In the last 10 years, nanofiber structures fabricated by electrospinning technology have received a lot of attentions as a scaffold for tissue engineering. Electrospinning is a technique for the nanofiber production with diameters of nanomicro scale. In this study, three-dimensional hybrid scaffold was fabricated by nano-micro precision deposition system. Hybrid scaffold was combined in micro scaffold using solid freeform fabrication technology and nanofiber using electrospinning. In the process, micro scaffold was fabricated by 200 mm/sec of scan velocity, 110˚C of temperature and 650 kPa of pressure using solid freeform fabrication technology. For the electrospinning process, nanofibers were obtained from the flow rate of 0.1 ml/min, the voltage of 5 kV, and the needle tip and grounded collector of 1 cm. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is mixed with 10 wt% in chloroform solvent. Hybrid scaffold was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, Tescan VEGA II LMU, Czech) for the observation of successful fabrication result. In near future, we will proceed with cell experiments and compressive test machine for the hybrid scaffold.


More than half of the world's population of over six billion people reside in urban areas, placing increasing responsibility on governments to provide fundamental human necessities, including housing. This challenge is particularly pronounced in Kenya, where many County Government PPP affordable housing initiatives have either failed or been stalled. Both National and County Governments have experienced difficulties in executing these projects, reflecting the nascent stage of PPP application in many underprivileged countries. In Meru County, the Affordable Housing Project (AHP) employs PPP, primarily in the form of joint ventures. This approach distinguishes it from other existing projects and generates a knowledge gap regarding the assessment of the impact of public-private partnerships on the implementation of affordable housing initiatives in this region. The aim of this research was to explore the effects of stakeholder's management in public private partnership on implementation of affordable housing projects in Meru County, Kenya. Guided by stakeholder theory, the study employed a descriptive research design, collecting data through a structured questionnaire. A proportionate stratified random sampling method was used to select the study sample from County officials, non-governmental organization managers, development partners' managers, and household heads from selected study areas where the projects have been initiated, notably in the Buri, Maweni, Mjini, and Makandara wards. A total of 395 questionnaires were issued to the sampled respondents from a total target of 31978 who included the stakeholders in affordable housing project estates in Meru County that included county official managers in DoLPH (15), NGO's managers (25), development partners' managers (5) engaged in affordable housing and household heads (350). The collected data was analyzed and results presented in tables and figures, the qualitative information was presented in prose.


Administration of lithium entrapped in phospholipid liposomes increased the lithium‐induced polydipsia, but did not accelerate the onset of this effect. It also resulted in a larger accumulation of lithium in the liver, kidney and spleen, but not in the brain. The time course of polydipsia suggests that it depends on the intracellular lithium concentration. However, the rate of development of this effect depends on some additional factor.


This paper deals with the development and operation of a mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) desalination system with improved energy efficiency in harnessing wind energy, which is non‐dispatchable. Its design, construction, and operation details are presented in this paper. Especially, the main focus of developing the system was on the operation of the system in conjunction with variable loads of new and renewable power sources, in particular, varying wind power. That is, the present work has been carried out to assess the feasibility of its operation in light of capacity modulation to match the power generated under various wind speeds. Optimal operation modes of the system were studied, in which single‐ and double‐effect operations were analyzed for their improvement in energy efficiency.


The paper states the necessity about founding the enterprise ATM network at present, discusses some features of the enterprise ATM network and some points for attention in founding the enterprise ATM network, and introduces the real technology in founding aha enterprise ATM network under existing conditions.


BMS‐204352 is a novel maxi‐K channel opener that is being developed for the treatment for stroke. The current study was designed to evaluate the plasma and brain pharmacokinetics of BMS‐204352 in rats, in particular, assessing the effect of dose and input rate on brain penetration of BMS‐204352. Rats (3 animals/group/time point) received a single intravenous dose of BMS‐204352 as 5 mg/kg bolus, 5 mg/kg 30 min infusion, 5 mg/kg 60 min infusion, and 10 mg/kg bolus dose, into the jugular vein. Terminal blood (for plasma) and brain samples were collected for up to 9 h post‐dose and samples were analyzed for the concentrations of intact BMS‐204352 using a validated liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectrometric method (LC/MS/MS). As dose increased from 5 to 10 mg/kg, both BMS‐204352 Cmax and AUC values increased in plasma and brain, somewhat greater in proportion to the increment in dose. Whereas the peak concentrations of BMS‐204352 were affected by infusion time, overall AUCs were comparable across the bolus and infusion groups. Terminal disposition (T‐half ranged from 1.6 to 2.7 h) of BMS‐204352 was unaltered as a function of input rate. BMS‐204352 crossed the blood–brain barrier with brain‐to‐plasma (B/P) ratios of approximately 7–11. Brain‐to‐plasma ratios appeared to be independent of dose and infusions produced somewhat higher brain penetration (B/P of ca. 11) as compared to bolus (B/P of ca. 7–8) dose. The decline of BMS‐204352 in the brain paralleled that of plasma independent of the input rate and dose. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The unique properties of terahertz (THz) waves such as low photon energy, fi ngerprint spectral range for molecules, and transparency to some optically opaque materials, have found them promising for many potential applications in imaging, security, astronomy, and spectroscopy. [ 1–4 ] High-resistivity fl oat-zone single-crystal silicon (HRFZ-Si) [ 5 ] is the most transparent isotropic crystalline dielectric material in the THz frequency range and is thus widely used in THz optics. [ 6–9 ] The reported propagation loss is as low as 0.01 cm −1 for HRFZ-Si of 10 k Ω cm resistivity, and the refractive index is essentially a constant of ≈3.4175, showing remarkably little dispersion from 0.5 to 4.5 THz. [ 5 ] However, its large refractive index mismatch to air results in a large refl ectance of 30% at the Si/air interface. This not only introduces undesired Fabry–Perot (FP) interference fringes in the transmission spectrum which leads to a problematic data post-processing task but also lowers the time-averaged total transmittance to 54%. Antirefl ection (AR) coatings, as required in many optical components and applications, are especially necessary for Si-based optical components operating at THz frequency range. Commercial THz quarter-wave AR coatings made from multi layer polymers can improve the transmittance up to 90% but with limited bandwidth, typically less than 1 THz. They cannot meet the requirements in broadband THz pulse and multiple wavelength cases. Ultrathin chromium [ 10,11 ] and nanostructured gold [ 12 ] fi lms have been reported as effi cient AR coatings in the THz range, which employ the impedancematching concept for effective refl ection suppression. The fi lm thickness for perfect AR is typically a few nanometers, which is limited by the properties of natural materials and hard to be controlled precisely. The quality and repeatability of ultrathin


In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, together with seventeen goals that are collectively called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study examined the effects of non-financial microfinance services on human capital development of clients and discusses its implications on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The case is drawn from Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT), which is a microfinance institution of Ghana. Primary data were collected from 361 clients in seven districts of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. The results of the ordinary least square (OLS) regression showed that non-financial services offered by SAT had positive significance on human capital development of the clients. This finding shows how additional services from microfinance institution could help clients to maximise the value of loans offered to support income-generating economic activities. For clients, the study also draws attention to the need for them to take non-financial services offered by microfinance institutions seriously to improve on their own human capital development in the context of the SDGs.


The community need and interest which are getting higher towards fashion world make fashion in the world develop rapidly. Fashion world development influences women one of which in party fashion. Party is one of events that usually carries certain fashion either formal or semi formal, until it is not surprising that women dress and choose clothes carefully. Many party fasion worn by community with various types of materials but they do not have their own typical yet. It can be seen from the emergence of party fashion design that is mostly offered in the market. Based on the phenomenon developing in the community and the development of textile industry especially in Bali then it is necessary to create certain innovation in creating party fasion made of Bali traditional textile namely by using Bali endek woven fabric. The methods used were observation, interview, and literature study. This creation aims to preserve and protect Bali endek cloth that is a creative cultural heritage of Bali community and this research aimed to improve the economy and prosperity of Bali community. Besides, innovation of party fashion made of Bali traditional cloth is necessary to produce fashionable clothes.


North Korea's defence-export industry remains both active and profitable. Dissuading capitals from doing business with Pyongyang will require special attention to the clients' specific circumstances.


The paper introduces an ideal simulation tool of networked control systems-TrueTime toolbox based on Matlab/Simulink,which can give an synthetic simulation for network delay,network parameters,system performance,control method and so on.By using the TrueTime toolbox,a testing platform for networked control systems is proposed,and then,connecting with the concrete examples,the simulation of ethernet network and token ring network is carried out.The simulation results show that this toolbox is an effective tool to realize simulation for networked control systems and the characteristics of ethernet network and token ring network are verified significantly.


ABSTRACT Bavarian intellectual Franz Xaver von Baader (1765–1841) counts among the most prominent representatives of German Romanticism, although his name and fame have almost been forgotten. Baader was a key figure among the Romantic scene and an ardent defender of Catholicism in the aftermath of Enlightenment criticism on the Christian faith and tradition. Most interesting is that he did not construe his apologia on the basis of rational considerations only, as a counterattack as it were, but that he took a point of departure in a peculiar understanding of love. According to Baader, love is a concept and a reality which allows one to imagine the relation between creature and Creator and which intriguingly combines the distinctively human with the uniquely divine. In the present paper, I am continuing in the line of Ramón Betanzos' outstanding study on Baader's idea of love and argue that his intuitions reveal a solid synthesis of theological and philosophical insights which today is definitely worth reconsidering. In order to do that in an orderly fashion, I primordially focus on his concept of permeability and explore its metaphysical, epistemological and anthropological potential.


