There are many modern and traditional methods in valuing the performance of the company among them EVA, CVA are modern methods where as EPS, ROI, ROE etc. are some of the traditional methods. modern and traditional methods are not only used to check the performance of a company but it also used in investment decisions by the investors. Stern Stewart, managing partner of M/s Stern Stewart & Co. introduced a modified concept of economic profit in 1990 in the name of Economic Value Added (EVA) as measure of business performance and CVA is only a cash consideration in EVA. In this paper an attempt is made to study which method is used by the investors while taking the investment decisions i.e. traditional methods are modern methods. 100 respondents (Investors) are questioned and collected their views, we are assuming that there is no impact of traditional or modern methods while taking investment decisions by the investors.


A meta-frontier approach is used to evaluate the efficiency with which inputs into the education process are converted into outputs, using data for secondary schools in Wales obtained from the 2015 PISA study. The efficiency of schools in which teaching is conducted through the medium of English is compared with that of Welsh medium schools. On most measures, inputs into the latter are relatively high, having an impact on their observed levels of efficiency. Improving PISA scores in Wales likely requires enhancement of the performance of Welsh medium schools, but there needs to be explicit recognition of a trade-off between such improvement and the realisation of policy goals that are broader than those evaluated in PISA.


The invention relates to a flat picture display device (1). The image display device (1) comprises a carrier (3) on which a plate-shaped radiation conductor (7) located on at least one end face (25) is irradiated by a radiation source (15). The radiation source (15) is located in a light housing (13) of which is formed a first portion (17) on the carrier (3) and of which a second portion (19) is detachable, so that the radiation source (15) can be replaced. In the light housing (13) is located further comprises a reflector (29) for transmitting to the radiation guide (7) to reflect radiation emitted by the radiation source (15). The light housing (13) with the radiation source (15) and the radiation conductor (7) together form the illumination system (5) for illuminating a on the radiation conductor (7) disposed transmission image display panel (11). The radiation source (15) is provided with lamp holders (31) which upon mounting of the radiation source (15) in the light housing (13) cooperate with recesses arranged in the light housing, whereby the position of the radiation source (15), free with respect to the reflector (29) and at a distance d from the ...


The propagation and scattering phenomena by grating waveguides are investigated analytically by applying a rigorous entire domain integral equation method. The basic advantages of this method concern the high accuracy, the numerical efficiency and the analytic computation of the integrals involved. Numerical results reveal the optimal gratingpsilas characteristics for maximum coupling efficiency as well as very narrow reflection resonances.


A survey was undertaken to analyze the communication styles of professional women working in Corporate and Academic organizations. The study examines the interpersonal skills of women in upward, downward and horizontal levels of formal communication process. As a result, the behaviour aspects of both corporate and academic women are compared based on their speaking, listening and non-verbal activities in their workplace. The findings and suggestions of the research can facilitate women to understand their efficiency to interact with superiors, subordinates and peers and thereby build relationships through effective interpersonal communication for a successful career.


This study further examines the role of research and development (R&D), both domestic and foreign, in the development of national productivity. A key focus is on the role played by foreign direct investment (FDI) in facilitating technological transfer. The research empirically investigates the significance of FDI as an effective channel of R&D spillovers within a group of 15 OECD countries. It also examines whether the technology transfer through FDI is bi-directional: from an investing country to a host country and vice versa. In addition, the impact of human capital accumulation on a country's capacity to learn from a foreign technology base is also examined empirically. The paper considers the possible effects of FDI on human capital accumulation process, in particular, whether FDI helps channel more resources towards the promotion of education activities. Empirical results obtained all lend strong supports to these hypotheses.


We construct the ground-state equilibrium configurations of neutron star cores. The system of equilibrium equations, taking into account quantum statistics, electro-weak, and strong interactions, is formulated within the framework of general relativity both in the rotating and non-rotating spherically symmetric case. The core is assumed to be composed of interacting degenerate neutrons, protons and electrons in beta equilibrium. The strong interaction between nucleons is mediated by the sigma-omega-rho virtual mesons. The mass-radius relation for neutron star cores is obtained for various parametrizations of the nuclear model. The equilibrium conditions are given by our recently developed theoretical framework based on the Einstein-Maxwell-Thomas-Fermi equations along with the constancy of the general relativistic Fermi energies of particles, the "Klein potentials", throughout the configuration. These equations are here solved numerically in the case of zero temperatures and for selected parameterizations of the nuclear model. We present here the new neutron star mass-radius relation.


In this vision paper, we propose the trajGANs framework and address the potential of using generative adversarial networks for geo-privacy protection of trajectory data. Our goal is to provide a geoprivacy protection layer for trajectory data publication and usage by generating synthetic trajectories that can preserve the summary properties of real data and have close-to-real-data performance in analysis tasks. We summarize the trajectory types in geo-privacy protection and the possible data generation scenarios. We also provide validation metrics and address the possible challenges of implementing trajGANs.


Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore and analyze the implications of reverse use of customer data for service-based business models. In their quest for competitive advantage, firms traditionally use customer data as resources to redesign and develop new products and services or identify the most profitable customers. However, in the shift from a goods-dominant logic toward customer value creation, the potential of customer data for the benefit of the customer, not just the firm, is an emerging, underexplored area of research. Design/methodology/approach – Business model criteria and three service examples combine to uncover the implications of reverse use of customer data for service-based business models. Findings – Implications of reverse use of customer data for service-based business models are identified and explored. Through reverse use of customer data, a firm can provide customers with additional resources and support customers' value-creating processes. Accordingly, the firm can move...


This report reviews the data on food security and agriculture in the DPRK. It investigates the meaning of the term 'food security' as understood by the DPRK
government and the United Nations agencies working in the DPRK. The paper reviews the causes and condition of food insecurity in the DPRK. The paper charts the government's responses to the food and economic crisis of the mid-
1990s, before evaluating food security in the DPRK in terms of aggregate national food availability as well as food accessibility by different social groups. The paper also notes the DPRK government's new approach to moving towards a cooperation strategy with the international community based on development instead of relief. Building on this new approach, the paper proposes a set of recommendations designed to offer a multisectoral approach to reconstituting sustainable food security in the DPRK. In so doing, the paper offers suggestions for possible future multilateral cooperation in the context of food security as a policy goal for the DPRK.


Responding to the increase of optical disk waste, we developed a new technology for recycling disks especially for CD-R (CD write-once). This technology enables not only material recycling of the gold reflection layer and dye in the recording layer, but also reuse of polycarbonate disk substrates to produce new disks.


This paper describes current health legislation used to deal with actual and potential abuse of elderly people with dementia living in the community. Recent recommendations made regarding updating existing legal processes and creating new provisions are also outlined.


We investigate effects of audit evidence in the form of big data visualizations on jurors' decisions. Using an experiment with mock juror participants (n = 582), the study examines how visualization design features and audit evidence reliability affect jurors' negligence assessments. We find evidence for interactive effects of visualization design and evidence reliability where mock jurors make higher negligence likelihood judgments when audit evidence reliability is higher and visualizations are more vivid. Mediation results indicate that the combination of more vivid visualizations and more reliable audit evidence produces stronger emotional responses related to the auditor defendant; these negative emotional responses increase the likelihood of finding the auditor to be negligent. Overall, we find that data visualization techniques that can improve audit quality may expose auditors to increased litigation risk. Our study informs academics, auditors and regulators about the potential effects of audit evidence visualization choices on lay evaluators' judgments.


Abstract This study examines how state government responses to economic crisis, in the form of unexpected changes in state fiscal policy, influence income inequality. State governments are vital actors in times of fiscal stress as nearly every state must make difficult policy decisions related to taxes and spending to address budget deficits, both of which are policies that shape the income gap. Focusing on periods of fiscal stress is important for the study of state inequality as those with fewer resources are the most likely to experience the consequences of their state's fiscal response during these times. Using time-series cross-sectional data, this research demonstrates that income inequality increases when states respond to economic crisis by relying on unexpected spending cuts. These effects tend to persist even after initial economic downturns. In addition, one individual-level implication of the aggregate relationship between state policy responses and inequality—that people will be worse off financially when their states emphasize budget cuts in response to economic decline—is assessed using several post–Great Recession surveys. The findings have implications for the future of inequality in the United States and provide potential paths for state fiscal reform.


The invention discloses a power supply test device, which is used for testing at least one power supply. The power supply test system comprises a test cabinet and a test control device, wherein the test cabinet provides an electronic load; the power supply is arranged in the test cabinet and is connected to the electronic load; the test control device comprises a singlechip; the singlechip is connected with a setting module and a temperature sensing module, wherein the setting module is used for setting test time and temperature parameters; and the singlechip automatically controls a temperature condition and a time length for testing the power supply according to the information provided by the setting module and the temperature sensing module. The power supply test system automatically controls test conditions by utilizing the test control device, can reduce energy consumption and cost and improve automation degree.


