The purpose of this work is to study the effect of lanthanum (La) concentration on the phase formation, conductivity, and thermophysical properties of perovskite-like strontium ferrite ceramics. At the same time, the key difference from similar studies is the study of the possibility of obtaining two-phase composite ceramics, the presence of various phases in which will lead to a change in the structural, strength, and conductive properties. To obtain two-phase composite ceramics by mechanochemical solid-phase synthesis, the method of the component molar ratio variation was used, which, when mixed, makes it possible to obtain a different ratio of elements and, as a result, to vary the phase composition of the ceramics. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray phase analysis, and impedance spectroscopy were used as research methods, the combination of which made it possible to comprehensively study the properties of the synthesized ceramics. Analysis of phase changes depending on lanthanum concentration change can be written as follows: (La0.3Sr0.7)2FeO4/LaSr2Fe3O8 → (La0.3Sr0.7)2FeO4/LaSr2Fe3O8/Sr2Fe2O5 → (La0.3Sr0.7)2FeO4/Sr2Fe2O5. Results of impedance spectroscopy showed that with an increase in lanthanum concentration from 0.10 to 0.25 mol in the synthesized ceramics, the value of the dielectric permittivity increases significantly from 40.72 to 231.69, the dielectric loss tangent increases from 1.07 to 1.29 at a frequency of 10,000 Hz, and electrical resistivity decreases from 1.29 × 108 to 2.37 × 107 Ω∙cm.


Agriculture is the mainstay of the rural population of Vanuatu. Obviously, improvements in crop production and exports will enhance standard of living of rural people and help support economic development. In Vanuatu beef, copra, cocoa and kava account for the bulk of export earnings. This study analysed trends in area, production and export of coconut, cocoa and kava crops during the
1991-2012 period. The study revealed that area under cocoa and kava crops has been declining during the study period, while the area under coconut crop was stagnant. The production of cocoa and kava showed negative trends. Copra production also showed a declining trend during the study period. Consequently, exports of cocoa and coconut products were declining during the reference period.
However, exports of kava showed increasing trend but it also in the later part of the study period started declining. Evidently there is a positive relation between quantity of crop produced and exported. Vanuatu's climate and land are conducive to produce these export-oriented crops, but detailed investigations are required to understand the problems and constraints faced by farmers in crop production, processing and export. In reversing the downward trend of agriculture export sector in
Vanuatu, the integration of production and marketing will prove to be a crucial element of the agricultural
development strategy.


THE FIELD OF ANTHROPOLOGY has been in a reflective mood for the past several years. Well into its second century as a recognized academic discipline, the integral study of humankind, past and present, biological and cultural, has been taking stock. It now has a considerable history (even if some of it was in fact not very respectable). Interesting books on pioneering figures (our "fathers" and "mothers," and even "grandparents") are proliferating. In my own area-archaeology, and Paleolithic prehistory in particular-what modem scholarship is revealing about the origins and early development of research into and thinking about "early man" is fascinating and clearly helps us to understand how we got to our present situation and to position current debates (which are often, in part at least, simply new versions of old debates recycled with new metalanguages). Witness the unending polemics about the nature of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition and the "extinction" of the Neandertals as a spectacular case in point. Although, as Thomas Kuhn so convincingly argued four decades ago, paradigms may be overthrown by scientific revolutions, it is also true that much of scholarship is cumulative. Our work rides on the shoulders of past researchersoften giants, the breadth and depth of whose knowledge and talents are almost inconceivable to most of us modem "specialists." In anthropology it is surprising how close we still are to some of the seminal figures of the field, even if the "grandparents" are now indeed remote. Leslie Spier, the Founding Editor of the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology-today's Journal of Anthropological Research-was such a personage, anchored in ethnology, but a real anthropological "general practitioner." It is to him-and to his successors (Harry Basehart, Stanley Newman, James Spuhler, and Philip Bock)-that we owe the vision and reality of an international journal, based in the anthropologically rich American Southwest, that seeks to publish substantive works of research in all the varied subdisciplines, authored by both established scholars and by "fresh faces." In an interesting, important, new intellectual biography of Leslie White (Leslie A. White: Evolution and Revolution in Anthropology, University of Nebraska Press, 2004)-one of the most significant and controversial figures in American ethnography and anthropological theory of the first half of the twentieth centurythe author, William Peace, provides insight into the founding of the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology in 1945 (p. 129). In correspondence with White at the beginning of 1945, Spier told him that the new journal would (as Peace


Objective: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are most common infectious disease and a public health problem that imposes a large economic burden. Determining the distribution and resistance profiles of uropathogens in a region is important for planning empirical treatments, preventing antimicrobial drug resistance and establishing rational antibiotic use policies. The aim of this study is to gather surveillance data of urine cultures and determine the prevalence of uropathogens in urine samples of patients referred to outpatient clinics in Erbil region and to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility of the gram negative uropathogens.

Methods: All urine cultures result of patients referred to Erbil hospitals in the last 5 years (2015-2020) are retrospectively examined in this study. Microorganisms are identified by standard bacterial methods and their susceptibilities are assessed by VITEK 2 (bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) automated system.

Results: The results of urine culture of 3380 suspected UTI cases are examined and out of 3097 positive cultures observed, a total of 1961 (63.3%) isolates are gram-negative and 1136 (36.7%) are gram-positive pathogens.

Conclusion: The most common urinary pathogen determined in this study is Escherichia coli. The highest resistances of gram-negative urinary pathogens are against the ampicillin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and ceftriaxone. It is thought that the data obtained from this study will be useful in the planning of empirical treatment of urinary tract infections and in the development of rational antibiotic use policies.


Before beginning their research, authors must obtain Institutional Review Board permission. Then they should conduct their research with scrupulous attention to detail. Before authors submit their manuscripts for peer review, they should obtain the Manuscript Submission Guidelines for their target journal and read a few articles in that journal to determine whether their study is a good fit for the journal. Authors should describe their research design and methodology in sufficient detail so that other researchers can duplicate their study. Results should be explained clearly and implications should be based on the results. Reviewers are advised to stay informed of their specialty and be ready to acknowledge new directions. Editors should seek to move the profession forward by publishing both empirical research and invited papers written by experts. Each person (author, reviewer, and Editor) must operate in good faith.


Information security is not directly regulated in Australia and is instead subject to a patchwork of different legal and regulatory frameworks. How Australian information security practitioners construct and action information security therefore becomes important to the overall operation of a fragmented regulatory framework. How then do Australian information security practitioners understand information security and make compliance-oriented decisions? Our exploratory interview research examined how nine Australian information security practitioners understood and constructed their role as delegated regulators of organisational information security processes. Participants expressed a number of concerns that reveal a very different world to that traditionally portrayed as the discipline and practice of information security. We examine these concerns and discuss what they mean in the context of the Australian environment.


Patients with a 5‐year recurrence‐free survival post liver resection for colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLM) are considered to be potentially cured. However, there is a deficit of data on long‐term follow‐up and the recurrence status among these patients in the Chinese population. We analyzed real‐world follow‐up data of patients with CRLM who underwent hepatectomy, explored the recurrence patterns, and established a prediction model for a potential cure scenario.


The programme for the devroom "Coding for Language Communities" at the FOSDEM 2016 is finally complete:

https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/track/coding_for_language_communities/

Hope to see you in Brussels!


The [3 + 2] dipolar cycloaddition of nitrones to N-9-vinyladenine provides a regioselective and stereoselective method for the obtainment of 4′-aza-analogues of 2′,3′-dideoxyadenosine. The latter may act as antiviral agents by analogy with the behaviour in vitro of the corresponding thymine analogue. The formation of the unsubstituted isoxazolidino derivative requires the protection of the 6-NH2 function of the dipolarophile, which is not necessary when preformed nitrones are used. The obtainment of a specific enantiomer has been exploited by enzyme-catalysed hydrolysis of an ester function introduced into the isoxazolidino nucleus.


Abstract Using 9–layer polyimide Langmuir-Blodgett films as a tunneling barrier, Current Voltage (I-V) characteristic and inelastic electron tunneling (IET) spectra of the junctions in corporating 1-layer organic monolayer were investigated. The I-V characteristics exhibited a typical I-V characteristic of ideal tunnel junctions with a noble metal/tunnel barrier/superconductor. Several peaks originating in the excitation of the vibrational modes of constituent molecules of the 1-layer monolayers were clearly observed in the IET spectra. Further we examined the electric phenomena occurring in heterostructured films by using IETS and thermally stimulated displacement-current-measurements.


The paper presents a novel method for the low bit-rate compression of a feature vector stream with particular application to distributed speech recognition. The scheme operates by grouping feature vectors into non-overlapping blocks and applying a transformation to give a more compact matrix representation. Both Karhunen-Loeve and discrete cosine transforms are considered. Following transformation, higher-order columns of the matrix can be removed without loss in recognition performance. The number of bits allocated to the remaining elements in the matrix is determined automatically using a measure of their relative information content. Analysis of the amplitude distribution of the elements indicates that non-linear quantisation is more appropriate than linear quantisation. Comparative results, based on both spectral distortion and speech recognition accuracy, confirm this. Speech recognition tests using the ETSI Aurora database demonstrate that compression to bits rates of 2400 bps, 1200 bps and 800 bps has very little effect on recognition accuracy. For example at a bit rate of 1200 bps, recognition accuracy is 98.0% compared to 98.6% with no compression.


An inhomogeneous rolling texture of high purity aluminum has been observed by a multilayered rolling. The shear texture of (100)[110] component developed in the surface layer, and the copper type rolling texture developed in the middle and center layers. The through-thickness texture variation has been calculated by the full-constraint Taylor model combined with FEM. The calculated results are in good agreement with the measured data.


