The problem of modeling the consequences of economic sanctions for companies is considered. The introduction of economic sanctions against the economy of a country leads to a sharp change in the conditions of economic activity and business of companies. Companies have to adapt to the "new reality", make non-standard management decisions and support measures. Under these conditions, the task of studying the impact of sanctions on the financial stability and solvency of companies becomes relevant. Another important task is to model and evaluate the effects of various countermeasures aimed at maintaining financial stability. It is shown that in the context of the application of sanctions, the direct method based on dynamic modeling of the company's financial indicators and cash flows is preferable to the indirect method based on the calculation of a set of coefficients using statistical data. The article describes software tools for building a production and financial model of a company based on the TEO-INVEST software package. An illustrative example shows the methodology for using it to predict the dynamics of the financial performance of an enterprise and the choice of management decisions.


Measured in terms of citizen participation, American democ racy leaves much to be desired. (Putnam 2000; Skocpol 2003). Participation levels are low and a large percentage of citizens report that they have little or no contact with their political lead ers; many say they are turned off by the process. As citizen par ticipation is the normative cornerstone of a democratic system, this is indeed cause for concern. There is no shortage of explanations for this phenomenon, ranging from barriers to voter registration and political alien ation to problems of complexity and citizen incompetence. Zolo (1992), Offe (1996), and Habermas (1996), for example, argue that complexity now virtually makes democracy impossible in anything but a very restricted form. The degree to which Western political systems are organized around functionally specialized tasks carried out by different groups is seen to have created lev els of fragmention that now make it quite difficult to bring deci sions under the control of elected representatives, let alone the public more generally. Given the degree of complexity, some today even argue that the low levels of citizen participation is a healthy thing. Others extend the argument against par ticipation, portraying it as a leftist proj ect imposed on a citizenry that would prefer to leave problems to their elected leaders (Hibbing and Theiss-Morse 2002; Posner 2003). American citizens are said to have little desire to partici pate in matters of public policy. Indeed, surveys and focus groups elicit views that suggest many see political argu mentation and disagreement as a failure of the system. Deliberation for them is deemed potentially detrimental to effec tive policy-making. But one need not celebrate this state of affairs. It is just as easily the result of socialization in political systems that generates apathy and indifference. Moreover, the argument that deliberation harms policy problem-solving serves only to limit the options to those of a particular stratum of society, often in clear conflict with the interests of others.


JosephsonStorm is also completely overlooked. In a similar fashion, Zander's theoretical chapter leaves an impression that the debate concerning definitions of esotericism happened exclusively in Western and Northern Europe, which is clearly not the case. This, however, seems to be a common problem in the field in general and is not limited to the present volume. Despite some minor issues, Occult Roots of Religious Studies is an exciting addition to the body of literature on the early history of religious studies that will benefit a wide range of readers from students to seasoned scholars while open access makes it easily available to everybody interested in the subject.


Selenium (Se)-enriched Spirulina platensis was screened by co1ont-forming cultivation under Se stress. Added with selenite sodium (Na2SeO3), algal colonies were formed in semi-solid agar substrate with Se contents of 2.5 mmol L^(-1) , 5 mmol L^(-1) and 10 mmol L^(-1). Under Se stress of 5 mmol L^(-1). typical colonies were selected and proliferated in Se-enriched culture medium. After inoculation for 3 limes and determination of growth rate and Se content in algal colonies, stable Se-enriched S. platensis was identified. There acre 6 Irons 12 colonies with Se stability and growth rate up to 80% compared with control, but only 2 colonies (named as SP0803 and SP0809) from the 6 had stable and higher Se content of 924μg/g and 831μg/g, respectively. These results suggested that colons-forming cultivation of microalgae could be conducted in semi-solid agar substrate and Se-enriched .S. platens was screened successfully in this way. Fig 3, Tab 2, Ref 12


Russian understanding of religiosity is closely connected with the history of our society, which experienced transformation in the twentieth century. The fi rst has been to move from understanding religion as a mandatory membership in dominant «Church of Russia» to the policy of «freedom of conscience». The second one situationally qualifi ed «religiousness» as unacceptable «obsolete remnants», which opposed the legitimacy of «faith in the triumph of the ideals of communism».


The substitution method commonly employed for measuring small capacities is shown to be a special case of a more general principle. As other special cases of this principle methods are presented for simultaneously measuring inductance and capacity when joined in series and when joined in parallel. The cases discussed indicate the method of application of the general principle to any type of measuring or measured circuit.


Hypothesis / aims of study Urinary incontinence reduces the quality of life of around 30 % of men and up to 25 % of women over the age of 65. Urodynamic assessment in the clinical environment aims to reproduce symptoms while accurately measuring pressures within the bladder and abdomen. If conventional cystometry is unable to reproduce symptoms, ambulatory studies may be indicated allowing the patient to move freely around while wearing a holster that records the pressure traces for analysis later. Measurement of pressure for urodynamic studies requires catheterisation. Disposable catheters usually use a fluid-filled line to transmit the pressure to an external transducer. While water-filled catheters are suitable for conventional urodynamics, movement artefacts make them unsuited for use in ambulatory studies. Consequently, solid-state transducers mounted on the tip of the catheter remain the preferred choice for ambulatory studies, but these devices are expensive and so in general reusable and hence require cleaning after use. Air-charged catheters (ACCs) are disposable alternatives. A volume of air is used rather than water to transmit the pressure at the catheter tip to an external transducer, almost eliminating artefacts due to the weight of fluid in the catheter. As yet, however, it is unclear whether clinical measurements of pressure made using ACCs are equivalent to measurements made with other technologies [1], [2], and no study has investigated whether ACCs are stable enough with time to use for ambulatory urodynamics. Consequently, the aim of this study was to assess the stability of pressure measurements made using aircharged catheters over a six hour time period.


The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is currently evaluating polymer based components for application in launch vehicle and propulsion system avionics systems. Organic polymers offer great advantages over inorganic corollaries. Unlike inorganics with crystalline structures defining their sensing characteristics, organic polymers can be engineered to provide varying degrees of sensitivity for various parameters including electro-optic response, second harmonic generation, and piezoelectric response. While great advantages in performance can be achieved with organic polymers, survivability in the operational environment is a key aspect for their practical application. The space environment in particular offers challenges that must be considered in the application of polymer based devices. These challenges include: long term thermal stability for long duration missions, extreme thermal cycling, space radiation tolerance, vacuum operation, low power operation, high operational reliability. Requirements for application of polymer based devices in space avionics systems will be presented and discussed in light of current polymer materials.


We study carefully the problem of the bootstrap on the half line. We show why one needs the full set of constraints derived from the Stieltjes theorem on the moment problem by reexamining previous results on the hydrogen atom. We also study the hydrogen atom at continuous angular momentum. We show that the constraints on the moment problem alone do not fix the boundary conditions in all cases and at least one of the positive matrices needs to be slightly enlarged to remove unphysical branches. We explain how to solve the more general problem of the bootstrap for Robin boundary conditions. The recursion relations that are usually used receive additional anomalous contributions. These corrections are necessary to compute the moments of the measure. We apply these to the linear potential and we show how the bootstrap matches the analytical results, based on the Airy function, for this example.


An object of the present invention has excellent basic properties as a resist, is to provide a radiation sensitive resin composition excellent in circularity and CD Uniformity at the time of forming the contact hole pattern. This radiation sensitive resin composition, the acid-dissociable group-containing resin which becomes alkali-soluble (A) by the action of an acid, acid generator (B), and the solvent (C) and radiation-sensitive resin composition containing a is, the resin (a) are those comprising the repeating unit represented by the following general formula (1) and (2). [R ]


As a report to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Plenary, "Universal Rights in a World of Diversity: The Case of Religious Freedom" (Spring 2011) ed. by Mary Ann Glendon and Hans F. Zacher, this paper, subsequently published in the Acta No. 17 of the Academy (2012), reviewed developments in law and religion in Canada and South Africa, The paper is divided in three parts. 1) the framework for understanding religion and the public sphere with particular focus on the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Chamberlain (2002, re-examining the meaning of a "secular society"); 2) a review of the constitutional provisions regarding religion and related rights in both countries; and 3) the experience of "inter-faith" co-operation in litigation and the development of the South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms as examples of civil-society initiatives that can inform politics and law in relation to religious pluralism. The paper concludes by observing that the current phase in constitutional democracies is a kind of tug-of-war between convergence and accommodation of difference, between subsidiarity that respects associational differences and forms of statism that rejects them in favour of legally mandated uniformity. It suggests that both theocratic and statist atheistically or agnostically dominant approaches to law and policy should be avoided; that religion is best understood as propositional rather than impositional; and that law and politics need to become more respectful of the social and cultural goods offered by associational diversity. These goods, particularly those that emanate from religious communities, have to date been recognized more fully in certain South African decisions than Canadian ones.


