BACKGROUND
In farm animal practice, determination of blood glucose concentration under field conditions is often necessary.

OBJECTIVE
As there is no portable glucose meter device developed for use in farm animals, the analytical accuracy of a portable glucometer designed for people was evaluated for its use in cattle and sheep.

METHODS
Blood samples from 90 cattle and 101 sheep were used in the study. Glucose concentration was determined in whole blood immediately after blood collection from the jugular vein with the One Touch Vita portable glucometer and in serum with an enzymatic colorimetric method. The agreement between methods was assessed by Passing and Bablok regression analysis. The precision and the accuracy of the measurements were determined using the concordance correlation coefficient.

RESULTS
There was a strong linear relationship between the glucose values obtained using the portable glucometer and those obtained by the bench method in both cattle and sheep. Precision was 95% for cattle and 88% for sheep, whereas accuracy was 92% and 99%, respectively. The mean glucose values obtained using the portable glucometer were significantly lower by 8.3% in cattle and 3.2% in sheep than those determined by the bench method.

CONCLUSION
The One Touch Vita portable glucometer can be used in clinical practice to determine blood glucose concentrations in cattle and sheep, but reference intervals (RI) must be corrected to allow for negative bias. Based on these equations the RI for blood glucose in cattle and sheep using the portable glucometer were corrected to 1.84-4.17 and 2.41-4.35 mmol/L, respectively.


Sprays are extensively used in industry, especially for fuels in internal combustion and gas turbine engines. An optimal fuel/air mixture prior to combustion is desired for these applications, leading to greater efficiency and minimal levels of emissions. The optimization depends on details regarding the different breakups, evaporation and mixing processes. Besides, one should take into consideration that these different steps depend on physical properties of the gas and fuel, such as density, viscosity, heat conductivity and surface tension.In this thesis the phase change and surface tension of a droplet for different flow conditions are studied by means of numerical simulations.This work is part of a larger effort aiming to developing models for sprays in turbulent flows. We are especially interested in the atomization regime, where the liquid breakup causes the formation of droplet sizes much smaller than the jet diameter. The behavior of these small droplets is important to shed more light on how to achieve the homogeneity of the gas-fuel mixture as well as that it directly contributes to the development of large-eddy simulation (LES) models.The numerical approach is a challenging process as one must take into account the transport of heat, mass and momentum for a multiphase flow. We choose a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) due to its convenient mesoscopic natureto simulate interfacial flows. A non-ideal equation of state is used to control the phase change according to local thermodynamic properties. We analyze the droplet and surrounding vapor for a hydrocarbon fuel close to the critical point. Under forced convection, the droplet evaporation rate is seen to depend on the vapor temperatureand Reynolds number, where oscillatory flows can be observed. Marangoni forces are also present and drivethe droplet internal circulation once the temperature difference at the droplet surface becomes significant.In isotropic turbulence, the vapor phase shows increasing fluctuations of the thermodynamic variables oncethe fluid approaches the critical point. The droplet dynamics is also investigated under turbulent conditions, where the presence of coherent structures with strong shear layers affects the mass transfer between the liquid-vapor flow, showing also a correlation with the droplet deformation. Here, the surface tension and droplet size play a major role and are analyzed in detail.


Recently, Finding energy sources to satisfy the world's growing demand is one of society's foremost challenges for the next half-century. Solar energy is clean, renewable and abundant in every part of our world; the energy needs and costs have increased in recent years. A sun tracking system was deployed for enhancing the solar still productivity. In this study, structural analysis of solar tracking system (Tracker) by external loads using finite element method (FEM) proposes the verification of numerical analysis system.


Protocols for the purification of CD34−KSL cells, CD34+KSL cells, SP cells, and Tip‐SP CD34−KSL cells are described. Mouse hematopoietic stem cells are highly enriched in the CD34−KSL and SP fractions. These two populations overlap one another. A nearly homogenous population of HSCs can be obtained by isolating Tip‐SP CD34−KSL cells. One of the earliest progenitor cell populations is CD34+KSL cells.


This thesis investigates the current situation of history education in Northern Ireland. First, it attempts to investigate how the Northern Ireland conflict in taught in Northern Irish schools; and second, if there is difference in how history is taught in schools which are predominately Catholic when compared to schools which are predominately Protestant. The main focus of the thesis is on the processes that occur in the classroom and the situation of history teachers. Some focus will also need to be put on the political and administrative aspect of education to understand how outside forces influences schools and history education. The thesis argues that history teachers aim to teach history in a way that develop their student's abilities to critically look at source material and expand their understanding of historical processes. In addition, it is argued that teachers are very aware of their potentially influential position, and that they to that affect attempt to deliver the content of the history subject in a neutral and unbiased manner.


Sustaining Culture & The Role of Performing Arts Centres is a research collaboration between Griffith University and members of the OZPAC forum of performing arts centres: the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, the Sydney Opera House, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Arts Centre, Melbourne, Perth Theatre Trust and The Edge, Auckland.

The research partners believe that performing arts centres are experiencing new imperatives to encourage wider cultural participation, maintain standards of excellence in arts practice, and develop innovative arts management practices. Meanwhile, existing aesthetic, social and economic paradigms have been unable to deliver comprehensive rationales for the major performing arts and its impact on artists, audiences and the wider public

Based on a successful pilot study conducted by Griffith University and QPAC in 2004, Sustaining Culture secured Australian Research Council Linkage Grant funding to undertake a dedicated three-year study that examines and evaluates the social, cultural, environmental, educational and economic values and impacts of Australia's major performing arts institutions.

This report focuses on a subset of the Sustaining Culture project that looks specifically at the motivations and practices of performing arts centre audiences. Known as the 'Audiences' study, this branch of research aims to build a comprehensive and nuanced picture of how a performing arts audience can 'become', 'be' and 'persist'.

Audience members were invited to provide detailed accounts of their experiences and activities through a series of qualitative, semi-structured interviews. These interviews explored a range of subject matter: from earliest childhood and educational experiences through to adult arts consumption practices and preferences. Interview participants were encouraged to not only reflect on what they value about their performing arts experiences but how their experiences affect their personal identity and relationships, and impact on other spheres of existence such as consumer and media choices.

Phase 1 of research saw a total of 69 interviews conducted at Queensland Performing Arts Centre; The Arts Centre, Melbourne; Sydney Opera House; and Adelaide Festival Centre. The participant sample captured a range of ages, genre preferences, and attendance frequency. Participants also completed a written survey providing quantitative as well as qualitative data which was analysed alongside relevant material from the Australian Bureau of Statistics regarding arts consumption.

Key themes and findings identified from this initial phase were then developed into a second phase of research that focussed on participation and well-being, kinship and inter-generational practice, and media consumption. Phase 2 interviews were conducted with 36 participants at The Edge in Auckland, New Zealand and venues part of the Perth Theatre Trust (Subiaco Arts Centre, His Majesty's Theatre, Playhouse Theatre, and Perth Concert Hall).

This report presents the findings from both sets of research provides high quality, rich data about the audiences who frequent Australia's most iconic and important performing arts centres.

The information within these pages can be used to inform program development, marketing, and audience development strategies both within the major performing arts centres and other arts and cultural institutions that present live works. It can assist centres' to enrich and deepen their current audience experiences and tastes, and engage with new audiences.


Aim and objective: We evaluated the effect of preoperative single-dose pregabalin (PG) on postoperative pain in patients undergoing on-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Materials and methods: In this double-blind study, 60 adult patients scheduled for elective on-pump CABG surgery were randomized into two groups of 30 each, viz., PG and placebo (PL). Patients received either oral PG 150 mg or a PL, 1 hour before surgery. All patients received general anesthesia. Postoperative pain relief was provided with intravenous tramadol 50 mg 8 hourly. Postoperative pain was assessed, both at rest and during coughing, with the 10-point verbal rating scale (VRS) at 6, 12, 18, and 24 hours after extubation. Time to extubation, pain scores, requirement of additional analgesics, and adverse effects were compared using chi-square test, unpaired t test, and Mann–Whitney U test. Results: The time to extubation was significantly prolonged in the PG group compared with PL (9.84 ± 1.88 vs 8.66 ± 2.12 hours, p = 0.027). The mean VRS scores at rest and during coughing were significantly lower in the PG group compared with PL (p < 0.05). However, the requirement of additional analgesics, such as paracetamol or tramadol was similar in the two groups. Conclusion: A single preoperative oral dose of PG 150 mg was effective in reducing postoperative pain in patients undergoing on-pump CABG compared with a PL.


The electrochemical uptake of oxygen on a Ru(0001) electrode was investigated by electron diffraction, Auger spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. An ordered (2 × 2)-O overlayer forms at a potential close to the hydrogen region. At +0.42 and+1.12 V vs Ag/AgCl, a (3× 1) phase and a (1 × 1)-O phase, respectively, emerge. When the Ru electrode potential is maintained at +1.12 V for 2 min, RuO2 grows epitaxially with its (100) plane parallel to the Ru(0001) surface. In contrast to the RuO 2 domains, the non-oxidized regions of the Ru electrode surface are flat. If, however, the electrode potential is increased to +1.98 V for 2 min, the remaining non-oxidized Ru area also becomes rough. These findings are compared with O overlayers and oxides on the Ru(0001) and Ru(101 h0) surfaces created by exposure to gaseous O 2 under UHV conditions. On the other hand, gas-phase oxidation of the Ru(101 h0) surface leads to the formation of RuO 2 with a (100) orientation. It is concluded that the difference in surface energy between RuO 2(110) and RuO2(100) is quite small. RuO2 again grows epitaxially on Ru(0001), but with the (110) face oriented parallel to the Ru(0001) surface. The electrochemical oxidation of the Ru(0001) electrode surface proceeds via a 3-dimensional growth mechanism with a mean cluster size of 1.6 nm, whereas under UHV conditions, a 2-dimensional oxide film (1-2 nm thick) is epitaxially formed with an average domain size of 20 μm.