Review(s) of: China, the United States and 21st century sea power: Defining a maritime security partnership, Edited by Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein and Nan Li, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 2010.


This article gives an overview of current trends in the passenger rail transit industry. While the past few years have been rough on the transit rail agencies, the future is looking brighter. Transit ridership was up around 2 percent in 2004 compared to 2004, and the first quarter of 2005 showed a continuing rise. The passage of the 2005 SAFETEA-LU legislation will bring in $286.5 billion for transit and highway projects over the next six years, including $52.6 billion for public transportation projects. The article reports on thirty seven transit agencies, organized by states. For each agency, it identifies the region served, then lists route miles, rolling stock, annual ridership, budget or annual operating and capital costs, and number of stations. It then gives a brief overview of the particular agencies upcoming plans and projects. The article also includes a section with charts and tables showing rail route mileage and the status of future projects, as well as the average weekday unlinked passenger trips by mode for 2003.


A wave front aberration measuring apparatus comprises light splitter for splitting a light beam to be measured into a first light beam and a second light beam, a first converter for deflecting the first beam by 180 DEG and laterally displacing the advancing direction thereof, a second converter for deflecting the second beam by 180 DEG and laterally displacing the advancing direction thereof, an interference fringe former for superposing the first and second beams guided by the first and second converters to form interference fringes and an interference fringe observing device for measuring or observing the state of the interference fringes obtained by the interference fringe former to discriminate the state of the wave front of the light beam to be measured from the state of the interference fringes, wherein at least one of the first and second converters is rendered movable with respect to the light splitter.


Summary One of the key modules in a typical reverse engineering system is the integration of multiple range images of three-dimensional objects with complex geometry. In the Part I of this article [1], we have presented a self- made optical digitizer that is employed for quickly acquiring range data of the objects from multiple views, and introduced a visualized registration procedure that can provide a reliable estimate for the fine registration of multiple range images in a unified coordinate system. Here we propose a new approach for merging multiple range images to build up a complete geometric model of the objects in 3-D space. This approach is based on the segmentation of a pair of range images using the concepts of "double stitching lines", as well as a constrained local triangulation process. Experiment results are presented to show the effectiveness of this approach in 3-D imaging and modeling for the applications of reverse engineering.


FPGA that utilizes via-switches, which are a kind of nonvolatile resistive RAMs, for crossbar implementation is attracting attention due to higher integration density and performance. However, programming via-switches arbitrarily in a crossbar is not trivial since a programming current must be provided through signal wires that are shared by multiple via-switches. Consequently, depending on the previous programming status in sequential programming, unintentional switch programming may occur due to signal detour, which is called sneak path problem. This problem interferes the reconfiguration of via-switch FPGA, and hence countermeasures for sneak path problem are indispensable. This paper identifies the circuit status that causes sneak path problem and proposes a sneak path avoidance method that gives sneak path free programming order of via-switches in a crossbar. We prove that sneak path free programming order necessarily exists for arbitrary on-off patterns in a crossbar as long as no loops exist, and also validate the proof and the proposed method with simulation-based evaluation. Thanks to the proposed method, any practical configurations of via-switch FPGA can be successfully programmed without sneak path problem.


Objective To assess the performance of self-developed biochemical testing system and standard testing by detecting different biochemistry items with bias estimation and method comparison.Methods According to National Committee for Clinical laboratory Standards(NCCLS)document EP9-A2,a comparation between three systems was performed by detecting different items.The system bias between three systems was evaluated by the correlation coefficient and the linear equation.The results of different systems were judged according to the total error analysis of 1/2 clinacal laboratory improvement amendment 88(CLIA′88).Results All items showed comparability between self-developed biochemical testing systems and standard testing system.Conclusion The results of self-developed biochemical testing systems and standard testing system show comparabiliy well.


Abstract The use of volar locking plates (VLPs) for distal radius fractures has remarkably improved clinical outcomes; however, there are some reports of delayed recovery of grip strength. Since January 2019, we have been conducting an early and proactive grip strength training program (EGTP). In this program, 20 minutes of grip strength training—using a gripper with a load of 0.7 kg—was initiated from 2 weeks after surgery; the load was then gradually increased. From 6 weeks postsurgery, daily home grip strength training was performed using a gripper with a load of 5 kg, provided to the patient. We investigated whether the introduction of the EGTP could lead to earlier recovery of grip strength. We also examined whether the EGTP caused postoperative correction loss at the fractured site, or contributed to the early improvement of wrist function. Thirty-nine patients who underwent surgery using VLPs for distal radius fractures were included in this study; 20 followed the EGTP (EGTP group) and 19 patients did not (NGTP group). For these patients, grip strength and range of motion of the wrist joint were evaluated both 3 and 6 months postoperatively. The Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (qDASH) scores were also evaluated 6 months postoperatively. Additionally, corrective losses of radial inclination (RI), palmar tilt (PT), and ulnar variance (UV)—occurring from immediately postsurgery to 6 months after surgery—were evaluated. At both 3 and 6 months postoperatively, the grip strength of the EGTP group was significantly higher than that of the NGTP group. Regarding range of motion, only palmar flexion was significantly improved in the EGTP group at 3 months postoperatively. Conversely, no differences in corrective losses of RI, PT, and UV, or in qDASH scores, were observed between the two groups. The results of this study suggest that the EGTP can provide early recovery of grip strength and palmar flexion of the wrist without causing corrective loss at the fracture site.


This research which aimed to identified and analyzed social capital of fisheries communities in Gangga dua village, North Monahasa District, has been conducted in 2007. Socio-culture data collected from fisheries community is consist of local value and local value system, local religious, pattern and system of production and reproduction and local politics. Data was collected by snowball sampling from community members who have deep knowledge about socio-culture of their community themselves. After data collected shown the socio-culture character of fisheries community then it has been analyzed to show the social capital typology. The research shows that fisheries community in Gangga Dua village still become closed community or has a characteristif of social capital bounding. Need a policy related to social structure improvement because of the social capital typology's of fisheries community in Pasauran village has been big influenced by various of economic aspect in economic activity of their life.


This paper investigates the determinants of long-run winter tourism demand for French ski resorts. The data are based on skier visits to the largest ski-lift operator in the world (Compagnie des Alpes) for the winter seasons 1993/1994 to 2011/2012. Using dynamic panel data models for six ski resorts, the study finds relatively low income and price elasticities in absolute terms, with long-run elasticities of 0.64 and −0.40, respectively. Furthermore, the study finds that snow depth measured at the weather station Col de Porte — located at the medium elevation of 1,325 metres above sea level — is a significant predictor of skier days in the high-elevation ski areas. However, the magnitude of the effect of poor snow years is very small: on average, low-snow winter seasons (such as 1989/1990 or 2006/2007) will lead to a reduction in skier visits of about 2.5%. The results are not sensitive with respect to the measurement and timing of snow depth.


From the latest on food labelling, to the controversy over breast implants, this book provides up-to-date information on areas of health. Recognizing that cultural diversity represents a key issue for the future, the authors incorporate a comprehensive multicultural approach to the topic.


Minority stress for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) and African American communities has been well documented over the past 30 years. Generally speaking, being a member of a stigmatized community can lead to alienation from social structures, norms, and institutions, all of which can have negative implications for mental health, well-being, and relationships.
 When speaking about minority stress and its impact on LGBTQ+ relationships, the research is mixed. Although there are findings that show LGBTQ+ individuals face greater discrimination and more negative health impacts than heterosexual couples, other research notes the positive coping mechanisms that highlight the resilient nature of these couples. For African Americans and other racial minorities, the disparities are greater, with research showing that racial identity is linked to an increase in overall external stressors.
 However, over the last few years, discrimination toward sexual and racial minorities has reached a critical tipping point. Both within the United States and worldwide, social movements are drawing attention to the historical inequalities experienced by minority groups, and demanding change. Considering minority stress research, methods, and analyses are built on the connection between an individual and their social situations, the construct is due for an evolution, one that is representative of what our world looks like today. Although conceptualizations thus far have been productive in understanding the stressors of the LGBTQ+ and African American communities, there is a need to incorporate critical concepts of intersectionality and expand understanding of what it means to be a member of a minority group.


Reagent containing reactive chlorine was sealed in PVC,PE or other plastic pipes and the migration of organic species out of the pipes was monitored.The release amount of total organic carbon species(TOC) were determined continuously by a combustion TOC analyzer in environments of different chlorine content,temperature,and from various plastic pipes.It was found that higher temperature and higher reactive chlorine content resulted in higher rate of degradation of plastic pipes.From the experiment,a service performance evaluation method of plastic tubular material was established.


This study comparing the performance of SAW and MOORA methods are in the decision-making process against the evaluation of teacher assistant performance. Then, applying Rank Order Centroid (ROC) is to overcome the process of weighting attributes in decision-making. Subsequently, the data has used by Teaching Assistant Evaluation obtained from UCI Machine Learning Repository, which has 151 instances, five attributes, and 1 class label with multivariate type dataset. The results of testing the calculation of SAW and MOORA methods, obtain the different results where A134 is the best alternative in the calculation of SAW and A132 is the best alternative in the calculation of MOORA. Afterward, if viewing based on running time, the execution process of the SAW method is 0.06 seconds,while the execution process of the MOORA method is 0.02 seconds. In this research, both methods get the same results in ranking, but base on running time, the MOORA method is faster than the SAW method.


