The relative popularity of web sites, as expressed in published rankings, is of fundamental value in many contexts including search, advertising and research. In this paper, we consider the surprisingly challenging problem of generating consistent and reliable web site rankings based on unique visitors per day. We illustrate the challenge this represents using data from three large and independently-sourced Internet user panels. We begin by showing that generating a website ranking based simply on the observed unique daily visitors produces highly inconsistent rankings–even among the most popular sites. To mitigate the problems of bias and measurement error, we introduce a general methodology that identifies "canonical panelists": an abstract class of user that exhibits consistent behavior across panels. Our definition is based on the epistemological technique of triangulation, which refers to observing the same object from multiple perspectives at the same moment in time. We show that panelists in the canonical class exhibit desirable characteristics including improved persistence. Most significantly, we show that defining a domain's rank as a function of the aggregate behavior of canonical panelists improves overall alignment of rankings across all three of our panels.


In this communication, we report the synthesis of the first examples of terminally thiol‐functionalized alkoxycyanobiphenyls. The thermal behaviour of these mesogens and their intermediates was investigated by polarizing optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X‐ray diffractometry.


Two new Acaulospora species were found in two wet mountainous grassland ecosystems of Sierra Nevada National Park (Spain), living in the rhizosphere of two endangered plants, Ophioglossum vulgatum and Narcissus nevadensis, which co-occurred with other plants like Holcus lanatus, Trifolium repens, Mentha suaveolens and Carum verticillatum, in soils affected by ground water flow. The two fungi produced spores in pot cultures, using O. vulgatum, N. nevadensis, H. lanatus and T. repens as bait plants. Acaulospora pustulata has a pustulate spore ornamentation similar to that of Diversispora pustulata, while A. tortuosa has surface projections that resemble innumerous hyphae-like structures that are more rudimentary than the hyphae-like structures known for spores of Sacculospora baltica or Glomus tortuosum. Phylogenetic analyses of sequences of the ITS and partial LSU of the ribosomal genes reveal that both fungi are new species within the Acaulosporaceae. They are most closely related to A. alpina and undescribed Acaulospora species. With 45–72 μm spore size, Acaulospora pustulata is the smallest Acaulospora species known so far, while A. tortuosa has slightly larger spores (61–84(–94) μm), which is in the range known for several other Acaulospora species like A. longula, A. alpina, A. nivalis and A. sieverdingii that have either smooth or pitted spore surfaces. These two fungi might play an important role in helping their endangered hosts O. vulgatum and N. nevadensis to survive under the stressed environments of the high mountains of Sierra Nevada.


National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT), Grant/ Award Number: NO. 2020R1A2C2013091 Abstract A numerical analysis is conducted for assessing the feasibility on the use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers for Korea Positioning System (KPS) satellites in space service volume (SSV). KPS is planned to provide a navigation and timing service by constructing seven satellites over the Korean Peninsula, which will orbit above the GNSS constellation in SSV. The major problems caused by such orbital characteristics include reduced satellite visibility due to poor geometric diversity and weak signals, causing an increase in the user range error (URE). To address these constraints, this study considers multi‐GNSS and 1‐st side‐lobe signal utilization scenarios. More specifically, the GNSS satellite visibility, geometric dilution of precision, carrier‐to‐noise ratio, URE, and navigation error for KPS satellites in SSV are analysed through a numerical simulation. A trade‐off between visibility and received signal power as well as their effects on positioning accuracy is analysed to describe the utility of side‐lobe signals. Finally, based on numerical analysis of the simulation results, this verifies the applicability of GNSS SSV for KPS satellites through multi‐GNSS and side‐lobe utilization scenarios.


The design and development of municipal gardens in Perth in the early 20th century is discussed with special reference to Henry Campbell, Superintendent of Municipal Gardens. Campbell's major contribution to the municipal gardening movement is the planting of palm trees on the river foreshore, which have given the city its distinctive streetscape.


The relation between the aging conditions and the partial discharge (PD) characteristics in twisted enameled magnet wires has been investigated for early detection of deterioration of electrical insulation of motor windings. In particular, an application of repetitive impulse voltage pulses was used for the PD measurements in order to simulate inverter surge. The aging temperature was varied from 220 to 300 °C, and the exposure time was changed from 1 to 1000 hours. As the results, the small deterioration due to the thermal accelerated aging, which cannot be detected by conventional methods such as a withstand voltage test, was clearly found as a decrease of repetitive PD inception voltage (RPDIV).


The book under discussion is interesting and important in two respects: firstly, as a collection of scholarly research devoted to an extremely timely but very poorly studied problem; secondly, as a very effective stimulus to a critical understanding of the stereotypes which have accompanied the study of RussianUkrainian relations during the years when many historians of Europe and North America, particularly historians of Ukrainian origin, considered it their civic, national or simply human duty to serve the political and cultural independence of Ukraine, or, at minimum, the preservation of its cultural and national identity. The past several years have radically altered the situation. Thus one of the important questions that has been raised by the current situation in UkrainianRussian relations is whether historians will be able to make a positive contribution to the organization of a new, equal, unbiased and non-hostile dialogue between the two societies and their intellectuals. The difficulties that stand in the way of mutual understanding (to say nothing of agreement!) are quite numerous. It will be extremely difficult to overcome them, as one can surmise from certain articles in this volume. But, regardless of the difficulty and length of such a dialogue, it would be a most unforgivable error to reject it. Therefore, this article should be considered not only as a review, but also as an attempt to understand the possible starting positions on certain questions concerning the history of Ukrainian-Russian relations, and, also, to test approaches which might possibly, in my opinion, be either productive or unproductive. It is important to bear in mind that the book in question consists of materials from a conference held in the early 1980s. Of course, today it reads differently than it would have ten years ago. But, on the other hand, the very obsolescence of some articles reveals the importance of the present situation. The attainment of Ukrainian state independence and the rise of completely new conditions for a Ukrainian-Russian dialogue enable us to see just what may be possible or even necessary to reject in aspiring toward an objective and impartial understanding of the history of conflicts and ties between the two countries.


Annual production of sewage sludge in Japan has increased, and most of the sewage sludge is incinerated. With conventional sewage sludge incinerators, a large amount of energy is needed for operation. Additionally, the emissions of greenhouse gas N 2 O are expected to be high, because sludge contains a high concentration of nitrogen. In this R&D, an advanced sewage sludge incinerator "turbocharged fluidized bed incinerator," which can achieve not only energy savings but also a low environmental impact, was proposed in collaboration with a public research institute and a company. This new system consists of a pressurized fluidized bed combustor coupled with a turbocharger. The R&D to achieve practical use of the proposed system is primarily explained in this paper.


Harpen EKT decided to install a customised interface from the systems specialist Uniorg Unternehmensberatung GmbH, Dortmund, to link the heat accounting system installed at Harpen EKT in Berlin with the group-wide SAP R/3system for accounting, financial control and purchasing used at Harpen AG, Dortmund. Uniorg is known, amongst other things, for its comprehensive »External Transaction Services« interface solution, providing automatic data transfer in real-time between an SAP and a third-party system. The SAP R/3 system installed in Dortmund (release 4.6), which uses the financial control, financial accounting and materials management modules, forms the technical basis of the customised Harpen version. A leased line between Dortmund and Berlin guarantees data transmission in both directions. The heat accounting system runs on a server in Berlin and is connected to SAP through the remote function call interface (figure 1). This guarantees high availability of the heat accounting system for the constantly increasing number of customers and smooth parallel operation of the SAP and district heating accounting systems. According to Th. Heckhoff, IT Manager at Harpen, the advantages of the interface lie in the reduction of the error rate, faster invoicing (on change of tenant, for example), a simplified and therefore faster credit procedure and more competitive pricing as a result of improved financial control functionalities.


