Endothelial function in resistance vessels entails Ca2+ and electrical signalling to promote vasodilatation and increase tissue blood flow. Whether membrane potential (Vm) governs intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) of the endothelium remains controversial. [Ca2+]i and Vm were evaluated simultaneously during intracellular current injection using intact endothelial tubes freshly isolated from mouse skeletal muscle resistance arteries. [Ca2+]i did not change during hyperpolarization or depolarization under resting conditions. However in the presence of 100 nM ACh (∼EC50), [Ca2+]i increased during hyperpolarization and decreased during depolarization. These responses required extracellular Ca2+ and were attenuated by half with genetic ablation of TRPV4 channels. In native microvascular endothelium, half‐maximal stimulation of muscarinic receptors enables Vm to govern [Ca2+]i by activating Ca2+‐permeable channels in the plasma membrane. This effect of Vm is absent at rest and can be masked during maximal receptor stimulation.


A method of communications network wireless link rate for adjusting detection, said communication network comprising at least a receiver terminal and at least one transmitter terminal, characterized in that the method at the level of the receiver terminal, said comprising the steps of: determining an amount of data by each transmitter terminal to the receiver terminal transmits each radio link; to be performed when the link detection, the detection and emission maximum amount of data corresponding to the transmitter terminal link.


As one of the important parameters of the ground combat command system, it is necessary to determine the working equation of the surface-to-air missile launch area. However, at present, most of the fitting algorithms for surface-to-air missile launch area are still at the stage of polynomial fitting and traditional BP neural network fitting. Polynomial fitting has great limitations when facing such a complex problem as surface-to-air missile launch area, with poor fitting accuracy, while the traditional BP neural network can achieve high accuracy but it is difficult to further improve it. To address these problems, a depth fitting method based on BP neural network is proposed in this paper to further improve the fitting accuracy by increasing the number of hidden layers and the number of nodes in the hidden layers. Simulation experiments show that the method fits the surface-to-air missile launch area better than the traditional BP neural network, and not only the fitting error is lower, but also the improvement of fitting accuracy is very obvious.


It is generally supposed that anterior choroiditis is caused by lues and it is regarded as being a typical symptom in congenital lues. Moreover it says in the literature that tuberculosis, sympathetic ophthalmia and lepra can, a t times, also present similar pictures. The fact that it is not unusual to find anterior choroiditis even in other forms of uveitis does not seem to have been especially observed and this might well be due to a large extent to the difficulties of examining the peripheral parts of' the fundus oculi in uveitis with more marked changes. The author's interest in the occurrence of anterior choroiditis in different forms of uveitis was aroused in 1943 whilst examining a case of benign lymphogranulomatosis with relatively acute weal changes and amongst which was a very marked, fresh anterior choroiditis. During the subsequent years, cases of uveitis were therefore examined with special regard to the possible occurrence of anterior choroiditis in either a fresh or healed state. In order to obtain a clearly demarcated material, an examination was made of the medical history sheets of cases of acute or chronic uveitis that had occurred in the eye clinics of the Karolinska and Sabbatsberg Hospitals, Stockholm during the last 10 years, irrespective of whether the cases were examined by the author personally or not. As it would seem impossible for many reasons to obtain any exact figure from this material which would show the percentage of anterior choroiditis in a material of uveitis, no note was made of the values in regard to the size of the material. It may be mentioned that the two most important reasons were, firstly


Over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL) is a communication-effective approach for achieving distributed learning tasks. In this paper, we aim to enhance OTA-FL by seamlessly combining sensing into the communication-computation integrated system. Our research reveals that the wireless waveform used to convey OTA-FL parameters possesses inherent properties that make it well-suited for sensing, thanks to its remarkable auto-correlation characteristics. By leveraging the OTA-FL learning statistics, i.e., means and variances of local gradients in each training round, the sensing results can be embedded therein without the need for additional time or frequency resources. Finally, by considering the imperfections of learning statistics that are neglected in the prior works, we end up with an optimized the transceiver design to maximize the OTA-FL performance. Simulations validate that the proposed method not only achieves outstanding sensing performance but also significantly lowers the learning error bound.


The strides that have been achieved in the realm of spinal cord injury (SCI) management are remarkable. It is likely that 90 percent of what has been recognized to date about SCI pathophysiology and treatment has emerged over the past three decades. As such, the field of SCI research has experienced an enormous evolution with preclinical studies significantly facilitating our comprehension of the pathobiologic mechanisms underlying SCI. For instance, results from pivotal basic science studies have emphasized the importance of the secondary injury mechanism, which promoted successful translation of neuroprotective interventions such as early decompressive surgery, blood pressure augmentation, and the potential use of steroids in certain types of SCI, especially cervical lesions. Yet, despite timely implementation of neuroprotective measures in the setting of acute SCI, regaining lost neurologic function continues to be a major challenge. Failure of spontaneous regeneration after SCI has been associated with the loss of multipotent progenitor cell populations, ongoing neuroglial degeneration and the inhibitory properties of the post-injury microenvironment, including the chronic astroglial scar. Our understanding of this concept has given rise to the exciting field of neuroregenerative SCI research, with a multitude of promising strategies currently on the cusp of clinical translation. Despite advances in the management of acute SCI, patients with similar pathologies demonstrate variable extents of recovery, thus indicating an increasing need to consider patient heterogeneity. Personalizing SCI management to stratify patients with the greatest potential to benefit from neuroprotective and/or neuroregenerative strategies will aid in maximizing treatment outcomes.


Text localization is the first step when automatically reading text in images. Since existing methods often fail when applied to unconstrained images, in this paper we propose a more robust approach exploiting different kind of information. In particular, we first extract textural features, a combination of a stroke filter with a super-pixel segmentation, and then search for connected components. To finally obtain a text localization, these are subsequently analyzed for unary character properties, binary character similarities, and text line properties. To demonstrate the benefits of the proposed method, we evaluate it on three different data sets, showing


Objective: We present a case of femoral artery thrombosis and acute limb ischemia in an infant following attempted femoral venipuncture. Microsurgical reconstruction of the lesion and a review of the literature are described. Methods: Insertion of intravascular catheters is a commonly performed procedure in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. However, significant iatrogenic injuries to the peripheral vascular system can occur. Management ranges from anticoagulation and thrombolytics to surgical intervention. In this case, surgical therapy involved thrombectomy and microsurgical reconstruction of the femoral artery. Results: Vascular inflow was reestablished and the limb was salvaged. Conclusions: We believe that microsurgical techniques are an important component for successful vascular reconstruction after iatrogenic artery thrombosis in an infant. Microvascular techniques allow for a controlled operating field with magnification, thereby assisting in the accuracy of vessel repair.


PURPOSE
To evaluate whether phacoemulsification is an aerosol-generating procedure (AGP) in an ex vivo experimental model.

SETTING
Sussex Eye Hospital, Brighton, United Kingdom.

DESIGN
Experimental study.

METHODS
In this ex vivo study on 15 porcine eyes, an optical particle counter was used to measure particles ≤10 µm using cumulative mode in the 6 built-in channels: 0.3 µm, 0.5 µm, 1 µm, 2.5 µm, 5 µm, and 10 μm aerosols during phacoemulsification. The two parts of the study were to: (1) assess the efficacy of the particle counter in the theater environment where there are dynamic changes in temperature and humidity; and (2) to measure aerosol generation with 3 phacoemulsification settings: (a) continuous power with 80% longitudinal (5 eyes); (b) continuous power with 100% torsional (5 eyes); and (c) continuous power with 80% longitudinal with application of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) on the ocular surface (5 eyes). Five measurements were taken pre-phacoemulsification and 5 during phacoemulsification per eye with a total of 75 measurements.

RESULTS
Maximum aerosols were captured effectively when the counter faced the aerosol source. There was no significant difference in aerosol generation of all sizes during each phacoemulsification setting with torsional, longitudinal and longitudinal with HPMC (p>001). Combining data of all 3 phacoemulsification settings (150 measurements from 15 eyes), there was no significant difference comparing pre-phacoemulsification and during phacoemulsification for aerosols ≤5µm (1455 vs 1363.85, p=0.60), >5-10μm (1.5 vs 1.03, p=0.43) and ≤10µm (1209 vs 1131.55, p=0.60).

CONCLUSION
Phacoemulsification did not generate aerosols ≤10 μm with continuous power using 80% longitudinal, 100% torsional or 80% longitudinal setting with HPMC on the surface.


On the basis of review and comment the theoretical evolution of natural resources and economic growth,several important issues about the effects that natural resources act on economic resources were discussed and analyzed.Natural resources have always been the condition and foundation for human survival,but they are not a necessary condition for long-term economic growth,although the world has entered the era of high prices of resources and the effect of resource curse doesn't disappear.The article answers why nature resources have sent Gospel to some counties and whether human beings can get rid of resource curse.The basic conclusion is that technical progress is more important than rich natural resources from long-term economics growth.


Signalized intersections can increase the vehicle stops and consequently increase the energy consumption by forcing stop-and-go dynamics on vehicles. Eco-driving with the help of connectivity is a solution that could avoid multiple stops and improve energy efficiency. In this paper, an eco-driving framework is developed, which finds the energy-efficient speed profile both up- and downstream of a signalized intersection in free-flow situations (eco-FF). The proposed framework utilizes the signal phasing and timing (SPaT) data that are communicated to the vehicle. The energy consumption model used in this framework is a combination of vehicle dynamics and time-dependent auxiliary consumption, which implicitly incorporates the travel time into the function and is validated with real-world test data. It is shown that, by using the proposed eco-FF framework, the vehicle's energy consumption is notably reduced.


