The study examines the disaggregated effects of FDI flows to mmll1g and quarry, manufacturing and processing and business and trade to economic growth in Nigeria using time series data from 1960 to 2011. The study employs Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator while paying particular attention to issues of weighting matrix estimation and coefficient covariance calculation. Specifying HA C Newey-West weighting matrix in a heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent estimator of the long-run covariance matrix based on an initial estimate, the results show that the effects of foreign direct investment on economic growth in Nigeria is sectoral specific. While FD1flows to trade and business has direct and significant impact with real gross domestic product in Nigeria, FDI flows to manufacturing sector and mining and quarrying have positive relationship but insignificant effects. While the resultfurther shows that the interaction ofFDIflows to trade and business and openness becomes negative and more significant that of FDI to manufacturing and mining and quarrying to openness are insignificant and positive. This insignificant impact of FDI and openness is a clear indication of her small share in the world economy and the composition of her exports occasioned by the exogeneity of her terms of trade.


A simple "expression" account of the relation between executive function (EF) and children's developing theory of mind (ToM) has difficulty accounting for the generality of the changes occurring in children's mental-state understanding during the preschool years. The current study of preschool children (N = 43) showed that EF—especially conflict EF—related uniformly to ToM measures that imposed either high or low executive demands, independent of verbal ability. These findings can be explained within an emergence account wherein executive skills are implicated in the acquisition of mental-state concepts as opposed to merely the expression of these concepts in task performance.


In two experiments a difference between semantic and syntactic processing in healthy adult Croatian speakers was sought using the method of event-related potentials. Since these were the first ERP experiments using language stimuli in Croatian, the intention was to replicate similar experiments in other languages (e.g. Dutch, German, English, French, Chinese) and to obtain comparable results. To meet this goal the simplest experimental paradigm was used. The relevant potentials were obtained by manipulating semantic and syntactic congruence of the target word into the sentence context. The target word (i.e. congruent or incongruent) was always the last word in the sentence. The stimulus sentences were presented auditorily to the participants (20 right handed Croatian speaking females with typical hearing, age 24-35). The results were similar to the results in similar experiments in other languages. The N400 component was observed in sentences with semantic violations, e.g. "The dog gnawed a question." while two components were observed that were relevant for syntactic processing: left anterior negativity (LAN) with the latency of 250 - 700 ms and P600, also known as "late positive shift" or "syntactic positive shift" - SPS with the latency of 600 - 1000 ms. These components were elicitated with stimulus sentences in which the last word was incongruent in gender, e.g. "The nurse-f was nice-m." The study was inteded to be a pilot study for future work in this area.


Abstract The surface of films deposited from hexafluoroethane and tetrafluoroethylene on plastic and wool textile substrates was analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The carbon Is spectra obtained from the fluorocarbon surfaces could be resolved into five lines. The three highest binding energy lines were assigned to carbons containing one, two, and three fluorine atoms, respectively. Surface oxidization was detected by the presence of two oxygen Is lines on the surface of the films. Two fluorine Is electron lines were observed on the surface of the films formed from hexafluoroethane on wool. These lines were assigned to fluorine covalently bound to carbon and ionic fluoride. The surface oxygen-fluorine atom ratio was found to vary considerably among the various surfaces analyzed. Fluorocarbon films obtained from plasma polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene contained a significant amount of trifluoromethyl and fluoro-methyl groups on the surface, indicating extensive monomer breakdown in the plas...


Barcode scanner module (10), comprising: a chassis (50) having a free interior space which is open at a first and a second outer end of the chassis (50) to the outside; an optical transmission system (102) in the interior, which optical transmission system (102) includes a laser diode (104) and a motor (112); a first circuit board (100) as an the interior of the first end closing wall of the chassis (50) is used and to the motor (112) coupled to said motor (112) onto the first circuit board (100) is attached that it extends into the inner space; and a second circuit board (200) disposed within the interior space spaced from and in communication with the first circuit board (100), wherein the motor (112) between the first (100) and second (200) circuit board.


This study aimed to evaluate the inclusion of different protein binders and sorghum crisps in cereal bars for dogs and their effect on sensory properties, product texture, and dog preference. Fifteen cereal bars were developed in which three crisp sources (rice crisp, white and red sorghum crisp) and five sources of binders (corn syrup, spray dried plasma, gelatin, albumin, and egg product) were evaluated. An interaction effect between binder and crisp sources was found for textural properties ( p <.05). A total of 103 volatile compounds were identified and semi-quantified in the cereal bar samples, with aldehydes being the most represented. Unlike crisp source, protein binders played a major role on sensory properties and impacted the dog's preference. This study suggests that sorghum crisps and protein binders may be used in cereal bars for dogs; however, considerations regarding sensory attributes and dog's preference should be taken to maximize product acceptance. This is the first study to report information regarding the use of novel ingredients in a cereal bar application for dogs. The findings observed wherein provide a compre-hensive understanding about product development and the impact of ingredients on final product quality, sensory properties, and animal preference.


ABSTRACT This paper compares the paths of development taken by China and Malaysia in their attempts to pursue catching-up. While both China and Malaysia rely to a large extent on attracting foreign direct investment, China has, since its economic liberalisation in the late 1970s, implemented a more proactive set of industrial policy to embed foreign know-how and promote domestic technological deepening. This is illustrated through a comparison of the evolution of the Chinese and Malaysian semiconductor (upstream) industry. Although their progress remains tentative at this stage, China seems to be showing more concrete signs of technological and industrial sophistication than Malaysia. Such mastery is a useful platform for Chinese firms to progressively climb the technological ladder and to capture more value from the production and sales of increasingly complex goods and services. The principles discussed in this paper provide policy lessons, or at least some initial guidance, for other developing economies aspiring to move up the value chain.


In this chapter, attention is given to specific ideas that school music teachers can use to honor TGE students. Examples for sharing and displaying TGE-inclusive names, pronouns, and titles are presented within a variety of music classroom contexts. The authors describe how school music teachers can select inclusive classroom curricular materials by reviewing them for bias against gender diversity, by incorporating inclusion in elementary classroom discourse, and by working to avoid gender stereotypes in instrumental music settings. Further discussion focuses on the need for age-appropriate interactions with children, the implications of gendered vernacular language in classrooms settings, and considerations for music teacher-educators working with pre-service teachers at the college level.


During the development of a computer network for diverse real-time applications in physics and chemistry, a system was designed and developed to provide interfacing of instruments to each other as well as to a computer, and also to facilitate utilization of advanced solid state electronics in custom instruments. The result is a well-documented interfacing system with features and capabilities which are of growing importance in scientific and process instrumentation. This paper focuses attention on the distinctive features of the new system, features which are not usually available in CAMAC. These include the use of decentralized control, the addressing scheme, the monitor and control capabilities, the fast cycle time, and the simplicity of using the system.


The present invention is a stabilized phycocyanin is a complex of at least one polyphenol and at least one Fi co cyano villin based foods, feeds, cosmetics and compositions for useful blue coloration in the preparation of pharmaceutical and formulation things and to method of forming the complex. .FIELD 1


US exporter Rayonier uses scorecards to drive up performance from its ocean carrier partners. It explains the system to Rebecca Moore.


The understanding of charged particle orbital dynamics in an electromagnetic field is necessary for the acceleration and the storage of particles. The understanding of spin (or magnetic moment) dynamics is essential for the acceleration and the storage of polarized particle beams. In this paper we review the analysis of the dynamics of the spin and the various schemes and devices up‐to‐date to manipulate the spin to conserve the polarization while accelerating and storing a polarized beam. We shall concentrate on hadrons such as protons, antiprotons and heavier ions although most of the discussions apply equally well to leptons. Electron and positron beams are self‐polarizing through spin‐flip synchrotron radiation at high energies and hence the acceleration of polarized e± beams is less relevant. (AIP)


Background and Aim: Handwritten Digit Recognition has a wide variety of applications in postal mail order, phone records search, automatic car number plate recognition, and in the medical sector that observed how Machine Learning makes the daily tasks simpler and more efficient. This paper aims to improve the classification accuracy of existing handwritten digit systems, thus improve their efficiency. Methodology: The proposed system consists of an enhanced decision function by adding a "Bias Probability" Function. The function adds negative weights to the output classes (0-9) that have a high positive bias and add a positive weight to the output classes that have a high negative bias to neutralize the effect of this high negative bias. Therefore, the Bayesian Classifier function has been enhanced thereby improving the accuracy of classification, which will further improve the performance of the multiclass probability categorization. Result: An increase of 5.6% was observed in the overall accuracy of handwritten digit classification using the Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology (MNIST) Dataset. Conclusion: From the results, it is clear that the proposed system, enhances the main decision function to further improve the accuracy with no significant increase in the processing time.


The objective of the Agriculture Policy Monitoring And Evaluation Capacity Building Project for Armenia is to strengthen Monitoring and Evaluation capacity and systems as elements of evidence-based agriculture policy analysis and formulation. The change covers only the designation of the Ministry of Economy or its lawful successor as the project implementing agency of the Borrower, in line with the applicable legal acts of the Government of Armenia with no change to the project scope or implementation schedule at this time. To ensure efficient and well-regulated decision-making process in relation to project implementation, and in line with the successful practice in Armenia and elsewhere, the proposed restructuring also introduces a Project Steering Committee to empower the project management team within the Ministry of Economy in carrying out their day-to-day activities in conformance with the agreed project targets.