In this paper, we proposed a reflector antenna array with annular parabolic trough reflecting surface for generating the orbital angular momentum modes. In this array, eight antenna elements are evenly distributed on the circular focal line of the revolutionary parabolic trough surface structure. Comparing to the array without reflecting surface and the array with conventional parabolic reflecting surface, this reflector array shows good performance in focusing the electromagnetic waves, and thus obtains higher gains at the first beams of all the transmitted orbital angular momentum modes.


The invention discloses a tough magnesium alloy with high elongation rate, which belongs to the magnesium alloy field. The magnesium alloy is composed of Mg, Al, Mn, rare earth, Nb and Co, and comprises the following components by weight: 1.5-25% of Al, 0.1-2% of Mn, 0.0002-16% of rare earth, 0.0002-4% of Nb, 0.0002-2% of Co and the balance of Mg. According to the invention, a rare earth element, an Nb element and the Co element are added in the MgAlMn series magnesium alloy, and the plasticity of the magnesium alloy is enhanced to obtain the tough magnesium alloy with excellent machinery processability and fluidity and good plasticity. The sample elongation rate of a casting can reach 20% after heat treatment by T6.


Coal gangue is the largest source of industrial solid waste in China. This paper introduces some properties of the gangue, and analyzes the possibility that gangue is used in highway construction, and gives its some advantages of utilization in construction.


Objective:To investigate the effect of salvianolic acid B on rats with myocardial ischemiareperfusion injury.Methods:SD rats were randomly divided into five groups(n=10 in each group):A sham operation group,B ischemic reperfusion group model group,C low dose salvianolic acid B group,D median dose salvianolic acid B group,E high dose salvianolic acid B group.One hour after establishment of the myocardial ischemia-reperfusion model,the concentration and the apoptotic index of the plasma level of myocardial enzymes(CTnⅠ,CKMB),SOD,MDA,NO,ET were,measured.Heart tissues were obtained and micro-structural changes were observed.Results:Compared the model group,the plasma CTnⅠ,CK-MB,MDA and ET contents were significantly increased,NO,T-SOD contents were decreased in the treatment group(group C,D,and E)(P<0.05);compared with group E,the plasma CTnⅠ,CKMB,MDA and ET levels were increased,the NO,T-SOD levels were decreased in groups C and D(P<0.05).Infarct size was significantly reduced,and the myocardial ultrastructural changes were improved significantly in treatment group.Conclusions:Salvianolic acid B has a significant protective effect on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.It can alleviate oxidative stress,reduce calcium overload,improve endothelial function and so on.


Optical laser pulses play important roles in various fields, and the phononlike analog, i.e., phonon laser pulses, should also be very useful. We show the possibility of pulsed phonon lasing in trapped ions based on our observation that coherent phonon pulses are generated and then transferred between transverse dimensions due to nonlinear resonance once the oscillation amplitude of the trapped ions is larger than a threshold. We study the pulsed phonon output with the multiple-scale method using the first-order nonlinear differential equations which govern time evolution of the amplitudes and phases of the interacting modes. We also discuss the feasibility of Q-switched pulsed phonon lasing and the potential application.


The article has summarized the experience of applying enterprise resource planning on businesses in the world such as the United States, China and Thailand. From businesses in these countries, we offer lessons for retail businesses in Vietnam.


The single-layer spherical reticulated shell is the structure which is sensitive to imperfections. The initial imperfections reducing structural stability included initial curvature and residual stress of element and installation deviation of nodes. The stress-strain curve concerning the residual stress was got by model CRC, the influence of initial curvature was got by the half-sinusoid and the programs about them were programmed by ANSYS secondary exploitation. Based on these works, the influences of the three imperfections on dynamic failure of the spherical reticulated shell were got by IDA.


An aqueous blend of an azetidinium functionalized polymer and a polymer having quaternary amine groups is disclosed for use as an aqueous pretreatment for substrates such as textiles and clothing to be digitally printed. The pretreatment agent can further comprise a wetting agent, a surfactant and a preservative. The pretreatment agent can be dry or wet immediately prior to digital printing and can be heat treated to bond the pretreatment agent to the substrate and / or subsequent printing ink. The present invention relates to a substrate pretreatment composition comprising: an azetidinium functionalized polymer, sulfur dioxide and a partially or fully quaternized copolymer of allylamine and / or diallylamine, a surface tension modifier, and optionally a preservative (previous When the treatment agent is stored for a long time).


Color Editing plays an important role in image processing, which aims to change the original image color according to specific image color characteristics. We present a new interactive local color editing method. The user first draws strokes specifying the target region needed to transfer color, which can be segmented using K-means clustering. Then patch-based inpainting technology is applied to achieve natural transition along the boundary. In the course of color editing, only the color of the pixels in this segmented region is transferred, while others including the boundary region and the background remain unchanged. The experimental results show that our method can achieve a visually satisfying local color editing results.


The topic of foreign investment has become more and more popular in recent years. The risk of foreign investment always attract people's attention. Today, there are many domestic enterprises being abroad, as we all know, such as Lenovo Group acquired IBM Personal Computing Division, Geely Group successfully acquired Volvo. However, we should put attention on the failure cases of Shanghai Auto's acquisition of Ssangyong Motor and China Aviation Oil Singapore's investment in financial derivatives. When we research the opportunities by sharp vision, we should improve our immunity against risk. Therefore, the article analysis the situation of foreign investment by some cases, and learn the experience and lessons in order to provide some specific and proper preventive measures to deal with the risk of foreign investment.


Metamorphosis produces dramatic structural changes in holometabolous insects. Yet these are not the only changes mediated by the insect's brain and endocrine centers. Successful metamorphosis requires specific behavioral acts that must be performed correctly at precise moments during this transition. Many of these activities, such as pupation or adult eclosion, are performed only once during the insect's life. Such behavior frequently relies on coordinated neuromuscular activities not seen at other times and is often accompanied by switches in spatial orientation and changes in responsiveness to specific environmental stimuli. It is this suite of activity seen only during metamorphosis that we refer to as metamorphosis behavior. In this review we focus on metamorphosis behavior of the higher flies, the cyclorraphous Diptera, because metamorphosis is most extreme in this group. Unlike other insect orders, flies rely almost exclusively on imaginal discs and histoblasts for the development of imaginal tissues. The fly larva (or maggot), devoid of legs, and even lacking the conspicuous body divisions of head, thorax and abdomen, bears little resemblance to the adult. Larval development in flies is characteristically rapid and is completed in only three instars. Metamorphosis is complicated in this phylogenetically ad vanced group by the addition of an extra metamorphic event, pupariation 243


Computational methods inspired by natural phenomenon have gain much interest in the recent years. Among the developed algorithms, particle swarm optimization (PSO), mimicking behavior of bird flocking or fish schooling, seems the most famous method due to its simplicity as well as performance. A variant number of PSO based methods was developed for traveling salesman problem (TSP), the most popular combinatorial problem. The aim of the study is to make a comparative study of several prominent PSO based methods in solving TSP. The study is important because different PSO based methods have been developed by different researchers and tested on different sets of problems. Therefore, the description of the prominent PSO based methods in a similar fashion reveals distinct features of individuals. Moreover, experimental results on a common benchmark TSP data set will reveal performance of each method. In this study, the methods have been tested on a large number of benchmark TSPs and outcomes compared among themselves as well as ant colony optimization (ACO), the prominent method to solve TSP. Experimental results revealed that enhanced self-tentative PSO (ESTPSO) and velocity tentative PSO (VTPSO) outperformed ACO; and self-tentative PSO (STPSO) is competitive to ACO. On the other hand, experimental analysis revealed that ESTPSO is computationally heavier than others and VTPSO took least time to solve a benchmark problem. The reasons behind performance and time requirement of each individual method are explained and VTPSO is found most effective PSO based method to solve TSP.