The aim of this study was to review research papers with gas emission data from livestock buildings that were published between 1997 and 2015. The review focused on three gases: NH3, N2O and CH4 and two animal species: pigs and dairy cows. The results of the review are presented in different units, which makes it difficult to compare the data. For this purpose, the gas emission factors were converted to 1 LU (livestock unit = 500 kg). The median of NH3 emission factors for pigs (45.6 g·day -1·LU-1) was almost twice that of dairy cows (26.7 g·day-1·LU-1). For N2O the emission factor median for pigs (3.2 g·day -1·LU-1) was more than twice that of dairy cows (1.5 g·day-1·LU-1). Also for CH4 , the median of emission factors for dairy cows (302.5 g·day-1·LU-1) was more than three times higher than the value for pigs (85 g·day-1·LU-1). The variation in the gas emission factor values for pigs and dairy cows is large. This may be due to the following reasons: geographical location, animal species, feed composition, housing and ventilation system or time of measurements. Therefore, there is a need to continue gas emission monitoring research in order to more precisely determine the values of these gas emission factors for pig and dairy production facilities. Measurement procedures should be standardized including the number of measuring days/months, frequency of sampling, measurement equipment and unit of gas emission factor units. Using common methodology for measuring gas emission will allow better comparisons between emission factors for livestock buildings and housing systems and between countries and animal species.


The figuration of evil - whether in the person of Mr Kurtz or in the two cities, Brussels and London, that embody European civilization - in Heart of Darkness is ultimately derived from the doctrine of privative evil developed by St Augustine and absorbed by Conrad from his original and never fully renounced Catholicism. Kurtz and the imperial enterprise in Africa are consistently represented in terms of emptiness, non-entity, consuming greed and hunger, and the gravitational drift toward oblivion that Augustine calls nihilation. Marlow may see his world in Darwinian terms, but he judges it in Augustinian ones, even or especially in the absence of any belief in God that might counter the pervasive presence of evil. This essay explores the effects of that division. In the process, it places Heart of Darkness in the long tradition of Augustinian religious narrative that prominently includes two of its major sources, the Inferno and Faust.


The invention provides an elopiprazole preparation method which includes the following steps that 7-(4-chlorobutoxy)-1H-quinoline-2-ketone (6) serves as a starting material, 7-(4-chlorobutoxy)-1H-quinoline-2-ketone (6) and piperazine monohydrochloride have a mono-substituted reaction to generate a midbody 7-(4-butoxy piperazine)-1H-quinoline-2-keto-hydocholoride (13), and 13 and 4-benzo[b]thiophene (14) are prepared into a final product of elopiprazole (1) through catalytic coupling reaction. The elopiprazole preparation method has the advantages that raw materials are easy to obtain, the process is simple, operation is convenient, the total yield is high and reaches 75%, and industrial production is easy. The reaction general formula is shown in the specification.


480 In the West, the choice of peritoneal dialysis (PD) tends to be limited and extremely variable from country to country, as is shown by the incidence data recorded in dialysis registries (1,2) (Figure 1). This variability is also found between different geographical areas within countries (2–4) and from center to center, as highlighted in particular by the work of Couchoud et al. in France (3), in this issue of Peritoneal Dialysis International, and by recent publications by Kutner in the USA (5) and Viglino in Italy (4). Indeed, Kutner (5) reports that only 45.2% of 4177 centers in the USA offer PD, and Viglino that the incidence of PD in the non-pediatric public centers where it is performed (64.3%) varies from 3.1% to 82.3% (4). The above percentages are below what nephrologists believe PD's optimal penetration rate should be. Indeed, in research carried out in the USA (6), Canada (7), and the UK (8), nephrologists indicate percentages of 39.6%, 42.8%, and 44.0% as optimal for the use of PD in terms of cost-effectiveness, and 32.6%, 37.6%, and 38.0% in terms of survival rate, well-being, and quality of life, irrespective of the type of dialytic activity they were involved in (8,9). A similar result was obtained in a recent questionnaire conducted with 474 nephrologists belonging to 285 Italian non-pediatric public centers (corresponding to 87.7% of public centers) in which the optimal penetration rate of PD was put at more than 30% by 44.3% of the respondents, and 20% – 30% by 31.9% (unpublished data). The above optimal percentages for the use of PD would be higher still if they referred to incidence rather than prevalence, as the two parameters progress in parallel and the latter is generally lower due to this method's higher dropout rate compared to hemodialysis (HD). The incidence of PD reported above is also lower than would be expected on the basis of the balance of clinical and non-clinical indications and contraindications for the method reported in the literature. In a worst case scenario, in fact, this balance is negative for a choice of PD in only 23.5% of patients started on dialysis (Table 1) (10–14). Therefore, if treatment selection were conditioned by indications and contraindications alone, we would have to expect half the patients with none of these (corresponding to 38.25%) to choose PD. This is not entirely theoretical if various authors report PD selection among patients with no indications or contraindications for this modality, and adequate information on the different options as fluctuating between 47.4% and 66.0% (10,13–17; and Viglino G, unpublished data). A more analytical evaluation of the data in the literature further confirms the marginal role of clinical and non-clinical indications and contraindications in selecting PD.


The success of the enterprise in the market depends on the ability to offer goods and services more relevant to the interests and needs of consumers. It is therefore important to pay special attention to such aspects as the level of product quality, is in search of new instruments able to ensure or improve the quality and competitiveness of manufactured products. In this regard, the authors propose an approach based on the use of the quality index of the technological process, taking into account the stability of the technological process and quality of the finished product, which will guarantee the consumer stated the level of quality of manufactured products.


We agree, observations and interpretations can be better separated and this will be done in the revision. However, as there are many types of data (pressure, temperature, velocity, backscatter), it would be painfull for the reader to provide a mindless data description for each sensor, followed by a complex interpretation that will force him to go back and forth in the text and this would be impossible to write without a lot of redundant statements. The structure we keep provides data description for each sensor followed by basic interpretation of this sensor alone based on physical principles. The synthetic interpretation of these observations is now provided in the discussion section.


The paper discusses artistic portrayal of an ethnic migrant in the modern Russian drama on the example of the play "Khach" (2014) by U. B. Gitsareva. The author focuses on the way migration is described and what are the meanings that inform this social phenomenon in the play. The play`s poetics is about giving a voice to migrants and distinguishing them from the mute mass, which organically fits into general tendency of Documentary Theater. The study highlights the concept of "strangeness" ("Otherness"), which is realized here both through a spatial chronotope and artistic objectivity; identifies and systematizes discursive means and mechanisms for constructing the image of an ethnic migrant, reveals perception and attitude of the host community towards the ethnic migrants, explores characteristics attributed to him in the host environment, analyzes how the topic of public recognition is embodied in everyday language and indicates strategies for migrants to overcoming "strangeness" ("otherness"). The author also substantiates the issue`s relevance for literary research. The choice of the paper`s subject is determined by the lack of studies of the given issue in terms of the modern Russian literature. As the analysis shows the play "Khach" is a comprehensive attempt at generalization, built into both the socio-psychological and ideological context.


Hierarchical Bayesian inference is an essential tool for studying the population properties of compact binaries with gravitational waves. The basic premise is to infer the unknown prior distribution of binary black hole and/or neutron star parameters such component masses, spin vectors, and redshift. These distributions shed light on the fate of massive stars, how and where binaries are assembled, and the evolution of the Universe over cosmic time. Hierarchical analyses model the binary black hole population using a prior distribution conditioned on hyper-parameters, which are inferred from the data. However, a misspecified model can lead to faulty astrophysical inferences. In this paper we answer the question: given some data, which prior distribution--from the set of all possible prior distributions--produces the largest possible population likelihood? This distribution (which is not a true prior) is $\pistroke$ (pronounced"pi stroke"), and the associated \textit{maximum population likelihood} is $\Lstroke$ (pronounced"L stroke"). The structure of $\pistroke$ is a linear superposition of delta functions, a result which follows from Carath{\'e}odory's theorem. We show how $\pistroke$ and $\Lstroke$ can be used for model exploration/criticism. We apply this $\Lstroke$ formalism to study the population of binary black hole mergers observed in LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA's third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. Based on our results, we discuss possible improvements for gravitational-wave population models.


Ear, Nose and Throat Disease (ENT) is a common disease that is often considered a harmless disease by people, so they assume there is no need to see a doctor. But in fact, ENT disease can also provide serious disorders if not treated early and right, so the expert system of ENT is needed for early detection before the patient decided to see a doctor or not. Based on these problems, this study proposed the application of the Bayes theorem for early detection of ENT disease. The types of diseases used in this study were six types and had 22 symptoms. User inputs the symptoms of a disease, then the system will provide a diagnosis. This diagnosis can be used as an initial reference for sufferers and can be used as a reference for young doctors who are taking medical education with an ENT specialist. In this initial research, testing was carried out to calculate the computational time needed by the system to diagnose ENT disease. Based on this research, we found that the average computing time needed by the system to diagnose is 00:09:54 or Nine minutes, fifty-four seconds.


Abstract Haemoptysis is a common feature of adults with congenitally malformed hearts suffering from Eisenmenger's syndrome. While this situation is often treated conservatively, it may not settle with such treatment. A further therapeutic option for these patients is embolisation of appropriate systemic-to-pulmonary collateral arteries. We discuss here our experience in treating two such patients with different underlying anatomical substrates.


The flowers of Gliricidiasepium (Jacq). Kunth .ex .Walp of Leguminosae have been found to contain kaempferol and its glycoside of kaempferol – 3 – O– rutinoside. The structures of the above compound  have been ascertained by UV, Chemical reactions, PC,  and hydrolytic studies. The glycoside isolated from the flowers has sample anti – inflammatory activity.