A lattice diagram is a finite set $L=\{(p_1,q_1),... ,(p_n,q_n)\}$ of lattice cells in the positive quadrant. The corresponding lattice diagram determinant is $\Delta_L(\X;\Y)=\det \| x_i^{p_j}y_i^{q_j} \|$. The space $M_L$ is the space spanned by all partial derivatives of $\Delta_L(\X;\Y)$. We denote by $M_L^0$ the $Y$-free component of $M_L$. For $\mu$ a partition of $n+1$, we denote by $\mu/ij$ the diagram obtained by removing the cell $(i,j)$ from the Ferrers diagram of $\mu$. Using homogeneous partially symmetric polynomials, we give here a dual description of the vanishing ideal of the space $M_\mu^0$ and we give the first known description of the vanishing ideal of $M_{\mu/ij}^0$.


This paper presents a study of numerical instability for the Roe's FDS on triangular meshes. The H-correction entropy fix is modified and included in the upwinding algorithm for unstructured triangular meshes to improve the computed shock wave resolution. The solution accuracy is further improved by coupling an error estimation procedure with an adaptive remeshing algorithm. Efficiency of the combined procedure is evaluated by analyzing supersonic shocks and shock propagation behaviors for both the steady and unsteady high-speed compressible flows.


The photodetached electron flux of H- in magnetic field near a metal surface is studied with a semi-classical open theory, and the relation between the electron flux distribution and classical trajectory is also revealed. The electron flux distributions are calculated at various magnetic field strengths, with a ion-surface distance given. The results show that with the increase of magnetic field strength, the interference pattern in the flux distribution becomes much more complicated because the number of the classical trajectories of the detached electrons contributing to the electron flux distribution increases. In addition, we find that as the energy of detached electron changes, the detached-electron flux distribution changes accordingly. Therefore, the interference pattern in the detached-electron flux distribution can be controlled by adjusting the magnetic field strength and the energy of detached electron. Our study will provide a new understanding of photo-detachment microscopy of anion in external field and surface, and can be used to guide the future experimental research on the anion photo-detachment microscopy.


It is a striking fact that the years in Gibbon's life about which we know least—the years 1765–72, between his return from the Grand Tour and the commencement of his History—are precisely those in which we are most interested, if we wish to study the genesis of his great book. The years 1758–64 are covered with increasing fullness in the journals which Gibbon began to keep in August 1761. From this source, for example, we can trace in detail the somewhat complex evolution of his first published work, the Essai sur l'Etude de la Littérature—detail enhanced by reference to the manuscript draft which survives. Again, for the period 1773–87 we know exactly what Gibbon was doing: his intellectual course was finally settled, and the six ample quartos of the Decline and Fall provide the best possible comment on that course, supplemented and confirmed by increasingly full correspondence and the terse outline in Memoir E of the autobiography. But between these two periods we have only meagre and uninformative letters; one apparently unimportant publication, the Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid of 1770; and the help we can glean from Memoirs C and D of the autobiography. These were Gibbon's Dark Ages, and it is this obscure passage in his life which I wish to lighten.


Objective To study clinical significance of DNA chip technique in detecting the mutation of HBV-DNA ORF,and to offer testimony for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Methods Gene sequence of hepatitis B virus DNA and mutations of 6 sites in serum of 132 aniso-type patients were detected by DNA chip technique. Results The mutations of HBV-DNA ORF existed in all 132 patients.The rates of mutation on Pre-C 1896,Pre-C1814,BCP1762,P528,P552M-1,P552M-V were 23.5%,4%,56.1%,53.8%,9.8%,38.6%,10.6% respectively.The mutation rate of Pre-C1896 was 4.0% in the patients with HBeAg positive and 48.3% in the patients with HBeAb positive.There was significant difference between the latter and the former.The mutations on Pre-C 1896 helped HBV escape from immune assault and develop chronic infection.The mutation of 1762 and 1764 always occurred together,and was related to occurrence of carcinoma and severe hepatitis.The mutation of 552 was related to drug resistance of lamivudine. Conclusion The mutation of HBV-DNA site has important influence on predicting the stability and progress of the disease.


A communication system is analyzed which utilizes phase modulation (PM) and phase detection. The analysis shows that when the total radio frequency (RF) power level is significantly above the receiver threshold, a margin of safety exists which may be traded for additional signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the demodulated output of the receiver. In this respect the PM system is similar to FM communication systems which utilize an "FM improvement factor." Several examples are presented to indicate the magnitude of the PM improvement factor when the signal is a sine wave variable throughout the audio band. A novel type of closed-loop phase detector is suggested which is linear over a very wide range of phase angles.


A symmetrical 3-port lumped element circulator built by the use of thin film technology including electroplating is presented allowing very compact devices. A semi-additive metallization process yields high accuracy in reproduction of the structure with small features while allowing the implementation of via-holes. Two technological procedures are presented and compared. The lumped element circulator performance is numerically calculated and optimized to some extend, providing valuable information about important device performances. A comparison with measured scattering parameters shows good agreement with the calculation.


AIM To establish a reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) to determine the level of tolbutamide in human plasma.METHODS The plasma samples were added to an equal volume of 0.6 mol·L~(-1) triehloroaeetie acid to precipitate the plasma proteins and the supernatant was analysed by HPLC,in which the E- clipse XDB-C_(18) chromatographic column was adopted using aeetonitfile -25 mmol·L~(-1) sodium acetate buffer(pH=3.3, 32:68) as mobile phase with flow rate set at 1.0 mL·min~(-1),detection wavelength at 229 um,and column temperature at 35℃.RESULTS The linear range (r=0.999 6) was 0.5-100 mg·L~(-1) for tolbutamide in human plasma.The re- eovery was within 93.0%-105.0%.The within-day and between-day deviations of the plasma samples were both not more than 6.31%.CONCLUSION This method is simple,rapid and accurate and could be used for the quantitation of tolbutamide in human plasma.


Originating from the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas, the main channel of the Ganga River flows about 2,550 km (Sarkar et al. 2012), housing a diversity of life forms from phytoplankton to higher aquatic vertebrates (Tare et al. 2013), which collectively provide complete ecosystem services including a self-waste processing system that produces high water quality and productivity (Sinha 2015). Over time, the increase in anthropogenic pressure has severely impacted this freshwater system. Hydroelectric projects, construction of barrages and dams, industrial effluent discharge, sewage, and unlimited biological resource extraction (water extraction, sand mining, and species exploitation) have tremendously altered the structural morphology and flow regime of the river and also significantly and negatively affected interlinked species habitat (WII-GACMC 2017). These factors have resulted in the isolation and fragmentation of populations of many species. Much of the illegal pet trade from various parts of the country is smuggled through Kolkata with Bihar serving as one of the primary sources of illegally collected turtles; this has resulted in an increase in the confiscation of live turtles (Chaudhary and Bhupathy 1993). In response to negative reports of smuggling in the print media and due to significant efforts by various agencies to monitor and control this illegal trade, a dedicated facility for chelonian rescue and rehabilitation was established in Bhagalpur District (Bihar) along the right bank (downstream) of the Ganga (Fig. 1). The facility is within the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary (ENVIS 2020), which provides protection for many threatened species, including the Smooth-coated Otter (Lutrogale perspicilC O N S E R V A T I O N I N A C T I O N


Star formation is inefficient. Only a few percent of the available gas in molecular clouds forms stars, leading to the observed low star formation rate (SFR). The same holds when averaged over many molecular clouds, such that the SFR of whole galaxies is again surprisingly low. Indeed, considering the low temperatures, molecular clouds should be highly gravitationally unstable and collapse on their global mean freefall timescale. And yet, they are observed to live about 10-100 times longer, i.e., the SFR per freefall time (SFRff) is only a few percent. Thus, other physical mechanisms must provide support against quick global collapse. Magnetic fields, turbulence and stellar feedback have been proposed as stabilising agents controlling star formation, but it is still unclear which of these processes is the most important and what their relative contributions are. Here I present high-resolution, adaptive- mesh-refinement simulations of star cluster formation that include turbulence, magnetic fields, and protostellar jet/outflow feedback. These simulations produce nearly realistic star formation rates consistent with observations, but only if turbulence, magnetic fields and feedback are included simultaneously.


After discussing the characters of IT project, this paper suggests that re RD investment plays roles in adding value and decreasing cost of IT projects, and that designing effective incentive mechanism and encouraging the developer to invest are the important method of "adding values and decreasing cost of IT project". This paper deeply studies incentive mechanism, re RD investment, organizational structure for IT project, and their relation, and analyses the result under "win win" for user and developer. This paper concludes three results:(1) under sharing rule or/and under incentive mechanism, user's and developer's investment are second best; (2) the sharing of priviate information can improve user's and developer's investment; (3) user's and developer's investment, and organizational structure depend on the rate of profit allocation.


That "Mathematics is for all" is a recent statement in mathematics education research. Nowadays it is closely linked to the promise of social, economic and cultural development. It has become a commonsense statement positions mathematics education centrally in achieving a bright future. I examine the statement using an analytical strategy grounded on the cultural historical analysis of Michel Foucault and the examinations of the school curriculum as social epistemologies as presented by Thomas Popkewitz and collaborators. Three distinct but related elements allow me to examine the ideas on which "mathematics for all" emerged during the 1980's. The elements point to the relation between the statement and the construction of exclusion for groups of students, particularly those of "low socioeconomic status".


