State-of-the-art technology available at sawmills enables measurements of whorl numbers and the maximum branch diameter for individual logs, but such information is currently unavailable at the wood procurement planning phase. The first step toward more detailed evaluation of standing timber is to introduce a method that produces similar wood quality indicators in standing forests as those currently used in sawmills. Our aim was to develop a quantitative method to detect and model branches from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point clouds data of trees in a forest environment. The test data were obtained from 158 Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris L.) in six mature forest stands. The method was evaluated for the accuracy of the following branch parameters: Number of whorls per tree and for every whorl, the maximum branch diameter and the branch insertion angle associated with it. The analysis concentrated on log-sections (stem diameter >15 cm) where the branches most affect wood's value added. The quantitative whorl detection method had an accuracy of 69.9% and a 1.9% false positive rate. The estimates of the maximum branch diameters and the corresponding insertion angles for each whorl were underestimated by 0.34 cm (11.1%) and 0.67° (1.0%), with a root-mean-squared error of 1.42 cm (46.0%) and 17.2° (26.3%), respectively. Distance from the scanner, occlusion, and wind were the main external factors that affect the method's functionality. Thus, the completeness and point density of the data should be addressed when applying TLS point cloud based tree models to assess branch parameters.


The study is aimed at exploring the definition of critical thinking by preservice preschool teachers. The preservice teachers are expected to have the ability of critical thinking before they could teacher children once they are in service. Interviews were conducted to two informants who are still studying in the Early Childhood Studies program in a private university in Klang Valley. A few themes emerged from the transcriptions and coding processes. Results found that those preservice teachers have shallow definition of critical thinking, yet they are able to differentiate critical thinking from creative thinking.


In 1960s and 1970s, with the development of economy in Thailand, the national contradictions were intensifying. The reason is that the government carried out some improper even erroneous policies and measures in the economic development in minority areas. This paper makes an analysis of the reasons for it.


Characteristics of household rather than those of its members prove best predictors of newspaper subscribing. Income, length of residence, home ownership key factors.


This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Design of a DWT Coder Zero-Tree Coding JPEG2000 Digital Cinema Summary References Problems ]]>


Fermentation is a widely used process in production of many foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals. The main goal of the control system is to maximize profit of the fermentation process, and thus this is also the main goal of this paper. We present a simple dynamic model for a fermentation process and demonstrate its usefulness in economic optimization. The model is formulated as an index-1 differential algebraic equation (DAE), which guarantees conservation of mass and energy in discrete form. The optimization is based on recent advances within Economic Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (E-NMPC), and also utilizes the index-1 DAE model. The E-NMPC uses the single-shooting method and the adjoint method for computation of the optimization gradients. The process constraints are relaxed to soft-constraints on the outputs. Finally we derive the analytical solution to the economic optimization problem and compare it with the numerically determined solution.


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The roles of different cell types involved in ion transport in the fish gill have been widely debated but it is commonly accepted that mitochondria-rich chloride cells and pavement cells play key roles in ion and acid—base transport in freshwater fish. Mitochondria-rich cells


With the expertise it was necessary the following circumstances to be confirmed: conditions when the accident happened, flow and dynamics of the event of the accident, the reasons which caused the accident, omissions of the participants in the accident, other circumstances that the expert considers that are necessary for correct evaluation of the factual state


Aim To study the creep characteristics of mica-quartzose schist which is a kind of soft metamorphic rock at left dam abutment of Heihe reservoir.Methods Through the triaxial creep test,the triaxial creep curves and isochorounous stress-strain curves have been obtained,then the creep characteristics of mica-quartzose schist have been obtained by analyzing the triaxial creep curves,and the isochrounous stress-strain characteristics of mica-quartzose schist have been obtained by analyzing the isochorounous stress-strain curves.Finally,an empirical formula of creep curve is obtained by data fitting and the analysis of the relation between time and parameter of fitting formula.Results The creep characteristics,the isochrounous stress-strain characteristics and an empirical formula from creep curve of mica-quartzose schist have been obtained under the condition of the axial stress vertical to the direction of the schistosity surface.Conclusion The experiment results can give some benefit reference to establishing triaxial creep model of mica-quartzose schist.


Stress in workplace is not a new phenomenon for it is known to have a negative impact upon the business world as well as to the military organization. Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity,constraint or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. There are many causes of stress in which few include low morale, sickness and diseases, personal problem, workload,lack of job satisfaction, poor working environment, leadership and change of technology. This thesis studied and researched was conducted to determine the relation of stress having the independent variables, job satisfaction, working environment and utilization of technology (HRIS). It is desired that this research would provide a positive input in the process of management of stress of the lower rank soldiers, especially to the Commanding Officer and officers as leaders in the military organization.


The correlation of soil chemical properties and soil enzymatic activity under young spruce forest-Chinese pine forest and mature spruce forest-poplar-brich forest in Taizishang forest farms of Linxia,Gansu Province were described.It provided scientific basis on biochemical activity for analyzing the soil fertility and nutrient dynamics in different types of forests,maintaining and improving soil productivity.


Foodborne disease caused by Campylobacter jejuni has been associated with raw meats, poultry, milk, water, and other foods. Animals can harbor this pathogen among the intestinal flora, and it potentially can contaminate carcasses during dressing procedures. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to completely prevent contamination of meat and poultry. Hazards associated with contamination, survival and, subsequent growth during production, transportation, processing, and preparation must be considered. However, demonstrating C. jejuni presence and control is challenging because it is difficult to culture and maintain in laboratory conditions. Campylobacter jejuni has been exhibited to be extremely vulnerable to a wide variety of antimicrobial treatments, food processing methods, and environmental stress. Effective, validated methods for controlling this pathogen would be of immense value to consumers by reducing exposure. Relevant literature regarding the various techniques for the prevention, control, and inactivation of C. jejuni in meat and poultry is reviewed and their potential assessed.


Measurements were made of the negative pressure necessary to prevent the passage of fluid across prepared cellophane membranes from blood serum into the cut surface of muscle. The membranes were conditioned with 95% alcohol and tested for their permeability to NaCl, glucose, and egg albumin. Membranes were used which would allow an equilibrium of non-colloids to be established between muscle and serum in 24 hours or less. A piece of the prepared membrane was cemented tightly across the mouth of a small glass osmometer with shellac and collodion. From 0.04 to 0.1 cc. of blood serum was introduced into the osmometer with a capillary pipette through the stopcock which was used to seal off the contents of the osmometer. Transverse sections of dog or cat muscle were tied tightly to the mouth of the osmometer so that the cut surface of the muscle entirely covered the surface of the membrane. The whole was enclosed in a glass chamber immersed in a regulated water bath. In 6 measurements, negative pressures from 18 to 33 mm. Hg. were found necessary to prevent the passage of fluid from serum into muscle. The colloid osmotic pressures of the serums used in these experiments were also measured in the same apparatus, and ranged from 13 to 24 mm. Hg. Adding the colloid osmotic pressure of the serum vs. Ringer to the negative pressure measured with the serum vs. muscle, values were obtained ranging from 37 to 48 mm. Hg. The colloid osmotic pressure of the contents of muscle cells is believed to lie in this range. This pressure is probably not effective in vivo, being balanced by other forces such as intracellular turgor pressure.


In this study, a highly integrated cantilever for a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) is described. All components necessary for the SNOM system (light emitting diode (LED) for light source, channel waveguide, nanometer size aperture tip, and photodiode) are integrated on the cantilever.


The point switch has the responsibility of switching,blocking and monitoring the electrical devices on the railway.Its monitoring is of great significance to the safety of the railway operation.Most of the existing switch point monitors have the disadvantages of backward monitoring,high wrong warning rate and not being directviewing.By analyzing the problems in the existing switch monitoring system,this paper proposes an online video switch monitoring system.The monitoring system in the switch can capture the photo of the gap and upload the pictures in real time.The computer in the monitoring room can receive,identify,and automatically monitor the pictures.When the gap is lager than the standard value,there will be an alarm.This article also introduces the design and implementation of the image collection module.


Developing algebraic thinking encourages the construction of more complex ideas, necessary for the formation of critical citizens, with well-founded arguments. Traditionally, the school has always trained in mathematical skills, however, the results have not favored most citizens. Educational plans in Mexico introduce algebraic topics, formally until secondary education, postponing early training for many years. The general objective was to explore educational robotics as a didactic resource aimed at developing algebraic thinking with students at an early age. A mixed methodology was implemented in a case study of five students aged 7 to 9 years, with a workshop belonging to the Autonomous University of Queretaro, Mexico. The proposal implemented a didactic sequence based on problem situations with robot assemblies, linking the subject of gears, together with direct proportionality. The most important finding was to identify educational robotics as a potential tool to favor the acquisition of algebraic concepts of unknown and variable in a functional relationship. Finally, educational robotics is positioned as a powerful didactic resource of the XXI century, in addition to combining various sciences, it makes it possible to work academic content outside the classroom, favoring cognitive development.