The general assembly of the state of South Carolina at its 1928 session created a commission and provided funds for the purpose of making studies on the mineral elements contained in foods grown or produced in the state. The commission consists of six members, among whom are the president of the state university, the president of the State Agricultural College, the dean of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina and the secretary of the state board of health, ex officio. Two additional members are appointed by the governor, the appointees being Dr. William Weston, pediatrician and student of nutrition of Columbia, and Dr. R. R. Walker, a practicing physician of Laurens. A laboratory was established in affiliation with the Medical College of the State of South Carolina at Charleston, and Dr. Roe. E. Remington, physiologic chemist and Shevlin Fellow in medicine at the University of Minnesota, was


Objective:To explore a definitive clinical classification method of atlantoaxial dislocation and offer therapeutic regimen with strong guidance to the clinic practice.Method:168 cases with C1-2 dislocation due to different causes were grouped into 3 types and 4 subtypes,(1)reduction by traction type,which was termed as the type T and was divided into T1 and T2 subtype based on different cause and course of disease.(2)reduction by operation type,which was termed as the type O;(3)Irreducible type,which was termed as type I.We named this classification as TOI.Therapeutic protocoles were adopted as following,Type T1:applying traction or orthosis for 8-10 weeks,Type T2:reduced by traction followed by C1-2 fusion.Type O:Transoral anterior release followed by posterior fixation.Type I:decompression and fixation in situ.According to Symon and Lavender clinical standard,JOA scoring and SAC imaging index were used to evaluate the therapeutic effect.Result:Among 168 cases,type T had 137 cases(81%),type T1 had 71 cases(43%),type T2 had 66 cases(38%),type O had 28 cases(17%),and type I had 3 cases(2%).The SAC was 3~13mm before operation,averaging 8mm,11~19mm after operation,averaging 16mm.The improving rate of neurological function was 64.7%.Clinical efficient plus excellence rate was 88.7%.Among the cases with type T,there were 77 cases undergoing no fusion of atlantoaxial joint still maintaing the C1-2 joint.Conclusion:TOI clinical classification of atlantoaxial dislocation is definitive,which can give a guidance in the treatment of different C1-2 dislocation.


The utility model relates to a sonic-electric transformation device, or a microphone, comprising a sonic-electric transformation part, a JFET and a filter capacitor, wherein one end of the sonic-electric transformation part is connected with the secondary signal output end and the other end of the sonic-electric transformation part is connected with grid electrode of the JFET; source electrode of the JFET is connected with the secondary signal output end. The utility model is characterized in that a resistor is installed in series between drain electrode of the JFET and the primary signal output end. The said electret condenser microphone can be applied to various wireless communication terminals like GSM, PHS, CDMA etc, and is effective in screening RF noises; to some extent, the electret condenser microphone has improved capacity against static discharge.


The fierce hostility that happened between the Kadizadelis and the Sufis during the 17 th century of the Ottoman Empire is not the new issue in Islamic civilization discourses. During this period, the empire suffered from massive decadences in almost all sectors.  Kadizadelis believed that such phenomenon did not come out of the void. They insisted that the crux of the problem was primarily laid in the heresies and religious innovations ( bid ᶜ ah ) that were promoted largely by the Sufis. Embarking from this suspicion and anxiety, they initiated propagandas in which they aimed to bring back people to re-embracement of the primordial teachings of Islam. Nevertheless, many historians and scholars have doubted Kadizadelis attempts. They suspected that there were other non-religious motives that stirred their revival agendas. This paper presents an analysis that aims to challenge the commonly believed notion in which the Sufis and the Kadizadelis were totally adversarial.


This study evaluates the enforcement of securities laws in the three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Following La Porta et al. (2005) we distinguish between the public enforcement, i.e. the view that a strong public enforcer, such as a Securities and Exchange Commission, is needed to facilitate the stock market development, and the private enforcement, i.e. the view that the securities laws should standardize the securities contracts and litigation in a way to reduce the costs of enforcing the contracts privately.


Tariff-Rate Quotas (TRQs) were introduced at the outset of the Uruguay Round to support market access following the tariffication of non-tariff barriers to trade in agriculture. TRQs created an administrative mess in which governments often discretionarily allocate import licenses to private and/or public firms. Numerous papers describe the arbitrarily chosen procedures used to allocate licenses in different countries and the resulting distorted trade patterns. However, few research efforts have formally studied the impacts of different administrative methods on welfare. Due to significant spreads between domestic and world prices, the administration of import licenses can have important strategic effects under imperfect competition. We propose a simple theoretical framework to highlight the various economic implications of two methods used by WTO members: the historical allocation and the first-come-first-serve procedures. These two methods differ in their discretionary degree and, under imperfect competition, lead to different welfare implications depending on the structural parameters of an industry. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate our findings


On one hand, the source of electromagnetic radiated emissions (RE) of a given Device Under Test (DUT) can be difficult to be detected only by doing traditional RE standard MIL-STD-461 test. In certain cases, e.g. in aerospace applications, is fundamental to obtain the root cause and implement mitigation actions, fast enough, like additional shielding where the leakage is detected, in order not to have impact on mission schedule. Sniff test (ST) is a tool which complements RE test in this aspect. On the other hand, under certain conditions RE level can be extrapolated from ST as it is presented in an example of interest. A given complete example is included in which RE levels are obtained by traditional RE method and ST.


Automatic registration of multi-source remote sensing images is a research focus and difficult task. This paper proposes a robust and accurate method for multi-source remote sensing images registration. The proposed method is a two-step process including pre-registration and fine-tuning registration. Firstly, the method detects the matching points by the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm and then the input image is pre-registered by using these points according to polynomial model. As a result, the input image is transformed with the same spatial pixel size and the reference coordinate system as the reference image. Secondly, a large number of feature points are detected based on the Harris corner detector in the input image, tie point pairs are found rapidly by correlation coefficient in a small search window determined in the reference image. Tie point pairs with errors are pruned by Baarda's data snooping method. Finally, both the reference image and the input image are divided into a number of triangular regions by constructing the Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) based on the selected tie point pairs. For each triangular facet of the TIN, an affine transformation is applied for rectification. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method achieves precise registration effects.


U-Services, which are offered from local governments based on their Ubiquitous City Plans, are only focused on facility and urban management services. Also Citizen oriented U-service is only planned. This study's purpose is to propose the implication for provide of the Citizen oriented U-service comparing with U-Service plan of 'Ubiquitous City Comprehensive Plan' and 'Ubiquitous City Plan' through a network text analysis and word frequency analysis. It was calculated a important keyword that was extracted the service plan contents of the 'Ubiquitous City Comprehensive Plan' and 'Ubiquitous City Plan' of the four local governments. The network text analysis and keyword frequency analysis was performed through derived keyword. Based on the analysis results, awareness of the citizens can be expected to increase about U-City by activating a excavation of Citizen oriented U-service in a variety of sector through additional services and policy of financial support in the next Ubiquitous City Comprehensive Plan.


Many of the fishing vessels have the lubricating oil stored in the storage tank. The troubles will be caused if some water get mix with diesel-engine oil in the tank. So it is important for the diesel-engine oil to have the water resistance. We decided the test method for the water resistant characteristics of diesel-engine oil. The test method is as follows.Heat the bath liquid to 54°C. Add the sample of the oil under test to the test tube up to the 80mL. Place the test tube in the bath at 10 min. Add 0.4mL distilled water to the same test tube. Clamp the test tube under the stirring paddle. Lower the paddle into the test tube and stir for 30 min to a speed of 1500rpm. Pour the contents into the color comparison tube with tapered plug. Heat the bath liquid to 40°C. Place the color comparison tube in the bath for 4 weeks (672 hours) . Remove the color comparison tube and sample the test oil 5mL at 30mm under the surface of contents. Test the base number of the oil by JIS K 2501 (Petroleum products and lubricants - Determination of neutralization number) using potentiometric hydrochloric acid titration. Calculate the ratio of the base number after test to before test. 70% or above is passing.


Abstract In the present stage, about 95% energy is supplied by foreign import in Taiwan. So, focusing on both multi-resource of energy in addition to environmental protects goals, the supply of new and clean energy will be achieved to 3% before the year of 2020 on the Government promotion plan. Biodiesel is one kind of renewable energy. Its characteristics of bio-digestible, easily burn and low pollutant emission cause the environment healthy after its utilization. It is good alternative one of fossil fuel. From economic point of view, if increasing the additional proportion or full alternative of the waste cooking oil as feedstock, the unit cost can be decreased about 12.5% to 17% because the purchase cost of feedstock is around 60% to 70% of the manufacture cost. That is, both the environmental protect and economic benefit is higher for using extracted fat from cooking residue as feedstock. The feedstock purchase assistant is better than facility investment assistant by the Government. And, the mix assistant is suggested compromisingly, for example, IRR (internal reward rate) is 20% and PB (pay back) is below five year for that the facility investment assistant is 50% and the feedstock purchase assistant is $2NT per litter of biodiesel. The conclusions in this paper hope to be referenced for the newplant investment, the establishment of the relating regulation and/or encouragement policy by the Government.