Abstract The goal of adjusting for covariate measurement error is generally to obtain valid point and confidence interval estimates for the parameters of a regression model that would be applied if all covariates were error-free. In this article, we point out a potentially undesirable feature of many standard adjusted confidence intervals. Specifically, the coverage can be unbalanced, in the sense that failure to encompass the true parameter of interest may occur much more often with the lower bound above the true value than with the upper bound below that value (or vice-versa). Since hypothesis tests about the true parameter typically have a direct connection with the adjusted confidence interval, this unbalancedness can have bearing upon the critical properties of such tests, and can be especially detrimental if one-sided alternatives are being considered. We illustrate this problem in the simple context of an additive-normal measurement error problem in linear regression, and we provide a partial solut...


Internet of things is widespread in our daily life, such as smart cities (homes), health care, and our activity lifelogs. In these use cases, sensing data must be managed not only effectively but also securely. From this perspective, we adopt the information-centric network design into wireless sensor networks for efficient peer-to-peer data collection, delivery, and publication. In the study of information-centric schemes, caching technology is significantly important; thus, we focus on a secure caching mechanism to privacy and security protections. In particular, the caching data protection mechanism, i.e., to prevent cache pollution attacks, is an essential challenge for data retrieving in information-centric wireless sensor networks. In this paper, therefore, we propose a novel effective and secure caching scheme for wireless sensor networks using the information-centric network design and the blockchain technology. In particular, for caching data management, to maintain the blockchain-based ledger requires exhaustive computer calculation resources and energy consumption in mining-based verification tasks; nevertheless, resource-limited wireless node devices are not suitable. Therefore, we propose a novel light-weight verification mechanism based on proof-ofconsensus, and we reveal its fundamental features using computer simulation. Keywords-Wireless sensor network; Information-centric network; Blockchain; Caching scheme.


Differences in parents' interpretations of their child's referral for a heart murmur to pediatric cardiologists were investigated. Interviews with 32 families making their initial visits to a heart specialist were studied through the use of discourse analysis. Among the study's areas of investigation were: parents' concerns over being told that the heart murmur was not cause for worry, but the physician still felt the need to refer the child to a pediatric cardiologist; parents' doubts whether the referring physician had the expertise necessary to know when a murmur was inconsequential; and parents' uneasiness as to whether they should or should not be concerned over their chid's condition. A transcript of an actual referral to a pediatric cardiologist was used to illustrate to physicians how to conduct future referrals for heart murmurs.


This paper provides the results of a study into rural transport disadvantage. The main aims of the study were to, identify the nature and extent of transport disadvantage in rural areas and develop potential strategies to overcome transport disadvantages. The methodology consisted of two parts. First, a survey designed to provide comparative information on transport usage and patterns in urban and rural areas. The second part of the study was a series of community consultation workshops held in major centres throughout New South Wales. The results of the survey revealed that in most rural areas there is very heavy reliance on the private motor vehicle, and only limited availability and usage of public transport. On average, people in rural areas live much further away from public transport, and have to travel greater distances to all major services apart from employment. The community consultation workshops identified a number of causes of transport disadvantage in rural areas. Among these were: lack of funding, particularly for community transport; inequitable subsidy arrangements; inappropriate regulations and standards; lack of knowledge of local and regional transport issues amongst transport agencies; and poor provision of information about transport services and availability. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. 878228.


This alpha and omega of democratic theory would lose its explosive power if we substitute a theory of consensus for concentration on the difficulties of the individual in his capacity as a fundamental constituent of the state. Were we to hypothesize something like a national consensus, sometimes swelling to a mighty chorus, sometimes running underground, but always strong enough to drown out or interpose itself between the thousand individual conflict situations between the rich and the poor, the mighty and the small, we would not need to bother about the riddle of the common will. The individuals spontaneously at one with the state on their most vital common concerns may safely leave to the executive ranks the details of policy. But theorems of the nation as fundamentally one, despite their frequent use, have a fragile existence. In the face of religious, nationality, economic, and ideological cleavages they often are forced to beat a retreat in favor of more pragmatic tests.


Flaxseed oil is high in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an Omega-3 fatty acid that appears to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Flaxseed oil for food use is typically "cold-pressed." The term "cold-pressed" is not yet well-defined, but indicates that the oilseed was screw-pressed without supplemental heating, to protect sensitive components such as ALA. Flaxseed was screw-pressed using different start-up protocols and dies with moisture contents ranging from 6 to 12%. Oil recovery, product rates and temperatures were monitored. A decrease in moisture content resulted in an increase in oil recovery and a concomitant increase in oil and press cake temperature. Capacity was relatively stable despite varying press conditions, and oil quality was good at all press conditions. Low moisture content samples (< 7.5%) often plugged the press, but the moisture content at which plugging occurred, and thus the maximum oil recovery achieved, was strongly influenced by the start-up protocol for the press. Recommendations on start-up, operation, and monitoring of press performance were formulated, using the findings of this study.


Kenneth Archer is a British art historian who specializes in painting and the decorative arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He has travelled internationally to lecture and research, with funding from the British Council, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and the International Research and Exchanges Board in New York. His work in the United States, France, the Soviet Union, and India has been for the preparation of a critical biography on the Russian painter and designer Nicholas Roerich. For the Joffrey Ballef s forthcoming reconstruction of Le Sacre du printemps, he will act as a scenic consultant for the decors and costumes originally designed by Roerich.


ABSTRACT Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) is arguably the most influential Ṣūfī in Islam. Of his vast oeuvre, no work has attracted more attention than Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. In the most important chapter of this work – on Muḥammad – Ibn ʿArabī writes of the true significance of women, showing the exceptionally high regard in which he holds them. Ibn ʿArabī is keen to underscore that it is the metaphysical significance of women, and not their physical form, that was made beloved to Muḥammad. This was due to the complementarity of their respective essences, which are the passive receptacles of the divine creative breath. This passivity is then transformed into activity when both actively transmit the divine breath in their own creative capacities and their manifestation of the divine Names. It is this amalgamation of feminine passivity and activity – reflected in Muḥammad's own passivity and activity – that establishes an ontological connection between them. This study explores these aspects of women's metaphysical significance in the chapter on Muḥammad as presented by Ibn ʿArabī and promulgated by the most prominent exegetes of the Fuṣūṣ.


Colloidal nanocrystal heterostructures in which two or more chemically distinct inorganic components are epitaxially fused together provide new opportunities in developing multifunctional building block materials. The ability to synthesize structurally and chemically well-defined nanocrystal heterostructures can provide novel combinations of unique properties arising at the nanometer length scale. Here, we examine the structural evolution of inverse spinel iron oxide/CdS nanocrystal heterostructures with respect to the sizes of both components. The crystal structure and the crystallinity of the initial iron oxide are first identified by a combination of X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering measurements. Studies on the size effect suggest lattice-strain-induced limitations on the achievable sizes of CdS within the heterostructures. Because of this limitation, increasing the amount of Cd/S reagents leads to multiple particle nucleation on individual iron oxide nanocrystals rather than continued growth. La...


This article based on the methodology of the investigation-action-participation, has the purpose in synthesis tight to reflect and question us about the role and place of the unions in the socialist construction. In the socialist transition, organized workers would be the protagonists of the economic, organizational, management and decision-making processes. The subject is complex, multidimensional, often rejected and misunderstood, however it has been very controversial, occupying an extraordinary place in the conceptions of the founding classical Marxism, later developed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Gramsci, among others.


The myriad of sensor information that can be collected using smartphones, wearables and other IoT devices greatly benefits context-aware applications. These applications rely heavily on mobile devices, present in locations of interest, to offload raw or processed sensor data in order to accurately capture, recognize and classify the surrounding real-time context. However, continuous sensing and offloading of large volumes of mainly redundant sensor data significantly impacts energy-constrained mobile devices. This results in a trade-off between sensing accuracy and the energy consumed by these devices. We propose the use of application-specific state machines that encode the context of interest to determine when sensed data should be offloaded to the cloud. Our control algorithm, 'Assisted-Aggregation' applies frequent pattern mining to reduce the number of active devices by sharing sensed data between multiple applications. Our evaluation shows an improvement in terms of the residual energy of the mobile devices, the number of devices actively offloading and the volume of the offloaded data.


From the practical application of the parallel machine scheduling problems,an uncertainty variable-uncertain processing time is introduced.With regard to the mathematical model of the makespan,three uncertain programming models are given.A numerical example is given and one of the models is solved by the use of hybrid intelligent algorithm.The result shows that the model is reasonable and the algorithm is effective.


A nasal provocation test was carried out in two groups of adults: patients with birch pollen allergy (n = 25) and a group of healthy volunteers with no nasal allergy (n = 25). An endonasal provocation test was performed using increasing concentrations of birch pollen extract. The maximal duration of the test was 1 hour. The physiologic changes in the nasal patency in both groups were studied at a separate session at 10-minute intervals during 1 hour. The nasal patency was recorded with a computerized rhinomanometer using the anterior active method. The statistical analysis of the results shows that modern rhinomanometry is a reliable method of objectively evaluating the alternations in nasal obstruction during a nasal provocation test. The rhinomanometric findings correlate well with the rhinoscopic findings and the subjective symptoms of the patients. The changes in the nasal resistance values during the provocation were significantly larger than the physiologic ones. The individual biologic rhythmicity of nasal airway patency cannot hide the real positive result of a rhinomanometric provocation test, but it must be considered as an important factor in interpreting the results in nasal challenge.