This paper describes how more than 90% of asphalt pavement materials (by weight) consist of aggregates. The aggregates are usually produced from aggregate quarries or from natural aggregate sources. The present situation in our country when there is a lack of the right quarries for wearing course of pavement, has lead us to study the use of local aggregates from andensite quarries. In this study the andensite aggregate from the local quarry near Prishtina will be analyze based on the physical properties and later the output data will be analyzed on the ready mix asphalt. The properties of analyzed aggregate will be compared with properties of other eruptive aggregates for the wearing course. The possibility to use the andensite aggregate for wearing course of pavement would be a good opportunity in the actual when there is lack of the right aggregate for the wearing course in our country.


In this paper,a structured system of intelligent answer knowledge base is presented.By analyzing a great deal of teacher answer record in network teaching process with web mining,useful knowledge is obtained.The intelligent answer knowledge base,which takes the knowledge point object as basic unit,compensates the insufficiency of real-time performance and efficiency.


The objective of the current study was to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters for age at first egg (AFE), egg number (EN), as well as clutch, lay pause and broodiness traits in turkeys. Clutch length (CL), maximum clutch length, pause length (PL), maximum pause length, and broodiness data for 5,671 hens in a commercial breeding program were analysed in this study. A broody period was defined as the average number of consecutive pause days between clutches that were higher than of the mean pause length for each hen (BR) and total mean of pause length. A multivariate animal model implementing restricted maximum likelihood methodology was applied to estimate heritability and genetic and phenotypic correlations for traits using DMU software. Heritability for AFE was estimated at 0.62 ± 0.03 and that for other traits analysed ranged from 0.14 to 0.29. Genetic correlations between AFE and EN and CL traits were negative (-0.52 ± 0.06 and -0.46 ± 0.08, respectively). However, our results show positive correlations between AFE and PL and BR traits; EN and CL increased and BR decreased with decreasing AFE. In addition, selection for EN is likely to increase CL substantially due to the positive genetic correlation while decreasing PL and BR. The correlation between BR and other selected traits is substantially different from unity. Therefore, our results suggest that inclusion of broodiness traits in turkey breeding programs could have a positive effect on overall production efficiency.


move down. Thus the separation effect of eq 33 will be repeatedly established along the countercurrent column leading to an enrichment of 6Li on its top with an enrichment factor which increases exponentially with column length. A plant for the 6Li production for a 2.5-GW (thermal) fusion reactor (600 g of 6Li/day) easily could be combined with that for the production of the necessary deuterium (200 g of D/day) which is also based on an exchange process in liquid ammonia.4s Both installations hardly exceed the dimensions of the bell tower of a small village church and would yield nuclear fuel on a cost level of a few percent of the value of the produced electrical energy. The deuterium enrichment process which also has its origin in fundamental research on metal-ammonia solutions46 already is


London plane (Platanus acerifolia Wild.) is a famous landscape plant because of its numerous desirable traits except the abundant pollens and seed hairs, which not only pollute the environment but also affect human health. To resolve these problems, we herein isolated and functionally analyzed the promoter of PlacSEP1.1, an orthologous gene of Arabidopsis SEPALLATA1, and investigated the potential usability for cell ablation strategies to engineer reproductive sterility in plants. A 2130 bp 5' upstream region of PlacSEP1.1 was isolated and termed pPlacSEP1.1. Putative motif detections show that there were several types of motifs in pPlacSEP1.1 including core promoter elements, tissue-specific expression regulatory elements, and some negative regulatory elements. β-Glucuronidase histochemical and quantitative assay showed that pPlacSEP1.1 of all deletions was active in all detected tissues except the shortest deletion D5 in roots. In order to test whether pPlacSEP1.1 could be used for London plane sterility breeding with a cytotoxic gene Barnase, the pPlacSEP1.1::Barnase and pPlacSEP1.1::Barnase-mic35S-Barstar vectors were constructed and transformed into tobacco. The pPlacSEP1.1::Barnase transgenic tobacco showed serious defects with respect to vegetative development and died within a couple of weeks after transplantation. On the other hand, most pPlacSEP1.1::Barnase-mic35S-Barstar transgenic tobacco showed normal vegetative growth and inflorescence, and flower development prevented phenotype.


In a company, human resources have a very important role. Indirectly, human resources affect the effectiveness andefficiency of the company. PT Altrak 1978 was established on June 12, 1978 which is located in the C1-C2 BlockBatam Center. PT Altrak 1978 is a Cummins Engine sole distributor company that has grown rapidly since itsfoundation, due to being the sole distributor. The population in this study was 113 employees. Sampling usingsaturated samples. Data collection techniques used in this study using a questionnaire or questionnaire. Themeasurement scale used is a Likert scale. The data in this study were processed with the help of SPSS (StatisticProduct and Service Solution) version 26. The t test results showed that motivation (X1) had a positive andsignificant effect on employee performance (Y) where the t value of the motivation variable (X1) was tcount 5,357> atable of 1,981. Work discipline (X2) has a positive and significant effect on employee performance (Y) where the tvalue of the work discipline variable (X2) is tcount of 6.688> t table 1.981. F Test results show that the motivationvariable (X1) and work discipline (X2) together have a positive and significant effect on employee performance (Y).


The authors are investigating a new recycling method for metal and plastic from metal-coated plastics used as components of automobiles and electronics. A CD-R was used as an example of our work, with the separation by pulsed power of metal (silver layer) and plastic (polycarbonate substrate) from the CD-R investigated. The pulsed power from a magnetic pulse compression generator with a maximum storage energy of 40 J/pulse was applied to the gap between two ring electrodes placed on the CD-R. The progress of the removal of silver layer was observed at each pulsed voltage application. Results showed almost complete separation of the silver layer from the polycarbonate substrate by 25 shots of pulsed power with a stored energy of 35.3 J/pulse. In addition, discharge state was observed at each shot using a spectroscope and camera. Light emission from discharge at the first shot revealed a spectrum related to silver, indicating that the insulation layers (protection layer and printed layer) were punctured and the discharge took place between the ring electrodes and silver layer. Subsequent shots, revealed one or two peaks in voltage waveform. After the 7th or 8th shot, the value of the first peak increased with shot number. As the number of shots increased, the silver layer around the ring electrode was gradually removed, and the gap length between the ring electrode and the exposed silver layer also gradually increased. Therefore, the value of the first peak after the 7th or 8th shot is supposed to correspond to the discharge onset voltage in the air gap between the ring electrodes via the exposed silver layer.


Background: Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is a devastating complication in patients with an implanted left ventricular assist device (LVAD) for advanced heart failure. Blood stream infection is ass...


This paper presents new sufficient conditions to verify the stability of fuzzy control systems. Compared to the existing conditions, these new approaches contribute the following advantages: (1) only the individual active zone of each control rule or independent sub-spaces are considered respectively instead of the whole input space taken into account in Tanaka and Sugeno method, which thus simplifies the condition to verify stability; (2) the new conditions are applicable to a broader range of fuzzy control systems such as type-I ones and type-II ones with nonlinear-consequent parts, which can not be handled with Tanaka and Sugeno's method. Some examples are used to demonstrate these properties.


In this issue of the Journal, Egloff and colleagues (1) describe a meticulously performed 15-month, 300patient study of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1990 and 2010 preliminary criteria for fibromyalgia (FM) in patients with 'functional pain syndromes', that is syndromes that by definition do not often have widespread or four-quadrant pain, one of the 1990 criteria (2, 3). In the study by Egloff et al, 8.3% of their patients met the ACR 1990 criteria and 43.3% met the 2010 criteria. The specificity of the 2010 criteria for the 1990 diagnosis was 60%, a value that is the smallest of the eight studies that have considered this issue and that had a mean specificity of 88.5% (Wolfe, unpublished observations). In addition, less than half of all 2010 positive patients (46%) suffered from pain in all four quadrants and many had limited forms of pain disorders. To understand Egloff et al's data, we must first recognize that their population is special. It is composed entirely of hospitalized functional pain syndrome patients and resides in 'a tertiary university centre for multimodal pain therapy', where there is an excess of such pain syndromes. The authors raise many important issues that they summarize by stating: 'By omitting the requirement of "generalized pain", the distinction between the FM and more localized functional pain syndromes is blurred. Furthermore, by dropping the tender point assessment, the ACR 2010 criteria omit examination of the distinctive "hyperalgesia aspect" of FM.' We define FM as a syndrome characterized by generalized pain, decreased pain threshold, and multiple symptoms, in particular non-restorative sleep, fatigue, cognitive problems, and multiple somatic symptoms. There is no gold standard for FM. All criteria for diagnosis are inherently approximate and probabilistic, as patient heterogeneity, variability of symptoms, and measurement errors render it impossible to define criteria for FM that perfectly or almost perfectly identify all cases and noncases. In the 1990 criteria study, the presence of ≥ 11 tender points led to correct classification in 84.2% of cases, using as the gold standard the opinion of the physicians participating in the study (a committee) (2). When the widespread pain criterion was added, the percentage increased to 84.9%. Widespread pain was added to the 1990 criteria to reduce the researchers' burden by eliminating the need for all subjects to have the tender point examination. That is, if a patient had ≥ 11 tender points, they almost always had widespread pain. The authors of the ACR 2010 and the modified 2011 criteria were very aware that FM should be considered a disorder of generalized pain (3). In fact, they wrote: 'Among patients positive for the modified ACR 2010 criteria, 93.7% satisfied the widespread pain criterion'. We did not include an absolute widespread pain criterion because all of the authors had observed patients who did not quite have widespread pain but had all of the other features of the syndrome. In the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases (NDB) (4), we regularly observe widespread pain in FM-positive patients at levels in excess of 93% (5). In a German population study, the widespread pain rate was 83% (6). It seems likely that Egloff et al did not find high levels of widespread pain because of the nature of their population and sample. Of note, the ratio of the 2010 symptom severity score (SSS) to the widespread pain index (WPI) in the Egloff et al study was 1.1 compared to 0.7 in the eight-criteria studies cited earlier (Wolfe, unpublished observations). This suggests that patients in this study had proportionately less pain but more symptom severity than in other published reports. In making general rules in criteria, we acknowledge that such rules might not work as well at the extremes and in subsetted specialty samples. In dropping the tender point count in favour of the WPI, we noted in the ACR 2010 study that tender points correlated with the WPI at r = 0.773, and that by regression analysis a 1-unit increase in WPI led to a 1.0 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.9–1.1]-unit increase in tender point count. The tender point count was dropped in the 2010 criteria because few physicians carried out the examination and often blundered in its performance; Frederick Wolfe, National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases, 1035 N. Emporia, Ste 288, Wichita, KS 67214, USA. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Imaging means ways of the present invention includes: an imaging section (5); a display unit (225), display photographic calibration image of the calibration photographed image and an auxiliary point photographed by the imaging section (5) image restoration processing in used in photographic images (10) or in the sagittal direction along the linear guide line tangential direction; and a parameter calculating unit (228), through the guide wire according to (10) assisted by the imaging section (5) obtained by imaging calibration image, calculates a point parameter image restoration processing.