Civets are alluring nocturnal carnivores having variant external features with different coat colors, stripes and spots, carpal and metatarsal pads, closed or open peri-anal scent glands in both sexes which have great taxonomic value and make these animals acclimatize in a wide range of geographical landscapes from hilly areas to patchy gardens and thin forests of the low land (Terai) located in or near the human settlement areas. The range of Head Body Length (HBL) and Tail Length (TL) in Paradoxurus spp. and Viverricula spp. distinguishes civets from felids. The study of civets was carried out by direct observation and videos and/or photographs were taken in the sighted places with the record of geological coordinates as evidence. For the record of civets, four wards (i.e. 7, 10, 11 and 12) were selected from Bharatpur Metropolitan City by lottery methods from the purposively selected 15 wards out of 29. These selected wards were visited randomly once or upon call in a month riding on a motorbike at the speed of 10 to 20 kilometer per hour in average speed and was crossed 2400 kilometers during four years beginning from January, 2016 to December, 2019. As a result, 11 civets of three Species, six Subspecies and two genera (i.e. Paradoxurus spp. and Viverricula spp.) were recorded. Among these animals, four subspecies were from Paradoxurinae and two were from Viverrinae subfamilies. Likewise, Paradoxurus jerdoni caniscus were reported, 9.09% (n = 1); Paradoxurus hermaphroditus minor, 9.09% (n = 1); Paradoxurus hermaphtoditus pallasii, 54.55% (n = 6); Paradoxurus hermaphroditus hermaphroditus, 9.09% (n = 1); Viverricula indica baptistae, 9.09% (n = 1); and Viverricula indica mayori, 9.09% (n = 1). Conclusively, the first records of the civet Species and Subspecies from thin gardens of fruiting trees and human houses or settlement areas in the city of Bharatpur, Chitwan, have created a great field to explore ecology and population status. However, human-civet conflicts have been created by the potential harm to poultry and pets as well as possible reservoir hosts of parasitic zoonoses and Covid-19 Viruses. Consequently, the population of civets is declining in an alarming rate due to the threats of vehicle and electric accidents, snaring and random killing by the people.


Momilactone A and B, dormant factors of rice seed, were isolated from rice husks by Kato et al.1,2), and their strong anti-blast activities have been documented3,4). The existence of these novel substances in WL-28325 treated, UV-irradiated and blast-infected rice leaves was also reported by Cartwright et al.5). However, one of the authors could not find any momilactone in the extracts from blast-infected, healthy and aged leaves of four rice cultivars6). In the course of experiments, the authors found an antiblast substance which accumulated after inoculation mainly in lower rice leaves and is different from momilactones in the behaviours on TLC and GLC. This substance was isolated and purified with successive TLC systems which were used for the detection of momilactones by Cartwright et al.5). The purified sample was subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and its molecular weight was estimated as above 3007). In this experiment, the precise molecular weight and molecular formula were decided. The abstract was reported elsewhere8), and details are reported in this paper. Rice cultivar Inabawase (resistant gene to blast disease: Pi-i) was raised as stated previously and spray-inoculated with blast fungus Pyricularia oryzae Cav. (isolate: Ken 53-33) at 6th leaf stage6). Diseased leaves were collected at 7th day after inoculation. Thirty grams of the leaf samples were chopped with scissors and dipped in 500ml of 70% aqueous methanol. After keeping for 3min in boiling water bath, the samples were homogenized with Physcotron homogenizer. The homogenized sample was filtered and the methanol extract was concentrated to ca. 100ml in vacuo. The concentrate was extracted with twice volume of petroleum ether9). The petroleum ether extract was con-


For the analysis of the relationship between carrier transfer properties and morphologies of light-emitting polymers, it is important to investigate carrier transfer pathways. We developed a novel computational method for analysis of carrier transfer pathways by the combination of tight-binding quantum chemistry calculation with Monte Carlo method. This novel method was applied to the prediction of electron transfer in poly(9,9'-dioctylfluorene)(PDOF), which is known as a blue light-emitting polymer. We successfully investigated the electron transfer pathways in PDOF films. We found that the electron transfer mainly occurs in an intra chain, but the inter chain electron transfer was also observed between aromatic rings whose distance was less than 4.0 Å.


In China's present urban-rural dual structure,rural population will still be the majority in population in the coming period.Therefore,importance should be attached to how to make education serve the needs of "the three agricultural problems".Readjustment of education related with "the three agricultural problems" should be carried out first in two fields: 1) integrating indigenous knowledge into elementary education,and 2) improving adult education by teaching practical knowledge.In these two fields,in fact,it is impossible to promote unified formal education by over-stressing the use of "unified textbooks" and to allow private capitals to earn profits without restraint.Structure readjustment in these two fields is a challenging reform because it affects different vested interest groups.


The structure and polysaccharide constitution of the jelly capsule of the egg of Rana pipiens is described. Microscopic examination of the jelly capsule revealed the presence of five discrete jelly layers that differed clearly in their response to selected cytochemical tests. These layers were classified as M1‐through M5 from the inner to the outermost layer. A sixth layer occasionally could be observed between M3 and M4.


PURPOSE
The appearance of pathology in the lumbar spine, such as a previous episode of low disc herniation or non-specific low back pain contributes to improper activation of the hip muscles. The aim of the study was to detect alterations in hip strategy manifested by differences in balance parameters and rectus femoris and gluteus maximus activity in people with previous episode of pain radiation to one lower limb caused by low disc herniation or non-specific low back pain.

METHODS
We studied 11 patients with history of low-disc herniation, 9 patients with history of non-specific low back pain and 10 healthy subjects. Hip strategy alterations were detected by measuring rectus femoris and gluteus maximus activity in bilateral surface polyelectromyographic recordings and by stability measurements on a balance platform.

RESULTS
In the surface polyelectromyography study, in both patients' group the value of the average amplitude was higher and the amount of the fluctuations was lower than in healthy subjects. There were no significant differences in stability parameters.

CONCLUSIONS
A changed pattern of hip muscles activity was detected in the patients without changes in stability parameters. Greater disorder occurs in people in with previous episode of pain radiation to one lower limb caused by low disc herniation than in people with non-specific low back pain.


Researchers in SLA have long recognized the negative effect of anxiety on language learning and revealed a consistent correlation between student...


Univariate L-moments are expressed as projections of the quantile function onto an orthogonal basis of polynomials in $L_2([0;1],\mathbb{R})$. We present multivariate versions of L-moments expressed as collections of orthogonal projections of a multivariate quantile function on a basis of multivariate polynomials in $L_2([0;1]^d,\mathbb{R})$. We propose to consider quantile functions defined as transport from the uniform distribution on $[0;1]^d$ onto the distribution of interest. In particular, we present the quantiles defined by the transport of Rosenblatt and the optimal transport and the properties of the subsequent L-moments.


In order to evaluate the influence of site quality on pine tree growth, eight different sites were selected in a commercial Pinus taeda plantation belonging to Klabin, in Telemaco Borba region, Parana State. Trees were 22 years old and sites were selected by soil type (Latosol and Cambisol), by soil texture (clayey and sandy) and by original vegetation (forest and grass). To characterize the sites, measurements of total height and DBH were taken from at least 50 trees at each site and soil samples were collected at three depths. Three average trees were selected from each site and DBH and total, sawing and cellulose heights were measured. The most important factor influencing tree growth, considering DBH increment, was the original vegetation phase. Original forest sites were the most productive of all. Cambissolo with loam texture and forest as original vegetation was the most productive site and the least productive site was a Cambissolo with loam texture and grass as original vegetation. The most productive site presented higher P and K contents, higher pH, higher base saturation and lower Al saturation percentage. This site presented lower total and macro porosities, higher bulk density and higher amount of available soil water, which was highly correlated to the growth variables


An optimized particle size and powder composition comprising a plurality of thermoplastic particles having a particle size distribution is disclosed. The powder composition comprises a plurality of thermoplastic particles having a bimodal particle size distribution or trimodal particle size distribution. Also, process for the preparation of 3-dimensional article, process for the preparation of powder coatings, and articles prepared by these methods are disclosed. .BACKGROUND


The utility model relates to the field of medicine, in particular to devices designed to store biomaterials and to work with them in medical institutions. A biomaterial storage container, which is a hollow container with a screw cap, characterized in that the container consists of two tanks, the first tank has the shape of a truncated cone, the wide part of which has an external thread corresponding to the internal thread of the lid screwed onto it; moreover, in the center of the lid there is a through hole with a diameter of up to 5 mm, hermetically sealed with a membrane of rubberized material; the narrow part of the first tank has an external thread extending from its base for connection with the second tank; the first tank is hermetically sealed with a membrane of rubberized material located above the base of its narrow part; the second reservoir tank has the shape of a cylinder with a graduated scale deposited on its outer surface and contains up to 5 ml of a disinfecting solution; for connection with the first tank, the second tank has an internal thread extending from its upper base, below which it is hermetically closed by a membrane of rubberized material; from the center of the lower base of the second reservoir in its cavity stands a sharp trident stylet, the ends of which do not reach the membrane, but are located above the start of the internal thread of the second reservoir.


We propose a bistable chiral splay nematic liquid crystal (BCSN-LC) display on the plastic substrate with enhanced memory characteristic. The strong azimuthal anchoring energy enhanced by the surface treatment by using RMs derives the higher energy barrier between a splay state and π-twisted state. Finally, by the disturbance of transition between two states, a memory characteristic could be significantly improved in our flexible BCSN-LC cell.


In connection with an effort to understand the mechanism of thiophene hydrodesulfurization, the possible modes of thiophene coordination at metal centers that are present in catalysts are of interest.


An edge‐operation on a graph G is defined to be either the deletion of an existing edge or the addition of a nonexisting edge. Given a family of graphs $\cal G$, the editing distance from G to $\cal G$ is the smallest number of edge‐operations needed to modify G into a graph from $\cal G$. In this article, we fix a graph H and consider Forb(n, H), the set of all graphs on n vertices that have no induced copy of H. We provide bounds for the maximum over all n‐vertex graphs G of the editing distance from G to Forb(n, H), using an invariant we call the binary chromatic number of the graph H. We give asymptotically tight bounds for that distance when H is self‐complementary and exact results for several small graphs H. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 58:123–138, 2008


The uncertain radiative effect of shallow cumulus clouds over tropical ocean significantly contributes to the high uncertainty in climate sensitivity estimates. Radiances corresponding to clear-sky and cloudy areas can be observed in moderate resolution satellite images. To observe the radiance originating from very small clouds and from the transition zone surrounding shallow cumulus clouds, the ‘twilight zone’, high-resolution data is required. Twilight zone radiances can be higher than clear-sky radiances due to unresolved cloud fragments and/or humidified aerosols. The area of the twilight zone depends on the resolution of the underlying data. If we think of the twilight zone in terms of partially cloudy pixels, such an area results in a high uncertainty in cloud and aerosol retrievals, as they are based on cloudy and clear-sky assumptions respectively. A precise knowledge of radiances from clouds and their twilight zone is decisive in terms of the total cloud reflectance and subsequently the shallow cumulus cloud radiative effect, which climate models struggle to properly simulate.