Methods of stabilization as applied to Hopfield-type continuous neural networks with a unique equilibrium point are considered. These methods permit the design of stable networks where the elements of the interconnection matrix and nonlinear activation functions of separate neurons vary with time. For stabilization with a variable interconnection matrix it is suggested that a new second layer of neurons be introduced to the initial single-layer network and some additional connections be added between the new and old layers. This approach gives us a system with a unique equilibrium point that is globally asymptotically stable, i.e. the entire space serves as the domain of attraction of this point, and the stability does not depend on the interconnection matrix of the system. In the case of the variable activation functions, some results from a recent investigation of the absolute stability problem for neural networks are presented, along with some recommendations.


In Abortion and Moral Theory, L. W. Sumner develops a moderate view of abortion, having dispatched as "indefensible" (ix) "two equally prominent and extreme positions: the liberal view … and the conservative view" (ix). It is a distinctive feature of the book that, having formulated what he regards as the correct intuitive position, the author seeks for it "the needed foundation for a moderate view of abortion" (ix), since "the defense of a moderate position must ultimately be grounded in moral theory" (ix), in which the position acquires "theoretical depth", and without which it would lack "philosophical justification" (ix). The moral theory in which Professor Sumner seeks to lodge his moderate position is the "classical version of utilitarianism" (x), which "can serve as the deep structure of a moderate view of abortion" (195). Thus, a central task for the appraisal of Abortion and Moral Theory is to ascertain whether classical utilitarianism can be made to accommodate "common-sense morality [which] plainly regards murder as wrong principally because of its central effects …", that is, because murder causes "its victim some form of harm" (201).


We study user interaction with touchscreens based on swipe gestures for personal authentication. This approach has been analyzed only recently in the last few years in a series of disconnected and limited works. We summarize those recent efforts and then compare them to three new systems (based on support vector machine and Gaussian mixture model using selected features from the literature) exploiting independent processing of the swipes according to their orientation. For the analysis, four public databases consisting of touch data obtained from gestures sliding one finger on the screen are used. We first analyze the contents of the databases, observing various behavioral patterns, e.g., horizontal swipes are faster than vertical independently of the device orientation. We then explore an intra-session scenario, where users are enrolled and authenticated within the same day, and an inter-session one, where enrollment and test are performed on different days. The resulting benchmarks and processed data are made public, allowing the reproducibility of the key results obtained based on the provided score files and scripts. In addition to the remarkable performance, thanks to the proposed orientation-based conditional processing, the results show various new insights into the distinctiveness of swipe interaction, e.g., some gestures hold more user-discriminant information, data from landscape orientation is more stable, and horizontal gestures are more discriminative in general than vertical ones.


Some of the characteristic features of synoptic-scale disturbances over and around the Rocky Mountains were investigated by using 3.5-7.0 day filtered u, v, T and * data at eight levels (the surface, . 850, 700, 500, 300, 200, 100, and 50mb) for the 1978-79 winter (1 December 1978 to 28 February 1979). Composites of each meteorological variable at every level and grid point were made with respect to changes in the first eigenvector (empirical orthogonal function) coefficients for 3.5-7.0 day filtered meridional wind data at 300 mb. The composite charts of 300mb winds and geopotential heights reveal that troughs and ridges in this region propagate eastward systematically, with phase speeds of approximately 7 (12)ms-1 to the west (east) of the Rocky Mountains. These high mountains exert a strong orographic influence on the movement of low-level disturbances. For example, when anticyclonic (cylonic) cells approach the California coast, low-level northerlies (southerlies) flow down (up) the southern slopes of the American Rockies and enhance the local, low-level divergence (convergence) field. Consequently, the anticyclonic (cyclonic) perturbations tend to move along the southern (not northern) periphery of the American Rockies, where they become most intense. However, the intensity of these low-level disturbances decreases sharply as the enhanced divergence (convergence) field weakens away from the high mountains. At 850 mb, strong cycloand anticyclogenesis occurs near the eastern periphery of the Rockies. The orographically induced, small-scale, anticyclonic (cyclonic) cells then propagate southward and merge with major anticyclonic (cyclonic) systems at the southeastern border of the American Rockies. When this merging occurs, anomalous low-level, northerly (southerly) surges originate from cold central Canada (the warm Gulf of Mexico) and flow across Texas. Pronounced northward sensible heat fluxes over the central U.S. are associated with this surge activity and indicate that there is a large increase in eddy available potential energy in the area. This region is also characterized by a strong upward geopotential flux into the stratosphere. In contrast, the vertical geopotential flux over the Rockies is downward and contributes to the maintenance of low-level, eddy kinetic energy against frictional dissipation over these mountainous regions.


Since receiving its first performance in 1879, Pyotr
Il'yich Tchaikovsky's fifth opera, Eugene Onegin (1877-1878), has
garnered much attention from both music scholars and prominent
figures in Russian literature. Despite its largely enthusiastic
reception in musical circles, it almost immediately became the
target of negative criticism by Russian authors who viewed the
opera as a trivial and overly romanticized embarrassment to
Pushkin's novel. Criticism of the opera often revolves around the
fact that the novel's most significant feature—its self-conscious
narrator—does not exist in the opera, thus completely changing one
of the story's defining attributes. Scholarship in defense of the
opera began to appear in abundance during the 1990s with the work
of Alexander Poznansky, Caryl Emerson, Byron Nelson, and Richard
Taruskin. These authors have all sought to demonstrate that the
opera stands as more than a work of overly personalized
emotionalism. In my thesis I review the relationship between the
novel and the opera in greater depth by explaining what
distinguishes the two works from each other, but also by looking
further into the argument that Tchaikovsky's music represents the
novel well by cleverly incorporating ironic elements as a means of
capturing the literary narrator's sardonic voice. An in-depth study
of Pushkin's novel and its creation is included. Through the use of
translated primary sources in addition to secondary ones, I analyze
in detail both Tchaikovsky's compositional journey and the opera
itself in order to discover what drove the composer to pick only
seven "scenes" from the novel and whether he viewed the opera as a
genuine representation or simply an artistically liberal
interpretation of Pushkin's work. Ultimately, Pushkin's novel and
Tchaikovsky's opera represent multifaceted and personal creations
that stand as the results of unique circumstances and perspectives.
Understanding the connections between the two works—and especially
the translation of the novel's most unique qualities to the
opera—only becomes possible after they are studied separately and
comprehensively. In my thesis I attempt to shed light on the two
works independently and illuminate in detail this artistic and
musical transformation.


Because of high vibration amplitude,large frequency bandwidth,and vibration with randomness in the mechanical environment of space launch,the improvement of safe factor is of high significance for the special high reliability requirement of space launch,especially for that of the whole-spacecraft isolator.In this paper,the equal strength beam theory is first introduced and the corresponding mechanical model is established for the whole-spacecraft isolator.First,in summing up the domestic and foreign whole-spacecraft isolators' structural characteristics,we established a statically indeterminate composite beam model.Then,based on the small deformation assumption,Mohr theorem and equal strength beam theory,the mechanical model between the isolator's structural parameters and performance parameters is developed.The design method based on equal strength is derived after the explicit non-uniform strength mechanical model has been given.The proposed method can directly computes the isolator's performance parameters by structural parameters,and can design the equal strength isolator with needed safe factor.Finally,two kinds of isolators have been designed and analyzed.The results show that the stress distributes much more uniformly in the isolator's bracket and the safe factor can be improved significantly.


The continuous increase in per capita income makes more residents choose stocks as a new investment method, so how to more accurately judge their price trends has become increasingly important. In most traditional time series analyses, models are built on basis of closing price, from the perspective of probability. This paper introduces the interval data into the stock price prediction task and proposes an attention mechanism-based long short-term memory (LSTM) model. Specifically, borrowing the idea from the sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) model, the LSTM is first used as an encoder to encode the input sequence. Then the attention mechanism is used to capture the most useful information for the current output based on the encoded features. Finally, another LSTM model is used as a decoder to decode the encoded data features and obtain the prediction results. Experimental results show that the proposed model significantly improves the prediction accuracy.


The frequency-dependent pathloss characteristics of an indoor radio channel are investigated over the FCC-allocated ultrawideband (UWB) frequency range (3.1-10.6 GHz). Complex channel transfer functions are measured under a variety of propagation conditions. The dispersion index is introduced as a measure of the frequency-dependence pathloss and is estimated for each measured channel response. Its first order statistics exhibit significant deviation from the nominal value. The small-scale spatial analysis of the dispersion index reveals a periodic structure for vertically polarized channels. Fractional calculus is used to demonstrate the impact of this dispersion on system performance, and the consequent signal waveform distortion is evaluated.


Airway management is a basic skill for emergency rescue. The operation of the bag valve mask (BVM) is also a key process. The BVM is used not only to provide oxygen but also to detect if the tracheal tube is inserted in the trachea or bronchus. Currently, there are many training platforms designed for training medical staff. Most of them can provide subjective assessments. However, they are limited in providing quantitative assessments of a trainee's performance, including information about the BVM operation. Therefore, we propose a novel flow sensor system that can not only provide quantitative information on the trainee's BVM operation, but it can also objectively evaluate the trainee's performance. Waseda Kyotokagaku Airway — No.5 (WKA-5) is the newest platform that we designed for airway management training. It is based on robot technologies. Many types of sensors are embedded in this robot. In this paper, we will introduce the mechanical structure of the flow sensor and the method of data processing. The flow sensor has superior characteristics, such as high precision, quick responsiveness, and ease of maintenance. Using this sensor, we can analyze the frequency of BVM operation and detect whether the tracheal tube is in the proper position. Finally, several preliminary experiments have been carried out to confirm the accuracy and effectiveness of the flow sensor and evaluate the trainee's operation.