Background : Recent evidence has shown associations between cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and telomere length (TL). Many factors affect telomerase activity (TA) and TL, and statin was recently found to be associated with TA and TL. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to summarize the evidence on the effect of statin on TA and TL, and update the knowledge of association between TL and CVDs.  Primary objective is to determine the effect of statin on TA and TL; Secondary objective, to assess the associations between TL and CVDs. Methods: The MEDLINE and Scopus databases were searched to identify eligible studies and extracted d ata. Meta-analysis was done to see effects of statin on TA/TL [i.e., standardized/unstandardized mean difference (SMD/USMD)] and TL on CVDs using random-effects and fixed-effects model according to heterogeneity assessed by Q test and I 2 . Results: Five and 18 studies were selected for the primary and secondary objectives, respectively. Pooled TA showed effect of statin on TA with SMD [95% confidence interval (CI)] of 1.90 (1.16, 2.64) TA. However, no significant effect on TL was seen. Increased risk of CHD among participants with shorter TL was estimated by a pooled risk ratio of 1.58 (1.19, 2.09). However, pooled hazard ratios (HRs) for CHD and stroke were non-significant; but shorter TL was significantly increased risk for unspecified CVDs with pooled HR of 1.33 (1.04, 1.70). Conclusions: Our study showed association between statin and TA, but not for TL. In addition, shorter TL is more likely to be higher risk for CHD and unspecified CVDs. However, results were still inconclusive based on different pooled parameters. More studies are required to confirm the association of statin with TL, possibly to elucidate its protective effect on CVDs.


Abstract Drill cuttings (DCs, Table 1), which are produced during hydrocarbon drilling operation, are rock coated with drilling fluids and hydrocarbons. DCs without adequate treatment could leave behind thousands of tons of hazardous materials, resulting in a large environmental liability. In this work, seven DCs samples were collected from Tu and Qing oilfields, and microbes inhabiting the DCs were revealed through 16S rDNA gene sequencing. The DCs from Qing oilfield showed higher microbial community abundance than those from Tu oilfield. The dominant microbes were Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Nesterenkonia, Trichococcus, Soehngenia, Proteiniclasticum, and Fusibacter. Most of microorganisms could produce biosurfactant which has an ability of degradation of crude oil and bioremediation. Biosynthesis and biodegradation were predicted to be the most significant metabolic pathways in all samples. This study provides a fundamental insight into the potential reuse and save the cost of conventional treatment DCs, environmental bioremediation applications of DCs through indigenous microbes produced biosurfactant and degraded ability in oil reservoirs.


This study analyzed the effects of various forest management scenarios on habitats of the black stork, which has very specific requirements: it needs extensive forest complexes with a significant proportion of old trees for nesting, and bodies of water for foraging. The relationship between different forest management scenarios and the presence of black storks was examined in a large forest complex (9641 ha of managed stands) surrounded by wetland areas. A simulation of forest development under three management regimes was performed for eighteen 10-year periods. Management scenarios differed in terms of the species composition of stands, rotation age, retention tree areas, and silvicultural treatments. The basic scenario was characterized by a species composition consistent with natural-type stands, but with higher proportions of Scots pine and oak, with rotation ages of 100 and 140 years, respectively, managed by the shelterwood system. The productive scenario featured monospecific stands with a dominance of Scots pine with a rotation age of 90 years, harvested by clearcutting. Finally, the long rotation scenario introduced mixed tree stands with a long rotation age (110 and 180 years for Scots pine and oak, respectively). As compared to the basic scenario, the total harvest volume was greater by 14.6% in the productive scenario and smaller by 16.2% in the long rotation scenario. The availability of habitats for black stork changed as a result of different species compositions and age structures of tree stands. A considerable decrease in rotation age (below 100 years) and the elimination of oak trees from stands in the productive scenario adversely affected potential habitats for black stork. On the other hand, the factors favorable to black stork habitats were a long rotation age, the presence of oak in stands, the application of shelterwood cutting, and the use of retention trees in the long rotation scenario. This scenario would probably also benefit other bird species legally protected under the European Union's Birds Directive.


The invention relates to an electrochemical biosensor based on a dendritic polymer formed by TiO2@Fe3O4 and DNA (Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid), a preparation method and application of the sensor. The preparation method of the sensor comprises the following steps: synthesizing a TiO2@Fe3O4 nanocompound by using a hydrothermal method; and preparing the electrochemical biosensor based on the dendritic polymer formed by TiO2@Fe3O4 and DNA by using specific binding effect between one-end phosphorylated DNA and the TiO2 and complementary pairing effect of bases between DNA sequences. The sensor is used for detecting sensitivity, specificity and stability of target DNA molecules.


A single sensible thermal storage system has the disadvantage of poor system efficiency, and a sensible-latent graded thermal storage system can effectively solve this problem. Moreover, the graded thermal storage system has the virtue of being adjustable, which can be adapted to many power generation systems. Therefore, this paper first analyzes the influence factors of the graded thermal storage system's exergy and thermal efficiency. Subsequently, each factor's significance was analyzed using the response surface method, and the prediction model for system exergy efficiency and cost was established using the support vector machine method. Finally, the second-generation nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was used to globally optimize the graded thermal storage system's exergy efficiency and cost by Matlab software. As a result, the exergy efficiency was increased by 11.01%, and the cost was reduced by RMB 5.85 million. In general, the effect of multi-objective optimization is obvious.


English translation © 2008 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., from the Russian text "Istoricheskie povestvovaniia, kul'turnye traditsii i kollektivnaia pamiat' na Iuzhnom Kavkaze," in Rauf Garagozov, "Kollektivnaia pamiat': patterny i manifestatsii," chapter 4 [continued]. Published with the author's permission. The first part of chapter 4 appears in the Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, vol. 4, no. 1, January–February 2008, pp. 52–98. Translated by Kim Braithwaite. The term "Central Caucasus" refers to Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and is used instead of the term "Transcaucasia," which has obsolete connotations.—Ed. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, vol. 46, no. 2, March–April 2008, pp. 3–57. © 2008 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 1061–0405/2008 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/RPO1061-0405460201


A sanitizable signature scheme is a signature scheme which, after the signer generates a valid signature of a message, allows a specific entity (sanitizer) to modify the message for hiding several parts. Existing sanitizable signature schemes require the message to be divided into pre-defined blocks before signing so that each block can be sanitized independently. However, there are cases where the parts of the message which are needed to be sanitized can not be determined in the time of signing. Thus, it is difficult to decide the partition of the blocks in such cases. Since the length of the signature is usually proportional to the number of blocks, signing every bit independently will make the signature too long. In this paper, we propose a solution by introducing a new concept called sequential bitwise sanitizable signature schemes, where any sequence of bits of the signed document can be made sanitizable without pre-defining them, and without increasing the length of signature. We also show that a one-way permutation suffices to get a secure construction, which is theoretically interesting in its own right, since all the other existing schemes are constructed using stronger assumptions.


E‐selectin mediated cell‐cell adhesion plays an important role in inflammatory processes and extravasation of tumor cells. Tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) induces E‐selectin gene and protein expression in primary human endothelial cells (HUVEC) and in an endothelial cell line (EA.hy‐926). As shown by ELISA and FACS analyses, HMG‐CoA reductase inhibitors (e.g., lovastatin) impair the TNF‐α stimulated increase in E‐selectin protein expression. Similar results were obtained for E‐selectin mRNA expression and promoter activity, indicating that the effect of lovastatin is based on inhibition of gene expression. The effective inhibitory concentration of lovastatin was in a physiologically relevant range (IC50<0.1 µM). Lovastatin‐mediated block of TNF‐α induced E‐selectin expression is due to inhibition of protein geranylgeranylation rather than farnesylation. Down‐regulation of Rho signaling by coexpression of dominant‐negative Rho mutants (i.e RhoA, RhoB and Rac) impaired TNF‐α driven E‐selectin gene expression, indicating Rho signaling to be essential for transcriptional activation of the E‐selectin gene. Inhibition of E‐selectin expression by lovastatin gives rise to a significant reduction in TNF‐α stimulated adhesion of colon carcinoma cells to HUVEC. Furthermore, low concentration of lovastatin (i.e., ≤1 µM) attenuated TNF‐α induced tumor cell invasion in vitro. The data support the view that statins might be clinically useful in protection against E‐selectin mediated metastasis.


In dealing with the Inheritance of Glume-Length [Engledow(1)] there were encountered certain problems relating to metrical characters. As it appeared that these problems must attach to all genetic work upon a metrical basis, they were made the subject of a separate investigation. A simple account of some of the difficulties experienced in connection with Glume-Length Inheritance will serve to formulate the problems.


Continuous physic-chemical processes of corrosion specify necessity of conservating metal archaeological finds. Over the past several decades, researchers have been developing conservation and restoration techniques of metals. The fact that these techniques have disadvantages has posed a question of unprogressive coating removal. The article deals with thermochemical treatment of iron and copper base alloys from polymer protective coating. Comparative experiments have been carried out with several chemicals at 185, 200 and 200°C. Technique of treating archaeological iron from protective coating containing butvar-phenolic adhesive has been developed.


Experience to design a long distance teaching courseware was induced in this paper based on network technology, taking a course, histology and embryology as an example. According to teaching requirements and course features, it was very important to collect enough corresponding materials and to select a few appropriate developing software for designing. Utilizing the computer and network technology, a good courseware with reasonable structure, easy operation and good alternation character could be developed in term of software devising procedure step by step. Meanwhile, with widely using this courseware in teaching, there is a higher requirement for the teachers in E-teaching aspect than before.


Three hundred and twenty-seven senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) responded to a questionnaire about the effectiveness of the Clery Act and their views of campus safety. As a group, SSAO responses were very homogenous, resulting in few significant differences when institutional type (public v. private) and status (2-year v. 4-year) were examined.