The invention belongs to the technical field of pesticides, and discloses a herbicidal composite containing mesosulfuron-methyl, pinoxaden and fluroxypyr.According to the herbicidal composition, mesosulfuron-methyl, pinoxaden and fluroxypyr serve as main active ingredients, and the mass ratio of mesosulfuron-methyl to pinoxaden to fluroxypyr is (1-40):(1-80):(1-60).The invention further discloses application of the herbicidal composite in preparing a herbicide for controlling gramineous weeds and broadleaf weeds in wheat fields or oilseed rape fields.Through herbicide blending, the herbicidal composition reduces the herbicide cost, broadens the herbicidal spectrum, improves the herbicidal effect, has the advantages of being capable of taking effect fast, long in lasting period, not likely to cause herbicide tolerance, thorough in weed killing, low in residual and toxicity, safe, environmentally friendly and the like, is a good-quality herbicide for wheat fields and oilseed rape fields and is safe to wheat and oilseed rape.


We have designed and implemented a personal area network named Personal Mesh to provide mobile user in pervasive environment with flexible access to various computing and networking resources. We have worked on several technical issues such as access link resource management, end-to-end mobility support mechanism using session information , context-sensitive dynamic access link handoff mechanism. In this paper, we describe the design and our implementation of Personal Mesh and show the effectiveness of our system by experiment.


The paper presents an attempt to determine an optimum structure of a geodesic measurement and control network used for geodesic monitoring to determine horizontal displacements of buildings. In geodesy, horizontal networks can be used to determine terrain deformations as well as displacements of engineering structures (dams, water reservoirs, open-cast mines). The network subjected to analysis is a directional network. In order to find a correct solution, its structure should include so-called supernumerary observations. An adequate number of observations should be carried out in the network to obtain a solution with reliable values of horizontal displacements. Moreover, the way in which the observations are carried out and their number should make it possible to show changes taking place in the object and meet the economic criteria of geodesic measurements. In order to optimize the structure of a geodesic measurement and control network, information entropy and evolutionary algorithms are used in the paper. Information entropy is a logarithmic measure of probability, and an optimum number of observations carried out in the network depends on the increment of the content of information in the observation system. Evolutionary algorithms were developed in the 1980s, and they are currently very popular and widely used. Their main principle is based on the evolution or behaviour of the best adapted individuals in subsequent computational cycles.


I'm writing this from San Lawrenz in Gozo. It's perhaps the best place of which you've never heard. While it's getting towards thick coat weather


Focusing on typical sectors of national economy including agriculture,industry,construction industry,wholesale and retail trade,catering industry,banking and insurance,and real estate,adopting the method of Cobb-Douglas production function,putting fixed assets investment,number of employees and the meteorological factors as input,the paper analyzes the degree of the meteorological factors' impact on output value of the sectors in Jiangsu Province,and sorts them according to the degree of their meteorological sensitivity.


Elie Faure, whose five-volume History of Art no one outside France seems to read anymore, once claimed that we are united by our differences because we approach one another in order to study them. In a comprehensive view of modern history, this seductive inference is a double-edged sword. We have been approaching one another with accelerating frequency for more than two hundred years, but especially since the age of mass travel was initiated by the industrial revolution. Is it possible to say now that more people have been united by their differences than have been destroyed by them? A brash question and not one I am prepared to answer in haste. I have raised it because it has so


The determination of the impedance of an electrical circuit, potentially including a sensory, and, thus, variable element over frequency and the result representation and evaluation as Nyquist or Bode plot is commonplace in electrical engineering. In the last years, the extension of the basic Impedance Spectroscopy (IS) to the analysis of chemical substances or biological tissues, denoted Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) or Bio-Impedance Spectroscopy (BIS), has seen widespread application and the evaluation of the potentially high-dimensional data by the large spectrum of Computational Intelligence methods can serve to compute and classify fingerprints of the underlying probes, e.g., provide the information whether regarded fish tissue is fresh or rotten. Current application of the approach range from optimized control of batteries' charging, water quality (e.g., detergent) assessment to tissue of in-vitro or in-vivo tissues for food control or medical diagnosis. The plethora of applications and measurement approaches, e.g., FRA, etc., impose significantly heterogeneous requirements on ideality and properties, such as the bandwidth, e.g., from a few kHz to 0.5 GHz, of applied equipment or implementation circuits. Many approaches achieve solutions by employing desk top equipment, which mostly is very capable and flexible, but costly, bulky, and power greedy. Naturally, research and industry activities strive for more compact, low-power, well performing embedded IS systems implementation, predominantly on PCB-level. Further integration by chips is highly desirable, but only one standard product is currently on the market, which is not sufficiently in compliance with many of the requirements outlined above and also needs additional circuitry to approximately match various application system needs. Therefore, increasing specialised ASIC design activity based on standard CMOS processes as well as CMOS/MEMS design activities can be observed. Thus, a research group is currently established at the Institute of Integrated Sensory Systems on Integrated Impedance Spectroscopy (IIS) circuit and system design and applications, with promising potential in assisted living, medical, as well as environmental and energy related applications. On the hardware side, multi-sensor architecture will be developed to include, e.g., temperature or other context in the evaluation process for higher quality and reliable results. The focus is on embedded, mobile, low-power (autonomous/self-sufficient), and potentially generic systems based on combined CMOS, MEMS, and advanced packaging technology, e.g., AML-solutions and 3D-printing, for mixed-signal circuit, reconfiguration, and electrode integration. Self-x-features are salient and required, e.g., for automated, repeated self-recalibration, which asks for close to ideal integrated switching devices also pursued in ongoing ISE research. Currently pursued ISE demonstrators are the emerging Lab-on-Spoon-system with strong medical and environmental implication as well as an assistance system for skin monitoring in a multi-sensor set-up. For the processing of the measurement data and complete system design, ISE will reuse its proven Computation Intelligence back-end, e.g., previously applied to gas, infrared, or magnetic sensors etc. tasks. The outlined approach of intelligent IIS research promises to pave the way to rich and potentially high-volume application fields.


In recent years, logistics outsourcing has shown a strong development. However, despite the benefits associated with logistics outsourcing, there are many relationships that do not last as long as they were initially planned. In this chapter the authors tried to sketch a conceptual model of Risk Management applied to logistics outsourcing and supported by a case study within aerospace industry. Their results show that Risk Management could be an innovative tool favoring the success of logistics outsourcing by securing future performance and relationships between supply chain partners.


Adolescence is a key period in the development of individuals' news habits, but little is known about the processes involved in the process of news media socialization. This study proposes an integrated model in which the influence of family communication on motivations and behaviors of adolescents in relation to news consumption occurs through the development of personality traits related to information processing (namely, need for cognition and need to evaluate). Structural equation modeling of data from a representative survey of 2,273 adolescents, aged 13 to 17, provide support for the theorized model, such that concept-oriented communication within families is associated to news exposure indirectly, via personality traits and motivations. Thus, the study provides an initial assessment of one way children are socialized to become news enthusiasts and news avoiders. It also provides empirical evidence that information-processing traits are influenced by family communication patterns, confirming what hitherto was theoretical speculation.


Contemporary fluoride research is largely focused on potential neurotoxicity. In the past three decades, over a hundred studies have found that excessive exposure to fluoride may be associated with central the dysfunction of nervous system. Fluoride is known to cross the blood–brain barrier, accumulate within various parts of the brain, and especially in the hippocampus altering its structure and function. Many epidemiological, animal and cell culture studies demonstrated that fluoride is harmful to the hippocampus and causes nonreversible neuronal damage leading to the loss of neurons. It was observed that chronic or subchronic fluoride exposure might lead to changes in behavior and neurodegeneration. The intelligence quotient (IQ) as assessed in children exposed to high fluoride levels in drinking water was proven to decrease. Fluoride exerts a deleterious effect on the hippocampus through complex and multidirectional cellular signaling mechanisms. Oxidative stress is a well-recognized mechanism of fluoride neurotoxicity. In our previous study we have observed that exposition to fluoride (50, 100, and 250 µM) for 3 days decreased viability, enhanced apoptosis, increased reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) generation and impaired antioxidative defence system in the mouse hippocampal cell line (HT22). Based on our study and literature data the impact of fluoride exposure on the hippocampus/hippocampal cells is presented in this chapter.


Nick Lister describes the origins and achievements of a hands-on astronomy teaching centre, the Lawrence House Astronomy and Space Science Centre in Lancashire.


This article uses a historical perspective for reviewing the evolution of Business & Society/Business Ethics courses at business schools and programs in the United States. The study carefully reviews the findings of 11 major studies relating to the role and number of Business & Society/Business Ethics courses in business school/program curricula. Included in these 11 studies are the results of the 1990 survey on curricula and faculty conducted by the Curriculum Development Committee of the Academy of Management's Social Issues in Management Division. The study reveals that business schools/programs experienced a period of growth in Business & Society course offerings between 1973 and 1986 but a decline between 1986 and 1990 at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. A brief look at alternative futures for Business & Society teaching and research is offered at the end of the article.