We now turn to our final set of research questions regarding CVN 77 design and construction: • First, are there technologies and applications-engineering processes not now used by builders of Navy ships that might reduce the life-cycle costs of CVN 77, earlier Nimitz-class ships, or the CVX class? • If there are, and in view of the potential for cost reduction, how much of an R&D investment should be made to permit the adaptation of those technologies and processes for CVN 77? Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are very expensive ships to build, own, and operate. The procurement cost for CVN 77 will be more than $5 billion. Each Nimitz-class carrier has an average annual operations and maintenance cost of approximately $240 million, slightly less than half of which is for shipyard availabilities. A little less than a third of the annual cost is for the pay and allowances of the approximately 3,000 enlisted and officer ship's company personnel assigned to each carrier. Even a small percentage reduction in annual costs can have a major impact on the annual ship construction, Navy (SCN), military personnel, Navy (MPN), and operations and maintenance, Navy (O&MN) budgets. CVN 77 will be the tenth, and last, of the Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers. Although the basic design of the class is over 30 years old, no two Nimitz-class carriers are exactly the same. Each carrier incorporates changes from its previous sister ship. At times, the changes—the redesigned island and bulbous bow added to CVN 76, for example—are fairly significant; most changes, however, are minor, incorporating the latest equipment or weapon systems. The vast majority of the changes incorporated over the past 30 years have been in operational areas, to satisfy new mission requirements or to increase the surviv-ability of the ship against new enemy threats. Few, if any, of the design changes


Not every entrepreneur, small business owner or freelancer is comfortable negotiating. Many dread the adversarial nature of negotiation, and forget how important is to be prepared, to develop cultural awareness, and to act as equal partner in a negotiation. Understanding how entrepreneurs negotiate and how their behavior influences the outcomes of negotiation is important for entrepreneurship theory and practice. This article assumes the hypothesis that entrepreneurial negotiations have certain specifications that clearly distinguish them from corporate negotiations. The research is based on qualitative research, using primary and secondary data. Also, the article starts from the assumption that entrepreneurs adopt faster decisionsin negotiations, being owners of the businesses or freelancers, and acting according to their own rules and objectives. Theories and empirical results on the intersubjective interactions between entrepreneurs and their numerous stakeholders are lacking.


The invention relates to a method for producing low-emission polyurethane foams which are stable during hydrolysis, using special catalysts. The invention also relates to polyurethane foams produced by said method and catalyst compositions that are to be used therein.


This collection of essays grew out of the conference " Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy, " held at Stony Brook University, Massachusetts, US, in September 2008, and organised by the editors with the support of several colleagues. With the exception of a Canadian (Ian Hacking of Coll è ge de France and University of Toronto) and an Australian (Peter Singer of Princeton University and University of Melbourne), the 20 remaining contributors are from the US. Authors represent the fi elds of law, philosophy, bioethics, medicine, and mental illness. Eva Kittay is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women ' s Studies, and Senior Fellow, Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, Stony Brook University/ SUNY. She is the mother of a woman with intellectual disabilities. Licia Carlson is Assistant Professor at Providence College. The major focus of her work has been on philosophy and intellectual disability. In 2010 she published The Faces of Intellectual Disability: Philosophical Refl ections . Following an introductory chapter by Carlson and Kittay, entitled " Rethinking philosophical assumptions in the light of cognitive disability, " the collection is organised around six themes; namely, intellectual disability: The medical model and beyond; justice; care; agency; speaking about cognitive disability; and moral personhood. In a footnote to the Introduction, Carlson and Kittay express a preference for the term " cognitive disability, " under which they include conditions such as autism, dementia, Alzheimer ' s, and mental retardation. Their rejection of the term " intellectual disability " is on the basis that some advocacy and professional groups dislike the term. They also point out that some forms of cognitive disability, such as forms of autism, do not always imply diminished intellectual capacity. The two essays by physicians, specialists in intellectual and developmental disability, in the fi rst theme, The medical model and beyond , provide an excellent framework for the subsequent chapters. Jeffrey Bosco, a paediatrician and medical historian, highlights how the complex interaction between the political, social, and medical factors have impacted upon the changes in defi nitions, public health measures, and diagnostic tools in the fi eld of intellectual and developmental disability (IDD). Psychiatrist James Harris in his essay " Developmental perspective on the emergence of moral personhood " effectively sets the scene for the topics taken up by many of the philosophers in the later chapters. Harris argues against reducing cognitive disability to cognitive impairment , by assuming a physiological impairment defi nes the extent to which capacities and functioning within the community are limited. He stresses that even the people with the most severe disability have the capacity for important forms of moral and emotional development. In the theme on Justice there is a lively debate led by Martha Nussbaum who challenges the contractarian theories of justice, such as those of John Rawls (1971, 1993), on the basis that they fail people with cognitive disability. Nussbaum proposes her alternative theory of capabilities with a list of 10 capabilities that all governments should guarantee all its citizens. She suggests that capability theory justice should enable people with cognitive disability to vote and be able to serve on juries. At the same time she asserts that surrogate or proxy support should be available to enable those with severe cognitive disability to exercise their rights. Other contributors provide support for Nussbaum ' s position, while a number defend the Rawlesian approach, claiming that Nussbaum " ... fails to respect the dignity of rational agents adequately " (p. 9). The three essays contributing to the Care theme sensitively explore the roles and obligations of paid and unpaid carers. The authors discuss various aspects of the question of what good care demands, in a society that should treat all people with justice. Of special relevance to current discussions in Australia regarding individualised funding, Jonathan Wolff recommends models of care which would serve people with IDD and their families well. His Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, September 2012; 37(3): 274–276


The overall aim of this research project was to consider the extent to which communities of people in Scotland living at different levels of deprivation also live in proximity to factors affecting environmental quality. The presumption is often made that there is coincidence between poor environmental quality and deprived communities in Scotland. This project sought to develop an evidence base to explore this presumption and to help inform future policy directions.

The project involved a review of past research in the environmental equity field; a scoping and evaluation of data sets; and an analysis of 8 environmental topics against patterns of multiple deprivation throughout Scotland.

For each of the 8 environmental topics analysis was undertaken against the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004. Use was also made of spatially precise household location data in order to estimate populations in proximity to environmental features. Patterns of clustering and differences between urban and rural populations were also examined where relevant.


The advanced nature education of members in the Southern Bureau of the CPC was not only unique,but also efficient,of which many aspects are still valuable for reference to the toady's Party members' advanced nature education.


In the present paper an improved genetic algorithm (GA) based linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control scheme has been proposed for active vibration control of smart fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite shell structures under combined mechanical and thermal loading. A layered shell finite element formulation has been done to obtain the electro-thermo-mechanical response of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite shell structures bonded with piezoelectric patches. Based on the responses obtained from finite element analysis, a real coded GA based improved LQR control scheme has been incorporated, which maximizes the closed loop damping while keeping the actuator voltages within limit. It has been observed that the developed FE code can be used for determination of the accurate response of smart FRP shell structures for the simulation of active vibration control of such structures. The proposed GA based LQR control scheme could control both dynamic oscillation due to mechanical load as well as the static displacement due to a thermal gradient, which was not possible with conventional LQR control scheme.


The theory of each kind of CAPP was presented and their merits were compared with each other.The key technology which needs to be solved in the field of CAPP and the prospects of CAPP were discussed.


Curriculum,teaching materials and teachers are three main factors of teaching.The curriculum,under the instruction of which teaching materials are edited and teaching procedures are planned,is more concerned with pedagogy or methods of teaching.The teachers are practitioners of curriculum and teaching contents.So firstly this article analyzes The New English Curriculum Standard,the characteristics of the new primary school English textbooks and then focuses on the quality primary school English teachers need to meet the challenge put forward by the new curriculum in order to practice the primary school English textbooks in a more efficient way.


The kharif crops such as rice, Sorghum, Zea mays, cotton, ragi, Pennisetum glaucum, sugarcane, jute, etcetera, grow in dry and arid conditions. The soil and its nutrient value is an important component of sustainable farming . Despite modern agricultural techniques, the high rate of population growth renders the crop yield inadequate . The choice of a specific arrangement of crop patterns relies upon numerous criteria that differ from region to region . The conception of the index was included in sustainability for the set of selected criteria and existing weather parameters by Dillon et al. . Roy and Weng examined the indicators of sustainable agriculture in Bangladesh. Sorensen et al. suggested a cultivation selection method in the agricultural topography. Multiple attribute-based decision-making () techniques had been applied in diverse fields such as hydrologic sciences, ecological systems, agricultural systems, water resources systems, water supply, storage, and recycling . MADM techniques have been successfully applied in energy sectors , industrial and automation engineering systems , robotics , etcetera. Srinivas et al. published a MADM study related to the water quality of the river Ganga for the diffusion of trace metal. Agarwal and Garg employed the MADM technique for the assessment of groundwater quality. Krol et al. evaluated the sustainability of the maize cultivation in Poland using multi-criteria decision analysis and found that the same sowing method was not the best practice for small and large farm field, hence the criteria is of utmost importance for decision making. Mallick et al. implemented a fuzzyanalytic hierarchy process () technique to evaluate landslide susceptibility. The study suggests that the criteria weighting must be normalized and the results obtained from the MADM techniques must be validated using sensitivity analysis. Other applications of MADM include the construction industry, information technology, and green chamber farming. A two-phase AHP-TOPSIS was applied to identify a suitable concrete mixture for high performance and sustainable construction material and was determined by applying three MADM methods, namely optimal scoring method, AHP, and TOPSIS . The ranking of cloud-based learning techniques was suggested by applying AHP . A fuzzy based MADM model was studied to identify sustainable green chamber farming practices to rank the vegetable cash crops Sustainability of agricultural practices depends on economic, environmental, and social conditions. The Rajasthan state of India has arid climatic conditions where kharif crops are commonly grown. In this work, the four major criteria are considered such as the farm area, crop yield per unit area, the cost prices, and the market sales price. Merged analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy techniques have been employed to give reasonable weight coefficients for the objective and subjective weights to each criterion. Multiple attribute-based decision-making models (MADM) have been developed using three proven techniques, namely the Exprom2, the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR). The crop Pennisetum glaucum emerged as the most productive kharif crop in the arid climatic conditions of Rajasthan, India under the given criteria. The sensitivity analysis of the three methods identifies the most significant criteria and validates that Pennisetum glaucum is the first ranked crop despite the interchange of the weights. The methodology used in this study may be applied across the globe to select appropriate crops for maximizing the profit, optimizing the natural resources, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. This study may be used to enhance the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) to make the agriculturalists self-sufficient and to help the state policymakers in making elective regional policies.


