Objective:To explore the efficacy of MEBO for treating patients with neurosurgical disease complicated by bedsore and the effect of nursing care.Method:During the period from May 2003 through June 2006,25 patients hospi- talized in the Neurosurgical Department were complicated by bedsore.They were treated locally with MEBO in addition to conventional treatment (MEBO Group).At the same period,20 patients complicated by bedsore were treated with conven- tional treatment alone (control group).A comparison of the efficacy of the 2 groups was made.Result:30 days curative rate in MEBO group was 92.0% and in control group 40.0%.Conclusion:MEBO is efficacious in treating bedsore of patients with neurosurgical disease.The treating course can be shortened.


A 55-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital for investigation of hepatomegaly. At the age of 52 she had been given oral contraceptive medication for a year in nn attempt to control menorrhagia. Her generul health otherwise had been good. Physical examination revealed moderate hepatomegaly. The spleen was not enlarged. An upper gastrointestinal series, barium enema study, chest radiograph, and liver function tests showed no ab ~ normality. A liver scan demonstrated multiple filling de& lects. An abdominal sonogram {fig. 1) confirmed a generally enlarged liver. The paren ·hymal echo pattern was patchy in appearance, with echo-poor and echogenic areas. This pattern was more confined to the right lobe, extending partially into the medial segment of the left lobe. The centml portal vessels were normal hut the primary divisions were distorted. The appeumnce was considered nonspecific. Becuuse a neoplasm was strongly suspected, a percutaneous liver biopsy was perlormed. The patholog ic findings were compatible with the diagnosis of peliosis hcpatis. Several endothelium-lined spaces approximately 0 .1 mm in diameter were found, and at least one was con• tinuous with a blood vessel. A subsequent celiac :mgiogram {fig. 2) demonstrated numerous variable-sized vuscular spaces measuring a few millimeters to 1 em present, throughout the right and Jell: lohes of the liver. No arteriovenous shunting was seen, and the venous phase was unremarkable. A follow-up isotope liver scan a year later remained unchanged, and three years later the patient is well and asymptomatic but has persistent hepatomegaly.


Existing studies show that managers use accounting judgment to increase their compensation. On the other hand, the evidence on the impact of the horizon problem (i.e., the condition in which the anticipated tenure of the manager is shorter than the firm's optimal investment horizon) on discretionary accounting choices is mixed and inconclusive. No research, however, takes into consideration that income increasing accounting choices in final pre-retirement years are particularly appealing to managers whose retirement benefits are contingent on firm's performance. I investigate whether income increasing accruals are associated with the horizon problem when CEO's supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) benefits are performance-contingent. The result confirms the expectation: I find that discretionary accruals are higher in CEO's final pre-retirement years only when CEO's SERP benefits are performance-contingent.


. Recent debates on the ethics of espionage seem to center on questions of technical data collection and privacy rights, interrogation, covert intervention in foreign affairs (e.g., regime change), renditions, and conflicts of interest, but seldom .on the recruitment and management of agents. One issue that arises from the current espionage and terrorism environment concerns standards for ethical decision making. For compelling reasons, members of the intelligence community must address the ethical issues Specific to human intelligence (HUMINT) . operatIOns. For those outside the intelligence community, the term "espionage ethics" may seem oxymoronic. With few exceptions, intelligence collection overseas violates the target country's laws. Being expected to break a foreign country's laws and manipulate its citizens is part of the job for an intelligence officer, yet she or he is expected to scrupulously adhere to her or his own country's laws and professional standards. To some, the idea of espionage is itself distasteful. Prior to World War I, some of Great Britain's military attaches took the view that actual spying on the host country was ungentlemanly conduct for a "guest." For others, operational work with agents seemed to grate against their sensibilities, as in the case of an officer assigned to Berlin just prior to World War I:


In this study, different inocula were compared for the removal of 20 ppmv of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) in a biotrickling filter. Three biotrickling filters were set up in parallel, inoculated respectively with Thiobacillus thioparus TK-m, sludge and sludge + T. thioparus TK-m + Hyphomicrobium VS. Taking into account 5 criteria (length of start-up period, maximal elimination capacity, influence of intermittent feeding and peak loadings, resistance to low pH), the performance of the biotrickling filters was compared. Overall, the non-specific inoculum (sludge) showed the best performance, and a small benefit was observed by adding the two DMS degrading strains to the sludge. To quantitatively monitor the bacterial populations, realtime PCR was used with universal bacterial primers and with newly developed primers for the specific detection of the introduced strains. In HANDS++, rather constant Hyphomicrobium VS and total DNA concentrations were observed on the rings after start-up. In THIO, the applied operational changes had a clear effect on the total DNA amounts. The protocol for detection of T. thioparus needs to be further optimized, however.


In Peru, the most commonly used structural system for housing construction is based on confined masonry walls. Solid engineered walls are regulated by the NTE-E070 standard, which lays down a required degree of earthquake resilience. However, around 60% of the population lives in non-engineered houses that use tubular blocks for their walls. This paper presents a comparison of the behaviors of non-engineered tubular block walls and solid engineered walls. Tests were performed on a tubular brick wall by subjecting it to horizontal cyclic loading to examine the effects under a constant axial load of 20 tf. Then, the test results were compared with those for walls in the CISMID Structural Lab database. The resistance of the tubular brick wall in terms of shear stress was found to be relatively low, having an average value of 4 kg/cm2 , while the solid walls can withstand a shear stress in excess of 5.5 kg/cm2 .


The collagen fiber was dispersed by planetary ball miller and the particle distribution was characterized by Laser particle analyzer,the thermal change of sample with different dispersion disposal was studied. The results indicat that relative uniform collagen fiber with certain length could be obtained through the sieve-fraction,and the uniformity of raw material is improved by dry milling method and the proportioning of milling balers. The desirable conditions of milling are that the proportion of ball to stuff is 10∶1,the rotation speed is 600r/min and the milling time is 60min~120min.


Continued?stable developments and extensive applications of plastic packingmaterial are feature ofimprovement of time. However,its wastes has negative effects on environment. This essay introduces and analyses mainly measures which take for disposable plastic packing material and environmental problems at home and abroad.The authors also raise their opinions.


– From the earliest excavations on the territory of the central Balkans and up to today, Late Neolithic pottery assemblages have remained one of the most important contributors to our knowledge of the past. To a certain extent, the burned Late Neolithic horizons left a great number of the architectural details preserved in the archaeological record, along with various artefacts, of which pottery makes up the largest part. However, due to the fact that the majority of pottery vessels and sherds were subjected to temperatures that were higher than those they were initially fired in the manufacturing process, decoration makes up a minority of the archaeological record of the central Balkans and, unfortunately, we usually deal with plain assemblages. Therefore, it is not surprising that the discovery of one vessel that has a small preserved portion of applied painted decoration, unearthed from a burned building structure in the latest horizon at the site of Plo~nik, introduced a whole new set of questions. Importantly, this instance further emphasises that when deconstructing prehistoric paradigms, our interpretation sometimes must go beyond observation.


Fluvial systems host coal seam gas reservoirs in various fields of Queensland. However, the lateral heterogeneity of reservoirs properties within these reservoirs can be significant and determining the distribution of these reservoirs is a challenge. This study attempts to predict coal distribution by applying rock physics and post-stack seismic inversion on data set of Scotia field of the Surat Basin. According to rock physics analysis, coal beds have significantly low density. Consequently, this gives low P-impedance as compared to surrounding lithology. Therefore, inverted P-impedance and density volumes can be used to predict coal distribution and connectivity of different coal seam reservoirs. Theoretically, density volumes may provide accurate prediction, but this requires execution of comprehensive pre-stack inversion workflow. We only used a model based P-impedance inversion technique to create P-impedance volumes in order to better image the reservoir and connectivity. Extracted horizon slices by using cutoff based on rock physics analysis, successfully highlights architecture of coal beds.Computed average P-impedance within zone of interest can provide information regarding promising zones for exploration of coal seam gas. Blind test for P-impedance prediction at well locations reveals reasonable match for coal prediction using this method.


More than 30 years ago, educators in central Connecticut developed the Vernon Bermuda Workshop as a means of introducing middle- and high-school students to subtropical island ecology. Each year, after months of classroom preparation, approximately 20 top students spend one week at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (St. George's, Bermuda) studying the local flora and fauna in both the field and laboratory. The curriculum includes an additional array of activities, ranging from historical and ecological tours to spelunking, and culminates in a series of field-observation-related presentations. I am responsible for the meteorological and oceanographic components of the curriculum. In the field, my students collect time-series of biophysical variables over the course of a day, which they use to interpret diurnal patterns and interactions amongst the variables. I also add remote-sensing and phytoplankton biology components to the curriculum - in previous years, my students have studied time-series of Sea WIFS imagery collected at Bermuda during our trip. I have been an Instructor for this Workshop since 2003. The Workshop provides an outreach activity for GSFC Code 616.


Many students have difficulties in the appreciation of concepts related to statistical problems. Various researches have determined how students' aptitude to solve statistical proofs can be affected by the methods of displaying data. The application of distinct visual aids could improve statistical reasoning, sustaining the principle of graphical facilitation. Some authors did not agree with this point of view, highlighting the complications related to the use of illustrations; they upheld that visual aids could burden the cognitive system with unserviceable information. We confront the basic level of statistical reasoning on probabilities regarding two methods of problem arrangement: verbal-numerical and graphical. Students in Spain and Italy solved the homolog and paired problems in a verbal-numerical and graphical way, in different sequences. Analysis of the correctness of responses and the reasoning applied, managed to compare these ways of presentation and to clarify the cognitive process applied in the problem solving.