On 9 July 2011, South Sudan will become formally independent. Will it be able to avoid becoming a new failed state? And will its leadership be able to meet the high expectations of the Southern Sudanese people? Creating a proper administration and facing the many political and military divisions within the region are just two of the many and multi-faced challenges ahead. The South's secession will affect internal balances in North Sudan as well, while the many issues relating to the future relationship between the two regions will need to be settled to avoid further instabilities.


The proposition and corollary are given on characteristic value of matrix AB and BA.The application is given in computing characteristic value of matrix and proving problem.


The goal of the HiLASE project is to design and optimize parameters for 100 J/ 10 Hz Yb:YAG laser amplifiers that are scalable to the kJ regime. The HiLASE power amplifier design is based on a cryogenic, gas-cooled multi-slab concept. Simulation results of the 10 J pre-amplifier agree very well with experimental measurements. In order to fulfil the very demanding requirements, which include wall-plug efficiency > 12% and repetition rates up to 10 Hz, HiLASE and RAL teams are closely working together and developing the approach described here.


This collection of essays examines the constitutional, administrative and democratic challenges facing Europe today. The erosion of territorial, nation state-centred political governance has, it is said, been confirmed, and a debate about the legitimacy of European governance has become unavoidable (at 4). This debate will not be easily settled. There is a bewildering array of governance strategies available to an increasing number of putative actors, and no end to the theoretical approaches according to which the legitimacy of any particular strategy may be assessed. The volume provides a broad spectrum of academic views, and should prove invaluable for those seeking to understand the concerns underlying the Commission's White Paper on European Governance (COM (2001) 428) and the Convention on the Future of European Union. It is, moreover, expertly written. Christian Joerges sets the tone. The introduction 'does not seek to overcome divergences in the analytical premises and foci, or differences in the conceptual frameworks and normative ideas. Instead it seeks to exploit this diversity productively' (at 3). It is, in other words, a metaphor for what he sees as good governance within the European polity. The volume consistently challenges the reader to redefine and reconceptualize the European project. A theoretical framework is most fully developed in the impressive final contribution by Oliver Gerstenberg and Charles Sabel (chapter 10). They are at pains to distinguish their approach from (and this is some list) Majone, Scharpf, Offe, Weiler, Dworkin, Habermas, Michelman, Rawls, Gurvitch and Teubner. They conceive of the EU as a 'directly deliberative polyarchy' which has the potential to harness the heterogeneity within modern Europe. They set themselves a twin challenge: to show first, that there is in the core of the new Europe a distinctive institutional architecture; and second, that decision-making in this setting is democratic. The innovative features of what may be depicted as a nonintegrated, plurally-composed European polity-one which is ever more concerned with the social aspects of European market 'management', rather than with more technical market 'building'-are, by now, well known.' Traditional legal categories have, as Renaud


In the cities of developing world, provision of urban transport is often a complex amalgam that links formal and informal transport in the context of rapid urbanization. Ethiopian cities are typical in this regard. Despite its environmental advantages and significance to the poor as a mode of transport and a source of income, the potential role of Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) is often immobilized or even actively suppressed. This analysis disagrees with the implicit notion that formal transport sector is the major or exclusive creator of mobility value. Empirical evidence is drawn from studies carried out on five Ethiopian cities, by employing a 'Comparative Studies Framework' to compare and contrast the emerging issues. Results indicate that NMT modes add as much value to sustainable mobility as does the formal transportation sector.


Agroforestry, the practice of growing trees and crops in interacting combinations, has a pivotal role to reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, and it subsequently sequesters the carbon in part of stems, branches, roots, and crowns of the trees composing their vegetation communities.  The objective of the research is to know the carbon sequestration in the three agroforestry practices; those are multilayer tree garden, taungya, and home garden. The research was carried out from April 2017 to March 2018 at Sragen and Karanganyar regency central Java Province. Plot method, with the plot size of 20m x20m for trees, 10m x10 m for pole, and 5m x5m for sapling, was used in the sampling. The carbon sequestration was measured by Chave's allometric equation. The carbon sequestration of above ground the trees planted at taungya was 265.18 kg C ha-1 y-1, in home garden was 236.29 kg C ha-1 y-1, and in multi layer tree garden was 290.14 kg C ha-1 y-1. Seasonal fluctuation of the higest carbon sequestration in home garden occurs on October-December; in multilayer tree garden occurs on January-March; and in taungya occurs on July-September.
Key words: Agroforestry practices, G.versteegii, seasonal fluctuation, Carbon sequestration


In this paper, the identification of a wind-energy conversion system (WECS) is presented. At the beginning, the theoretical models of the WECS are introduced in two different situations. Next, with linearization around the operation point and some additional assumptions, a state equation is built up. Then, the parameters in the experimental models are estimated on the sampled data of the single input and single output. The identification algorithm used is the prediction error method (PEM). Further, the structure selections of the experimental models are made among ARMAX, Box-Jenkins and general linear model classes respectively with minimization of the performance index. Besides, a MIMO identification technique is also adopted on the state equation. The advantage of this model is that the parameters have exact physical meaning. In the end, all the models mentioned are compared and both the advantages and disadvantages are analyzed in detail.


Drawing on qualitative data from 31 interviews with teachers and students in higher education in the UK, this article demonstrates the extent to which students, when compelled to write reflectively for assessment purposes, perform their reflective writing for at least one of three audiences: their assessment criteria, their teachers, and a general 'Other'. It shows that students are strategic and audience-aware in their reflective writing, whether or not teachers acknowledge audience as a legitimate concern, and argues that we need to welcome the concept of performance into reflective practices, and to allow reflection to take account of the addressivity of writing.


pulse and of the Drang nach Osten which planted German culture over much of Eastern Europe. A. B. Boswell, in volume VIII of the Cambridge Medieval, says: "Generally speaking, the history of the Teutonic Order is one of the most glorious achievements of the Middle Ages, and, in a narrower sense, it is the greatest triumph of medieval German civilization" (p. 268). While this eulogy may appear more than a little unrealistic to those who are more familiar with the less happy aspects of Crusades than was Mr. Boswell's era, his remark does point up— as has the Drang nach Westen of the Slavs since World War II—the great importance of this area, and this account of the work of the Crusading Orders. Those who are familiar with the contemporary statements of the conflict from the .point of view of the other side, especially the great Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky and the magnificent Prokofiev score for that film, will also want to read Henry's Chronicle of the early stages of the Crusade which culminated on the ice of Lake Peipus in 1242. The translator also suggests at the end of the Introduction that Henry's history throws light on "the white man's burden," "as a warning and object lesson to those who are concerned with extending the bounties of their own culture to those so unfortunate as to be without them" (p. 21).


Fault currents up to 54,000 peak amperes were imposed on bundled conductors equipped with instrumented and prototype spacers. Special instrumentation techniques were employed to gather experimental data from these spacers. The data were used to verify a mathematical analysis of the dynamic force problem. Comparison of experimental and analytical results shows them to be in good agreement; a mathematical model, therefore, may be used to direct future spacer design, eliminating the necessity of costly outdoor test programs.


A two-part key coded device that can be added to existing container and dispense stations. The key coded device includes a female key ring that is retrofitted to an existing bung and a compatible male key ring that is retrofitted to an existing or new dispense head. The key code system can enable only a specific or compatible type of chemical to be connected to the dispense head, and provides a measure of safety against inadvertently connecting the wrong type of chemical.


Throughout the 1970s, Human Events, National Review, and Commentary drew connections to argue that the nation's dependence on foreign oil continued to grow because of numerous regulations imposed on energy producers by the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations. The three media outlets also concluded that America's inability to respond to the economic aggression of OPEC represented another example of the weakness that had been at the heart of the American worldview for decades. Finally, the seizure of the US embassy in Iran in 1979 by Islamic fundamentalists led writers for these publications to contend that in order for the United States to regain national greatness it must free itself from limitations imposed on it by hostile forces at home and abroad. That goal of national revival was a key theme that Ronald Reagan and his supporters at Human Events, National Review, and Commentary capitalized on as the country moved into the presidential election of 1980.


The paper sets up the simulation model for petrochemical industry′s sustainable development with system dynamic principle.And analyzes the model′s feedback structure and function.Thus reveals the internal influence mechanism among the factors of affecting the petrochemical industry′s sustainable development.At last,citing China,the paper simulates the life cycle of Petrochemical Industry′s Sustainable Development,and analyzes the simulation result.


Ocean acidification from anthropogenic CO2 has focused our attention on the importance of understanding the rates and mechanisms of CaCO3 formation so that changes can be monitored and feedbacks predicted. We present a method for determining the rate of CaCO3 production using in situ measureme nts of fCO2 and pH in surface waters of the eastern subarctic Pacific Ocean. These quantities were determined on a surface mooring every 3 h for a period of about 9 months in 2007 at Ocean Station Papa (50°N, 145°W). We use the data in a simple surface ocean, mass balance model of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and alkalinity (Alk) to constrain the CaCO3: organic carbon (OC) production ratio to be approximately 0.5. A CaCO3 production rate of 8 mmol CaCO3 m−2 d−1 in the summer of 2007 (1.2 mol m−2 yr−1) is derived by combining the CaCO3: OC ratio with the a net organic carbon production rate (2.5 mol C m−2 yr−1) determined from in situ measurements of oxygen and nitrogen gas concentrations measured on the same mooring (Emerson and Stump, 2010). Carbonate chemistry data from a meridional hydrographic section in this area in 2008 indicate that isopycnal surfaces that outcrop in the winter in the subarctic Pacific and deepen southward into the subtropics are a much stronger source for alkalinity than vertical mixing. This pathway has a high enough Alk:DIC ratio to support the CaCO3:OC production rate implied by the fCO2 and pH data.