The policy of the European Union up until 2020 to be pursued in rural areas is oriented at diversifying their functions. In EU member states, including Poland, the spatial structure of rural areas is transformed by means of the land consolidation process. The basic definition and purpose of consolidation is given in the Act of 26 March 1982 on consolidation and exchange of land where consolidation was defined as a rural management procedure aiming at transformation of the spatial arrangement of rural land in order to create more favourable management conditions by improving the territorial structure of farms, reasonable configuration of land, and aligning the limits of real properties with the system of water irrigation structures, roads and terrain. Undertaking consolidation works which contribute to improving the conditions of agricultural production in all the villages of the analyzed community (gmina) simultaneously is impossible, mostly for economic reasons but also with regard to technical and social problems. Works aiming to improve unfavourable conditions should be carried out successively in villages where they are most urgent. For the needs of analysing the urgency of consolidation works, multidimensional statistical methods can be applied. This publication attempts to apply TOPSIS – a linear ordering method. The idea behind TOPSIS is determining the distance of the analyzed objects from the ideal and antiideal solution. The final result of the analysis is a synthetic measure which creates the ranking of the analyzed objects. The best object is the one closest to the ideal solution and at the same time farthest from the anti-ideal solution. A number of analyses regarding the spatial structure of the analyzed gmina were necessary for the ranking purposes. The study area includes 14 villages of the gmina of Rusinów with a registered surface area of 8279.1709 ha, which accounts for 10.3% of the overall area of the poviat of Przysucha.


A deletion of at least 140 kb starting ∼35kb upstream (telomeric) to the GJB2 (CX26) gene was identified in 7 patients from 4 unrelated Jewish Ashkenazi families with non‐syndromic hearing loss. These patients were heterozygous for one of the common mutations 167delT or 35delG in the GJB2 gene in trans to the deletion. The deletion started at 5′ side of the GJB6 (CX30) gene including the first exon and it did not affect the integrity of the GJB2 gene. The deletion mutation segregated together with the hearing loss, and was not found in a control group of 100 Ashkenazi individuals. We suggest that the deletion is a recessive mutation causing hearing loss in individuals that are double heterozygous for the deletion and for a mutation in the GJB2 gene. The effect of the deletion mutation could be due to a digenic mode of inheritance of GJB2 and GJB6 genes that encode two different connexins; connexin 26 and connexin 30, or it may abolish control elements that are important in the expression of the GJB2 gene in the cochlea. Regardless which of the options is valid, it is apparent that the deletion mutation provides a new insight into connexin function in the auditory system. The deletion mutation was on the same haplotypic background in all the families, and therefore is a founder mutation that increases the impact of GJB2 in the etiology of prelingual recessive non‐syndromic hearing loss in the Ashkenazi population. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Introduction: Biphosphonates are used in the treatment of bone metastatic tumors and osteoporosis. The most adverse effect of bisphosphonates is osteonecrosis of jaws, which is difficult to control. The aim of this review was to evaluate articles published on the effect of these medications on jaws and methods to control and prevent its side effects in comparison with complications of radiotherapy in the head and neck region. Review report: A Pubmed/Medline search was run using the key words biphosphonates, osteonecrosis and jaws from 1980 to 2010. Of the 160 articles in the search results 44 were case reports. Results: Osteonecrosis of the jaws, with signs and symptoms similar to osteoradionecrosis, is a complication of biphosponate use, especially when used intravenously. Oral use of these medications is not absolutely contraindicated in dentistry. Conclusion: The best way to treat jaw necrosis is its prevention. There is a low risk for the incidence of osteonecrosis during the first 6 months of treatment with biphosphonates. Use of chlorhexidine mouthwash might be useful in these patients. Key words: Bisphosphonate, Jaw, Osteonecrosis, Osteoradionecrosis.


By replacing Lewis acids with Brønsted acids as catalysts, continuous flow synthesis of hypercrosslinked polymers is achieved within 10% of the time required for a typical batch reaction. Compared with batch-synthesised polymers, the flow-produced materials take up 24% more CO 2 , precluding the need for lengthy reaction protocols to yield high-performance hypercrosslinked polymers for carbon capture. the use of TfOH catalysts here also enhanced microporosity and CO 2 uptake.


Abstract Within the global green building family, if one likens the US and the Australian Green Building Councils to siblings, Green Star and LEED can be viewed as cousins. While sharing much of th...


Introduction. In recent years, the production of feed additives of animal origin in Ukraine has declined sharply, and the cost of imported additives is very high. At the same time, in our country, the industry of industrial poultry farming has recently received intensive development, in particular, the cultivation and processing of broiler chickens for meat. At the same time, a significant amount of non-food waste from poultry slaughter in many poultry farms is not processed for feed purposes.
Currently, an urgent problem is the organization of processing of non-food waste of poultry for feed purposes at poultry farms of industrial type of cultivation for meat of broiler chickens, primarily from blood and hydrolyzed raw materials. Processing of these wastes for feed purposes will not only give the opportunity to increase the production of high-grade protein feed, but also to significantly improve environmental safety.
The purpose of our research is to study the meat productivity, safety, slaughter yield and quality of broiler chicken meat when feeding a combined feed additive from blood and hydrolyzed raw materials.
Materials and methods of research. Development of an innovative technological line for the production of a combined feed additive from blood and hydrolyzed raw materials was carried out in LLC "Complex Agromars" (village of Havrylivka, Vyshgorod district of Kyiv region), and research on the effectiveness of feeding a combined feed additive from blood and hydrolyzed raw materials was performed in the production conditions of LLC "Bila Hora" Sniatynskyi district of Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Research result. Development of innovative technological line was carried out in cooperation with engineering and technical staff of LLC "Complex Agromars". The innovative technological line is designed and installed using devices and mechanisms of the company "Haarslev Industries".
In order to study the effectiveness of feeding a combined blood-feather feed additive for the experiment, four groups of broiler chickens of the Cobb 500 cross were formed, 50 heads in each, according to the following scheme: one group of broiler chickens was taken as a control group, and the next three groups – as research groups.
Cultivation of broiler chickens in the experiment was carried out according to the traditional technology of feeding on standard compound feeds adopted in industrial broiler poultry farming, which, depending on the age and growth of chickens, includes 3 phases: "Start" – 14 days, "Growth" – 18 days, "Finish" – 12 days.
According to the scheme of experience, the control group of chickens received standard feed without blood-feather feed additive. The difference in feeding of the broiler chickens of the experimental groups was in different levels of feeding with experimental combined feed additive from blood and hydrolyzed feather raw materials, which, depending on the age and growth of chickens, included in the feed of the I group from 4 to 12%, of the II group – from 3 to 10%, of the III group – from 2 to 8%.
As a result of the studies it was found that at the end of the experiment at 44-day age the average live weight of broiler chickens of the control group was 2630 g, of the experimental group I – 2885 g, of the group II –2790 g, of the group III – 2680 g.
For 44 days of experience the following amounts died: in the control group – 2 chickens, in the experimental group I – 1 chicken, in the group II – no chickens, in the group III – 1 chicken.
Slaughter of broiler chickens and meat tasting was carried out in the company "Bilyi Bereh" of Ternopil region at the age of 44 days.
It was established that the average slaughter yield of 1 carcass of broiler chicken meat was: in the control group – 1920, in the experimental group I – 2106 g, in the group II – 2037 g, in the group III – 1956 g.
The difference in quality of meat of broiler chickens of control and experimental groups by results of tasting was not revealed.
Summary:

In LLC "Complex Agromars" (village of Havrylivka, Vyshgorod district of Kyiv region) designed and implemented an innovative technological line for production of ecologically safe combined feed additive from blood and hydrolyzed feather raw materials from non-food waste slaughter of broiler chickens when growing for meat.
In the course of scientific and economic experiment it was found that the inclusion in the standard traditional feed in different phases of cultivation of broiler chickens for meat of about 4 to 12% of the combined feed additive from blood and hydrolyzed feather raw materials increased their average live weight from 2630g in the control group to 2885 g, and the average slaughter yield of 1 meat carcass – from 1920 g in the control group to 2106 g.


SUMMARY The implications of a new technique for calculating heating energy consumption on housing design in hard times is examined. Information is provided in order to help the designer make rational decisions about appropriate levels of insulation and glazing.


Significance Two-dimensional infrared absorption (2D-IR) spectroscopy is severely limited in its application to larger proteins due to broad and overlapping signals in the amide I region. Here, we overcome this limitation and isolate couplings between pairwise two single-molecular groups in the biotechnologically relevant phytochrome Agp1 (510 aa) by calculating light-induced difference spectra. In phytochromes, the photoactivation of a cofactor with a relatively small structural change triggers a large-scale refolding of big parts of the protein, but the mechanism of that interaction is not understood. We observe cross-peaks in the 2D-IR spectra that are directly related to the changing dipole coupling between the cofactor and the part of the protein that refolds, suggesting that both sites stabilize each other mutually.


Aerial view of Burnham Military Camp, Canterbury. The Army Service Corps and the Medical Unit were housed in the tents. Taken by an unidentified photographer between 1939 and 1945.
Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s).


The basis of the new technology for watercourses is to use a new range of tools developed by the Indus trial Institute of Agricultural Engineering for the maintenance and re generation of drainage ditches. The tools are used to esilt and shape the bottom, profile existing ditches, as well as to create new watercourses.


This panel examines the need to integrate computer graphics techniques with other methodologies and technologies such as mobile and wireless personal assistants, intelligent agents, cartography, human perception, voice recognition, interactive television, cooperative computing, and high speed networking. The need to develop new interfaces and displays which reflect the social changes associated with the way people will interact with integrated computer systems and the information highway is addressed.