Chapter 6 Diode pumped passive mode locking Nd:LuVO4 laser by semiconductor absorber crystal: Cr:YAG 6-1 Motivation The purpose of this chapter is to eliminate the number of pulses within the Q-switching envelope such as in Fig. 5-4. Low transmission of Cr:YAG provides a high threshold for generation QML and therefore we believe it's a quite nice tool to avoid above problem. To realize this fact, we will show our experimental and simulated results of adapting a semiconductor absorber Cr:YAG crystal for Q-switch mode-locking the Nd:LuVO4 laser in this chapter.


Summary Infection of Escherichia coli by bacteriophage T4 is not accompanied by leakage of β-galactosidase. Liberation of the enzyme, soon after infection, results from lysis from without. The nature of the lytic enzyme systems responsible for lysis from without is discussed.


All throughout the world, traditional power systems are facing increasing depletion of fossil fuel supplies, low energy efficiency, and pollution. These concerns have sparked a new trend of integrating renewable/non-conventional energy sources into utility distribution networks to generate power locally at distribution voltage. Natural gas, biogas, wind power, solar photovoltaic cells, combined heat and power systems, microturbines, and Stirling engines are examples of renewable energy sources. At distribution voltage levels, it translates a wide range of renewable and non-conventional energy sources and loads. A Micro-Grid system is a novel technology that improves grid reliability while also providing alternate energy sources. The initial model of a small scale microgrid system is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink to implement the project. The distributed generators (DG) in a micro-grid have enough capacity to handle all, or almost all, of the load linked to the micro-grid. The system is intended to operate in both islanded and grid-connected setups. The goal of this work is to provide the basis for subsequent research and the construction of a more comprehensive micro-grid model, providing for a complete knowledge of how MGs function. Micro-generations based on renewable sources, such as wind and solar, have the greatest promise for producing emission-free electricity in future power systems. The principal renewable power generating units in the proposed micro-grid system are a solar generation unit and a wind farm. A prototype model with a solar panel, wind generator, and battery as storage device with light load is intended for hardware implementation to examine how the load is shared by the different micro sources.


The spatial soil variability on Sahelian coversands hampers the interpretation of agropastoral research findings and is an obstacle to their dissemination. Site characterisation and the establishment of site-specific plant performance and yield responses to external inputs are therefore of fundamental importance to achieving agricultural development. In this paper, we identified and characterised the sources of soil variability within a single farmer's field. Three soil types were identified and they were characterised by different proportions of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K) and sodium (Na) cations in the exchange complex, in combination with a different aluminium (Al)-saturation profile. The yield response to manure application varied between these soil types and the yield impact of cattle and small ruminant manure also appears to differ with soil type. Cattle manure was most effective on sites with low crusting levels and small ruminant manure was very effective in raising yields on sealed surfaces. At the same time evidence indicated that manure levels applied by farmers can be too high. Substantial efficiency gains can be achieved by a more even spread of manure and by properly matching the manure type with site conditions. Evidence further suggests that external input applications of K and Ca may improve moisture availability and further enhance manure efficiencies. Such effects would be favourable for technology adoption since the risks associated with climate variability would then be reduced. Experiments are proposed to verify further what the empirical evidence suggests.


The paper introduces the sources and basic forms private equity investment and the characteristics of the industrial study, explains the strength of investment in extra-high voltage and smart grid industry during "12th Five-year Plan"of China, and analyzes the opportunities for equity investment.


Polyamide-11 (PA-11) was added to two types of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), ester-based TPU (ES-TPU) and ether-based TPU (ET-TPU), to modify the physical properties of the TPUs. A fine dispersion of the PA-11 plus an increase in the tensile modulus of the TPU/PA-11 blends with an increasing amount of PA-11 were observed without a significant decrease in the elongation at the break. The crystallization temperature () of the hard segments of the TPU in the melt blends of TPU/PA-11 increased compared with that of the TPU in the solution blends. In particular, the of the TPU in the melt blends of ES-TPU/PA-11 showed a large increase. However, the glass transition temperatures of the soft segments of the TPU in the TPU/PA-11 blends remained almost constant, implying that the phase separation of the soft and the hard segments of the TPU in the blends was unffected by the melt blending. Accordingly, it would appear that some level of exchange reaction occurred during the melt mixing of the TPU and the PA-11 and these reaction products facilitated the nucleation of the TPU crystallization. The ES-TPU/PA-11 blends seemed to undergo high level of exchange reaction compared with the ET-TPU/PA-11 blends during melt mixing due to the ester groups in the soft segments of the ES-TPU.


By analyzing working principle of force-balanced accelerometer,and using analytical method,the relation of input inertial force and mass block's displacement is derived.Both the states of"stiffening"and"softening"are involved in the procedure of operation,which is different from the open-loop accelerometer which only involve the state of"softening".The stiffness coupling value is defined as the ratio of electrostatic stiffness and mechanical stiffness of block's displacement.Analysis indicates that the dividing point of"stiffening"and"softening"is where the coupling value equals to zero,and dividing point of"positive"and"negative"stiffness is where the coupling value equals to-1,the sharpness of coupling curve reflects the permitted displacement and coupling nonlinearity,the lager is the amplitude of stiffness coupling value,the more sharp is the curve,and the larger is the nonlinearity,the smaller is the displacement permitted by massblock.


We propose a coupling interface method (CIM) under Cartesian grid for solving elliptic complex interface problems in arbitrary dimensions, where the coe cients, the source terms and the solutions may be discontinuous or singular across the interfaces. It is a dimension-by-dimension approach. It consisits of a rst-order version (CIM1) and a second-order version (CIM2). In one dimension, the CIM1 is derived based on a linear approximation on both sides of the interface. The method is extended to high dimensions through a dimension-by-dimension approach. To connect information from each dimension, a coupled equation for the rst derivatives is derived through the jump conditions in each coordinate direction. The resulting stencil uses the standard 5 grid points only in two dimensions. Similarly, the CIM2 is derived based on a quadratic approximation in each dimension. In high dimensions, a coupled equation for the principal second derivatives uxkxk is derived through the jump conditions in each coordinate direction. The cross derivatives are approximated by one-side interpolation. This approach reduces the number of grid points needed for one-side interpolation. The resulting stencil involves 8 grid points in two dimensions and 12-14 grid points in three dimensions. The CIM1 requires that the interface intersects each grid segment (the segment connecting two adjacent grid points) at most once. This is a very mild restriction and can always be achievable by re ning meshes. The CIM2 requires basically that the interface does not intersect two adjacent grid segments simutaneously. In practice, we classify the underlying Cartesian grid points into interiors, normal on-fronts and exceptionals, where a standard ve-point central nite di erence method, the CIM2 and the CIM1 are adopted, respectively. This method maintains second order accuracy in most applications due to the fact that usually the number of normal on-front grid points is O(h ) and the number of the exceptional points is O(1). Here, d is the dimension and h is the mesh size. As a result, it is robust and exible to handle complex interface This work is supported by the National Science Council of the Republic of China under grant number NSC 95-2115-M-002-009. yDepartment of Mathematics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. National Center for Theoretical Science, Taiwan 106. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. zDepartment of Mathematics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com.


The emission of hazardous air pollutants (air toxics) from various industrial processes has emerged as a major environmental issue that was singled out for particular attention in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. In particular, mercury emissions are the subject of several current EPA studies because of concerns over possible serious effects on human health. Some of those emissions originate in the combustion of coal, which contains trace amounts of mercury, and are likely to be the subject of control requirements in the relatively near future. Data collected by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) at operating electric-power plants have shown that conventional flue-gas cleanup (FGC) technologies are not very effective in controlling emissions of mercury in general, and are particularly poor at controlling emissions of elemental mercury. This paper gives an overview of research being conducted at Argonne National Laboratory on improving the capture of mercury in flue gas through the use of dry sorbents and/or wet scrubbers. The results and conclusions to date from the Argonne research on dry sorbents can be summarized as follows: lime hydrates, either regular or high-surface-area, are not effective in removing elemental mercury; mercury removals are enhanced by the addition of activated carbon; mercury removals with activated carbon decrease with increasing temperature, larger particle size, and decreasing mercury concentration in the gas; chemical pretreatment (e.g., with sulfur or CaCl{sub 2}) can greatly increase the removal capacity of activated carbon; chemically treated mineral substrates have the potential to be developed into effective and economical mercury sorbents; sorbents treated with different chemicals respond in significantly different ways to changes in flue-gas temperature.