Objective To observe the clinical effects of the absorbable membrane on adhesion prevention in the tendon repair. Methods 38 patients with acute injury of hand tendon underwent tendon repair. They were randomized into 2 groups. There were 15 patients (65 tendons) in the test group, involving 51 flexor tendons in 10 cases, 7 of whom had neurovascular injury, and 14 extensor tendon in 5 cases. There were 23 (76 tendons) in the control group, involving 32 flexor tendons in 11 cases, 6 of whom had neurovascular injury, and 44 extensor tendons in 12 cases. All the tendons were repaired with 5-0 thread by modified Kessler method. The connected parts of the tendons were wrapped by absorbable membrane (produced by DIKANG BIOMEDICAL Co, Ltd) in the test group, and were immobilized by plaster. Postoperative exercise were encouraged. In the control group, no absorbable membrane was used, the plaster was changed into dynamic brace 3 days after operation and removed 3 weeks later, but for those with neurovascular injury it was removed 4 weeks later. And active exercises were permitted. In addition, their hands were smoked and rinsed with Chinese herbal medication. Results Postoperative follow-ups lasted 6 to 14 months, averaging 8.7 months. All the wounds were cured at one stage except for 1 case of delayed union and 2 cases of skin hardening on the limited repaired area. The function of the flexor tendon was valued by TAM system, and that of the extensor tendon by Miller Grade. The excellent rate was 93.85%(61/65) in the test group, and 90.79%(69/76) in the control group. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups. Conclusion Because the absorbable membrane can prevent the adhesion after the injured tendon is repaired, and can avoid the inconvenience or the possibility of the re-rupture of the repaired tendon in using a dynamic brace, it has a good prospect of clinical application.


Infantile hemangiomas are the most common type of benign tumor which appear in the first weeks of life. As currently there is no robust protocol to monitor and assess the hemangioma status, this study proposes a preliminary method to detect the lesion. Therefore, in this paper we describe a hemangiomas classifier based on a linear convolutional neural network architecture. The challenge was to achieve a good classification using a relatively small internal database of 240 images from 40 different patients. The results are promising as the CNN performance evaluation showed a level of accuracy on the test set of 93.84%. Five metrics were calculated to assess the proposed model performances: accuracy, positive predicted value, negative predicted value, sensitivity and specificity.


: After the lifting of pandemic lockdown, people's daily lives are gradually getting back to track. However, the psychological trauma left by the pandemic is deeply imprinted and difficult to heal for a while, which posed an arduous task for subsequent mental healing. Since the pandemic ultimately is a "developmental issue", it serves as a mirror that reflects fundamental problems of humanity and civilization, From the perspective of phenomenology of life, philosophy, as the fundamental way to protect civilization's slow relaxation parameter, has irreplaceable value in soothing the mind of people in the aftermath of the pandemic. Philosophy is both a treatment and a therapy. As a treatment method, it has achieved a lofty level and contained effective plannings. As a therapy method, it seeks into the subtleties and internalizes the meaning of life. With penetrating into the depths of the spirit, Philosophy could mediate the interaction between the physical body and integrated life by activating the initiative of the spirit, thereby affecting the perfection of society and civilization. According to Hegel's point of view, philosophy, as the phenomenology of the spirit, propels the effective cycle of subjective spirit, objective spirit, and absolute spirit, shaping individuals and society at different levels in its self-practice. It also forms unique concepts and methods in the psychopathological analysis, providing a solid theoretical foundation to cultivate values. Therefore, philosophy is the true soft power of social civilization and individual self-salvation. In the post-pandemic era, the whole society should reevaluate and study philosophy, viewing the pandemic as an opportunity to enhance the civilized quality through the interaction and combination of philosophical treatment and therapy.


In a recent interview with a Dutch newspaper, Lord Owen, until the beginning of June Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, said: [W]e were instructed by the conference to make recommendations on the establishment of a war crimes tribunal. We decided that this tribunal should be completely disconnected from the negotiating process. It should have a life of its own in order to enable us the negotiators for the UN and the EU to say that we had nothing to do with it in case the matter would be brought up to us.


Misra et al. elucidate the origin of smooth muscle cells involved in supravalvular aortic stenosis and identify the integrin β3 pathway as a therapeutic target in this disease.


This paper uses some data from Igbo-English intrasentential codeswitching involving mixed nominal expressions to test the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model. The MLF model is one of the most highly influential frameworks used successfully in the study of grammatical aspects of codeswitching. Three principles associated with it, the Matrix Language Principle, the Asymmetry Principle and the Uniform Structure Principle, were tested on data collected from informal conversations by educated adult Igbo-English bilinguals resident in Port Harcourt. The results of the analyses suggest general support for the three principles and for identifying Igbo-English as a 'classic' case of codeswitching.


Learning Management Systems (LMS) are software for web applications oriented for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of e-learning programs. Moodle is a free source LMS with more than 63 million users, which makes it the most used LMS around the world. Like some other LMS, the stated philosophy of Moodle includes a constructivist and social constructionist approach to education, emphasizing that learners (and not just teachers) can contribute to the educational experience. This is the web 2.0 applied to education. Easy Java Simulations (EJS) is an authoring tool written in Java that helps to create interactive simulations in Java, mainly for teaching and learning purposes. By means of this tool, instructors can easily create virtual and/or (if they also use the appropriate additional software) remote laboratories. While virtual laboratories are based on mathematical models, remote ones use real equipment and so, the experiments are carried out in the reality. Virtual and remote laboratories (created with EJS, for example) as well as LMS (Moodle, for example) offer different but fundamental educational tools to both teachers and students. Since these resources are complementary (and not mutually exclusive), e-learning programs should offer both kinds of tools to be considered a complete experience for students. However, the integration between these two different resources is still an open issue that must be addressed. This thesis gathers together the two previous resources and provides the necessary tools and methodology for developing web experimentation portals (such as UNEDLabs, also presented here) that can offer e-learning programs based on: 1) experimentation (thanks to the use of the virtual and remote laboratories) and 2) theory documentation provision, social interactivity and easy management (thanks to the use of a LMS). Moreover, the presented tools and methodology allow people not specialized in these particular topics (such as they are the vast majority of the teachers) to easily create these kind of experimentation portals and populate them with virtual and/or remote laboratories (VRLs). Four new Moodle plug-ins facilitate this task: EJSApp, EJSApp Booking System, EJSApp Files Browser and EJSApp Collab Sessions. Nowadays, UNEDLabs holds two courses (among others); one in Control Engineering and another one in Physics. Both of them offer three experiments which are all available in the two possible versions: virtual and remote. The Physics course is still growing and new experiments are added every year. Right now, the three available ones are a motorized rotatory laser for studying the light in isotropic media, a motorized optical bench for determining the focal length of a thin lens, and an experiment with three springs and related to Hookes law. Thanks to the tools presented in this work, not only all the EJS laboratories in UNEDLabs are added and integrated into the Moodle web portal in a very easy and natural way, but they also acquire several special functionalities they lack when they are used outside this LMS. The first of these functionalities is the capability of saving and/or loading files to/from the private files repository in Moodle. The second one is the possibility to create collaborative experimental sessions with other users of Moodle who are enrolled to the course the EJS lab belongs to. The third one is an automatic integration with a booking system specifically designed for managing users access to the remote laboratories. Finally, EJS labs in Moodle can be administrated exactly in the same way as any other Moodle resource or activity, meaning they can be updated or deleted; their access can be restricted to a certain group of users or to users that have previously fulfilled some steps or conditions; security copies are automatically performed during Moodles system backups, etc.


The methodology of SWOT analysis involves the identification of internal strong and weak properties of the system under study, as well as external opportunities and threats for its functioning. Due to the apparent ease of mastering the SWOT analysis methodology, a large number of articles on the application of SWOT analysis to various practical situations has appeared. However, the conclusions and recommendations contained in such articles were given (as a rule) without proper justification of the plausibility (repeatability, nonrandomness) of the results obtained. An alternative approach to the SWOT analysis to ensure the plausibility of its results is proposed. This approach involves the use of a group of experts to assess the SWOT factors and the Delphi procedure with the property of (partial) convergence of expert estimates for rounds of the procedure. The sufficient conditions for the existence some possible states and their resistance to disturbances in the explored system are formulated in the form of first-order logic formulas. The possibilities of practical applications of the proposed approach are discussed.


Kema Irogbe's study of the effects of globalization on Latin America, Africa, and Asia, is an informative and interesting read, but, unfortunately, it also suffers from many flaws, most of which derive from information and arguments outside the scope of the subject of globalization and its effects.


Abstract : A study of the addition of diagonal riders to the USS Constitution to prevent hogging is described. The purpose of the diagonal rider structure is to reduce the hogging rate of the ship and to help restore the ship to its original as-built condition of 1797. The study employed both analytical and experimental methods to determine the effect of the riders on the bending response of the ship. The goals of the study were to determine the hogging rate reduction produced by the riders and to develop an improved understanding of the mechanisms that cause hogging in wooden ships. Recommendations are made to further reduce the hogging rate and to install data acquisition systems both for short-term and long-term structural monitoring.