The social security system in rural areas is important part of state social guarantee system,which refers to the social security and welfare projects in the specialized rural region.For a long time and because of historical cause,the rural residents,70% of toal population in China,were out of social security and social ensure in rural areas has been on the verge of social security system.It is significant to establish social security system in rural areas.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To restrict the fiber material of the cutting chip, which is generated at the time of manufacturing a fiber preform to be used for the manufacture of a friction disc, at the minimum by blanking annular sector shape from the multidirectional fabric, and continuously collecting these sectors so as to form an annular layer, and piling one annular layer on the top surface of other layer so as to form plural layers. SOLUTION: A friction disc 10 is formed of a layered structure 29 formed by overlapping annular layers 26, which are respectively formed by connecting circular sector shapes 20 practically having the same shape and made of the multi-directional fabric obtained by the tow 12 of OPF. These multi-directional fabrics are connected for crossing by a needle punch for compressing the preform disc for density, and each annular layer 26 is formed of six circular sector shapes 20 having the same shape and arranged in parallel with each other. An appropriate fabric can be manufactured by using the crossing layer, but one of them is formed of the stable fiber in parallel with each h other, which is formed by a carding machine. This carded layer is formed of the fiber made of the cutting chips.


This book explorees their lives, unfolding the extraordinary story of their complex friendship that lasted, with its ups and downs, until Lewis's death in 1963.


Introduction Myocyte enhancer factors 2 (MEF2s) belong to the MADS-box family of transcription factors. Members of this family contain a conserved MADS-box domain and a MEF2 domain at the N-terminus of the protein, which are involved in DNA-binding and dimerization, and a C-terminal transactivation domain involved in the regulation of transcriptional activity. The four MEF2 proteins in vertebrates (MEF2A, MEF2B, MEF2C and MEF2D) bind AT rich MEF2 sites as homo-and heterodimers, and are expressed in precursors of the three muscle lineages, as well as in neurons (reviewed in Black and Olson, 1998). MEF2C is the first member of the family to be expressed in the mouse, with transcripts appearing in the precardiac mesoderm at embryonic day 7.5 (E7.5) (Edmondson et al., 1994). Promoter analysis has shown that MEF2 sites are essential for the expression of muscle-specific genes in cardiac muscle and skeletal muscle (Amacher et al. The strongest indication of an essential role for MEF2 in muscle development comes from studies in Drosophila. Loss-of-function mutations of the single Mef2 gene resulted in a block in the development of all muscle cell types in the embryo (Lilly et al., 1995). Although the cardiac muscle contractile proteins were not expressed in these mutants, a dorsal vessel formed normally and expressed tinman, a homeobox transcription factor. Together with the finding that Mef2 contains essential tinman-binding sites (Cripps et al., 1999;


Studying material concerning 2,725 patients with lupus, the author became interested in the question of the relationship between lupus and cancer.


1King Saud University College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 2King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Family Medicine and Polyclinic, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 3King Saud University Medical City, Department of Emergency Medicine, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 4AlFaisal University, College of Medicine, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Background: Diabetes mellitus is prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Our study aims to estimate the rate and time of developing macrovascular and microvascular complications in diabetic patients in a primary care setting. Methodology: This is a retrospective cohort study. All collected data were retrieved using medical files and the electronic patient records of all diabetics having regular follow-ups in Family Medicine clinics, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from the beginning of January 2002 to the end of December 2018. The data included the demographics of patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, their HbA1c, and the followup duration of the development of complications, which included cardiovascular complications and diabetic nephropathy. Results: We included 365 patients, of whom 47.1% males and 52.9% were females. The mean age of diabetes mellitus diagnosis in our population was 50 years (SD±11.3). The mean duration of follow-up was 7.14 years (SD±3.9). The rate of developing cardiovascular complications and diabetic nephropathy was 11.2% and 10.4%, respectively. The mean time to develop cardiovascular complications and diabetic nephropathy was 6 (SD±3.9) and 5.24 (SD±3.2) years, respectively. The mean time to develop the first diabetes complication was 5.5 years (SD±3.6). There was no statistical significance in the mean of HbA1c between patients who developed diabetic complications and those who did not. Conclusion: Diabetes complications are common in the Saudi community. The duration of the development of cardiovascular complications and diabetic nephropathy was shorter than that indicated in international and national reports. Robust screening programs to diagnose and improve the control of diabetes mellitus should be established in the Kingdom.


A remote digital diagnostic instrument for electronic-control diesel engines based on GPRS was designed.The goals of collecting and monitoring the daily data of vehicles through the GPRS Web were achieved and the problem of remote breakdown diagnosis was solved.The system was realized by the hardware technology based on an embedded controller as the core and software technology.


2000)Metapopulations as models of sub-populationslinked by dispersal relationships have beenstudied for years (Hanski, 1998). A common ob-jectiveof theseinvestigationsistorevealhowthespatialstructurea!ectsthedynamicalstabilityofecological systems. Coupled map lattices (CML)are often used as representations of metapopula-tions. In a popular sub-class of CML models,ecologically identical local habitats are coupledvia unconditional (di!usion-like) nearest-neigh-bour dispersal events (Bascompte & SoleH, 1995).Rohani


For researching the distribution character of physical and chemical properties and heavy metals in reclaimed land,the fly ash re-claimed land in Shangyao fly ash ponds of Huainan City are choosed as research field.The fly ash reclaimed land and normal farmland(as compared farmland block) nearby the reclaimed land are choosed to take samples.During sampling,each sampling block are separated as 6 horizons [H1(0~20 cm) 、H2(20~40 cm) 、H3(40~60cm) 、H4(60~80 cm) 、H5(80~100 cm) 、H6(100~120 cm) ] to collect samples for analysing physical and chemical properties and heavy metals contents.The result shows that pH values of reclamied land are increased from 8.21 to 8.49 with the sampling depth increasing,at same horizon,the pH value of reclaimed land is higher than normal farmland.The mois-ture contents are increased with the samping depth increasing in reclamied land,but moisture contents of normal land are increased at top horizons then decreased at bottom horizons.Nutrient contents are different at different sampling horizons,available nitrogen and available potassium contents of reclamation land are decreased at top horizons then increased at bottom horizons,and minimum value are 16.23 mg·kg-1 and 158.97 mg·kg-1 at H3 horizon respectively in reclaimed land,the available nitrogen content is lower than normal land at each same sam-pling horizon,but available potassium content is higher than normal land at each same sampling horzion.The available phosphorus contents in reclaimed land and normanl farmland are decreased at top horizons then increased at middle horizons then decreased again at bottom hori-zons,the maximum content are 10.01 mg·kg-1 and 11.91 mg·kg-1 respectively.Compared with soil nutrient national standard,the available nitrogen and available phosphorus contents in reclaimed land are belongs to insufficiency level,the phosphatic fertilizer and nitrogenous fer-tilizer or organic fertilizer can be used to add the soil nutrient.the analysed result shows that the contents of Cr,Pb,Zn in topsoil and flyash are lower than Huainan soil background value and Chinese soil background values,the contents of Cd,Cu,Cr,Pb,Zn,Ni in fly ash are be-longs the second level criterion of national soil quality standard,the contens of Cu,Cr,Pb,Zn,Ni in cover soil are belongs the first level crite-rion of national soil quality standard,all analysed heavy metal contents in cover soil are lowed than heavy metal contents in fly ash except Zn,and heavy metals are migrated from fly ash to coversoil.


This note concerns questions about what values can be taken by the global homological dimension of various classes of Banach algebras; here we consider CCR-opeiatoi algebras [1]. Besides being of independent interest, these questions are closely connected with the Banach cohomology of Hochschild [2], which, in particular, is very useful in the study of derivations, extensions, and perturbations of Banach algebras ([2], [3]). We recall [4] that the homological dimension (dhX) of a left Banach module X over a Banach algebra A is the length of a shortest admissible projective resolution of it; the global homological dimension of the algebra A is defined to be the number dgA = sup {dhX: X is a left Banach module over A }; finally, the bidimension of A is the number dbA = inf {n: 7/"(/l, X) = 0 for all Banach bimodules X over A ) . It is known [4] that dgA < dbA. The global homological dimension was estimated for certain classes of semisimple Banach algebras in [4], [5], and [6]. In particular, Selivanov established in [5] that the following conditions are equivalent for C*-algebras: (i) dgA = 0; (ii) dbA = 0; (iii) A is finite-dimensional. Khelemskii showed in [6] that the global homological dimension of a commutative Banach algebra with infinite spectrum is greater than 1. Our main result is the following theorem.


To compare entire genomes from different species, biologists increasingly need alignment methods that are efficient enough to handle long sequences, and accurate enough to correctly align the conserved biological features between distant species. The sequencing of several mammalian genomes necessitated the development of tools for multiple alignment of large genomes. In this dissertation we describe several algorithms for alignment of long genomic sequences.
The most basic of all alignment problems is that of local alignment. In this problem one is asked to return all regions of similarity that score above a particular threshold under some distance metric. We developed CHAOS, a novel heuristic local alignment algorithm that is meant to model the evolution of non-coding regions of the genome and has been shown to perform well at alignment of very distant genomic sequences.
In the problem of global alignment one introduces an additional constraint of monotonicity; the set of similarities has to be ordered in the two sequences. We developed LAGAN, an algorithm for multiple alignment of long DNA sequences. This program was shown to correctly align exons from divergent organisms and has been used extensively by biologists over the last two years. As one example of LAGAN's use, we show the multiple alignment of human, mouse and rat genomes built using this program.
In order to overcome the limitations of local and global alignment methods, we have introduced the concept of glocal alignment, where one finds a transformation of the letters of one sequence into another (as in global alignment) while allowing for various rearrangement events (as in local alignment). An approach to this problem was implemented in the Shuffle-LAGAN program that has been shown effective at finding genomic rearrangements.
Finally we demonstrate a novel approach that uses variable length words instead of fixed length ones to find seeds - short matching words between a single sequence and a database of sequences that are used to narrow down the search space for a local alignment algorithm. We demonstrate that these words (called var-mers) result in a factor of 4 decrease in the number of spurious seeds.