9-(9-Fluorenyl)-nonane-1-thiolate and 12-(9-fluorenyl)-dodecane-1-thiolate (fluorenyl-alkane-1-thiolates) monolayer-protected gold clusters (Au-MPCs) have been prepared by place exchange of fluorenyl-alkane-1-thiol with alkane-1-thiolate Au-MPCs. The structures of these composites were established by TEM, elemental analysis, and 1 H NMR spectroscopy. Changes in optical and physical properties caused by attachment of the fluorenyl groups to the gold nanoparticles were studied by absorption, Fourier transform infrared, and fluorescence spectroscopies. Emission from the end-attached fluorenyl groups is substantially quenched upon attachment to a gold cluster so that less than 5% of emission intensity from an optically matched solution of the analogous freely dissolved fluorene and alkane-1-thiolate Au-MPCs is retained in the fluorenyl-alkane-1-thiolate Au-MPCs. Nanosecond flash photolysis shows that intersystem crossing (from the fluorenyl singlet to the corresponding triplet) was suppressed because energy transfer was much faster. No direct evidence of electron transfer from the excited fluorenyl group to the gold cluster could be observed, implying that electronic coupling through energy transfer accounts for most of the observed emission quenching and suppressed intersystem crossing.


Two maize varieties Jiudan48 and Dongdan213 coated seed coating agents that contain 10% Thiram and 1% Tebuconazole adding different concentrations of Brassinolide(0.1% BR) to test the defending chilling injury ability by using intelligent light incubator and field in different sowing periods.The results showed that,under the conditions of artificial control temperature,the emergence rate of Jiudan48 coated the optimal dose of BR was 92%,and that without BR was only 20%,without seed coating agent was 48%.The emergence rate of Dongdan213 coated the optimal dose of BR was 90%,and that without BR was 80%,without seed coating agent was 52%.The emergence rate of Jiudan48 coated BR increase by 3.83% compared with seed coating agent without BR in the first group of different sowing period treatment.The emergence rate of Dongdan213 coated BR increase by 4.94% compared with seed coating agent without BR.Seed coating agent with the optimal dose of BR can effectively prevent chilling injury and phytotoxicity and improve emergence rate.


Authors propose a method for analyzing, control and translation distributed workflows based on own RV-, RVTt-grammars. The languages BPMN and BPEL are used by the authors as an example. An estimation of the method effectiveness is presented.


We estimate the spreading of the solution of the Schrr odinger equation asymptotically in time, in term of the fractal properties of the associated spectral measures. For this, we exhibit a lower bound for the moments of order p at time T , for the state , deened by 1 T Z T 0 k jX j p=2 e ?itH k 2 dt : We show that this lower bound can be expressed in term of the generalized fractal dimensions of the spectral measure associated to the Hamiltonian H and the state. We especially focus on continuous models.


[Objective] To observe the effects of autophagy induced by different doses of ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation on the apeptosis in human skin fibroblasts.[Methods] Skin fibroblasts were isolated from the circumcision specimen of a 23-year-old healthy male,and subjected to a primary culture.After 3 to 10 passages,the cells were collected and applied in the following experiment.Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay was performed to evaluate the proliferation of some fibroblasts treated with different concentrations (0,0.5,2.0,5.0and 10.0 mmol/L) of 3-methyladenine (3-MA).To qualitatively and quantitatively detect the autophagy in fibroblasts treated with different concentrations of 3-MA and in fibroblasts treated with 3-MA of 0.5 mmol/Lfollowing UVB irradiation,monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining was carried out,and immunofluorescence was used to detect the expression of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain (LC3).Some fibroblasts were classified into 8 groups to remain untreated,be irradiated with UVB of 30,50 and 100 mJ/cm2 alone,treated with 3-MA of 0.5 mmol/L alone,or treated with 0.5 mmol/L 3-MA following irradiation with UVB of 30,50 and 100 mJ/cm2,respectively,then,cell apoptosis was qualitatively detected by Hoechst and propidium iodide (PI)staining,and quantitatively detected by flow cytometry with annexin V and PI.[Results] The percentage of autophagic cells was (63.037 ± 5.876) % in fibroblasts treated with starvation condition,significantly decreased to (34.425 ± 5.183) % in fibroblasts treated with 3-MA of 0.5 mmol/L.The expression of LC3 showed a gradually increasing trend from untreated fibroblasts,to fibroblasts irradiated with UVB of 30,50 and 100 mJ/cm2,while the increase was attenuated by the 4-hour treatment with 3-MA immediately after the irradiation.Compared with the other concentrations,the 3-MA of 0.5 mmol/L showed the least influence on the viability of fibroblasts.The addition of 3-MA of 0.5 mmol/L increased the percentage of cells both positive for Hoechst and PI staining in fibroblasts irradiated with UVB of 50 mJ/cm2,but decreased that in fibroblasts irradiated with UVB of 100 mJ/cm2.Similarly,the percentage of middle and late apoptotic cells was significantly higher in fibroblasts irradiated with UVB of 50 mJ/cm2 followed by treatment with 3-MA of 0.5 mmol/L than in those irradiated with UVB of 50 mJ/cm2alone ((10.933 ± 0.839) % vs.(7.267 ± 0.473) %,t =5.20,P< 0.05),but lower in fibroblasts irradiated with UVB of 100 mJ/cm2 followed by treatment with 3-MA of 0.5 mmol/L than in those irradiated with UVB of 100 mJ/cm2alone ( (7.100 ± 0.781 ) % vs.( 1 0.133 ± 0.681 ) %,t =6.29,P < 0.05 ).[Conclusion]s The irradiation with UVB of 50 mJ/cm2 may protect fibroblasts by inducing autophagy and suppressing apoptosis,while the high level of autophagy induced by UVB of 100 mJ/cm2 may lead to autophagic cell death in fibroblasts.

Key words:
Ultraviolet rays; Fibroblasts; Autophagy; Apoptosis; 3-MA


Wave Digital Structures (WDS), with their inherent stability and robustness, would be particularly suitable for nonlinear (NL) circuit modeling in Virtual Analog applications, if it were possible for them to accommodate multi-port nonlinearities. In this work we present a method for modeling a rather general class of multi-port NL elements in the WD domain, which are obtained as the interconnection of linear and NL resistive bipoles. The method is based on a Piece-Wise Linear approximation of the individual nonlinearities that constitute the multi-port element. This method advances the state of the art as it enables the modeling of arbitrary interconnections between outer ports of the nonlinearity and individual ports of the local NL bipoles. As an example of application of the method, we show a WD implementation of a transformer-less ring modulator.


Tazkiras are the leading sources providing information about poets in Turkish literature. In addition to introducing poets in many aspects, Tazkiras give information about the socio-cultural status of the period. The Tazkira author introduces them to poets, sometimes by interviewing them or by gathering written or oral information about them. In his work Tazkira al-Şuara, Kınalızade Hasan Çelebi also give detailed biographies of thepoets. Hasan Çelebi had the opportunity to meet one-to-one with a major part of these poets. InTazkira al-Şuara, when giving information about poets, the dates that are dropped on various occasions are noteworthy. These dates are not onlyfor the poet biographies of that period, but also for cultural, architectural and political events. In our study, it is discussed the chronograms in Kınalızade Hasan Çelebi's work named Tazkira al-Şuara. Chronograms are classified and analyzed according to their subjects and purposes.


A picosecond traveling-wave parametric device capa ble of controlled spectral bandwidth and wavelength in the infrared is reported. Intense 1.064 um picosecond pulses (1) pass through a 4.5 cm long LiNbO3 optical parametric oscillator crystal (2) set at its degeneracy angle. A broad band emerges, and a simple grating (3) and mirror (4) arrangement is used to inject a selected narrow-band into a 2 cm long LiNbO3 optical paramet ric amplifier crystal (5) along a second pump line. Typi cal input energies at 1.064 um along both pump lines are 6-8 m) for the oscillator and 10 m for the amplifier. This yields 1 mJ of tunable output in the range 1.98 to 2.38 um which when down-converted in a 1 cm long . CdSe crystal mixer (6) gives 2 u.J of tunable radiation over the 14.8 to 18.5 um region. The bandwidth and wavelength of both the 2 and 16 um radiation output are controlled solely by the diffraction grating.


The integral diffraction coefficients of RAP crystal were calibrated at 4B7 X-ray source on Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility.The complete diffraction peak are detected at different energy,while the rocking curve are smooth and symmetrical,and the diffraction coefficients reduce to background rapidly when deviating from Bragg angle.The integral diffraction coefficients of the crystal are about 1×10-4rad within the energy range from 2.1 to 5.8 keV.


Changes in family characteristics over the past 50 years are examined, with particular reference to the situation in Western developed countries. A trend toward the formation of small households consisting of one or two persons only is noted. With regard to the next 20 years, the author discusses whether such a trend away from the traditional nuclear family is likely to continue, or whether it will be reversed as part of a cyclical system related to economic conditions.


Partial discharge activity in a short sphere-plane gap bridged by PVC and POM insulating surfaces has been investigated under positive trapezoidal high voltages; the case of air alone was considered as reference. Distinguished modes of discharge activity., namely streamer and stable glow discharges., are determined., and their associated salient characteristics are measured as affected by the insulating surface. Inception of partial discharges occurs at a lower voltage in the presence of an insulating surface than in air alone., but the opposite applies for discharge extinction. Along an insulating surface the establishment of the stable glow discharge is hindered due to preceding intense streamer discharge activity. The discharge current., therefore also conductance., is higher for air alone and lowest for the PVC insulating surface. Results are discussed in terms of insulating surface material electrical properties and its affinity to surface charging.


