the Romanian Subcarpathians, a hilly highly fragmented area with heterogeneous land cover pattern and the second by Romanian Carpathians, a mountain area with homogenous structure of vegetation cover. The aim of this article is to evaluate the potential of a singledate in comparison with multi-date images for which a complete calibration and an iterative process of supervised classification using Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms were applied for the both study areas. The results show that in the case of Subcarpathian area, the SVM classification on multi-date images has better accuracy due to high complexity of the land cover pattern and spectral similarities between classes, while in the Carpathians, the ML returns good accuracy, consequence of high spectral separabilities between compact features. The validation process based on ground reference data shows good accuracies, about 92.41% for the Subcarpathians and 98.65% for the Carpathians. It is clearly noticed that the land cover pattern determines the use of different algorithms and the multi-date images enhance the overall accuracy of the classification.


Widespread problems exist in English major education, which directly or indirectly restrict the development of English major education. The teaching mode of English language and literature is considered in the context of big data. This paper designs an online English learning system platform based on the BP neural network algorithm under the big data network and uses the BP neural network for learning to improve the learning level of the platform. This article adds a course of Chinese and Western cultural comparison in the process of education and teaching. Through Chinese literature and culture courses, it is conducive to learning and inheriting Chinese civilization, training students' ability to understand and communicate Chinese and Western civilizations, and also training students' thinking skills. The teaching plan introduces courses with Chinese elements such as the history of Chinese philosophy and the introduction of Chinese literary classics. Through the courses of Chinese literature and culture, students are guided to ask questions, apply theory to practice, conduct experiments, obtain data, and then analyze problems and draw conclusions according to certain research methods, which exercises students' thinking ability. This also improves students' language application ability through English writing courses. In addition, this paper designs an English language and literature teaching system. With the support and guidance of the English intelligent teaching system, it analyzes the learning level and weaknesses and puts forward teaching suggestions. Then, data mining technology is used to find the key information in the answers from the massive data and is applied to English teaching. In the English learning test, the average attitude of the experimental class was 1.3314 points. This research will effectively solve the problem of English major courses.


This study is an exploration of entrepreneurship in its relation to consultancy in the construction industry. Highly skilled and specialised knowledge based professional service sector has been the fastest growing business sector across industries in the past two decades. Despite this growth, understanding of entrepreneurship in this business segment is limited. Lack of information has created a gap in the knowledge about new business entities establishing themselves in this sector. The study endeavours to bridge this gap. Nine interviews were conducted with ten entrepreneurs and senior managers of consultancy firms operating in the city of London. Their experience of establishing and running a professional practice is captured, analysed and presented. The study builds upon previous research done on entrepreneurship, and interviews with business founders in this sector. Various aspects of entrepreneurship are explored to understand how a new business practice is established and developed in this industry segment. The study discovers that previous research done was not sufficient to understand entrepreneurial behaviour within this sector. Respondents of this study have provided with additional information that is complementary to previous research. Key words: Entrepreneurship Construction consultancy Professional services Small business and Young practices or firms.


Samples of 42 dura x pisifera progenies of Ekona, AVROS, Ghana and Nigeria oil palm varieties, each involving six pisifera, were used to determine the minimum sample size of their parents for obtaining statistical yield differences between varieties. The 95% confidence interval of differences between varieties decreased sharply and, hence, the precision of the test improved, when increasing the number of progenies from 6 to 30 and pisifera (involved) from 1 to 4 and then levelled off to a steady decrement. As a test of differences the confidence interval has only a power of 50%, being the probability that a false null hypothesis of zero difference between varieties is rejected. With a power of 80%, a sample of 60 progenies in three replications detects, depending on the variance of the pisifera parents, a significant yield difference of 4.5% between Nigeria and AVROS and 7% between Ghana and Ekona with 6 and 9 pisifera in the sample, respectively. The article argues to incorporate optimal planting density as a crucial trait in selecting oil palm varieties. This study offers a method to obtain unbiased progeny samples, along with a field lay out for bulk recording of progeny plots.


ABSTRACT Compared to chewing lice, symbiotic and studies on their biology, ecology and survival strategies are still rare. To describe the ecology and morphology of the mite species Proctophyllodes megaphyllus, a symbiont of the alpine accentor Prunella collaris, 150 accentors were captured in the West Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia. The mites extracted from the birds were sexed and their specific body structures were measured. In total 2144 individuals of P. megaphyllus were collected from 100 accentors. Male mites collected in autumn, after the bird's postnuptial moult, reached the largest size. At the same time, mite prevalence reached maximum while the mean intensity of infestation was at its lowest. Our results suggest that mites preferred newly coated feathers after a moult and radiated horizontally, infesting birds at shared roosting sites where alpine accentors tend to reoccur. This study is one of the few evaluations of seasonal variation in ecology and morphology of feather mites in alpine conditions.