There's a new commercial for Cadbury chocolate: ' Twirl' bites. For this commercial the visual effects specialists Mattes and Miniatures have made a type of Rube Goldberg machine with spinning structure of propeller, dinosaur with guitar, funny penguins and hippos toys, people miniatures and robots on spinning plates. It's all magical, colorful and sweet, but still with…


How can a company ensure that it is investing its executive bonus pool in ways that motivate executives to work toward the company's objectives? One way is to use ...


In this study, we build a Markov chain model for the earthquakes in Southwestern China by following the maximum entropy principle, while the states of Markov chain are the co-occurrence of earthquakes with different magnitudes.  In this case an approximation is to focus on just the occurrences of the most serious magnitude earthquakes and neglect the others.  Our approximation to this situation is to take into account all magnitude earthquakes if they occur at least once in any given period.  In order to reveal the feature of this Markov chain in respect of first passage time distributions we run a long term simulation with occurrences of all the 3 categories of earthquakes.  Finally, we give both fitted distributions and multinomial approximations to the distribution of first passage time for some states.


The present invention is, diseases in which abnormal brain accumulation of β-amyloid and / or amyloid plaques are involved, in particular, to the field of Alzheimer's disease. More particularly, the present invention relates to the use of the model in screening methods for molecules to treat non-human animal models and the disease of the disease.


Traditional network management tools are too static and inflexible in today's enterprise and campus networks that have to support users with diversity of personal devices. Controller-based Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigms are gaining popularity because of their promise to reduce the complexity of managing networks by automating the complex process of translating policy definitions to network provisioning and dynamic control. Though this approach provides fine-grained control over end-to-end network flows, they lack mature management and control tools. We propose an integrated network management and control system (i-NMCS) framework that combines legacy network management functions such as discovery, fault detection with the end-to-end flow provisioning and control enabled by SDN. We believe that such hybrid control will be key for incremental deployment of SDN functionality on today's networks.


AIM:b FGF was used as an index to study the molecular mechanism related to the invasiveness of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS:The expression of b FGF in 70 HCC samples and the relationship between the expression of b FGF and invasiveness of HCC were studied by using an immunohistochemical method. RESULTS:The expression positive rate of b FGF in 70 HCC samples was 65.71%. The expression level of b FGF in HCC samples with invasiveness was higher than that in HCC samples without invasiveness. However, no significant difference in expression of b FGF was found between small and large HCC as well as between HCC with and without capsule. There were no significant correlations between the expression of b FGF in HCC samples and tumor grade,HBsAg and AFP. CONCLUSION:The expression of b FGF was related to the invasiveness of HCC.


Background: Single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) is an evolving field. Specially designed ports required for SILS are expensive, making this technique unaffordable to many. To overcome this drawback, the use of conventional affordable instruments for SILS was encouraged. We present our case series of SILS with conventional instruments in a tertiary care centre. Methods: This is a single centre pilot study of 30 consecutive cases operated by SILS using conventional laparoscopic instruments. Outcomes measured were operative time, post-operative pain by Visual analogue scale (VAS), resumption of oral diet, duration of stay in the hospital, wound cosmesis and complications. Results: Thirty patients (21 females and nine males; mean age 35.05 ± 12.06 years) were operated by SILS procedure. Twenty single incision laparoscopic Cholecystectomies(SILC), seven single incision laparoscopic appendectomies (SILA) and three single incision diagnostic laparoscopies(SIDL) were done with average operative time of 92 minutes, 47 minutes and 53 minutes respectively. All surgeries were performed successfully without conversion to conventional laparoscopy or open method. Majority patients were given oral feeds and discharged on the second postoperative day without any complications. Wound cosmesis was satisfactory with an inconspicuous scar in all patients. Conclusion: Our initial experience of using conventional laparoscopic instruments for SILS demonstrates its feasibility and utility especially in resource challenged settings. The advantage of SILS is its reduced need of analgesics and better wound cosmesis, without significant post-operative complications.


The Compstat paradigm has revolutionised the way policing is accomplished in democratic countries. Many agencies throughout the world have emulated the Compstat programme which originated in New York City in 1994. The strengths of Compstat have been widely publicised: dramatic reductions in crime, accountability of key staff members, and coordination of various units within an agency. The weaknesses of Compstat are less recognised: due process considerations, community relations, leadership issues, inadequate problemsolving. Weaknesses pose challenges and the authors present an alternative model to address these weaknesses. This model focuses on integrating community policing's essential components within the context of the Compstat paradigm. This provides a more powerful mechanism to combat crime and terrorism.


The authors present a measurement of W/Z boson + jets production and Z p{sub T} measurement in the p{bar p} collisions at the Tevatron Collider at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. The CDF II measures W + jets production based on 320 pb{sup -1} and the D0 Run II measures Z + jets with 950 pb{sup -1} data. The measurement of Z p{sub T} is performed with D0 Run II data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 960 pb{sup -1}. The measurement of W + jets is compared to the Leading Order Alpgen + Pythia prediction and the Z + jets is compared to Sherpa and Pythia Monte Carlo. The Z p{sub T} measurement is also compared to Resbos + Photos predictions.


The research aimed to analyse the importance of residential agents within the West Sussex Property industry; along with evaluating how technological advancements have altered how they perform their roles.

The literature gathered for the investigation appeared to incorporate a negative perception of residential agents, which was predicted before the investigation began. The public believed that agent's responsibilities such as valuations, viewings and negotiations could all be conducted by themselves, stating that the agents role required little knowledge and qualifications.

The outcome of the comparison of online based companies with traditional agents proved to be a rather conclusive result; with the primary research determining that the online service is a more popular method of searching for properties details, such as current prices and recently sold records. The importance of agents to the industry also had a detailed research objective to discuss, with the outcome of primary research, specifically the interviews of individuals connected to the property industry.

Results from such methods of research determined that although the perception of agents is of a negative nature, the importance of personal interaction will also be required when completing one of the property processes. Privately completing the process of buying, selling or renting received a combination of both negative and positive aspects, with the financial reward of not using an agent being the overriding incentive.

The recommendation of how an agent can improve its image within the industry in combination of ensuring technological advancements do not hinder their involvement in competition has been conclusively retrieved. Staff qualification receiving the large proportion of votes within the primary research, with the introduction and updating of social media interaction being the main focal point of agencies keeping up with thetechnological trends.


Facial onset motor and sensory neuronopathy (FOSMN) is a rare disease whose cardinal features are initial asymmetrical facial sensory deficits followed by bulbar symptoms and spreading of sensory and motor deficits from face to scalp, neck, upper trunk, and upper extremities in a rostral–caudal direction. Although bulbar involvement is frequently observed in FOSMN, dysphagia in these patients has not been fully described. In this study, we aimed to characterize dysphagia as a prognostic factor in FOSMN by investigating our institutional case series.


Significant advances in type-II superlattice infrared detectors and focal plane arrays have be en achieved in the past decade. We briefly explore two challenging aspects for type-II superlattice based infrared detectors, namely, minority carrier lifetime and conductivity effective mass.


This paper proposed an ant colony group-dividing algorithm for Botnet control center traceability analysis. In this paper, we assumed that the attacker and the victim are selected at random. For different topology networks, we change the control parameters to analyze the search performance of the path and their impact on the attack path reconstruction. The experiment shows that the group-dividing method can effectively improve the results and accuracy of the algorithm in search pattern implementation through the comparative analysis. With the increase of the complexity of the topology network, its performance becomes more and more significant. The proposed algorithm can reduce the time of ant colony convergence on a single path, find out the right attack path and locate the Botnet control center.


— Modern hearing aids pack incredible signal processing and wireless features on a single-mW power budget. They must be designed to be worn all day, providing tangible end user benefits for different levels of hearing loss and interface to dedicated smartphone apps. Each hearing loss is special, and the signal processing incl. hearing loss compensation must be sophisticated and individually tailored to address the user challenges, especially communicating in noisy environments: 'the cocktail party problem'. Current hearing aid development is based on deep insight into hearing and hearing loss and a broad knowledge of signal processing, within dynamic range compression, noise reduction, beamforming, anti-feedback, artificial intelligence etc. All this must be integrated to a stable and pleasant audio processing system delivering optimum performance in all possible listening scenarios. The development follows a patient, iterative and pragmatic cycle. For listening evaluation in this cycle, a combination of signal metrics, informal listening and formal listening tests is applied. Traditionally, we focus on speech intelligibility in noise and sound quality, but newer outcome measures are also used, such as listening effort, attention, and physiological measurements. Despite the hardware restrictions, the main limitation to better treatment of hearing loss todayis fundamental research on hearing, hearing loss and how it relates to the daily life of the user. Hence, more hearing research is needed to improve devices even more.


The purpose of this chapter is to stand against the claim that the same neo-liberal model emerges in all countries as a result of the competitive pressures arising from globalization. Countries can experience a globalization pattern that improves their growth performance and living standards with different policy preferences in the fields of finance, trade, and investment. The variety of Chinese capitalism is a case of this situation. In the first section, this Chinese development model with its illiberal policies first is examined. In the second section, the new development initiatives and institutional arrangements and their potential effects are discussed. In addition, the implications of these new development initiatives are argued in terms of global governance systems.


Rumours, despite of development of mass-media in a modern society, keep the influence in communication systems, due to ability to influence consciousness and behaviour of people. Rumoursfrightened represent special danger to stable existence of a society, because it have dangerous social consequences. It was once again proved with events of 2007-2009 when the population of some regions has undergone to a panic as a result of circulation rumours frightened.