In order to understand the separation of different pulp fibers in a hydrocyclone, there is a need to study the hydrodynamics of pulp fibers. A novel device, called the rotating tank hydrodynamometer (RTH), has been developed to study the hydrodynamics of pulp fibers under conditions similar to those in hydrocyclones.The RTH is capable of achieving a wide range of Reynolds numbers (up to about 0.5 based on fiber diameter) with water. Use of the tank as a measuring device has been validated by testing glass spheres, copper wires, and nylon fibers, which all have known hydrodynamic characteristics. The RTH has also been used to test hardwood kraft pulp fibers. Long wood fibers travel faster than shorter fibers under identical hydrodynamic conditions. At the high centripetal accelerations present in a hydrocyclone (700m/s 2 ), the mean radial settling velocity of fibers is about 7mm/s. Application: This paper describes a new device for measuring the hydrodynamics of pulp fibers. The device may be used to predict the fiber separation that occurs in hydrocyclones, given a knowledge of the flow field in the hydrocyclone.


The experiment was carried out at the "La María" Campus of the State Technical University of Quevedo, located in the Mocache canton, province of Los Ríos. This consisted of the establishment of experimental lots of the simple maize hybrid called "Centella", classified as high yielding and medium segmentation, subjected to different planting densities, which corresponded to the following treatments: T1 (60 x 25 cm), T2 (70 x 25 cm) and T3 (80 x 25 cm). A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five replications was used to evaluate them; the comparison between means was carried out using Tukey's test (P≤0.05). The variables studied were: plant height (cm), stem diameter (cm), ear insertion height (cm), number of grain rows in the ear, ear length (cm), ear diameter (cm), weight of 100 grains, grain yield (kg/ha), phenology and economic analysis. The treatments showed statistical similarity in all agronomic performance variables and most of the productive parameters, except for grain yield, where T1 stood out over the other treatments with a record of 9282.21 kg/ha.


Benzyl and 1-phenylethyl bromides are oxidised to benzaldehyde and acetophenone respectively by DMSO in the presence of zinc salts with moderate to high yield. The corresponding alcohol and the thiomethyl ether derivativeare formed as by-products. However, 2-phenylethyl bromide affords, under forcing conditions, the corresponding thiomethyl ether and alcohol as major products. This study, besides leading to a new variant of Kornblum oxidation, has given an insight into its mechanism.


X-ray diffraction in titanium-base binary alloys with Mo, Nb, Re, Ta, V, and W, in which beta -phase annealing at high temperature forms metastable phases alpha ', alpha '', omega , and beta , is studied in order to determine the hardness of alloys in relation to the content of the alloying second element. (R.V.J.)


This paper focuses the economic development of the region of Caxias do
Sul, situated in the south of Brazil, which presents some peculiarities regarding
the newest trends and developments of the literature on regional economics.
The recent International globalization process deepened the uncertainties
and the risk In the economic activity herewith opening space in the economic
debate for the issue of industrial specialization and/or diversification on regional
bases. The region of Caxias do Sul is presented as a case in which the
diversification played an important role in the regional growth, during the hard
last decade. In spite of not being the single factor explaining the dynamism of
that region, the diversification of the existent industrial branches allows greater
response flexibility regarding the adversities of an instable and highly
competitive economic context.


Objective To investigate the therapeutic effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on experimental piglet hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) and its protective mechanism by using piglets as the animal model for HIBD in newborns. Methods Using Levine's method, thirty 7-day-old HIBD piglets were randomly divided into the control group and the HBO-treated group in which the piglets were treated with HBO for 3 hours daily. Half of the piglets in each group were sacrificed on the 1st and 7th day after hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injury respectively. For these two groups, we observed (1) the mortality and neurological symptoms; (2) the velocity of blood flow in the right carotid artery (rVCA); (3) the brain weight; (4) the quantitative analysis of subdiploid cells in the brain by flow cytometry. Results The mortality and the incidence of neurological symptoms in the HBO-treated group were less than those in the control group (P 0.05). The brain weights in the two groups were not different significantly (P 0.05). The rVCA in the HBO-treated group was faster significantly than that in the control group when the first HBO therapy ended [( 146.8± 16.8) ml/min vs ( 123.9± 27.6) ml/min](P 0.01). The ratio of subdiploid cells to all cells in the HBO group was less than that in the control group in the bilateral hippocampus on the 1st and 7th day after HI, and in the left frontoparietal cortex on the 1st day after HI. Conclusions HBO therapy is effective on HIBD, and should be recommended as a short-term and early treatment.


The stability of neural networks is not only the most basic and important problem but also the foundation of some neural network's applications. In this paper, the stability of discrete delayed Hopfield neural networks is mainly investigated by constructing Lyapunov function and taking some inequality techniques into account. The sufficient conditions for discrete delayed Hopfield neural networks converging towards a limit cycle with 4-period are given. Also, some conditions for discrete delayed Hopfield neural networks neither having a stable state nor a limit cycle with 2-period are obtained. The obtained results here extend and improve some previously established results on the stability of discrete Hopfield neural network and the stability of discrete delayed Hopfield neural network in the literature.


In this study the effect of the content of on wear properties was investigated. composites have been fabricated by hot extrusion. Sliding wear tests were peformed by a pin-on-disk type wear test machine under dry condition and loads varied with from 20N to 80N at sliding speed 3.5Hz. The test results showed that the wear losses and the friction coefficients decreased with increasing volume fraction and increasing the size of particle. Wear property of specimen was excellent all of the wear specimens. It is thought that the increase of plastic flow resistivity due to uniform distribution of wear specimen would improve wear property. The worn surface and wear debris were examined by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope. 缀Ѐ㘰〻ሀ䝥湥牡氠瑥捨湯汯杹


This studyaims was to determinethe level of correltion of knowledge and motivation of farmersin lowl and rice farming. This study was used sample of peopleis determinedby census. Researchusing interval scale of measurement methods and Spearman Rank test. The results showed that the level of knowledge of farmers in lowland rice farming in the village of Tanjung Batu subdistric Kabawo Muna included in the category of low due to the effect of the lack of role extension of duties so difficult for farmers to get information and lack of initiative for farmers themselves to seek information. Motivation farmers in lowland rice farming in the fillage of Tanjung Batu subdistrict Kabawo Muna included in the category of low due to the effect of the lack of knowledge of farmers. Significant level of farmers' knowledge related to the motivation of farmers in the village of Tanjung Batu subdistrict Kabawo Muna.


In the radiotherapy of cancer of oesophagus and cancer of bladder, the necessity of three field arrangement is very common. If the patient is positioned in supine position, then during posterior oblique field treatments the mesh frame of the table top in telecobalt machines such as Th-780, Th-780C and PHOENIX, intercepts the field. As this is only a geometrical situation, whether the mesh frame intersects the beam or not is given in the from of a mathematical condition. In case the aluminium frame intercepts the radiation field then an alternative arrangement has to be employed.


The course Intelligent Robotics at Umeå University let, like many other similar courses, their students explore different algorithms and architectures using real mobile robots. There is unfortunately no standardized way to interface with robots. Instead each manufacturer provide software developers kits (SDKs) for their own products. This is especially troublesome for robotics courses where students should be able to concentrate on the actual subject and not be forced to spend a lot of time learning to use complex SDKs and even new programming languages. The course at the Umeå University uses robots from two different manufacturers. Khepera robots are controlled from Matlab and AmigoBot robots from C++. Most students are already familiar with the Matlab programming language and feel a bit intimidated by the AmigoBot's powerful but complex C++ SDK named ARIA. This master's thesis project is divided into two parts. The first part describes the design and implementation of an adapter layer between the ARIA library and Matlab. This adapter layer allows ARIA-based robots to be controlled directly from within Matlab without using the C++ SDK directly. In the second part of this project a full scale SLAM-application is created that explores some important topics in the robotics field, such as map making and continuous localization.


a b s t r a c t. w e often face the question how a development strategy can be maintained. what sustainability means and is there a general approach which is able to describe these condition systems in any region or community of a country. each area has different physical and mental characteristics and one certain development concept may be applied in one country but the same concept causes damages to the other (and it can be true even for the different regions and communities of one country). our paper outlines general guidelines that are suitable for describing complex problems. the development of rural areas can be defined as an interdisci plinary field of science synthetizing more scientific fields and built from different approaches due to its complexity. these approaches often have system theory roots and their overall review is required very much.


An urgent issue for power plants operating on solid fuels (coal) is the issue of utilization or use of accumulated production waste - ash and slag materials - in the related production. Ash-slag materials are classified as "waste", usually grade 5; tens of millions of tons of them being pro-duced annually in the Kemerovo region, which threatens the ecology of the region. At the same time, ash and slag is a very promising raw material. The use of this material as a base for the final product allows us to signifi-cantly expand the possibilities of using coal. The most widespread is the system of ash and slag involving in construction or as a replacement for sand in road construction, or as an additive to building mixtures. However, there are both industrially valuable and environmentally dangerous ele-ments in ash-slag materials. Ash-slag materials can be considered as inde-pendent ore deposits located on the surface and requiring the costs of their extraction.


In this study, ordered mesoporous copper oxide–silica (CuO–SiO2) composite films with CuO/SiO2 molar ratio ≤6% have been prepared. Small-angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy investigations show that the mesoporous CuO–SiO2 composite films have a hexagonally ordered pore array nanostructure. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the copper oxide and silica in the composite films are non-crystalline. The non-crystalline CuO in the mesoporous composite films has an obvious blue-shift phenomenon of the absorption edge. The calculated band gap energy for CuO is 3.2 eV, which is much higher than its bulk counterparts (1.21–1.5 eV).