A rather curious alteration to the sign mi't is to be noticed in the name of Ramesses II in the temple of Sety I at A b y d o s T h e alteration occurs in some of the cartouches of the prenomen of Ramesses I I (see e.g. fig. 1—4), Wsr-mi't-r' Stp-n-r' which are inscribed on the twelve rectangular pillars of the Portico in front of the facade of the temple. The pillars were decorated by Ramesses I I after the death of his father Sety I. All four sides of each pillar bear sunken reliefs, mostly depicting Ramesses I I being embraced by various deities, as well as single figures of Sety I represented as deceased a n d deified· ' ' , a n d h e is d e s i g n a t e d nhvt bity Mn-m?t-r', ms'-hrw hr ntr-'i. The cartouche Wsr-mi't-r' Stp-n-r' of Ramesses I I occurs twenty-four times in states that are sufficiently well-preserved for our purpose of comparison. They occur vertically at the top of


Rhabdopleura has been discovered living in coral rubble on reefs in Fiji. The habitat is unusual, being the underside of coral boulders in the intertidal zone. Some features of the environment and the fauna associated with the Rhabdopleura are briefly described. The Rhabdopleura zooids exhibit other modes of tube building besides the regular cylindrical horizontal and erect tubes. The colony ramifies through interstices in the dead coral and the zooids can line larger cavities within the coral with coenecial tissue. It is probably these cavities, together with the overall porosity of coral, that retain enough water to keep the zooids alive while the intertidal reef flat is exposed to the air. Within the depths of the coral the black stolons are frequently naked. The species is probably R. normani Allman.


Demographic data for a rural Polish immigrant community in Texas were extracted from parish registers. During the period 1895 through 1944 2737 births and 235 infant deaths were recorded. The major influences on infant mortality in this population were maternal age and birth order. The average infant mortality rate was 86 per 1000 births. Fluctuations in the relative importance of the endogenous and exogenous components of infant mortality rate were observed. While total and exogenous infant mortality rates decreased from 1895-1919 to 1920-1944 indicating a relaxation in environmental stress the endogenous infant mortality rate increased from 31% to 55% of the total infant mortality rate suggesting important physiological stress. (EXCERPT)


PT Indonesia Power UP Semarang has organized various activities as a social responsibility for the community. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of the company are already established so that it produces a positive impact on the people who receive it. PT Indonesia Power UP Semarang committed to helping Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to continue to increase their potential to create works that have a positive impact on the economy and other aspects so that the fostered partners can be independent. CSR as a form of corporate goodwill in developing good relations with the community will be a priority on positive companies. This study uses explanatory research methods that can be accepted between variables with the Pearson test of 30 respondents who receive CSR benefits and live around the company site. Based on hypothesis testing conducted using Pearson analysis, it shows the relationship between CSR quality variables and those recognized by the company. It is evidenced by the high Pearson conversion coefficient with a value of 0.470 and a significance value of 0.009. This value represents the difference between CSR quality and company awards. It is contrary to the theory of Griffin (2008), which stated that corporate social responsibility is one of the factors forming corporate or management trust.


Educational games constitute an important mean of delivering effective learning procedures to students and they can offer various learning opportunities in all levels of education. In this work, we present a collaborative game that was developed to assist students in learning algorithms and we explore its learning capabilities. The game aims to assist students in learning constraint satisfaction algorithms and it is based on the map coloring game. In the context of the game, students can experiment and apply the algorithms in various learning activities and training scenarios. The game has been integrated into the curriculum of the artificial intelligence course in our university. An evaluation study was conducted in real classroom conditions and revealed quite promising results which indicate that the game is an effective way to enhance students' motivation, engagement and interest and also it helps students to deeper understand the functionality of constraint satisfaction algorithms.


The article is devoted to the research of a problem of development of abilities ol possession of color studying in an art school, consideration of some psychological and pedagogical aspects of a problem. The urgency of a problem is caused by the need of a society lor professional activity on formation of color environment, constant Increase of creative potential of the person. The purpose and novelty of research consists in development and scientific substantiation of a technique of development of abilities Of possession of color of the pupils, which Includes system of the tasks and exercises directed on consecutive study and study of color concepts. The research results of can be of interest for teachersand experts in the field of teaching of fino art in children's art schools and art branches of children's schools of aits, comprehensive schools and schools (classes) with the profound study of subjects of fine art.


Isolated and in vitro cultured microspores or immature pollen grains of many angiosperms enter the sporophytic developmental pathway (androgenesis) under specific stress conditions (Cordewener et al., 1994; Custers et al., 1994; Reynolds, 1997; Touraev et al., 1997). Embryogenesis from isolated immature pollen or microspores is regarded as the most efficient system for production of doubled haploid plants, and is routinely used in many broad-acre crops such as wheat, barley, maize and rye (Kasha et al., 2003; Pulli and Guo, 2003; Zheng et al., 2003). Doubled haploid technology offers a tool for rapid production of homozygous breeding lines which are either multiplied and released as cultivars or else used as recombinant inbred lines for molecular mapping or as parents in breeding programs. Isolated microspore cultures can be used as alternative systems in biochemical analysis and molecular genetics (Mordhorst et al., 1997; Touraev et al., 1997; Pauk et al., 2000, 2003; Boutilier et al., 2002) and as a model for cytological and physiological studies of embryo development (Magnard et al., 2000; Indrianto et al.,


Recent developments in sequencing methods have enabled whole genome sequencing of several species and the available sequence information has allowed the development of high throughput genotyping chips. However, these genotyping methods require high quality DNA. The possibility to genotype samples based on DNA from non-invasive sources would permit retrospective genotyping of previously collected samples and also facilitate the analysis of large populations e.g. for genomic selection. In this study we have developed and evaluated different DNA preparation methods from porcine hair root follicles for high throughput genotyping with the PorcineSNP60 Genotyping BeadChip (Illumina). We describe a method for DNA extraction from porcine hair root samples, which produces results from high throughput genotyping with the same high degree of accuracy as previously reported for DNA extracted from sperm, blood or tissue samples. This method was used for the genotyping of 273 hair follicle samples. When the DNA concentration was > 30 ng/µl all samples had the same high call rate ( > 99%) as sperm samples confirming the robustness of this DNA extraction method for high throughput genotyping. Our data also establishes the suitability of the PorcineSNP60 BeadChip for genotyping the Finnish Landrace population.


Content variations of water solubles in the process of degradation of brewer's spent grains-based bio-organic fertilizer has been studied in. The results showed that pH was showing a tendency, rise first and then decrease, within the range of 6~9; EC rose first then decreased with its value being less than 4.0 ms/cm in the whole process; E4/E6 appeared to be upward first,then maintained dynamic changes,with its value at 2.06~2.14 at the terminal of the composting; NH4+-N rose first then decreased,NO3--N showed an upward trend,the rate of NH4+-N to NO3--N was about 0.91; water-soluble C rose first then decreased, water-soluble N showed twists and turns, the rate of water-soluble C to water-soluble N first rose then fell to 4~6 at the terminal of the composting, which could meet the requirements of maturity.


Plants of the fall-bearing red raspberry (Rubus ideaus L. cv. Heritage) were grown in 2 day/night temperature regimes (29/24°C and 25.5°/20°) under a 16-hour day with 3 nitrogen levels (0, 5 or 10 mg N/week). Canes flowered 2 weeks earlier and more profusely in the higher temperature. Nitrogen promoted greater cane growth, more flowering nodes per cane, and increased flowering per unit vegetative growth. The combination of high temperature and high nitrogen promoted greatest cane elongation, earliest and most profuse flowering, and the most flowers per unit of cane growth.