In the process of operating, robots will inevitably encounter damage due to external or internal factors, such as motors blockage. For the legged robot, when the motors of joints are failing, if other motors still act according to the original instructions, it will cause the robot to deviate from the predetermined trajectory, which is unacceptable for legged robots. Inspired by the fact that the model trained by supervised learning on the training set can be generalized to the testing set, our goal is to obtain a dynamic model that can be generalized to all kinds of motor damage situations. It can predict what state will be reached in the next step when an action is applied in the current state. With this dynamics model, we use the Monte Carlo particles to optimize the feasible actions in a model predictive control (MPC) fashion and achieve the expected goal (such as making the robot walk in a straight line). The comparison experiment adopt two meta-learning model and vanilla dynamics model approaches, the results show that the proposed method is superior to the three baselines, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Gallium oxide nanocrystals encapsulated in Al2O3 film on a Si substrate have been synthesized by using ion implantation followed by thermal annealing at 800 °C or 900 °C. Formation of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-Ga2O3 nanocrystals is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. The photoresponse of a photodetector fabricated on the implanted layer by the deposition of interdigitated electrode pattern is estimated by analyzing the current–voltage characteristics. The ratio of photocurrent at the wavelength of 250 nm and a voltage of 4 V to dark current around ~15 is found for the sample annealed at 900 °C. The spectral dependence of photoresponse for this sample demonstrates excellent solar-blind ultraviolet characteristics in the wavelength range of 250–270 nm with a rejection ratio 42 at the bias of 1 V. At the bias of 4 V, the responsivity of 50 mA/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> upon illumination at 250 nm and a cutoff at 280 nm are observed for the 900 °C annealing. The sample annealed at 800 °C shows lower ultraviolet responsivity due to the high density of defects. The data are analyzed in relation to the generation of carriers in Ga2O3 nanocrystals and their transport in the damaged Al2O3 matrix. The reported results pave the way toward the fabrication of next generation high sensitive solar-blind photodetectors.


The class of pseudorational transfer functions consists, roughly speaking, of the ratio of entire functions of exponential type that are Laplace transforms of distributions with compact support. This class gives a convenient platform for dealing with distributed systems whose state space is determined by bounded-time data. Delay-differential systems are typical examples. The following appealing features are known: Starting from a completely general input/output framework, this class allows a concrete realization procedure based on the above fractional representation of transfer functions (or impulse responses). It is then also possible to give a complete characterization of spectral properties of such realizations. Such spectral properties allows us to give a stability criterion and also an appropriate relationship between internal and external stability notions. Based on a concrete representation of the state space, it also leads to a concrete characterization of left-shift invariant subspaces of H2. This result has a direct consequence on Hinfin control theory. We give a concise yet comprehensive and unified overview of such results. The paper is concluded with this and also a recent result on the existence of a Bezout identity in this class.


We report on an empirical investigation about how cultural distance affects the internationalization of an academic online community. Attracting more active participants from different countries is an important goal for many online professional communities. Based on the theories and findings in the innovation diffusion and internationalization literature, we propose that cultural distance has significant negative effects on the active usage of an online community across different countries, while economic conditions will moderate the impact of cultural distance. An empirical study based on the archival data from an academic online community supports the central hypotheses proposed above.


D espite many changes to undergraduate and postgraduate education and training, 'formal' careers guidance is a relatively new development. For many clinicians, careers have been quietly shaped through informal advice from consultants and general practitioners (GPs). Some have worked for inspiring seniors, or have been dissuaded through personal experience. Changes in curricula have led some students to have little or no exposure to some specialities. Continued change in the form of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) is allowing another look at how students and trainees might be better served, both locally and nationally. In this article, we shall discuss some of the background to career development and MMC and, with illustrations from a local perspective, examine how undergraduates, trainees and senior clinicians might benefit.


This paper discusses the research status of survival conditions of the old people and the connotation of the old people's existing situation.It also summarizes the old people's living conditions and so on.Meanwhile,it analyses and discusses the physical,psychological and social function of the situation of the old people in order to provide the scientific basis that relevant departments of government to establish aging policy.


The unique plant communities of the freshwater swamp forests of southern Johor (Malaysia) and Singapore attracted the attention of E.J.H. Corner, but there have been no comprehensive follow-up studies to his seminal work. Meanwhile, freshwater swamp forests in the region have been mostly lost to logging and in-filling for plantations or urban development. The Nee Soon catchment contains the last substantial tract of this forest type in Singapore. We collated the rediscoveries of vascular plant species presumed Nationally Extinct in the 2nd and latest edition of the Singapore Red Data Book, and new records for the Singapore vascular plant flora from the Nee Soon catchment, including those that we found and collected through the establishment and survey of 40 vegetation plots, each 20 × 20 m. We have identified 672 species from 117 families, of which 288 are trees from 60 families represented by at least one stem ≥ 5 cm DBH. The catchment is especially species rich and abundant in the Myristicaceae. In the last ten years, 53 rediscoveries, 11 new species records, and two new varietal records have been uncovered from (or can be found in) the Nee Soon catchment. The Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest is one of Singapore's most valuable botanical areas, and warrants sustained conservation effort and study.