Nearly in every practical part of some scientific project solution we meet demand to discover or verify a function of a developed device (instrument, sensor, etc.) This process (a measurement) is usually executed repeatedly and usually by various people. A practice shows that if we don't unify the evaluation result, especially if we have greater number of measurements (hundreds or more), it can cause its ambiguity and thereby to its depreciation. To prevent this depreciation, it is necessary jointly to interpret and to evaluate attained results - to standardize. Analysis and practical solution exploiting Microsoft Excel is presented in this paper.


In experiments of rats it was established that administration of isoniazid and rifampicin in equimolecular doses (50 and 250 mg/kg) for 14 days increased the activities of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase in the serum, enhanced lipid peroxidation in hepatocytic membranes, caused significant disturbances of bile excretion. Pyrazinamide administered in an equimolecular dose (45 mg/kg) moderately suppresses bile excretion and exerts no effect on the activity of the liver enzymes in the serum and the level of lipid peroxidation.


The development of bio-refinery industry based on biomass raw materials can solve energy crisis and improve energy structure.As an excellent crude material for bio-refinery,microalgae has characteristics of production of biofuel,biological reagent and bioactive substances.The characteristics and functions of the microalgae were introduced,the conception and the content of microalgae bio-refinery technology were outlined,fields of the microalgae bio-refinery were summarized,and the development of the microalgae bio-refinery technology was prospected.


The French national utility Electricite de France (EDF) has decided to optimise real-time grid contol by endowing each regional dispatch system with the telecontrol of its installations from a regional control centre (RCC). These use advanced man-machine dialogues for telecommands, permanent monitoring, diagnostics and post event analysis and will be operational this year


The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing two printed circuit boards with one process by attaching a forming tape to each of first and second copper clad laminates (CCL) which have copper layers of different thicknesses. The method for manufacturing printed circuit boards by an embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps of: preparing the first CCL and the second CCL which have the copper layers of different thicknesses; uniting the first CCL and the second CCL through a uniting member; forming a groove by respectively etching the upper side of the first CCL and the lower side of the second CCL; and dividing the first CCL and the second CCL into a first printed circuit board and a second printed circuit board having a metal core by separating the first CCL and the second CCL from the uniting member under a preset temperature.


In this article, we explain how mindfulness can enhance a democratic way of being, connecting practices of awareness, reflection, dialog, and action to democratic citizenship and social arrangements. We begin by sharing our understanding of democracy as a philosophy and a political system. We then provide a background for the concept of mindfulness as it is used by those in the field of education and health care and as we connect it to democracy and democratic education. We introduce a mindfulness pedagogy and use this pedagogy to develop our concept of mindfully democratic schools. We use the work of John Dewey and Paulo Freire, along with other philosophers of education, to address concerns that mindfulness is fundamentally an apolitical and individual practice rather than a social practice. We end by sharing how mindful practices are imagined and supported within democratic public schools with three vignettes from the Coalition of Essential Schools, whose vision and principles promote teachers' and students' mindfully democratic action. In doing this, we describe the types of schools that we see as necessary for our vision of democracy. We invite readers to offer their own stories of mindfully democratic schools. In this article, we explain how mindfulness can enhance a democratic way of being, connecting practices of awareness, reflection, dialogue, and action to democratic citizenship and social arrangements. Democracy itself is a contested concept, and one that we feel should remain unfinished, as democracy is always in the making (Dewey, 1916). With this in mind, we begin by sharing our understanding of democracy as a philosophy and a political system. We then provide a background for the concept of mindfulness as it is used by those in the field of education and health care and set the boundaries for how we will use the term here, as we connect it to democracy and democratic education. We introduce a threepronged mindfulness pedagogy that includes mindful teaching, teaching mindfulness, and engagement in mindful practices, and use this pedagogy to develop our concept of mindfully democratic schools. We use the work of Dewey and Freire, along with other philosophers of education, to address concerns that mindfulness is fundamentally an apolitical and individual practice rather than a social practice. Though we are Andrea Hyde is an associate professor at Western Illinois University. Andrea studies schoolbased yoga and mindfulness programs in K– 12 and higher education and relates this work to critical pedagogy and social justice education. Jim La Prad is an associate professor at Western Illinois University. His teaching and scholarship include experiential education, philosophy of education, multicultural education, and transformative educational leadership. He is the 2008 National Society for Experiential Education's Higher Education Leader of the Year. Submit a response to this article Submit online at democracyeducationjournal.org/home Read responses to this article online http://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol23/iss2/2


Firstly, developed in the years of 1930, two stage concrete is considered as a unique concreting method that is different from conventional concreting method. The first stage consists of pre-placing coarse aggregates in the formwork and the second stage consists of filling voids between aggregate particle with grout mortar of cement. In this paper, we studied the feasibility of casting two stage concrete with 100 % steel slag as coarse aggregate. In term of formulation, to adopt two stage concreting method we could minimize the risk of concrete bleeding and segregation due to high water absorption and quite high density of slag aggregate. In term of resistance, the evidence of solid cohesion between mortar phase and slag aggregate was revealed on 28 days – cured concrete specimens. And the compressive strength was measured at 28.3 MPa. From that, we discussed on the possibility of slag aggregate concrete for the purpose of large scale recycling steel slag with sustainability.


The US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), has initiated a waste management system study to identify the impacts of the presence or absence of a monitored retrievable storage facility (hereinafter referred to as ``MRS``) on system costs and program schedules. To support this study, life-cycle cost estimates and construction schedules have been prepared for the surface and underground facilities and operations geologic nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada. Nine different operating scenarios (cases) have been identified by OCRWM for inclusion in this study. For each case, the following items are determined: the repository design and construction costs, operating costs, closure and decommissioning costs, required staffing, construction schedules, uncertainties associated with the costs and schedules, and shipping cask and disposal container throughputs. This document contains A-D.


A remote-insect detection system was designed, constructed, and operated in typical southern Texas environments near fields of corn and cotton. The system electronically detected Heliothis zea (Boddie) and Heliothis virescens (F.) and automatically radio-telemetered event information to a programmed data processor (computer). Remote infrared moth detector units were installed in the field and baited with species-specific pheromone lures. A tone-coded radio frequency pulse was transmitted from the detector units when moths that responded to respective lures were detected. Numbers of moths detected were automatically collated by the computer each night at hourly intervals. The infrared detectors, associated control circuits, and radio transmitters were reliable in adverse weather conditions. The system was at least 92% accurate in counting the moths detected and was 100% accurate in reporting the detection of single moths as a first event each night. Detector-transmitter units within a field consumed a nominal 6 mW from a 6-V lantern battery that lasted about 11 mo.


Recent years have witnessed an increase in the number of academic studies on the impact of technological advancements on human life, including possible transformations and changes in human sexuality following the development of sex-related devices, such as sex robots. In this context, terms such as posthuman sexuality, digisexuality, and techno-sexuality have emerged, signaling possible new understandings of sexual, intimacy, and emotional practices. It is important to note that ancient history shows that humankind has for a long time been fascinated with their relationship to non-living things, mostly human-like figures, such as dolls. The Ningyo (人形, the Japanese term for doll) has a long history of usage, and has deep religious and animistic significance in the Japanese context—there are records of sexual use as early as the 18th century. With this context in mind, this paper focuses on three Japanese examples, aiming to shine a light on beyond-human relationships, which include a Japanese man's marriage to a digital character, sex dolls, and communicative robots, from both a sexual and emotional perspective. In a new horizon of sexual and romantic possibilities, how will humans respond, and what can emerge from these interactions?


In this study, we showed that overexpressing P450 aromatase in male mice can increase bone mass and strengthen the tibia. Probably as a result of the action of products of local estrogen biosynthesis at different stages of life, the increased bone mass in young mice was induced by decreased bone turnover, but in aged animals, it was induced by increased bone formation.


Following [NR18], we consider a re-scaled Riemann-Liouville (RL) process Z t = ∫ t 0 (t − s)H− 1 2 dWs, and using Lévy's continuity theorem for random fields we show that Z tends weakly to an almost log-correlated Gaussian field Z as H → 0, which lives in the fractional Sobolev space H− 1 2 −ε for any ε > 0 and one can also show convergence of (Z − Z)/H to some Γ ∈ H− 1 2 −ε, which we call the first order correction field. As a corollary of the previous result, we show that ξ γ (dt) = e γZ t − 1 2 γVar(Z t dt tends to a Gaussian multiplicative chaos (GMC) random measure ξγ for γ ∈ (0, 1) as H → 0. We later consider the full sub-critical phase γ ∈ [0, √ 2) using Strassen's theorem and the Shamov[Sha16] approximation theorem, and the super-critical phase γ > √ 2, using an additional independent stable subordinator as in [BJRV14] to construct an atomic GMC with the correct (locally) multifractal exponent ζ(q) = q − 1 2 γ(q − q). For the sub-critical regime, ξγ is non-atomic and locally multifractal away from zero. We also compute a new Karhunen-Loève (K-L) expansion for the RL process, for which all terms can be explicitly computed (unlike the standard Karhunen-Loève expansion which requires the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the covariance operator of the process which are not known explicitly), and we find that this new expansion gives exceptional accuracy in sampling ξγ([0, T ]) for H ≪ 1 where traditional Monte Carlo methods (Cholesky, Riemann sum etc) break down. 1


Law Number 15 Year 2004 regarding Audit of Responsibility and State Finance Management. The Act stipulates that in 2015 the Central Government and the Regional Government shall apply full accrual based accounting in the presentation of their financial statements.This study aimed to examine the influence of human resources management competency and the role of culture  on accrual accounting implementation effectiveness. The study is an applied research considering its aim, and a descriptive-survey research, considering data collection method; a structured questionnaire is used for data collection. To measure the validity of the questionnaire, content validity is studied and the reliability is estimated as 0.7 using Cronbach's alpha.Data analysis was performed by using Partial Least Square (PLS). The results showed that human resources management competency had an effect on the accrual accounting implementation effectiveness while the role of culture had no effect on the accrual accounting implementation effectiveness JEL Clasification: M10, M14, M41 Keywords : Human resources management competency, role of culture, accrual accounting implementation effectiveness,.