Electronic institutions (EIs) define the rules of the game in agent societies by fixing what agents are permitted and forbidden to do and under what circumstances. Autonomic Electronic Institutions (AEIs) adapt their regulations to comply with their goals despite coping with varying populations of self-interested external agents. We present a self-adaptation model based on Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) that allows an AEI to yield a dynamical answer to changing circumstances. In order to demonstrate adaptation empirically, we consider a traffic control scenario where the agent population changes. Within this setting, we demonstrate statistically that an AEI is able to adapt at run-time by


siveness of cubism and surrealism. The fourth chapter, "Vantage Point: Barcelona's Mirador," is devoted to the study of a literary and artistic weekly paper informed both by Barcelona's international projection after the Exhibition of 1929 and its nationalistic impulse with the end of the dictatorship. Interestingly, Mirador is not defined only as a "European" cultural journal, but also as a paper with a political agenda of a Catalan nationhood that would not receive the expected support during the Spanish Second Republic. "An Age in Pictures: Imatges (1930)" constitutes the fifth chapter, and includes many original photographs. Imatges was a graphic journal that delved into a culturally innovative age, when the visual perception of the city had been enhanced by the international exposition, technological advances, and the intensity of daily life. The final chapter, "The Colour of a Cocktail: J. M. de Sagarra's Aperitiu and Vida Privada," studies the culmination of the Age. This chapter analyzes a series of articles around the aperitif hour as the embodiment of modernity, and a recognized Catalan novel by the same author. The city is recreated in its different spaces, from the lewd conduct of the Raval to the frivolous, corrupt bourgeois neighborhood of the Eixample. As a metaphoric hangover, the moral degradation of the upper classes is revealed in their vices, and in their support of the authoritarian regime. Jazz Age Barcelona reflects on the transformation of the cosmopolitan center, combining the international engagement of the Jazz Age to the local context of Barcelona. It is a revivifying study of the energy of the "Roaring Twenties," that is, the Americanism of modernity within the specific reality of Catalonia under the oppression of their own nationalistic impulses. Davidson's study is a clear and entertaining book for any reader familiar with the historical context, who is interested in the cultural, social, and technological transformation of Barcelona during the 1920s and early 30s. M. Pilar Asensio-Manrique Yale University, USA


The southern foreland (proforeland) of the pyrenean orogeny is one of the most well- known foreland in the world, on the opposite its northern retroforeland (i.e the Aquitaine basin) which display a quite different tectonic style is less documented apart from local petroleum studies. Strong efforts have been made in the recent years to improve the knowledge of the Pyrenean orogeny and Aquitaine basin. We present here a synthesis of the Aquitain basin evolution during Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene based on the integration of more than 800 petroleum wells and 5000 km of seismic profiles. An harmonized and detailed litho- and sequence stratigraphy was build up for the entire period allowing to recompose large scale sections, thickness and facies map at the scale of 1 My, and sedimentary response to compressive deformation. The distribution, style and timing of deformation of the retroforeland are precised thanks to refined stratigraphic constraints.
Within Cenozoic, five major tecto- sedimentary cycles are identified:
2 Paleocene cycles :
-A Danian-Selandian cycle (P1), and a Thanetian cycle (P2), both characterized by carbonate platform growth and limited compressive deformations.
3 Eocene cycles:
-An Ypresian- Lower Lutetian cycle (E1) composed of prograding deltas from east to west that redistribute material coming from the emerging mountain belt in eastern Pyrenees. This progradation trend leads to relatively quick infilling of the available space and emersion of a large part of the basin.
-A Lutetian- Bartonian cycle (E2) composed of mixed carbonate siliciclastic deposits.
-A Priabonian cycle (E3) marked by a large scale emersion of the basin and deposition of fined-grained continental sedimentation (Molasses d'Aquitaine).
The timing of deformation is refined and confirms (1) the onset of compressive deformations during upper Cretaceous, (2) the occurrence of a relatively quiet period during Paleocene, and (3) a major period of basin deformation during Eocene. Within the basin, compressive deformations take place at both basin and local scale the latter being mainly recorded as reactivation of inherited extensive faulting dating from Albian and /or late Variscan extension, and salt tectonics reactivation mainly in the western part of the basin.
Within Eocene, two periods of deformation corresponding with the two successive tecto-sedimentary cycles (E1 and E2) are identified. Onset of compressive deformations is diachronous from east to west. Early Eocene deformations mainly take place in the eastern and central part of the basin, with renewed deformations around Paleocene- Eocene boundary, coeval with the onset of terrigenous input from the growing mountain belt, and major pulse by Upper Ypresian. Late Lutetian- Early Bartonian deformations during cycle E2 are recorded throughout the basin and trigger major depocenter shifts.
This refined timing of these deformation correlates with the one of the southern Pyrenean foreland deformations and suggest common control.
These results were acquired during the Gaia project founded by TIGF, BRGM and Agence de l'Eau Adour/Garonne which aims to constrain the nature and dynamics of deep Upper cretaceous and Tertiary aquifers of the Aquitaine basin.


This paper presents a heuristic method of collision avoidance for robots with two degrees of freedom. The algorithm is simple, geometrically intuitive and strongly uses distance functions for its implementation. The method is applied to an articulated, two link planar arm and shown to generate good paths using only short computing times.


Patents are one of the most important innovative resources. It is a challenge and useful to discover technical topics and their relations from patents. A process framework is proposed to mine technical topics and construct their relation network from Chinese patents. The process consists of four stages. First, techni cal terms are extracted from patent texts and the equivalence index is selected to measure the link strength between them. Then, a clustering algorithm is used to group terms into topic clust ers, in which terms are connected by internal links, and topic clusters are connected by external links. Afterwards, all topics are cla ssified into three categories: isolated, principal and secondary. Finally, a technical topic network is created by using topic clusters a s nodes, external links as edges and the number of external links as weights. Experimental results on Chinese fuel cell patents show the method is effective in mining technical topics and mapping their relations, and the constructed network is helpful for technology innovation.


We investigate a model for generating large masses for the scalar partners of the quarks and leptons for supersymmetric SU(5). The gauge group is extended to have sideways U(1) which breaks supersymmetry by the O'Raifeartaigh mechanism and generates scalar masses radiatively, while keeping the fermionic-mass corrections small. An explicit one-loop calculation of the scalar-mass corrections is carried out. For this SU(5)xU(1) model a light scalar partner of the leptons of either the second or the third generation is predicted by anomaly constraints.


A numerical simulation is performed for the three-dimensional laminar conjugated heat transfer in a concentric tube recuperator with longitudinal fins. The numerical results show that the mean temperature along the longitudinal wall is nonlinear function, and laminar boundary characteristics are displayed for the distributions of velocity and temperature in the fluid. As Re increases ,the ratio of entrance distance to the length of tube increases, and the Nusselt number also increases in the entrance region. As the length of tube grows, the Nusselt numbers trend to a constant remarkably.


Inerter dampers (IDs) and other inerter‐based vibration absorbers have elicited growing interest for vibration mitigation of stay cables. This study systematically investigates the vibration mitigation mechanism of tuned IDs (TIDs) for stay cables based on a continuous cable model. A TID consists of an ID connected with a spring stiffness in series (TID‐S) or parallel (TID‐P). On the basis of systematical parametric analyses, the impact of stiffness in series or parallel connections is evaluated, and the interrelations among ID, TID‐S, and TID‐P are elaborated. Subsequently, a detailed tuning procedure is summarized. Two optimal tuning formulas are also obtained to facilitate the rapid design of TID‐S and TID‐P. According to the optimized results, the damping ratios contributed by ID, TID‐S, or TID‐P to a stay cable are essentially determined by the inertance value. When the inertance deviates from the optimal value, the performance of ID drops significantly, but this adverse effect can be mitigated by tuning the stiffness in TID‐S or TID‐P.


It is agreed in most studies of tense in the linguistic field that the "verbal group"in the non-finite clause does not concern tense.Nevertheless,in systemic functional grammar,it is proposed that the "verbal group"in the non-finite clause construes the meaning of tense.This paper,within the framework of systemic functional grammar,carries out an investigation of the linguistic phenomena such as having v-ed,v-ing,and to v in the non-finite clause.It is pointed out that these phenomena belong with the grammatical category "tense," that they form a sub-type of the secondary tense,and that their realizations are different from other secondary tenses,and have their own features.


Effective diffusion of educational innovations is essential for evidence-based practices to have broad impacts on student learning. One of the barriers to such diffusion is the large inertia associated with changing one's teaching practices. Educational disruptions, such as COVID-19, may lower this barrier by making business-as-usual no longer feasible. Here, we reflect on the ways in which an online community, designed to promote diffusion of educational innovation, supported Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry teachers in the rapid transition to online instruction necessitated by the pandemic. The lessons learned from supporting teachers as they responded to the pandemic may provide insights into how to better promote and support adoption of reformed teaching strategies.


An experiment was carried out during Rabi (October, 2016 to January, 2017) to examine the effect of different plastic color mulches viz., white on black, silver on black and complete black on growth and of yield of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) variety Arka Komal under different drip irrigation levels. The irrigation levels used were 60, 80, 100 and 120 per cent of ET. The trial consisted of sixteen treatments replicated four times. The experiment was laid out in spilt plot design. Among coloured plastic mulches, white on black plastic mulch produced highest plant height (38.68 cm), number of branches (6.00), yield per plant (252.71 g) and yield per hectare (11.14 t ha-1).Among the irrigation levels, 80 per cent ET recorded highest values for plant height (33.73 cm), number of branches (7.13), yield per plant (300.67 g) and yield per hectare (14.06 t ha-1). The interaction effect revealed that white on black plastic mulch with 80 per cent ET exhibited better plant height(33.73 cm), number of branches (7.13), yield per plant (300.67 g) and yield per hectare (14.06 t ha-1) compared to other treatments.