Ordered morphologies in disulfonated poly(arylene sulfide sulfone nitrile) (SPSN) copolymers were generated via thermal annealing followed by multiblock copolymer synthesis. While SPSN random copolymers (R-SPSN) showed featureless morphologies, the SPSN multiblock copolymers (B-SPSN) exhibited cocontinuous lamellar morphologies with a center-to-center interdomain size of up to 40 nm. In spite of the well-ordered, interconnected hydrophilic domains, the water self-diffusion coefficient (e.g., D = (0.7–2.0) × 10–10 m2 s–1) and proton conductivity (e.g., σ = 0.16–0.20 S cm–1 in deionized water at 30 °C) through B-SPSN were lower than those of the corresponding R-SPSN (e.g., D = (3.5–3.9) × 10–10 m2 s–1 and σ = 0.21 S cm–1) due to the relatively lower water uptake of the B-SPSN after thermal annealing. The reduced water uptake of B-SPSN was beneficial to reduction of peroxide degradation rate. Thermal annealing produced significant gains in morphological ordering and finer control over desired membrane proper...


Excavators are heavy equipment commonly used in a variety of excavation projects. Ability to be dug with a depth that is much more accurate and can be used as a means of material loading directly into trucks were factors that caused this instrument is preferred by the project contractor. Excavator operator at an excavation projects require a very large cost. The Operating Cost excavator on a project consisting of procurement of equipment costs, fuel costs will need, as well as wage workers would cost. The aim of this thesis is to determine the most optimal utilization of equipment in terms of cost and project cost-solver using excel software and the comparison of the results obtained from a combination of analysis manually. A case study in this thesis is the construction of New Office Building Department of the Interior of the Republic of Indonesia (GoI DEPDAGRI).. To decide on the use of certain types of excavators on an excavation project should also consider the work schedule, excavation dimensions, budget execution costs, and the value of productivity tools ..


ABSTRACT Investigation of the Hudson Valley watershed reveals many violacein-producing bacteria. These are of interest for their biotherapeutic potential in treating chytrid infections of amphibians. The draft whole-genome sequences for seven Janthinobacterium isolates with a variety of phenotypes are provided in this study.


Long‐COVID is a heterogeneous condition with a litany of physical and neuropsychiatric presentations and its pathophysiology remains unclear. Little is known about the association between inflammatory biomarkers, such as interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) and C‐reactive protein (CRP) in the acute phase, and persistent symptoms after hospitalization in COVID‐19 patients.


This paper discuss the technology of ASI and it's design method, and pointed out integration frame of CAD/CAPP,the method of furniture product parametric design ,the integration application of CAD /CAPP, and the building of product BOM. The method is valuable in directing development of CAD. The author has succeed in development of Furniture Computer Aided Design System .


The invention relates to an electronic control device (28) for controlling at least one rotatably arranged actuator comprising electronic components such as a means (30) for the contactless reception of electrical energy and for the contactless reception of signals, means (27a) for generating magnetic fields and a common housing (39) which encloses the electronic components (27a, 30) and accommodating therein, wherein the control means (28) is formed rotierfahig and for mounting on or in a rotating about a rotation axis (a) component.


Abstract The diffusion of 63Ni in vanadium has been measured over the temperature range 900–1675°C. Analysis of the results gives a temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient D which can be expressed in the Arrhenius form: The behaviour is similar to that of cobalt diffusion in vanadium, but different from that of iron diffusion in vanadium and of self-diffusion in vanadium, for which non-Arrhenius behaviour is observed. The differences are attributed to a smaller concentration of divacancies in the case of Ni and Co, resulting from a strong electrostatic interaction between Ni (or Co) and a single vacancy.


We present a system and study of personalized energy-related recommendation. AgentSwitch utilizes electricity usage data collected from users' households over a period of time to realize a range of smart energy-related recommendations on energy tariffs, load detection and usage shifting. The web service is driven by a third party real-time energy tariff API (uSwitch), an energy data store, a set of algorithms for usage prediction, and appliance-level load disaggregation. We present the system design and user evaluation consisting of interviews and interface walkthroughs. We recruited participants from a previous study during which three months of their household's energy use was recorded to evaluate personalized recommendations in AgentSwitch. Our contributions are a) a systems architecture for personalized energy services; and b) findings from the evaluation that reveal challenges in designing energy-related recommender systems. In response to the challenges we formulate design recommendations to mitigate barriers to switching tariffs, to incentivize load shifting, and to automate energy management.


Spelling is an essential skill in EFL writing especially if writing is frequently used in texting through social media and smartphones. The study surveys Arabic EFL learners about their perceptions of using spelling correction tools: spell checkers and auto-correctors. The study focused on the perceived usefulness and ease of use of such tools in social media applications, since they are used frequently by the study's participants. The questionnaire was sent online to 84 participants at Aljazeerah Academy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data was analyzed quantitively with descriptive and inferential statistics indicating that spell checkers are mostly perceived to be easier to use than auto-correctors. However, no significant difference was found in terms of learning the misspelled words.


ABSTRACT This paper presents a coordinated control scheme for the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind turbine (WT) to enhance the fault ride through (FRT) capability. The coordinated FRT scheme includes: (1) an improved vector control strategy; (2) a crowbar protection circuit; (3) a DC-link chopper circuit, and their coordinated control. The improved vector control strategy introduces a compensation term reflecting the instantaneous stator voltage in order to limit rotor current during the voltage fault. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been demonstrated through various simulation cases. The simulation results show that the coordinated scheme can not only improve the FRT capability of the DFIG WT, but also can minimise the occurrence of hardware circuits and reduce their effect on the DFIG WT.


Hydrogen ion-selective membrane electrodes based on tribenzylamine(TBA), tetrabenzylethylenediamine(TBEDA), pentabenzyldiethylenetriamine(PBDETA) as neutral carriers were shown good selectivity and linearity in the range of pH 1~pH 9, pH 2~pH 12, pH 4~pH 12. The pH selectivity of this membrane electrodes have nothing relation with the numbers of unshared electron pair in TBA, TBEDA, PBDETA and were shown a slope of 43.8mV/pH, 46.9mV/pH, 43.6mV/pH respectively. The selectivity coefficients were determined by the separate solution method for alkali(, , ), alkaline earth metal(, , ) and transition metal ions(, , , , ). The membrane electrode based on TBEDA appeared the best results as hydrogen ion electrode.


An introduction is given how to select the models of the catalyst for the production of sulfuric acid for oxidizing SO_2 and how to load them to various sulphuric acid plants with different production capacities,process and materials,etc.Rationality to select and load for the catalyst is important to ensuring to run properly for sulfuric acid plants.


ABSTRACT The genomes of three Pseudoalteromonas strains (P1-8, P1-11, and P1-30) were sequenced and assembled. These genomes will inform future study of the genes responsible for the production of biologically active compounds responsible for these strains' antimicrobial, biofouling, and algicidal activities.


We consider a spinless particle coupled to a quantized Bose field and show that such a system has a ground state for two classes of short-range potentials which are alone too weak to have a zero-energy resonance.


The critical values for the mass of the Higgs bosons, at which the theory becomes strongly interacting, are calculated using the equivalence theorem, at high energies this allows us to replace the longitudinally polarized gauge bosons in the $S$ matrix for the corresponding Goldstone bosons. An appropriate ansatz for defining the would-be Goldstone bosons in the case of an additional neutral current, beyond the minimal standard model, is also presented.


Previous research has shown that meaning in life is closely related to well-being, a relationship that has been receiving increasing scholarly attention. We explored the mechanism by which people with a high level of meaning in life show enhanced subjective well-being, with a focus on the mediating role of self-efficacy in this link. Participants in this study were 245 undergraduates at three Chinese universities. Data were collected by using the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling results show that self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between meaning in life and subjective well-being. Moreover, the results of a bootstrapping analysis show there were both indirect and direct significant links between meaning in life and subjective well-being through self-efficacy. These findings are useful for those working in public health services to enhance the subjective well-being of individuals by addressing their sense of meaninglessness in life and inspiring confidence.


This paper presents a new routing protocol for ad hoc network called Ant-Based Energy-Aware Routing Protocol (ABEAR), which is based on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). ABEAR combines a reactive route setup procedure with proactive neighbor maintenance, and also makes use of route maintenance process. In routing computation for data packets, ABEAR considers the global and local information of every node, including the pheromone values, the link-quality and congestion metric, the remaining energy of the next hop. Incorporating this information in the routing computation makes neighbors with less remaining energy be less selected and reduce waste of energy caused by retransmission or dropping packets. In this way, ABEAR exhibits energy-efficient property and contributes to increase the lifetime of the ad hoc network. The simulation results show that ABEAR outperforms AODV (Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector Routing) in terms of life time, packet delivery ratio and average end-to-end delay, especially in larger topology and heavier load traffic.


ABSTRACT The aim of the present paper is to investigate if heterogeneity – meant in terms of economic and social development generated by innovative startups – persists or not across the three Italian macro-regions (north, centre, and south of Italy). According to law number (L. n.) 221/2012, Italian innovative startups are characterized by three parameters: (A) investments in R&D activities; (B) hiring experienced researchers; (C) holding a patent. By testing the effect that these parameters can exert in terms of economic and social development, heterogeneity or homogeneity between northern, central, and southern Italian macro-regions is disclosed. Methodologically, statistical elaborations leverage an unbalanced panel of 11,052 Italian innovative startups (data are retrieved from the official website of Italian Chambers of Commerce at http://startup.registroimprese.it) and are carried out through the estimation of a Stochastic Frontier Analysis – SFA without a time variable stochastic efficiency term. Achieved results disclose that heterogeneity persists across Italian macro-regions in reference to factors generating an economic and social impact; however, homogeneity exists in reference to causes of gaps from the efficiency frontier. In particular, results about northern macro-region reveal specific dynamics that – if properly managed – can increase the economic and social impact of innovative startups.