In this paper, the effect of Coulomb collisions on the stability of Bernstein–Greene–Kruskal (BGK) modes [I. B. Bernstein, J. M. Greene, and M. D. Krukal, Phys. Rev. 108, 546 (1957)] is analyzed by comparing the numerical results of collisional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with the theoretical predictions by Zakharov and Karpman [V. E. Zakharov and V. I. Karpman, Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 351 (1963)], for the collisional damping of nonlinear plasma waves. In the absence of collisions, BGK modes are undamped nonlinear electrostatic oscillations, solutions of the Vlasov–Poisson equations; in these structures nonlinearity manifests as the formation of a plateau in the resonant region of the particle distribution function, due to trapping of resonant particles, thus preventing linear Landau damping. When particle-particle Coulomb collisions are effective, this plateau is smoothed out since collisions drive the velocity distribution towards the Maxwellian shape, thus destroying the BGK structure. As shown by Z...


This study explores a small-state's offensive cyber capabilities as a deterrent against great-power cyber hostilities. More specifically, it poses the question: Could Norway successfully deter hostile cyber operations of greater powers, notably China and Russia, by signaling a resolve to retaliate within the same domain? The study reviews literature on the small state's prospects of acquiring relevant offensive cyber capabilities; successfully signaling a deterrence-by-punishment posture; and, more generally, on the intricacies of retaliating against a greater power. The study concludes that most small states would enter the cyber battlefield with non-strategic and surreptitious capabilities, be inclined to signal their resolve with considerable ambiguity, and be compelled to respond with deniable means. It finds that such obscure features – the hallmarks of murky clandestine operations rather than a strategic posture – do not provide efficacious deterrence. Hence, to Norway and similar small states, deterrence by punishment may be an elusive, if not altogether vain, cyber posture.


By performing bone-marrow tissue culture of the rabbits with experimental anemia and by fixing and staining the tissue in culture from time to time, the author obseved the cell growth area, and obtained the following results. 1. It has been foud that the accelerated bone-marrow func tions of the rabbit with acute anemia by blood depletion do not persist in tissue culture and also the maturation and mitosis of granulocytes are slowed down as compared with normal rabbit bone-marrow tissue culture. However, the pattern of movement of mature cells does not differ much from that in the case of normal rabbits. 2. In the bone marrow of saponin-anemic rabbirs both the maturation and mitotic function of granulocytes are disturbed. As for the pattern of movement, mature cells move by projecting ball-like pseudopodia 3. In the case of the bone marrow in the rabbit with phenylhydradine anemia just as in the bone marrow of the rabbit with saponin-anemia the maturation and mitotic function of granulocytes are disturbed and lower than those normal rabbits. Besides these, the movement pattern of mature cells is identical with that in saponin-anemia. 4. In the bone marrow of rabbit with collargol anemia by repeated injection of this drug for a long period of time the maturation and mitotic ability of granulocytes are greatly impeded. Moreover, the movement pattern of mature cells are identical with that observed in (2) and (3).


Abstract Background The most prevalent etiology for hypoparathyroidism is postsurgical. In the literature, years or even decades of delay for the diagnosis have been reported, with sometimes extremely low calcium levels and dramatic clinical manifestations including heart failure and seizures requiring treatment in the emergency room or intensive care unit. Often,,typical" hypocalcemic symptoms are absent in these patients. Methods In this retrospective Austrian single-center cohort at the Medical University of Graz, we identified patients with low parathyroid hormone concentration (<25 pg/ml) and hypocalcemia using the hospital information system during 2004 and 2014. The time between neck surgery and the first reported diagnosis of postsurgical hypoparathyroidism and/or available low calcium levels was collected. Results We identified a total of 119 patients treated between 2004 and 2014 at our institution. Most patients were women (78%), the average age was 61 ± 17 years. 12% had nonsurgical etiologies (ie. AIRE or 22q11 mutations), and 88% had postsurgical hypoparathyroidism (n=105). The median time between surgery and diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism was 5.5 years (range 0 -67 years). Only a third of all patients was diagnosed within the first year after surgery. Paresthesia and tetany were present in most patients at diagnosis, but in extreme hypocalcemia, other,,non-classic" symptoms including severe heart failure, dyspnea and seizures appeared to be more prevalent. Conclusion Our data suggest that diagnosis of permanent postoperative hypoparathyroidism is often delayed, as in our Austrian retrospective cohort the time lag between surgery and diagnosis or onset of hypoparathyroidism was often years or even decades. Whether this is truly a delayed occurrence of the disease or a delayed diagnosis of a condition already present for years or a combination of both can not be answered with our data, but certainly merits more intense research in the future.


It is the purpose of this study to compare the rock salt and cesium chloride structures of the alkali halogenides.


Abstract A simple and rapid scheme which coupled aqueous two-phase extraction with affinity membrane chromatography for the recovery of aspartase from Escherichia coli was developed. The aspartase was recovered and purified from cell homogenate by three successive polyethylene glycol-phosphate aqueous two-phase extractions with high activity yield. During the extraction steps, cell debris, nucelic acids, and most contaminating proteins were removed. The aspartase was recovered in the phosphate-rich phase. The enzyme was further purified by affinity chromatography in which the regenerated microporous cellulose membrane and L-aspartate were used as support and ligand, respectively. The aspartase solution was forced to flow convectively through the pores in which ligand L-aspartate was immobilized on the surface. The affinity membrane chromatography carried out under a high flow rate resulted in a productivity of 17 L/L/h. The overall purification scheme yielded aspartase with a specific activity of 27.3 uni...


We review advances on the experimental study of cavity solitons in VCSELs in the past decade. We emphasize on the design and fabrication of electrically or optically pumped broad-area VCSELs used for CSs formation and review different experimental configurations. Potential applications of CSs in the field of photonics are discussed, in particular the use of CSs for all-optical processing of information and for VCSELs characterization. Prospects on self-localization studies based on vertical cavity devices involving new physical mechanisms are also given.


N gonorrhoeae (by colony morphology, Gram stain, oxidase positivity, and agglutination by monoclonal antibody) would be available from both Biocult-GC and TM plates inoculated at patient care area in 24 to 48 hours, and final results with antibiotic sensitivity 24 hours later. Savings in labour costs and culture materials may also be achieved as only Biocult-GC and TM plates with colonies suspected to be N gonorrhoeae need to be further studied and cultured at the microbiological laboratories. It has to be emphasised, however, that our results were obtained in a department where the samples were taken by STD specialists, and in a departnent which is supported by a medical microbiology laboratory next door. A comparison between Biocult-GC nutritive transport system and nonnutritive transport media should be performed in primary health care centres in order to test the survival of gonococci in the


Objective To evaluate the clinical outcome of simultaneous reconstruction of postoperative defects of mandibular osteoradioncerosis with double barrel fibula osteocutaneous flap. Methods From May 2004 to April 2005, five patients suffering from mandibular osteoradionecrosis after radiotherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma underwent mandibulectomy and simultaneous microsurgical reconstruction with double barrel fibula osteocutaneous flap in our hospital. After the mandibulectomy, the fibula osteocutaneous flaps were harvested. The fibula was osteotmized into several portions, folded into two parallel lengths, and then fixed along the inferior border of the mandible. The "double barrel" fibula provided 2.6~3.0cm alveolar height. The time of the whole surgery including mandibulectomy and reconstruction lasted from 4 to 7.5 hours. Results All vascularized fibula osteocutaneous flaps transplanted were successful with good primary bone healing. There were no serious postoperative complications. The patients were followed up from 4 to 14 months, averaged 8 months. During the follow-up period all patients acquired good mandibular symmetry and the facial contour was satisfactory. Postoperative X-ray showed the height of the alveolar ridge was enough for implant prosthetic rehabilitation. Conclusion Double barrel fibula osteocutaneous flap provides an ideal, suitable and effective surgical method to simultaneously reconstruct the postoperative defects of mandibular osteoradionecrosis after mandibulectomy.


ABSTRACT Use of mark-recapture techniques to estimate the size of fish populations relies on several assumptions, one being that marked and unmarked fish have equal probabilities of capture. This requires that marked fish, if released at their site of capture, mix randomly with unmarked fish in the population before recapture. We tested whether marked fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) in four wetlands mixed randomly 1) when released at the capture site and 2) when transported and released in the center of the wetland. We captured and marked fish at two locations on opposite sides of each wetland. We recaptured fish three weeks later at these two original capture stations and at two additional sites spaced equal distances from the two capture stations. Results using fish released at their original capture location and those released in the center of the wetland indicated no difference between the observed and the expected number recaptured, with the expectation being equal numbers caught at each statio...


T- and Y-shaped mazes are traditionally used to assess spatial learning and memory of zebrafish. In the installation of the T-shaped maze, the fish are taught to swim into the desired sleeve and not swim into the wrong one using both positive (for example, food reinforcement) and negative (for example, electric current) stimuli to form more persistent reflexes. The Y-shaped maze is based on the principle of spontaneous choice. Spontaneous choice behavior describes the tendency of animals to change their direction of rotation in a series of successive turns. Each choice statistically depends on the previous one, which indicates its mnestic origin. Unlike other types of memory tasks, testing in the Y-shaped maze does not require prior training or reinforcement (as in the T-shaped maze). Both aquatic mazes are becoming useful tools for assessing zebrafish cognitive phenotypes.