We therefore investigate the abundance and importance of such a twilight zone from high-resolution satellite images from ASTER recoded previously and during the EUREC4A field campaign. We use radiative transfer simulations to model the contribution of background clear-sky radiances including aerosols. Subtracting known clear-sky radiances from observed cloud field radiances leaves us with a precise knowledge of non-clear-sky radiances originating from shallow cumulus clouds and their surrounding twilight zone.


Author Sami el Geneidy Title of thesis Does the end justify the means? Carbon footprint of volunteer tourism in an Indian NGO Discipline Corporate Environmental Management Type of work Master's thesis Time (month/year) 03/2019 Number of pages 65


Results on the optical characterisation of copper deep acceptors throughout the alloy composition range (0<or=x<or=1) of GaAs1-xPx are reported. A comparison of the hole photoionisation spectra for different compositions, measured by the transient photocapacitance technique, reveals a broadening effect near the threshold which is interpreted in terms of random alloy effects on the deep level. An approximately linear variation of the hole photoionisation threshold with composition is found.


Objective To observe the change of vascular endothelial cell function and insulin sensitivity in the dogs with acute myocardial infarction(AMI) after thrombolytic treatment.Methods Ten dogs were made as acute myocardial infarction models,then were undergone thrombolytic treatment.Some parameters such as creatine phosphokinase-MB(CPK-MB),nitrogen(NO),erythrocyte insulin receptor(EIR) were determinated and the insulin sensitivity index(ISI) was calculated.Results The serum CPK-MB and ISI increased significantly after the AMI models were made,when the thrombolytic treatment was started(P0.05 or P0.01,respectively),the plasma NO and EIR decreased gradually(P0.01 and P0.05).Conclusion The decrease of insulin sensitivity in AMI maybe related to the oxidative stress and the damage of vascular endothelial function.


According to consensus, the use of Computerized Tomography (CT) methodology for early finding of several disease, yields both quick and reliable results. Expert radiologists reported that COVID19 has exhibit severalmanners in CT images. In this research, a novel technique of fusing and rankingfeatures based Deep Learning Approach was proposed to detect COVID-19 in its early stages. To create sub-datasets, 32x32 as Subset-1 and 64x64 as Subset-2, within the framework of the proposed procedure, 300 patch images as COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 were used in the training and testing phases. A VB-Net Deep learning-based segmentation system was created to segment the infection regions in CT scans image of COVID-19 patients. To improve the proposed methodperformance, feature fusion and a ranking method were used.The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) technique is used in transfer learning. The processed data was then categorized into two types as by using a Support Vector Machine (SVM). This study compares the proposed two subsets with different CNN architecture as Resnet-50, VGG-16 and GoogleNet performance result.By this comparison, the proposed model Subset-2 achieved a better accuracy of 97.58% than other comparison models.


The objective of this study was to describe how teachers assess the educational performance of students with myelomeningocele sequelae and even relate similarities and differences in the vision identified by teachers and researchers. They were part of this research six teachers from three students with myelomeningocele sequelae included in regular education. The instruments used for data collection were the Scale of Teachers' Perception about the sequelae of Students with Spina Bifida and Observation Guide for Student Performance sequel with myelomeningocele. We analyzed the data based on qualitative and comparative approach. The results revealed that there were difficulties in identifying teachers for special educational needs presented by students with myelomeningocelesequelae. This identification is considered outdated as a precursor factor of these problems include school students, as committed to meeting the needs of specific school. Thus it is believed that health professionals from forming partnerships with teachers, can contribute towards the realization of integrated training and aiming to alleviate the challenges in inclusive education.


Due to the fast development of deep learning, products and services based on artificial intelligence (AI) have been transformed from concept to reality. However, there still exist huge challenges when applying AI technologies in traditional industrial enterprises. This paper studies those key technologies that support business management applications from power grid enterprise perspective, where state-of-the-art use cases have been investigated. Finally, potential developing trends of business management are foreseen by considering the innovation of AI technologies.


Childhood Hodgkin's disease (CHD) is a rare and a highly curable disease. In this article, the epidemiology, pathology, clinical features and management are briefly discussed. There is a bimodal age distribution of Hodgkin's disease. It is rare before 5 year of age is more common in boys. The majority of cases in developing countries are associated with the presence of Epstein-Barr virus in the Reed-Sternberg cells. Children with the disease need a special attention as the problems that arise in treatment and followup of childhood Hodgkin's disease can differ from those in adults and specialty care centres can best deal with these problems. Hodgkin's disease is a lymphoma characterised by a pleomorphic lymphocytic infiltrate with malignant multinucleated giant cells (Reed-Sternberg cells). The current histological classification for CHD used by pathologists is the Rye modification of the Lukes and Butler classification. Increased risk of second malignancy in this group suggests that one should minimise the use of agents associated with secondary malignancies in Hodgkin's disease. Nodular sclerosis is the most common histological subtype. With effective multiagent chemotherapy, histological subtype does not influence outcome. It is generally thought that Hodgkin's disease spreads contiguously via the lymphatics from one adjacent nodal area to another. The currently used staging system is the Ann Arbor stage classification. More than 90 percent of all children and adolescents with newly diagnosed Hodgkin's disease are curable with modern therapy. Selection of treatment is influenced by the stage of disease. Biopsy of lymph node or CT-guided core needle biopsy is required for diagnosis. CT scan of thorax is a sensitive method in staging the disease in the mediastinum, hila and lungs. Gallium 67 scan is a useful imaging modality for supradiaphragmatic disease. Due to increasing use of combined treatment modalities, staging laparotomy is no longer routinely used in most of the centres. It is very important that the children with Hodgkin's disease are treated at a specialised centre. Average 5-year survival of all patients (adults and children) with Hodgkin's disease in India is 37 percent. Almost all children with Hodgkin's disease receive combination chemotherapy with or without low dose (1,500-2,500 cGy) involved field radiation therapy as primary therapy. Combination chemotherapy regimens for children Hodgkin's disease include cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisone and procarbazine regimens such as COPP/ABV are often utilised. The risk of sterility, damage to the heart, lungs and thyroid, and second malignancies must be considered. For recurrent disease, alternate or noncross-resistant chemotherapy regimens are considered. Autologous bone marrow transplant may be more efficacious in those patients who have achieved a second remission with chemotherapy. Clinical trials exploring the efficacy of chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation are currently ongoing for patients who have relapsed after initial chemotherapy.


The paper contains a fundamental defect in its framework of using the gauge action to study the rigidity problem. As a result, the calculations leading to the main formula is also incorrect.


Abstract The impact of boundary layer (BL) processes on simulated tropical precipitation was studied using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Medium-Range Forecast (MRF) Model. A new BL scheme, which is a nonlocal mixing concept of Noh et al. after Troen and Mahrt, was successfully incorporated into the MRF Model. In this study, simulations with 10-member ensembles were conducted for boreal summers of normal, El Nino, and La Nina years, respectively. In particular, the authors focused on the impact on tropical rainfall of the new BL scheme when two different convection schemes are utilized respectively in the model. The new BL scheme improves simulated tropical precipitation overall and in particular reduces the simulated rainfall in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. This reduction over the eastern Pacific is a direct effect of the new BL scheme resulting in less mixing of heat and moisture and is irrespective of the convection scheme. The effect of BL processes over ...


The determination of the wear in refractories is a problem to which there are at present only a few solutions. The use of radioactive tracers contained in the refractory has met with rapid success. Unfortunately, the development of the method has been retarded by the need to limit severely the amounts of radioelement incorporated and also by the observation that diffusion of the Co/sup 60/ occurred in the refractory. As a result, the limiting amount of 1 mc of Co/sup 60/ per 500 metric tons of cast iron has been adopted in France, with the proviso that no single source exceeds 3 mc. Further, special sources were made with a view to avoiding diffusion phenomena. The essential feature of these sources is that they use pyroceramic, a nonporous material having a high melting point and being very inert chemically. In these sources, the radioelement can either be entirely encased in the pyroceramic or be an integral part of its composition. A comparative study of the two types of sources is under way. (auth)


SUMMARY: The action of various concentrations of nisin on the development of cells and spores from untreated and heated suspensions of Clostridium welchii added to gelatine has been investigated, using a tube colony count technique. The development of vegetative cells was prevented by the presence of 2 Reading Units (R.U.) of nisin/ml of the final culture medium, although the effective concentration may have been 6 R.U./ml. Approximately 40 R.U./ml prevented colony formation from spores. Gelatine containing nisin was dried. A considerable proportion of the activity of the antibiotic was still present after storage for 5 weeks.


Starting with MAP estimation theory as a basis for optimally estimating carrier phase of BPSK and QPSK modulations, it is shown in this paper that the closed loop phase trackers, which are motivated by this approach, are indeed closed loop optimum in the minimum mean-square phase tracking jitter sense. The corresponding squaring loss performance of these so-called MAP estimation loops is compared with that of more practical implementations wherein the hyperbolic tangent nonlinearity is approximated by simpler functions.