Most vehicle classification systems now use data from images or videos. However, these approaches violate drivers' privacy and reveal their identities. Due to various disruptions, detecting automobiles using seismic ambient noise signals is challenging. This study uses seismic surface waves to compare time series data between different vehicle types. We applied various artificial intelligence approaches using raw data from three different vehicle sizes (Bus/Truck, Car, and Motorcycle) and background noise. By using vertical component seismic data, this study compares the decoding abilities of Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, and Naïve Bayes (NB) approaches to determine the class of automobiles. The Multiclass classifiers were trained on 4185 samples and tested on 1395 randomly chosen from actual and synthetic data sets. Additionally, we used the convolutional neural network approach as a baseline to assess the effectiveness of machine learning (ML) methods. The NB method showed relatively high classification accuracy during training for the three multiclass classification situations. Overall, we investigate an ML-based decoding technique that can be used for security and traffic analysis across large geographic areas without endangering driver privacy and is more effective and economical than conventional methods.


IN SPITE of having taken guidance courses at reputable universities, many counselors feel somewhat inadequate for the specific demands of their jobs. Their background has been that of the typical high-school teacher, with its emphasis on subject matter and method. Taken from the classroom to the guidance office, the counselor needs and wants an in-service training program to help him meet his new responsibilities. The St. Louis County Guidance Council has set up for itself the beginnings of such a program. General conferences to consider broad problems have proved stimulating; a regular program of meetings of the seminar type has aided in developing common approaches and techniques; and a series of demonstrations has aided in improving case-conference procedures. In the field of guidance it has contributed to a program of community co-ordination. The St. Louis County Guidance Council is made up of the representatives of eighteen independent school districts in St. Louis County and of certain agencies dealing with youth. The membership includes the counselors of the schools, representatives of the co-operating superintendents of the city schools of St. Louis County, the County Principals' Council, the Y.M.C.A. organizations in Washington University and in the county, the local director of the American Youth Commission and the United States Employment Service, the head of the Vocational Counseling Service of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Red Cross, representatives of Washington University, and others who have special interest in guidance in the schools.


Francois Pierre Emmanuel Gremy1, honorary professor at the Montpellier-Nimes Faculty of Medicine, Officer of the Legion d'Honneur, died on July 22, 2014 at the age of 85 after a rich professional and socially engaged life.

Francois Gremy was born on March 3, 1929 in Neuilly sur Seine, west of Paris. Having completed his college degree at the age of 16, he vacillated between a purely scientific career and a medical one and finally chose to follow a dual education. At the age of 19, having completed two master degrees in mathematics and in physics, he immediately started his medical studies at the Medical Faculty of Paris. At the age of 23, he passed the Paris resident fellows' competitive examination, the "Internat de Paris", started clinical work in neuro-physiology, and defended in 1958 his MD thesis on the oscillographic study of dysarthria. In 1958, at the age of 29, he was appointed as tenured professor in biophysics at the Faculty of Medicine of Tours. He was the youngest professor of medicine of his generation. Two years later in 1960, he was appointed tenured professor in biophysics at the Pitie-Salpetriere School of Medicine in Paris, where he stayed 23 years until 1983. In addition Francois Gremy completed a Master Degree in the Theory of Probabilities and received a Diploma of the Paris Institute of Statistics. He also was proud of his rank of Chief Physician (Colonel) in the French Army.

Between 1966 and 1971, Francois Gremy published five comprehensive textbooks in the three scientific areas where his different training in physics, mathematics, statistics, and medicine mutually contributed: biophysics, biomathematics, and biostatistics [1-4]. Several generations of French medical students were trained with his textbooks and their revisions and the older ones still remember Francois Gremy capacities as a teacher, who could make complex theories look like simple with the sole help of a blackboard and a piece of chalk.

Very soon, Francois recognized the key role played by information sciences in medicine and initiated at Pitie-Salpetriere in 1966 a curriculum on the medical applications of computing techniques and the need to promote the marriage of medicine and informatics (figure 1).

Fig.1

Francois Gremy (1966) explaining the need to join Medicine and Informatics and the birth of "Informatique Medicale/Medical Informatics" as a new scientific discipline.

In September 1966, he participated in the fourth international meeting on cybernetic medicine and was immediately convinced of the need for an international association in medical informatics (Figure 2).

Fig. 2

Francois Gremy between Jean Claude Pages and his wife Francoise Gremy at the fourth congress of cybernetic medicine in Nice (September 19-22, 1966)

In 1967, Professor Gremy established within the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) the Technical Committee 4 (TC4) on medical informatics. The first meeting of TC4 was held in Paris in April 1968. A dozen nations were represented and Francois Gremy was elected as president. During his presidency (1967-1973), Francois Gremy initiated within TC4 several working groups that represented many emerging subfields for this new discipline. With J. Anderson, J. M. Forsythe (the TC4 secretary), and J. Site, he organized in Lyon (April 6-10, 1970) the first TC4 meeting on the Information Processing of Medical Records [5]. The meeting was followed by multiple others including signal processing, mathematical models in biology and medicine, education with J Anderson and JC Pages, decision support with FT de Dombal, and data protection with G. Griesser. In 1973, Francois Gremy negotiated during the preparation of the IFIP meeting in Stockholm the creation of a separate structure devoted to the healthcare field and assured dedicated meeting rooms. The result was the first MEDINFO 74 held in Stockholm at the same time and same location as the IFIP meeting (August 5-10). Francois Gremy acted as the chair of the MEDINFO 74 Programme Committee, and J. Anderson and J.M. Forsythe were the two editorial committee co-chairs. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) was constituted as a Special Interest Group of IFIP and Jan Roukens, the Dutch representative in TC4, was elected as his first president. From 1976 to 1977, Francois Gremy participated in the creation of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) as French Representative in the first EFMI board. He was strongly involved as editor co-chair for the second meeting in 1979 in Berlin and the third 1981 one in Toulouse.

To foster research in information sciences Francois Gremy created in 1969 the INSERM Unit U88 entitled Informatics and Statistics Methodology in Medicine. This unit was going to be the framework for his close collaborators to develop not only clinical informatics but also clinical research, epidemiology, health informatics, statistics, and decision support systems.

Francois Gremy was not only a renowned teacher and researcher. He was also socially engaged. In 1981, his long lasting engagement found a high achievement when he became delegate president of MRAP, a French organization against racism and for friendship between peoples. His colleagues still remember his inaugural conference at the March 1984 National Convention at UNESCO in Paris (figure 3).

Fig. 3

Francois Gremy at the National Convention against racism at the UNESCO, March 16-18, 1984, Paris

In 1984, Francois Gremy was appointed as Professor of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics in the University of Montpellier-Nimes, and chair of the Medical Information Department of the Lapeyronie University hospital. He renews an old residence in Uzes, a small city close to Nimes, where he resided up to the end of his life. He published his first comprehensive textbook on medical informatics in 1987 [6]. However, he progressively focussed his research on health informatics, the assessment of medical informatics technology, and finally on public health [7-8]. He was appointed in 1990 as Professor of Public Health at the Montpellier-Nimes Faculty of Medicine. He became a member of the French National Committee for Public Heath (Haut Comite de Sante Publique), strongly engaged in the prevention of tobacco and alcohol dependence, and with his wife Francoise championed the social integration of autistic patients.

Francois Gremy is recognized at the international level for his key contributions to the development of Medical Informatics and the birth of IMIA. In 1996, he became with Jan van Bemmel one of the two first Europeans recognized as Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. In 2004, he received during the San Francisco MEDINFO meeting the first IMIA Award of Excellence (figure 4).

Fig. 4

The IMIA Excellence Award remitted to Francois Gremy at the MEDINFO 2004 meeting in San Francisco. From left to right (R. Haux, K.C. Lun, Francois Gremy, and C Kulikowski) [with permission of IMIA]

In France, in addition to being recognized as the father of Medical Informatics in his country, Francois Gremy has left a strong heritage for the development of public health. He has influenced the decision makers with his political engagement for prevention, social equity, solidarity, and against any clinical form of racism. He never stopped working and writing and started in 2004 a PhD thesis in philosophy while leading a working group on the organization of the French health system.

Having received a strong education in "hard sciences" he understood quickly that regarding health, right decisions at both an individual and a population level pass through the lessons of "softer" disciplines and ethical considerations [7, 9]. All those that had the chance to meet him recognized his kindness, his deep humanism, and his brilliant character and brain. As signatories of this tribute, we only represent a small subset of collaborators, colleagues and friends who benefited during five decades of his immense and multiple talents.


Information Security (InfoSec) Surveys conducted worldwide show that the number and type of InfoSec attacks is expanding daily. This is verified and validated through a survey discussed in this paper. The paper asks a number of questions concerning InfoSec issues, outlines a survey designed to answer these questions, and then discusses the results obtained within the framework of those questions. The survey concludes that, although InfoSec awareness exists, best InfoSec practices are usually not being followed. Consequently InfoSec threats are increasing enormously despite the existence of tools designed to protect against them. Of particular concern is "human factors", since user carelessness and negligence may contribute to the issue and may grant hacker's access to sensitive assets.


How did American racial attitudes originate? How can we make sense of consistent and stubborn regional divides on race and race-related questions? Why is the South more conservative than other parts of the country? This book tackles these questions by arguing that contemporary politics is shaped in part by the historical persistence of political attitudes. To explain contemporary attitudes on race and politics in the South, we center our argument on the "peculiar institution" that drove the South's economy and politics for nearly 250 years: chattel slavery. Using extensive quantitative analyses and a wide variety of data, we show that whites who live in parts of the South that were more reliant on slavery are todaymore conservative, more racially hostile, and less amenable to policies that could promote black progress. We also show that these


This paper presents two main online payment models under e-commerce circumstance,the model of online banking and the model of third-party payment platform.It also analyses the main problems existing in online payment,and puts forward corresponding countermeasures.