Abstract A major human dimension in climate change is the management of wastes. Ideal technologies would minimize health and environmental hazards, reduce amounts of wastes, and use energy in the most efficient way, while reducing attendant greenhouse gases. Beyond technology, public policy and research need to be directed to permitting requirements, storage, and deferred treatment of wastes (sequestering) and to encouraging source reduction and recycling. Best management practices will reduce resource consumption and maximize the use of wastes in beneficial ways. The focus on hazardous, municipal and petroleum production wastes is supported by examples from incineration, the use of limestone, and composting. Incineration is flagged as a technology that is in direct conflict with emerging global climate policy. Attention is drawn to the use of limestone as an underestimated source of greenhouse gases. Limestone is widely used in waste management systems and is closely tied to the material standard of livi...


We propose a dynamic and interactive caricaturing system. In our system, the utilization of in-between method realizes the generation mechanism from the caricaturist to the gallery, and on the contrary, the utilization of eye-camera vision realizes the feedback mechanism from the gallery to the caricaturist. The gallery mounts an eye-camera on the head, and the system reflects visual characteristics of the gallery directly onto the works of facial caricature. After observing the image of the model and analyzing the gaze direction and distribution, the system deforms some of the characteristic and impressive facial parts more strongly than other non-impressive facial parts, and generates the caricature which is suited especially for the gallery. In this paper, we demonstrate experimentally the effectiveness of this method to integrate these kinds of viewpoints.


Advanced Tokamak concepts and steady state plasma scenarios require external plasma heating and current drive for extended time periods. This poses several problems for the neutral beam injection systems that are currently in use. The power loading of the ion source and accelerator are especially problematic. The Kamaboko negative ion source, a small scale model of the ITER arc source, is being prepared for extended operation of deuterium beams for up to 1000 seconds. The operating conditions of the plasma grid prove to be important for reducing electron power loading of the accelerator. Operation of deuterium beams for extended periods also poses radiation safety risks which must be addressed.


We propose an actor-critic framework for graph-based machine learning pipelines with non-differentiable blocks, and apply it to repetitive combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) under hard constraints. Repetitive COP refers to problems to be solved repeatedly on graphs of the same or slowly changing topology but rapidly changing node or edge weights. Compared to one-shot COPs, repetitive COPs often rely on fast (distributed) heuristics to solve one instance of the problem before the next one arrives, at the cost of a relatively large optimality gap. Through numerical experiments on several discrete optimization problems, we show that our approach can learn reusable policies to reduce the optimality gap of fast (distributed) heuristics for independent repetitive COPs, and can optimize the long-term objectives for repetitive COPs embedded in graph-based Markov decision processes. Source code at https://github.com/XzrTGMu/twin-nphard .


The invention relates to an apparatus, a system and a method of locating a location of a portable device using coded light, the portable device comprising an image sensor and an inertial measurement unit, the method comprising: obtaining a first image comprising the coded light source from the image sensor and substantially simultaneously obtaining orientation information indicative of the orientation of the portable device or the image sensor from the inertial measurement unit; obtaining light source specific information in the form of: an identifier that allows retrieval of a three-dimensional location of the coded light source or a three-dimensional location of the coded light source; and computing the location of the portable device or image sensor based on the orientation information, a predetermined height estimate of the portable device or image sensor and the light source specific information.


Identifications of energy level transitions in the Ca XVII and Ti XIX spectra in the regions of 190-360 A and 160-300 A, respectively, are presented for the first time. Lines corresponding to the transition arrays concerned are identified and classified. Extrapolation procedures are described in detail.


ABSTRACT Distribution equilibria of Np and Pu in various valence states and stripping of Np(V) were studied in a system involving 0.20 M n-octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide + 1.2 M tributyl phosphate in dodecane as a solvent. Np(V) is weakly extractable at 3 M nitric acid, due to the disproportionation of Np(V) to Np(IV) and Np(VI). Addition of nitrous acid to solutions containing Np(V) increases the over-all extractabllity of Np, due to its partial oxidation to Np(VI). This is also the case In the presence of oxalic acid, both at room temperature and at 40°C. Both Np(IV) and Np(VI) are highly extractable, but the reduction of Np(V,VI) to Np(IV) is slow even with a reductant as strong as sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate. Pu(IV) is highly extractable and its reduction to Pu(III) with sulfoxylate Is incomplete in the two-phase system if the aqueous phase contains >0.5 M nitric acid. Extracted Np(VI) can be stripped by reduction to...


The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the design of the signalling architecture for next-generation geo-satellite systems with on board processing functionality. We concentrate on the signalling channels, which are used by the satellite terminals for connection establishment. Two access methods are investigated: the dedicated and the random (Slotted Aloha) access. The dedicated access requires the introduction of a centralized scheduling technique in the network control centre. We study the system performance and demonstrate that the random access allows saving signalling bandwidth and maintaining high acceptance rate despite of collisions. This is achieved by harmonizing the random access with a centralised connection admission control algorithm and an intelligent scheduling of resource requests on board the satellite.


Though a plethora of studies has suggested indigenous construction firms in developing countries are competitively disadvantaged and risk being marginalized in the competition posed by their foreign counterparts, little is known of studies that empirically investigate the critical success factors militating against indigenous construction firms' competitive advantage in developing countries to adduce empirical findings towards policy direction and formulation. Thus, this paper seeks to determine the critical success factors militating against competitive advantage of indigenous construction firms in developing countries using Ghana as a case study and suggest measures to curb them. The use of principal component analysis, varimax rotation in data analysis aided in reducing the large set of militating factors to four principal factors. Using a questionnaire survey, 667 respondents were invited to rate the 21 militating factors identified from literature based on their knowledge and experience. The correlations between the 21 variables showed that four key components underpinned the critical success factors militating against competitive advantage of indigenous construction firms in developing countries, namely market, firms' internal, government and technology factors. Findings and recommendations of this study may be useful to construction stakeholders who are seeking innovative ways to enhance indigenous firms' competitive advantage and policy direction.


Stigmatisation among mental health professionals can have a significant impact on individuals who work in the area, and on recruitment of people into the mental health workforce. This study aimed to investigate the source, type and impact of positive and negative comments, attitudes and behaviours experienced by psychiatrists and psychiatric registrars. Thirty psychiatrists and registrars responded to a survey. Results indicated that negative experiences were reported at a significantly higher frequency compared with positive experiences. Other psychiatrists contributed positively to experiences regarding their profession in mental health. In contrast, doctors from other specialities and the media contributed negatively. Notwithstanding these negative experiences, there was high morale among respondents. This survey has shown that despite gains in addressing stigma towards mental illness within the community, stigma towards psychiatrists remains a significant issue. Psychiatry as a profession needs to address this in order to enable the discipline to overcome these damaging negative attitudes.


Through the afforstation of resisting drought in the area where the annual precipitation quantity is only 300~500 mm,integrating into the existing new material,new method and new technology,raising the survival rate of afforestation,Sci-tech support is offered for the vegeration rehabilitation,ecological environment improvement and forestry sustainable development such as artificial forest of water and soil conversation,charcoal forest,forage forset,timber forest,and forest of conserving headwater in semi-arid degraded mountain area.


Errant neovascularization and coronary artery fistulae (CAF) are frequently observed after cardiac transplantation. The relationship between angiographic neovascularization/CAF and coronary plaque progression is unknown.


Objective: To analyze the characteristics of the perspectives of Health Promotion present in the proposals of the actual National Policy for Health Promotion (PNPS). Methods: We conducted a qualitative, exploratory and documental study using the methodological procedures of the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) in the period of October 2009 to June 2010. Results: There were five Central-Ideas related to three different Anchorages. The DSC connected to Central-Ideas: (1) Spreading and introducing the PNPS; (3) Organizing and introducing proceedings targeting individual risk factors; and (4) Monitoring and controlling damages and risk factor, showed to be linked to Behavioral and/or Biomedical Approaches of Health Promotion. The DSC connected to Central-Ideas: (2) Discussing and Evaluating the PNPS and (5) Organizing and introducing proceedings for sustainable development reflected a Socio-Environmental Approach of Health Promotion. Conclusion: It was possible to verify the complexity of a set of proposals that reflect different perspectives of Health Promotion, considering that the Socio-Environmental approach, although not predominant in the PNPS, can be the most effective and according to the Unified Health System (SUS)


Objectives:A phase I trial was conducted to determine the maximally tolerated dose of erlotinib with concurrent gemcitabine, paclitaxel, and radiation for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer and to gather preliminary data on maintenance erlotinib after chemoradiation. Methods:Patients received gemcitabine, 75 mg/m2, and paclitaxel, 40 mg/m2, weekly for 6 weeks with 50.4 radiation to the primary tumor and draining lymph nodes with a 2- to 3-cm margin. Erlotinib was administered over 3-dose levels (50–100 mg/d) with chemoradiation then all patients received 150 mg/d maintenance until disease progression. Results:Seventeen patients were assessable for toxicity; 13 with locally advanced disease and 4 who had undergone resection but had positive margins. At erlotinib dosages ≥75 mg/d with chemoradiation the dose-limiting toxicities were diarrhea, dehydration, rash, myelosuppression, and small bowel stricture. Maintenance erlotinib, 150 mg/d, was well tolerated. The median survival of the 13 patients with locally advanced disease was 14.0 months and 6 of 13 (46%) had a partial response. Conclusions:The maximum tolerated dose of erlotinib with gemcitabine, paclitaxel and concurrent radiation is 50 mg/d for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Full dose maintenance erlotinib is well tolerated. Promising preliminary activity and overall survival were demonstrated.