The low result of student learning for calculus subjects are the background of this study. This study aims to analyze student learning difficulties with calculus subjects. This study uses a descriptive method with the qualitative approach. The technique of data analysis uses the Miles and Huberman models with the type of data presentation. The subject of this study is IAIN Bukittinggi students of the 2018 Mathematics Education Study Program which consists of 1 class which amounts to 37 people. The results of the study stated: 1) student difficulties in general, namely drawing the function graphs and doing trigonometric manipulations, 2) student difficulties specifically obtained for material functions (determining domain and range), limit material (mastering rules in determining the values of limit function), derivative material (determining the maximum and minimum values in the story matter), and integral material (errors using integral rules that are often used derivative rules, differentiating using substitution and partial integral techniques and also error in the final completion of the volume of rotary objects). Keyword: Learning Difficulties, Calculus ————————————————————


The exterior illumination signals of aircraft marked the location and direction of motion,which were connection signals between aircraft and ground.A novel exterior illumination system of aircraft is designed,whose kernel is FX555 chip.Its hardware circuit is designed and simulated by saber software.The simulation results show that the circuit can achieve corresponding functions of the external illumination system,and has correctness,practicality and certain reference for the design of exterior illumination system of aircraft.


The invention discloses a preparation methods and application of an immobilized prochlorococcus algae ball used for removal of ammonia nitrogen in organic sewage, and the method is characterized in that: after 15min of concentration by centrifuging in a speed of 8000r / min at 10 DEG C of a prochlorococcus liquid which is hunger-treated for 1d, washing a precipitate with sterile distilled water, then centrifuging for 2 times, adding a small amount of COA (coenzyme A) modified culture solution into the precipitate to prepare a suspension, taking a certain volume of the suspension to evenly mix with a pre sterilized 5wt% sodium alginate solution, absorbing a mixture of sodium alginate and microalgae by an injection syringe, sheathing with a syringe needle, at a position which is 20cm above the liquid level of a CaCI2 solution with the mass concentration of 2%, slowly dripping the mixture of the sodium alginate and the microalgae to form an algae ball with the diameter of about 2mm, standing for 2h to form the immobilized algae ball; prochlorococcus density in the algae ball can be controlled in is 700* 104 cells / ball, and the immobilized prochlorococcus algae ball has the advantages of high algae cell density, fast reaction speed and high removal efficiency, and can be recycled.


Chapter 1 Over the last decade the landscape of Dutch postgraduate medical training has changed dramatically. It has transformed from loosely-structured master-apprentice style training towards highly structured competency-based, outcome-directed training. One of the most salient features of this transformation is the increase in the number and variety of formative assessment moments: assessments that are aimed to provide feedback that can direct and stimulate learning. In this chapter we explain why the long cherished master-apprentice style of learning had to give way and why formative assessment has attained such a prominent role in Dutch postgraduate medical training. However, even though the theoretical background for introducing numerous formative assessment moments appeared reasonable and sound, at the introduction little was known about the utility of formative assessment in postgraduate medical education and how assessment can be best positioned when the aim is to optimise learning and training. For this reason we embarked on this research journey, which focuses on the following question: How can assessment be deployed to optimise postgraduate medical training? Chapter 2 The role of knowledge and the way knowledge should be assessed in postgraduate medical education is subject to discussion. Recent insights from cognitive psychology and the study of deliberate practice recognise that for expert problem solving, a well organised knowledge database is required. Knowledge is usually assessed by modular or final exams, however, these can have unwanted side effects, such as superficial, exam directed study behaviour and the inability to extrapolate test results to the maintained knowledge level over time. For these reasons, longitudinal assessment, like formative knowledge progress testing aimed at steering and directing learning throughout the whole training program, seems a promising approach towards postgraduate knowledge assessment. Postgraduate obstetrics and gynaecology training in the Netherlands has known a formative knowledge progress test since 1998. For the first study data of 10 years of progress testing were analysed on reliability with Cronbach's alpha and on construct validity using one-way ANOVA with a post-hoc Scheffé's test. Average reliability with true-false questions was 0.50, which is moderate at best. After the introduction of multiple-choice questions average reliability improved to 0.65. Construct validity or discriminative power could only be demonstrated with some certainty between training years 1 and 2 and higher training years. We concluded that both reliability and construct validity of current formative knowledge progress testing in postgraduate obstetrics and gynaecology training is unsatisfactory. Suggestions for improvement of both test …


In this paper, we have explored the wireless sensor technology to cover a service area utilising two different approaches: simulation and measurement. In the simulation approach, we have developed a custom-made searching tool based on genetic algorithm to determine the minimal number of sensors needed to cover the service area. In the measurement approach, we have validated our simulation outcomes by utilising a commercial sensor kit developed by Crossbow. The measurement results for estimating the physical coverage coincide with the simulation results with an acceptable margin of error with respect to two factors: the area to be covered and the power to be consumed.


This paper examines Huawei's shift in business strategy in a changing international envi-ronment. Huawei's influence extends beyond the technology industry, as it plays a signifi-cant role in global political and trade relations, particularly between the United States and China. The changing international landscape has had a significant impact on Huawei, mainly in terms of trade restrictions, market access limitations, and supply chain disrup-tions. This paper uses a multidimensional framework to comprehensively understand Huawei's business strategy shifts in response to changes in the international environment. The framework integrates all aspects of the company's operational strategy to enable a comprehensive analysis of the company's strategic decisions and outcomes, which provides a comprehensive view of Huawei's operational strategy shifts in a changing international landscape. The paper also conducts a SWOT analysis of Huawei's business strategy, identi-fying Huawei's core competencies, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Finally, the pa-per offers recommendations for Huawei to mitigate the impact of geopolitical tensions, di-versify its products and services, and focus on the domestic market.


PURPOSE: To provide a hub capable of withstanding a high engine output with a slight size in a clutch disk provided with the hub consisting of plural parts. CONSTITUTION: A hub 1 is formed with at least two portions, and the portions are welded together in the range of a split joint formed by an annular face 14 provided on the end face of a tube portion 9 and a corresponding face 15 provided on a hub plate.


Drought affects the distribution of plant species in tropical forests and will likely increase under climate change. Future rainforest composition may be determined by species' abilities to withstand increased drought incidence, particularly at the vulnerable seedling stage. A greenhouse drought survival experiment was conducted on seedlings of three common evergreen tree species from Australia's Wet Tropics to assess species' drought survival. This was then related to five functional traits to evaluate the relative importance of desiccation tolerance (ability to persist through drought) and desiccation delay (ability to postpone drought stress) in drought survival. Among the three species examined, delay traits (leaf shedding, root-to-shoot ratio and stem saturated water content) corresponded with experimental drought survival better than tolerance traits (specific leaf area, stem density). Notably, we found differential leaf shedding among these evergreen species and a positive correlation between percent leaf loss and drought survival among individuals across all species (R2 = 0.42). If this pattern holds with greater species replication, it suggests that desiccation delay, particularly via leaf shedding, is important for drought survival even in nominally evergreen species. We suggest that finer classifications of deciduousness such as percent leaf loss under drought stress may be useful in predicting species' responses to drought conditions.


The varied and complex issues of postgraduate research supervision have now received considerable coverage in the literature (D. & K. Battersby, 1980; Powles, 1988 & 1994; Moses, 1984, 1988 &1990; Ballard & Clanchy, 1993; Parry & Hayden, 1994; Cullen et al, 1994; Acker et al ,1994). Special attention has been given to reviewing supervisors' current practices and procedures, to improving practice, to initiating development workshops, training programs and so forth (Welsh, 1982; Christopherson et al, 1983; Connell, 1985; Ballard & Clanchy, 1991; Conrad, 1992; Moses, 1985 &1992; Nightingale, 1992; Powles, 1993; Russell, 1994; Whittle, 1994; Willcoxson, 1994). It is important that this push to increase the effectiveness of supervisors to supervise continues. It is also time to consider whether students themselves could contribute more to improving their supervisory conditions. This paper looks at some reasons why students might feel unable to contribute and what they gain in becoming more active on their own behalf. It also proposes strategies for expanding students' information base that leave them in a stronger position to negotiate the terms of their supervisory relationships.


The development of mangroves as ecotourism sites is growing worldwide, at least within the subtropical regions of the world, which make up their habitat. One of the site is the Kukup Island which is the second largest species of mangrove forests in the world. The mangrove environments benefits from visitors because they help to conserve the environment; they in turn benefit from their non-consumptive use of the resource which economists refer to as use value as they increase their knowledge about the site visited; and this raises their utility level. The local community too should benefit from both the resource which has been sustaining their life and the visitors who bring them new sources of income. There is, therefore, a symbiotic relationship among the three involved in ecotourism. Mangrove tourism and for the "scholarly" type - those who want to learn the scientific aspects of the forest (flora and fauna), the economic and ecological benefits of mangroves to man, etc. Mangroves tourism also provides "educational recreation" by being physically involved in activities during the visit. A survey were conducted based on the individual travel cost method (ITCM) and their perception towards the mangrove environment. The findings suggest that a symbiosis relationship between the local community, visitors and mangrove ecotourism will help the stakeholders to plan and implement a better tourist management plan for the future.