The method of the experiments is a modification of those of Kirchhoff and Rowland. Two coils of copper wire of about 25 centims. radius, each containing 87 about 780 turns, were placed with their mean planes parallel and at a known distance apart.


� Abstract—Fluid registration is an example of a nonrigid image registration algorithm that uses a deformation field to define the transformation between two images. The velocity of the deformation field is governed by the Navier-Lame equations, which form a semilinear system of partial differential equations (PDEs) that can be discretized and solved numerically via fixed- point iteration. The fixed-point iteration generates a succession of linear PDE systems. Early fluid registration algorithms solved these linear PDE systems using successive overrelaxation (SOR), which iteratively converges to an approximate solution. Later algorithms posed the solution of each linear PDE system as the result of a deconvolution algorithm, enabling faster direct solutions using the Fast Fourier transform (FFT). This article examines the computational complexity of SOR versus FFT for solving the linear PDE systems throughout the fixed-point iteration, and it shows that SOR actually overtakes FFT in speed as the fixed point is approached.


The subject of this study is fronting of the back rounded vowel /u/ in the Iranian Sistani dialect. A close rounded vowel with central-to-front pronunciation is described by Grjunberg (1963) for the Sistani spoken in Turkmenistan. Field studies show that there is also a central vowel [u] in the Iranian dialect of Sistani. This article describes the pronunciation [u] as a general fronting of u > u, which is the main realization of this phoneme in Iranian Sistani, and a further fronting of u to [ Y] as an allophonic variant in contact with coronal consonants. Among educated speakers living in urban areas however, there is occasionally a pronunciation close to [u] under the influence of Persian. Vowel harmony is another phenomenon that can be observed in the dialect under investigation. It will briefly be described insofar as it is relevant for the vowels under discussion. 1


Objective To explore the effects of scene simulation training in improving the civilian nurses' rescue skills in sanatorium. Methods A training and evaluation group and the training plan were developed. Then civilian nurses' single skills were evaluated based on the theory training. The civilian nurses were trained by flow- type exercises and emergency drill,the rescue process and main points of nursing were showed care in the dynamic way. Results The civilian nurses' performance in the rescue theories and skills,and emergency coping ability were improved( P 0. 05). Conclusion Application of scene simulation training can improve the level of civilian personnel's rescue skills.


Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery has been used as a promising data source for automatic ship detection with its capability of targeting objects in all-day and all-weather conditions. Due to the scarce labeled SAR images, previous research usually adopts optical data-based pre-training model to support SAR ship detectors and has made significant progress. Nonetheless, two fundamental issues persist: (i) SAR images suffer from serious intrinsic speckle noise with less texture features; (ii) Strong class-discriminative biases for imaging perspectives and geometry are introduced in the process of transferring pre-trained model. In this paper, we propose a multimodal contrastive pre-training framework (MCPF) to boost automatic ship detection with both intra- and cross-modal correlations between SAR and optical images. Specifically, MCPF implements multimodal contrastive learning strategy by introducing cross-modal contrastive module (CCM) and intra-modal contrastive module (ICM). CCM aims to pull the matched SAR-Optical pairs together while pushing those non-matched apart by measuring the similarity between latent representations. ICM maximizes agreement between differently augmented views of the same data example within each modality. To the best of our knowledge, MCPF is the first work that takes into account multimodal contrastive representation learning for automatic ship detection. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that MCPF outperforms the existing methods and achieves the state-of-the-art performance.


Adult Clarias albopunctatus (mean weight 64.8 ± 1.09 g) were subjected to anaesthesia for 72h with ketamine hydrochloride. The fish demonstrated uncoordinated and gyratory movements before reaching anaesthesia. The time taken to reach anaesthesia at the tested concentrations of ketamine differed in the treatment groups (P Keywords: Clarias, Anaesthesia, Ketamine hydrochloride, Haemoglobin, Glucose


Superconducting proximity-effect tunnelling measurements have been performed on (110)- and (111)- oriented niobium crystals grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. Measurements of ac resistance yield information about the effective phonon density of states; different results were obtained for the two crystal orientations. In situ high-energy electron diffraction studies indicate atomically smooth interfaces in the proximity sandwich and also indicate amorphous-oxide barriers for these junctions. We therefore have a nearly ideal configuration, which may account for the sensitivity to crystal orientation. The failure of the McMillan inversion program to converge for the (111) data suggests the need for a k-dependent formulation of the equations.


This article looks at the types of risks that may be associated with complex financial groups and then sifts through the weight of the evidence in favour of, and against, the various alternatives used to address those risks. The conclusion drawn is that there is no magic bullet among the available policy options that is sufficient on its own to satisfy the three core policy objectives (i.e. safety and soundness, systemic stability, and conduct of business). Rather, this article argues that the greater financial and economic impacts associated with problems at larger institutions requires a holistic approach that combines transparency, governance, regulation and supervision. JEL Classification: G01, G18, G02, G03, G28, G32. Keywords: financial groups, safety and soundness, systemic stability, contagion, governance, supervision and regulation, market discipline.


As a compulsory course for the senior students majoring in English,English literature plays a vital role,aiming at enhancing students' reading ability and the capability of appreciating literary works as well as improving the students' basic language training and cultural cultivation.Nowadays,everything is being electronized,digitized and internetized.In such kind of social circumstances,it is imperative to make the students taste the original literary works,retrieve the notion of pure literature while not satisfy with watching the adapted films only.This paper aims at stating the function of classic reading in optimizing the teaching of English literature.


This paper examines the issue of global child labor. The treatment is grounded in the classical economics of Adam smith and the more recent writings of human capital theorists. Using this frame- work, the universal problem of child labor in newly industrializing countries is investigated. Child labor is placed in its historical context with a brief review of practices in the United States and Great Britain at the time those countries were industrializing. Then, child labor is examined in its contemporary global context. We argue that, as countries industrialize, they tend to follow predictable patterns of development - including use of and eventual abandonment of child labor. We argue that this convergence under the logic of industrial capitalism supports a universalist approach to human rights (that would condemn child labor) over a more tolerant cultural relativist approach. In 1995, based on limited statistical evidence from 100 countries, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated there were 73 million child workers between the ages of 10 and 14 worldwide in 1995. One year later, based on a closer scrutiny of the problem, the ILO esti- mated, in 1996:


PURPOSE: A data transmission and reception network control method and a device thereof are provided to stably transmit and receive files by solving a problem with respect to peer information. CONSTITUTION: A connection request reception unit(11) receives a request signal from a peer information management server. A connection control unit(12) checks whether a user terminal is able to be connected to the peer information management server. The connection control unit transmits the requested data to the user terminal by using a P2P(Peer to Peer) network connection method and a direct connection method according to a connection state. The download server directly provides the requested data. [Reference numerals] (11) Connection request reception unit; (12) Connection control unit; (13) Speed measurement unit; (30) Peer information management server; (40) Download server


ABSTRACT We report three eye-movement experiments and an offline task investigating structural constraints on pronoun resolution in different contexts. This included "coargument" contexts in which a pronoun was the direct object of a verb ("The surgeon remembered that Jonathan had noticed him"), so-called picture noun phrases ("The surgeon remembered that Jonathan had a picture of him") and picture noun phrases with a possessor ("The surgeon remembered about Jonathan's picture of him"). In each eye-movement experiment, we observed longer reading times when the nonlocal antecedent ("the surgeon") mismatched in stereotypical gender with the pronoun, but little evidence of the gender of the local antecedent ("Jonathan") influencing reading times. The offline task suggested readers occasionally interpret pronouns as referring to local antecedents, especially in non-coargument contexts. These results suggest that structural constraints constitute more highly weighted cues to antecedent retrieval than gender congruency during the initial stages of memory retrieval during pronoun resolution.


In the 19th century and the early in the 20th century Russian realistic novels,which were celebrated for their double tasks of objecting to the feudal serfdom and resisting the capitalist system,attached importance to the realistic traditions of real and objective reflection stemming from Renaissance and Enlightenment,and manifested seeking for the bright future with humanism.Russian realistic novel writers accepted the individual freedom of mind and placed it above the physical world and surrounding environment,but did not sever relations between man and social environment in order to deeply and carefully show the dialectical relations between the two,which differs from Western realistic novel writers who publicize the people to be decided by social factors and biological factors.


Deployment of space systems based on multi-satellite constellations to provide broadband Internet access and communication services acutely raises the question of their radio frequency support including issues of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) between competing space systems using multi-satellite constellations (StarLink, OneWeb, Kuiper, etc.), their EMC with traditional space systems (satellite communication systems that employ spacecraft in geostationary and non-geostationary orbits, space systems of other services), as well as regulatory issues of entering into service and staged deployment of space systems. The article formulates the problematic issues of radio frequency support of modern space systems taking into account the trends of satellite constellations deployment and proposes the solutions with consideration to international and national requirements in the regulation of radio frequency spectrum including the ITU requirements and the requirements of Russian State Commission for Radio Frequencies. The paper shows the ways to share the radio frequency spectrum to meet new requirements of the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19).