This study aims to determine: (1) the parenting parents elementary school students who study in TPA ALBA, (2) the implication of parenting parents elementary school students who study at TPA ALBA toward academic achievement of students.This research is a qualitative descriptive study using 6 subjects selected by purposive sampling on students who study at TPA ALBA. The object of this study is parenting and its implications for students' academic achievement. Data collection techniques used observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis used in this research was data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing.The result of the data analysis can be concluded that: (1) Parenting style with authoritative type has a positive impact on children's development. (2) Parenting style with authoritative type becomes a factor as an improvement student's academic achievement.


This article presents a tool for monitoring the compliance level with the CDIO standards of engineering programs. This tool is currently in use at the School of Engineering of the Universidad Catolica de la Santisima Concepcion (UCSC), Chile to monitor five engineering programs . Since 2011, the School of Engineeri ng at UCSC has been implementing a curricular reform based on the CDIO approach. In 2013, a preliminary self - evaluation of the adoption of the CDIO Initiative standards in the se programs was done, and its results showed an overall compliance level of 3 for most standards, higher compliance levels for standards 2 and 4 , and lower compliance levels for standard 9 . This preliminary self evaluation motivated us to design a tool to aid the process of systematically gathering the data needed to monitor CDIO stand ards compliance levels periodically across all programs. This monitoring tool allows us to associate measurements and metrics relating to several relevant factors to each CDIO standard. Thus, by using quantitative evidence gathered for these measurements a nd metrics, the tool aids the process of evaluating the compliance level for each standard. All relevant compliance information is presented in an easy - to understand radial graph. The tool can also display the evolution of CDIO compliance levels for each p rogram across different periods. Program managers and administrators can then use this tool to detect strengths and weaknesses in a timely manner, and to make informed and prompt decisions aimed at achieving high compliance levels for each standard. The tool is easy to configure and very flexible: while it provides a basic set of measurements and metrics , they can be added and removed at will to tailor the tool to the each program's specific needs of each program. The number of programs to monitor is also configurable, so administrators can add or remove programs at will.


There are three Second Order Elastic Constants and six Third Order Elastic Constants for Al2O3 system. We calculate all the second and third Elastic Constants using Strain Elasticity theory. At standard temperature, the thermal properties of Al2O3 are theoretically analyzed. Grüneisen Parameters of the elastic waves at different angles of Al2O3 are evaluated using the elastic constants. The Brugger Gamma and normal-temperature Grüneisen Gamma are calculated by the method adopted by Menon and Ramji Rao. The volume expansion for Al2O3 system is positive since the normal-temperature value of Grüneisen Gamma is positive.


Candida species are medically significant yeast that can cause different infection ranging from mild mucosal to disseminated infection. Invasive and sever mucosal infections are often life threatening disorders, especially in immunocompromised hosts due to immunodeficiency either in adaptive or innate immunity which are susceptible to candidiasis. Nevertheless, not all of them are susceptible to candidiasis which shows that genetic variation and polymorphism in immune system can play a crucial role in infection. Although genetic variation occurs rarely in human's genome, it has a significant role in susceptibility to fungal infections. For example, genetic variation in coding genes of PRRs (TLR2, TLR4, Dectin I, Dectin II, and NLRp3) is correlated with susceptibility to candidiasis. Results have shown polymorphisms in genes that are involved in host defense against Candida infection. Therefore, genetic and immunological studies are highly necessary to understand the pathogenesis. Recently several studies have been performed on host defense against Candida infections which might be useful in the diagnosis and treatment of fungal infections. This paper represents a comprehensive overview of genetic susceptibility in human's Candida infection.


This study was conducted in specific areas in the province of Babil ,Najaf and Al-Qadissiyia in Iraq during the period of March 2010 to November 2010 in search of scorpions on the presence of a thick tail scorpion (Androctonus crassicauda) in addition to studying of stinging of scorpions in same areas. The results showed that the propotions of fat tail scorpion presence in some areas of in Babil , Najaf and Al-Qadissiyia were 45.91% ,16.73% and 37.37% respectively. Based on months of year found that the highest prevalence of scorpions was significantly (P≤0.05) observed in July(33.07%), while the lowest(P≤0.05) in April (2.33%) with no observation of any scorpion in March and October, with marked prevalent of juvenile scorpion in July. The data obtained from questionnaire in infested area showed that the scorpionism with A. crassicuada was 76% ,the incidence rates in men ,women and children were 28.57% ,58.44% and 12.98% respectively. The affection rates of different parts of body were vary significantly ,the recorded ratios in upper limbs ,lower limbs ,body and head &neck were 53.24% ,35.06% ,10.38% and 1.29% respectively.


The utility model relates to a multihead driving mechanism of embroidery machine, comprising a main driving shaft and a driving cam assembly arranged on the main driving shaft. More than one driving cam assembly is arranged on the main driving shaft, and the driving cam assembly is composed of a presser foot driving cam and a needle bar driving cam, the needle bar driving cam is a connected integral cam wheel composed of a left cam wheel disk and a right cam wheel disk, and the presser foot driving cam is arranged on the needle bar driving cam wheel shaft. The utility model has the advantages of simple use, easy adjustability and maintenance, good self locking performance, steady running, small size, light weight, easy installation, great bearing capacity, etc. The utility model ensures quality, enhances working efficiency, reduces labor strength, enhances embroidery accuracy, enhances manufacturability, shortens production period and reduces cost.


The utility model relates to the technical field of automation, and discloses a multi-arm linear welding robot. The multi-arm linear welding robot comprises a robot body. The body is provided with welding arms. The multi-arm linear welding robot is characterized in that the number of the welding arms is multiple, the welding arms are sequentially arranged in a front-and-back mode, the feeding directions of the welding arms are located on the same line, and the number of the welding arms is three to four. Therefore, the multi-arm linear welding robot has the advantages of being high in production efficiency and more suitable for longer welding lines.


Through the analyse on the current situation separation process of coarse slime,a new floatation technology about coarse slime separation after rod milling was presented.And the feasibility experiment results showed that clean coal yield reached 75.22% and the ash content was 9.30%.


The present invention relates to a security facility management apparatus and method, a vehicle black box, the present invention relates to facility security management apparatus and a method when using a short-range communications so as to control the power in a particular region. According to the above-mentioned bar, the number of the short-range communication of the local area communication group, which is installed on a vehicle black box, the power controller and the main entrance for when out of the security facility to control power for a vehicle black box, and monitors the power connection state of the vehicle black box the effect can be.


Abstract: In the present paper we define affinity for truncated distributions and examine its properties. The relationship of this measure with other discrimination measures is examined. We also provide a characterization result for the proportional hazard model using the functional form of the truncated affinity. AMS (2000) Subject Classification: 62E10, 90B25


In nature plant shows symbiotic relationship with some microorganisms act as undercover agents known as endophyte. Which produces potentially important bioactive compounds; these compounds have various functional roles in growth and protection of plants as per ecological niche. Medicinal plants have been recognized as a repository of fungal endophytes with novel metabolites. The present study was conducted to characterize and explore the endophytic fungi isolated from medicinal important plant Acacia nilotica of Marathwada region for the study of potential bioactive compounds. Endophytic fungi were isolated and characterized on the basis of sequence similarity using bioinformatics tool and molecular tools. Traditional methods of endophytes isolation and characterization have limitation and it is time consuming processes. Molecular identification of isolated endophytic fungi carried out using fungal specific 18S rRNA primer. Isolated endophytic fungi were show sequence similarity with Aspergillus.


─ To solve the problem of degraded adaptive beamforming performance of smart antenna caused by array steering vector mismatch and array manifold errors, a robust beamforming algorithm based on Fuzzy Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller (FCMAC) neural network is proposed. The proposed algorithm is based on explicit modeling of uncertainties in the desired signal array response and a FCMAC neural network. The calculation of the optimal weight vector is viewed as a mapping problem, which can be solved using FCMAC neural network trained with input/output pairs. Our proposed approach provides excellent robustness against some types of mismatches and keeps the mean output array SINR consistently close to the optimal value. Moreover, the FCMAC neural network avoids complex matrix inversion operations and offers fast convergence rate. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly enhance the robustness of the beamformer in the presence of array steering vector mismatch and array manifold errors, and the output performance is superior to the current methods. Index Terms ─ Adaptive beamforming, FCMAC, neural network, robustness, steering vector mismatch.