The article informs about the status quo of private sewage disposal in France, England and other countries of the Common Market at the same time giving a survey about actual developments in Germany


The study of the mutual relationship between return and risk is prepared by the DUPONT SYSTEM for a period of 10 years from 2008 to 2017 in Qatari insurance companies. Costs, which characterized the Qatar General Insurance Company by achieving the highest average profit margin of 99,699 and the AU Asset Utility Index, which measures the efficiency of management in using its assets to achieve its revenues, which characterized Doha Insurance Company as it achieved the highest asset benefit of 34,771 Financial leverage EM, or the so-called ownership multiplier index, which is the ratio that measures the risks related to the use of ownership money, which characterized Qatar Insurance Company, as it achieved the highest rate of raising money of 267,677. The aim of using DUPONT SYSTEM is to compare the performance of companies in the same industry as network analysis to predict future changes, thus adding another dimension to the evaluation of Qatari insurance companies for optimal investment based on sound performance evaluation. The results of the study showed that companies that follow the policy of cost leadership strategy may It achieved a lower return than that which followed the policy of differentiation strategy. The research hypotheses were tested using ANOVA, and the following was found: 1- The existence of statistically significant differences between Qatari companies operating in the insurance field due to the return on equity (ROE). 2- The existence of statistically significant differences between Qatari insurance companies due to the financial leverage index Equity On Multiplier (EM). 3- There are statistically significant differences between Qatari insurance companies attributable to the Return On Asset index (ROA). 4- There are statistically significant differences between Qatari insurance companies due to the Profit Margin (PM) indicator. To confirm the results, a Multiple Comparisons Tukey was performed


The floating gate is formed via a gate insulating film on a semiconductor substrate. The diffusion layer is formed as a source or drain region on either side of the floating gate in the semiconductor substrate. Opposite to the both diffusion layers are formed via the first and second gate insulating film between a control gate for driving the floating gates on both sides of the floating gate. A gate insulating film, the floating gate, the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, a gate electrode, a memory cell


The interaction between predators and preys exhibits more complicated behavior under the influence of crowding effects. By taking into account the crowding effects, the qualitative behavior of a prey–predator model is investigated. Particularly, we examine the boundedness as well as existence and uniqueness of positive steady-state and stability analysis of the unique positive steady-state. Moreover, it is also proved that the system undergoes Hopf bifurcation and flip bifurcation with the help of bifurcation theory. Moreover, a chaos control technique is proposed for controlling chaos under the influence of bifurcations. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the theoretical results. These results of numerical simulations demonstrate chaotic long-term behavior over a broad range of parameters. The presence of chaotic behavior in the model is confirmed by computing maximum Lyapunov exponents.


Thank you very much for reading so far from god a novel. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their chosen books like this so far from god a novel, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some harmful virus inside their desktop computer. so far from god a novel is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Our books collection hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the so far from god a novel is universally compatible with any devices to read.


The present paper is concerned with the numerical simulation of an ethylene re-liquefaction plant. The plant is part of a petrochemical complex, set up in the city of Aratu, state of Bahia, Brazil. The cooling effect is obtained through a two-stage cascade cycle, involving two circuits with different working fluids: ammonia in the high pressure side, and ethylene is the low pressure. The main components of the system include: two-stage double acting reciprocating compressors, shell-and-tube heat exchanger, store and flash tanks and control valves. The simulation model was developed by considering the energy and mass conversion laws, the empirical heat transfer coefficient relations, heat exchanger and compressor theories and the thermophysical properties of the working fluids. The result was a set of nonlinear equations solved by a sequential modular technique. Predicated thermodynamic parameters (temperature, pressure and mass flow rate), at different points of the systems, were compared with the available plant operational data, with food agreement being obtained. A parametric anaylsis of the plant was also carried out. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Lifelong anticoagulation is often required in patients undergoing major cardiovascular surgery such as the Bentall procedure. Such patients are at high risk for hemorrhagic and thrombotic complications which can result in serious disability and even death. Patients presenting with intracranial hemorrhage may require urgent neurosurgical intervention, which in turn becomes a challenging scenario for the anesthesiologist. Thus, a sound knowledge of regulating perioperative anticoagulation and accepting increased risk of intraoperative and postoperative bleeding is mandatory for the anesthesiologist.


In this paper, we compare and analyze performance of five quality link metrics for Wireless Multi-hop Networks (WMhNs). The metrics are based on loss probability measurements; ETX, ETT, InvETX, ML and MD, in a distance vector routing protocol; DSDV. Among these selected metrics, we have implemented ML, MD, InvETX and ETT in DSDV which are previously implemented with different protocols; ML, MD, InvETX are implemented with OLSR, while ETT is implemented in MR-LQSR. For our comparison, we have selected Throughput, Normalized Routing Load (NRL) and End-to-End Delay (E2ED) as performance parameters. Finally, we deduce that InvETX due to low computational burden and link asymmetry measurement outperforms among all metrics.


We use the critical point large $N$ formalism to calculate the critical exponents corresponding to the fermion mass operator and flavour non-singlet fermion bilinear operator in the universality class of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) coupled to the Gross-Neveu model for an $SU(N)$ flavour symmetry in $d$-dimensions. The $\epsilon$ expansion of the exponents in $d$ $=$ $4$ $-$ $2\epsilon$ dimensions are in agreement with recent three and four loop perturbative evaluations of both renormalization group functions of these operators. Estimates of the value of the non-singlet operator exponent in three dimensions are provided.


Abstract Patrick Collinson's writing over nearly thirty years helped to re-shape the history of politics in the reign of Elizabeth I. This article considers the Elizabethan "monarchical republic" and looks in some detail at how Professor Collinson approached the discipline of political history.


Objective: To determine, by means of the MRS scale (Menopause Rating Scale), the frequency and severity of menopausal symptoms in a group of healthy middle-aged, Colombian women. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out between November 2006 and January 2009. A survey form and the MRS were applied to 1.215 healthy women 40-59 years old, native and resident in different communities of the Colombian Caribbean coast, who were from African, indigenous or mestizo descent. According to their menopausal status they were divided into premenopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal. Results: Joint and muscular discomfort, hot flashes, physical and mental exhaustion, and irritability were present in more than 60% of the whole group. The predominant symptom, however, differed according to the menopausal status: physical and mental exhaustion in premenopausal women (58.9%), joint and muscular discomfort in the perimenopausal ones (78.9%) and hot flashes during the postmenopause (83.2%). A gradual decline in the quality of life (QOL) was evident from premenopause through perimenopause to postmenopause. Deterioration in the QOL was found from premenopause to perimenopause in all items (with the exception of bladder problems). Decline was also observed from perimenopause to postmenopause centered on hot flashes, sex and bladder problems, vaginal dryness and joint and muscular discomfort. In contrast, the scores of heart discomfort, sleep disturbances, depressed mood, irritability, anxiety and physical and mental exhaustion decreased in the postmenopause although they remained higher than those of the premenopausal women. Conclusions: Knowledge of the profile of climacteric symptoms and of their behavior through the menopausal statuses is the basis for preventive strategies and appropriate interventions that improve the quality of life of women.


The Digestive Disease Week (DDW) Annual Meeting for 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 public health emergency Organizers stated that the attention of many speakers who would have joined DDW sessions was diverted to combating the COVID-19 crisis For 50 years, DDW has aimed to advance understanding of digestive disease and improving patient care, so to continue this with the 2020 DDW, organizers offered a webpage with ePosters and ePapers in May, when the meeting was initially arranged for, and plan to offer a virtual DDW career fair in June 2020


Caring relationships are central to nursing practice and have been preliminarily tied to patient outcomes (Duffy, 1992; Issel & Kahn, 1998; Larson & Ferketich, 1999). The quality-caring model (Duffy & Hoskins, 2003) describes caring relationships as the primary focus of professional nursing. Through independent and collaborative professional encounters, caring relationships are initiated, cultivated, and sustained. The phases of interaction, connection, and knowing the other are explored and depicted. Intrapersonal factors, time, and effective use of the clinical caring processes are discussed in terms of their influence on developing caring relationships. As a result of model testing, evidence will be generated to guide clinical interventions and ultimately influence quality health outcomes.


We discuss the influence of transport limitations on the kinetics of homopolymerization reactions. We show that in the systems in which the polymer's diffusivity decreases faster than the first inverse power of its radius of gyration, the transport limitations represent the rate‐controlling step and induce anomalous behavior of the characteristics of the process. For such systems we compute the evolution of the molecular weight distribution and its zeroth moment explicitly.