Self-control based on spiritual elements can be said to be the cause of human obstruction in achieving peace and happiness. Thus, this study aims to uncover the concept of self-control in the perspective of sufi psychology and stoicism philosophy that is able to answer the problems of life today in achieving peace and happiness. In its preparation, this article uses qualitative methods with a library approach and is analyzed comparatively. The results and discussions of this study include an explanation of self-control in Robert Frager's view, self-control in the philosophy of stoicism, and a comparison of the concepts of self-control from both views. From this study, it can be concluded that the philosophy of Stoicism and Sufi psychology shake hands to agree that the most basic self-control is controlling perception, so that one can achieve a peaceful and peaceful life. Association with God is the main purpose of self-control in sufi psychology to get a life that is surrounded by a sense of peace. Stoicism philosophy emphasizes that man can distinguish between things that they can control or those they cannot control.


This document is a practical introduction to Dynare. It shows how to install Dynare and write a DSGE model in Dynare notation, and goes through the output from running the model, where output is stored in the Matlab workspace, as well as common Dynare errors. We use Dynare to do some useful analysis. We briefly discuss estimation and forecasting using Dynare. The document closes with a research application.


Section 1: Introduction 1. The tale of a (un-)contested people: the many faces of Tibetans and Tibetan studies Section 2: The "what" and "why" of Tibetan Studies 2. Tibet studies 3. Tibetology in contemporary China: current situation and characteristics 4. Tibet studies in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore Section 3: The Tibet question 5. Tibet as a factor impacting China studies in India 6. India, China and Tibet: fundamental perceptions from Dharamsala, Beijing and New Delhi 7. A 'realist' hypocrisy? Scripting sovereignty in Sino-Tibetan relations and the changing posture of Britain and the United States 8. The Tibet question through the looking glass of Taiwan: comparative dynamics and sobering lessons Section 4: Tibetans outside Tibet 9. China's many Tibets: Diqing as a model for 'development with Tibetan characteristics?' 10. Dispersal to Asia, Europe, Australasia 11. When 'exile' becomes sedentary: on the quotidian experiences of 'India-born' Tibetans in Dharamsala, north India


The AHA! experience is a term that captures the essence of the experience of illumination. In the context of 'doing' mathematics it is the EXPERIENCE of having an idea come to mind with brevity, suddenness, and a sense certainty. In the studies presented here I examine this extra-logical process in pursuit of the answers to three questions: What is the essence of the AHA! experience? What is the effect of an AHA! experience on a learner? Can the AHA! experience be controlled, and if so can it be invoked? The data for this pursuit comes from three distinct sources; the anecdotal reflections of 76 undergraduate students, the anecdotal reflections of 25 prominent mathematicians, and the mathematics journals of 72 preservice teachers. The results indicate that, although the AHA! experience is precipitated by the sudden coming to mind of an idea, what actually sets the AHA! experience apart from other mathematical experiences is the affective components of the experience. and only the affective component. That is, what serves to make the experiences extraordinary is the affective response invoked by the experience of an untimely and unanticipated presentation of an idea or solution, not the mystery of the process, and not the idea itself. Hence, the AHA! experience has a positive and, sometimes profound, transformative effect on a learner's beliefs and attitudes about mathematics as well as their beliefs and attitudes about their iii ability to do mathematics. The results also indicate that a measure of control can be exercised over the AHA! experience through the manipulation of a problem solving environment. As such, the results provide a pedagogical approach to problem solving that can be used in the classroom. Furthermore, a methodological contribution in the form of a new form of journaling for the tracking of students' problem solving processes is presented.


Abstract Being an important class of water-soluble synthetic polymers, polyacrylamide (PAM) and its derivatives have found a wide range of applications in the oil and gas industry. Due to the increasingly active exploration of deep and ultra-deep wells, PAM-based polymers are more and more frequently applied under hostile subterranean conditions, particularly high temperature. Therefore, it becomes an imminent research topic to elucidate the thermal degradation pathways of PAM-based polymers in order to upgrade these chemicals for more challenging scenarios. Neighboring groups attached to the same polyvinyl backbone have been suggested to exert an effect to the degradation of the PAM-based polymers. Herein we report a combined theoretical and experimental study on the energetics of such neighboring group effect. Taking advantage of a computational method based on density functional theory, we have identified two competing degradation pathways in neutral medium and have calculated their respective activation energies. These results enable us to predict the relative thermal stabilities of a series of PAM-based polymers, and we have also used temperature-variant rheology measurements to verify these predictions. This work will guide the design of better heat-resistant PAM-based products.


The invention discloses a Z-shaped arm of a wrecker, which comprises a suspension arm (2) hinged onto a frame (1). A vertical arm (3) is hinged to the end of the suspension arm (2), a supporting arm (4) used for supporting the wrecker is hinged to the other end of the vertical arm, and a variable-breadth cylinder (5) which is used for lifting the suspension arm is arranged between the frame and the suspension arm, a tilt cylinder (6) used for angularly adjusting the vertical arm is arranged between the suspension arm and the vertical arm, and the frame is provided with a limiting plate (7) which is used for limiting swing of the vertical arm. The Z-shaped arm of the wrecker is simple in structure, convenient in adjustment, high in efficiency and high in safety, and traffic jam caused by obstacle removal is improved.


Vorberg, R. 2000. Effects of shrimp fisheries on reefs of Sabellaria spinulosa (Polychaeta). – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 57: 1416–1420. Intensive beam-trawl fishery on brown shrimps (Crangon crangon) occurs along the German North Sea coast. Fishing effort has increased constantly over recent decades. Simultaneously, changes in the benthos of the Wadden Sea have been observed. Besides shifts in species composition of the communities and the disappearance of oyster beds, there has been a distinct decline in the occurrence of Sabellaria reefs. Investigations were carried out to establish whether or not shrimp fisheries might be responsible for the decrease of the reefs. Underwater video techniques enabled direct observation to be made of the fishing gear in action on the sea bottom. The pictures revealed that shrimpers may trawl over the robust reef structures without causing visible damage. These findings are corroborated by the results of field experiments performed on the reefs of Sabellaria alveolata on the French Atlantic coast, and also by empirical calculations of the load of the fishing gear and the compressive strength of the reef. Reasons for the decline of Sabellaria reefs on the German North Sea coast are discussed with respect to natural and anthropogenic changes in the physical environment. 2000 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea


A new method is presented for determining the migration coefficient in concrete from a steady-state migration test by measuring the charge passed. The plain cement concrete and concrete containing different types of mineral admixtures (fly ash and slag) with water-binder ratios (w/b) of 0.35, 0.45, 0.55, and 0.65 were used. In this study, the electrochemical technique was applied to accelerate chloride ion migration in concrete to estimate the chloride flux. The chloride migration coefficient for concrete was calculated using the constant flux from the Nernst-Planck equation. The charge passed from the rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT), the nonsteady-state charge passed from the accelerated chloride migration test (ACMT), and steady-state charge passed from ACMT were separately defined and derived. The chloride migration coefficient and the charge-passed values from different conditions were compared. Results for all mixtures show a linear correction between the migration coefficient and steady-state charge passed. For concrete with mineral admixtures, there is no obvious correlation between migration coefficient and charge passed obtained from nonsteady-state conditions.


Otto Ludwig Ho lder (born, Stuttgart, 1859; died, Leipzig, 1937) was professor of mathematics at the University of Leipzig (Ho lder, 1972) when he published the paper here translated into English. Today, Ho lder is remembered in mathematics for a variety of results, but he is of significance to readers of this journal because of Ho lder's theorem. This theorem occupies a central place in modern measurement theory. Indeed, Luce reports that it has been said that ``representational measurement theory is nothing but applications of Ho lder's theorem'' (1994, p. 4). Furthermore, its applications have produced results with revolutionary implications for quantification in psychology and cognate sciences. In particular, Krantz, Luce, Suppes, and Tversky (1971) ``unified measurement theory by reducing proofs of most representation theorems to Ho lder's theorem'' (Luce, Krantz, Suppes, 6 Tversky, 1990, p. 2) and, more recently, Luce et al. (1990) used Ho lder's theorem in proofs relating to nonadditive structures. These applications obscure the fact that Ho lder's concerns were not quite those of modern theorists. His paper is a watershed in measurement theory, dividing the classical (stretching from Euclid) and the modern (stretching to Luce et al., 1990) eras. His concerns belonged, in part, to the classical era. He axiomatised the classical concept of quantity (using Dedekind's concept of continuity) in such a way that ratios of magnitudes (as understood in Book V of Euclid's Elements) could be expressed as positive real numbers (as intimated by Newton). Importantly, he achieved this result with a clarity that was not attained by others also working within the classical framework (e.g., Helmholtz, 1878; Frege, 1903; and Whitehead 6 Russell, 1913). However, other of his concerns were more modern. In Part II of his paper (a translation of which is to be published later), he showed that axioms for an apparently nonadditive structure, stretches of a straight line, entail that linear distances satisfy the axioms for quantity given in Part I. His concern to relate nonadditive structures to quantitative ones anticipates a distinctly modern interest and in doing this one of his axioms was not unrelated to the Thomson condition of conjoint measurement theory. That these results might have found direct psychophysical application is obvious and had the founder of modern experimental psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, who had established his famous laboratory at the same university, known as much of Ho lder's work as Ho lder knew of his (see Ho lder, 1900), the development of psychological measurement might have been transformed. That Ho lder's contribution eventually found its pivotal place in modern measurement theory is testimony to its enduring importance. That it was neglected within psychology until the middle of this century was psychology's loss. Contemporaneous recognition of his work within experimental psychology may have averted the criticisms of the Ferguson Committee (Ferguson, et al., 1940) and the crisis in psychological measurement theory that ensued, thereby making unnecessary Stevens' (1951) attempt at a rational reconstruction of psychological measurement and the confusions that it delivered upon the discipline. Ho lder's axioms of quantity (given in 91) have been criticised by Nagel (1932), Suppes (1951), and Luce et al. (1990), not because of any formal inadequacy leading to his main results, but because they do not match the kind of empirical structures of interest to these authors. I will not article no. 0023


During the Songhu Campaign in 1937,Sino-Japanese air force had a life-and-death struggle for Air supremacy.but the Chinese side of the aircraft can not be added in time.The loss of air supremacy had an extremely adverse effect on Songhu Campaign,which is one of the important reasons of failure.This paper tries to analyze the loss of Air supremacy and its impact during the Songhu Campaign.