As a new IT paradigm for users, cloud computing has the potential to transform the way that IT resources are utilized and consumed. Many multinational enterprises MNEs are interested in cloud computing but do not know how to adopt and implement cloud computing in their enterprise settings. In an effort to help MNEs understand cloud computing and develop successful enterprise adoption strategies for cloud computing, the authors propose a hybrid cloud model for MNEs and illustrate the utility of this model by using two case studies. Insights for adopting and implementing this model in international settings are provided as well.


A method about optic fiber sensor technology applied to laser dynamic-fixed distance ranging system was introduced in this paper. The laser diode was modulated by continual sine signal in the system. According to the instinctive characteristic of optic fiber that the fiber can produce high precision phase shift, the system measured the predetermined ranging distance by means of measuring the phase difference between the measuring light signal and the reference light signal caused by their different light courses. Based on the phase demodulation theory, the function of optic fiber sensor in the system was described in this paper, an important reformation of the phase demodulation system was introduced, and the evaluation of the application and development prospect of the research was given as well.


The present invention discloses a method and system for intelligent fire elevator. The present invention, real-time monitoring by the sensor temperature parameters elevator, smoke parameter, and the parameter lateral acceleration parameter; parameters and smoke when the temperature parameter is above the standard parameter, the control device emits a warning signal to alert and send out the fire extinguishing signal, while cutting off power supply. Before the elevator fire will generally produce abnormal operation, the performance of the elevator or shaking speed abnormality occurrence, the present invention is thus also the parameters of the car and the lateral acceleration parameter monitoring, when the lateral angle of the car exceeds the limit, or after the acceleration exceeds the limit value, i.e. the control means to predict impending fire, the control will reduce the standard parameters of the server and smoke temperature, reducing the difficulty of extinguishing the trigger means, and such that in case of fire before the fire extinguishing i.e. promoter device, greatly improved safety.


ABSTRACT Brain donation in studies on aging remains a critical pathway to discovering and improving preventive measures and treatments for Alzheimer's dementia and related disorders. Brain donation for research is almost exclusively obtained from non-Latinx Whites of higher socioeconomic status in the United States. Despite persistent efforts, it has been difficult to obtain consent for brain donation among diverse participants. Hence, our understanding of Alzheimer's dementia and related disorders remains incomplete. The purpose of this methodological paper was to propose and outline a two-phase sequential mixed-methods research study design to identify barriers and facilitators of brain donation among diverse older adults. The first phase will consist of qualitative focus groups using a three (participant minority status: African American, Latinx, or White of lower income) by two (participant brain donation decision: consented or declined) design. The second phase will include statistical analyses of quantitative measures of existing data representing categories of variables that may be associated with decision making regarding brain donation. Next steps must include conducting qualitative focus groups and subsequent data analyses, resulting in overarching themes. Afterward, qualitative themes will be operationalized using quantitative variables for statistical analyses. This proposed study design can provide the foundation for developing and implementing effective and culturally competent survey instruments, educational tools, and intervention strategies in an effort to facilitate brain donation among diverse older adults


The article discusses how to construct the top-quality course of diagnostics.It also highlights the importance and protracted nature of this construction.Measures suggested are as follows: updating educational conception,innovating the teaching of theory and strengthening clinical practice teaching;optimizing the faculty members via strengthening the cultivation of them;reinforcing the construction of teaching materials and enriching teaching resources;deepening teaching reform and innovating teaching method;and establishing objective assessment criteria.


We present a search for semileptonic B decays to the charmed baryon {Lambda}{sub c}{sup +} based on 420 fb{sup -1} of data collected at the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e{sup +}e{sup -} storage rings. By fully reconstructing the recoiling B in a hadronic decay mode, we reduce non-B backgrounds and determine the flavor of the signal B. We statistically correct the flavor for the effect of the B{sup 0} mixing. We obtain a 90% confidence level upper limit of {Beta}({bar B} {yields} {Lambda}{sub c}{sup +} X{ell}{sup -} {bar {nu}}{sub {ell}})/{Beta}({bar B} {yields} {Lambda}{sub c}{sup +} X) < 3.5%.


This paper proposes a parsimonious framework to study markets for asset-backed securities (ABS). Loan issuers acquire private information about potential borrowers, use this information to screen loans, and later design and sell securities backed by these loans when in need of funds. While information is beneficial ex-ante when used to screen loans, it becomes detrimental ex-post because it introduces a problem of adverse selection that hinders trade in ABS markets. The model matches key features of these markets, such as the issuance of senior and junior tranches, and it predicts that when gains from trade in ABS markets are 'sufficiently' large, information acquisition and loan screening are inefficiently low. There are two channels that drive this inefficiency. First, when gains from trade are large, a loan issuer is tempted ex-post to sell a large portion of its cashflows and thus does not internalize that lower retention implements less information acquisition. Second, the presence of adverse selection in secondary markets creates informational rents for issuers holding low quality loans, reducing the value of loan screening. This suggests that incentives for loan screening not only depend on the portion of loans retained by issuers, but also on how the market prices the issued tranches. Turning to financial regulation, I characterize the optimal mechanism and show that it can be implemented with a simple tax scheme. This paper, therefore, contributes to the recent debate on how to regulate markets for ABS.


Access to Care: Assessment of Barriers in Two Rural Iowa Communities by Jean M. Osgood MSN, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1994 BSN, University of Iowa, 1990 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University August 2017 Abstract The ability to access primary care services within the local community has a direct impact on the health and wellness of the community. Individuals living in rural settings face multiple challenges when attempting to access care. The purpose of this retrospective project was to identify barriers in 2 rural, underserved communities and make recommendations for process changes that could reduce these barriers. Data were gathered from 2 critical access hospitals and 2 rural health clinics located in rural, underserved areas in Iowa. Both hospitals identified access to health services as an issue within their communities. Administrative data were gathered on nonemergent use of the emergency department, which revealed peak use from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Clinic data included patient demographics, staffing and scheduling patterns, and the number of patient visits. One site provided expanded hours, yet very little difference in the number visits to the emergency room for nonemergent care was identified. Both clinic sites reported the need for additional providers to meet the needs of their patients and provide more same-day appointments. Recommendations made to increase access were open scheduling, staggered staff schedules to increase appointments over peak demand times, and use of a dedicated case manager to improve communication and coordination of care. Increased use of technology would allow the provision of care outside the clinic setting, enhance care coordination, and promote patient participation in care. With increased knowledge regarding the barriers facing rural communities when accessing care, process changes can be implemented to reduce barriers. The overall goal is to improve health and wellness through increased access.The ability to access primary care services within the local community has a direct impact on the health and wellness of the community. Individuals living in rural settings face multiple challenges when attempting to access care. The purpose of this retrospective project was to identify barriers in 2 rural, underserved communities and make recommendations for process changes that could reduce these barriers. Data were gathered from 2 critical access hospitals and 2 rural health clinics located in rural, underserved areas in Iowa. Both hospitals identified access to health services as an issue within their communities. Administrative data were gathered on nonemergent use of the emergency department, which revealed peak use from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Clinic data included patient demographics, staffing and scheduling patterns, and the number of patient visits. One site provided expanded hours, yet very little difference in the number visits to the emergency room for nonemergent care was identified. Both clinic sites reported the need for additional providers to meet the needs of their patients and provide more same-day appointments. Recommendations made to increase access were open scheduling, staggered staff schedules to increase appointments over peak demand times, and use of a dedicated case manager to improve communication and coordination of care. Increased use of technology would allow the provision of care outside the clinic setting, enhance care coordination, and promote patient participation in care. With increased knowledge regarding the barriers facing rural communities when accessing care, process changes can be implemented to reduce barriers. The overall goal is to improve health and wellness through increased access. Access to Care: Assessment of Barriers in Two Rural Iowa Communities by Jean M. Osgood MSN, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1994 BSN, University of Iowa, 1990 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University August 2017 Dedication This paper is dedicated to my mother, who taught me how to be strong, independent, and persistent. I miss you and think of you daily. Acknowledgments Special thanks to Gloria Vermie, RN, who served as my preceptor at the Iowa Department of Public Health. She introduced me to an amazing group of individuals who are committed to improving the health and wellness of all Iowans. Her dedication to supporting and expanding health services to rural Iowans served as a source of inspiration and motivation to everyone she worked with.


Ideational Grammatical Metaphor is an innate nature of authentic written English.It gets involved in this thesis because there are two controversial views towards its influence on reading comprehension: one is that IGM impedes reading comprehension;the other,on the contrary,it facilitates reading comprehension.To clarify this controversy,the author carried out two subsequent surveys with the participation of two groups of university students who have been proved to possess similar basic English skills but be taught English in different ways.The result shows that IGM does not increase the difficulty of reading comprehension,and the EFL learners' comprehensibility will be improved if they persevere in reading the authentic English texts featured with IGM.