This paper studies the causal effect of the type of government on fiscal deficits in a
panel of Spanish Municipalities. We follow a regression discontinuity design using the
variation provided by the fact that the probability of a local government to be a single
party-majority changes discontinuously when a party obtains the last seat that allows
them to have more than fifty per cent of the seats of the municipality council. We find
that majority governments run budgets with a surplus two percentage points greater than
that of coalition governments.


A new species of Brachychalcinus is described from the Rio Trombetas basin, Brazil. It differs from congeners by possessing a conspicuous second humeral spot rounded. Additionally, our new species differs from B. nummus, B. orbicularis, and B. reisi by the a higher number of branched dorsal-fin rays, and from B. parnaibae by having a lower head depth. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


The present paper connects nature with religious understanding in regard to Christianity and Islam. Many studies show that religious beliefs and practices were shaped and reshaped, to many points, being influenced by a specific geographical environment. So, the paper aims to focus how nature serves continuously in generating human thought, feeling and experience especially with respect to religions. By correlating some verses of the Bible and the Quran alongside some interpretations by religious scholars, the paper attempts to explore why religious understanding of nature seems significant for preventing the natural environment from further degradation caused by uncontrolled human activities in nature. In so doing, it will be an effort to enrich the current discussions relating to religions and natural environment.


We describe a method for synthesizing on-chip baluns. The method involves creating a scalable transformer model from electromagnetic (EM) simulations. Using this model, a quick search through the design space produces an optimal balun. The search may include constraints on insertion loss, return loss, area, etc. We used this method to design baluns for common wireless applications. The baluns were fabricated in a 90 nm RF CMOS process and measured. They were found to have good performance with insertion loss less than 1.5 dB, return loss of about 16 dB, phase imbalance of 0.25deg and amplitude imbalance of 0.25 dB. These characteristics are equal to or better than those of off-chip baluns while requiring significantly less area.


In healthy children, seasonal influenza vaccination reduces the rate of laboratory-confirmed influenza by 59% and the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) by 36%. The efficacy of seasonal influenza vaccine has been reported. Nonetheless, there are limited post-licensure effectiveness data for Asian children. In European sentinel surveillance networks, seasonal influenza vaccine offered low-to-moderate effectiveness of 43% against influenza A(H3) in the early 2011/2012 season.1 A similar level of vaccine effectiveness has been reported from 19 influenza surveillance sites in Guangzhou,2 supporting the need to delineate the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine in Hong Kong children. The number of laboratory-confirmed cases underestimates the number of true cases, as surveillance focuses on more severe cases. Influenza surveillance in prospective cohorts is thus necessary to define the full spectrum of influenza. Because of viral antigenic drift, the usefulness of seasonal influenza vaccination programmes varies from year to year. Annual estimates of the effectiveness of influenza vaccine could monitor changes in the impact of such programmes. This study aimed to ascertain the full spectrum of influenza infections in local preschool and school-age children, identify risk factors for clinically significant influenza in these children, and delineate the effectiveness of influenza vaccine in preventing influenza and ILI among these children and their family members and classmates. Hong Kong Med J 2018;24(Suppl 6):S8-11 HMRF project number: 13120422


Chrisler, Johnston, Champagne, and Preston (1994) reported that the title of the Menstrual Joy Questionnaire (MJQ) could prime participants to report positive changes on the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) and greater endorsement of "menstruation as a natural event" on the Menstrual Attitudes Questionnaire (MAQ). This study is a partial replication in which the questionnaire titles were removed in order to see if the MJQ items alone could replicate these priming effects. One hundred women participated: half completed the MJQ and the MAQ in the first week followed by the MDQ and the MAQ the second. The other half completed the MDQ and MAQ first followed by the MJQ and MAQ. Those who completed the MJQ first scored significantly higher on the "menstruation as a natural event" subscale of the MAQ. They also scored higher on the arousal subscale of the MDQ, although this trend did not quite reach significance. These findings suggest that the MJQ items alone are sufficient to produce positive priming of menstrual symptom reporting.


The frequency of multiple food safety, we have attached great importance to agricultural products, lack of credit market problems. From the field of agricultural production, agricultural credit market, mainly by the lack of quality evaluation of the special nature of agricultural products, the quality of information asymmetry, production and external factors such as the characteristics of the agricultural production by lead. Lack of agricultural credit jeopardized, has been a serious threat to China's socialist market economy healthy and stable development of the daily life of residents and safety. As a result, this article through government intervention mechanism for agricultural credit market, game analysis, in -depth study of agricultural credit market mechanism construction and put forward a number of specific treatment recommendations.


Objective To discuss the influence of laparoscopic choledochotomy with primary closure for treating extrahepatic duct stones on patient's recovery.Methods 70 patients with common bile duct stones were divided into 2 groups randomly,one was treated as laparoscopic choledochotomy with primary closure,the other was treated as open choledochotomy with T tube drainage respectively,the differences between two groups on timing of postoperative passing gas,time of ambulation,hospital stay,complication,duration of fluid re- placement were compared.Results No bleeding or bile leakage occured in both groups.In group of laparoscopic choledochotomy,pass- ing gas was 36 hours at postoperative.Ambulation was started 12 hours postoperatively,mean hospital stay was 3 days,mean duration of post- operative fluid replacement were 2 days.In the group of open choledochotomy,pass gas was 70 hours after postoperatively.Ambulation was at 46 hours postoperatively,mean of hospital stay was 7 days,mean duration of post-operative fluid replacement was 5 days.Significance difference existed in two groups(P0.01).In group of open choledochotomy,wound infection occurred in one case,stone was retained in one case,bile leakage after removal of T tube happened in one case.Conclusions Laparoscopic choledochotomy with primary closure for treating extrahepatic duct stones will promote patient postoperative recovery,shorten hospital stay,and avoid potential complications related to T tubes.


Background Chemotherapy and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) have decreased treatment-related complications in adult patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Our aim was to evaluate the toxicity profile of IMRT plus chemotherapy in pediatric NPC patients. Observations Five patients were treated with chemotherapy and IMRT. All patients experienced grade 3-4 acute toxicities. With a median follow-up of 6.3 years, all patients experienced ≥3 long-term toxicities. The most common toxicities were hypothyroidism, xerostomia, hearing loss, and dental disease. Conclusions We did not observe a significant decrease in long-term toxicities with IMRT plus chemotherapy in our small cohort of pediatric NPC patients.


The invention belongs to the technical field of iron and steel smelting and particularly relates to a blowing-in process of large-sized and medium-sized blast furnaces. The blowing-in process of the large-sized and medium-sized blast furnaces comprises the following steps: (1) adjusting and controlling structures of blowing-in burdens; (2) adjusting the combination of the blowing-in burdens; (3) controlling the modes of the charging materials in the blowing-in process and (4) controlling the air distribution modes of a plurality of tuyeres. According to the blowing-in process, a blowing-in power core engine is formed. so that the process of a blowing-in system of the large-sized and medium-sized blast furnaces can be greatly optimized, the control force of the blowing-in process is improved, the blowing-in progress is accelerated, the blowing-in labor is alleviated, the blowing-in consumption is reduced and the blowing-in efficiency and benefits are improved.


This study verified the effect of expected attribute in major on major loyalty of tourism major students and also the influence of person-major fit as a subfactor of major loyalty on class participation. Furthermore, this study investigates the necessity and role of professor interaction by examining the moderating effect of professor interaction in the relationship between expected attribute in major and major loyalty. The implications are as follows based on the analysis from the sample of 323 students using SPSS 21.0. First, this study has a implication in that a construct studied in existing researches was tried in the way of IPA through the comparison of expected attribute in major between before admission and in college and it was quantified by applying expectancy disconfirmation theory and a study on congruity. Second, in the relationship between the congruity of expected attribute in major and major loyalty, the overall attitudes have a significant effect while there is no influence in curriculum, relation orientation and recognition level. Lastly, as a result of verifying a moderating effect according to professor interaction, intimacy changes relation orientation and recognition level in terms of person-major fit. In addition, trust changed both person-major fit and role of relation orientation.


HEAVY ION FUSION SCIENCE VIRTUAL NATIONAL LABORATORY 3rd QUARTER 2010 MILESTONE REPORT Assess the key physics that underpins high-hydro coupling-efficiency in N D C X - I I experiments and high-gain heavy ion direct drive target designs using proven hydro codes like H Y D R A . by J. J . Barnard , M . J . H a y , B . G . Logan , S. F . N g \ L . J . Perkins , S. Veitzer , S. S. Y u , 1) Accelerator and Fusion Research Division Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, California 94720 and 2) Lawrence Livermore national Laboratory and 3) T e c h - X C o r p . July 2010 This work was supported b y the Director, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy u n d e r Contract No. DE-AC02- 05CH11231.


Extant literature offers two mostly distinct perspectives on enterprise systems assimilation – driven either by internal expertise and learning capability or by external institutional pressures. This study combines the two perspectives and subscribes to the view that organisations' learning capability moderates their acquiescence to institutional pressures. The study then anchors organisational learning capability to the concept of absorptive capacity and proposes that its two dimensions – potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) and realised absorptive capacity (RACAP) – affect enterprise systems assimilation through different pathways. Our survey‐based empirical study of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the post‐implementation stage reveals that while both PACAP and RACAP have a positive direct impact on assimilation, PACAP positively moderates the impact of mimetic (institutional) pressures, but not normative (institutional) pressures, on assimilation; whereas RACAP positively moderates the impact of normative pressures, but not mimetic pressures, on assimilation. Thus, our theoretical contribution lies in understanding the distinct ways in which PACAP and RACAP moderate the influence of external institutional pressures on enterprise systems assimilation.