Burfi is the most popular khoa based sweet all over India. Different varieties of burfi like nut burfi, chocolate burfi, coconut burfi, saffron burfi, rava burfi etc. are very much liked by the Indian population. Shelf life of burfi is more as compared to other milk sweets due to it's lower moisture content and higher total solids. In present investigation the cost structure for mango burfi was studied. The lowest cost was observed for plain burfi as compared to mango burfi with different mango pulp level. As the level of the mango pulp increase the cost of mango burfi also increased.


Anomalous ionization (C IV and Si IV) is seen in IUE spectra of Be stars as late as B8, and occurs also in standard stars of similar spectral type. Asymmetrical lines suggesting mass loss are present in all the Be stars and several of the standard stars as well, with no obvious correlation with v sin i. Emission shoulders are present in the Mg II lines of two B5e stars but not in Be stars of later type. Again there is no correlation with v sin i. The A-F shell stars show rich Fe II absorption spectra in the ultraviolet, in one case with velocity structure.


The green microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis is one of the most beneficial microalgae due to its production of astaxanthin that has great commercial interest because of its antioxidant properties. A two level factorial design (2LFD) was used to pre-optimize conditions to grow H. pluvialis. The variables involved were pH, inoculum size, temperature and presence or absence of light. The results were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANOVA analysis showed that inoculum size of 40%, temperature of 30oC and presence of light had significant effects on H. pluvialis growth whereas production pH had insignificant effect. The established model from the ANOVA analysis had a significant value with Pmodel > F = 0.0074 and the R² value of 0.9989. The expected growth was 1.08879 (Table 5) and the optimized growth was 1.178 (Table 5).


Through comparing the corrosion resitance of some common steel pipelines immersed in seawater, and combining with the development of corrosion protection technology and application situation of the said technology in power plants, it is concluded that the selection of common carbon steel as pipelines immersed in seawater can fully satisfy the requirement of service life under prerequisite of using anticorrosion coating and cathodic protection method.


A derivation of fully polarization-resolved probabilities is provided for high-energy photon emission and electron-positron pair production in ultrastrong laser fields. The probabilities resolved in both electron spin and photon polarization of incoming and outgoing particles are indispensable for developing QED Monte Carlo and QED-Particle-in-Cell codes, aimed at the investigation of polarization effects in nonlinear QED processes in ultraintense laser-plasma and laser-electron beam interactions, and other nonlinear QED processes in external ultrastrong fields, which involve multiple elementary processes of a photon emission and pair production. The quantum operator method introduced by Baier and Katkov is employed for the calculation of probabilities within the quasiclassical approach and the local constant field approximation. The probabilities for the ultrarelativistic regime are given in a compact form and are suitable to describe polarization effects in strong laser fields of arbitrary configuration, rendering them very well suited for applications.


Abstract : The Navy is concerned that acoustic energy emissions from various products may interfere with marine mammals. Proposed federal regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act discuss temporary threshold shift (TTS) as a means of evaluating impacts of those emissions. Existing Navy methods published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America were applied to investigate TTS in the hearing sensitivity of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Changes in the dolphins' behavior were observed. These data provide a scientific basis for decisions concerning acoustic effects on marine mammals for use in preparation of environmental plans and mitigation strategies.


After a short review of different ways of building amorphous structures, a new way, derived from the minimization of the total free energy is described. The comparison between different structures is made by means of the analysis of several parameters: pair distribution function, radial distribution function, planar cuts, and density. Our results confirm the quality of this new model and its tractibility. This enables us to study local atomic symmetries of amorphous structures by numbering the holes of this network as a function of their sizes and by classifying the calculated crystalline fields and elasticity coefficients according to the ''strength'' of their symmetries. Large holes of diameter 0.85 and 0.72 atomic diameter are found and are shown to be responsible for low energy hopping levels, which are characteristic of glassy structures. The analysis of the local symmetry shows a nearly continuous variation and the abundance of strong dissymmetries, i.e., a distribution of low energy electronic levels as well as strong magnetic anisotropies.


It is well accepted among the power system community that the load model has an important impact on the stability studies of power systems. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of the small disturbance angular stability of power systems to the behaviour of load response. A transfer function representation of loads is developed from the linearization of the composite load models and dynamics of the loads are characterized by the frequency, damping and recovery time constant of this load model. The sensitivity studies of this paper show that poorly damped oscillations of the load, with a frequency close to the oscillation frequency of the inter-area modes, could detrimentally influence the damping of the system.


The invention discloses a botanical compound odor-removal antibacterial solution which is prepared from the following raw materials according to weight percentage: 4 to 6 percent of aloe, 4 to 6 percent of Chinese honeylocust, 8 to 12 percent of orange peel, 2 to 4 percent of marijuana seed, 4 to 6 percent of sophora flavescens, 4 to 6 percent of folium Isatidis, 5 to 7 percent of Szechwan Chinaberry fruit, and 0.5 to 1.5 percent of rosin. The preparation method of the botanical compound odor-removal antibacterial solution comprises the following steps: A) mixing and soaking the raw materials; B) distilling the obtained product and collecting fraction; C) adding water into the fraction for dilution and stirring the obtained solution; and D) further adding water into the solution for dilution, and naturally fermenting the obtained solution. The botanical compound odor-removal antibacterial solution is prepared by a botanical extract compounding technology, is friendly to human body and environment, has no pollution and good odor-removing, sulfur dioxide removing and bacteria resisting effects, and can effectively remove the odor and bacteria in the environment.


A growing body of research documents the persistent relevance of religiosity for partnership and reproductive behaviour in Europe. This study expands the current knowledge by analysing whole union and fertility trajectories—i.e. entering cohabitation versus direct marriage, non-marital childbearing, number of children, divorce—instead of focusing on single events as previous research did. It is based on data from the first wave of the Austrian Generations and Gender Survey (2008–2009) and includes 1,249 women and men aged 40–45 years. Using sequence analysis, respondents are first clustered around several template family life paths. Afterwards, the role of religiosity in following one rather than another path is ascertained with the help of multinomial logit regression. Four aspects—affiliation, mass attendance, self-assessed religiosity, and religious socialization—are considered. Compared to their less religious peers, religious people are more likely to choose direct marriage rather than prior cohabitation. Yet they prefer the latter option over more 'adverse' life paths involving non-marital childbearing, sequential cohabitation, and divorce. Permanent singlehood without children is equally widespread among both groups. Differences in religiosity play a minor role in explaining why people have two or three children, once they have decided to enter premarital cohabitation or to marry directly.


The article investigates the color symbolism of the way of the road in the story V. Drozd "Irii" and the roman-ballad of V. Shevchuk "House on the hill". The author analyzes the artistic semantics of the road in a chimerical proclamation; the symbolic significance of the path, borrowed from the oral folk art, and the author's individual interpretation of it are delimited. In the works of chimerical prose, space nominations have symbolic meanings borrowed from oral folk art. Folklore symbols are characterized by their own specifics, and it should be considered as a concept form-forming, phil-osophical and stylistic, which is genetically related to mythology. One of the means of creating an image of the road is color semantics, because color is considered a form of ideological and aesthetic reflection of reality. Max Luscher proved that color influences on the psycho-emotional sphere of a person and can cause certain aesthetic sensations. The works of O. Potebni "On the Mythical Importance of Certain Rites and Beliefs", "Thought and Language", "About Certain Symbols on Some Symbols in Slavic folk poetry", became the basis of Ukrainian theoretical thought concerning the symbolic interpretation of the model of the world, and in particular the color symbolism expressed in mythology, folklore and language. The scientist derives the name of color not through an abstract concept, but through an analogy with objects or actions of a person causing similar associations. The relevance of the study is largely due to the lack of a systematic analysis of the color symbolism of the road image in Ukrainian chimerical prose. In the Ukrainian chimerical prose, the color component plays an important role and is evidence of a combination of traditional images with innovative. V. Drozd and V. Shevchuk, interpreting the image of the road, are actively using colored symbols. In the story V. Drozd "Irii" the following colors are used: yellow as a symbol of lightness and warmth; white – on the one hand, confusion and uncertainty, on the other – the joy of a new discovery; blue – peace and harmony. In the novel V. Shevchuk "House on the hill" to the most used colors include white, blue and green, symbolizing youth and mutual love, the relationship of generations, "the world of the former people", appeasement, the discovery of truth.


Background/Aim. Plant polyphenols are well known to show antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, antiviral and antioxidative activity. The aim of this study was to investigate bio-active potential of Armoracia rusticana root juice and extracts: their polyphenol content, as well as in vitro antitumor activity and cell-death mechanism. Methods. Liquid-liquid extraction of polar and non-polar compounds was used and poly-phenolic compounds were identified and quantified by high performance liquid chomatography (HPLC) analysis. Anti-proliferative activity was examined in vitro on human cervix carcinoma (HeLa), breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7, MDA-MB-231), colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29), lung adenocarcinoma (A549), prostate adenocarcinoma (PC-3), melanocyte carcinoma (Hs 294T), hepatocyte carcinoma (Hep G2), as well as rat hepatocyte carcinoma (H-4-II-E), and normal human fetal lung (MRC-5) cell line using sulforhodamine B assay. The mechanism of cell-death in cell line was determined using Cell Death Detection ELISAPLUS kit. Results. Dichloromethane extracts had the highest content of cate-chin, p-hydroxybenzoic, syringic and gallic acid (pulp, E1), and epicatechin (juice, E3). The results showed strong and non-selective antiproliferative activity of chloroform and di-chloromethane extracts and root juice ? highest being to-wards liver, breast and lung tissue cells. IC50 values of ex-tracts and juice had low range of concentrations (IC50 = 3.49?26.5 ?g/mL) and high range of dilutions (IC50 = 418?1,590). High and unfavorable potential of horseradish juice and chloroform juice extract (E4) to induce necrotic cell death was detected. Conclusion. Strong and non-selective in vitro antiproliferative activity of chloroform and dichloromethane extracts and root juice of horseradish was detected, with necrosis as a main mechanism of induced cell death. In order to utilize horseradish root bioactive potential further investigations that will pinpoint active components with more favourable apoptosis/necrosis inducing properties are needed.