A preliminary evaluation of the economic feasibility of preparing anthraquinone, a pulping catalyst, from readily available lignin has been performed. The proposed process begins with a fractionation of lignin from a black liquor stream by means of a supercritical fluid or conventional solvent extraction to give a low molecular weight fraction conductive to further chemical treatment. This fraction is sequentially oxidized with H{sub 2}O{sub 2}, treated with a diene and dehydrogenated to give anthraquinone. The cost of the proposed process is most dependent on the overall yield of the chemical processing steps with a smaller contribution noted for lignin processing. The projections indicate that anthraquinone could be produced for as low as $1.00--$1.25/lb using this process. Details of the process, chemical reactions and calculations are included.


This paper investigates the robust direct yaw-moment control (DYC) through parameter-dependent fuzzy sliding mode control (SMC) approach for all-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicles (AWID-EVs) subject to network-induced delays. AWID-EVs have obvious advantages in terms of DYC over the traditional centralized-drive vehicles. However it is one of the most principal issues for AWID-EVs to ensure the robustness of DYC. Furthermore, the network-induced delays would also reduce control performance of DYC and even deteriorate the EV system. To ensure robustness of DYC and deal with network-induced delays, a parameter-dependent fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) method based on the real-time information of vehicle states and delays is proposed in this paper. The results of cosimulations with Simulink® and CarSim® demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Moreover, the results of comparison with a conventional FSMC controller illustrate the strength of explicitly dealing with network-induced delays.


Foamed Aluminum was fabricated by a powder processing route. Aluminum (pure Al or Al7Si alloy) and titanium hydride (TiH2) powders were mixed for the preparation of precursors. The Al(-7Si)/TiH2 precursor was heated in an infrared furnace to melt aluminum and to decompose TiH2, which resulted in the H2 gas generation in molten aluminum. In this work, effects of processing parameters on the foaming behavior and also pore morphology were investigated. There was an adequate temperature range for a satisfactory blowing behavior. When the heating temperature was low, the precursor did not expand sufficiently. On the other hand, when the heating temperature was high, the precursor shrunk rapidly. The heating rate was an important factor to control pore size and circularity. When the Al-7Si/TiH2 precursor was heated, the maximum expansion was sustained for a certain period of time.


This paper describes the results of a maturity assessment of a set of generic building blocks for public administrations in the EU. In the European e-SENS project, various generic building blocks are developed, such as eID, eSignature, eDelivery and eDocument building blocks. They should be used by all EU administrations when they are sufficiently mature. In order to assess the maturity, an assessment framework is described based on a combination of existing methodologies, such as CAMSS and ADMS. The framework contains clusters of criteria on standardization, policy alignment and business/market needs. It has been applied by the e-SENS project to a set of 14 building blocks. The main lesson learned is that standardization criteria are fairly easy to check, policy alignment criteria need to be checked in sufficient detail and business/market need criteria can only be checked properly at national level via a public consultation. Some of the building blocks are brought further to the EU Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT standardization, while for others improvements have been defined.


The Antarctic huts of the Heroic Era explorers contain some 16,000 artefacts spread between the Ross Island huts, Borchgrevink's hut at Cape Adare and Mawson's huts at Cape Denison. The artefacts range from considerable quantities of canned food to furniture, sleeping bags, scientific equipment and eclectic personal items. The huts are immeasurably more powerful and evocative in their ability to interpret the Era as a result. However, at the same time they are but a fraction of the food and equipment that went with the expeditions. Does the present confuse the past? Are we misconstruing the power of these artefacts? This paper explores these issues in relation to the Ross Island, Cape Adare and Cape Denison huts.


The common problems and solutions in the usage of GEM premier 3000 blood gas analyzer are introduced.Some suggestions,such as strict training of the staff,collecting qualified samples and constructing complete maintenance regulation,are put forward to keep the device in good state.


This paper focuses on the research addressing the situation in the field of sports educology. Authors verify the effectiveness of the impact of exercises on development of strength abilities and mobility on land, their impa ct on the level of the swimming endurance, as an option of sport training for swimmers. The ob ject of the investigation were 17-24-year endurance swimmers of swimming club SPK Spa Piestan y. Changes in the level of power skills and mobility on land was diagnosed by standa rd motor tests of strength, mobility and swimming endurance test of 800 meters freestyle.


Urban search and rescue robots are playing an increasingly important role during disasters and with their ability to search within hazardous and dangerous environments to assist the first respond teams. Surveying and remote sensing the hazardous areas are two of the urgent needs of the rescue team to identify the risks before the intervention of the emergency teams. With such time-critical missions, the path planning and autonomous navigation of the robot is one of the primary concerns due to the need of fast and feasible path that is comprehensive enough to assess the associated risks. This paper presents a path planning method for navigating an unmanned ground vehicle within in an indoor hazardous area with minimum priori information. The algorithm can be generalized to any given map and is based on probabilistic roadmap path planning method with spiral dynamics optimization algorithm to obtain the optimal navigating path. Simulations of the algorithm are presented in this paper, and the results promising results are illustrated using Matlab and Simulink simulation environments.


To accurately measure the ascendant time of a high-voltage steep pulse,the pace and precision of counter is highly challenged.The authors put forward the design of high-speed count system based on CPLD and DSP.In this system,the outer crystal oscillator of CPLD act as low-frequency clock whose frequency division and phase invertion are done by D-trigger group designed with CPLD,and finally,they get the counter with 200 MHz i.e.5ns per period by the method of frequency difference multiply.The counting pace and precision are promoted,and meet the demand to measure the ascendant time of high-voltage steep pulse.It can be extended to measure the descendant time of pulse,pulse width and periods.


At present exposure limits, one in four workers will develop a permanent hearing loss as a result of mining coal (Prince 1997). Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspectors found in the period of 1986-1992 that approximately 25% of coal miners' daily noise doses exceeded MSHA's PEL. Virtually all mines have hearing conservation programs and virtually all miners are issued and told to wear either ear muffs or ear plugs. Nevertheless, miners still have a high rate of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). An important question is to what degree the ineffectiveness of hearing conservation programs is due to failure of miners to wear muffs and plugs properly when they are needed and how much is due to inadequacies of hearing protectors. If the former is important, can technological innovations provide means to improve use of muffs and plugs. If the latter is important, can individual fit-testing improve noise reduction (NR) values achieved by miners. A related issue is whether fit-testing in an office ...


The objective of the present research was to examine the relationship of income below the 'atrisk-of-poverty threshold' and well-being variables among selected groups of Slovak citizens based on the analysis of secondary data. Responses of 7851 Slovaks selected from the EU-SILC 2013 data (N = 13286) were analyzed. The participants were selected on the basis of self-defined current economic status as follows: employees working full-time (n = 5156), the unemployed (n = 845), retirees (n = 1850). The stepwise multiple regression revealed that the relationship of income to well-being variables in each of these three groups was different. The differentiated income effect in relation to well-being variables depending on selfdefined economic status and study limitations were discussed.


Human connectivity is one of the major factors for productivity, especially in a school environment. The development of this watch is aimed at enhancing productivity by increasing the communication of both staff and students in the community. The watch is centred at creating a connected school community that will provide real-time communication to enhance the educational experience for students, staff and management regardless of their location within the school premises. This will enable members of the community to share information in real-time. The watch was designed with the Arduino pro-micro as the main processor. The watch leveraged WI-FI technology using the ESP8266-01 WI-FI module for connecting to a network and receiving of messages. The watch was connected to a secured intranet network. The watch has an average response time of approximately twenty-five (25) seconds to filter the data sent by the server and extract the message. Upon testing the design, the overall current draw of the watch was found to be approximately 78 mA. A lithium battery with a current capacity of 750 mAH was used for this project, which means that the battery will last for approximately nine hours. This kind of project is recommended for school communities so as to increase connectivity and enhance productivity.


Abstract : This literature review of the effects of turbidity and suspended material in aquatic environments covers the following subjects: definitions, units of measure, and methods of measurement; origins; and effects in aquatic environments. Turbidity, regardless of the multiplicity of definitions, units of measure, and methods of measurement, is an expression of the optical properties of water that cause light to be scattered and absorbed rather than transmitted in a straight line. Turbidity is not the same as siltation, although the terms have been used synonymously in the past. The various units of measure include the Jackson Turbidity UNIT (JTU), Formazin Turbidity Unit (FTU), and Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU). The methods of measuring percent transmission or the weight per volume concentration of suspended particulates are based on either gravimetric or optical techniques.


Approximate analytical solutions are presented for the transient thermoelastic problem of rectangular plates with time-dependent convection and radiation boundaries. To include the nonlinear radiation boundary, the whole heating process is divided into several time steps, and a linearized approximation is used to simplify the radiation term for each step. The one-dimensional transient temperature along the thickness direction is solved using the technique of the separation of variables. The displacement and stress solutions are obtained by applying the state-space method to the three-dimensional thermoelasticity equations. The accuracy of the present solutions is demonstrated by comparison with the reported results in the open literature and the finite element solutions. In the numerical examples, two kinds of thermal boundaries, namely, time-independent convection boundaries and time-dependent convection and radiation boundaries, are considered to show the availability of the present solutions.