We interpret immigrant students' learning experience as a transition process between contexts of mathematical practice. Transition processes can be studied through the analysis of the different meanings that the individuals participating in the classroom attach to the various moments in the classroom dynamics. Despite all the differences, there is a common trait to be achieved among all the students: their willingness to actively participate in their own process of learning mathematics. We discuss how concepts such as transition process, norms, negotiation and communication relate to the idea of participation that guides our search for commonalities. In our discussion, we analyse how a change of perspective, from the idea of background to that of foreground, leads us to understand in a new way the complexity of the mathematics classroom. Resum: Interpretem l'experiència escolar dels alumnes immigrants com un procés de transició entre pràctiques matemàtiques. Els processos de transició poden estudiarse analitzant els diferents significats que els individus que participen a l'activitat matemàtica associen als diversos moments de la dinàmica de l'aula. Malgrat totes les diferències, hi ha un tret comú que cal aconseguir entre tots els alumnes: la seva voluntat de participar activament en els seu propi procés d'aprendre matemàtiques. Presentem de quina manera conceptes com transició, normes, negociació i comunicació estan relacionats amb la idea de participació que orienta la nostra cerca d'aspectes comuns. En la nostra argumentació, analitzem com un canvi de perspectiva, des de la idea de 'background' a la idea de 'foreground' ens porta a entendre d'una manera nova la complexitat de l'aula de matemàtiques. The schooling of immigrant students in Catalonia Since 1997 we have been working in a Catalonian research project concerning mathematics teaching in schools with large numbers of immigrant students. The project aims to find more appropriate ways to teach mathematics to immigrant students, and focusses on the understanding of the complexity of the (multicultural) mathematics classroom. In this paper we want to share with the reader some of our reflections on how the perspective taken for the analysis of a multicultural situation may influence the understanding of the phenomena studied. 1 Elsewhere (Gorgorió & Planas, in press) we have discussed immigrant students' transition processes in the search for commonalities. In this paper, we revisit the ideas presented there under a new perspective, that of the student's foreground. 2 The project is funded by the Dirección General de Investigación, BSO2000-0107, and has also been supported by a Catalan private foundation devoted to education, Fundació Propedagògic Thematic Group 10 EUROPEAN RESEARCH IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION III N.Gorgorió, N. Planas 2 Using parts of the transcripts from the case study of Malik (one of the students in one of the many classrooms observed), we will discuss how the construct of 'foreground', together with that of background, has helped us understand his breakdowns in participation in a new light. Malik's example must be taken as an excuse to develop our arguments, we are certainly not theorising from his case. (For a detailed description of the research project and its theorisation see the references at the end of this paper) In recent years, there has been increasing immigration into Catalonia, which has lead to significant changes in the school population. Now the mathematics teacher has to deal with students coming from other parts of the world, that have 'different' cultures, and speak different languages. When talking about differences in a social situation, 'different' usually means different from what is 'common' or 'normal', where common and normal are defined according to the assumptions and expectations of the persons concerned. Thus, for instance, mathematics teachers find immigrant students to be 'different' from what they expect their pupils to be. Often, the knowledge, norms, and attitudes that are 'normal' are different from those of students having different cultural backgrounds. However, within the classroom, the ways of knowing and behaving that are considered as 'normal' by the teacher tend to be part of the hidden curriculum. Therefore, they are rarely made explicit or negotiated. Is it sensible to expect to reach commonality while ignoring the fact that differences exist? Within the mathematics classroom, immigrant students need to show competence in many different ways—linguistically, culturally, and in terms of content knowledge—as well as to have interactional skills. In our context, to reach that level of competence, whilst attending mainstream schools, they are assigned to particular groups and required to follow particular lessons. Allocating them to special classes is regarded as a way to help them to adjust to the prevailing norms and to correct the 'inappropriateness' of their behaviour. However, such educational programs are often designed on the basis of some dangereous and, again, hidden a-priori assumptions. Fortunately, nowadays there are fewer and fewer educators who would still accept cognitive deficit theories as explanation for the lack of success of immigrant children. However, there are still too many of them that believe that the obstacles in their learning are due to their familial, cultural or social background. We would join Skovmose (2002) when he points out the risks of such perspectives because they easily lead to a comfortable interpretation of the children's failure, such as the problems immigrant students face in school are established beforehand and are not to be located in the school structure; or if they are, then the students bring their own learning obstacles to school and the best that school can do is to 'compensate' for such cultural deficiencies. Most often, educational programs provided for immigrant students are based on these compensatory assumptions: that immigrant students need to be compensated for the Thematic Group 10 EUROPEAN RESEARCH IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION III N.Gorgorió, N. Planas 3 'negative' effects of their own sociocultural backgrounds, and that they are lacking any kind of social or academic skills. It is rarely thought that they simply have their own ways of behaving and knowing, as well as their own values, beliefs and expectations. Is it sensible to expect to reach commonality while misunderstanding the differences, and devaluing those that are 'different'? Immigrant students learning mathematics as a transition process Elsewhere (see Gorgorió et al., 2002), we have studied the difficulties immigrant students experience when learning mathematics in mainstream schools as a transition between contexts of mathematical practice (see Abreu et al, 2002, for a broad approach to the transitions construct). When referring to the schooling of immigrant children, transition processes may be viewed as the gradual adaptation to societal expectations. The idea of transition as a continuum is crucial when attempting to achieve commonalities from differences. There are many differences between what is understood as normal or common according to the immigrant students' home culture and in the culture that hosts them. We acknowledge that school can change neither their cultural backgrounds (if they were to be changed), nor their previous life histories. However, we believe that school should contribute to help them create a continuity between their home and the host culture's meanings. We claim that school, and school mathematics, can have an important role in making possible a positive foreground for them. Several studies in the field of mathematics education (see, for instance, Yackel & Cobb, 1996; or Voigt, 1996) focus on the processes of establishing the basis of communication between teachers and students within the classroom. They analyse the negotiation to achieve shared meanings and the conflicts that appear as a result of the failure of that negotiation. In particular, they point out the relevance of sharing the meanings attached to normative issues for making communication possible. Conflicts and disruptions between the various meanings that different persons attach to the same situation or episode are the most visible manifestations of the transition processes lived by the participants in a multicultural classroom. Often, the apparent lack of conflict only means it is invisible to the observers (see Gorgorio et al., 2000), and when cultural conflict remains invisible it may turn into different types of blockage that can slow or hinder immigrant students' learning process and their participation in the classroom community. However, we consider that individuals can adapt mutually to the actions of the other members of the classroom community, and interact by reaching an agreement about the normative aspects and about the norms regulating the context. The transition processes experienced by immigrant students can be studied through analysing of the different meanings that the individuals participating in the classroom attach to the different moments in the classroom's dynamics. What are the commonalities and the differences, the continuities and discontinuities, their Thematic Group 10 EUROPEAN RESEARCH IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION III N.Gorgorió, N. Planas 4 coherence and non-coherence between the meanings attached to the mathematics learning process, and to what is being learnt, by the different participants? Immigrant students have to reinterpret and to adapt to new social and cultural aspects of the classroom context: the different roles of teachers and textbooks (social norms), the different ways of understanding the learning of mathematics (socio-mathematical norms) or the different uses of heuristics and algorithms (norms of the classroom mathematical practice). All these constructs refer to certain regularities of the social interaction that are established by the


The homodimeric ATP‐binding cassette (ABC) transport complex TAPL (transporter associated with antigen processing‐like, ABCB9) translocates a broad spectrum of peptides from the cytosol into the lumen of lysosomes. The presence of an extra N‐terminal transmembrane domain (TMD0) lacking any sequence homology to known proteins distinguishes TAPL from most other ABC transporters of its subfamily. By dissecting TAPL, we could assign distinct functions to the core complex and TMD0. The core‐TAPL complex, composed of six predicted transmembrane helices and a nucleotide‐binding domain, is sufficient for peptide transport, showing that the core transport complex is correctly targeted to and assembled in the membrane. Strikingly, in contrast to the full‐length transporter, the core translocation complex is targeted preferentially to the plasma membrane. However, TMD0 alone, comprising a putative four transmembrane helix bundle, traffics to lysosomes. Upon coexpression, TMD0 forms a stable non‐covalently linked complex with the core translocation machinery and guides core‐TAPL into lysosomal compartments. Therefore, TMD0 represents a unique domain, which folds independently and encodes the information for lysosomal targeting. These outcomes are discussed in respect of trafficking, folding and function of TAPL.


FIELD: medical engineering. SUBSTANCE: method includes connection of pneumotachometer in series with respiratory tracts and tailing the pressure readings upstream and downstream from stationary resistance element installed in pneumotachometer. The second pressure readings are taken with the second resistance element positioned as required. Series of indices is processed for calculation of characteristic curves of consumption for subject's respiratory tracts. The first and second time constants are calculated by consumption curves and are used for calculation of values of lung elasticity and resistance of respiratory tracts. Method is realized with the aid of pneumotachometric device with the first stationary and the second moving resistance elements provided with perforation and positioned in pipeline communicating with the first and second windows. Lung function checking device has pneumotachometric device communicating with pair of pressure sensors through windows made in body. Pressure sensors are connected to processor for carrying out necessary calculations of time constants and values of lung elasticity and resistance of respiratory tracts. EFFECT: enhanced measurement accuracy. 12 cl, 9 dwg


The robustness of the analytical thinning based on almost difference sets (ADSs) is analyzed when faulty elements are present in linear arrays. Peak sidelobe level (PSL) statistics of the damaged layouts are numerically inferred from representative simulations dealing with different aperture sizes and element failure rates.


(57) Abstract: In order to increase the retention force between the glasses and head, no hinges are designed to provide a central force in the rearward position of the entire spectacle frame temples (16, 18) It discloses an eyeglass frame (12). In an embodiment of a vent, second lens each lens of the glasses (66) is provided with a lens plurality of holes (86) therethrough in the coupling portion between the to (64) and rounded frame (70) there. The integral frame or frames conventional hinge may also have holes (80, 82) flowing air for ventilation.