US/REMAX, a linear optimization model for groundwater management, is used to compute preliminary optimal sustained groundwater pumping increases for southeastern Cache Valley. US/REMAX employs the response matrix method of representing system response to stimuli as constraint equations within an optimization problem. The management objective is to maximize groundwater extraction at four specified locations subject to constrai~ts on aquifer potentiometric head, aquifer/river interflowl and the water level in the uppermost aquifer layer. Four scenarios (constraint sets) are presented. The results are most sensitive to the aquifer/river interflow constraints. Interflow is deemed important because baseflows are crucial to satisfying fish, aquatic life, and irrigation demands. If a constraint is imposed to assure at least 80% of non-optimal baseflow to the Logan and Blacksmith Fork Rivers, pumping in the considered locations can increase by only 13% beyond the 1990 values. Relaxing this constraint to assure at least 10% of baseflow to rivers results in a 40% increase in total pumping. KEY TERMS: Optimization; Aquifer/River Interaction; Baseflow; Modeling; Groundwater.


The purpose of this paper is to clarify some concepts that are usually neglected, or confused, in the field of professional fiscal activity, and also very often in academic activity. It is the difference of approaches that address the public finance studies in the orbit of the economic theory from how similar themes are treated by public accounting and in legal or law legislation, including those related to fiscal policy, therefore, in financial and taxation in general, as well as considerations of public expenditure through which the state provides public goods.


Introduction: Women experience poorer clinical outcomes after Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). While the reason for this differential is unclear, autonomic function -indicative of vagal and sympathet...


The present remarks are aimed at restating some of the problems involved in any statistical analysis of the consonant systems of a large number of languages, such as the analysis proposed by Joe E. Pierce, A Statistical Study of the Consonants of New World Languages, IJAL 23.36-45,94-108. Although the data collected by Pierce are in themselves of interest, the main contribution of his presentation is his suggestion for a method to 'test statistically the validity of... a grouping... [of] phonological systems on the basis of the number of series of stop consonants.' Before his results may be accepted as valid, however, some clarification of basic concepts seems indicated. At C. F. Voegelin's suggestion three such concepts are briefly discussed below (1. Comparability of data; 2. Method; 3. Typologies and correlations) followed by speculations and suggestions for further investigation (4. Alternate methods). 1. Of both theoretical and practical interest is the problem of to what degree phonological systems or sub-systems may be equated. The point has been clearly made by Weinreich:' 'the phonemes... are defined within each language by oppositions to other phonemes... of that language. For example, /p/ in Russian... is defined... by its distinctive feature of non-palatality, .. . while the definition of /p/ in English... involves no such restriction. From the point of view of the languages, therefore R[ussian] /p/ and E[nglish] /p/ cannot be "the same"'. Weinreich indicates however, that while the phonemes


A multivariate QSAR for estimating the ionization potential (IP) of halo-alkanes has been constructed. 69 compounds, including 47 for which experimental IP data in the 10 to 13.6 eV were available were parametrized with 12 structural descriptors. The data analysis to correlate IP to these descriptors was carried out by PLS that gave a tri-dimensional model explaining over 80% of the variance of IP. The reliability of the model was evaluated on the basis of predictions by using two different approaches. These were (a) a modified PLS version providing the Standard Deviation of Errors of Prediction, the SDEP parameter, which was found to be +/− 0.45 eV, and (b) an "external" validation process where the standard deviation was computed on the basis of the predicted IP.s for 17 compounds kept outside the training set, and was found to be +/− 0.39 eV.


The present review aims for the study of phytoconstituents and pharmacological activities of some natural plants. The traditional medicinal plants have been found to acquire therapeutic activities significantly antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory antibacterial, anti-fungal, antioxidant properties etc. The plant-derived constituents are majorly for the aliments of used skin disease diabetes, bronchitis, asthma, arthritis, dry cough, ulcer and fever. The antimicrobial activity of the following plants like Justicia adathoda, Lantana Camara, Acacia leucophloea, Holoptelea integrifolia, Calotropis Procera, chlorophytum tuberosum, Bombax ceiba, Bacopa monnieri, Wedelia trilobata, Jatropha gossypifolia were obtained from the extraction of either leaves, stem or flowers by using ethanol, methanol, aqueous, petroleum ether, chloroform. The phytochemical constituents of the extract have been shown the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, cardiac glucosides tannins, proteins, carbohydrates, saponin, quinines, triterpenes, steroids, polyphenolic, volatile oil, phenols, starch sugar, amino acid, resin and organic acids. This study evidenced the possible use of the mentioned plants as a source of natural medicines which are used as an antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antifungal, antioxidant agents.


Technology development that is extremely rapid in this century makes quality, time and use of the latest technology as factors that must he emphasized in an organization. Group management and administration of organization tries to introduce the system of management that is most systematic and efficient to raise the ability of competitive and productivity of organization. To achieve that goal, Sistem Pengurusan Kolej Kediaman UTM Berasaskan Web has been developed to help the management of UTM's residential college to deal with their student and solve the problems that occur from the current system. This system has been developed using a prototype methodology combined with PI-IP and MySQL as it's database. With it's interactive interface and easy to use, Sistem Pengurusan Kolej Kediaman UTM Berasaskan Web should become an efficient management system for it's user.


Background:Suxamethonium produces an abnormal increase in serum potassium in some neurological diseases and some authors have suggested that it is safer not to use this drug in patients with familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP). However, there are no data previously reported to support this hypothesis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the magnitude of the potassium increase produced by suxamethonium in FAP type I.


Modal analysis is employed in this paper using hammer impact testing to characterize the dynamic response of rubber bushing. Based on multi‐body dynamic analysis and acceleration transfer function, the rubber core is decomposed into three pieces, which are joined by spring and dashpot considering the large deformation and damping properties. Parameters of mass, stiffness and damping coefficients are identified through fitting against the Bode plot of the transfer function. With those parameters, the stability of this structure can be evaluated by exploring the critical excitation frequency range, which attributes the failure mechanism of rubber to thermal effect. The dissipation energy in each piece of the rubber core is calculated to demonstrate the accumulation of energy in rubber bushing. This paper successfully employs multi‐body analysis to predict the dissipation energy of rubber components.


Test on l0 concrete filled steel tubes with squarer sections after high constant temperatures to investigate the influence of temperature on the section capacities of concrete filled steel tubes are reported. The main parameters varied in the tests are temperatures, from 20℃ to 900℃. A mechanics model is developed in this paper for concrete-filled stub columns after high temperatures, and is a development of the analysis used for normal temperature. The predicted load versus axial strain rela- tionship is in good agreement with stub column test results. Simplified models are derived for section capacities and modulus in different stages of the composite sections. It was found that the higher tem- perature resulted in higher loss of section capacities and elastic modulus in concrete filled steel tubes. The tests showed the importance influence of high temperatures that the concrete filled steel tubes had ever been suffered. Finally, a simplified model is developed for calculating the member capacity and the elastic modulus of concrete filled steel tubes after high temperatures.