With the increase of civilian passengers in China, it is becoming more and more important to reduce the turnaround time of flights. Since the boarding process accounts for one-third of turnaround time, to improve boarding efficiency can effectively reduce the flight transit time. This paper, taking the Airbus 330-300 as an example, studies the boarding strategies of two-aisle aircraft by establishing cellular automata model. Based on different load factors and carry-on luggage distributions, passenger boarding processes under different situations are simulated. And the optimal boarding strategy in different situations can be found by changing the use of cabin door, passenger interval, and the boarding order. The results show that the boarding efficiency of using the middle cabin door or both two cabin doors is higher than using the front door. In addition, the boarding time is positively correlated with the number of carry-on luggage. Therefore, airlines could shorten the boarding time by arranging cabin doors, controlling the time interval of passengers entering the cabin, and limiting the number of carry-on luggage in practice.


In this paper, an electromagnetic transient model of embedded Distribution Static Compensator (D-STATCOM) and that of Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) are established in a state-of-the-art PSCAD/ETDMC environment. This is aimed at improving reliability and alleviating voltage sags and swell at load point in a distribution network. Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) is used to monitor the Voltage Source Converter (VSC) employed to monitor the operations of these Custom Power devices. An overview of D-STATCOM and DVR together with their basic configurations, mode of operations, functions and control scheme are reviewed. A test distribution network subjected to some disturbances; sensitive load variation and faults is developed and simulated with and without the controllers. The system's response before and after introducing the controllers, clearly demonstrates their effectiveness and robustness in voltage stability and power quality control.


This paper proposes a matching engine for a query-by-singing/humming (QbSH) system with polyphonic music files like MP3 files. The pitch sequences extracted from polyphonic recordings may be distorted. So we use chroma-scale representation, pre-processing, compensation, and asymmetric dynamic time warping to reduce the influence of the distortions. From the experiment with 28 hour music DB, the performance of our QbSH system based on polyphonic database is very promising in comparison with the published QbSH system based on monophonic database. It shows 0.725 in MRR(Mean Reciprocal Rank). Our matching engine can be used for the QbSH system based on MIDI DB also and that performance was verified by MIREX 2011.


BEATING THE DRUMS TO HEIGHTEN awareness of the risks of cardiovascular disease in women is Lori Mosca, MD, PhD. Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Columbia University, chaired last year's writing group that issued new American Heart Association guidelines for preventing heart disease and stroke in women based on their individual cardiovascular health (Mosca et al. Circulation. 2004;109:672-693). Recently, Mosca published research on achieving optimal lipid levels in women at high risk of having a cardiovascular event (Mosca et al. Circulation. 2005;111:488-493). She and her colleagues found that only one third of these women received recommended drug therapy and that there was substantial potential for patients and physicians to improve compliance. JAMA: Why look at lipid levels in these patients? Dr Mosca: I conducted that particular research to get a better understanding about what the opportunities were to apply the evidence-based guidelines we wrote in 2004 for the prevention of heart disease in women. The data focused on women right before we published the guidelines to give us a stateof-the-art, if you will. JAMA: Will there be a follow-up? Dr Mosca: I want to repeat this research to see if the guidelines have had animpact.Myconcern isweputsomuch energy and effort into creating highquality guidelines, but they're not worth the paper they're written on if they're not being implemented in practice. JAMA: Will the new study focus on the same patients? Dr Mosca: In the interest of time, we looked [in the 2005 study] at the highest-risk women. And we were looking at cholesterol management because that's where some of our strongest data are in preventive cardiology. But for the next phase of the research, I want to . . . look at a broader level of therapeutics and to look at gender differences.


Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was measured in 50 consecutive fine‐needle aspirates of liver to determine whether elevated levels could predict the presence of carcinoma in cytologically negative aspirates. There were 44 malignant and 6 benign lesions. The highest mean CEA values (591–672 ng/ml) were obtained in metastatic adenocarcinoma of the colon, stomach, and pancreas; lower levels (13.5–151 ng/ml) were found in metastatic carcinoma from the breast and lung. Carcinoid, hepatoma, Hodgkin's disease, and benign liver aspirates had low (<5 ng/ml) CEA levels. Cytologic diagnosis of malignancy was 96% sensitive and 100% specific. Using 5 ng as a cutoff for malignancy, the overall sensitivity of CEA for detection of malignancy was 77%; for detection of adenocarcinoma alone, sensitivity was 85%. Specificity was 100%. The CEA content of fine‐needle aspirates generally exceeded serum values by 10–100‐fold. Although CEA content did not enhance the sensitivity of cytologic diagnosis, it may suggest metastatic carcinoma of the GI tract in patients presenting with adenocarcinoma of an unknown primary source.


Aimed at the welding ttechnological requirements of foe missile shell,a computer control system for automatic TIG welding of aluminium alloy sheets has been developed in this paper.The hardware of the system is composed of the four sub-systems,i.e.weldingpower source,arc length controller,welding wire feeder and welding head traveller.The software of the system comprises the on-line executing program and the off-line serving program.The operating principle,specifications and control of the system are introduced.The experiments indicate that the system possesses rational hardware structure and practical software function,and has solved the problem of high frequency interference to the computer control system. Therefore,the control system can satisfy the requirements of automatic TIG welding of the missile shell.


We discuss possible manifestations of R parity breaking in the Higgs sector. We illustrate this with three examples: high-energy mono-photon production at LEP, calculation of limits on associated production of invisibly decaying Higgs bosons and discussion of non-standard scalar decays in the MSSM with broken R parity.


A 1-year-old captive-hatched female great blue turaco (Corythaeola cristata), weighing 0.6 kg (average body weight for species 0.855–1.2 kg), was presented for lethargy, acute anorexia, regurgitation, and weight loss. This bird had arrived at the Oregon Zoo 3 months earlier from a facility in Texas. On presentation, the bird was thin (body condition score 3/9), with a markedly prominent keel. Oral papillae were mildly blunt, but no other physical abnormalities were noted on physical examination. Blood was collected from the right jugular vein and submitted for a complete blood count (CBC) and plasma biochemistry panel. Results of these tests were within normal limits. To obtain full body radiographs, the bird was anesthetized with 4% sevoflurane in a 1.5-L/min flow of oxygen by face mask. Once induced, the bird was intubated with a 3.5-mm Cole endotracheal tube and maintained on 2% sevoflurane in a 1.5-L/ min flow of oxygen for diagnostic purposes. Survey radiographs (Fig 1) were obtained with use of positive pressure insufflation to allow for increased diagnostic radiographic evaluation of the images. Once the radiographic images were obtained, the great blue turaco's cranial gastrointestinal tract was evaluated using a 1-m-long, 5-mm-diameter flexible endoscope. The esophageal mucosa was within normal limits. Large pieces of food and grass noted in the proventriculus were removed using a combination of rat-tooth and alligator jaw retrievers, allowing for a clear view of the mucosal wall (Fig 2). The ventriculus was devoid of any content. At this time, the bird became bradycardic. The procedure was aborted, and the bird fully recovered. However, during treatment the same day, the bird became apneic and bradycardic and resuscitation was unsuccessful. Tissue samples obtained from postmortem examination were examined histologically.


Practices of remapping and rezoning land based on environmental risk are rapidly expanding worldwide. Designating certain urban areas as "at risk" in the context of climate change raises familiar conflicts over space and the fraught placement of borders and boundaries. It also gives rise to lesser-studied struggles over time. This article examines such temporal conflicts through a case of disputed risk mapping in New York City. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork over a four-year period after Hurricane Sandy, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was revising the city's Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or FIRMs. FIRMs divide land into zones of risk to set insurance rates and building standards. They dictate how high exposed homes must be elevated and who can afford to live in them. This article adds to work on the social consequences of risk mapping, which in FEMA's case is occurring in conjunction with changes to the National Flood Insurance Program that portend rate hikes for many households. Foregrounding the lived experience of being mapped into a flood zone, the article analyzes conflicts over how FIRMs represent risk, redistribute uncertainty, and reorient collective action in ways that threaten to hinder movement toward more flood-adapted futures. While maps are key to rendering the risks of climate change vivid and local, their use as technologies of governing adaptation produces its own contested effects, centered in part on competing temporalities like the flood-zone temporalities examined here.


Chinese word segmentation is the precondition and base of the Chinese information processing.In the Chinese sentences,it has no obvious interval mark between words.It has polyphony and multi-vocal words in Chinese sentences.So,the result of segmentation unavoidable contains ambiguous words.Chinese segmentation is the "bottleneck" of the Chinese information processing.This article uses dictionary and the frequency of the word to decompose the Chinese sentence,and realizes Chinese auto-segmentation,and uses the methods of computing the frequency of words and ambiguous word eliminating to improve the accuracy of word segmentation


Summary.  Background: Previous work by others has shown that premature clot lysis occurs in plasmas deficient in components of the intrinsic pathway, due to a failure to activate thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI). This suggests the hypothesis that bleeding in hemophilia is due not only to defective coagulation but also enhanced fibrinolysis. These studies were carried out to quantify the extent of TAFI activation over time in normal plasma (NP) and factor VIII deficient plasma (FVIII‐DP) and to determine whether soluble thrombomodulin (sTM) can correct the lysis defect in FVIII‐DP. Methods: The time courses of TAFI activation in both NP and FVIII‐DP were monitored after clotting with thrombin, PCPS and Ca2+, ± sTM. Clotting and lysis were measured turbidometrically and TAFIa using a functional assay. Results: Premature lysis that occurs in FVIII‐DP is corrected by mixing deficient plasma with 10% NP. However, this does not fully correct the defect in TAFI activation. FVIII‐DP must be mixed with up to 50% NP to attain the same TAFIa potential as NP. In FVIII‐DP, sTM can correct the defect in TAFIa‐dependent prolongation of lysis at low tPA concentrations and partially correct this defect at high tPA concentrations. Conclusions: TAFI activation increases as the concentration of FVIII increases. FVIII at a level of 10% fully corrects the lysis defect in spite of the extent of TAFI activation being only one half that obtained with 100% FVIII. In addition, sTM increases TAFI activation sufficiently to correct the premature lysis defect in FVIII‐DP.