The difference between two systems linguistics and cultures has made shift in translation unavoidable. The difference in linguistics has made changes in the grammatical categories and the difference in cultures has made changes in the point of view. The data focused on the address terms taken from the English-Balinese Luke's Gospel. Nida's Formal versus Dynamic equivalence Theory implemented to investigate the lexical choice of potential meanings. Both orientations were aimed at the closest natural equivalence. It was found that there were two types of shift: (1) Transposition which was due to the linguistic systems, and (2) modulation which was due to the cultures


0.2 mm thick TiNi shape memory alloy sheet was butt-welded using micro impulse laser.The processing parameters were optimized by orthogonal experimental getting the largest stretching resistance.Influence of processing parameter on the surface and cross-section morphology of welded joint was studied.The results show that the optimized processing parameters that can get the maximum stretching resistance are pulse power percentage 21,pulse frequency 4 Hz and pulse width 2.3 ms.With the optimized processing parameters,the stretching resistance of the welded joint can achieve 97% of base metal.Burn through in welded seam is easy to occur when pulse power percentage,pulse frequency or pulse width are too big and nonpenetration occurs when these parameters are too small.Both burn through and nonpenetration are the main reason lead to the decrease of stretching resistance.


As our environmental awareness strengthened and living standard improved, demand for green parking lots and lawn roadside is enhancing. But the increasing acrea ge of buildings, dams and roads conflicts with the development of lawn in modern cities. In order to settle this contradiction, making full use of lawn bricks b ecomes necessary. Based on the fact that the optimal ratio of fly ash and soil a s lawn medium has been found, this experiment probes into the fertilizing and bi ological effects of lawn bricks with mixed medium of soil and fly ash in their h oles. In order to analyze the brick hole environment, the experiment also desig ns two kinds of contrastive planting environment, one is soil hole environment, the other is mixed environment of soil and fly ash. The soil hole environment has the same holes as lawn bricks, and is infilled by mixed medium of soil and f ly ash. On the surface of the mixed environment of soil and fly ash, four circle s having the same size as the holes in lawn bricks have been lined out. The pot experiment was conducted in March 11 of 2002, which was composed of 3 tr eatments including brick hole environment, soil hole environment and the mixed environment of soil and fly ash. Perennial ryegrass(Lolium multiflorum L. cv, Barmultra) were planted in the holes and circles of different planting env ironment. Each treatment was replicated twenty forth times. The experiment was carried out in the green house, and its purpose was to study and appraise water holding capacity and nutrient supplying capability of the three kinds of plan ting environment, also to investigate their influences on the growth and quality of turfgrass. The results show that, turfgrass tissue under brick hole environment has higher contents of nutrient elements. Its contents of N, K, Na, Cu, Zn are respectivel y 0 073, 0 5517, 0 5263, 4 1287, 1 4044 times higher than those under soil hole environment, and 0 103, 0 3513, 0 5037, 1 695, 0 911 times higher th an those under the mixed environment. Their differences are obvious (P0 05 ). According to the above results, the brick hole environment can benefit plant s greatly. Furthermore, the contents of Fe, Cu and Zn in turfgrass tissue under brick hole environment are far higher than the fitting needs, so it unnecessary to supply iron, copper and zinc fertilizer as usual. It also proves that the br ick hole environment has lowest evaporation rate and highest medium water conte nt. So it has long time water holding capacity to effectively lift the menace of high temperature on turfgrass. In a word, the brick hole environment helps t urf especially the cold season turf go over summertime easily. During the whole growing seasons, the clipping yield of turfgrass under soil hole environment i s higher than that under brick hole environment, but the difference isn't notab le (P 0 05). The clipping yield of turfgrass under mixed environment is lo west. After summertime, the qualities of turfgrass under different planting envi ronment are evaluated. The turf quality under brick hole environment is the bes t and its synthesized score is 3 708, the turf quality under soil hole environ ment, 2 637 scores, the turf quality under the mixed environment, only 2 318 s cores. The diversity of turf grass between the forth and the two later is notabl e (P0 01). Lawn bricks with fly ash medium in their holes used as an environment for lawn growth, can not only increase the acreage of lawn, but also solve the fly ash ou tlet problem.


The control system of grading light in airdrome that consists of constant-current modulator for light, setting-up transformer, isolating transformer and angle controller of grading light is introduced. The constant-current modulator based on the microprocessor 80C196, and its high-speed input and output used as silicon controlled phasing synchronization and triggering signal, and its A/D converter (10 bit) used as the input interface of current and voltage is presented. The current closed-loop system is composed of current controllers that control variable parameter PI. The block diagram of the system software that the soft start-up and the variable parameters PI control is realized with assemble language 80C196 according with sampling period is given out.


In  this  review  study ,The Haaland equation was proposed by Norwegian Institute of Technology professor Haaland in 1984. It is used to solve directly for the Darcy–Weisbach friction factor f for a full-flowing circular pipe  ., and  this  review study  involved  free  surface flow .


Widespread drought spells were observed over north-central India during the 1979  summer monsoon. An attempt has been made in the present paper to study the impact of drought conditions on the short period water balances of representative stations in the region, following the bookkeeping procedure of Thornthwaite and Mather ( 1955) .Cumulative deviation techniques have been used to delineate and categorise the intensity and duration of drought spells.


: The present paper approaches the grammatical markers of politeness (the degrees of politeness with personal pronouns), which are very well represented in Romanian and the semantic markers (types of speaker's communicative behavior involved by the politeness maxims). However, it proposes a configuration of the degrees of politeness which is different from that in the normative studies; it also replaces the concept of face, generalized in the pragmatics studies, with the entities by which it is particularized, with respect to the forms of subjectivity manifestations in language: image, status, reputation.


At present,based on considerations of energy strategy,the domestic LNG Construction project spring up. This paper describes the project life-cycle cost management theory and the condition of the LNG industry,focuses on the application of project life cycle cost management theory in the LNG projects at different stages,and studys how to use this theory can achieve the lowest cost in whole life cycle.


In one embodiment, the battery separator for a lead acid battery comprising a gel impregnated nonwoven. Said nonwoven fibers comprising an acid-soluble and acid-insoluble fibers. Groups of the gel lies within a range of the nonwoven basis weight of about 20-160%. In another embodiment, a lead acid battery for a battery separator comprising a microporous membrane having adhered to the gel impregnated nonwoven.


1. Prior to the publication of this paper, an earlier version was published as a proceedings paper of The 22nd International Workshop on Active-Matrix Flatpanel Displays and Devices (AM-FPD 15) held in Kyoto, Japan, in 2015.34) In this article, new data were included regarding the photographs of crystallized grains in the lateral poly-Si films and electron and hole mobility variations as a function of the control gate voltage VCG. Also, more intensive discussion was given on the VCG dependence of the electron and hole mobility values and the maximum mobility values.


Evapotranspiration Class A pan Kpan Rice 4 Pan Evaporation is a good index for estimating reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and finally irrigation requirement of rice plant. Application of Pan Evaporation is an appropriate method for estimation of evapotranspiration Because of simplicity and ease of data interpretation and also precision in humid zones. Pan coefficient is used to estimate reference evaporation values from pan evaporation data. In condition of no accessibility to reliable data, the Fao-Penman-Monteith (F-P-M) is a standard method for evaluation of results of other experimental methods. This research was conducted in 2010 on Mordab plain region (Guilan province) with utilization of farm evaporation pan data. Pan evaporation was calculated and then with computing of Kpan by using of different equations like Cuenka, Allen and Pruitt, Snyder, modified-Snyder and Orang .The reference evapotranspiration calculated by the multiplication of Epan and Kpan. The statistics researches and regression studies shows that for estimation of daily ETo and also 10 days ETo in the studied area is proper to apply the Snyder and modified-Snyder and Cuenka methods. The most appropriate pan evaporation coefficient is calculated using the Snyder method. Also values of rice plant coefficient for 10 days period was calculated from the beginning of transplant to the end of rice growth period.


In view of the bottleneck in front of the development of domestic enterprises at present,combining the current economic development situation and the practice of enterprises and taking the manufacturing enterprises in Luoyang as the investigation object,the paper carried out the questionnaire survey and the analysis to current scientific technological innovation in manufacturing enterprises and studied how to promote the technology of manufacturing enterprises with scientific and technological innovation in terms of input ability,output effect,implementation possibility,management capacity of scientific and technological innovation,as well as the value degree in enterprises,major obstacle during innovation and innovational surroundings etc.


For digital color devices, complex relationship exists between their input image pixel values and the output color chromatic values, gamut mapping between them as well. The linear models are difficult to describe this relationship effectively. In the study, based on BP neural network, a gamut mapping model with micro space sections is proposed. The gamut mapping model maps color from monitor gamut to printer gamut. Compared with mature gamut mapping method CARISMA, the experiment shows that, for the perfect nonlinear performance and adaptive ability of BP neural network, the gamut mapping model based on BP neural network decreases the color error between the monitor and the printer significantly and reaches high accuracy.


Renal cell carcinomas show a variety of histological features. A case of a renal tumour arising in a 44 year old African man is reported. The tumour was composed of a cobweb-like pattern of narrow anastomising tubules lined by cuboidal cells separated by a hypocellular myxoid stroma. Immunohistochemical stains were consistent with a renal cell origin. The differential diagnosis in these cases includes sarcoma.


The principle of laser cleaning molding is based on the difference of the absorption coefficient to laser energy of a certain frequency between molding and the dirt adhered to the surface.This principle makes the laser energy absorbed fully by the dirt adhered to the surface and the dirt is heated and swelled to vapor without hurting,even enhancing;the molding material,and the vapor is absorbed and reused to fulfill the purpose of green cleaning.


FPGAs have been widely used in multiple parallel computing of convolutional neural networks and realizing the parallel acceleration of multiplication, benefitting from its tremendous scalability and flexibility. So far, most of the researches is based on the design and optimization of FPGA-based convolutional neural network accelerators, which lacks researches on the electromagnetic immunity of convolutional neural network accelerators. Therefore, this article mainly studies the failure characteristics of FPGA-based convolutional neural networks accelerators under RF (Radio Frequency) interference. This paper implements two different convolutional neural networks LetNet-5 and YOLO based on a self-made FPGA test board. RF interference is injected into the core pins of the FPGA through a method which is similar to DPI (Direct Power Injection). Next, we observe the failure phenomenon and study the failure characteristics. It is found that under electromagnetic interference, an unusual phenomenon occurred. The research in this paper can provide a reference for the electromagnetic compatibility design of neural network accelerators.