In the last years the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) technology has evolved both in terms of hardware and firmware. The tasks requested to ECUs are, as a matter of fact, ever more challenging, due to the growing complexity of the internal combustion engines control, causing increasing needs in terms of computational speed, as well as memory amount. In order to limit look up tables and white box models in ECUs, also Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were proposed for the use in different types of tasks, as On-Board Diagnosis, virtual sensors and ECU look up table replacement. ANNs showed a good performance in all these cases.In this paper, the application of ANNs as virtual sensors is further analyzed, in particular in order to verify their performance when used to set-up multiple sensors by using a single ANN module. In this work ANNs were used to evaluate pressure and flowrate in different points of a lubrication circuit of bench and connecting rod bearings.In the last years the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) technology has evolved both in terms of hardware and firmware. The tasks requested to ECUs are, as a matter of fact, ever more challenging, due to the growing complexity of the internal combustion engines control, causing increasing needs in terms of computational speed, as well as memory amount. In order to limit look up tables and white box models in ECUs, also Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were proposed for the use in different types of tasks, as On-Board Diagnosis, virtual sensors and ECU look up table replacement. ANNs showed a good performance in all these cases.In this paper, the application of ANNs as virtual sensors is further analyzed, in particular in order to verify their performance when used to set-up multiple sensors by using a single ANN module. In this work ANNs were used to evaluate pressure and flowrate in different points of a lubrication circuit of bench and connecting rod bearings.


The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the teaching methods of disciplinary «Review Practical Work» course for the «Comparative Art History» specialty in spiritual-moral and didactic aspects. The usage of these materials is also lawful for the teaching of «Review Practical Work» course for the traditional specialty of «Art History» and for the subject of «Artistic Criticism» of the «Journalism» specialty. The article also determines and gives proof of the creative reviewing process components. The course terminology actual issues as well as reviewing methods themselves are also disclosed in the article. The content of the article will be of much interest for art historians and art critics.


a Institute of Cardiometabolic Disease and Nutrition (ICAN), University Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6; Department of Nutrition, Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital (AP-HP), Paris, France b Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospitals; the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark c Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany d European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), London, e Institute of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK


Context: We consider the structure of service-oriented architectures in vehicular software. Aim: We aim at evaluating the structure and grouping of service architectures. Method: We propose and discuss architectural metrics tailored towards automotive service-oriented architectures. We apply the metrics on an adaptive cruise control case example extracted from the AUTOSAR standard. Results: The application of the proposed metrics to two different service groupings for ACC points clearly to the same service grouping that we consider, after a thorough analysis, to be better with respect to coupling and cohesion attributes. Conclusion: We demonstrate the usefulness of proposed service group metrics in early design phases of the development process and validate the metrics on the case example of an adaptive cruise control function.


PurposeThe purpose of this article is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the cellular manufacturing system (CMS) literature published from 1982–2021 to identify key issues and trends for the future.Design/methodology/approachA six-stage methodology is used to conduct a literature review, which includes: (1) article collection; (2) inclusion/exclusion criteria; (3) reviewing the articles; (4) analyzing the articles; (5) framework development; and (6) future research directions. A total of 936 CMS-specific articles are reviewed. This paper made use of three software tools: the R package, VOSviewer and SciMAT.FindingsAccording to the findings, the majority of CM researchers focused on cell formation and design. The USA, Iran and India are the top three leading publishers. Additionally, the gap and future direction of CM are discussed.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, the current study is the first attempt to investigate CMS evaluation through bibliometric and thematic analysis and provides a decisional framework as well as steps for CMS adoption. For individuals who are interested in understanding more about CMS and its evolution, this paper offers a starting point.


The article describes the main modern socio-economic megatrends in Ukraine. It has been proven that the level of resilience of the socio-economic system not only in Ukraine has significantly decreased as a result of the disruption of the logistics channels for the supply of food and agricultural products, as well as the properties of stability and adaptability of the economic systems of most countries of the world with low and medium income levels have been significantly disturbed, as the cost has increased significantly of essential products (food), which affects both the solvency and the level of consumption in GDP. In the context of the acquisition of a high level of resilience in the socio-economic system, studying its diversification and export orientation requires special attention. This is important in the conditions of the low level of solvency of domestic consumers, which does not contribute to the development of the domestic market, the reduction of trade turnover with foreign countries, the low effectiveness of stimulating domestic production, the high cost of technologies for Ukrainian manufacturers, which reduces the competitiveness of manufactured goods on the domestic and foreign markets, etc. The following are possible environmental threats that are the consequences of the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine. The risk of the resilience of socio-economic systems due to the growth of migration processes, particularly the increase in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), is outlined. Irreversible human losses due to hostilities and significant volumes of mass internal and external migration became the heaviest price for Ukraine. The military conflict leads to the loss of human potential as an essential endogenous factor in the resilience of the socio-economic system; namely, it occurs.


A summary is presented of experiences in connection with flight flutter testing of supersonic interceptors. The planning and operational aspects involved are described along with the difficulties encountered, and the correlation between measurement and theory. Recommendations for future research and development to advance the science of flight flutter testing are included.


The objective of this paper is to describe how it is possible to have growth without sprawl. It is possible to have a high quality of life without depleting natural resources and abandoning valuable capital infrastructure and existing neighborhoods. The paper explains that in order to accomplish this, it is necessary to understand what sprawl is and what its impacts are. Density, or more specifically low density, is one of the defining characteristics of sprawl, but it has to set in context and this paper attempts to do that. Densities in the Untied States overall are roughly one-tenth of the densities in Western Europe, which, in turn, are much lower than those of Japan and only a fraction of what is found in Hong Kong or Indonesia. In all of these locations, suburban densities are lower than the densities of central cities. Sprawl, then, is development that, given a national and regional framework, is at a low relative density, and one that may be too costly to maintain. Sprawl has impacts in predictable areas. It requires more road and public utility infrastructure, it consumes more land for development, causing a loss of critical and agricultural and fragile environmental lands; it affects cost of housing by increasing property improvement costs; and it increases the cost of public services due to the spread-out land pattern to which these services must be distributed. The paper describes how smart growth can save resources.


while the remaining L factors are qualitative, i.e. they take only a distinct number of possible values. The conditions for optimality of approximate designs for the general case of experiments with qualitative and quantitative factors have been established by Kurotschka (1981, 1987) and Wierich (1986). Exact designs for such experiments are described in Atkinson and Donev (1989), but neither set of researchers gives any special treatment to experiments with mixtures. The mixture constraint (1), however, introduces some special features which it is the purpose of this paper to investigate. In Section 2 some useful properties of the mixture experiments are listed. In Section 3 models and optimality conditions for experiments with mixture and qualitative factors are established. Discussion with examples is given in Section 4. In Section 5 more general mixture experiments are considered, in which the response depends on the amount of the mixture as well as on the proportions of its components. Experiments of this kind are common in such areas as chemistry, medicine and agriculture.


Subjectity education is a kind of social practice which aims at developing the subjectivity of the receivers of an education. According to the demands of the development of the society and the contemporary education, it will direct the inner, educational needs of the receivers and train them to be the main part of the society, who can understand the world and carry out the activity of practice on their own initiative and creativity. Some aspects are discussed here, such as the necessity ,possibility and fisibility of carrying out this kind of education. The goal of this article is to provide reference for teachers, which can help them improve their teaching effectiveness.


The first optimization of the nonlinear beam dynamics of the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation light sources using Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm is reported. After benchmarking ELEGANT against TRACY3, beam lifetime studies with the operation lattice and fine-tuning of the storage ring model, MOGA-ELEGANT was used to find the best settings of quadrupole and sextupole magnets in order to maximize the dynamic and momentum apertures used as proxies for the injection efficiency and the Touschek lifetime respectively. The solutions obtained after one month of computation in the high level computational cluster of SOLEIL using 200 CPUs are detailed. The improvement of the Touschek lifetime obtained with MOGA is confirmed by the beambased experiments. The beam lifetime of the SOLEIL storage ring was increased experimentally by 40 % as predicted by the simulations.


Objective:To determine the relative affinity of three monoclonal antibodies (4A9,4C3,9F12) against type O foot-and-mouth disease.Methods:A method was developed in which serial dilution of purified antigen of type O FMDV was coated.The monoclonal antibodies (4A9,4C3,9F12) were purified from the ascites of mice inoculated with the hybridonas.Relative affinity of the purified monoclonal antibodies was determined with the indirect ELISA method.Results:The optimal dilution of the antigen and enzyme-labeled antibodies were 1∶800 and 1∶10 000,respectively.The relative affinity of the monoclonal antibodies (4A9,4C3,9F12) were 5.242 μg/ml(1∶600),0.763 μg/ml(1∶5 000) and 0.127 μg/ml(1∶40 000),respectively,with the relative affinity of 9F124C34A9.Conclusion:Relative affinity of the monoclonal antibodies (4A9,4C3,9F12) can be determined by ELISA,and it provides a theoretical foundation for the monoclonal antibody which is suitable for used in further studies of FMDV.


Plant growth chambers adaptable for providing a wide range of controlled environmental conditions for plant physiological and phytopathological investigations are described and illustrated. The blueprints will be published separately. These papers provide some useful ideas for local construction of low cost, efficient units in universities and colleges where budgets cannot adequately cover such research facilities.


Persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) patients show a 50% recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), and no consensus is established for following treatment. The aim of our i-STRATICICATION study is to provide evidence for optimal stratification of recurrent AF patients to pharmacological versus ablation therapy, through in-silico trials in 800 virtual atria. The cohort presents variability in anatomy, electrophysiology, and tissue structure (low voltage areas, LVA), and is developed and validated against experimental and clinical data from ionic currents to ECG. AF maintenance is evaluated prior-and post-PVI, and atria with sustained arrhythmia after PVI are independently subjected to seven state-of-the-art treatments for AF ( Figure ). The results of the i-STRATICICATION study show that the right and left atrial volume dictate the success of ablation therapy in structurally-healthy atria (LVA<1%). On the other hand, LVA ablation, both in the right and left atrium, is required for atria presenting LVA remodeling and short refractoriness. This atrial refractoriness, mainly modulated by L-type Ca 2+ current, I CaL , and fast Na + current, I Na , determines the success of pharmacological therapy. Therefore, our study suggests the assessment of optimal treatment selection using the above-mentioned


For a prime power q, we show that a cyclic relative difference set with parameters (q/sup n/-1/q-1,q-1,q/sup n-1/,q/sup n-2/) can be constructed from a d-homogeneous function from F/sub q//sup n//spl bsol/{0} onto F/sub q/ with difference-balanced property, where F/sub q//sup n/ is the finite field with q/sup n/ elements. This construction method enables us to construct several new cyclic relative difference sets with parameters (p/sup n/-1/p/sup l/-1,p/sup l/-1,p/sup n-l/,p/sup n-2l/) from p-ary sequences of period p/sup n/-1 with ideal autocorrelation property introduced by Helleseth and Gong. Using a lifting idea, other new cyclic relative difference sets can be constructed from the Helleseth-Gong (HG) sequences. Also, the 3-ranks and the trace representation of the characteristic sequences of cyclic relative difference sets from a specific class of ternary HG sequences and ternary Lin sequences are derived.


Occasionally, a new idea will burst upon the world of work with such a force that it commands the attention of researchers and practitioners alike. It generates excitement, perhaps even a certain vogue, as active minds attempt to exploit it. Of course, the courtship eventually ends and a general consensus emerges as to just how seminal the idea was to begin with. Most likely it will come to occupy a niche in the prevailing scheme of industrial and organisational thought. Some—very few—pass into that select company of honoured concepts which have established new schemes for research and practice.


In the present study, groundwater quality in respect of native groundwater has been determined in the entire State of Punjab during the installation of observation wells under World Bank aided Hydrology Project Phase II undertaken during 2009-14 by Water Resources and Environment Directorate, Punjab. The results of sampling done during installation of observation wells show that the groundwater quality in the depth range of 45-60 m on the basis of EC and RSC is categorized as: fit in 53% and marginal to unfit in remaining 47%.


In recent years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and next-generation sequencing technologies have been widely used to detect the common genetic variants of diseases. Despite these successes, the majority of genetic architecture of human complex diseases remains unknown. In the post-genome era, the major challenge is to mine novel disease risks from multi-level omics data using system biology methods, which may expand our knowledge of the causes of genetic disease.


Interfacial stability of purely-viscous fluids is numerically investigated in channel flow. It is assumed that the main fluid (i.e., the fluid flowing through the center of the channel) is thixotropic and obeys the Moore model as its constitutive equation while the fluids flowing above and below this central (core) layer are assumed to be the same Newtonian fluids with the same thickness. Having found an analytical solution for the base-flow in all three layers, a temporal, normal-mode, linear stability analysis is employed to investigate the vulnerability of the base flow to small perturbations. An eigenvalue problem is obtained this way which is solved numerically using the pseudo-spectral collocation method. The main objective of the work is to explore the role played by the time-constant introduced through the core fluid's thixotropic behavior on the critical Reynolds number. It is found that the thixotropic behavior of the core fluid has a stabilizing effect on the interface. An increase in the viscosity of the upper/lower Newtonian fluids is predicted to have a stabilizing or destabilizing effect on the interface depending on the parameter values of the Moore model (e.g., the ratio of the zero-shear viscosity to infinite-shear viscosity in this fluid model).


Background
Fungal keratitis is one of the main leading cause of blindness in China, the incidence of which is increasing year by year, while fungal keratitis with diabetes mellitus (DM) also has an increasing trend.Penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) is an effective treatment for fungal keratitis with high risks, but the study on clinical effect of diabetes mellitus on PKP is still relatively scarce.

Objective
The clinical data of 92 cases of fungal keratitis with DM and 106 cases of fungal keratitis without systemic disease who underwent PKP were retrospectively reviewed, and the postoperative best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), implant rejection, fungus recurrence, complicated cataract and secondary glaucoma were analyzed and compared.

Results
Moderate and severe infection were obtained in corneas of the two groups, the eye number distributions of different infection degree and Eurotium infection were not significantly different between the two groups (χ2=0.166, P=0.684). The eye number distributions of Eurotium infection had no statistical significance between the two groups(χ2=0.340, P=0.854). The eye number distributions of Fusarium and Candida infection were significantly different between the two groups (χ2=2.068, P=0.010; χ2=3.874, P=0.049) The BCVA of the 2 groups from 1 week to 2 years postoperative were all higher than preoperative.The numbers of patients whose BCVA>0.3 in fungal keratitis with DM group were significantly lower than those in the fungal keratitis without DM group in different time intervals after surgery (all at P 0.05).

Conclusions
Compared with fungal keratitis patients without DM, fungal keratitis patients with DM have lower visual improvement, higher rate of implant rejection, fungus recurrence and complicated cataract after PKP.DM is a risk factor of complications after PKP.

Key words:
Diabetes/complication; Keratoplasty, penetrating; Eye infections, fungal/surgery; Treatment outcomes; Retrospective studies


This introductory chapter describes the contribution of the book to key historiographic and intellectual approaches to music and Latin American history. It locates historically and conceptually the emergence of the category of Latin American music within the history of the idea of Latin America since the nineteenth century. It focuses on the emergence of a cultural definition of Latin America as a region and argues about the centrality of music in it. It is a conversation with many intellectual, political, and aesthetic histories of the region. It describes the main concepts utilized in the book—musical practices, transnationalism, modernity—and the overall content of each chapter.


This research aimed to investigate the opinion of managers, of the Federal University of Sao Joao del-Rei (UFSJ), about the impacts produced by adhesion of the institution to the Support Program Restructuring and Expansion of Federal Universities Plans (REUNI), in the life of them in university terms and in the city. The theoretical framework is that of environmental psychology that aims to investigate the inter-relationship between man and his physical and social context. The qualitative method was used to conduct semi-structured interviews with four managers from the University. Participants described their opinion about the changes in the University, the city and the demands of their work. The expansion process was presented in particular ways and related to the reality of UFSJ and city. Finally, there is the need to better understand the phenomenon of expansion extending the research and addressing other groups in the city and the university.


The conveyor, in particular a wax-based lubricant coatings for container transport conveyor is provided. Lubricant coatings provide a low coefficient of friction conveyor surface. In one embodiment, the lubricant coating is composed of a mixture of carnauba wax and at least one additional wax. Conveyor lubricant coatings are applied are also provided.


Subtitle: A gloomy outlook for the economy coupled with even higher fuel costs in the near-term endangers the already weak financial condition of the airline industry.


The major components of economically useful traits in cattle dairy productivity, which conducted the selection is milk productivity and reproductive ability of cows. Studies conducted on animals Ukrainian black and white dairy cattle in the «Milk River» farm in the Sokal and Brody offices breeding reproducers «Breeder» Lviv region and plant breeding «Yamnytsya» Ivano–Frankivsk region. Ukrainian black and white dairy breed in the western region of Ukraine is characterized by good reproductive ability. Depending on the husbandry and lactation duration, service period lasted within 87.4 – 121.5 day, intercalving period – within 364 – 402.6 day, dry period within– 47.3 – 72.9 day, the fertility index was 46.3 – 48.0, coefficient of reproductive ability – within 0.92–0.99, output of calves per 100 cows – within 91.8 – 98.8. The duration of pregnancy in cows of different farms and lactations were in range 277 – 283.5 day and meet the requirements of the physiological norm. It has been shown that the milk yield of cows depends on the parameters of reproductive capacity. The correlation between duration of service–period and intercalving period, and milk yield, milk fat in most cases was positive. Correlation dry period duration and parameters of milk yield changed from negative to positive. Depending on the husbandry, lactation and index the impact share of service–period duration on milk yield was 7.0 – 29.7, for intercalving period – 8.8 – 31.8, for dry period – 9.2 – 23.8% respectively.


Combined San Francisco and Sacramento Three patients within a cluster, three patients during quiescent period. and three controls were studied. Skin biopsies were examined from both temples after regional anesthesia and sections were examined with the electronmicroscope. Grids were also randomized and coded for examination without knowledge of the source of the tissue. Increased numbers of mast cells were found in cluster headache patients when compared to controls. They were predominantly situated in the vicinity of the cutaneous nerve in patients and perivascularly in controls. Degranulation of mast cells was thought to be present on the side of the headache, but could not be confirmcd after the coded reexamination of the tissue. Increased amounts of bound histamine may be present i n cluster headache patients at all times. but ultrastructural degranulation was not seen on the side of the headache, though no tissue was obtained during a headache attack. I t is possible that bound histamine is released from mast cells unilaterallv and causes an axonal Chairman: Robert C. Griggs, Rochester, New York Secretary: Jerome S. Resnick, Stamford, Connecticut


A DC bus voltage control for a motor drive is proposed in this paper using a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) composed of a battery and an ultra-capacitor for electric vehicle applications. The motor drive of an interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor is typically developed based on a fixed DC bus voltage. However, with the voltage controllability of HESS, it is possible to optimize the energy system by selecting the optimum DC bus voltage. Unlike the conventional designs, the proposed HESS processes only a portion of the vehicle power through interfacing a DC/DC converter. The new concept reduces the converter losses, enables the full usage of stored energy in the storage units and provides a boosting capability of the DC bus voltage. This capability allows the motor drive to operate with maximum torque per ampere control for longer time intervals. An EV with HESS and an IPM drive is simulated under different driving conditions to demonstrate the concept. Experimental results of a scaled down system are provided.