One of the phrases that has been considered by most commentators with the approach of empirical science is "the darkness of the three (the three veils of darkness)" in verse 6 of Surah Al-Zumar. They has interpreted this combination as the three darknesses of the abdomen, uterus and amnion-chorion. A view has also been put forward by contemporaries, which considers it as the spaces between the abdomen and uterus, the flesh of the uterus and the amnion, the amnion and the fetus, and has considered such an interpretation as an example of the scientific miracle of the Qur'an. In the meantime, another approach can be taken and based on the descriptive-analytical method and with the focus on the interdisciplinary approach, what is the "darkness of the three" is examined. Accordingly, by relying on the symbol of "complete and dense indifference and shapelessness before creation" for "darkness of the three", this phrase can be considered as the platform for the formation of protein structures (based on genetic information contained in DNA codes), Which are the cornerstone of the structure and biological processes of living organisms (without the production of proteins, no biological processes will be formed and no cells and organs will be made). It should be borne in mind that this interpretive possibility is also compatible with the components of the scientific miracle of the Qur'an.


The application of magnetic bearing (EMB) in the suspension of nuclear power plant (NPP) turbomachine rotor is considered in the report. The main indices and turbomachine (TM) arrangement are given. The unique nature of turbomachine rotor characteristics is shown. The investigation problems for the project provision as for electromagnetic suspension are determined. The main results of investigations, performed at turbomachine rotor model and obtained at calculational investigations are considered. The purposes of the following investigations were determined.


The European Module Columbus of the International Space Station (ISS) is planned to be launched 2004. For its exploitation phase as well as for the early utilisation of the Space Station starting from 2003 onwards the operations procedures are now being defined in detail and the implementation of specific infrastructure has startet. A decentralised operations concept will allow the investigators to perform their experiments using the telescience technique of remote experiment operations whenever feasible. User Support and Operation Centre (USOCs) will act as Facility Responsible Centres (FRC) performing the operations for multi user experiment facilities. The Columbus Control Centre (COL-CC) will perform the Columbus system operations, co-ordinate the European payload operations and provide the European Communications network. This paper gives an overview on the operations concepts and the tasks and set up of the involved sites.


The actinomyce PH33 was isolated from sediment sample in Dalian.According to its morphological,cultural,physiological,biochemical characteristics and 16S rRNA sequence analysis,the strain PH33 was identified as Streptomycete parvus.Inhibiting ability was measured using agar-diffusion and cylinder-plate method.Results showed that antimicrobial activity did not change under the conditions of 100 ℃ heating and pH 2,and slightly decreased with pH 12;UV irradiation did not affect its antibacterial activity.Strain PH33 was proven to have the application potentials in preventing and controlling bacterial canker of tomato.


In recent years, a large amount of electricity generated from conventional sources has been replaced by renewable generation resources. However, these inverter-based power sources have no rotating inertia contribution to power systems. Power system inertia is a critical factor for frequency stability. As rotating inertia reduces, a power system is more susceptible to frequency instability. Therefore, it is important to evaluate system inertia in order to prepare a sufficient amount of fast frequency responses. This study will examine various methods to estimate the power system inertia, and these methods are based on traditional swing equation, polynomial approximation and RV methods. This work considers the measurements of frequency and Rate of Change of Frequency (ROCOF) from PMU records, the size of disturbance from many disturbance events in Taiwan, the design of noise filters, and actual data used in Taiwan power system.


As a two-dimensional material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has drawn wide attention due to its fascinating properties and exciting application prospects. However, in order to access these properties, which lie within single- or few-layer nanosheets, the inter-sheet van der Waals interactions within the bulk material must be adequately disrupted to exfoliate MoS2 to atomic thicknesses. The hitch with most current exfoliation methods, though, is that they employ expensive, exotic, or environmentally incompatible methods that suffer poor scalability and poor reproducibility, producing weakly stabilized sheets that retro-aggregate. These pitfalls render many current approaches unsuitable for the development of large-scale devices and nanocomposites, thereby making cheaper, more benign alternatives highly sought after. Herein, we present the sonication-assisted aqueous phase exfoliation of bulk MoS2 into dispersed single- or few-layer nanosheets using popular culinary hydrocolloids, including guar gum (GG), tannic acid (TA), and xanthan gum (XG). These green agents are commercially available, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly substances and act as good dispersing and exfoliating agents. Under optimized exfoliation conditions, dispersed solution concentrations of 0.24, 0.15, and 0.06 mg mL−1 were achieved for MoS2-GG, MoS2-TA, and MoS2-XG, respectively. In addition, the sterically stabilized nanosheets were successfully decorated with gold nanoparticles via an in situ reduction by the hydrocolloids to yield plasmonic nanocomposites exhibiting excellent catalytic activity in 4-nitrophenol reduction.


The Southern Ocean is rapidly changing, with future environmental changes likely to have wide-reaching consequences for the structure and function of marine ecosystems (Constable et al. 2014). In addition, the coming decades are likely to see expansion of krill fisheries, and potentially the development of other new fisheries (Kock et al. 2007). Along with well-designed observation programs, ecosystem models are the central means by which we can gain insight into what these changes will mean for the structure and function of Southern Ocean ecosystems, providing the necessary information to inform management decisions into the future.


The optically pumped FIR laser lines at 119 gm from CH3OH and at 127 gm from 13CD3OH are known to be the most powerful in the far infrared spectral region. We report on efficiency measurements for our waveguide laser system. The effect of various parameters was investigated, resulting in the highest efficiency ever reported for the 119 gm line. The Stark effect and others parameters of the 127 gm were measured, and a new 13CD3OH laser line at 175 gm discovered, with the same pump transition. These measurements are helpful for completing the assignment already proposed for the 127 gm line.


Helium isotope ratios of olivine and pyroxene phenocrysts from Plio‐Quaternary volcanic rocks from southern Italy (seven Aeolian Islands, Mt. Vulture, Etna, Ustica, and Pantelleria) range from 2.3 to 7.1 Ra. Importantly, the phenocryst 3He/4He correlate well with whole rock Sr isotopic composition (0.70309–0.70711), reflecting the mixing of two sources. A significant contribution of He from crustal contamination is recorded only occasionally (e.g., pyroxenes from Vulcano). When merged with data from the Roman Comagmatic Province, a remarkably strong near‐linear He‐Sr isotope correlation is apparent. The general northward decrease in 3He/4He corresponds to an increase in 87Sr/86Sr (and a decrease in 143Nd/144Nd and 206Pb/204Pb) that is due to increasing metasomatic enrichment of the mantle wedge via subduction of the Ionian‐Adriatic plate. Calculations based on the ingrowth of 4He in the wedge and on the 4He content of the subducting crust show that mechanisms of enrichment in radiogenic He are effective only if the wedge is strongly depleted in He relative to best estimates of the depleted mantle. This can be accommodated if the process of metasomatism by the subduction fluids depletes the mantle wedge. The 3He/4He of Pantelleria, Etna, Iblei, Ustica, Alicudi, and Filicudi basalts (7.0 ± 0.6 Ra) define the mantle composition least affected by subduction‐related metasomatism. Although these volcanoes are from a variety of tectonic regimes (subduction‐related, intraplate, rifting), their similarities suggest a common origin of geochemical features. Their characteristics are consistent with a HIMU‐type mantle that either is younger than the Cook‐Austral island end‐member or has a lower 238U/204Pb.