This study aimed to explore why there is an evident shortage of male primary school teachers within the UK. The research included the views of 64 current staff from primary schools in the South of England and used a combination of questionnaires and interviews to collect data. The data showed a number of common themes to suggest why there is a lack of male primary school teachers; working with children, salary and managerial roles within primary education.


Note 1 Luis Alfredo Garavito was tried and sentenced for the rape and killing of more than 100 children. Given that the maximum penalty in Colombia when he was tried was 40 years of imprisonment, with no mandatory minimum, it is very likely that Garavito will serve 15 years in prison. This fact and an interview broadcasted on television has led to a sort of movement asking for the increase of penalties, for the establishment of the death penalty – despite the fact that Colombia is part of the Pact of San José – and to a change in Colombian criminal law to keep Garavito behind bars. Farid Samir Benavides Vanegas Universidad Nacional de Colombia


W E are very pleased to introduce this Special Issue of TBME LETTERS on Multiscale Modeling and Analysis in Computational Biology and Medicine. We received an overwhelming response of our Call for Papers for this Special Issue with 243 manuscripts. Considering the significance of research interests in this area of high potential impact, and the large number of worthy manuscripts, we decided to publish this Special Issue in two parts. Thanks to the EMBS ADCOM and Dr. Andrew Laine, Vice President, EMBS Publications, we are pleased to present the Part-1 of the Special Issue. Part-2 of the Special Issue will be published next month. TBME LETTERS' publication is aimed at fast publication of breakthrough research at the leading edge of rapidly emerging technologies. TBME LETTERS are short papers (up to four printed pages) that are well focused on highly novel and timesensitive scientific and technological advances that have high potential impact in biomedical applications and healthcare. Our intent is to highlight ideas that have just progressed so as to have shown strong preliminary evidence of feasibility but likely before the lengthier validation studies have been performed. Recent special issues of TBME LETTERS include Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics published in September 2009, Neuroengineering and Neuroprostheses published in November 2009, Therapeutic Ultrasound published in January 2010, Multi-Parameter Optical Imaging and Image Analysis published in October 2010, and Point of Care Health Care Technologies published in March 2011.


Abstract While caregivers of older adults with dementia often report considerable levels of depressive symptoms, much less is known about depressive symptoms among family members of older adults with depression or recent delirium. As part of an ongoing randomized clinical trial testing an in-home multidisciplinary team intervention for older adults with cognitive vulnerability due to dementia, depression, and/or delirium (care recipients, or CR) and their caregivers, in this presentation we report baseline data from the first 211 dyads enrolled in the trial to determine how caregiver depressive symptom severity is related to: CR diagnoses; CR cognitive impairment severity; and CR depressive symptom severity. CR diagnostic groups: Depression Only (n=49); Dementia Only (n=61); Depression and Dementia Only (n=47); Delirium Plus (n=54). Depressive symptom severity was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; CR cognitive symptom severity was measured using the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Among CR, 57% were female, mean/sd age=77/6.9, 93% White; among caregivers, 64% were female, mean/sd age=66/13.7, 91% White, 55% spouses, 25% daughters, 9% sons. In multivariate linear regression models, which included covariates caregiver gender, relationship to CR, and number of hours/week providing care, we found that caregiver depressive symptom severity was less severe among caregivers of CR with Dementia Only compared to CR with Depression Only (b=-3.32; p=0.06); not associated with CR cognitive symptom severity; and significantly associated with CR depressive symptom severity (b=0.14; p<0.01). We conclude that family members of older adults with depression deserve greater attention to address their own depressive symptoms.


Chronic respiratory disease (CRD) and pullorum disease (PD) are important bacterial infectious diseases in poultry farms caused by Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) and Salmonella pullorum (SP), respectively. CRD and PD lead to the economic losses of poultry farms. Infected poultry can be the potential carriers to infect the healthy one. Environmental factors such as weather and management system are the predisposition factors that contribute to the CRD and PD case rate. This study aimed to detect antibody against MG and SP for recognizing MG and SP infection in layer, broiler, and native chickens from Suka bumi. The antibody detection was conducted using Rapid Serum Agglutination (RSA) technique to chicken serum samples (each group n =35). The study revealed that the seropositive results of MG and SP, were 34.29% and 2.86% in layers, 17.14% and 37.14% in broilers, 42.86% and 11.43% in native chickens. The findings showed that MG and SP can infect various kind of chickens so routine method to detect MG and SP is required. RSA as an easy, fast, low cost, and sensitive technique was capable to detect MG and SP serologically. RSA can be used to control and anticipate the climate change challenge that affects the flock health status.


Cartographic Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Tan Xiao, Wu Fang, Qian Hai-zhong, Lin yun,Chen yong Institute of Surveying and Mapping, Zheng Zhou, China Abstract River network is one of the most important distributing features group. In this paper, the knowledge in river network automatic generalization include structural river network knowledge, river properties knowledge and generalization rules, and the capturing and formalizing methods of these three knowledge are researched. Following these river network knowledge representation, it brings up a method to build up automatic generalization rules-base of river network. Because the process affects the final result directly, the PRI and weight of using rules are key points of this paper. Ordinal reasoning of production rules system is applied in the river network generalization in this paper, which bases on the known verity and reasons to the conclusion by rules. Then repeat this process, until get a result whether the river is selected. At last, a sample is designed to explain how to use this method to select rivers of a complex river network.


Abstract The use of polarization data in the measurement of instantaneous corrosion rates is described. Steel and cast iron specimens were tested in 3000 ohm-cm waters; potentials were measured by a multicom-bination meter. Potential-time studies were made on all specimens in order to determine any relationship which such studies might have to the corrosion rate. It was found that a limited empirical quantitative relationship exists between the polarization slope, ΔE/ΔI, at low current density and the corrosion rate as measured by weight loss. Such a relationship will permit a rapid empirical determination of the corrosion rates of metal specimens while they are immersed in a fresh-water environment. The effect of pH on the corrosion rate of mild steel is considered briefly. 2.3.5


The utility model relates to a architectural equipment, specifically speaking is a pvc stair antislip strip. The utility model provides a simple to operate, long service life's pvc stair antislip strip, including base and antislip strip body, be provided with the recess on the base, the antislip strip body is installed in the recess, be provided with the bayonet socket on the recess, the antislip strip body is the pvc material, antislip strip body surface is provided with surperficial rubberizing, the base is the high strength aluminum alloy material. The beneficial effects are that: the utility model discloses an antislip strip body of pvc material has a fine corrosion resistance to most of chemical composition, still has stronger waterproof nature, temperature resistant and ultraviolet resistance's characteristic simultaneously. Behind the use of surface sand, make the product have bilayer structure, have wear -resisting, ageing -resistant, fungi -proofing, fire -retardant, resistant dirty, the innocuous function of environmental protection. The pluralism of pvc material colour, it is beautifully effectual, can be made to order according to customer demands, wide application in various public occasions.


This article is dedicated to the computation of the moments of the solution to stochastic partial differential equations with log-normal distributed diffusion coefficient by the Quasi-Monte Carlo method. Our main result is the polynomial tractability for the Quasi-Monte Carlo method based on the Halton sequence. As a by-product, we obtain also the strong tractability of stochastic partial differential equations with uniformly elliptic diffusion coefficient by the Quasi-Monte Carlo method. Numerical experiments are given to validate the theoretical findings.


This paper will contain results of window‐glass breakage experiments involving sonic booms from aircraft at both low and high altitudes. Data will be presented from over 250 tests as a result of which about 50 failures were encountered. Results will be correlated with available glass‐static‐loading data and with details of the airplane shock‐wave‐pressure signatures. A high‐speed movie illustrating the manner of failure of two 3‐ft×3‐ft windows will be shown.


1. Fülöp D, Lénárd Z, Studinger P, Jokkel G, Kollai M. Pressure–diameter relation in the carotid artery during and after dynamic exercise. Joint Meeting of the Physiological Society and the Hungarian Physiological Society, May 27–29, 2000. Budapest, J Physiol 526: 146, 2000. IF: 4,727 2. Kollai M, Kováts Z, Studinger P, Lénárd Z. Carotid artery distensibility and baroreflex sensitivity are reduced in young normotensives with a parental history of hypertension. Clin Auton Res 3(11): 211, 2001. IF: 0,942 3. Kollai M, Lénárd Z, Studinger P, Mersich B, Kocsis L. Simple non-invasive assessment of the mechanical baroreflex gain. Experimental Biology, San Diego, U.S.A. 2003. FASEB J. IF: 8,817


The automatic dependent surveillance—broadcast (ADS-B) system adopts an open communication mode, and the lack of designed-in security measures in the ADS-B system makes it vulnerable to various types of attacks (jamming, spoofing, etc.). In view of the low-bandwidth and less-data-bit features of the ADS-B, this paper studies the integrity and authenticity of information by signing messages and proposes an ADS-B message authentication method based on certificateless short signature. This method uses short signature and does not require certificate management and has efficient performance. Compared with the existing approach, the computation costs of the proposed method in the signature phase are reduced by 1/2, and the signature length is reduced by 3/4. Additionally, we used the extended NS2 simulation platform to simulate 1090ES data link in different scenarios of the network; the simulation results show that our solution is suitable for minimum operational performance standard of ADS-B.