Marine microbes play a fundamental role in driving
ocean ecosystem dynamics and biogeochemistry. While their
importance is global in scale, microbial processes unfold at the
level of single cells and are intimately dependent on interactions
between microorganisms, their neighbors, and the surrounding
physical and chemical environment. Furthermore, traditional imaging
techniques often provide frozen snapshots of the marine microbial
world, yet microbial interactions are inherently dynamic, as for
example in the case of motility, chemotaxis, and the encounter of
microbes with viruses and animal hosts. These biological processes
are frequently driven by physical mechanisms, and our understanding
of them can benefit from a focus on the physical ecology of marine
microbes. This is the approach pursued in this thesis, by directly
applying dynamic imaging and microfluidics, which offer powerful
new opportunities to study microbial processes in a time resolved
manner and with exquisite environmental control. Through
single-cell, live imaging of three fundamental marine microbial
processes - motility, chemotaxis and viral adsorption - we
demonstrate how capturing previously unseen biophysical processes
in microbial ecology at their natural timescales can both shed
light on unexplained mechanisms and provide robust quantifications
of interaction rates. We first study a newly discovered nanoscale
motility adaptation in the marine bacterium Vibrio alginolyticus
using high-speed imaging. We found that marine bacteria can exploit
a buckling instability of their flagellum to change direction
during swimming, achieving the same functionality as
multi-flagellated cells, but with the cost of synthesizing and
operating only one flagellum. This finding not only reveals a new
role of flexibility in prokaryotic flagella, but also highlights
the exquisite motility adaptations of marine microbes to the
resource-poor environment of the ocean. We then determine how this
motility adaptation affects the cells' ability to climb chemical
gradients ('chemotaxis'). We found that, counter- to current
models, chemotaxis in V. alginolyticus is speed-dependent. Faster
cells exhibited not only faster chemotactic migration, but also
tighter accumulation around the resource peak. This result adds a
new dimension to our understanding of bacterial chemotaxis
pathways, by demonstrating that swimming speed can be an important
and counter-intuitive control parameter in how marine microbes
encounter and exploit chemical resources. Finally, we consider an
encounter process that is motility-independent - that between a
nonmotile host and a virus. Using the globally abundant marine
cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus and a cyanobacterial virus
('cyanophage') as a model system, we directly imaged the encounter
and adsorption dynamics of the virus and the host at the level of
single cells, using dual-wavelength epifluorescent microscopy. By
applying this non-invasive approach to quantify thousands of
encounter events using automated image acquisition and analysis, we…


The perirhopalial tissue and swimming muscle of Cyanea were examined with light microscopical and electron microscopical techniques. The perirhopalial tissue is a thin, triangular septum found on the subumbrellar surface of the animal. It separates part of the gastric canal system from the surrounding seawater, and is bound on two sides by radial muscle bands and on the third, the shorter side, by a rhopalium and the margin of the bell.


same sitting, the Reichstag approved the government's position on the Dawes Report by a vote of 247 to 183. While the election has without doubt seriously weakened the moderate republican coalition, there is a reasonable prospect of its continuance in power, the carrying into effect of the Dawes plan, and the maintenance of a republican form of government. With more settled conditions and the return of a moderate degree of prosperity, which it is hoped may flow from the adoption of the Dawes project, it would appear likely that the high tides of radicalism and reaction, which are just now so menacing, will considerably subside.


Aim: To promote the practice of physical activity (PA) after school hours and verify the effects on the physical fitness and academic performance of children with socioeconomic vulnerability. Methods: The non-randomized experimental study was carried out in a school in a vulnerable area. Eighteen children performed 60 minutes of moderate-vigorous PA and 15 minutes of circuit exercise (muscle and bone strengthening) three times a week. The control group (n=10) only had school physical education as a weekly PA routine. To assess the program's impact, physical aptitude tests (pre- and post-test) were carried out in accordance with the recommendations of PROESP-Br and the School Performance Test


Harmonious living in a diverse society presents complex challenges due to the potential for significant conflict. Radicalism, intolerance, and social conflict often occur, especially concerning religious pluralism. Educational institutions, which are expected to build the nation's character, are also prone to religion's education labeling. Hence, Christian religious education had two choices: strengthen dogmatic teaching or embrace inclusive values. This research focuses on the importance of inclusive values as the foundation for Christian Religious Education. Through descriptive analysis of various literature, this study discusses the theological basis for inclusive values in the context of the Church and its implications for Christian religious education. The research results show that the value of inclusion is based on the reflection of the incarnation and the example of encountering dialogue, which forms the foundation for inclusive Christian Religious Education.


The water consumption in Surabaya is considered higher than Jakarta and Singapore. This situation could lead to water crisis in 2018. The use of eco-sanitary products (ESP) is one way to reduce water usage, thus delay the water crisis. However, up to now there is no any study addresses the implementation or the use of eco-sanitary products in the society. This study analyzes the demand and the supply side of ESP product in Surabaya city. Statistical model approach with logistic binary regression was used for analyzing of the influence factors in the demand side analysis by using sample of 440 households. Meanwhile, the willingness to change and to pay analysis in the demand side is using mathematical scoring and mode approach respectively. Data crosstabulation was used to process the data of the supply side analysis. The findings shows that there are only 14.3% from the total surveyed households which is categorized as eco-household. There are four factors identified that may influence the ESP usage, which are household income level, household spending, awareness to water crisis and ESP knowledge. In addition, only medium income level that do not influence the ESP usage. The willingness to change analysis results that there are three drivers for the people to change, which are sanitary product price, product impact on water savings and government subsidy. From the supply side survey, the market of faucets is ready to provide eco product to the customer because of the high availability of eco-faucets in the market. Most of the salesman has lack of knowledge about eco-sanitary product and the eco features on water saving is not the main concern for the selling strategy.


ABSTRACT Structures of table algebras determined by their character tables are studied in [6]. In this paper we continue the research in this direction. In particular, we investigate the conditions under which the character table with a zero submatrix yields a generalized wreath product for a commutative table algebra. Applications to finite groups are also discussed, and some new and known results are obtained as direct consequences.


Perinatal therapeutic consultations highlight how pregnancy constitutes a space-time of cross-revivals of the unrealized remains of the archaic primary symbolization of the work of differentiation and the secondary symbolization of the work of separation. From the narrative of a clinical encounter in a maternity ward, the fantasy of a body for two is referred to the inaugural conquest of self-differentiation and the fantasy of a body for three to oedipal dynamics. The dialectization of each is at the heart of the psychic work of "becoming a mother" within pregnancy. Here, we focus on engaged therapeutic consultations.


Remarkable changes and continuous growth and development of the early maternal‐fetal circulation could be studied by Doppler ultrasound. This approach seems to give more light in understanding of the early pregnancy development. Doppler ultrasound was reported accurate to separate different segments of uterine blood flow during pregnancy. Color flow is used to anatomically locate arcuate, radial and spiral arteries. Pulsed Doppler is then used to study different flow patterns of visualized vessels. Studies of maternal‐fetal circulation in early pregnancy may help for better understanding of physiological and pathophysiological hemodynamic changes in the circulation. Investigation of maternal (main uterine, arcuate, radial and spiral) arteries; placental (umbilical, chorionic arterioles) vessels and embryonic/fetal (heart, aorta and intracranial circulation) arteries flow patterns may help to diagnose abnormal implantation and embryonic development. More studies are necessary in order the Doppler technique to be used for clinical assessment in early pregnancy. Safety aspects should also be considered. However, potentials of this technique are promising in study of early pregnancy failure, chromosomal abnormalities, development of pre‐eclampsia and IUGR.


The purpose of this paper is to examine a study conducted by Lahti, Weiler, Michaelidis, Parwani, and Tamminga (2001). The researchers hypothesized that drug ketamine can induce mental processes and behaviors resembling the abnormalities of schizophrenia. Their method consisted of administering a drug ketamine to healthy participants and people suffering from schizophrenia. The effect of the drug was compared to the effect of the placebo administered to these participants. It was discovered that ketamine did indeed influence the increase of some symptoms of schizophrenia. In the future, the study can be improved by stating more clearly who received ketamine and what particular dose, and who received the placebo. Also, in the future a study should be designed to determine whether ketamine has some negative long-term effects on the health of research participants.


The students' discipline plays a significant role in the improvement of academic performance. However, any lack of students' discipline, significantly affect negatively the level of students' discipline. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the relationship between students' discipline and academic performance in secondary schools in Rwanda for advanced level studying-French-English Kinyarwanda in Rusizi district. The study adopted correlation research design while structured questionnaires, interview guide and desk review were used as data collection instruments. The target population was 283 respondents. The sample size was 166 obtained by the use of Yamane formula. The sample was obtained by the use of simple random and stratified sampling techniques. Questionnaire, interview guide and desk review were used to collect the data. The findings revealed that there is a statistical significant high degree of positive relationship between students' discipline and academic performance. It was revealed that regular class attendance, respect of school rules and regulation and being given punishment among students create a positive change in students' academic performance. The study recommended that the government should design effective policies and discipline guidelines. The head teachers should ensure the suitability of a set of rules and regulations in the least performing schools and there is a need to ensure students punishment management and adequate administration of school rules and regulations. Students should respect and comply with school rules and regulations through punctuality, demand of permission, constant attendance, doing homework at time, respect to teaching staff and school management personnel. Keywords: Students' performance, students' discipline, secondary schools, Rwanda


Optimisation is the process of finding the best design parameters that meet engineering needs and provides an inexpensive and flexible tool to define optimal designs to the industry prior to physical application. Engineers use empirical studies, statistical methods and optimisation techniques to evaluate research and determine the best design. In recent years, optimisation studies in the field of engineering has become an area of intensive work. The design optimisation of the bearings is one of these studies. In the design of bearings, there are various constraints such as geometric, kinematic, power, performance, long life and high reliability. An optimal design methodology is needed to perform these constraints collectively. In the literature, there are studies in which conventional and intelligent optimisation techniques are used for the optimisation of bearings. In this article, a source research is carried out, which includes the studies for the optimisation of bearings.