There are two independent fundamental differential operators(called the "fundamental differential operator pair") on curved surfaces.This paper focuses on the topic: Among all fundamental differential operator pairs,,[▽,■],formed by the classical gradient▽(...) and the shape gradient▽(...),is the optimal one.The following conclusions are included:(1) The paths for constructing the fundamental differential operator pairs are not unique.(2) The commutative nature of the inner-product of,■(…) is the basis of its optimality and advantage over all other fundamental differential operator pairs.(3) Based on the inner-product of,[▽,■],all higher order scalar differential operators for physics and mechanics on curved surfaces can be constructed optimally.In other words,[▽,■] is the optimal "fundamental brick" for establishing the differential equations of physics and mechanics on curved surfaces.(4),[▽,■] exists universally in physics and mechanics on soft matter curved surfaces.


The invention relates to a side-wall block for a wall in an electrolytic cell, in particular for producing aluminum, a method for producing such a side-wall block, use of such a side-wall block, and an electrolytic cell having such a side-wall block. The side-wall block (28) is a layered body, comprising a layer having a higher thermal conductivity and a layer having a lower thermal conductivity, wherein the difference in the thermal conductivity is at least 5 W/(mK).


In the age when electronic media seems to be taking over the print media, it becomes necessary to understand as to why people have started to shift their attention from print to media. The present study has been built with three fold objectives that intends to cast light to the attitude people hold towards print and electronic media, the nature of influence media has on day to day decisions of people and compare the effects of print and electronic media on people's life. As electronic media television and radio only have been taken for the present study and the print media, in the study, includes all kind of newspapers, newsletters and magazines, which are more readily available at home, on roadsides, in markets everywhere. A sample of 100 students was selected to be included in the present study. An interview schedule was devised consisting of various items pertaining to the objectives of the study. The results have been prepared using Excel and SPSS based analysis package. The results have indicated more positive attitude towards the electronic media, especially the Television, and print media has been placed in the second position. Also the effects of television were observed to be more intriguing than the other form of media in question. It seems that the new generation is more inclined towards the use of new media and in coming years there will be significant shift in the role new media in the lives of people. The study has concluded with proposed future directions for further research in this area of enquiry


To pursue the efficiency of economic growth can be called to make "Meat Pie" larger vividly.But the equity of income distribution is caused by cutting "the pie" apart.The human capital is an important factor of production during economic growth and its roles to economic growth and income distribution is always a focus of economy study.Many researchers have tested and analyzed the roles from different points of view,by selecting data from different countries and regions and by using different research methods.


Reduced graphene oxide nanosheet (RGO)/Pt nanocomposite have been successfully prepared through a facile chemical reduction method. The reduction of Pt precursor was carried out using sodium borohydride as the efficient chemical reductant. The morphology of RGO/Pt nanocomposite was investigated using high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). HRTEM analysis showed that platinum nanoparticles were homogenously distributed onto the surface of RGO. The electrochemical study proved that Pt nanoparticles were successfully incorporated onto RGO. Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed method could provide well-dispersed of Pt nanoparticles onto RGO to form RGO/ Pt nanocomposite.


This paper focuses on Constant Sinusoidal current control strategy based simulation of UPQC (Unified Power Quality Conditioner). The proposed methodology guarantees sinusoidal current to be drawn from the supply system. In addition to this it compensates the reactive power, for which the compensated current and the source voltage are in phase. In case of non-linear loads connected to the system which draw harmonic power along with constant average power, UPQC is able to supply the harmonic power, so that harmonic components are not drawn from the supply system. The UPQC not only deals with harmonic power of the load but also deals with zero sequence power owing to imbalances in the power system. Simulation studies of UPQC for Three Phase Four Wire system with neutral point clamped topology has been performed using MATLAB R2014b for combination of Linear and non-linear loads. The results of the simulation study reveal that the current obtained from the supply system is apparently sinusoidal with a very low THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) within 0.04 percent.


Six newly synthesized nickel peroxo coordination complexes, [Mg2(2-ap)2(O2)(OH), A], [Mn(2-ap) (ED)(O2), B], [Fe(2-ab)(ED)(O2), C], [Fe(2-ap)(ED)(O2), D], [Ni2(2-ab)2(O2)(OH), E] and [Ni2(2-ap)2(O2)(OH), F] showed significant antibacterial and antifungal activities. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of these compounds were found in the range of 8-128 µg/ml. Among these compounds, F showed maximum cytotoxicity (LC50 = 3.62 µg/ml) in brine shrimp lethality bioassay.

 Key words: Peroxo coordination complexes; Antimicrobial activity; antifungal activity; cytotoxic activity.

Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. Vol.3(1-2) 2004

The full text is of this article is available at the Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. website


The Okhotsk Sea is a marginal sea at the northwestern margin of the Pacific and its southern part consists of the Kuril Basin,which is the window to study the geologic problams of Okhotsk Sea.Based on previous work,geophysical field characters of Kuril Basin have been represented in this paper;especially,sedimentary feature,bottom attribute and geologic characters of Kuril Basin have been discussed in detail.We also try to discuss the geologic evolution of the Kuril Basin.The conclusion of this paper will benefit the research of sea basin in the Okhotsk Sea and basin of marginal sea of China.


THE INSTALLATION AND PERFORMANCE ARE DESCRIBED OF POLYSTYRENE INSULATION BOARDS IN THE SUBGRADE OF A ROADBED AREA SUBJECT TO FROST-HEAVING. A DOUBLE LAYER OF 1 1/2 INCH THICK 8 X 2 FOOT SHEETS WAS PLACED 18 IN. BELOW GRADE; SINCE THE SUBGRADE SOIL CONSISTED OF FINE SAND NO GRANULAR CUSHION WAS NECESSARY. BOARDS OF 1 AND 2 IN. THICKNESSES WERE USED TO PROVIDE A 48-FOOT TRANSITION AT EACH END OF THE INSTALLATION. FIVE THERMOCOUPLES WERE INSTALLED, ONE DIRECTLY ABOVE AND ONE BELOW THE BOARDS, AND THE OTHERS AT 3, 5, AND 7 FEET BELOW THE TOP OF THE ROADWAY. AFTER THE GRADE WAS RESTORED, THE OLD SURFACING (2 1/2 IN. COLD-MIX BITUMINOUS BASE WITH CHIP SEAL) WAS PULVERIZED AND PLACED ON THE GRADE. THE AREA WAS THEN PRIMED WITH AN MC-250 BITUMEN AND COVERED WITH A 2 INCH BLADE-LAID BITUMINOUS COLD MIX. THE TOTAL COST WAS APPROXIMATELY $7900; A PARTIAL BREAKDOWN OF THE COSTS ARE GIVEN. ELEVATION CHECKS MADE DURING MID-WINTER REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF FROST-HEAVING IN THE INSULATED AREAS, ALTHOUGH SMALL HEAVES DID DEVELOP JUST OFF THE LOW END OF EACH AREA INDICATING DESIRABILITY OF LONGER TRANSITIONS OF INSULATION IN DIRECTION OF WATER MOVEMENT. SIMULTANEOUS READINGS OF TEMPERATURE DIFFERENTIALS OF THERMOCOUPLES LOCATED DIRECTLY ABOVE AND BELOW THE INSULATION RANGED UP TO 48 DEGREES; THE LOWEST TEMPERATURE ABOVE THE BOARD WAS NINE DEGREES BELOW ZERO, AND THE LOWEST DIRECTLY BELOW WAS 32 DEGREES F. THE HIGHEST READINGS WERE 81 AND 57 DEGREES F RESPECTIVELY. OBSERVATION OF THE INSTALLATIONS THROUGH TWO YEARS INDICATED THAT POLYSTYRENE INSULATION EFFECTIVELY ELIMINATES FROST-HEAVING. ALSO IF THE INSTALLATION CAN BE DONE DURING ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION, COSTS WOULD BE CONSIDERABLY REDUCED.