La Ruche d'Art, a community art studio and science shop located in a working class neighborhood in Montreal, is open three days a week. The space operates as both a third place for the community and a third space storefront classroom, utilizing arts-based practices in the university course Community Art Studio: Methods and Materials (CATS 631/ARTE 398). This chapter documents how this unique space serves as a compelling site for community engaged service-learning (CESL). La Ruche attempts to respond to criticisms that service-learning can reinforce the power and status of academics and professionals, disempowering local residents. La Ruche works at equalizing participation between community members and the academy in order to co-create and share knowledge. Voices of students collected during a research project are woven into this description to underscore these dynamics.


AbstractEnergy-efficient desalination technologies are needed to address the growing requirements of potable water owing to population increase, industrial development, and increasing energy cost. Capacitive deionization (CDI) technique is receiving attention because it offers an energy-efficient method of removing dissolved salts by electro-adsorption. The technique has been explored for ground water with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 500–1,500 mg/l, typical of rural areas in India. We have therefore undertaken development of a test cell and report its use for electro-sorption of dissolved ions in groundwater. The active material used is mesoporous carbon aerogel having surface area ~2,000 m2/g, developed in house. The carbon aerogel-based electrodes have shown high salt adsorption capacity of 8.4 mg/g with NaCl electrolyte. CDI cell modules of 500 ml capacity with eight-electrode stack have been used in single and multiple stages, depending on the ground water TDS. Water having salt concentration of 1...


Language Models (LM) are becoming more and more useful for providing representations upon which to train Natural Language Processing applications. However, there is now clear evidence that attention-based transformers require a critical amount of language data to produce good enough LMs. The question we have addressed in this paper is to what extent the critical amount of data varies for languages of different morphological typology, in particular those that have a rich inflectional morphology, and whether the tokenization method to preprocess the data can make a difference. These details can be important for low-resourced languages that need to plan the production of datasets. We evaluated intrinsically and extrinsically the differences of five different languages with different pretraining dataset sizes and three different tokenization methods for each. The results confirm that the size of the vocabulary due to morphological characteristics is directly correlated with both the LM perplexity and the performance of two typical downstream tasks such as NER identification and POS labeling. The experiments also provide new evidence that a canonical tokenizer can reduce perplexity by more than a half for a polysynthetic language like Quechua as well as raising F1 from 0.8 to more than 0.9 in both downstream tasks with a LM trained with only 6M tokens.


This study investigates the e3ect of developing (ow in a circular tube on the thermophoretic particle deposition e"ciency using the critical trajectory method numerically. When both (ow and temperature are fully developed (combined fully developed), present results agree with previous theories for the long tube where the (ow temperature approaches that of the wall. When the (ow is fully developed and temperature is developing, it is found that only near the thermal entrance region (or temperature jump region) of the tube the deposition e"ciency is slightly higher than the combined fully developed case ((ow and temperature), while the deposition e"ciency remains the same for the long tube. When both (ow and temperature are developing (or combined developing), the deposition e"ciency is about twice that of the combined fully developed case for the long tube and is much higher near the entrance of the tube. Non-dimensional equations are developed empirically to predict the thermophoretic deposition e"ciency in combined developing and combined fully developed cases under laminar (ow conditions. ? 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


The positive definite solution of the matrix equation was investigated in this paper. The existence of the definite solution was proved by constructing monotone bounded iterative sequences. An iteration algorithm was put forward which avoid the operation of matrix inverse. Numerical example was given to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.


Mozart: Sonata in D Major, X. 448, fo r two pianos; played by Wiener and Doucet; Co lumbia set X -106 . T h is i s on e of t h e greates t of a ll original com positions fo r two pi a n os , a w or k of g rea t beauty and of great technical d ifficulty. The performance h ere is c h a racter ized by a di splay of technical b rilliance , b u t is somewhat lacking in sensitiv eness fo r the fine n uances of interpretation-too m uch emphas is on g ood workmanship and t oo li t tle on real artistry.


The GATE simulation software was used to model the photodetection systems prototype PET scanner consisting on 4 rings of 44 crystal block detectors containing 160 CsI(NaI) crystal scintillators. The list of single events output by the GATE toolkit was post-processed off-line using an in-house C-code to generate the list of coincidence photons taking into account the measured time resolution, energy resolution, and crystal efficiency of the real scanner. The aim of the study was to validate the simulation against experimentally measured data on the prototype system. Single event and coincidence pair rate plots were compared for simulated and measured data of an F-18 centered point source. The results of low count-rate acquisitions and simulations were found to be in good agreement


Purpose: To show the results of a study that intended to analyze to what extent not only the creation of businesses in general, but also the creation of employee-owned companies in particular, is promoted in primary and secondary education. topics: It aims to delve into the analysis of the existing correlation among initiatives developed under cooperative forms in cooperative education centers with two more ambitious goals. First, to see whether they promote, to a greater extent, the creation of cooperatives and employee-owned companies compared to other schools that are not cooperatives. Second, to know at the university level the influence cooperative education centers may have in the possible creation of companies under the legal forms of cooperatives and employee-owned companies. Development: The need for a clear coordination of subjects and skills at all educational levels in terms of entrepreneurship has been confirmed. conclusions: It is important to encourage the creation and implementation of cooperative business projects at lower levels of education, and that the university (entrepreneurship technical support offices and faculty) completes the process of supporting and monitoring these projects by providing advice and training.


For my Master of Engineering thesis, I designed and implemented an online discussion forum in an attempt to improve student learning. Aided with the help of Professor Jonathon Cummings 15.351 course (Introduction to Innovation and Entrepreneurship), I measured student and peer-to-peer interaction via online discussion boards and user-generated interest in the subject matter. Based on the data received from this discussion board, I have found that students have their own optimal learning environments, and that anonymity can affect the way students interact with one another. Thesis Supervisor: Jonathon Cummings Title: Assistant Professor


With 6 figures and 2 tables

Abstract
To elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of carotenoid accumulation in tepals of Asiatic hybrid lily (Lilium spp.), the content and composition of carotenoids and transcriptional changes of carotenoid biosynthetic genes were compared between tepals of yellow, red, pink and white flowers. Yellow and red tepal cultivars accumulated high amounts of carotenoids, and cultivars with pink and white tepals accumulated small amounts of carotenoids. Most of the carotenoids in yellow petals were antheraxanthin, (9Z)-violaxanthin, cis-lutein and violaxanthin. Capsanthin was accumulated in red tepals. Transcription of phytoene synthase, phytoene desaturase, ζ-carotene desaturase, carotenoid isomerase and β-ring hydroxylase in tepals increased as tepals grew. Among yellow and red tepal cultivars, the amounts of carotenoids were well associated with the transcription levels of biosynthetic genes, indicating that transcription levels regulate carotenoid accumulation in these cultivars. However, in pink and white tepals, the transcription levels of biosynthetic genes were similar to those in red tepals, indicating that small amounts of carotenoids are not explained by down-regulation of biosynthetic genes. Another factor should reduce carotenoid amounts in these tepals.


Recently, there are more than 9 billion things that connected in the Internet of Things (IoT) and the number is exceed more than 24 billion in 2020. It means that numerous data will be generated


One of the main priorities of urban development programs of our time is the preservation and regeneration of cultural heritage. The process of preserving historical territories in the city center is an effective solution to strategic urban development tasks that can affect neighboring territories. Most of the territories of the Belgorod OCN are now located in the central part of the city and occupy a significant part of its territory. In the future of development, it is possible to create open-air museums with the creation of new public spaces. The analysis of the means of application and world experience of the modern process of museification of the historical part of the city is carried out. The main qualities that historical buildings should have in modern use in order to achieve a high level of comfort are determined. The existing system of the historical center of the city of Belgorod and its elements in the form of historical and architectural monuments is analyzed. An urban planning analysis of the location of the last Belgorod fortress in the historical center of the city was carried out. The factors that influence the definition of the subject area of projects for the transformation of historical territories are identified: external (social, environmental, urban planning, security and rehabilitation) and internal (economic, planning, constructive, aesthetic). The concept of the conservation project proposal should be based on a comprehensive museification of historical and cultural heritage objects located within the boundaries of the territory of the historical center of the city.


Background and Aim: Although pulmonary involvement is common in Covid 19 disease, sometimes concomitant cardiac involvement is seen as diastolic dysfunction. This case report describes a patient who received simultaneous treatment for severe acute respiratory failure and cardiac diastolic dysfunction due to Covid 19. Case report: A 40-year-old woman was transferred to the internal ICU of Ayatollah Rouhani Hospital in Babol because of severe respiratory distress. The patient was anxious, restless,and cyanotic. There was respiratory distress, hypoxia (72% oxygen saturation), and cardiac involvement as diastolic dysfunction. Heart rate was 134/min, blood pressure 122/78 mm Hg, and respiratory rate 38/min. The patient underwent non-invasive ventilation, and received beta-interferon, low-dose furosemide, bisoprolol, and spironolactone. During the course of treatment, despite receiving a prophylactic dose of subcutaneous heparin, the patient developed deep vein thrombosis of the left lower extremity and was treated with intravenous heparin. After two weeks, the patient was discharged in relatively good condition with non-invasive ventilation, spironolactone, and oral rivaroxaban. After three months, CT scan of the lungs and echocardiography became normal. Conclusion: Examination of the patients for cardiac diastolic dysfunction as a concomitant disease is recommended. In case of occurrence of this disorder in Covid 19 patients, treatment of cardiac diastolic dysfunction in addition to severe pulmonary involvement should be taken into concideation.