During oxidation of a lead electrode in a H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ solution at potentials between -200 and +900 mV (vs. Hg/Hg/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ electrode), an anodic layer containing tet-PbO and PbSO/sub 4/ is formed. When oxidation is conducted in the dark, PbO does not display photoelectrochemical properties. In order to constitute a photoelectrochemical system the electrode has to be photoactivated by illumination with a given quantity of light at potentials more positive than 0 mV. In this case the PbO layer converts into a PbO/sub n/ layer with 1 < n< 2. When a photoactivated electrode is illuminated, three types of photoelectrochemical processes occur. The first type leads to photoionization of lead oxide and OH/sub ad/ and O/sub ad/ are evolved at the PbO/sub n//solution interface. These processes take place at potentials between -400 and 0 mV. The second kind occurs at potentials more positive than 0 mV and leads to the formation of PbO/sub n/ and photoactivation of the oxide. The mechanism according to which these processes take place includes the formation of Pb/sup 4 +/ ions in the oxide via photochemical reactions, reconstruction of the unit cell of PbO into that of PbO/sub 2/ containing oxygen vacancies, andmore » reactions of these vacancies with water with the subsequent formation of PbO/sub n/. The third kind of photoprocesses leads to photolysis of water at the surface of the PbO/sub n/ layer with formation of O/sub 2/. 9 figures.« less


This paper is about the interpretation of tenses in conditional sentences. It focuses on a particular cluster of data centering around the observation that tenses in the consequent of a conditional can obtain a non-deictic interpretation. As we will see, there is no need for something very extravagant or new to deal with these observations. We can do with the standard analysis of indicative conditionals using quantification over possible worlds (Kratzer 1979, 1981): a conditional If A, then C is true with respect to a set of possible worlds B if C is true at all, most or few worlds in B at which A is true. This standard analysis will be combined with a similarly well-known approach towards the meaning of the English tenses: a nondeictic, relative semantics, as, for instance, proposed in Abusch (1997) and Stechow (2005). The original contribution of this paper lies primarily in how it spells out the model theory for this standard semantics, particularly in the way it models the asymmetry between closed past and open future. In contrast to the standard position based on work of Kamp (1978), the present paper formalizes the openness of the future by leaving possible worlds generally undefined for the future. This shift in the conception of the future will have consequences for the temporal properties of modal bases B that enter the semantics of modal/conditional constructions. As will be shown below, this affects the interpretation of tenses in modal/conditional constructions. In particular, it will explain the cluster of observations that the paper intends to account for. There are many questions concerning the interpretation of conditional sentences that this paper is silent on (for instance, the interpretation of aspect in conditional constructions, presupposition projection and the issue of how to model counterfactual reasoning). The decision to leave these topics out results from the conviction that these issues are independent from the specific problem the paper does address. This is also the reason for why the present proposal is worked out within a very simple semantic framework. This will enable the reader to easily fit in his/her favored approach to deal with the issues of modal/conditional semantics that (s)he is working on.


We consider parallel, context-free and context sensitive apical growth filamentous systems (in which leftmost and rightmost k symbols may be rewritten). The power of such systems is investigated as well as the power of terminal vocabulary, finite number of axioms and erasing rules.


Disclosed in the present invention are a multi-layered coating system which comprises multiple spherical voids nonuniformly distributed, separated from each other, and having radius a_1; a layer 1 including a filler material with refractive index n_1 interposed in a space between the spherical voids; and the next layers represented as a layer i, wherein i is an integer number higher than one, including multiple spherical voids located on a layer i-1, nonuniformly distributed, separated from each other, and having radius a_i, and a filler material with refractive index n_i interposed in a space between the spherical voids, and a method for manufacturing the same.


Olive is one of the most cultivated fruit trees in Croatia, particularly in its Mediterranean part - Dalmatia. The average yield is lower than 10 kg/tree, a value considered very low and attributed mostly to summer drought. The coastal areas and especially the islands are scarce with water of good quality. On the other hand, somewhat saline ground water is available in many areas, but has not yet been used for irrigation. Olive is considered moderately tolerant to salinity, and is more tolerant than many other fruit trees. The aim of this work was to identify autochthonous olive cultivars that exhibit the greatest tolerance to salinity. Five self-rooted Croatian autochthonous cultivars (Buža, Drobnica, Istarska bjelica, Lastovka and Oblica) and a Italian cultivar (Leccino) were grown in 1:1 quartz sand : perlite substrate in the greenhouse. The plants were irrigated twice a day with 1/4-strength Hoagland nutrient solution and subjected to 0, 33, 66 and 100 mM NaCl for seventy days. The effect of salinity appeared on some cultivars as early as 10 days after salinization began. During the following 50 days of salinity exposure, all the cultivars showed reduced shoot growth at high saline concentrations, particularly at the 100 mM level. At the end of the experiment the shoot growth of Buža, Leccino, and Lastovka, treated at the 100 mM level decreased the most, (i.e. 21, 36 and 37%, respectively) relative to growth obtained under control conditions. Under the same treatment, cultivar Oblica performed significantly better, obtaining 54% of the control-plants growth. In addition, Oblica accumulated the lowest amount of sodium in the leaves. Most of the cultivars differed significantly in terms of the number of nodes and leaves at the highest NaCl concentration.


Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) is a complex disorder and the complete pathophysiology is still not completely understood. PCS can be subcategorized into physiological PCS, vestibulo-ocular PCS, cervicogenic PCS, and mood-related PCS based on predominant clinical signs and symptoms. Physiological PCS is the most classic type of PCS and is due to global metabolic dysfunction in the brain which affects the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) autoregulation. This is suspected to be the cause for symptom-limited exercise intolerance which is a characteristic finding in this subtype. In this chapter we discuss the definition of PCS and the main subtypes. We further discuss possible causes for symptoms of PCS based on research that have studied this disorder using advanced imaging, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular metrics, and intracranial pressure. Finally, we discuss the treatment of PCS and the possible long-term effects.


The current study examined fungal diversity in manufactured and natural agarwood samples perceived from A. malecensis trees in a plantation and the East Malaysia rainforest. Isolated fungi were also subjected to molecular analysis. The fungal community composition of healthy and damaged tree samples from both plantation and the wild forest was identified using PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region from fungal isolates. Meanwhile, ten groups of fungi isolates are expected to be placed in both natural and inoculated based on 1000 bootstrap values. They validated earlier genomic identification; 55 fungal isolates were discovered in artificial and natural agarwood, including agarwood and healthy wood. Ten fungal groupings were developed based on morphological characterization similarities. Based on NCBI BLAST analysis, molecular identification revealed Fusarium solani, Botryosphaeria theobromae, Polyporales spp, Schizophyllum commune, Aspergillus aculeatus, and Lasiodiplodia theobromae. Fusarium solani excelled in A. aculeatus and Polyporales spp. in agarwood samples and healthy wood. The presence of more fungi species in natural agarwood than in artificial agarwood may be due to the favourable humid and shaded habitat for fungal growth. Nonetheless, synthetic agarwood was able to synthesize agarwood-related chemical compounds. Considering F. solani was often identified in both agarwood, agarwood inoculant may act as a booster for F. solani to begin pathogenicity in artificial agarwood. The current research shows that artificial agarwood may provide quality comparable to natural agarwood and is not influenced by fungus interacting with the tree.


Observations along the surface traces of active faults in California and elsewhere indicate that tectonic displacement can occur as seismic slip or as aseismic fault creep. Fault creep occurs as secular displacement and as displacement episodes, called "creep events," which last a few hours to days and include from a millimeter or less to a few tens of millimeters of displacement. Instrumental measurements of displacement versus time during creep events show that many events have a characteristic, simple form, including a steep beginning, followed by a gradual decay in the rate of displacement. Some creep events display small amounts of precursory slip, and many seem to be composed of several discrete "simple" events. Propagation of creep events along the San Andreas, Calaveras, and Imperial faults in California has been inferred from the nearly simultaneous observation of creep events at nearby creepmeters and from kinematic modeling of continuous measurements of strain during creep events. Fault creep can be viewed as arising from the interplay of three factors: stress applied to the fault from external sources; stress caused by the geometry and distribution of displacement on the fault, arising from the elastic response of the surrounding medium to the displacements within the anelastic fault zone itself; and the constitutive relations characterizing the resistance to slip on the fault. Analytic solutions are presented for a simple, rectangular dislocation, quasi-static model of nonpropagating fault creep assuming viscous and quasi-plastic (power law creep) fault zone rheology and for a multi-element (composed of several rectangular or striplike dislocation surfaces), quasi-static model assuming a viscous rheology. Viscous rheology implies solutions composed of exponentials that decay with time. The simple, one-element, quasi-plastic model is in agreement with the form of creep events observed at Melendy Ranch, California. A matrix formulation is presented to calculate dislocation stresses on a fault zone in a half-space or plate. The formulation involves the division of the dislocation surface into strips or rectangles and the use of published solutions to calculate the stress resulting from displacement on each individual element. Results from the matrix method agree with analytic results for equilibrium displacements on "stress-free" cracks. The matrix formulation is then used as the basis for a numerical method to simulate one- and two-dimensional propagating creep assuming a quasi-plastic rheology on the fault zone. Results from this method agree reasonably well with observations of afterslip from the 1966 Parkfield, 1975 Oroville, and 1979 Imperial Valley, California, earthquakes and of a propagating creep event observed along the southern Calaveras fault, central California, during July 1977. This method of analysis, and the assumption that creep at each point on the fault zone follows a power law rheology after the applied stress reaches a spatially varying yield stress, can explain the secular and episodic nature of fault creep; afterslip; the simple shape of some individual events and the multiple, composite shape of others; and the propagation of creep events. On the southern Calaveras fault, observations of propagating creep indicate a yield stress near zero at the surface and throughout much of the fault zone. However, they also indicate the presence of a zone at a depth of about 0.5 km, and about 5 km long, with a yield stress of about 15 bars (1.5 MPa). The methods of solution presented here should be applicable to many problems in the dynamics of faulting.