The invention discloses an external preparation for treating acute periodontal abscess. The external preparation is prepared from a traditional Chinese medicine extract and medicinal auxiliary materials, wherein the traditional Chinese medicine extract is prepared from the following raw materials: 30-50 parts of artemisia apiacea, 22-35 parts of fiveleaf akebia fruit, 11-20 parts of argyreia acuta and 11-20 parts of fructus xanthii. The problem that the blood concentration of the affected part is too low is avoided by local medication; a high-concentration medicine can directly act the affected part, so that the subjective symptoms of patients can be rapidly relieved; the clinical indication is improved; the operation is safe, simple and convenient; and the external preparation has a relatively ideal clinical application prospect.


No higher education institution worth its name, size and legacy can achieve and nurture its vision of creating and sustaining excellence in teaching and learning without value oriented, committed and skilled human resources at its disposal. The paper discusses the poor outcomes in the higher education as practices and policies were not reformed to counter challenges and leverage new opportunities. Managing and motivating human resources effectively is leadership challenge and key to quality outcomes .The paper opines that the onus lies on leadership for creating and leveraging a kind of robust eco system of teaching, learning and evaluation where discovering and sharing new knowledge becomes a norm. This study highlights that it is incumbent upon higher education institutions to evaluate processes, practices and outcomes regularly so that quality is sustained and leveraged for making students capable. confident and creative. The study recommends that institutions should conduct academic and administrative audit with active involvement of all stakeholders to improve upon the traditional practices for better outcomes. Academic and administrative audit of higher education institutions shall provide impetus for sustaining quality circles by leveraging the strengths and overcoming the weaknesses.


Nowadays, multimedia elements such as image, video, animation, audio, and software can be distributed in a short time anywhere in the world using internet technology. Content owners are concerned about copyright protection and authentication. Watermarking is one of the method to protect patient information in medical images such as magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging. In the literature, there are several methods proposed using both frequency-domain (etc. digital cosine transforms (DCT), digital wavelet transforms (DWT), digital Fourier transforms (DFT), digital radon transform (DRT)) and spatial domain (least significant bits (LSB)) methods. Mostly digital wavelet transform based watermarking methods give very promising results after common attacks. In the DWT algorithm, scaling factor is used in embedding and extraction. A scaling factor is a number between 0 and 1 which has been determined by the user which is not efficient. We can use the brute force method which solves a problem by checking all the possible cases, but it is slow. In this work, we use simulated annealing heuristic search algorithm to find out the best scaling factor to reach more robust, transparent, high data capacity and resistant watermarking method in medical images. Experimental results show that simulated annealing-based scaling factor determination in frequency domain watermarking gives more robust, resistant, and transparent watermarked images.


Objective: To investigate the efficacy of core strength training on the middle-aged taxi drivers with lipid disor- ders, in order to offer experimental clues for lowering the incidence of metabolism syndrome(MS). Method: Forty middle-aged taxi drivers were divided into the experiment group(20 subjects, of which 18 sub- jects finished the experiment) and the control group(20 subjects, of which 17 subjects finished the experiment). Two groups of subjects received health education, once a week, 20 minutes at a time, for 8 weeks. The con- trol group maintained daily activities, not restricted diet. The experiment group received core strength training(warm- up 15min, training 35min, cool down 10min, three times a week, a time at alternative day, for 8 weeks), not restricted diet. The serum CHO, TG, HDL, LDL, insulin, leptin, and visfatin were measured be- fore and after the experiment for all the subjects. Result:①The TG(1.90±0.71 vs 1.63±0.68, P0.01), CHO(5.46±0.91 vs 5.06±1.02, P0.01), LDL(3.31±0.76 Vs. 2.97±0.87, P0.05) all decreased significantly and the HDL(1.20±0.19 vs 1.27±0.16, P0.05) increased signifi- cantly after 8 weeks intervention in the experimental group. While no significance was found for all the index- es after 8 weeks in the control group. In comparison between two groups before and after experiment,the in- dexes of blood lipids did not show significant difference(P0.05). ②In the experimental group, the insulin(9.23± 3.86 vs 8.68±3.92, P0.01), leptin(1.96±0.87 vs 1.32 ±0.58, P0.01), visfatin(5.30±3.43 vs 3.60±2.23, P0.001) all decreased significantly after 8 weeks intervention in the experiment group, while no difference was found for all lipids indexes in the control group after 8 weeks. Comparing the experimental group to control group, only leptin decreased remarkably after the experimen(t1.31±0.58 vs 2.27±0.76,P0.001), in others no difference was found(P0.05). Conclusion:①Eight weeks core strength training for the middle-aged taxi drivers with MS can improve their lipid metabolism and reduced the healthy risk.②The core strength training program is a safe, effective and practical training program.


The unique performance of biological systems across a wide spectrum of phylogenetic species has historically provided inspirations for roboticists in new designs and fabrication of new robotic platforms. Of particular interest to a number of important applications is to create dynamic robots able to adapt to a change in their world, unplanned events that are sometimes unexpected, and sometimes unstable, harsh conditions. It is likely that the exploring dynamics in biological systems will continue to provide rich solutions to attaining robots capable of more complex tasks for this purpose. This is because the long-term design process of evolution utilizes a natural selection process that responds to such changes. Recently, there have been significant advances across a number of interdisciplinary efforts that have generated new capabilities in biorobotics. Whole body dynamics that capture the force dynamics and functional stability of legged systems over rough terrain have been elucidated and applied in legged robotic systems. Exploying the force dynamics of flapping winged insect flight has provided key discoveries and enabled the fabrication of new micro air vehicles. New classes of materials are being developed that emulate the ability of natural muscle, capturing the compliant and soft subtle movement and performance of biological appendages. In addition, classes of new multifunctional materials are being developed to enable the design of biorobotics with the structural and functional efficiency of living organisms. Optical flow and other sensors based on the principles of invertebrate vision have been implemented on robotic platforms for autonomous robotic guidance and control. These fundamental advances have resulted in the emergence of a new generation of bioinspired dynamic robots which show significant performance improvements in early prototype testing and that could someday be useful in a number of significant applications such as search and rescue and entertainment.


Focusing on Chris Marker's seminal avant garde short La Jetee, the article considers the film's treatment of the themes of time, memory and power and Marker's continuing preoccupation with these questions in his filmmaking. Following a broadly Deleuzian trajectory the argument the article begins by exploring the way Marker's montage of photo-stills serve to articulate the question of temporality and memory and ultimately to construct a mode of fragmented subjectivity. The importance of the fissures or intervals in the film- moments of non-representation- is given particular emphasis and, it is argued, are integral to the 'damaged' memory of the protagonist of this dystopian science fiction narrative and the article reveals how the situation of the protagonist allegorises the subject position of the cinematic spectator. The article goes on to explain how the theme of memory is tied to the allusive and many facetted relationship the film has to its source material.


As the representative figures in the intellectual arena in the 19th century's England, Thomas Carlyle and Matthew Arnold, under the great influence of liberalhumanism, combined social and moral criticism with liberalhumanistic cultural idealization and made penetrating critique of English society in the age of industrial capitalism. Nevertheless, the difference between them was also symptomatic of the internal contradiction and split in modern English intellectual discourse as well as liberal-humanism.


We propose that the thermal-positron reflection by surface potentials, including the potential-well effects, is more substantial than predicted by a simple step-potential model. Thus, positrons may encounter the surface potential many times to participate in surface-escape processes. The physical picture presented here is not only more realistic than the step-potential model, it also suggests possible explanations of the related experimental findings.


The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Advisory Council chairman considers the choice of research and development (R and D) projects to be as important as the work itself. The Advisory Council's function, he feels, is to give perspective to EPRI projects and help to set priorities. His judgement is based more on an evaluation of the researchers' qualifications and character rather than an understanding of the data, although he has had a long career in the field of physics. In an overview of his career and present activities, he emphasizes the importance of outside consultation and the consensus approach to decision making. (DCK)


The current social studies curriculum was invented in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Its primary purpose was to social2ze the children of the diverse social groups immigrating to the country to the norms and values of U.S. social life. Based on three main arguments, the time has come to abolish social studies as it is currently known. The structure of social studies was built on a model of students' psychological development that no one any longer accepts. The structure, particularly for the first 6 years of the program, virtually has gone unchanged since 1916, even though the ideas on which it was developed have been discredited. It is impoverishing to continue to conceive of children as "concrete" thinkers able to make best sense of the immediate contents of their social environment. The structure of social studies carries a powerful and undesirable ideologi -age that often is in contrast to its overt concerns with mutt' ism and valuing other cultures. The accretion of a range of sializing aims has ensured that the objectives for the social studies are all out of proportion to the means available within it to achieve them. The results of surveys of students' knowledge of the content of social studies testifies eloquently and depressingly to this. A 13-item list of references is included. (DB) *********************************************************************** Aepruouciluns suppilea by LiJhb are the pest that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** THE SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM: THE CASE FOR ITS ABOLITION Maria do Ceu Ro ldao Escola Superior de Educacao de Portalegre 7300 Portalegre Portugal Kieran Egan Faculty of Education Burnaby, B.C. Simon Fraser University Canada V5A 1S6


The Iconographical Falls Efficacy Scale (Icon-FES) is the first scale that consists of visual expressions and evaluates the fear of falling. The study aims to adapt the scale to Turkish. The Icon-FES, the Falls Efficacy Scale International, and the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale were applied to 150 older adults. The study indicated that Icon-FES has excellent psychometric properties. Presence of chronic diseases was found to be associated factors affecting the fear of falling (P < .05). The short-version Icon-FES-Turkish is a valid and reliable scale and it should be carried out on illiterate older adults.