Georgia O'Keeffe has been recognized as one of America's most adventurous early modernist artists. But critics often suggest that she became a revolutionary despite her American background, not because of it. This work challenges this point of view. Dijkstra shows that O'Keeffe's work was decisively shaped by the America in which she grew up, illuminating the facts of O'Keeffe's life and offering different readings of some of her most important paintings. Art historians have largely accepted the view that O'Keeffe's art was shaped by Alfred Stieglitz and the work of European modernists she encountered under his tutelage. Dijkstra counters this idea describing the cultural environment of O'Keeffe's childhood and revealing the details of her early education in art. He shows that O'Keeffe's mature style found its origin in such sources as Edgar Allan Poe's speculations about the androgynous nature of the soul before industrialism, and in what Dijkstra calls the "transcendental materialism" of the tonalist movement in turn-of-the-century American art. The book also explores O'Keeffe's identification with the feminist aims and artistic concerns of the radical periodical "The Masses". It shows that the illustrations featured there and in other magazines of the period, significantly influenced her development of a personal style. The book argues that O'Keeffe's very American search for an organic abstraction of form that would celebrate nature, allowed her to develop a humanist style that challenged the early European modernists' emphasis on mechanistic constructions of form against nature.


by the arrival of her father and his male friends, which prompted Petruchio to a macho display of belt-brandishing male chauvinism for their benefit, thrashing the stage while threatening to tame her; this prompted another rebellion from Katherina, but at the end of the scene she willingly kissed him, and they exited happily hand-in-hand at a point where most productions have them storming out at separate doors. This reading of the play as a story of true love was attractive and enjoyable, but with a Katherina so quickly compliant, it made Petruchio's cruel "taming" of his new wife seem unnecessary and strange. The explanation for Petruchio's behavior, so far as there was one, apparently lay in his melancholy at the loss of his father, and his speech about the success of the taming was depressed and self-doubtful rather than triumphant. He stressed the words "with kindness" in justifying his actions, and sincerely asked the audience to tell him if there was a better way to tame a shrew. The taming passed quickly and lightheartedly, however, and any unease that audience members may have felt was smoothed over by the suggestion that Katherina was unharmed and undefeated by the taming. When Petruchio demanded that "It shall be what o'clock I say it is," it was a childish tantrum and a sign of his own weakness and vulnerability, which Katherina accepted calmly and indulgently, shrugging her shoulders and wandering away, lost in a reverie of happiness at her good fortune, and content to wait until the storm had passed over. Petruchio, in turn, repeatedly prostrated himself before Katherina in appeal or gratitude, visually reversing the power-positions suggested in the text. He knelt before her when he called her "my ox, my ass, my anything," and lay flat at her feet in acceptance of her speech about wifely submission. Although this production will not have satisfied those who prefer to see a downtrodden, tortured Katherina to underline the play's chauvinist gender politics and brutal oppression of women, this lighter reading undoubtedly suited the pleasant and leisurely atmosphere of the theatre in which it was performed.


A review of synthetic and structural studies of ferrocenophanes has led to the presumption that the intramolecular substitution of ferrocenophanepropionic acid gives a bridged product when "the distance" between the two carbons to be bridged is greater than 3.20 A. According to this prediction, the bridging reaction of [4][32](1,2,4)ferrocenophane-5-propionic acid ("the distance": ca. 3.5 A) was carried out, and the expected bridged compound (13) was afforded. Subsequently, the construction of fourth and fifth bridges in [4][32](1,3,4)ferrocenophane (16) was attempted by applying the working hypothesis in order to obtain perbridged [4][34](1,2,3,4,5)ferrocenophane (5). Both bridging reactions occurred as expected, and the synthesis of 5 was achieved. The absorption spectrum of 5 showed d–d* absorption at an unusually short wavelength (λmax = 345 nm; ferrocene, 443 nm), which is the shortest value in ferrocene derivatives to our knowledge. The structure of 5 was determined by an X-ray diffraction method. C...


Simple Summary Multicellular organisms develop from a single cell into a multitude of cell types organized in tissues and organs. Organisms grow at a coordinated pace until reaching mature size. From this point, tissues and organs retain a constant size despite cell renovation. This depends on cell-cell communication and the constant integration of multiple signals, being regulated by several signaling pathways. The Hippo pathway stands out as it is also present in unicellular organisms. Some Hippo components control key cellular processes in unicellular organisms, like cell division and the perpetuation of cell morphology. Intrigued by this, we set out to understand the interplay between unicellular and multicellular Hippo regulation from the perspective of the most ancient proteins from this pathway, hereafter designated Monopolar spindle One Binder protein (MOB). We reviewed MOB functions along the tree of life to uncover its ancestral role, aiming to understand the origin of multicellularity. MOB-regulated cellular processes like division and death are essential for organism growth and tissues maintenance. The research on MOB of unicellular organisms highlighted the role of these proteins in the regulation of cell number and shape, critical issues for the maintenance of healthy tissues in multicellular organisms. This knowledge allows a better understanding of some human diseases like cancer. Abstract The MOB family proteins are constituted by highly conserved eukaryote kinase signal adaptors that are often essential both for cell and organism survival. Historically, MOB family proteins have been described as kinase activators participating in Hippo and Mitotic Exit Network/ Septation Initiation Network (MEN/SIN) signaling pathways that have central roles in regulating cytokinesis, cell polarity, cell proliferation and cell fate to control organ growth and regeneration. In metazoans, MOB proteins act as central signal adaptors of the core kinase module MST1/2, LATS1/2, and NDR1/2 kinases that phosphorylate the YAP/TAZ transcriptional co-activators, effectors of the Hippo signaling pathway. More recently, MOBs have been shown to also have non-kinase partners and to be involved in cilia biology, indicating that its activity and regulation is more diverse than expected. In this review, we explore the possible ancestral role of MEN/SIN pathways on the built-in nature of a more complex and functionally expanded Hippo pathway, by focusing on the most conserved components of these pathways, the MOB proteins. We discuss the current knowledge of MOBs-regulated signaling, with emphasis on its evolutionary history and role in morphogenesis, cytokinesis, and cell polarity from unicellular to multicellular organisms.


The purpose of this paper is to utilize the standard atmospheric simulation method to evaluate the influence of water content for practical split-window algorithm proposed by us. The computation results indicate that the accuracy of our algorithm is about 0.37°C when the transmittance is computed from the simulation water content. In order to evaluate the practical of our algorithm, the analysis of water content influenced the transmittance were made and the results indicate that our algorithm is not sensitivity to water content. The average LST error is changed between 0.19~1.1°C when the water content error in the simulation standard atmosphere changes between - 80~130%. In order to confirm the conclusion, we retrieve the land surface temperature through change the water content retrieved from MODIS data. We retrieve LST from MODIS image data through changing retrieval water content error and got a similar conclusion mentioned above. However, the accuracy can be improved when the water content error between - 80%~0%. Finally, the analysis results from mathematics method view indicate that the water content decreases the sensitivity of transmittance about 5-6 times. All the analysis indicates that our algorithm is practical and not sensitive to water content. The accuracy can be improved by utilizing reasonable prior knowledge of retrieval water content. Keywords-LST, Water Content, MODIS data


The utility model relates to a fire-resisting cable, in particular to a fire-insulating type low-smoke and halogen-free fire-resisting cable, and belongs to the technical field of manufacturing of the fire-resisting cable. The fire-insulating type low-smoke and halogen-free fire-resisting cable orderly comprises a conductive core, a heat-resistant composite insulating layer, a heat-resistant filler layer, a fire-retardant lining layer, a metal fire-insulating layer and a halogen-free low-smoke flame retardant polyolefin jacket layer from inside to outside. The fire-insulating type low-smoke and halogen-free fire-resisting cable is relatively soft in structure, small in smoke volume and high in light transmittance, and does not generate poisonous and harmful halogen gases in combustion; the metal fire-insulating layer isolates flame outside the fire-insulating layer under a combustion state, and the fire-retardant lining layer forms an incombustible inorganic shell under a high-temperature state, so as to form a heat-insulating waterproof protective layer of the heat-resistant composite insulating layer. The fire-insulating type low-smoke and halogen-free fire-resisting cable can pass the fireproof, impact and spray tests specified by the fire fighting test standards in China and the British BS6387 standard; and a good insulating state of the product in case of fire is ensured, so as to maintain normal electrification for a long period of time.


In the paper,the concept and classifications of ecological cement concrete are elaborated.The research applications abroad and its mix proportion composition are summarized as well.


Researches in sociolinguistics are unique for their strict research methods adopted,which include the processes of data-collection and data-analysis.Generally speaking,the collected data is either qualitative or quantitative.However,sometimes qualitative data can be converted into quantitative data.Therefore,whether it is qualitative or quantitative research is on the basis of the methods used in data-analysis.From the perspective of philosophy,qualitative research is based on interpretivism,while quantitative research on positivism which is from empiricism.Both methods have their respective merits and demerits.


This paper investigates the effect of linear and non-linear refractive indices on the performance of a multilayer structure based on second-order non-linear effects. Decreasing the non-linear refractive index and increasing the linear refractive index division make the transmitted signal closer to unity and also reduce the length of the structure. An all-optical logic gates is proposed using introduced logic gates and the operation is discussed in details. This basic unit due to high performance and low attenuation in operational frequency and simplicity of implementation could be an ideal choice in future optical logic systems.


Instant porridge from low grade broken rice fractions blended with cowpea to enhance protein quantity and quality was developed in this study through extrusion cooking technology. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) were adopted for the formulation and optimization of the process variables. The main objective was to obtain the optimum level of extruder barrel temperature (X1), feed moisture level (X2) and feed cowpea level (X3) that will produce optimum porridge having appreciably high protein, water dispersibility, lysine content and calorie value. ANOVA indicated significance (p˂0.05) of the models fitted in describing the relationship between the input and output variables in its natural state. The coefficient of the determination was also greater than 80% and non-significant lack-of-fit test. Numerical optimization results indicated that the optimum input variables were 120°C barrel temperature, 24g/100g cowpea formulation and 20g/100g feed moisture composition which produce 99.02% dispersibility, 24.13g/100g protein, 73.44% carbohydrate and 388.82kcal/100g calorie, and lysine of 5.02mg/g protein. These data will sharpen the weaning food industry by providing wide opportunity for new food production using low grade rice and common legumes, thereby increasing the economic values of both locally grown rice and cowpea.


Inorganic-organic nanocomposite hard coatings were prepared on the PMMA surface using spinning technique with attempts of incorporating homogeneously nanosized AlOOH particles into the organic-inorganic hybrid matrices. The hybrid matrices were derived from 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane. The AlOOH particles with different shapes (plate and needle-like) were prepared from aluminum isopropoxide and introduced into the hybrid sols directly. The coatings obtained are dense, transparent and their scratch-resistance is greatly improved, especially the contribution of needle-like particle is remarkable in comparison with the hybrid coatings without particle addition.