There are similarities between the morphology of branch systems in nature and the layout of cooling channel in heat transfer system in engineering. The branch systems in nature always grow in such a way that approximate global optimal performances can be achieved. By utilizing the optimality of branch systems in nature, an innovative layout design methodology of cooling channel in heat transfer system is suggested in this paper. The emergent process of branch systems in nature is reproduced according to their common growth mechanisms. Branches are grown under the control of a so-called nutrient density so as to make it possible for the distribution of branches to be dependent on the nutrient distribution. The growth of branches also satisfies the hydrodynamic conditions and the minimum energy loss principle. If the so-called nutrient density in the generation process of branch systems is referred to as the heat energy in a heat transfer system, the distribution of branches is responsible for the distribution of cooling channels. Having similar optimality of branch systems in nature, the constructed cooling channel can be designed flexibly and effectively in any shape of perfusion volume to be cooled adaptively to very complex thermal boundary conditions. The design problems of both a conductive cooling channel and a convective cooling channel are studied, and the layouts of two-dimensional and three-dimensional cooling channels are illustrated. The cooling performances of the designed heat transfer systems are discussed by the finite element method analysis and are compared with the results designed by other conventional design methods.


Cultivation quality has become an attracting topic in postgraduate education in the past few decades. Although many scholars have carried out a wide range of research, the researches did not provide a chronological picture of the themes. To give a comprehensive picture of China's postgraduate cultivation quality, bibliometrics analysis methods were employed to analyze the 135 articles collected from Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) between 1998 and 2019. The distribution characteristics of documents, published journals, research institutions, authors and research methods were revealed in content analysis. The law of change on the research field and research topics were described in co-word analysis with VOSviewer. Based on the results, this study also suggests directions for further work. Keywords—cultivation quality; China's postgraduate education; bibliometric analysis;co-word analysis; VOSviewer


This article deals with the effect of spraying organic se on the primordium differentiation,mature period,yield,and tide-turning period of Pleurotusostreatus.The comprehensive analysis shows that there is an evident effect of spraying organic se on the growth of Pleurotusostreatus.It can increase the yields of Pleurotusostreatus and reduce tide-turning period.The primordium differentiation is likely to be improved at appropriate spraying period and the mature period can be adjusted with the right spraying.


The modelization of bending plates with through the thickne ss cracks is investigated. We consider the Kirchhoff-Love plate model which is valid for very thin plat es. Reduced Hsieh-Clough-Tocher triangles and reduced Fraejis de Veubeke-Sanders quadrilaterals are used for the numerical discretization. We apply the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) strategy: enrich ment of the finite element space with the asymptotic bending singularities and with the discontinui y across the crack. The main point, adressed in this paper, is the numerical computation of stress intensit y factors. For this, two strategies, direct estimate and J-integral, are described and tested. Some practical ru les, dealing with the choice of some numerical parameters, are underlined. Copyright c © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ABSTRACT
The research was purposed to find out the effectiveness of demonstration and presentation models are able to improve study result of students in operating Spreadsheet type and function by statistics in X Accounting 1 in SMKN 48 at Academic Year 2014/2015. The reasearch was conducted on August-November 2014. The method of the research was Action Research (PTK) which was conducted in two cycles. Demonstration and Presentation were used as learning cycle model. A cycle consisted in three times of meetings and in the third meeting was done Post test. The indicators have been achieved by the result of research. As the expectation, in the second cycle, namely the number of students got the highest points was 97,45% and average value was 80,79%. In conclusion, demonstration and presentation are able to improve students' study result in operating spreadsheet type and function by statistics if it was implemented appropriately in X Accounting 1 in SMKN 48 Jakarta.Keywords : Demonstration, Presentation, Spreadsheet


The objective is the discovery and follow-up of planet-crossing asteroids, related inner-belt asteroids, and comets. The primary program is carried out with the 0.46 m Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory. The results, subsequent observations, and analysis provide insight into their populations, orbits, origins, physical characteristics (composition, size, and shape), potential for impact, relationships to comets and meteorites, and for future spacecraft mission candidates.


In teaching and learning process it is needed a media to support the success of learning process. In this research the researcher used big book as a media in this experiment. Big book can help the students get the vocabulary with reading. The students are more interesting in reading by this media. The researcher used pre-experimental one group pre-test and post-test design. In this research the researcher focused on third grades in SDN Kendal Pecabean that consist of 30 student in the class. The activity include pre-test, 2 times of treatment with different topics, and post-test. After collecting the data, the researcher calculate and analysis the all of data instrument. To know the significant effect, the researcher compare the result of pre-test and post-test. The result of both of test is for pre-test 73,33 and for post-test 91,66. the calculation showed that there is increasing score before and after giving the treatment using big book. It can investigate that big book has significant effect for student in understanding the material.


In the present work a simulation model for the position control of a two-link-robot has been developed. The position controls have been performed over two joint axes, using brushless DC motor. A brushless DC motor drive included in the present model comprises two position control loop, i.e. speed and torque control, for studying and analyzing the movement of robot over different axes. Five different ranges of angular position have been considered in the present study. To explore, best optimal position of a robot movement through the varying operating characteristics of a brushless DC motor, two types of control system has been implemented and developed here, i.e. conventional proportional derivative controller and non-conventional fuzzy logic controller. The values of angular position, speed and subsequently the torque, relating to the two axes robotic motion have been obtained more towards the given reference value, by the employment of fuzzy logic controller.


Original scientific paper DOI: 10.2298/TSCI110815088M Benchmarking of modules it helps to note any changes on the operation of the modules in outdooroperations. The equipment needed to do this has been found to be very expensive hence the need of cheaper methods. This paper tries to show how this can be achieved using outdoor conditions and an I/V measuring instrument PVPM1000. SW80 photovoltaic modules were tested using outdoor conditions. The current and voltage measurements were taken at solar noon and converted to the standard test conditions (1000 W/m 2 AM 1.5 and 25°C). These normalized values were in turn taken as bench mark values of the modules.Future measurements can then be taken at solar noon and compared to benchmark values; any variations in performance can then be noted. The variations on benchmark values as compared to the manufacturer standard test conditions values for SW80 type module were noted. The measurements were carried out under typical South Africa meteorological conditions.


In the last four decades, macroeconomic modelling practices underwent a deep transformation. My dissertation provides a history of this transformation, starting from Robert E. Lucas's work in the 1970s up to today's dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) approach (Smets and Wouters, 2003). Working from a historical perspective, I suggest that the recent rise of DSGE models should be characterized as a shaky compromise between opposing views of modelling methodology—on the one hand, the real business cycle (RBC) view, on the other hand, the new Keynesian view. To justify this claim, my work provides an epistemological reconstruction of the recent history of macroeconomics, building from an analysis of the criteria defining the validity and the pertinence of a model. My assumption is that recent macroeconomic modelling practices can be described by three distinctive methodological criteria: 1) the internal validity criterion (which establishes the consistency between models' assumptions and concepts and formalisms of a theory), 2) the external validity criterion (which establishes the consistency between the assumptions and results of a model and the real world, as well as the quantitative methods needed to assess such a consistency), and 3) the "hierarchization" criterion (which establishes the preference for internal over external validity, or vice versa). This epistemological analysis draws primarily from the literature about models in philosophy of science (especially Morgan and Morrison 1999). My work aims to make four contributions to the history of recent macroeconomics. Firstly, to account for the rise of DSGE models without referring to the explanation provided by the macroeconomists


In this paper, for a given p-adic quasicharacter : longrightarrow satisfying a special condition, we will explicitly construct an admissible pairing corresponding to . We define a p-adic height on the arbitrary abelian varieties associated to divisors and by using admissible pairings at every nonarchimedean places. We also show that our p-adic height satisfies similar properties of Neron-Tate's canonical p-adic height.t.ght.t.t.


Sentra Batik industry in Surakarta very famous are the District Lawiyan or Laweyan located in the western city of Surakarta. This district is famous for its population many became batik producers and traders, since the beginning until now. The purpose of this study is to identify industry profile Sentra Batik Industry in Sub Laweyan Surakarta and determine the development strategy of the sentra Batik Industry in Sub Laweyan Surakarta.
This research using SWOT analysis method. With the SWOT analysis will be able to produce their several alternative strategies in making a good decision to run. So it can determine the batik industry development strategy.
The results using SWOT of votes in batik Peacock Sweet IFAs with large batik industry classification of 3.12. IFAS Assessment at Putra Laweyan batik with batik medium industrial classification by 3.13. Rate EFAS at Merak Sweet batik with batik large industrial classification of 2.97. Rate EFAS at Putra Laweyan batik with batik industry classification medium of 3.01. Rate EFAS in Marin batik with batik small industrial classification of 0.82. Based on the results of SWOT analysis, the batik industry in Sub Laweyan namely batik industry Merak Manis, batik industry Putra Laweyan and Marin has been the path he had the right to continue to increase in sales.