Dark matter axions form a rethermalizing Bose-Einstein condensate. This provides an opportunity to distinguish axions from other forms of dark matter on observational grounds. I show that if the dark matter is axions, tidal torque theory predicts a specific structure for the phase space distribution of the halos of isolated disk galaxies, such as the Milky Way. This phase space structure is precisely that of the caustic ring model, for which observational support had been found earlier. The other dark matter candidates predict a different phase space structure for galactic halos.


The lack of adult supervision on school buses facilitates traffic-related injury, bullying, and other infractions. This review identified studies evaluating behavior interventions designed to improve student behaviors on school buses. Identified studies provided limited information regarding the characteristics of participants and generally assessed the effect of driver or researcher implemented reinforcement, punishment, and other management activities on the behavior of all passengers. Studies yielded modest findings and did not satisfy the most recent quality indicators of the Council of Exceptional Children. Implications for practice and future research follow a discussion of findings.


Background. Alterations in the tumor suppressor gene p53 are the most frequently detected genetic abnormalities in human cancers. Inactivated tumor suppressor genes, including p53, often are suggested by loss of heterozygosity (LOH) studies. p53 gene inactivation has been reported in esophageal cancers. Because the etiologic factors for esophageal and intraoral carcinomas often are the same, corresponding molecular events may occur in oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) development.


Secret sharing and digital signature is an important research area in information security and has wide applications in such fields as safeguarding and legal use of confidential information, secure multiparty computation and electronic commerce. But up to now, study of signature based on general vector space secret sharing is very weak. Aiming at this drawback, the authors did some research on vector space secret sharing against cheaters, and proposed an efficient but secure vector space secret sharing based multi-signature scheme, which is implemented in two channels. In this scheme, the group signature can be easily produced if an authorized subset of participants pool their secret shadows and it is impossible for them to generate a group signature if an unauthorized subset of participants pool their secret shadows. The validity of the group signature can be verified by means of verification equations. A group signature of authorized subset of participants cannot be impersonated by any other set of participants. Moreover, the suspected forgery can be traced, and the malicious participants can be detected in the scheme. None of several possible attacks can successfully break this scheme.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of giving honey bee (Apis
dorsata F.) on calcium levels of mandibular bone in ovariohysterectomized rat as
animal models of osteoporosis. The samples were 20 female rats wich were
divided into 5 treatment groups with 4 replications. SHAM was sham operated
rats as negative control, OH was ovariohysterectomized rats without treatment as
positive control, wheares AD1, AD2, AD3 was ovariohysterectomized rats with
treatment Apis dorsata 1 g/KgBW, 2 g/KgBW, 4 g/KgBW for 84 days. After 84
days of treatment, the rats left mandibular bone were harvested, weighed and kept
in 10% Neutral Buffered Formalin (10% NBF) until analysis. Calcium levels were
calculated using proximate analysis. The data was analyzed using ANOVA and
Duncan as the Post-Hoc Test. The results showed a decreased of bone calcium
levels on ovariohysterectomized rats, the highest results were in the SHAM group
and the lowest results were in the AD3 group. Based on this results, it can be
concluded that honey bee (Apis dorsata) can not maintain calcium levels of
mandibular bone in ovariohysterectomized white rats (Rattus norvegicus


The invention provides a mutton sausage and a preparation method thereof. The mutton sausage comprises raw materials and supplementary materials. The raw materials comprise the following components in portion by weight: 70 to 80 portions of lean mutton, 10 to 20 portions of vegetable oil, and 2 to 10 portions of water. The supplementary materials comprise the following components in portion by weight: 1.5 to 2.5 portions of salt, 0.003 to 0.01 portion of nitrite, and 0.1 to 0.5 portion of tripolyphosphate. The preparation method comprises the following steps: forming comminuted meat from the lean mutton, and adding the salt and nitrite for even curing; adding the tripolyphosphate, carrying out the intensive stirring for even mixing, and adding the vegetable oil and carrying out the stirring; carrying out the vacuum filling; carrying out the drying; and carrying out the cooling. The invention takes the lean mutton and the vegetable oil as raw materials for the first time. As the vegetable oil replaces fat, the special mutton smell is removed, and the taste is good. The mutton sausage not only enriches the varieties of sausages, but also provides wider approaches for the deep processing of mutton.


The article presents the results of the participatory budgeting research and urban activism in the renovation of the urban space of Kherson, and analyzes the modern features of urban space transformation.Participatory planning and budgeting today are the guidelines for the development of new, joint and integrated decisions in strategic development of the community. However, the Kherson city case study proved urban activism on issues of participatory budgeting to be small-scale in nature, which means that 2-5% of the city community is involved in budgeting, and the total cost of approved projects is less than 0.5% of the average annual city's budget. Urban activism is quite sporadic beyond the participatory budgeting, which is the result of "small initiatives" of individual creative groups and entrepreneurs, rather than a strategic plan for spatial development of the community.The participatory budgeting in the Kherson city community development is still pseudo-participatory in its nature, given that much of decisions are aimed at solving the current domestic and communal problems, rather than implementing the agenda or strategic goals of community development.
In the era of actual city deindustrialization, Kherson should not only be positioned as one of the leaders in foreign and domestic tourism, but also restore its status of a comfortable city and a unique recreational and logistics center. The article presents the author's vision of the planning decisions and urban activism prospects in the urban spaces' transformation. The key points are the next: 1) renovation and revitalization of urban space should be carried out primarily by creating different types and functional purposes of creative spaces (new formats of recreation, communication, information education, inclusive environment development); 2) creation or renovation of existing public spaces should be carried out only with the involvement of participatory management mechanisms in order to provide the city with the functional content really needed by the community; 3) a particular strategic direction of urban space renovation should aim at the increase of green public spaces and benefiting from the unique Kherson city community location at the mouth of the Dnieper.


Along with the development of information technology, digital signal filled with the whole world, we see the image can be converted to be computer to deal with a digital signal. Digital image processing is through computer tool, with digital image signal by a series of processing operations, and get people with the needs of the application. This paper introduces the Fourier transform and wavelet transform algorithm and its application. These include, spatial analysis, frequency domain analysis, linear transformation and digital image processing basic point operations, filtering, enhance, etc. The advantages of wavelet transform with the traditional Fourier transform supplement each other on image information processing more ideal.


In the basis of practical coordinates of any point on the road two sides, this paper brings up a good way, which can calculate a most closed point′s coordinates near to that point in midline. And in practice, we can measure it out very quickly. The layout methods and software, which are both the applicants of these theories mentioned above, have very high worthy to the highway midline measuring and quality survey.


Various tissue displacement vector measurement methods have been proposed by us, i.e., the multidimensional cross-spectrum phase gradient method (MCSPGM), the multidimensional autocorrelation method (MAM) and the multidimensional Doppler method (MDM). In this paper, actual measurement results obtained by MAM and MDM are reported. Specifically, for a compressed agar-graphite phantom (infinitesimally compressed, ≈0.07%; largely compressed, ≈0.7%), the measurement results for axial strain using MAM and MDM are shown and compared with those using MCSPGM, the conventional one-dimensional (1D) AM and the direct strain measurement method based on 1D AM (DSMM). Although DSMM was also developed by us in 1993, the method and the actual measurement results have not been reported elsewhere. Because the multidimensional methods can provide more accurate axial displacement measurements in real time and enable displacement vector measurement, 1D AM and DSMM might now be ineffective for practical applications.


Autoantibodies (AAbs) are antibodies produced against our own cells or tissues either providing a first defense against infections or indicating the presence of pathological processes.


The main theorems of this paper, which extend the previous generalizations of α-matrices, provide some criteria for nonsingular H-matrices by the theories of non-strict α-matrices with nonzero elements chain. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the result is illustrated by one numerical example.


Most ECGs in European hospitals are recorded with equipment giving computer measured intervals and interpretation of the recording. In addition to measurements of interval and QRS axis, this interpretation frequently provides the Bazett's-corrected QTc time. The introduction of computer-corrected QTc revealed QTc prolongation to be a frequent condition among medical patients. Nevertheless, the finding is frequently overlooked by the treating physician. The authors combine experience from a local hospital with a review of the current literature in this field in order to elucidate the importance of this risk factor both as congenital long QT syndrome and as acquired QT prolongation.


Abstract The design of facility layout is an influential factor in a company's performance to support the streamlined process of production. PT. PMJ is one of the garment industries that produce women's underwear. The total processing time in the sewing department often exceeds the standard time set by the company. The composition of the machine and facilities at the sewing department is considered to be not optimal. The order of machines in the production line has not been arranged appropriately which causes the excessive distance in the material transfer. In addition, the uses of straight material flow cause the workers to rotate their posture of the body when taking the materials. Based on the results of the assessment of the condition of workers in the initial facility layout using the Quick Exposure Check (QEC) method, the highest total exposure score is on the back. This study aims to redesign the facility layout of PT. PMJ using Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) and ergonomics approach to minimize total material handling cost. Two design alternatives are proposed and the performance of each design is evaluated using ARENA simulation software. Based on the calculation of total material handling cost and simulation, the second proposed facility layout was chosen since it was able to reduce the total material handling cost by 22.92% and material transfer time by 34.01%.


Persistent organic pollutants(POPs) are a family of environmental pollutants that are persistent,semi-volatile,bioaccumulative and high toxic.This article summarizes the contamination status,types and sources,hazards,physicochemical remediation technology,and bioremediation method of POPs in sediments.It introduces the application of bioremediation method and its development in detail.Including bioremediation,phytoremediation,animal repair and modern bioremediation method.Finally,it provides a summary and outlook of various bioremediation methods.