Commentary on: Currie CJ, Peyrot M, Morgan CL, et al. The impact of treatment noncompliance on mortality in people with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 2012; 35: 1279– 84.[OpenUrl][1][Abstract/FREE Full Text][2]

Diabetes increases the risk of death twofold; identifying novel modifiable risk factors could improve patient outcomes and focus healthcare spending in areas with the highest return. Non-adherence to prescribed medications and clinic appointments may be independent risk factors for excess mortality.

Currie and colleagues performed a database review of insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes who followed up for 6 months prior to insulin initiation and at least 30 months post-insulin initiation during which compliance with any medications and appointments were evaluated. Mortality was assessed from the end of 36 months (index date) which fell between 2000 and 2009. Information from 15 984 charts was collected until death or …

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 [2]: /lookup/ijlink?linkType=ABST&journalCode=diacare&resid=35/6/1279&atom=%2Febmed%2F18%2F3%2F112.atom


The U.S. National Transonic Facility, constructed by NASA to meet the national needs for High Reynolds Number Testing, has been operational in a checkout and test mode since the operational readiness review (ORR) in late 1984. During this time, there have been problems centered around the effect of large temperature excursions on the mechanical movement of large components, the reliable performance of instrumentation systems, and an unexpected moisture problem with dry insulation. The more significant efforts since the ORR are reviewed and NTF status concerning hardware, instrumentation and process controls systems, operating constraints imposed by the cryogenic environment, and data quality and process controls is summarized.


We give a new method for the reduction of tensor integrals to finite integral representations and uv divergent analytic expressions. This includes a new method for the handling of the γ-algebra.


A retrospective study was conducted using magnetic resonance image (MRI) and a full‐length standing scanogram (FLSS) to measure the quadriceps angle (Q‐angle) while avoiding soft tissue interference.


We have performed a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a relativistic jet in slab geometry. The simulation code employs a simplified total variation diminishing method. We compare the weakly and strongly magnetized relativistic jets. The result shows that both relativistic effects and the parallel magnetic field collimate the jets. Stronger reversed magnetic fields are formed in the weakly magnetized jet than in the strongly magnetized jet.


The authors propose a strong contextual stage, which can be implemented in any OCR system for multifont printed documents, based on an automatic pattern training. The goal is to increase the final performance of the recognizer by giving an appropriate stage which uses information about pattern redundancies in the text. Instead of making a standard word by word analysis, the proposed stage will correct a character pattern, by studying all the words in the text, which contain the character prototype. The proposed algorithm computes the substitution probabilities for each character prototype and stores all the character substitution possibilities. The right answer is given by the corrections which maximize the number of correct words found in the dictionary. The algorithm has also been modified to correct merged characters.<<ETX>>


The conventional GA combined with a local search algorithm, such as the 2-OPT, forms a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) for the traveling salesman problem (TSP). However, the geometric properties which are problem specific knowledge can be used to improve the search process of the HGA. Some tour segments (edges) of TSPs are fine while some maybe too long to appear in a short tour. This knowledge could constrain GAs to work out with fine tour segments without considering long tour segments as often. Consequently, a new algorithm is proposed, called intelligent-OPT hybrid genetic algorithm (IOHGA), to improve the GA and the 2-OPT algorithm in order to reduce the search time for the optimal solution. Based on the geometric properties, all the tour segments are assigned 2-level priorities to distinguish between good and bad genes. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the IOHGA. The experimental results indicate that in general the IOHGA could obtain near-optimal solutions with less time and better accuracy than the hybrid genetic algorithm with simulated annealing algorithm (HGA(SA)).


The mainstream magnetic iron oxide particles used as contrast media for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging are composed of a magnetic iron oxide core surrounded by a dextran or carboxydextran coat. The core size ranges from 2 nm to less than 10 nm, and the hydrodynamic diameter ranges from 20 nm to about 120 nm. The coat prevents aggregation and sedimentation of the particles in aqueous solutions, achieves high biological tolerance, and prevents toxic side effects. Two kinds of particles are considered: (i) large particles (>30 nm), called superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (SPIOs) for liver imaging; (ii) smaller particles (<30 nm hydrodynamic diameter), called ultrasmall SPIOs (USPIOs), e.g. for MR angiography. To characterize the particles, Mossbauer spectra are presented for the two particle ensembles. These spectra allow insight into the magnetic coupling, the valency of the iron ions and a rough estimate of the core size to be deduced. On the basis of the concentration dependence of the MR signal intensities, two applications are discussed together with two representative clinical examples. Future indications for MR diagnostics, e.g. the labeling and tracking of stem cells during stem-cell therapy control, are outlined.


The study aims to determine the application of SAK EMKM in the preparation of financial reports UD. Sari Rama Bakery. Methods of data collection in this study using interviews, observation and documentation. The analytical method used in this research is descriptive analysis method. The results of this study indicate that UD. Sari Rama Bakery has not recorded its business financial statements in accordance with SAK EMKM because the recording of financial reports is not in accordance with SAK EMKM guidelines but only records incoming and outgoing cash. This is because UD. Sari Rama Bakery does not meet the elements of preparing financial statements according to SAK EMKM including statements of financial position, profit and loss statements, and Notes to Financial Statements. This shows that UD. Sari Rama Bakery has not been able to measure the level of the company's financial performance and has not been able to determine business development. This study contributes for SMEs to describe in more detailed and in-depth, considering that this research focuses on quality and the results of the research can describe the reality view of other SMEs on what has been experienced at the research site. The results of this research provide insight into the reality of implementing SAK EMKM and show that the importance of knowledge for MSME actors to prepare financial reports in accordance with SAK EMKM. The limitation of this research is that UD. Sari Rama Bakery does not keep financial records in accordance with SAK EMKM, but only records incoming and outgoing cash.


The paper describes a novel algebraic framework for specifying backward translations of view updates. It is based on diagram operations and can be considered an essential generalization of dynamic views (known in the literature since the eighties). A distinctive feature of the framework is that both view and update mappings are first class citizens and explicitly occur in the arity shape of the translation operation. We show that dynamic views augmented with mappings give rise to double categories, and discuss the benefits of this formalism.


Dynamic histogram shifting (DHS) is a generation of the conventional histogram shifting (HS) technique for reversible image watermarking. Its superior embedding performance is achieved at the cost of significantly increased computational burden incurred by estimating the capacity parameters via multi-rounds of embedding iterations. In this work, we propose an analytical framework on estimating the optimal capacity parameters for DHS-based reversible image watermarking. We demonstrate that such parameter estimation can be cast as a convex optimization problem, which can be numerically solved in an efficient manner. The estimated values can then be utilized to facilitate a local search algorithm to obtain the truly optimal ones with much lowered complexity. Experimental results are provided to verify the validity of our findings.