In this study, an ethanol extract (HDE1) and a fermented extract (HDE2) of Haliotis discus hannai Ino (Pacific abalone) were administered to mice with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Both extracts were administered at 50 mg/kg and evaluated for their anti-inflammatory effects. Histological evaluations indicated that HDE1 effectively suppressed colonic tissue damage in mice with DSS-induced colitis. In addition, the expression levels of immune-related cytokines and transcription factors such as interferon-γ (IFN-γ), phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription-1 (pSTAT1), interleukin-4 (IL-4), phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription-6 (pSTAT6) and Gata3 were also downregulated by both extracts. These results indicated that both HDE1 and HDE2 suppressed inflammatory cytokines and mediators. However, histological examinations clearly suggested that HDE1 had greater efficacy in attenuating colonic tissue damage by DSS than HDE2. Therefore, HDE1 may be a potential anti-inflammatory agent for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

Practical Applications

Pacific abalone is an important marine food source in many Asian countries. The health benefits of Pacific abalone have been demonstrated in a number of studies. This study investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of Pacific abalone extracts in a mouse model of ulcerative colitis. An ethanol extract (HDE1) of Pacific abalone potently suppressed the mucosal tissue damage and crypt loss in the colons of mice exposed to DSS. In addition, inflammatory cytokines and mediators were effectively suppressed by HDE1. Therefore, HDE1 may be a potential therapy for ulcerative colitis.


An embodiment of the filter and its connection head / key system for the holder is shown. The filter cartridge and the holder has a surface gatneunde key associated, one is a "key" protrusion, the other is recessed "lock" process. The non-matching cartridge from being installed in the holder, that there is a particular form of the cartridge is necessary is not suitable, or filtration system key associated to install the filter cartridge placed so that the other processes to work in cooperation with the holder. Key associated surface can be selectively positioned in the position of a number of circumferential positions and the peripheral portion of the filter head / holder periphery. The periphery may be the outer surface of the inner shoulder surface and the inside and outside surface of the filter or the valve head of the connector in fluid sealing between the head / holder and filter. Filters, lock and key system


Liquefied gas pumps running process,the mechanical seal leakage failures often happen.Analysis of the main reasons for the leakage of pumps.according to the actual characteristics,selected tandem mechanical seal structure.Introduce a series of light hydrocarbon pump mechanical seal applications and features,from the friction material and seal structure of the pump mechanical seal for an effective and rational improvements.In February 2008 after the transformation,the continuous operation of pump leakage fault has not happened.After gas pump mechanical seal and application of the transformation,not only solved the affected device and stable operation of a major security risk,but also have had a larger economic benefits.


This report is a product of a workshop held September 9-25 1987 on the own-children method of fertility estimation and its application to Indian data. Data from the 1981 census are used to estimate fertility for the state of Kerala using this method. The project is part of an ongoing cooperative arrangement between the United States and India concerning analysis of 1981 census data. (ANNOTATION)


Rural communities are affected by the surface water treatment rule and are looking for inexpensive filtration options which are easy to operate and maintain. This paper evaluates roughing filtration design variables. Roughing filters are a simple inexpensive pretreatment method which have been successfully used prior to slow sand filters in developing countries. A roughing filters consists of a filter box divided into compartments, each filled with progressively smaller gravel media and may be operated horizontally, upflow or downflow. Orthogonally designed pilot filtration studies were successfully used to predict steady state treatment performance and the relative removal contribution of each design variable and their linear and quadratic trends. Also used is a multi-regression model which incorporates all results from the three particle type experiments and can predict steady state treatment performance by using settling velocity to differentiate influent particle type.


This research is aimed at a smart music playing environment in which a set of speakers are placed in different locations/rooms and one of the speakers will automatically play a music whenever a user gets close to it. Our study is focused on the design and prototype implementation of such a smart music playing system called U-LAMP (User Location-Aware Music Player). It consists of a server that stores streamed music data, and a set of clients that can receive and play the streamed music from the server. A user carries a RFID tag and can move around. When the user's tag ID is detected by a RFID reader that is connected to a nearby client, the server will switch the transmission of streamed music data from the previous client to the current one. This paper explains in details about how to get a user's location by detecting the user's tag ID, manage RTP-based music data delivery from the server to the client, play a streamed music using JMF, and achieve better audio listening effects during the transition period of handing-over the playing music stream between speakers in different rooms.


ABSTRACT This article examines the work of predictive analytics in shaping the social worlds in which they thrive, and in particular the world of the first year of Great State University's student success initiative. Specifically, this article investigates the following research paradox: predictive analytics, as driven by a logic premised on predicting the future, lock Great State University into a never-ending present. Through Brian Massumi's concept of a logic of preemption, this paper explores how a quest for proper predictive analytics locked this student success initiative into a hamster wheel of a never-ending present, where the only space and time of action was here and now. It is argued that the function of predictive analytics in higher education is to produce space and time through dividuation and continuous algorithmic variation, freezing both past and future and restricting spacetimes of change to the present.


The relationship between reactive oxygen intermediate (ROI) products and nervous system tumours is a current and important topic in view of their involvement in pathological conditions and possible therapeutic interventions [1±5]. Oxygen radicals are generated during arachidonic acid metabolism, and there is evidence of their involvement in tumour apoptosis and in countering proliferation [1,5±8]. Oxygen-derived free radicals and lipid peroxides mediate antiproliferative activity [6,9±12] and, according to Galeotti et al. [3], the hypothesis that the de®ciency of these metabolites causes tumour cells to lose the ability to control their growth rate seems to be reasonably supported [3]. There is also evidence that oxy radicals are involved in tumorigenesis, e.g. in colon and lung carcinoma, in ageing, and in neurodegenerative and brain ischaemia [11±15], which is in agreement with the free radical theory [16]. This is more important, as it is known that the in ̄ammatory response in the brain has different characteristics from that in other tissues [11], e.g. classical polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) and macrophage in®ltrate are not present in the former. Glial cells, however, have phagocytic properties because they are part of the `phagocyte network' [5,17,18] and become activated upon challenge with in ̄ammatory stimuli. In addition, the brain reacts to the variation in intracellular calcium in glial cells with a range of responses from activation and induction of many in ̄ammatory molecules [including arachidonic acid (AA) derivatives] to the production of proin ̄ammatory cytokines, to causing the formation of perilesional oedema [11,19±21]. Nitric oxide (NO) and ROIs play an important role in these circumstances and especially the stimuli that lead to changes in NO synthase and inducibile NO synthase [20]. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), carbon monoxide (CO), constitutive and inducibile nitric oxide synthase (Cand I-NOS) and nitric oxide play a very important role in the vascularization of the brain and in the pathogenesis of metabolic alterations leading to tumour growth and the surrounding oedema [5,6,11,12]. The cellular damaging effects of ROIs in vivo and the increased ROI production associated with increased mitochondrial activity have been known for quite some time [16,22]. Williams and colleagues [8] found that ROIs are not produced by tumour cells; hence, the tumour cells do not die and are not sensitive to radioand chemotherapy. In this issue of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation they provide exciting evidence [8] that brain tumour cells lack the spontaneous capacity to produce normal amounts of ROIs. The paucity of endogenous production of ROIs by tumour cells may be at the base of the lack of control of tumour growth in the brain and may explain why tumour cells may escape immunological control and the normal autoregulatory apoptotic process. The reduced capacity of glioma cells to produce ROIs either spontaneously or after stimulation may explain resistance to ionizing therapy and therefore the insensibility of these cells to current therapy after surgery. In fact, longevity is normally associated with a reduced capacity for mitochondrial oxidant generation [16,22] and is directly correlated with the concentration of coenzyme Q9 and inversely with coenzyme Q10. As insuf®cient levels of ROIs are produced by glioma cells, toxic autocrine effects are lessened, e.g. metabolic derangement, induction of apoptosis, sensibilization to pharmacological intervention, calcium mobilization and cell death. The mechanism underlying the production of ROIs by gliomas has therefore to be deranged, leading to impaired reduction in oxygen and impaired spontaneous dismutation of the superoxide anion and hence decreasing the Haber±Weiss reaction, the Fenton reaction, the iron± hydrogen peroxide±iodide system, the myeloperoxidase± hydrogen peroxide±chloride system and lipid peroxidation reactions. Oxygen radicals are also produced by PMNs, especially by interaction with unsaturated lipids and cytokines, leading to microbicidal activity as well as tissue damage [17,18,23,24]. Although the former situation applies to the brain, which is devoid of in ̄ammatory in®ltrates, the latter applies to other organs but might well be applicable to gliomas as in these tumours there are many PMNs that are normally absent from the brain. Williams et al. [8] have instead found that a de®cit of ROI production in gliomas is intrinsic and therefore unrelated to PMN in®ltration. In this paper, one of the main hypotheses tested is that local essential fatty acid de®ciency may limit ROI generation and


In order to develop and improve the design of a new type of vehicle frame, this paper illustrates the modeling and simulation of a new type of vehicle frame. Modeling of the frame was done via UG NX6.0, and simulation of the frame was done through ANSYS 12.0. Based on the simulation results, component was designed to strengthen the frame. Based on the results and improvements, the design was accomplished. Keywordsvehicle frame; FEM; ANSYS 12.0; strengthening component


The number of neutrons emitted by individual fragments from U/sup 235/ fission by thermal neutrons was measured using a large detector filled with a liquid organic cadmiumcontaining scintillator. The numbers of prompt neutrons were measured under 4 pi geometry conditions as a function of fragment mass. The excitation energy spent on prompt neutrons was derived on the basis of Weizsacker's semiempirical formula. A sharp asymmetry was noticed in the distribution of excitation energies between heavy and light fragments. The new data do not agree with the Fong statistical fission theory. (tr-auth)


The importance of these functions is due to their very general yet simple form from which many known as well as new kernels can be deduced as special cases [l, p. 954, §3]. I also established in another paper [2, p. 21 ] the reciprocities (1.1), (1.1') with the functions Kix) and Hix) by using the ordinary convergence methods. The aim of the present paper is to establish the reciprocities (1.1), (1.1') by employing the convergence in the mean square method. As is well known in the theory of Fourier integrals, the mean convergence theory is both easier and more general than the other. The result is given in the form of a theorem, the proof of which is based upon an extended form of a Watson's theorem [3, p. 221, Theorem 129 extended in the sense of §8.9 on p. 226] which may be stated as in the next section.