The determination methods of chondroitin sulfate mainly include chondroitn disaccharid,glucosamine,glucuronic acid,sulfate ion,and negative ionogen according to the determination indicators of these methods.Chondroitn disaccharide is the composition of chondroitin sulfate,and it has the highest pertinence to chondroitin sulfate.Glucosamine and glucuronic acid are monosaccharides that compose chondroitn disaccharide,and they have a higher pertinence to chondroitin sulfate.The content of Sulfate ion is badly influenced by the sulfation of chondroitin sulfate,and its pertinence to chondroitin sulfate is lower.The negative ion also has a lower pertinence to chondroitin sulfate for the positive ion dye can't linkage characteristic with chondroitin sulfate.As far as accuracy is concerned,HPLC which determines chondroitn disaccharide has the highest accuracy,and it can apply to quality control and microanalysis;Elson-Morgan method and carbazole method have a higher accuracy,and they can apply to generic analysis;other methods have a lower accuracy.


Beginning with the rate equation of energy level system, the article deduces the relationship between the amount of the reversal particles of laser medium in four energy level system and the Bengpu intensity, then compares the Bengpu efficiency of square shaped wave as Bengpu intensity with that of half sine wave similar to the common LC discharge wave, finally draws the conclusion that the Bengpu efficiency of square shaped wave is larger than that of the half sine wave all the time.


It is shown that, within the framework of the soliton model of J/psi particles, the (J/psi)N interaction can be regarded as the scattering of the nucleon by an external classical field. The phase shifts are then real and the total and elastic cross sections for this interaction are equal (if diffractional dissociation processes are neglected). The model is in qualitative agreement with existing experimental data on the photoproduction of J/psi particles on nucleons and nuclei. The coherent and noncoherent cross sections for the photoproduction of J/psi particles on nuclei are calculated, and it is shown that measurement of these cross sections as functions of the number of nucleons in the nucleus, the momentum transfer to the nucleus, and the photon energy can be used to determine the real and imaginary parts of the amplitude for (J/psi)N scattering and the slope of the differential cross section.


Story-telling is increasingly accepted as a management strategy aiming to build commitment to, and acceptance for, ideas, brands and organizations. But what happens when story-telling meets transparency demands in public sector reform? This topic is explored in this paper. It builds on a case study of a major public sector reform, including the merger of two hospitals in the south of Sweden. The study shows how the performance accounts of managers and physicians differ strongly, and a number of hypotheses are presented to explain the deviance. One possible explanation is that story-telling us used for blame-avoidance. This way, however, democracy is weakened, as citizens are provided with biased accounts. This problem, this paper argues, is one of the key questions for the future, in the public management and public administration literatures. (Less)


The paper investigates the determinants of foreign currency borrowing by the private sector in the new member states of the European Union. We find that striking differences in patterns of foreign currency borrowing between countries are explained by the loan-to-deposit ratios, openness, and the interest rate differential. Joining the EU appears to have played an important role, by providing direct access to foreign funding, offering hedging opportunities through greater openness, lending credibility to exchange rate regimes, and raising expectations of imminent euro adoption. The empirical evidence suggests that regulatory policies to slow foreign currency borrowing have had only limited success.


Jean-Jacques Rousseau for once falls into the mainstream of traditional Western republican thought in claiming the Roman mixed regime as "the model for all free peoples."! Indeed, the notion that classical Rome constituted the most outstanding historical example from antiquity of the well-ordered republic pervaded republican thinking from the fifteenth through the eighteenth century. 2 Although they deliberately sought to improve upon the Roman mixture in their teachings, Italian Renaissance and Anglo-American theorists nonetheless deeply wedded a veneration for the ancient Republic to modern republicanism. By often portraying their efforts at founding new republics as the resurrection of an expired classical ethos, modern republicanists envisioned Rome as the "eternal city" for their followers as well as those of Christianity.


GABA content in rice germ is affected by many factors. The objective of this study was to screen significant factors which affecting on GABA content. The four factors (pH , CaCl 2 concentration , soaking temperature, and soaking time) were tested using the eig ht-run Plackett-Burman design. Factors were considered to have significant effects on response at a = 0.05. The results revealed that soaking temperature and soaking time most significantly affected GABA content (positive effect). Subsequently, effect of soaking temperature and time were conducted by soaking the rice germ in 0.5 mmol/L CaCl 2 , pH 6 at 30, 40, and 50 ° C and in various time: 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 h. The results indicated that during soaking rice germ at 40 ° C for 8 h had the highest in GABA content (307.1 mg/ 100 g of rice germ, dry basis).


Impact of nonlinear piezoelectric constants on surface acoustic wave propagation on a piezoelectric substrate is investigated in this work. Propagation of acoustic wave propagation under uniform stress is analyzed; the wave equation is obtained by incorporating the applied uniform stress in the equation of motion and taking account of the set of linear and nonlinear piezoelectric constants. A new method of separation between the different modes of propagation is proposed regarding the attenuation coefficients and not to the displacement vectors. Detail calculations and simulations have made for Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3); transformations between modes of propagation, under uniform stress, have been found. These results leads to conclusion that nonlinear terms affect the acoustic wave propagation and also we can make controllable acoustic devices.


The objective of the study was to determine the influence of recreational resources on retention of pupils with disabilities in mainstreamed primary schools in Bomet County, Kenya. This study is embedded in the Systems Theory (Bertalanffy, 1968). It adopted a correlational research design. The target population was 840 teachers. Yamane table (1967) was used to get a sample size of 278 teachers. The multi-stage sampling procedure was applied.  Data was collected, coded and analysed. The findings of the study revealed that physical resources and instructional resources significantly influence retention of pupils with disabilities (β=0.192 and β =0.421, respectively). Similarly, provision of adequate trained teachers and recreational resources were seen to influence the retention of pupils significantly with disabilities in mainstreamed Primary Schools (β =0.253 and β =0.250, respectively). The study concludes that recreational resources significantly influence retention of pupils with disabilities in mainstreamed Primary Schools. Many schools did not provide recreational resources for PWDs. Play-toys for PWDs were not available. Besides, assistive technology, for example, amplified talking Braille for pupils with disabilities (PWDs) were also not available. The lack of recreational resource for learners with disabilities could affect retention of their in mainstreamed schools. The study recommends provision of recreational resources such as in-door and outdoor equipment, play kits and field markers.


The studies in the Himalayan region have demonstrated that the tectonic processes, types of rocks and geohydrological characteristics of rock mass control the concentration of radon in soil gas and ground water. The area (Kangra-Chamba region of Himachal Himalaya) under present study shows the sign of neotectonic and seismic activity. Therefore, an attempt has been made to study the relation between radon concentration in soil-gas and groundwater with the tectonic structures and associated regional structures in the study area. The major thrusts cutting across the area are: Chamba Thrust, Jawalamukhi Thrust, Main Boundary Thrust and Panjal Thrust. For systematic study, the area has been divided into three Zones on the basis of lithology and thrust systems of the area viz. Zone-I, Zone-II and Zone-III. More than seventy-five soil gas samples were collected and analyzed (using RAD-7) for radon concentration varying between 4 -58 KBq/m3. The water samples have been collected from the different sources and wide range of the villages lying within the area under consideration. The radon concentration in groundwater was also measured using RAD-7 equipped with an appropriate unit (Aqua kit) following a protocol proposed by the manufacturer. The radon concentration in water samples has been found to be varying from 8.4Bq/l to 314Bq/l. It is inferred from the present study that the wide variation observed in radon concentrations in soil gas and ground water may not be only due to variation in geological formations of the respective regions, but can also be the due to different thrust systems and the active faults present in these areas.


Context. Several works have found an increase of the abundances of the s-process neutron-capture elements in the youngest Galactic stellar populations. These trends give important constraints to stellar and Galactic evolution and they need to be confirmed with large and statistically significant samples of stars spanning wide age and distance intervals. Aims. We aim to trace the abundance patterns and the time-evolution of five s-process elements - two belonging to the first peak, Y and Zr, and three belonging to the second peak, Ba, La and Ce - using the Gaia-ESO idr 5 results for open clusters and disc stars. Methods. From the UVES spectra of cluster member stars, we determined the average composition of clusters with ages > 0.1 Gyr. We derived statistical ages and distances of field stars, and we separated them in thin and thick disc populations. We studied the time-evolution and dependence on metallicity of abundance ratios using open clusters and field stars whose parameters and abundances were derived in a homogeneous way. Results. Using our large and homogeneous sample of open clusters, thin and thick disc stars, spanning an age range larger than 10 Gyr, we confirm an increase towards young ages of s-process abundances in the Solar neighbourhood. These trends are well defined for open clusters and stars located nearby the solar position and they may be explained by a late enrichment due to significant contribution to the production of these elements from long-living low-mass stars. At the same time, we found a strong dependence of the s-process abundance ratios with the Galactocentric distance and with the metallicity of the clusters and field stars. Conclusions. Our results, derived from the largest and homogeneous sample of s-process abundances in the literature, confirm the growth with decreasing stellar ages of the s-process abundances in both field and open cluster stars. At the same time, taking advantage of the abundances of open clusters located in a wide Galactocentric range, they open a new view on the dependence of the s-process evolution on the metallicity and star formation history, pointing to di ff erent behaviours at various Galactocentric distances.