Intracellular and extracellular water volumes in the human body have been computed using a sequence of models starting with a linear first order RC circuit (Cole model) and finishing w ...


Iron deficiency anemia characterized by lethargy, pallor, and loss of breath upon exertion and asymptomatic tissue level iron deficiency are the most common nutritional deficiencies in the world. Iron requirements are relatively high in infants, children, and pregnant women due to rapid growth and in all females of reproductive age due to menstrual blood loss. In many diets the supply of iron is low and bioavailability is very poor. The result is that iron deficiency and the more severe iron deficiency anemia are very common in these age and sex groups in both developing and developed countries and across socioeconomic groups. For many years the paradoxical relationship between iron deficiency anemia and infectious disease has been recognized. On the one hand, population groups with a high incidence of iron deficiency anemia have been observed to have a high rate of infectious diseases. On the other hand, iron overload produced by administering large doses of iron parenterally or orally, has been associated with increased infection. This apparent paradox results from a combination of: a delicate balance between the iron requirements of the host and of the invading microorganism; and, the role of iron in mounting an effective immune response in the host. Microorganisms require iron for growth in concentrations which are generally available in tissues of vertebrates. Iron chelators, known as siderophores, are produced by bacteria, fungi, and algae to obtain iron from the environment. Powerful physiological processes in vertebrate hosts withhold iron from invading microorganisms. If the supply of iron in the host is so high that the physiological processes to withhold it are exceeded, the invading microbes can succeed in obtaining iron for growth and will flourish producing active infection. While it has been generally believed that iron is required for the host to mount an effective immune response and destroy infectious and antigenic agents, the exact mechanisms by which iron functions in immunity are still unclear. The focus of the research reported here has been to explore the role of iron in individual components of the immune response. Considerable research has been done demonstrating that in human populations where iron deficiency occurs there is increased infection and immune responses are defective. A recently published chapter reviews the body of research related to iron and human immune responses.' In most of these field studies published in the 1970s, many confounding variables were present. Most of the groups studied suffered from multiple nutrient deficiencies, parasitic infestations, and unhygienic conditions. In addition, most of the subjects studied were hospitalized for severe illness resulting from malnutrition. It is most difficult to conclude from these types of studies that iron was the singular parameter causing the diminished immune response. Nor was it possible to establish cause and effect relationships. The approach taken in this laboratory is to use a clearly defined and controlled animal model to identify where and how iron is functioning in the immune


The development of technical assistance and rural extension is very important for the development of rural communities. Some families benefited from the Programa Uma Terra e Duas Aguas showed some changes after the whole process of implementation of technologies and training. The purpose of this article is whether or not there were improvements in the quality of life of two families in agroecologica transition.


Abstraet. The fungal composition of domestic wastes and waste stabilisation pond water samples from two geographically distinct localities--Dharwad and Gulbarga in Karnataka State was studied. Fungi of wastewaters and stabilisation pond at Dharwad comp¡ of 13 species belonging to 8 genera and 16 species belonging to 11 genera respectively and that of wastewaters at Gulbarga comprised of 19 species belonging to 12 genera. Species belonging to 9 genera were recorded commonly in both the localities. Statistical analysis of the results indicated that Asper9illus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium oxalicum and Trichosporon sp. occurred in all the samples with high percentage ofoocurrence and high degree ofconsistency. Occurrence ofsome of the organistas commonly in two different environments (from the point oforganic Ioading)---wastewaters and stabilisation pond-reflects upon their lymaphilic nature.


This paper gives an overview of the NICE.I : Noisy Iris Challenge Evaluation -Part I contest. This contest differs from others in two fundamental points. First, instead of the complete iris recognition process, it exclusively evaluates the iris segmentation and noise detection stages, allowing the independent evaluation of one of the main recognition error sources. Second, it operates on highly noisy images that were captured to simulate less constrained imaging environments and constitute the second version of the UBIRIS database (UBIRIS.v2).


Dendritic cells (DC) are specialized antigen‐presenting cells involved in T cell‐mediated immune responses. Differentiation and functional maturation of the DC are now known to be regulated by various cytokines, including TGF‐β1. The experiments of this study examined the effect of other cytokines, such as IL‐4, IL‐10 and IL‐6, on the differentiation and maturation of bone marrow (BM)‐derived DC (BM‐DC) and epidermal Langerhans cells (LC). When IL‐6 or IL‐10 was added to cultures of BM cells in the presence of GM‐CSF, both cytokines, as in the case of TGF‐β1, suppressed the maturation of DC in terms of the expression of adhesion and costimulatory molecules and T cell‐stimulating activity. In contrast, IL‐4 was not suppressive but rather supportive for the differentiation of DC. However, these suppressive cytokines hardly counteracted the maturation‐inducing activity of TNF‐α when added to cultures of immature DC. In addition, they appeared to block the overmaturation of DC, which is characterized by a loss of MHC class II molecules. Regarding LC maturation in epidermal cell cultures, IL‐6 and IL‐10 were inhibitory for the expression of CD86 and CD80 in a dose‐dependent fashion. Unlike BM‐DC, LC maturation was slightly enhanced by TGF‐β1. The protein antigen‐presentation by LC to Th1 clone was not affected by IL‐6, but slightly reduced by IL‐10. These results suggest that each cytokine contributes to regulate the differentiation and maturation of DC at a different developmental stage.


Pt and Pt alloys are still the mainstream electrocatalysts in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the high cost of Pt prevents its large-scale use in ORR. Reducing the dosage of Pt is the key to cut cost and increase the extent of its application range. The two-dimensional MoS2 is a promising candidate and can be modified by doping methods to achieve ORR catalytic activity comparable to that of Pt. It can also be set as a cocatalyst for Pt so as to reduce the dosage of Pt. But questions on the more feasible option is the current research topic being explored. To understand the importance of MoS2 in ORR applications, first-principle calculations were carried out. Compared with pure Pt and pristine MoS2, the ORR properties of doped MoS2 and Pt-deposited MoS2 were analyzed. Finally, we found that MoS2 performs better as a cocatalyst for Pt since it greatly reduced the Pt dosage and obtained an appropriate performance. Thus, this study can provide a reference for future studies on MoS2 in ORR applications.


Background : Since longtime griseofulvin has been in use to treat tinea capitis. However due to its decreasing efficacy, higher doses and side effects a search is going on to find out a better treatment alternative. Terbinafine is one such therapeutic option. Objectives To compare the efficacy and safety of terbinafine and griseofulvin in tinea capitis in Northern Areas of Pakistan. Patients and methods Children 3 to 12 year-old who were clinically diagnosed for tinea capitis and confirmed by potassium hydroxide microscopy were included in the study. One group was treated with terbinafine at a dose of 62.5mg for children weighing less than 20kg and 125mg for those weighing 20-40kg and other group with griseofulvin at a dose of 15mg/kg body weight. Both groups were treated for a period of 4 weeks. Visits were scheduled at baseline and week 2, 4 and 6 for evaluation of efficacy and safety monitoring. Efficacy was evaluated on the basis of clinical improvement and mycological cure. Results Terbinafine showed comparatively higher clinical cure in our patients as compared to griseofulvin at week 2 (35% vs. 22%), week 4 (50% vs. 38%) and week 6 (70% vs. 55%) [ p <0.05]. Similarly, mycologic cure with terbinafine was better than griseofulvin at week 2 (30% vs. 20%), week 4 (45% vs. 35%) and week 6 (60% vs. 50%) [ p <0.05]. Trichophyton tonsurans was the most common organism isolated. There were no major side effects except nausea and abdominal pain in either group. Conclusion Terbinafine is more effective than griseofulvin in treating tinea capitis in our part of the world.


Disposed in a vacuum vessel, a substrate stage having a substrate mounting surface on which a substrate is mounted, comprising a first magnetic field applying means for applying a magnetic field to the substrate, the interior of the first magnetic field applying unit substrate stage between the magnetization direction and the thickness direction of the substrate coincide.


To develop problem-solving skills during engineering studies, students have to be given the opportunity to act independently and to apply their expertise in professional application situations with feedback that promotes learning. Although practical proje


In this paper, we investigate joint power allocation and time switching (TS) control for energy efficiency (EE) optimization in a TS-based simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system. Our aim is to optimize the EE of the system whilst satisfying the constraints on maximum transmit power, minimum data rate and minimum harvested energy per-terminal. The considered EE optimization problem is formulated and then transformed according to the duality of broadcast channels (BC) and multiple access channels (MAC). The corresponding non-linear and non-convex optimization problem, involving joint optimization of power allocation and time switching factor, is difficult to solve directly. In order to tackle this problem, we develop a dual-layer algorithm where a convex programming-based Dinkelbach's method is proposed to optimize the power allocation in the inner-layer and an efficient search method is then applied to optimize the TS factor in the outer-layer. Numerical results validate the theoretical findings and demonstrate that significant performance gain over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme in terms of EE can be achieved by the proposed algorithm in a SWIPT-enabled NOMA system.


Submitted in Partial Fulfillment, of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Art
In, English Language Teaching ELT, Department of Foreign Language Faculty of Educational ScienceKamleen, August 2017