Clinically, patients were usually young adults, but it may involve a wide age range from birth to 75 years of age. Symptoms depending on the area involved although pain or pathologic fracture are the usual clinical presentations. The diagnosis is established by exclusion, where patients show unremarkable biochemistry and haematology findings, radiographic evident of osteolytic lesions in association with histological proliferation of capillary and small lymphatic vessels [5].


It has been difficult to infer behaviours related to anterior tooth use in fossil hominids owing to a lack of broad-based comparative studies of the relationships between front tooth use and craniodental features in modern humans. In this study, we seek to establish such a neontological baseline by exploring aspects of craniodental form among populations of recent humans that are inferred to have differed in habitual levels of ingestive and paramasticatory processing using the incisors. Morphometric data are compared among samples from three human populations: Aleutian Islanders (n=25); Arikara from the Mobridge Site, SD (n=19); and a late Woodland Bluff group from Jersey County, IL (n=24). Data for various biomechanically relevant dimensions were collected using standard callipers, while three-dimensional (3D) coordinate data for 28 cranial landmarks were recorded using a video-based image analysis system. These data indicate that several aspects of cranial form thought to influence the efficiency of force production on the incisors differ among the examined groups, including the positions and size of the primary masticatory muscles and the position of the dentition. For most dimensions, the Aleut sample exhibits the most mechanically advantageous configuration, the Illinois Bluff group the least advantageous configuration, while the Arikara are intermediate in form. This pattern corresponds to differences in the intensity of incisor loading among these groups, as inferred from both ethnographic reports and incisor microwear data. These results, therefore, suggest that cranial form in humans varies with subsistence-related differences in masticatory force production and that quantitative studies of masticatory system configuration may provide useful information for studies of hominid palaeobiology. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


1898 is a crucial moment in Spain's cultural history: Losing its last Colonies Cuba and the Philippines to the USA caused an unprecedented crisis in Spanish self-understanding that set a complex process of spiritual reconstruction rolling. To rebuild Spanish cultural identity as isolated state nation without losing touch with those parts of the Colonial past that were felt as belonging to its broader cultural environment required sophisticated reflection. Cultural issues had to take over the function to bridge between national borders. Music got is own part in this recycling of the Colonial into the Hispanic.


The paper describes sociolinguistic uses of Subjective Evaluation Tests (SET) adapted from social psychology. The authors explain the applicability of SET to study language attitudes, describe its procedure and exemplify it on a sociolinguistic study aimed at discovering attitudes of the Buryat-speaking and Russianspeaking communities in the Republic of Buryatiya and Zabaikalsky region


A brief description of the IntraNuclear cascade, preequilibrium, evaporation, fission, coalescence, and Fermi breakup models used by the last versions of our CEM and LAQGSM event generators is presented, with a focus on our latest development of all these models. The recently developed "S" and "G" versions of our codes, that consider multifragmentation of nuclei formed after the preequilibrium stage of reactions when their excitation energy is above 2A MeV using the Statistical Multifragmentation Model (SMM) code by Botvina et al. ("S" stands for SMM) and the fission-like binary-decay model GEMINI by Charity ("G" stands for GEMINI), respectively, are overviewed as well. Examples of benchmarking our models against a large variety of experimental data on particle-particle, particle nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus reactions, involving some very recent measurements of interest to accelerator radiation induced activation, are discussed.


The article deals with one of manifestations of German-Czech language contact - semantic calques of German origin in Czech (noun polysemy patterned after German equivalents). The German-Czech language contact has been a focus of linguistic research for a long time and its phonetical, prosodic, morphological and syntactical features as well as German loanwords and loans in Czech are described. Nevertheless, linguists have paid not enough attention to numerous semantic calques of German origin. In this paper we focus on the following semantic calques: cz. pero – ger. Feder, cz.. křidlo - ger. Flugel, cz.. žaba - ger. Krote, cz.. kocici hlavy - ger. Katzenkopfpflaster, cz. kmen - ger. Stamm, cz. stopka - ger. Stiel, cz. kostka - ger. Wurfel, cz. kos - ger. Korb, cz. sesit - ger. Heft, cz. kus - ger. Stuck, cz. poměry – ger. Verhaltnisse. Comparing this Czech lexems with their equivalents in other Slavonic languages (Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Slovenian), we made a conclusion that some of these languages hade also been influenced by German semantics. Russian and Bulgarian exhibit less similarities.


In this paper a musical event based indexing approach is proposed and its application to content-based music identification is studied. The events, which function as term words used in text retrieval or basic speech units in speech recognition, are inferred using an unsupervised learning algorithm. Its differences with the existing methods are in that the learned low-level musicology knowledge and model selection technique are exploited to extract musical events. Our experimental analyses on a task of music identification demonstrate that the proposed indexing method is efficient, compact and robust. Using a collection of 20-second query segments on the evaluation set, the equal error rate reaches 1.57%. For applications that demand fewer false alarms, we could operate the system at a reduced false acceptance rate of 0.57% while increasing the false rejection rate to 4.58%.


A previously developed time-domain iterative inverse-scattering method is generalized to the problem of reconstructing the susceptibility of an inhomogeneous lossless dielectric slab from frequency-domain reflection data. In subsequent iteration steps, approximations for the electric field inside the slab and the unknown susceptibility profile are obtained by alternately solving an approximate direct-scattering problem and an approximate inverse-scattering problem. Numerical results are presented and discussed.


Introduction: Today, in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of their professional activities, Kazakhstani medical workers experience a significant burden, which can lead to a rapid depletion of their psychoemotional resources. The purpose of this paper was to study the characteristics of the psychological component of the quality of life of Almaty doctors of practical healthcare. Methods: The assessment of the psychological component of the quality of life was carried out using the standardised questionnaire SF-36 (Mental Component Summary). Data collection was carried out in September 2020 in Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, using the Google-Forms. The study involved 108 medical workers (65 women and 43 men) providing inpatient and outpatient care. To measure the reliability of factors that determine psychological health, the authors used the Spearman rank correlation analysis. Results: The Role-Emotional indicator correlates with the nationality of doctors (p = 0.005), and the presence of children in the family (p = 0.044). A statistically significant relationship between the Mental Health indicator and the living conditions of doctors was determined (p = 0.014). The relationship between Social Functioning and the nationality factor was revealed (p = 0.027). Vitality has a statistically significant relationship with the age of doctors (p = 0.043). Conclusion: The indicators of the psychological component of the quality of life of Almaty doctors depend (statistically) on such personal factors as: age, nationality, the presence of children in the family, and housing conditions. In the future, it is planned to conduct further assessment of the dynamics of the level of psychological health of medical workers and the factors determining it. © 2022 The Author(s).


A low noise solid state amplifier for replacement of a Ka-band TWTA is described. Eight stages of amplification, which utilize cathode notch InP Gunn diodes, provide a gain of 37 /spl plusmn/ 3 dB with an associated N. F. ranging from 13.3 to 16.3 dB in the 27-39.5 GHz band.


Owing to the recent advancements in technology of geophysical exploration and drilling, many geological data concerning to the deep seated formations have been accumulated. Recent studies about surface and subsurface geology and about planktonic foraminiferal fossils have made clear the lower and middle Miocene stratigraphy. The writer proposes, in this paper, to divide the Miocene to lower Pleistocene formations into 7 stages in this district.Stage I-Mikawa stage (lower to middle Miocene)Formations included in this stage are the Aikawa group (Sado Island), Matsukawa group (Kita-Uonuma County) and Jonai group (Minami-Uonuma County). The formations consist mainly of pyroclastic rocks (lower part of the "green tuff") including propyrite and contain Aniai-type flora in the intercalating non-marine-shallow marine sediments.Stage II-Nanatani stage (middle Miocene) Lithology of the formations of this stage is composed of various kinds of pyroclastic rocks (upper part of the "green tuff"), coarse elastic sediments which may have been deposited in the shallow marine and fine clastic sediments of rather deep marine origin.This stage belongs to Globorotalia fohsi zone and Hopkinsina morimachiensis - Gyroidina orbicularis zone. Fossils such as Daijima-type flora, Miogypsina - Operculina fauna, Acid - Potamid fauna and Pectinid fauna characterize this stage.According to planktonic foraminiferal zonation newly established by Japex's paleontologists, the Iwafune group, the Tsugawa formation and the Nanatani formation, which had been considered to be deposited in this order and to be unrelated stages, have been concluded to constitute only one stage. However, in Akita region, two stages are recognized in the age corresponding to thestage II of this province. To solve this discrepancy, more detailed studies should be carried out.Stage III-Teradomari stage (lower part of the upper Miocene)Main lithology is black mudstone being deposited under stagnant water. Benthonic foraminiferal fauna is mostly composed of arenaceous forms belonging to Spirosigmoilinella compressa-Martinottiella communis zone.In the area west of the Nagaoka plain, alternations of sandstone and mudstone are predominant and some planktonic foraminifers with calcareous Benthonic forms are found.Volcanic rocks mainly of andesite and dacite are found in places. Submarine eruption andintrusion of basalt are highly characteristic in this stage.Stage IV-Shiiya stage (upper Miocene)Lithology is alternation of sandstone/mudstone and mudstone. The former is called Shiiya alternation and the latter, being grey mudstone, called Araya mudstone.Benthonic foraminifers are characterized by coexistence of arenaceous and calcareous forms of Miliammina echigoensis zone. Planktonic foraminiferal zone is "Orbulinna" universa - Globigerina woodi zone which contains Globigerina pachyderma (dextral) and Globorotalia inflata.It is noted that the volcanic activity subsided during this stage as compared with the previous stages. Andesitic and dacitic pyroclastic rocks are found in some places.Stage V-Nishiyama stage (lower Pliocene)Characteristic lithology is greenish grey mudstone named the Nishiyama mudstone. Frequently, especsally in the lower part of this stage, alternation of sandstone and mudstone, so called the Hamatsuda alternation, is found.The middle and the lower parts of this stage are distinguished by Globigerina pachyderma (dextral)-Globorotalia in flata (s.l.) zone, in which Globorotalia in flata group appears in two zones. Coiling direction of fossil Globigerina pachyderma changes from dextral to sinistral at the middle of this stage. The upper part of this stage belongs to Globigerina pachyderma (sinistral) - Globigerina gninqueloba zone.