In 2007, global investments in R&D have increased by 7% on the previous year and have reached an absolute historical peak, exceeding for the first time the threshold of 1,100 billion dollars (calculated in the hypothesis of a purchasing power parity between the currencies). The world invests in scientific research and technological development 2.1% of the wealth it produces. At the same time, there has been an increase in the exchange of high added-knowledge value goods and high tech represents now the most dynamic sector of the world economy. In 2006 China – which for years has seen R&D expenses rising at a rate higher than 20% per year – outdid Japan and now ranks second, following United States, in the list of the biggest investors in R&D. India has overtook Great Britain and ranks sixth on that list. R&D investments in Brazil are higher than in Italy or in Spain. South Korea is investing more than Italy and Spain altogether. In 2006 Asia outdid North America for the first time and has become, among the continents, the biggest spender in scientific research and technological development. These are not occasional performances. It is rather a true polar wander, totally an overturning of opposing poles. In the past century, the scientific axis of the planet – for over three centuries permanently fixed on Europe –firstly moved to North America and now has been quickly migrating in between Japan and Chindia: the geo-cultural area that includes China, India and an array of countries on continental Asia apparently willing to take over the protagonist's role in the global economy and culture. According to estimates, in twenty or even ten years 90% of the researchers in the world will live on the Asian coasts of the Indian-Pacific ocean. The world is changing. We are entering a multi-polar society of knowledge, characterised by an extraordinary acceleration in the integration of all the world's economies – a phenomenon commonly called globalisation – and by an unprecedented season of culture and economy founded on science and on the type of technology that – as Luciano Gallino writes on these pages – «increasingly incorporates endless quantities of scientific knowledge». Science and high technology are, without any doubt, the main driving forces to the society and the economy of knowledge. Indeed, it will suffice to take a look at the economic indicators to find out that continental Asia is precisely the area where wealth is currently increasing at the fastest pace. That continent is already the top exporter of high technology in the world and China has become the first commercial partner of Europe and Australia. In this fast-running world, Europe can barely keep up the pace. Its R&D investments do not exceed 1.9% of the GDP and, probably for the first time in centuries, they are lower than the world average. This was enough to drive Sir Christopher Patten, Chancellor of the Newcastle University and of the 2 University of Oxford, to state that Europe is in a decline. Despite Europe's delay, the economy of knowledge, founded on science and technology, announces great promises. And many of these promises have already been kept. Never has the world been so wealthy. Never have so many people participated in the production of global wealth. The economy suggests – through the brute force of its figures – how important the relation with knowledge, and science in particular, is to present-day human society. Nonetheless, the mere production of new knowledge is not enough. Too many, as Joseph Stiglitz maintain, are the promises broken by globalisation, including the globalisation of knowledge. Too often are science and technology used as new factors of social exclusion. Never has the world been so wealthy, never has the world been so unequal. Never has the world been closer to a global environmental crisis caused by humankind. The economy founded on science and technology needs to be redesigned. What is needed is a democratic knowledge society, ecologically and socially sustainable.


Corruption is an action that can harm the state and can damage people's trust in the government in the country. Corruption occurs in all aspects of government due to a weak and not well controlled system. corruption results in a lack of prosperity for the country. Because this cannot be prevented by only the law regarding corruption, the government specifically pays attention to the problem of corruption by establishing ad hoc and independent institutions to eradicate corruption. The institution is expected to reduce corruption in Indonesia. In the present era corruption is manifested in various ways and types which have not been regulated in the Criminal Code as a reference for criminal law in Indonesia so that it is prone to injustice if it must continue to refer to the Criminal Code in eradicating corruption. Among these institutions is the existence of a special court for corruption which has legality in the law to be independent and without intervention giving punishment to corruptors.

Keywords: criminal act of corruption, criminal act of corruption


Summary This paper theoretically and empirically connects the literature on high-reliability organizations (HROs) to a broader set of organizations, which we call reliability-seeking organizations. Unlike HROs, which operate high-hazard technologies, reliability-seeking organizations operate in high-hazard environments. Reliability-seeking organizations are tightly coupled to their unpredictable and complex environments in such a manner that although the human mortality rate is low, the risk of small failures amplifying into organizational mortality is high. To cope with these environments, reliability-seeking organizations organize to remain open and flexible to emerging information and achieve the reliability demanded by their environments— intensity of innovation. These organizations utilize skilled temporary employees, positive employee relations, and an emphasis on training to innovate, and, in turn, generate greater financial performance. We test these hypotheses using a sample of 184 initial public offering (IPO) software firms that conducted their IPO between 1993 and 1996 and our results are consistent with our theorizing. Firms that utilized these human resource practices innovated more frequently and firms with more innovations had higher stock prices over time. Our findings combine to suggest a theoretical model of structural antecedents of a different type of reliability—intensity of innovation. Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Introduction to the abstract Window Toolkit getting started - applets and applications components containers event handling frames, menus and scrolling graphics, colours and fonts layout managers dialogs images sounds putting it all together.


The market quality and condition of grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) were compared after three heat treatments for quarantine control of Caribbean fruit flies (Anastrepha suspensa (Loew)). Treatment by forced air at 48C for 3 hours was com- pared with immersions in water at either a constant 48C for 2 hours or with a gradual increase to 48C lasting 3 hours. The immersion at a constant 48C significantly increased weight loss and promoted injury and decay while reducing firmness and color intensity after 4 weeks of storage. By more slowly heating fruit in the gradient water immersion, weight, firmness, and natural color were retained, and injury was substantially re- duced, but the incidence of decay remained high. No loss in quality resulted from treatment by forced hot air. These heat treatments had little effect on juice character- istics, although acidity was slightly reduced by each method of application. In taste tests, juice from fruit treated in water that was gradually raised to 48C was preferred over that of fruit treated at a constant 48C.


The study looked into the possibility of growing kefir grain (KG) biomass in milk whey. KG cultivation in the said medium produces a rather high (10 7 /ml) lactobacteria count. The KG biomass growth in natural whey or its blend with condensed whey is a short process (up to 3-4 d). It can be extended through recurring renewal of the nutrient medium. The largest KG biomass increase (23.13%) was achieved in natural curd whey after 3 d of cultivation. The composition of the KG protein acid hydrolysate by indispensable amino acids (IAA) is as follows (mg/100g): valine 220, isoleucine 262, leucine 444, methionine 137, lysine 376, threonine 183, phenylalanine 231, tryptophan 70; the total IAA is 1923 mg/100 g. The KG dry matter (DM) contained 33.0% raw proteins, 9% raw ashes, 1.8% raw cellular tissues, 0.2% raw fats, the following macro elements (%): K (1.65); Ca (0.86); P (1.45); Mg (0.30), and the following microelements (mg/kg): Cu (7.32); Zn (92.7); Fe (20.3); Mn (13.0); Co (0.16); Mo (0.33). Moreover, B-group vitamins were found in the KG mass: B5 ∼3mg/kg; B2 < 5 mg/kg; B1 < 10 mg/kg.


Czech models for NameTag, providing recognition of named entities.

The models are trained on Czech Named Entity Corpus 2.0 and 1.1.


Objective:analysis on the clinical effect of dry socket prevention with local application of Metronidazole tablets after extraction of various types of impacted teeth and pulpless teeth based on 984 such cases which were diagnosed during the last 10 more years in this hospital. Methods:Divide the 984 cases randomly into two groups, one of them having Metronidazole tablets placed into the tooth wound immediately after the extraction operation, and the other as the comparison group withno Metronidazole tablets applied. Results:10 cases out of the first group have mild socket infection(2%), while 51 cases out of the comparison group suffer from dry socket(10%). Conclusion:Metronidazole Tablets placed into the extraction wound of impacted teeth and pulpless teeth may provide prevention against dry socket.


By means of the split-step Fourier method, the propagation of solitons in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is numerically simulated. The results show that, the PCF can generate relatively strong intrapulse stimulated Raman scattering (ISRS), and, the higher the nonlinearity, the faster the speed of soliton fission, hence the greater the number of solitons produced at the same time. Besides, the initial chirp has a stronger influence on the ISRS in the PCF as well. A positive initial chirp can increase the red shift speed of the Raman solitons, while a negative initial chirp can work contrarily. Further more, the higher the nonlinearity of the PCF, the weaker the effect of the initial chirp.


The present invention relates to a plastic film dressing or affixing tape for skin application, comprising a plastic film layer (1) coated with adhesive (2) on one side thereof. According to the invention, anchoring elements (3) in particle form are fastened to the plastic film layer (1) over the whole of that side which has been coated with adhesive (2). The adhesive is comprised of an adhesive elastomer which has skin-friendly adhesion properties adn which surrounds the anchoring elements and has a smooth, unbroken surface on the side thereof distal from the plastic film.


The global requirements for energy are increasing rapidly as the global population increases and the under-developed nations become more advanced. The traditional fuels used in their traditional ways will become increasingly unable to meet the demand. The need for a review of the energy sources available is paramount, although the subsequent need to develop a realistic strategy to deal with all local and global energy requirements is almost as important. Here attention will be restricted to examining some of the claims and problems of using nuclear power to attempt to solve this major question.