This paper presents an adaptive power control algorithm for a Direct-drive PM wind generation system in a micro grid. The strategy is based on the vector control algorithm for a two-level IGBT full power converter. The object of this novel control is to operate the wind generation, with a hybrid DC-AC link topology, either in Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) mode, or non-MPPT mode with enhanced tracking performance. The simulation proves that the proposed MPPT algorithm is much faster, more robust and adaptive to changes of the environment than the conventional variable-step Hill Climbing Search (HCS) algorithm, while the non-MPPT module has a fast response to the change of the power demand and the environment, and accurate steady state response as well. Moreover, the result shows that the control strategy can switch between the MPPT and non-MPPT automatically.


Surface dependence of the nonlinear voltage transfer characteristic in the GaAs-based three-branch nanowire junction (TBJ) is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. A simple model considering the surface-potential-dependent carrier density in the channel reveals a clear relationship between the surface potential and the curvature of the bell-shaped transfer curve. Based on this model, we analyze the behavior of the TBJ with a local conductance modulation by focused light irradiation.


Background: Peri menstrual asthma (PMA), is a clinical situation that occurs in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, leading to worsening of asthma symptoms. The question of whether PMA is an underor overrecognized condition has not been adequately addressed. Various studies, however, seem to suggest that 30 to 40% of female asthmatics experience a premenstrual worsening of symptoms. Whatever the true prevalence and true significance of PMA, most experienced clinicians recall various female patients whose asthma would significantly worsen on a monthly basis. A number of mechanisms have been postulated and investigated, such as "allergy to endogenous hormones,"psychological changes associated with the premenstrual syndrome,progesterone-induced hyperventilation, low progesterone levels at the onset of menses leading to bronchial smooth muscle constriction, progesterone potentiation of an unidentified bronchodilator, progesteronemediated loss of microvascular integrity with subsequent oedema leak, dynamic fluctuations of oestrogen levels after sustained but static elevation,increase in mucous secretions, and variation in prostaglandin synthesis. Therefore the current study was done to evaluate the effects of menstrual cycle on various parameters of the lung functions . Materials and Methods: The present study involved 20 known asthmatic and 20 non-asthmatic women in menstruating age group. Women in age group 30–45 years were included in the study.All the participants were asked to report thrice in the Respiratory research laboratory in the Department of Physiology for pulmonary function test and according to their phases of menstrual cycle (once in each phase). Results : The mean values of all the parameters were higher in Group I as compared to Group II. The mean values of VC and FVC in all the four groups were highest in secretory phase followed by follicular phase and lowest in menstrual phase. Conclusion : Asthma can deteriorate during the perimenstrual period, a phenomenon known as perimenstrual asthma (PMA) which is usually much more severe and troublesome than the periovulatory worsening which is probably due to the smooth muscle relaxant effect of progesterone and probably oestrogen


A celebrated theorem of Pimsner states that a covariant representation T of a C*‐correspondence E extends to a C*‐representation of the Toeplitz algebra of E if and only if T is isometric. This paper is mainly concerned with finding conditions for a covariant representation of a subproduct system to extend to a C*‐representation of the Toeplitz algebra. This framework is much more general than the former. We are able to find sufficient conditions, and show that in important special cases, they are also necessary. Further results include the universality of the tensor algebra, dilations of completely contractive covariant representations, Wold decompositions and von Neumann inequalities.


A three-field model to study drift-resistive, low-frequency waves in low-β, nonaxisymmetric plasmas [J. L. V. Lewandowski, Phys. Plasmas 4, 4023 (1997)] is used to analyze the effect of the inhomogeneities in the stellarator magnetic field on the fastest (linear) growth rate, γ. Extensive numerical calculations for a toroidal heliac show that not all Fourier components in the representation of the equilibrium configuration are important as far as γ is concerned.


The article discusses the main characteristics of modern art journalism, which allow us to assert its anthropocentricity. It is proved that the subject of creativity, which creates artistic images, as well as the work itself as a reflection of the value picture of the artist's world, his worldview and ideological concept are the subject of reception and analysis of art journalism. The anthropocentricity of art journalism as a whole is obvious because art itself is anthropocentric. However, in modern conditions of globalization and the development of postmodern worldview, the anthropocentricity of art journalism is undergoing certain transformations. The specificity of art discourse lies, first of all, in a pronounced appraisal and authorial modality, and the very representation of a work of art in a media text is determined by the level of professionalism and the degree of talent of its producer, as well as the social recognition of the artist and the very status of the work of art, determined by the interest of the public in it, the artist's innovation, the demand for a particular genre in the art industry. In the text-discursive space of mass art journalism, one can find the most revealing cases of interaction between institutional, professional and everyday discourses, which, on the one hand, significantly characterizes modern art journalism from the standpoint of its anthropocentricity, and on the other hand, allows us to evaluate the dynamic transformations inherent in it in postmodern conditions. The postmodern worldview deprives the art discourse of any stable coordinates in terms of terminology or the presence of professional art criticism competencies in an art journalist. A positive assessment in the discourse of art journalism is aimed at reflecting success, the predominance of the best qualities in the interpreted object, which is further enhanced by the use of art criticism terminological apparatus, however, texts with ambiguous evaluation and authorial modality are also presented in the text-discursive space.


Immune surveillance is the process by which naive T cells circulate throughout the body searching for aberrant or mutated antigens expressed on tumor cells in order to identify and destroy these cells. An immune response is initiated when a foreign or tumorspecific antigen is presented by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on the surface of antigen-presenting cells such as macrophages or dendritic cells and presented to a T cell. In addition to the interaction between MHC and T-cell receptors, the immune response is regulated by costimulatory signals that could either potentiate or inhibit the immune response. Usually, these inhibitory signals are found on normal body cells. Therefore, they are important to prevent autoimmunity and to avoid excess immune destruction of normal tissue in the event where the immune system is fighting an infection. This has earned them the designation of immune checkpoints. Certain tumor cells, however, overexpress these inhibitory signals and manage to avoid immune surveillance and become clinically apparent through the phenomenon of 'immune escape.' Recently, researchers have managed to block two of these pathways in advanced nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), therefore removing the 'brake' on the immune response. These two pathways include cytotoxic Tlymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) coreceptors as well as the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) antigen which interacts with its ligands, PD-L1 (B7-H1 or CD274) and PD-L2 (B7-DC or CD273) [1]. The drugs that block these pathways are called immune checkpoint inhibitors. The Keynote-024 trial has changed the approach to advanced NSCLC after showing a superiority for pembrolizumab (PD-1 inhibitor) as first-line therapy compared to platinum-based chemotherapywith regard to overall and progression-free survival in patients with PD-L1 >50% [2]. It has, therefore, become part of the initial workup to test for PD-L1 status in these cases. It is important to note, however, that in the Checkmate-026 trial, nivolumab (PD-1 monoclonal antibody) did not prove to be superior to platinum-based therapy as first-line therapy in advanced NSCLC. Critics attributed this negative result to be due to an inferiority of nivolumab compared to pembrolizumab with regard to PD-1 inhibition, the use of a lower threshold of PD-L1 of 5% compared to 50% in the Keynote-024, or a difference in patient population with a higher proportion of nonsmokers and inclusion of untreated patients with brain metastases in the Checkmate-026 trial [3]. Nivolumab has, however, shown to be superior to docetaxel in second-line therapy of advanced non-squamous NSCLC for which it earned its FDA approval. It was the first immune checkpoint inhibitor to gain approval for advanced NSCLC [4]. In this editorial, we will be looking at the PD-1 inhibitors currently being investigated in the pipeline from preclinical to phase II studies for the treatment of NSCLC.


Perovskites-photovoltaic cells are a type of photovoltaic cells which include a chemical compound having perovskite structure, most often a hybrid organic-inorganic lead or a tin halide, in its lig ...


Human survival, one of the roles that is controlled by the heart, makes the heart need to be guarded and be aware of its damage. Cardiovascular breakdown is the last phase of all coronary illness. The problem of the number of deaths caused by heart failure requires a survival predictor tool. The patient electronic clinical record apparatus is accessible to gauge manifestations, body highlights and clinical research center test esteems that can be utilized to perform biostatistical dissects pointed toward featuring examples and connections that are not recognized by clinical specialists. AI is an answer for have the option to foresee tolerant endurance from the information created and to have the option to recognize the most significant components among those remembered for their clinical records. With data mining techniques used in the available history data, namely the Heart Failure Clinical Records dataset of 299 instances on 13 features using the Random Forest algorithm, Decision Tree, KNN, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network and Naïve Bayes with resample and Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) sampling techniques. The highest accuracy with the resample sampling technique in the random forest is 94.31% and the SMOTE technique used in the random forest produces an accuracy of 85.82% higher than other algorithms. The example framed can anticipate the endurance of cardiovascular breakdown patients.