This presentation seeks to further understandings of human encounters with socioecological change and also of socioecological processes in the science of planetary change. In this presentation, I interpret the space-time involvements of two social groups. Using one filter, I do basic science by examining the ways Sumbanese construct the monsoonal landscapes which they communicate about, within which they move, and where they interact with other constituents of their environments. Using an alternate filter, I engage critical theory by deconstructing the ways scientists' visualize changing landscapes with the aid of geospatial technologies. Whose purposes do geospatial scientists serve in documenting the anthropogenic drivers of global environmental change? What is at stake in imaging land cover change? Who benefits and who does not benefit from geospatial science? This presentation both participates in and critiques Earth imaging projects. Note: Text highlighted in grey indicates a corresponding PowerPoint slide. Opening Gambit about an Ethnobiologist's Positioning Imagine you, an ethnobiologist fieldworker, are studying in a rural community where the local agropastoralists, who are completely and totally invested in managing the plants and animals, soils and waters in their homelands, see, discuss, think about, direct, encourage, resist, and in other ways interact with change in their environment. Then, picture yourself, the ethnobiologist student or professor, conducting a literature review about your fieldsite. You find authors who include geodata such as satellite images and maps in their texts. You are intrigued by the academics' descriptions of and conclusions about your fieldsite because the authors describe that landscape in novel ways based on their ability to view it from remote altitudes. These privileged folks are able to see changes in the landscape at various time intervals, and spatial and spectral resolutions in remotely sensed images. So here you are: an ethnobiologist observing a "digital divide of the geoweb" (Elwood 2010:352). As an ethnobiologist who is straddling this digital divide, I have chosen to engage the "mechanism of exclusion" (Elwood 2010:352) by sharing geodata with my interlocutors, by asking them to describe what they see in satellite imagery of their landscape, and by bringing their voices into the scholarly dialogue about their changing landscape. For the project of understanding human perceptions of and knowledge about change more generally across cultures and locations, I compare components of culture and cognition linked to spatiotemporal processes: i.e., space-time culture. Divisions in the Global Geoweb Apparent in the comparison of indigenous agropastoralists and published academics –two groups separated by a wide gap in access to geospatial science and technology – is that the ways humans perceive change varies across cultures. Perceptions of change are governed by subjectivities, where social and geographic positions come into play – by who is on the ground everyday and who can view the ground from the sky everyday. Space-time culture also shapes perceptions of change, as illustrated in the following comparison of two cultures moving through space-time and in the comparison of their interpretations of geodata.


B ackground: Diabetes is a global epidemic with India estimated to have the highest prevalence of 79.4 million by 2030. RLS is a common yet undiagnosed comorbidity causing significant distress. We aimed to analyze association between restless legs syndrome (RLS) and type 2 diabetes. Methods: One hundred fifty six type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and eighty eight non-diabetic controls were assessed at Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Hospital, Jaipur, India for RLS using the international RLS study group rating scale. Several patient clinical profiles along with laboratory parameters were compared in both groups. Diabetic polyneuropathy was evaluated for its role as risk factor in diabetic RLS subjects. Results: RLS was diagnosed in 35 diabetic patients (22.44%) and in only 7 non diabetic controls (7.95%). RLS was independently associated with type 2 diabetes (P<0.04). A clinical diagnosis of polyneuropathy was made in only 22.86% of diabetic patients with comorbid RLS. In multivariate logistic regression, polyneuropathy was the only variable associated with RLS in diabetics (P<0.03). RLS manifested in diabetics after the diagnosis of diabetes was made. Conclusions: An association between RLS and type 2 diabetes is established in Indian subpopulation. In diabetic patients, polyneuropathy is the main risk factor for RLS. But, polyneuropathy only partially explains the increased prevalence of RLS in type 2 diabetics.


Abstract The lack of model-based information in bioreactor monitoring and control can have a profound impact on biological systems. We therefore aim to develop a model using elementary modes (EMs) that represents the observed phenotype in given environmental conditions suited for bioprocess control. Challenges in the model development were the high number of possible phenotypes of stoichiometric models and the high computational intensity. Two methods were compared to reduce the number of EMs to match the observed cellular phenotype. The first method is based on ranking modes and the second is a controlled random search (CRS) algorithm. Since we wish to obtain a biologically realistic subset of EMs, the objective function to be minimized is a trade-off between the error, efficiency of the modes, and model size. The case study considered the central carbon metabolism of Escherichia coli. The original model containing 2706 modes for case 1 and 11718 for case 2 was reduced to a system of one for case 1 and three modes for case 2 giving a good correlation with the measured data. Furthermore, considering also intracellular besides extracellular metabolites, results in a better fit of the measured rates. Finally, the CRS outperformed the ranking algorithm.


Abstract : This experiment is aimed to determine the influence of riser size on shrinkage and porosity defect of aluminium castings by using sand molds. The raw material of aluminium alloy in this experiment is derived from waste of motorcycle piston. Bottle shape riser is used with the size of neckis 25 mm ofdiameters and 5 mm of height. Variations of riser size are: 30 mm of diameters with 100 mm of height, 40 mm of diameters with 56 mm of height, and 50 mm of diameters with 36 mm of height. The shrinkage testing is conducted by comparing the castings volume to the molds volume. The observation of shrinkage cavity is done by cleaving the castings into two pieces. The porosity is tested by comparing the true density to the apparent density. The true density testing uses ASTM E-252 standard.The result of this experiment are is to produce castings which low shrinkage and porosity defect is used riser which large of diameters and height size. Keywords : Riser, Shrinkage, Porosity, Aluminium alloy


The purpose of this article is to explain the economic functions of financial intermediaries and financial institutions. The risks that are commonly managed by actuaries, particularly in the insurance industry, (e.g. insurance risk, market risk, interest-rate risk etc.) arise from the economic functions of financial institutions and from the process of financial intermediation. We show that there are substantial similarities between the economic functions of nonbanks (in which actuaries have commonly managed risk) and those of banks (in which risk has generally not been managed by actuaries – at least not in the UK and US). The implication of the analysis is that risk management techniques will become closer in the banking and nonbanking sectors and that the various risk management professions and academic groups will cross the sectors.

Keywords:

financial institutions;
banks;
risk transfer


We let students play a corruption game, embedded into a variant of the ultimatum game. Those allotted the role of public servants chose between whistleblowing, opportunism and reciprocity by delivery (of a contract) and those acting as businesspeople chose how to frame the game and whether to blow the whistle. While opportunism and abstaining from whistleblowing is the Nash equilibrium, another likely outcome was that businesspeople allocate resources to punishing public servants for non-delivery, exhibiting a preference for negative reciprocity. Anticipating this, public servants might tend to reciprocate or blow the whistle upfront. Female public servants were more inclined to behave opportunistically; female businesspeople were less engaged in negative reciprocity. This corroborates a favorable role of women in anticorruption. Businesspeople who strongly preferred a corrupt framing of the game and obtained a form with corrupt wording were more willing to punish non-delivering public servants. This operates against camouflaging a bribe as a gift, because gifts fail to signal negative reciprocity.


Massless quantum field theory is usually troubled by both ultraviolet and infrared divergences. With the help of analytic continuation, this fact can be exploited to eliminate, or at least reduce t...


We study the effect of lower hybrid waves on edge turbulence using a set of two Langmuir probes inserted in the scrape-off layer of the Tore Supra tokamak. We use the cross-correlation coefficient to assess the interplay between turbulence and the LH waves. We found that turbulence is affected at high plasma current even at relatively low LH powers. When the plasma current is below 1 MA, this effect disappears. Finally, we show that the level of fluctuations and the cross-correlation amplitude are correlated whereas the increase of the first leads to the increase of the second. The role of the plasma current could reflect that the exchange of the RF waves with edge turbulence is occurring in the closed field lines rather in the open field lines range.