In this paper, the use of the probabilities produced by a K-nearest neighbours (K-nn) estimator as confidence measure is investigated in an hypothesis verification post-processing scheme. The objective is to classify as correct or incorrect the outputs of a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) /HMM speech recognition system. Four confidence measures based on the K-nn probability estimator are introduced. Preliminary experiments are reported and discussed on the TIMIT database.


Why is it necessary at this time to articulate a position on the "expanded" role of the nurse? It is true that for some time now there has been a notable public outcry against fragmented and expensive health care, as well as increased public awareness of appropriate and satisfactory health care. The question, however, remains whether or not an expanded nursing role will have the desired impact on the health care delivery system. In other words, if nurses share a greater responsibility in heretofore medical procedures will public demands be more effectively met?
 The question must also be raised as to whose role is expanding. For many years registered nurses in special settings have performed what are now seen as "expanded" functions. In remote areas, as well as other situations when a physician is not available, nurses have engaged in patient assessment and carried out primary care. One issue which seems to be open for debate now is whether or not nurses are to engage in primary care in settings when the physician is present and if, in fact, this will solve the health care delivery system dilemma. Perhaps, another alternative might be to lift the medical school student quotas which would bring many more doctors into the labor force; of course, with the well known economic consequences to the medical profession.


Over the past decade, lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) have been widely applied in consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Polymer electrolytes (PEs) play an essential role in LIBs and have attracted great interest for the development of next‐generation rechargeable batteries with high energy density. Due to the several practical applications of LIBs and high demands for LIBs performance, many state‐of‐the‐art PEs with different structures and functionalities have been developed to regulate the LIBs performance, especially their rate capability, cycling durability, and lifespan. In this review, the recent advances in high‐performance LIBs prepared using well‐defined PEs are summarized. The ion‐transport mechanisms and preparation techniques of various well‐defined PE classes compared to conventional PEs are also discussed. The aim is to elucidate the structure code for advanced PEs with optimized properties, including ionic conductivity, mechanical properties, processability, accessibility, etc. The existing challenges and future perspectives are also discussed, setting the basis for designing novel PEs for energy conversion applications.


In this paper,the fruit of apple(Malus domesdica Borkh.) cultivar "Fuji" were used to investigate the activity of lipoxygenase(LOX) during fruit development,ripening,and post-harvest regulated by ethylene.The results indicated that the LOX activity was obviously high in a month later after anthesis and harvesting,and the variation trend looked like a letter of "V",which showed that LOX not only related with fruit ripening and senescence,but may play an important part during cell division and enlargement.LOX activity in apple treated by 1-MCP(1-Methycyclopropene) after harvesting were significantly inhibited.On the contrary,ethephon,an Ethylene releasing agent,could promote the fruit LOX activity.Correlation analysis showed that the LOX activity had significant positive linear correlation with ethylene at 0.01 levels.In conclusion,the LOX activity was regulated by ethylene,and LOX participated in fruit softening process.


This paper addresses the dichotomy that exists in the analysis of wireless channels, which exists between employing: the tractable Shannon capacity bound and the accurate simulated capacity of modulation and coding schemes (MCSs). By considering the effects of mutual information saturation in modulation schemes and the efficiency of error correction codes, the paper proposes a new tractable capacity expression that can accurately represent any MCS and adaptive combinations. To demonstrate this methodology, the paper considers the adaptive MCS capacity for the Long-Term-Evolution (LTE) system. The potential benefit is that system-level optimization can employ the more accurate capacity expression. In the second part of the paper, the proposed capacity expression is applied to optimize power allocation to the parallel channels of a MIMO system. The results show that when mutual information saturation occurs, neither the water-filling nor channel inversion schemes are optimal. In fact the optimal power allocation is a combination of the two aforementioned schemes, switching adaptively between their relative merits.


The federal income tax has been under attack by the economics profession for more than a decade. The attack comes from two directions: supply-siders who believe that progressive income taxation impairs economic incentives,' and more traditional economists who would substitute a progressive expenditure tax for the income tax.2 At one time, support for the expenditure tax was confined to a few members of our profession, including such distinguished names as John Stuart Mill, Irving Fisher, Nicholas Kaldor, and James Meade. Today, it is fair to say that many, if not most, economists favor the expenditure tax or a flat rate income tax. This group has joined the opponents of progressive taxation in the attack on the income tax. Despite an incessant barrage from both groups, no country in the world is planning to abandon the income tax or is even considering a personal expenditure tax. A wave of tax reform, beginning with the U.S. reform in 1986, has been sweeping the world, aimed at improving the income tax, not at eliminating it. Tax preferences formerly regarded as sacrosanct are being removed and there is a distinct movement toward comprehensive income taxation.3 However, individual income tax rates are being cut, tax progressivity has been declining almost everywhere, and reliance on the income tax has been diminishing. It will come as no surprise to this audience that I approve of the base-broadening feature of the current tax reform movement, but I believe that the reduction in the redistributive effect of the income tax has gone too far. In this paper, I shall show that the progressivity of the U.S. tax system-never very pronounced, except during and immediately after the two world wars-has been declining for more than two decades and that the Tax Reform Act of 1986 reversed this decline, but only slightly. Consequently, we have a long way to go to improve the equity of the tax system. I believe this can be done without punitive tax rates that will hurt economic incentives. I begin with a brief review of recent changes in the U.S. distribution of income and follow this with an analysis of the effect of taxes on the income distribution. I next examine arguments for and against the income tax, with particular emphasis on its effects on economic incentives and its merits when compared with the expenditure tax. I then evaluate the income tax as it emerged from the 1986 tax reform and conclude with tJoseph Pechman passed away on August 19, 1989. His Presidential address was delivered at the onehundred second meeting of the American Economic Association, December 29, 1989, Atlanta, Georgia. *Joseph A. Pechman, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036. I have benefited from the comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper by Henry J. Aaron, Richard Goode, Jane G. Gravelle, Robert W. Hartman, Donald W. Kiefer, Herbert E. Klarman, Robert D. Reischauer, Clifford M. Winston, and H. Peyton Young, but they should not be held responsible for the views expressed in this paper. I am indebted to Richard Kasten for various simulations. I am also grateful to Stephen J. Kastenberg for research assistance and to Diane A. Shugart, Valerie M. Owens, and Sara C. Hufham for secretarial assistance. 'Some of the more extreme supply siders argued that large tax cuts pay for themselves (see, for example, Laffer, 1981), but I believe it is fair to say that this view has been totally discredited. For a more reasonable supply-side view, see the Economic Report of the President 1982. 2See, for example, Michael J. Boskin (1978), David E. Bradford (1980), Charles L. Ballard, Don Fullerton, John Shoven and John Whalley (1985), Paul Courant and Edward Gramlich (1982), Martin Feldstein (1978), Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka (1985), John Kay and Mervyn King (1983), Charles McLure (1987), Mieszkowski (1980), and Lawrence Summers (1981). It is interesting that the recent popularity of the expenditure tax among economists was stimulated by a tax lawyer, William D. Andrews (1974). 3See Pechman (1988).


The Enigma of the Pseudogap Phase of the Cuprate Superconductors (Debanjan Chowdhury and Subir Sachdev) Resonant Spin Excitations in Unconventional Heavy Fermion Superconductors and Kondo Lattice Comppounds (Peter Thalmeier and Alireza Akbari) Quantum Critical Heavy Fermion Metal Ybrh2si2 (Gertrud Zwicknagl) Universality and Convergence of Energy Scales at Quantum Critical Points in Local and Lattice Models (A C Hewson, D J G Crow and Y Nishikawa) Unparticles in Strongly Correlated Electron Matter (Philip W Phillips) Fidelity Approach to Quantum Phase Transitions in Quantum Ising Model (Bogdan Damski) Dynamics of Quantum Phase Transitions: Quantum Kibble-Zurek Mechanism (Jacek Dziarmaga) Theory of Temporal Fluctuations in Isolated Quantum Systems (L Campos Venuti)


The benefits of panel data are well-documented but missing data problems are often more severe. In particular, units that respond in the first wave may drop out of the panel after one or more periods of participation. This paper focuses on identification and Maximum Likelihood estimation of panel data models when the process that governs this so-called attrition is possibly non-ignorable. In that case, conventional estimation procedures are inconsistent. We derive a multi-period nonparametric identification result and propose estimation by an EM-algorithm that exploits the availability of refreshment samples, consisting of new units randomly drawn from the original population. This additional data source reduces the informational incompleteness of the unbalanced panel in case of non-ignorable attrition. The algorithm is stated in terms of a general population model. Issues related to specific standard panel data models are discussed seperately. Problems caused by partially observed time-varying covariates are addressed along the way.


With the exception of the Sierra-Cascade mountain ranges, the Rocky Mountain chain is the only portion of the western United States that consistently yields more than 3 cm of flow annually. Ten to 15 percent of the land mass in the region produces the majority of the total flow.

This paper addresses the opportunities for increasing flow through forest manipulation, and summarizes the research base that has yielded the current "state of the art" understanding of how snow pack and vegetation management can influence water yield. The optimal harvest design appears to consist of small openings, irregularly shaped, and about 3 to 8 tree heights in width parallel to the wind.