[Objective] To understand the age,the cause of disease,type of atrial fibrillation,cerebral apoplexy etc epidemiological feature in-patient with atrial fibrillation in Dalian and treatment situation of atrial fibrillation [Methods](1)Retrospective analysis in patients with atrial fibrillation from six-comperhensive hospital in Dalian,from 2003-2004.[Results] In 964 patients were enrolled in the study including 498 male and 466 female with mean age of 68.5 years,there were cases(44.6%)with hypertension 、cases(30.4%)with coronary heart disease and cases(22.3%)with congestive heart failure(3).Type of atrial fibrillation include paroxysmal auricular flutter 28.6%,persistent atrial fibrillation 14.1%,permanent atrial fibrillation 57.2%,conversion and maintaining sionus rhythm was 56%,deslanoside and amiodarone were more used than propafenone hydrochloride and beta-receptor blocker during breaking out atrial fibrillation,of 78% the patients with chronic atrial fibrillation were treated by controlling ventricular rate,digoxiin and bete-receptor blocker were more used than calcul-and amiodarone.(4)mortidity rate of cerebral apoplexy in the study is 9.4%,there were no difference between every type of atrial fibrillation.(5)69.7%were treated by resisting platelet in this groups,and only 4% by warfarin anticoagulant over a long period of time.[Condusion] The age the callse of disease type of atrial fibrillation cerebral apoplexy etc epidernidogical featurs in patient with atrial fibrillation in Dalian is resemble to the other interral regions,the patients with paroxysmal auricular flutter were treated principally by controlling rhythm,most of the pationts with chronic atrial fibrillation were treated by controlling ventricular rate.Anticoagulantion therapy is little use.


Mass tourism as the dominant form of tourism practice has for decades caused environmental, socio-economic and cultural impacts to tourist destinations. Responsible tourism which is underpinned by sound environmental, social and economic principles, offers a way to mitigate the impacts of conventional tourism. Certification as a tool helps set standards, put benchmarks to be met by tourism actors and has been one of the strategies used to reduce these impacts. Certification is believed to have the potential to decrease adverse environmental and social impacts of tourism, by making the tourism industry assume its responsibilities. There has however, been scepticism concerning tangible benefits that certification provides in developing responsible tourism. This study aimed to assess the role of Ecotourism Kenya"s Eco-rating Certification Scheme in promoting responsible tourism. The study assessed the growth of the Eco-rating Certification Scheme between 2003 and 2013 by analysing the number of certified facilities on the three levels of certification in order to understand the overall up take. It further investigated the environmental benefits of the Certification Scheme by comparing Kicheche Mara Camp (a Gold level certified facility) and Tipilikwani Mara Camp (a non-certified facility)
based on similar environmental indicators and scoring criteria used in the Eco-rating certification. The challenges facing the Certification growth were investigated through primary data collection from interview with EK key informants and clients interested in the certification but yet to apply for assessment. Qualitative and quantitative data methods and statistical techniques such as T-testwere utilized in the analysis and presentation of data. The growth trend of the Certification indicated a logarithmic type of progression that demonstrated an encouraging start which was later coupled by various development constraints. Growth is however, seen in the later years where the annual certified facilities increased to the highest number(102) in 2013. Respondents in the study identified lack of awareness on the EK Eco-rating Certification, cost of certification, long and tedious application process as the main challenges limiting its growth. Nonetheless, statistically the mean variances were similarwhich implied that the challenges exert the same pressure on Eco-rating Certification Scheme.Marketing and promotional strategies to create awareness, reviewing the certification costs, and revising the application procedure were identified as solutions to enhance the growth of Eco-rating certification. It is however, evident from the comparison between Kicheche Mara and Tipilikwani Mara Campswhich scored 85.6% (173 points out of 202)and 38.6% (78 points out 202)respectively on environmental indicators that the Eco-rating Certification can play a significant role in enhancing environmental management and promoting responsible tourism in the country. Certification should however, not be regarded as the ultimate goal as it rather constitutes a mechanism which can only work properly when combined with sound governmental policies in terms of planning and monitoring.


The resource limitations of mobile devices continue to impose constraints on the development of complex mobile applications. Performance and resource efficiency remains a challenge. We have examined resource utilization and performance trade-offs when extending an Augmented Reality (AR) application with context-awareness and cloud computing. The hypothesis is that the cost of these technologies is worth the benefits they result in. Our measurements show that filtered image datasets obtained through context-awareness result in lower latency and a reduced memory load when performing all AR computations on the mobile device. However, a cloud computing AR application does not benefit from in-depth context-awareness, as no part of the dataset is stored locally and the latency is approximately constant, relative to the Internet connectivity.


Extended Abstract Natural ventilation refers to the flow of air by change in density of air caused by differences in atmospheric conditions between the inside and outside of the mine. Some small mines still rely on natural ventilation instead of mechanical ventilation. For a more accurate assessment and prediction of natural ventilation, changes of air flowrate in the mine should be identified in advance due to changes in physical properties the inside and outside of the mine. While many studies related to pressure of natural ventilation such as [1], [2] and [3] has been conducted in the past, a few study has been done on experimental verification of actual natural ventilation and the assessment of the main influencing factors. To this end, this study designed and produced a fixed ventilation experiment device, and conducted a ventilation experiment in underground mines in Korea. As a result of measuring the change in air quantity inside and outside the mine, the effect on natural ventilation in the mine was found to be small when the temperature outside changed to a day cycle. Meanwhile, measurements of atmospheric pressure have shown that it is effective in predicting the air quantity in mines.


According to this invention, a musical tone control signal generating apparatus for an electronic musical instrument is provided. When a performer operates an automatic return type musical tone control operation element, the apparatus controls a generated musical tone according to the operation amount of the element. A possible offset amount generated when the musical tone control operation element is released and returned to an automatic return position, is detected, and operation element data is corrected based on the offset amount, so that a musical tone control signal is prevented from being offset.


Australia and New Zealand have shared in the current wave of interest in globalisation. Indeed, it may well be that some of the dimensions of globalisation are more pressing for nation-states like Australia and New Zealand. Both nations have relatively small economies and neither fits particularly easily into trans-national, regionally based groupings of nation-states that offer one way for smaller economies to adjust to global change. Yet where once the thrust of policy was to shut out external economic forces, for the past two decades governments in Australia and New Zealand have been pro-active in adapting to changes emanating from beyond their shores. The repercussions of this process of active engagement with global economic forces have been felt to varying degrees in all policy areas and it is the resulting policy change and its consequences we seek to map in this special issue of the journal. In the present article we set the scene for such an examination by reviewing the various empirical indicators available for charting the process of globalisation. We identify the institutional similarities and differences between the two countries that may constrain or facilitate globalisation, and consider a number of issues and questions that are important when analysing comparative policy development in Australia and New Zealand in a global context.


Xiaonanhai Hydropower Project is the third large grade Ⅰ hydropower project on Yangtze River. Its rock foundation is composed of typical red beds,which have been weathered and demarcated clearly. The average thickness of the overburden and strongly weathered zone is 18 m,and the average thickness of the weakly weathered zone is about 6 m. If all the weakly weathered rock masses are excavated,the excavating depth will be equal to one third of the total one. Obviously,the excavating volume is huge. The wave velocity distribution of rock mass in a large area of dam site,engineering classification of rock mass quality,deformation and strength properties of rock mass are analyzed. The differences between weakly and slightly weathered rock masses are researched,and the probability of using the weakly weathered rock mass as foundation plane is discussed. The experimental results of this stage show that the qualities of weakly and slightly weathered rock mass are grade IV, the mechanical parameters of weakly weathered rock mass approach to those of slightly weathered rock mass,and the weakly weathered rock mass can be used as foundation plane.


The use of sign language is a crucial component of daily life for those who have trouble speaking or hearing. American Sign Language is challenging for computer vision to recognise due to its increasing complexity and high intraclass diversity. This research compares and evaluates the effectiveness of three machine learning algorithms in the task of sign language detection. By utilising the Convolution Neural Network, K-Nearest Neighbor, and Support Vector Machine algorithms, we hope to represent characteristics that will be learnt. After that, we must evaluate them in terms of their accuracy, recall, precision, F-Value, and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). We need to determine which algorithm is most suited for classifying sign language images after taking into account all of these factors. Additionally, we are employing the CNN algorithm to recognise sign language in both text and audio.