Objective To make a clear understanding of seasonal fluctuation and nocturnal activity patterns of Anopheles sinensis in different areas of Jiangsu province.Methods In 2011,13 townships were selected from each of the 13 cities in Jiangsu province as malaria vector monitoring sites,and indoor overnight capture of malaria vectors with human bait in the bed nets was used to survey the seasonal fluctuation and nocturnal activity patterns of Anopheles sinensis in each monitoring site.Results Totally 2 044 mosquitoes were captured from 13 monitoring sites,all the mosquitoes identified were Anopheles sinensis and no Anopheles anthropophagus was detected.The density peak of seasonal fluctuation of Anopheles sinensis was at second half of July,and there were no significant differences in number in the southern,middle and northern parts of this province(F=1.769,P=0.19).The nocturnal activity peak of Anopheles sinensis was 3 hours from 19:00 to 22:00,and 67.91% of the 1 388 Anopheles sinensis were captured in the 12 time intervals.Another small peak appeared from 5:00 to 6:00 and 184 Anopheles sinensis were captured,accounted for 9.00% of the mosquitoes captured in 12 time intervals,showing significant differences in number in three parts of the province(F=291.88,P=0.000).Conclusions Individual protection and monitoring be strengthened to avoid mosquito bite and reduce the transmission of malaria.


(1. 1) Presentation Most concepts of conventional (or neo-classical) economics hold rigorously only in general equilibrium, which precludes the study of Keynesian or Marxian Economics, or a satisfactory integration with macro-economic theory since all of these are essentially concerned with disequilibrium states, where transactions take place at non-Walrasian prices. It is our purpose in this paper to present concepts and tools permitting study of the functioning and properties of a decentralized monetary economy3 at disequilibrium prices, in line with the work of Clower [9] [10] and Leijonhufvud [30] [31].4 The usual concept of demand is no longer valid as soon as we do not assume instantaneous adjustment of prices to their equilibrium values; if economic agents behave rationally, it must be replaced by a new concept, that of effective demand, introduced by Clower [9] taking into account quantity constraints as well as prices (the prototype of which is the consumption function). Further, interaction between individuals on the different markets gives rise not only to price adjustments (as in the standard Walrasian model), but to quantity adjustments very similar to the traditional dynamic multiplier, as described by Leijonhufvud [30] (the " income constrained process "). A number of authors have successfully used this approach to describe macro-economic phenomena within the framework of simple equilibrium models (Barro-Grossman [2] [3], Glustoff [15], Grossman [21] [22], Solow-Stiglitz [36]). However, these simplified formulations can handle no more than one or two goods in disequilibrium, and we would like here to reformulate the above concepts in the usual framework of General Equilibrium analysis.5 So in what follows we shall study a general exchange economy " A la Debreu " with money in disequilibrium (production can be incorporated in the analysis without difficulty: Benassy [4] [7]). In this framework we shall formalize the effective demand concept, define Keynesian equilibria and prove their existence. We shall also prove an important result of Keynesian analysis: at non-Walrasian prices, multiplier effects associated with the monetary structure of exchange are responsible for the " inefficiency " of many Keynesian


The paper sets out, using the example of a small comparative static model of Thailand for 1980, an approach to macro-economic model building which is based on having two versions of a social accounting matrix (SAM), one version contains data for a base year, while the cell entries for the other are algebraic expressions for the determination of the corresponding transaction values. Thus the model is developed in transaction value (TV) form, and this is one distinguishing feature of the approach. Other features derive from different aspects of the relationship between the two SAMs. It is argued that the approach has distinct advantages for model description, calibration and solution and that these are important if models are to be used for policy purposes which place a premium on intelligibility and replicability within the context of a flexible model capability.


During the course of the traditional embedded system,many of students feel terrible or weariness,which influences the teaching quality seriously.In this paper,we propose the assumption by adjusting the practical teaching system,and some methods are presented,including the investment in basic course,students' programming ability for Linux and the practice reform.We ex pect that the purpose,attracting students and improving the quality of teaching,will be achieved.So that we realize it is a combi nation of traditional embedded teaching methods,and also can be consistent with the current trend.


Considering the characteristics of route decision in out-of-gauge and enhanced-load freight transportation, the paper proposes to divide the whole railway network into 4 levels and establishes the decision models of monolayer route and multi-layer route under the constraints of roadblock, bridge integrated metro gauge, section limitation. It designs the corresponding algorithms for monolayer route and multi-layer route decision models. Through the experiment of electronic map subsystem of out-of-gauge and enhanced-load freight transportation decision support system, it can be drawn that this algorithm is effective.


Production of porous polystyrene microspheres having dimpled surface structures was demonstrated using amphiphilic and hydrophobic silica particles as structure-directing agents.


A method for outputting an initial screen in a broadcasting receiver is provided to output a screen more rapidly when the broadcasting receiver performs a booting process based on the LINUX operating system. A broadcasting receiver is operated based on an operating system where a system booting process is performed in a boot loader area, a Kernel area, and an application area. When the broadcasting receiver is turned on to perform the system booting process, an initial work for outputting a broadcasting screen is performed by performing a booting process of the Kernel area(S208). The broadcasting receiver tunes a channel according to stored broadcasting channel information previously to receive a broadcasting signal, and then processes the broadcasting signal to output a broadcasting image on a screen(S210).


BACKGROUND: Homocysteinemia is regarded as potential predictor for vaso-occlusive phenomenon often observed in sickle cell hemoglobinopathy. The objective was to determine the relationship of these genotypes with homocysteinemia and the predictive coefficient of these polymorphisms on the vascular-related crisis in the presence of sickle cell gene. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The case-control study comprised 89 children diagnosed with sickle disease with features of vascular crisis, 160 children without crisis and 252 apparently healthy children as the control group. The genotypes were assayed for C677T and A1298C variants and their association and predictor effect for homocysteinemia of different grades were analyzed. Sequential multiple regression model was used to assess the predictive effect. RESULTS: Homocysteine levels were significantly higher in the crisis group (P < 0.001). When compared to the wild genotype the variants depicted significantly raised homocysteine levels (P < 0.001). The prevalence of C677T was 29.9% and that for A1298 was 66.3% in the study population. The odds for crisis was 2.3 times for crisis in TT677 and 1.34 times in CC1298 variants. The genotypes revealed a significant association with different grades of homocysteinemia (P < 0.001). Plasma homocysteine depicted significant negative correlation with weight, height, body mass index and hemoglobin levels. None of the TT variants reported normal homocysteine values. Shift toward the variant form showed an increase of homocysteine levels by 7.3 units and 6.9 units for C677T and A1298C single-nucleotide polymorphisms respectively. CONCLUSION: Co-presence of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T and A1298C polymorphisms could be important predictor for homocysteinemia and thus contribute toward vascular crisis in sickle cell patients.


Data mining is the discovery of useful and potential knowledge hiding in databases. In this paper, we introduce the concepts of boolean weighted association rules and general fuzzy weighted association rules, and present the basic idea about mining these rules.


Decentralized storage systems split files into chunks and distribute the chunks across a network of peers. Each peer may only store a few chunks per file. To later reconstruct a file, all its chunks must be downloaded. Chunks can disappear from the network at any time as peers are untrusted and may misbehave, fail or leave the network. Current systems lack a secure and cost-effective mechanism for discovering missing chunks. Hence, a client must periodically re-upload all of the file's chunks to keep it available, even if only a few are missing from the network. Needlessly re-uploading chunks waste significant amounts of the network's bandwidth, takes additional time to complete, and forces the client to pay for unwarranted resources. To address the above problem, we propose SUP, a novel protocol that utilizes proof-of-storage queries to detect missing chunks. We have evaluated SUP on a large cluster of 1000 peers running a recent version of Ethereum Swarm. Our contributions include the design and implementation of SUP and a study of Swarm's redundancy characteristics. Our evaluation shows that SUP significantly improves bandwidth utilization and time spent on data upkeep compared to the existing solution. In common scenarios, SUP can save as much as 94 % bandwidth and reduce the time spent re-uploading by up to 82 %. While dependent on the storage network's bandwidth pricing policy, using SUP may also reduce the overall monetary costs of data upkeep.