Today, due to the rapid development of distance learning, there is a problem with the quality of education, including physical. Analysis of the level of injuries in choreography and gymnastics showed a high percentage of injuries to the lower extremities. To minimize the number of injuries and increase the professionality of dancers, developing a smart-clothing for dancing is necessary. Preliminary analysis of smart technologies in sports confirmed the need to use smart technologies to read and monitor the physical data of athletes during training. Still, it showed the absence of such technologies in dance. The advisability of research of smart technologies and the development of smart costume for dancing with additional functional properties is confirmed. An analysis of the requirements for dancing smart clothes there. Based on the analysis of dance and smart clothing requirements, a list of quality indicators for designing dance smart clothing was developed for further evaluation to determine a set of essential quality indicators for designing stage and training dance smart clothing.


The aim of this qualitative study is: to explore the new discipline of Geography of fear, and to examine how and why fear of crime is restricting some women's access to, and activity in, public spa ...


As part of a continuing effort to prepare novel thermally stable high-performance polymers, poly(arylene ether isoxazole)s have been prepared by fluoride ion-catalysed aromatic nucleophilic substitution reactions with bis(trimethylsiloxyphenyl) isoxazoles and activated bisarylhalides in diphenyl sulphone. Initial investigations involving the preparation of these materials with isoxazole bisphenols and activated bisarylhalides in the presence of potassium carbonate indicated that, under reaction conditions necessary to prepare high-molecular-weight materials, the isoxazole monomer was converted to an enamino ketone. This side reaction was avoided by using fluoride as a base. However, trimethylsilyt ether derivatives of the isoxazole bisphenols were required in these polymerizations for the preparation of high-molecular-weight materials. Moderate to high inherent viscosity (htAh: 0.43-0.87 dl g -) materials with good thermal stability (air: 409-477C, helium: 435-512C) can be prepared by the silyl ether method. Glass transition temperatures ranged from 182 to 225 C for polymers with phenyl pendants and from 170 to 214 C for those without. Molecular weight control by 2% endcapping and the incorporation of a phenyl pendant at the 4 position of the isoxazole is necessary to yield polymers soluble in polar aprotic solvents at room temperature. There is evidence, however, indicating the existence of crosslinks between the polymer chains when the silyl ether approach is utilized.


The present invention relates to a broadband lumped 180 degree coupler comprising four four capacitors and an inductor, wherein the inductor is connected three capacitors and four double-loop configuration; the other end a third connecting point of the inductor, one end of the ground , inductive coupling is formed to improve the bandwidth of the coupler; a first connection point connected to the first port; a second port connected to a second connection point; a third port connected to the fourth junction. Broadband lumped 180 degree coupler of the present invention, which uses less components, small footprint, low cost, can maintain a good output amplitude balance and phase balance over a very wide frequency range for use in the present wireless handheld mobile radio communication system.


This paper describes the antenna analysis of the multi-beam for communication satellite. The design core parameters of the antenna system are optimal antenna diameter, feed horn type and horn size, F/D, and the coordinate of offset horns. The paper deals with the method to determine design core parameters of optimal antenna diameter, feed horn type and horn size. F/D. and the coordinate of offset horns, and the performances of design result


Surgical resection is the first principle for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma worldwide.However,the methods of resection are varied,the distance of the surgical margin from the sarcoma is important,but it is still unclear how far the surgical margin is from the sarcoma clinically.Barrier resection basing on the barrier tissue that blocks growth and invasion of the sarcoma abandons the theory of how far you should resect from the sarcoma,and makes the preoperative planning and intraoperative anatomy visible and tangible,thus due to the barrier resection,the recurrence rate is significantly decreased.Barrier resection combined with reconstruction of the wound not only lowers the recurrence rate,but also restores the related function.This article will focus on the methods of surgical resection.


Mechane ouburst is tragic event effecting mining production safety. Methane ouburst has randommicity, and the outburst and its active laws are observed and researched effectively are important safe espect of preventing and reducing methane ouburst disaster in the course of production. Observing and analyzing the data of 21130 work face of Ping Dingshan mining, the author gets relation of mining pressure and methane outburst, and brings forward some preventive measures.


1Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Kerbala, Holy Kerbala, Iraq. 2Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Kerbala, Holy Kerbala, Iraq. Correspondence to Fadhil Jawad Al-Tu'ma (email: firstname.lastname@example.com). (Submitted: 04 January 2018 – Revised version received: 16 February 2018 – Accepted: 09 March 2018 – Published online: 26 September 2018 )


AbstractAim:To investigate the oxacillin susceptibility restoration of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by targeting the signaling pathway of blaR1-blaZ with a DNAzyme.Methods:A DNAzyme (named PS-DRz602) targeting blaR1 mRNA was designed and synthesized. After DRz602 was introduced into a MRSA strain WHO-2, the colony-forming units of WHO-2 on the Mueller-Hinton agar containing 6 mg/L oxacillin and the minimum inhibitory concentrations of oxacillin were determined. The inhibitory effects of DRz602 on the expressions of antibiotic-resistant gene blaR1 and its downstream gene blaZ were detected by real time RT-PCR.Results:PS-DRz602 significantly decreased the transcription of blaR1 mRNA and led to the significant reduction of blaZ in a concentration-dependent manner. Consequently, the resistance of S aureus WHO-2 to the β-lactam antibiotic oxacillin was significantly inhibited.Conclusion:Our results indicated that blocking the blaR1-blaZ signaling pathway via DNAzyme might provide a viable strategy for inhibiting the resistance of MRSA to β-lactam antibiotics and that BlaR1 might be a potential target for pharmacological agents combating MRSA.


By 2015, advanced practice nurses (APNs) may need a doctorate to enter practice. At a meeting of member nursing schools in October, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) adopted a sweeping new position recognizing the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) as the highest level of preparation for clinical practice. Currently APNs, which include nurse practitioners, nurse-anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse-midwives, are prepared in master's degree programs. However, many of these programs already carry a credit load equivalent to doctorate programs in other health care professions. Under the new proposal, doctorate degrees would be required for APNs by 2015. However, doctorates won't be required for APNs in practice before the new rule takes effect. Only a few DNP programs currently exist, but more than a dozen new ones are in planning stages. The AACN plans to work with nursing schools to convert existing APN programs to doctorate programs and to construct bridge programs for current APNs who wish to pursue a doctorate. For more information, visit AACN's Web site at http://www.aacn.nche. edu. Nursing2005 Volume 35, Number 1


Lung infections are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Most causes of infection are not treatable. In children
less than 5 years of age, they are the cause of death. Most infections are caused by viruses and bacteria. We present a dockingscreening using a quantum mechanical scoring of a library built from approved drugs and competent that apiin, baicalein, boswellic acid, eugenol, ganoderic acid, quercetin, vasicine, with proteins with PDB id's 1VQQ, 3N26, 7K40, 5EG7 could display antiviral activity against lung infection. Clearly, these compounds should be further evaluated and clinical trials to confirm their actual activity against the disease


Micro-simulation approach is a profound tool used by researchers to determine and analyze traffic characteristics. Micro-simulation approach gives access to car following as well as lane changing behavior of individual vehicle and allows analyzing their interactions by changing the parameters. CUBE Dynasim is a micro-simulation software developed by CITILABS which was used in this study. In CUBE Dynasim the normal traffic condition was created by using aggregated flow data obtained from Route 3 and Route 4 of Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway. The value of the parameters were altered to create hazardous traffic flow condition. In this study procedure to create a micro-simulation model is discussed in detail.Best possible result was obtained by changing the values of car-following maximum threshold and mean of threshold value for car following rules. Again, in case of lane changing behavior changing of heavy vehicle threshold, light vehicle average time, light vehicle minimum time, light vehicle maximum time, light vehicle standard deviation, light vehicle minimum distance, heavy vehicle average time, heavy vehicle minimum time, heavy vehicle maximum time, heavy vehicle standard deviation, heavy vehicle minimum distance reflected best result.


The optical equivalence principle is analyzed according to the possibility of describing unbounded states, and the suitable approximations are calculated for highly energetic phenomena. Among these possibilities, the relevance for laser fields, interferometers, and optomehcanical systems are implemented. Their suitableness for research in General Relativity, Cosmology, and High-Energy Physics are outlined.


The provision of new opportunities to maximize learning is a fundamental right for all students. This paper explores the role of digital technology in the provision of educational opportunities for secondary age students who have been diagnosed with an intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder. We describe a learning environment in which a range of technologies have been introduced to enable students' access to the national curriculum, and acquire skills that improve their ability to navigate the world outside the classroom. Through a qualitative study, we describe promising experiences of emerging technologies used to assist learning at the Inclusive Education Centre of a public secondary school located in regional South Australia. Our results suggest that emerging technologies can provide guidance to groups of students, encourage them to express their ideas, motivate physical activity, and improve general social interaction skills. In particular, we explore the impact, limitations and future opportunities of immersive virtual reality and social robots.


This study explored the impact of a reflective teaching method on pre-service elementary teachers' conceptual understanding of the lunar phases, reasons for seasons, and simple electric circuits. Data were collected from 40 pre-service elementary teachers about their conceptual understanding of the lunar phases, reasons for seasons and day and night, and simple electric circuits pre and post instruction. Findings show that the instructional approach adopted by a science teacher educator had a significant impact on pre-service elementary school teachers' conceptual understanding of lunar phases, seasonal changes and simple electric circuits. The discussion focuses on pre-service elementary school teachers' misconceptions about the lunar phases, seasonal changes and simple electric circuits as revealed through their answers to the pre-test questions. Further discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for pre-service elementary school science teacher education.