PurposeThis paper aims to describe the students' experience in adopting design thinking (DT) and extreme programming (XP) throughout a course of technology innovation workshop in a master of business administration (MBA) degree program.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes data (performed process and achieved results) from the students' reports and the instructor's observations about three courses held in 2016, 2017 and 2018. In each course, there were students conducting activities to understand, develop, and validate the market, customer, user and prototype.FindingsThis paper identifies that the processes of DT and XP promote active and collaborative learning relationships. The adopted activities along with a mix of different backgrounds from the students can promote good insights to understand the user problem and build a technological solution with incremental innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper describes only a unique view from the instructor's knowledge; therefore, others might present different scenarios and results.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the characterization of DT and XP activities when teaching technological innovation in a MBA.


The notion and measurement of destination competitiveness have received increasing attention in the economics literature on tourism. The reason for this emerges from both the growing economic importance of the tourist sector and the increasing competition in the tourist market resulting from the transition from mass tourism to a new age of tourism that calls for a tailor-made approach to the specific attitudes and needs of tourists. The central subject of this paper – inspired by the conceptual competitiveness model developed by Crouch and Ritchie – concerns the efficiency of tourist site destinations. Using a data set of 103 Italian regions for 2001, an economic efficiency analysis is carried out, based on a production frontier approach. The study deploys a measure of tourist site competitiveness in terms of its technical efficiency using parametric and non-parametric methods, a stochastic production function and data envelopment analysis, respectively.


Traffic flow prediction is a central issue nowadays.The RBF network is of benefit to solving such nonlinear problems,and so widely used.The OLS algorithm,which can automatically decide structure of RBFs,becomes the first choice,for its independece of a priori value and help to reduce randomicity of RBF.This paper precisely explores the method helpful to speed up optimization searching of the OLS algorithm—that is sigmoid-function-standardization.The simulation results show that this method is characteristic of great consequence and valuable applications.


Crowdsourced 3D CAD models are becoming easily accessible online, and can potentially generate an infinite number of training images for almost any object category. We show that adapting contemporary Deep Convolutional Neural Net (DCNN) models to such data can be effective, especially in the few-shot regime where none or only a few annotated real images are available, or where the images are not well matched to the target domain. Little is known about the degree of realism necessary to train models with deep features on CAD data. In a detailed analysis, we use synthetic images to probe DCNN invariance to object-class variations caused by 3D shape, pose, and photorealism, with surprising findings. In particular, we show that DCNNs used as a fixed representation exhibit a large amount of invariance to these factors, but, if allowed to adapt, can still learn effectively from synthetic data. These findings guide us in designing a method for adaptive training of DCNNs using real and synthetic data. We show that our approach significantly outperforms previous methods on the benchmark PASCAL VOC2007 dataset when learning in the fewshot scenario, and outperform training with real data in a domain shift scenario on the Office benchmark.


The invention relates to a method and system for generating a warning report on board an aircraft, comprising the following modules: - embedded acquisition module (3) configured to acquire data relating to the aircraft, said data being derived from sensors and / or equipment installed in the aircraft, - embedded processing module (5) configured to detect any abnormalities by partitioning said data automatically according to a set of homogeneous groups (G1-G6), each anomaly being revealed by a corresponding data not belonging to a homogeneous group, - embedded module alerts emission (7) configured to emit a warning report to each detection of an abnormality, and - embedded transmission module (9 ) configured to transmit to the ground in real time said alert report.


This article analyses from a Keynesian approach the effect of wage devaluation on the Spanish labour market during the Great Recession post-2008. It challenges the pro-flexibility literature, which attributes to labour relations reforms the prevention of larger job destruction in the recession and a larger reduction in unemployment during the subsequent expansion. Instead, we examine the role of wage devaluation in the operation of Okun's law and gross domestic product, using an extended version of the Bhaduri–Marglin model. We find that wage devaluation has not significantly modified Okun's law and that through its impact on income distribution, the unemployment rate rose by 1.9 percentage points. We therefore provide evidence for the negative effect of wage devaluation on gross domestic product and the positive effect on the unemployment rate. JEL Codes: C22, E11, E24


The invention belongs to the technical field of biosensing, and relates to a multifunctional portable electrochemical detection test strip and a preparation method thereof. The electrochemical detection test strip comprises an insulating substrate, at least one working electrode and a reference electrode which are arranged on the insulating substrate, and reaction areas which are arranged on the working electrode and the reference electrode, and the electrochemical detection test strip is characterized in that the reference electrode is designed to be of a structure to form an electricity loop with an electrochemical test strip detector after being inserted into the electrochemical test strip detector so that the electrochemical test strip detector is turned on in response to the insertion of the electrochemical detection test strip. The preparation method of the test strip comprises the steps of: arranging the working electrode and the reference electrode on the insulating substrate, and arranging the reaction areas on the electrodes. An interface for the electrochemical test strip comprises a conducting copper belt respectively contacting the working electrode and the reference electrode. The test strip disclosed by the invention allows the turning-on by inserting the strip, the measurement is preformed after a sample is filled and the non-specific interference of the sample is eliminated, the result is accurate and the measurement is precise.


The growth and development of a nation depends on the socio-economic status of its community. In our country, women constitute around 49 percent of the total country's population of approximately nine hundred million people. But studies revealed that from century's women have been victims of exploitation by male-dominated society. Women in our country have been victims of ill-treatment, humiliation, torture, exploitation, rape murder, etc. from long period of time. According to the Constitution of India, women are the legal citizens of the country. To provide social justice is the keystone of the constitution of India. It represents equal rights with men. But the actual situation is far from this. In the modern society, crime against women is the most pervasive abuse in the country. Crime against women is not new rather it is a common evil in the Indian society. It represents the form of assertion of dominance and use of greater physical strength of men over women. A woman faced terrifying problems both within the family and outside family structure. It has been examined by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that over 32000 murders, 36500 molestation cases, 19000 rape and 7500 dowry deaths are the violent crimes reported in India in 2006 against women. Thus, current condition of women has worsened their lives. The present paper is introspection about the intensity of crime committed against women in India over the period of five years. The paper also highlights head-wise incidents of crime against women and compare reported incidents of crime (both under IPC and SLL) for a period from 2008 to 2012 respectively. The percentage of crime against women is also compared with total IPC crimes so as to depict the actual position of crime against women in India. The study is based upon secondary data and has been collected from reports, "Crime in India", published by National Crime Records Bureau annually. The data has been analysed by using percentage analysis and interpretations were made accordingly. The data of cases mentioned under different heads revealed that all the crime heads showed a rising trend except the incidents reported under Sati Prevention Act, 1987 and Importation of Girls-section 366-B IPC. Further, the cases registered under Kidnapping and Abduction (section 363–373 IPC), Torture (section 498-A IPC) and Molestation (section 354 IPC) had showed a sharp increase over the period of five years. Thus, in order to protect the women's from this evil, it is required that the code of laws related to crimes against women should be amended. Women's should be made aware about the legislation through awareness programmes because the law alone cannot be able to curb this menace of "Crime Against Women."


Let K be an algebraic number field and O_K the ring of integers of K. Let f : X --> Spec(O_K) be a stable arithmetic surface over O_K of genus g >= 2. In this short note, we will prove that if f has a reducible geometric fiber, then the self intersection of dualizing sheaf of X with Arakelov metric is greater than or equal to log(2)/6(g-1).


We study two termination criteria which are used in computational practice. They are analyzed for linear problems in the average case setting. It is assumed that arbitrary continuous linear functionals can be computed and consecutive approximations are chosen in the best possible way. The first termination criterion is satisfied if the difference between two consecutive approximations becomes less than a certain bound ?. We prove that the first termination criterion gives satisfactory results only for some cases. The second termination criterion is satisfied if two consecutive differences between consecutive approximations become less than ?. We prove that the second termination criterion gives satisfactory results for all cases.


We present here a synthesis of the session named "Producing and socializing knowledge: data visualization at the CIEU, which occurred in November 2018 with the conference "The city seen from the CIEU" marking the 50th anniversary of the research team. The team demonstrated, throughout its history, of a particular interest in graphical data visualization, via various forms but more importantly using modalities, uses types and facing various stakes at the heart of its scientific positioning and activity. We can now affirm that, albeit viewed for a long time as a technical activity tasked to illustrate research results, data visualization has profoundly evolved to become an essential part of research methods, even, in certain cases, become a research object in its own right. Today, the research organization of the team and its dynamism are at stake.