Nowadays networked systems have become widely spread. Computer networks are not only important for businesses and entertainment, but also for specific safety-critical applications. One important example of a special-purpose network for such safety-critical applications are the Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) networks, which have been patented by Airbus. These networks require guarantees about their performance, and Deterministic Network Calculus (DNC) has been used to certificate them. An important characteristic is that their data flows are defined as Virtual Links (VL), which can be multicast. However, for a long time DNC was not able to properly analyse such flows. This limitation was previously circumvented by making overly pessimistic assumptions about the demands of the flows in the network. Although valid, this kind of analysis leads to over-provisioning of the network, that in turn means unnecessary increases in cost. In this work, we discuss the two most performant DNC multicast analysis methods presented in the literature. These are the Explicit Intermediate Bounds (EIB) and the Multicast Feed Forward Analysis (MFF). We compare both algorithms to the Unicast Transformation (UT) technique to analyse multicast flows regarding the quality of the bounded delay. We also compare both algorithms to each other, and offer an comparative analysis of their performances.


We consider a 2-component standby redundant system in which the life times of the compbnents follow abivariate exponential distribution. It is shown that the formation of such a system yields an increasing failuberate system life time. Finallya related stress - strength model is propbsed and analysed.


Cloud is a relatively new concept and emerging technology. The information assurance, data protection, network security and privacy concerns have yet to be fully resolved. Cloud is offering different services to its users. Data sharing between two organizations is common in many application areas. Current data sharing and integration among various organizations require a central and trusted authority to collect data from all data sources and then integrate the collected data. In today's trend, there is need of data sharing while preserving privacy in cloud. With cloud computing, it is necessary for data to be not only stored in the cloud, but also shared across multiple users. For this purpose many different data sharing techniques are developed in cloud environment.


Performance analysis of model predictive control (MPC) laws for constrained linear periodic systems with asynchronous timing constraints on input channels is considered. The problem boils down to performance analysis of autonomous periodic piecewise affine (PWA) systems of time-dependent state dimension. A periodic reverse reachability algorithm that constructs the explicit periodic piecewise quadratic (PWQ) running cost function over the region(s) of attraction of the origin is described. Available explicitly, the running cost function enables exact and rapid performance evaluation of the system as a whole, and facilitates the strategic optimization of an asynchronous controller's initial condition, while circumnavigating the need to perform a large number of simulations.


The crystal structure, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of Pb0.90(LaxLi1-x)0.10Zr0.65·Ti0.35O3 systems are investigated, where the valence charge of (LaxLi1-x) complex ions changes from 2.5+ to 1.0+. The crystal structure of these compositions is comfirmed as the rhombohedral phase of perovskite structure, however, the true symmetry of Pb0.90Li0.10Zr0.65·Ti0.35O3 composition is not comfirmed. The highest value of remanent polarization (Pr) and electromechanical coupling factor (kt) are obtained for Pb0.90(La0.5Li0.5)0.10Zr0.65·Ti0.35O3 ceramics, and these values are about 25 µC/cm2 and 60%, respectively. The electrical resistivity of Pb0.90La0.1Zr0.65Ti0.35O3 ceramics shows a sharp drop in the temperature range from 20 to 45°C. Dence and good quality ceramics are formed with the average valence-charge of more than 2+.


• Ischemic stroke (IS) patients with cancer showed different distribution of common cancer types with adenocarcinoma being the most common histology. • Adenocarcinoma patients showed different relations with conventional stroke risk factors and multi territorial infarction was more common. • IS patients with cancer had poor mortality outcome and it was influenced by systemic metastasis, multi-territorial infarction and initial neurological severity. Brain Neurorehabil. 2019 Sep;12(2):e9 https://doi.org/10.12786/bn.2019.12.e9 pISSN 1976-8753·eISSN 2383-9910


Not all graduates of English Education Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Universitas Muria Kudus work as teachers or in the field of education. The objectives of this research are: 1) to explore the motivation of the students in choosing English Education Department Universitas Muria Kudus, 2) to test the significance of the difference between the academic achievements of integrative-motivated students and those of instrumental-motivated students. The design of this research is qualitative-quantitative with motivation as the independent variable and academic achievement as the dependent variable. Questionnaire was used to collect the data from 81 students as the subjects of the research. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to achieve the first objective and t-test was used to achieve the second objective. The results of the research show that: 1) the dominant motivation of the students in choosing English Education Department Universitas Muria Kudus is integrative; 2) there is a significant difference of academic achievement of the instrumental-motivated students and that of integrative-motivated students, that is, the academic achievement of the students who have integrative motivation is better than that of the students who have instrumental motivation.


On the basis of measured data and systematic analysis of subsidence influencing factors, the calculation model of subsidence coefficient in mining area is established by artificial neural network(ANN) technology and the network model is trained and tested by the spot data. The results show that the subsidence coefficient calculated with improved back propagation arithmetic is consonant with the practice.


Objective: to study the influence of etiological factors on the possibility of the formation of organic personality disorder. Materials and methods: 80 patients with organic personality disorder were examined. The control group was represented by 82 healthy volunteers. Research methods: anamnestic, clinical, and statistical. Results: it was established that heredity aggravated by mental illness, alcoholization and drug addiction of relatives of different kinship lines, perinatal pathology factors associated with the child, diseases suffered in childhood (infectious diseases, etc.), which resulted in severe outcomes in the early stages of treatment in the form of hospitalizations or other complications in the form of pneumonia, bronchitis, etc., convulsive conditions, traumatic brain injuries received in childhood, reveal a reliably significant probability for the occurrence of organic personality disorder. The effect factor of operative interventions performed under general anesthesia in childhood did not show a statistically significant effect. Conclusions: heredity, perinatal pathology, some diseases suffered in childhood, convulsive states and various types of traumatic brain injury significantly increase the likelihood of organic personality disorder.


The Passions and the Interests is an extraordinarily agreeable essay in the history of ideas. It is learned without being ponderous, and manages to raise in the course of 130 pages more questions than most of us could obscure in twice as many. It displays a sort of intellectual affection for ideas and their authors-especially for French ideas and French authors-which contributes a great deal to its liveliness and persuasiveness alike. And it makes a series of points about the intellectual climate of rising capitalism that are striking in themselves, and at the lowest estimate, force one to adjust one's Weberian, Marxian


An analogy for the principle of separation by mass spectrometry has been developed that uses the overhead projector. Metal spheres are rolled down an inclined Plexiglas sheet which has a magnet underneath. The spheres are deflected as they roll down the incline. The degree of deflection is inversely related to the mass of each sphere.


We have been developing a novel Wafer Level Packaging technology which has a possibility of lowering WLP cost drastically by applying some JISSO techniques to WLP manufacturing processes [1]. In short, our idea is laminating a Cu wafer having Cu bumps to a Si wafer in which LSIs are formed with a nonconductive thermosetting resin. The process flow of the novel WLP technology is as follows; 1. Cu bump formation by wet etching of a Cu wafer 2. Ni/Au plating both on top of the Cu bumps and Al electrodes on Si wafer 3. NCF (Non Conductive Film) laminating to a bump side of the Cu wafer 4. Laminating (thermo compression bonding) of Cu and Si wafer after alignment 5. Re-distribution wiring formation by wet etching of the Cu wafer 6. PSR laminating, solder ball mounting, and dicing In this work, fine pitch connection (less than 100um) for the novel WLP technology has been investigated. To achieve it, there are two major issues; Cu thickness before redistribution wiring formation, and misalignment between Cu bumps and LSI electrodes. As for the Cu thickness, less than 20um is required for the fine pitch re-distribution formation, and should be more than 40um at the laminating process because of handling property (easy to convey, avoiding wrinkle or scar). To solve the mismatch of the thickness, we established a process flow in which 40–50um thick Cu is laminated with Si, Cu is wet etched down to 10–20um, then re-distribution is formed. To reduce the misalignment, we made a thermal expansion model and extracted an equation which determines an optimum offset value for any laminating conditions. By using the equation, misalignment within a wafer was reduced to less than 15um. Applying the above, good electrical connection was confirmed with fine pitch of less than 100um (60–80um). In addition, thermal stress analysis was applied to a structure of a WLP mounted on a PCB. As a result of the analysis, cumulative equivalent inelastic strain of solder ball, which connects the WLP and the PCB electrode, during temperature cycling test of our novel WLP structure was less than that of the conventional Cu post type WLP. It shows that the novel WLP structure has good stress relaxation property and board level reliability.


For the distribution of spare parts to car dealers, many automotive companies use a transport network of intermediate hubs or transport platforms, operated by a set of third-party logistics (3PL) partners. The optimization of this network, particularly the selection of 3PL providers and corresponding transport platforms, is a complex decision that needs to be supported by appropriate software tools. In this paper, we develop such a tool, implement it, and show its results on a real-life case study provided by Toyota. The tool is currently in active use at Toyota to study and improve the distribution of spare parts in Germany.

Using a tabu search metaheuristic, the developed tool essentially solves a large location-routing problem, but has several innovative features to increase its usefulness. First, the tool generates a set of high-quality but structurally different solutions, rather than a single one. This increases Toyota's negotiating power, increases its ability to analyze its current transport network against possible alternatives, and allows it to quickly switch between different transport networks if unexpected events occur. Second, a commercial vehicle-routing solver is integrated into the tool, to allow for a far more realistic modeling of the vehicle-routing decision.


Efforts about enhancement of emergency management for commercial vessels include training, updating of rules and technological improvements. Experienced ship accidents and emergency situations demonstrated that emergency management has not reached yet the intended level. In this study, a detailed literature review regarding emergency preparedness will be conducted. According to information that will be gained from expert opinions and literature review, simulation approach integrated with factor analyses will be offered about evaluation and improvement of emergency management effectiveness for ship management. In this study, it is aimed to contribute to evaluation of emergency preparedness level of each ship in the fleet of ship management companies.