A mouth outline feature extraction based on Bayesian Tangent Shape Model(BTSM) and a lip-reading system based on Dynamic Bayesian Network(DBN) is proposed for a talking head in this paper.This model describes the relationship of the word and its corresponding composed viseme,as a result,viseme segmentation sequence with time boundary is achieved.As a comparison,a DBN model based on word-phone relationship and a tri-phone HMM are used.For the system evaluation,an absolute Viseme Segmentation Accuracy(VSA) and two relative VSA based on image and geometrical feature of lip are brought out.The experiments show that DBN model has the better performance than HMM,and DBN model based on viseme can provide the best mouth shape for talking head.


Summary. The periodic autoregressive processes are useful in statistica l analysis of seasonal time series . Some procedures (e.g. extrapolation ) are quite analogous to those in the classical a utoregressive models. The problem of interpol a tion needs, however, some speci a l methods. They a re demonstr a ted in the p a per on the c a se of the process of the second order with the period of length 2.


We consider the stability of the motion generated in a differentially heated vertical slot filled with a linearly stratified salt solution. The theoretical mean motion field between infinite plates is a function of the Rayleigh number Rs, = gβ(∂S0/∂z) D4/k8ν. If Rs is zero the salinity does not enter the problem and one finds instability in the form of stationary rolls which obtain most of their energy from the basic velocity field. Even at very small Rs of order -1000 these shear instabilities are replaced by diffusively destabilized convective rolls which appear at a thermal Rayleigh number Ra = gαΔTD3/kTν which is two orders of magnitude less than that required for the shear generated modes. The present calculations, which take proper account of both the mean fields and the boundary conditions, give results which compare somewhat more favourably with the experimental results of Thorpe, Hutt & Soulsby (1969) than the theory put forward by these authors. It is shown why their theory, which deals with different boundary conditions from those in the experiment, gives adequate results as Rs tends to negative infinity.


What might be some of the implications—for practitioner research into
composition, music-making, and performance—of my dogged insistence over the past decade that expert-intuitive process is a vital knowledge practice in art-making? I am aware that some readers, researchers, students, and art-makers might find that observation itself, and/or some of its parts, not only taxing but irrele-vant to her or his own practices and objectives. Some of the terms included in my observation can seem rebarbative, especially to creative practitioners: Why this insistence on "expert," as in "expert-intuitive"? What should be made of my unadulterated use of the verb "to be"—described by others as "ontologising" (see, for example, Osborne 2000), or to assert existence or being (in place of perception, hypothesis, argument)? And what of "knowledge practice" (or epistemics) when surely what many artists are more concerned with is creativity? Finally, why this insistence on the intuitive—or rather the hyphenated "expert-intuitive"— when research into the nominalised "intuition," at least, in the late twentieth century, has revealed that uses of the term tend to bring into play notions that are judged to be prejudicial to the pursuit of a reasoned, systematic, and rigorous research undertaking (upon which many judgements of research "quality" and "value" are based)?


The response of functional traits of plants to external environment can influence their competitive ability because these functional traits are required for the acquisition of resources. The overuse of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has gained attention due to their environmental toxicity. This study aimed to examine the effects of AgNPs with different concentrations and particle sizes on functional traits of wheat. It was observed that AgNPs significantly reduced the plant height and so decrease its competitive ability. Ag ions decreased leaf chlorophyll and nitrogen content and specific leaf area more than AgNPs, but the opposite was true for leaf length, single leaf fresh mass, and shoot fresh mass. Hence, the toxicity of AgNPs may be higher than that of Ag ions in some cases. In this study, leaf chlorophyll and nitrogen content decreased with increasing concentration of AgNPs (with size 30 nm). The AgNPs with smaller particle size exerted higher toxicity on leaf chlorophyll and N content than those with larger particle size at the same concentration. However, AgNPs with larger particle size reduced more aboveground fresh mass than those with smaller particle size at the same concentration.


This paper presents a dynamically robust current control method to synthesize a sinusoidal input current for AC-to-DC power converters with boost type topology. Under this control strategy, the inductor current and the diode current of the boost converter are fedback and combined in a special way which makes the input current of the AC-to-DC power converter stable and robust. The input current is solely determined by the reference current. When the reference current signal is derived from the sinusoidal input voltage, the input current is sinusoidal and in phase with the input voltage. Theoretical analysis is first provided. Small signal analysis shows that the current loop is inherently stable and offers faster dynamic response than the currently popular average current mode control. Large signal analysis reveals that the control system is not affected by large disturbances in supply voltage or output load. Computer simulations have been carried out and experimental prototype models have been built to verify the analysis and demonstrate the feasibility of the control strategy. A power factor of 0.998 is measured.


The anti-reflection structure 10 having a periodic concave and convex portion 20 on the surface, in the laminate 2 having a transparent conductive film 30 to be deposited uneven portion 20, any convex portions excluding the protruding portion 21 of the outermost and 21-1, and the convex portion 21-2~21-7 total of six is the shortest distance from any protrusion 21-1, (1) six protrusions 21-2~21- 7 of lower recess 22 than the apex 21a of the protrusion 21 between each and any protrusions 21-1 of the four protrusions 21-2,21-3,21-5,21-6 of there are connecting portions 23 for connecting the convex portions at a position higher than the bottom point 22a, (2) 6 pieces of the remaining two protrusions 21-4 of the protrusion 21-2~21-7, recess 22 is positioned to lie between the respectively arbitrary convex portion 21-1 of 21-7.


Summary

A number of bacterial, organoleptic and chemical evaluations were made on iced queen scallops in shell over 14 days total. The spoilage flora, qualitative and quantitative, is described. Organoleptic descriptions are given along with determinations of trimethylamine, total volatile bases, volatile reducing substances, glycogen, hypoxanthine, ribose fractions and optical density ratios at 248 nm before and after treatment with ion-exchange resin. Hypoxanthine showed the most promise as a spoilage indicator while total volatile bases and optical density ratio showed some promise but to a lesser extent.


Lung metastasis is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Here, we show that intranasal delivery of our engineered CpG-coated tumor antigen (Tag)-encapsulated nanoparticles (NPs)—nasal nano-vaccine—significantly reduced lung colonization by intravenous challenge of an extra-pulmonary tumor. Protection against tumor-cell lung colonization was linked to the induction of localized mucosal-associated effector and resident memory T cells as well as increased bronchiolar alveolar lavage-fluid IgA and serum IgG antibody responses. The nasal nano-vaccine-induced T-cell-mediated antitumor mucosal immune response was shown to increase tumor-specific production of IFN-γ and granzyme B by lung-derived CD8+ T cells. These findings demonstrate that our engineered nasal nano-vaccine has the potential to be used as a prophylactic approach prior to the seeding of tumors in the lungs, and thereby prevent overt lung metastases from existing extra pulmonary tumors.


The removal efficiencies of atrazine by O3,biological activated carbon(BAC) and O3/BAC process were investigated by simulating the sudden increase of its concentration in Taihu Lake water,and the technical parameters were analyzed.The results indicate that the removal efficiency of atrazine by ozonation is 31%,while BAC process can remove 73% of atrazine.Ozonation can enhance the removal efficiency in BAC process,and the removal efficiency of atrazine by O3/BAC process can reach 95%.Biomass on crushed carbon is evidently higher than that on columnar carbon.To remove atrazine,crushed carbon should be chosen to fill the activated carbon column.The proper thickness of activated carbon column in O3/BAC process should be 150 cm which can ensure the removal efficiency of atrazine and the safety of treated water.


This article is a critical analysis of how a black urban primary school in South Africa used dual medium in two Grade R (Reception year or kindergarten) classes. An ethnographic inquiry was conducted in a township primary school, informed by sociocultural theory. The sample comprised children, teachers and parents of classes divided by the school according to the learners' home languages. Data collection included interviews, observations, artefacts and a reflective journal, analysed using Atlas.ti software and Brewer's steps of analysis. Language code-switching and translation were mainly employed by teachers to address language complexity emanating from internal and external factors affecting the school. Having to learn in a dual medium of one African language or home language and English highlighted the need to revisit the crucial area of language development and acquisition in early childhood development and foundation phase learners.


Mimosa scabrella Benth. is an important native species of southern Brazil widely used for energy and promising for reforestation carbon offsets. Quantification of biomass and carbon stock is valuable for both purposes. From a forest inventory conducted in southern Brazil, data of M. scabrella were analyzed. Thirty sample trees were felled, excavated and weighed in the field and brought to laboratory for biomass and carbon determination. The total aboveground biomass represented 85% of the tree biomass, while roots corresponded to 15%. Correlation matrix of diameter at 1.3 m height (D), tree height (H) versus total and compartment biomass (P) indicated strong association between tree dimensions and biomasses. Five regression models were tested and equations were fitted to data of five biomass compartments and total tree biomass. The best fitting model for total biomass was P = –0.49361 + 0.034865 × D2H whereas for the partial biomass of the compartments was lnP = β0 + β1 × ln(D) + β2 lnH. Carbon concentration was statistically significantly different in foliage than in other compartments. Three approaches of calculating carbon stocks were evaluated and compared to actual data: 1) Estimated total biomass × weighted mean carbon concentration; 2) Estimated partial (compartment) biomass × compartment average carbon concentration; and 3) Carbon regression equations. No statistical difference was detected among them. It was concluded that biomass equations fitted in this study were accurate and useful for fuelwood and carbon estimations.