Objective To obtain the exposure of tobacco advertising among adolescents and its influencing factor in Taiyuan.Provide evidence for reduce exposure of tobacco advertisements.Methods Questionnaire was used for the survey.Two secondary schools were randomly selected from the 5 area of Taiyuan City respectively,and that is a total of 10 secondary schools were randomly selected.Two classes in each secondary schools for all grades were randomly selected to conduct surveys.3 804 valid questionnaires were eventually recovered.Results The adolescents have high exposure rate to tobacco advertising,and there were different rates of exposure to tobacco advertising in genders,grades,family's smoking,ratio of friend's smoking,family's attitude towards smoking,friends'attitudes towards smoking,class performance ranking,pocket money in every month.Conclusion Active measures must be taken to have a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising.We should educate different adolescents using different education methods to reduce the tobacco advertising's harm.


article is to suggest that certain elements in Ctesias' description of the fall of Nineveh (best surviving in Diodorus Il.xxiv-xxviii) go back to details actually derived from an earlier siege and fall of Babylon. This is not to deny that the narrative of Ctesias—insofar as it is historical—does preserve material genuinely traceable to the fall of Nineveh, only that it has further incorporated extraneous particulars. Thus the barest outline of a Babylonian and a Median king uniting to bring about the end of the Assyrian empire is correct (Smith, 126-31; Roux 1980, 343^7) though the exact chronology has been much disputed (see J. Gates in the forthcoming volume 3. 2 of the new Cambridge Ancient History). Furthermore, the names of the protagonists are confused: Belesys could just be a corruption of Nabu-aplausur (Nabopolassar) but Arbaces cannot be Umakishtar / Cyaxares, and in


A disaggregate data base was developed to analyze the behavior of commuters based on their choice of using fringe parking and riding the express bus or driving directly to the central business district. Statistical summaries of the information obtained were analyzed and interpreted to provide a basis for selecting explanatory variables and for stratifying mathematical choice models using the logistic function. It was found that separate models should be calibrated for groups of trip makers according to the accessibility of the fringe lot to their zone of residence. The models were then calibrated by using alternative methods for specifying the time and cost differentials between the options of driving directly to the central business district and using the bus service. In this respect, models were calculated to predict the probability of choosing the express bus as a function of the age and sex of the trip makers, the ratio of automobiles to licensed drivers for their respective households, and the relative times and costs of the competing modes. Evaluation criteria, including statistical tests, were used to select the model strategy that best described the choice situation. Consequently, a model that related time and cost as the difference between modes divided by the average of the two proved best. Finally, the models were used to obtain elasticities of choice with respect to the independent variables and the value of time, which agreed with the theory and the findings of other studies.


The generalization of the method presented in Maci et al. allows an efficient dispersion analysis for printed periodic FSS-type surfaces. The method, which has been tested here for a dipole-FSS backed by a ground plane, consists of a pre-processing performed on the broadband reflection-coefficient data obtained from a full-wave analysis. After that, the FSS is characterized via its resonances for a few values of the incident angles. This determines in a straightforward way poles and zeros of an equivalent impedance, simply synthesized by an L-C dispersive circuit. Due to the weak dispersion features of poles and zeros, the L-C circuit can be identified in a simple analytical form which, after analytical continuation, is applied to formulate the transverse resonance equation. The process is much simpler and faster than a full-wave solution for dispersion, while being sufficiently general.


Nowadays, Students of Elementary school are less interested in Larasan Gamelan (melody of music).It caused by limited time for them to knowing and studying music melody. PKM activities conductedby Indonesian Art Institute of Surakarta especially at Al-Islam Surakarta Elementary School haveprovided a chance for knowing and studying music melody. Although there are many challengesand inhibitors, music melody conservation must to do. Method for introducing larasan (melody)among student at elementary school needs for improvement to stimulate their interest. The finalaim of this activity is give musical richness for students.

Key words : laras, studying, interest


Small angle Xray scattering (SAXS) originates from spatial fluctuations of the electronic density within a material. It is ideally suitable for investigating the geometric structure of inhomogeneous material containing regions in which fluctuation or variation in electron density extends over distances of about 0.4nm to 200nm (e.g. particulate or porous materials). The Xray intensity emitting from common Xray source is always very low, so that the application of SAXS is limited. By using synchrotron radiation with high intensity as Xray source, SAXS measurement can be well improved. This short paper introduces the facility of Chinese synchrotron radiation small angle Xray scattering.


For use as UV filters for the protection of human skin or hair against UV radiation, and UV blocking composition, in particular cosmetic or dermatological use for topical compositions, formula (I ) wherein, R


Contemporary healthcare governance involves determining whether and under what conditions access to interventions on the healthcare market can be granted. The accountability of these sensitive policy choices is grounded in the scientific knowledge practices they are informed by. Technology assessment has become an important mechanism of governance where scientific analysis advises policy-makers on the societal consequences associated with the uptake and application of technology. In the healthcare sector, health technology assessment (HTA) often takes the form of an expert-led multidisciplinary exercise that uses explicit methodologies to determine the added value of health technologies to national healthcare systems. The gradual institutionalisation of HTA – particularly in Europe – has led to recent legislation that promotes greater harmonisation and cross-national cooperation in assessment practice.

As these efforts aim to consolidate scientific quality in HTA, they bring other questions to the surface. In a context where recognition of the diversity of knowledge has become increasingly prominent within institutional discourse, prior critiques of assessment practice have often landed on its privileging of specialist, disciplinary expertise in the determination of health technology's value. Discussions in the field in parallel have focused on how HTA analysis can better address the complexities of health technologies in practice, through the inclusion of patients' and technology users' knowledge.

This thesis is concerned with the challenge of how institutional assessments of health technologies can make room for different and incommensurate forms of knowledge, or, how to foster reflexivity within the science of HTA. These are not particularly new questions, yet they have persisted within both HTA and science and technology studies (STS) scholarship studying HTA. Taking an experimental approach to the inclusion of patient knowledge in assessment practices, this thesis attempts to connect these two fields through new forms of intervention.

The empirical content is drawn predominantly from a 2.5-year project within the European Union's Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) - a public-private partnership that funds various collaborations between health technology development stakeholders. The consortium focused on developing and implementing resources for strengthening patient engagement in institutional health technology evaluation. Participating in and facilitating this collaborative work in IMI-PARADIGM formed the basis of the transdisciplinary experimentation and analysis presented in this thesis.

Part I, figuring the problem space, explores the institutionalising practice of including and incorporating patients' perspectives within evaluations of health technology and the consequences of such for a reflexive HTA. Chapter 4 shows how different parameters of assessment become reframed upon the positioning of patient knowledge alongside other forms of evidence and expertise. Chapter 5 shows that whilst patient engagement within evidence generation activities for HTA may mobilise forms of reflexive learning, the chapter highlights sedimented institutional boundaries and dominant knowledge that impede reflexive forms of assessment.

Part II, transdisciplinary experimentation, deals with how the empirical and experimental study of scientific knowledge practices can contribute to their co-shaping. Analysing the politics of the IMI-PARADIGM partnership in more detail, Chapters 6 and 7 explore transdisciplinary experimentation as a means of stimulating reflexive assessment from within institutional practices. Finally, Chapter 8 asks what becomes of scholarly practices that intervene through transdisciplinary experimentation.

The thesis shows that patients' involvement in the science of HTA presents
opportunities for institutionalised forms of reflexivity, but, concurrently, requires careful ways of fostering engagement between the different forms of knowledge and expertise needed to (re-)figure the problem space of health technology assessment. Such a challenge invites experimentation
with dominant knowledge practices in order to foster change from within. Learning from experimentation, in matching up knowledges that don't necessarily match, will be part of the steps required from here to take seriously the challenge of reflexive assessment.


A distributed cyberinfrastructure (CI) is being built to collect, manage and analyse watershed health data in the Appalachian region (USA), with an early emphasis on the Fourpole Creek watershed near Marshall University, the subject of a TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) study by the US EPA in 2002. The CI architecture comprises an interactive web-based portal ( Aquavit ) supported by collaboration tools, modelling tools, high-performance computing (HPC), a federated data management system providing batch import/export capabilities for field-collected lab-analysed sample data or UAV-collected post-processed data, and continuous ingestion of real-time data from a network of sensors. Spatial and temporal data collected and analysed locally includes rain intensity, temperature, solar radiation, soil moisture, wind velocity, sediment properties, and several water quality parameters. Additional watershed health indicators are collected or derived from external sources, such as hydrography and hydrology data, land use data, soil types, land cover types, point and non-point contaminant sources, weather data, climate model data, multi-spectral satellite imagery.


Abstract Objective To assess the radiation dose and image quality of ultra‐low dose (ULD)‐CT colonography (CTC) obtained with the combined use of automatic tube current (mAs) modulation with a quality reference mAs of 25 and sinogram‐affirmed iterative reconstruction (SAFIRE), compared to low‐dose (LD) CTC acquired with a quality reference mAs of 55 and reconstructed with filtered back projection (FBP). Methods Eighty‐two patients underwent ULD‐CTC acquisition in prone position and LD‐CTC acquisition in supine position. Both ULD‐CTC and LD‐CTC protocols were compared in terms of radiation dose [weighted volume computed tomography dose index (CTDI vol) and effective dose], image noise, image quality, and polyp detection. Results The mean effective dose of ULD‐CTC was significantly lower than that of LD‐CTC (0.98 and 2.69 mSv respectively, P < 0.0001) with an overall dose reduction of 63.2%. Image noise was comparable between ULD‐CTC and LD‐CTC (28.6 and 29.8 respectively, P = 0.09). There was no relevant difference when comparing image quality scores and polyp detection for both 2D and 3D images. Conclusion ULD‐CTC allows to significantly reduce the radiation dose without meaningful image quality degradation compared to LD‐CTC.