4 A cluster randomised controlled trial of enhanced pharmacy services (EPS) to improve outcomes for patients on methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) M. Jaffray, C. Matheson, C.M. Bond, A.J. Lee, D.J. McLernon, A. Johnstone, B. Davidson and L. Skea Centre of Academic Primary Care, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill Healthcentre, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, DAHS, United Kingdom, STRADA, United Kingdom and NHS Grampian, United Kingdom


Objective To investigate the effects of downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator (DREAM) on the expression of glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) in spinal cord in rats with bone cancer pain and morphine tolerance.Methods Sixty female healthy Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats weighing 200 ~230 g were randomly divided into tow groups,group Ⅰ cancer pain (CP,n =48) and group Ⅱ Sham (S,n =12).Cancer pain in each group was produced by inoculation of syngenetic Walker 256 rat mammary gland carcinoma cells (5 × 105) to left tibia.Pain threshold to mechanical stimulus was measured before (baseline) and after the surgical procedure.From 14 d to 18 d after the inoculation of carcinoma cells,36 rats from group CP received subcutaneous injection of morphine at 3 times per day with doses increasingly from 10 mg/kg initially to 20 mg/kg,30 mg/kg,40 mg/kg,and 60 mg/kg.Equal volume of normal saline was applied to the 12 rats left in group CP.On 19th day after the carcinoma cells inoculation once subcutaneous injection of morphine at 3mg/kg was performed in all rats in group CP.From the next day,the rats in group CP ever receiving injections of morphine for 5 days were randomized into thre subgroups,including subgroups morphine tolerance (MT,n =12),vehicle (V,n =12),and RNAi (R,n =12).They were injected intrathecally with 20 μl of normal saline (NS),10 μl vehicle plus 10 μ1 NS,and 10 μ1 of DREAM-shRNA plus l0 μ1 NS,respectively,once a day for 5 days.Focusing on the affected limb,mechanical pain threshold was measured one day before surgery (T0),and at day7 (T1),day 14 (T2),day 18 (T3),day 19 (T4),day21 d (T5),day 25 (T6),and day 28 (T7) after surgery.The animals were sacrificed at day 28 after the procedure.The lumbar 4 segments in rats were removed for detection of DREAM and GLT-1.Results The mechanical threshold was significantly decreased at T1 compared to the baseline in all groups,returned to the baseline at T2 ~ T7 in group S,at T4 in group CP,and at T2 in group MT,V,and R,but remained low at T5 ~T7 in group CP,and at T3 ~T7 in group MT,V,and R.Compared to that at T1,it was decreased at T2 ~T3 and T5 ~ T7 in group CP,at T4 ~ T7 in group MT and V,and at T4 ~ T5 in group R,going back to the baseline at T4 in group CP and at T2 in group MT,V and R,and increased at T6 ~ T7 in group R.Compared to that in group S,the mechanical threshold in group CP,MT,V and R was decreased,and lower at T2 in group CP and at T4 in group MT,V and R.Compared to that in group CP,the mechanical threshold was significantly higher at T2 ~ T3 but lower at T4 in group MT,V,and R,decreased at T5 in group R and at T5 ~ T7 in group MT and V.The mechanical threshold was increased at T6 ~ T7 in group R and higher than that in groups MT and V.The expression of DREAM,compared to that in group S,was down-regulated in other groups.Compared to group CP,increment was shown in groups MT and V,and decrease was exhibited in group R.It was cut down in group R compared to that in groups MT and V.Compared to group S,GLT-1 was decreased in other groups.It was down-regulated in groups MT,V and R compared to group CP.Conclusions DREAM is involved in the development of allodynia after morphine tolerance in rats with bone cancer pain.No evidence in this study supports a link between DREAM and GLT-l in spinal cord.

Key words:
Gene expression regulation, neoplastic ;  Bone neoplasms/complications ;  Pain/etiology ;  Morphine/pharmacology ;  Drug tolerance ;  Glutamic acid/metabolism


3D object recognition is a challenging problem with important applications such as robotic perception. The most promising approach to solving 3D object recognition is through solving the correspondence problem. The goal of the correspondence problem in the context of 3D object recognition is to find correspondences between the objects to be recognized and the scene. If correspondences exist between an object and the scene it can be hypothesized that this object exists in the scene. Once these hypotheses are verified objects are recognized. The most common approach to solving the correspondence problem for 3D object recognition has been through techniques that try to find correspondences between local regions of the models and the scene. In this report, we focus on different local techniques and highlight their weaknesses and strengths as well as provide directions for future research.


This paper presents an automotive suitable power electronics for inductive energy transfer of up to 22kW within a box volume of 3.51. The compact layout and an optimized system topology allow the realization of rectifier and reactive current compensation with a high efficiency of around 98%. The specific layout takes into account cooling of the resonance capacitors as well as of the rectifier. The automotive environment requires failsafe functionality which is independent of the wireless data transfer to the primary side. The hardware is dimensioned and prepared for realizing an additional secondary side power control. Thus, the optimal electrical working point of the energy transfer can be adjusted and overall system losses can be reduced.


We analyze the drivers, distribution, and properties of the relativistic electron precipitation (REP) detected near midnight by the Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) and Meteorological Operational (MetOp) satellites, critical for understanding radiation belt losses and nightside atmospheric energy input. REP is either driven by wave‐particle interactions (isolated precipitation within the outer radiation belt), or current sheet scattering (CSS; precipitation with energy dispersion), or a combination of the two. We evaluate the L‐MLT distribution for the identified REP events in which only one process evidently drove the precipitation (∼10% of the REP near midnight). We show that the two mechanisms coexist and drive precipitation in a broad L‐shell range (4–7). However, wave‐driven REP was also observed at L < 4, whereas CSS‐driven REP was also detected at L > 7. Moreover, we estimate the magnetotail stretching during each REP event using the magnetic field observations from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). Both wave‐particle interactions and CSS drive REP in association with a stretched magnetotail, although CSS‐driven REP potentially shows more pronounced stretching. Wave‐driven REP events are localized in L shell and often occur on spatial scales of <0.3 L. Using either proton precipitation (observed by POES/MetOp during wave‐driven REP) as a proxy for electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave activity or wave observations (from GOES and the Van Allen Probes) at the conjugate event location, we find that ∼73% wave‐driven REP events are associated with EMIC waves.


Abstract: This article deals with the phytoplankton of the Paraguay and Bermejo rivers, with emphasis on the spatial and temporal patterns of its composition, density, biomass, diversity and community size structure. The phytoplankton of the Paraguay River is characterized by the dominance of small Chlorophyceae and Cryptophyceae, with a gradual increase in Bacillariophyceae towards its confl uence with the Parana River. In the northern stretch, where the Pantanal drains, Bacillariophyceae exceptionally share the dominance with Chlorophyceae and Euglenophyceae. Small Chlorophyceae prevail in transparent waters, whereas Aulacoseira ( A. granulata and A. herzogii ) predominates throughout the main channel, in relation with a higher turbulence and lower water transparency. Density, biomass, diversity and species richness present an inverse relationship with the hydrometric level. Such variables are positively correlated with water temperature, and present a decrease from north to south in relation to increased suspended solids and conductivity and decreased water transparency. The Bermejo River, which is a main tributary of the Paraguay River in its lower section, is the main determinant of the sharp decrease in the main variables of the phytoplankton in the low Paraguay.


This study investigates the influence of teacher-learner interactions on pupils' academic self-concept in primary schools located in informal settlements in Kibra sub-county, Nairobi County, Kenya. The study employed a survey design. The target population comprised 138 head teachers, 203 teacher counsellors, and 9536 learners in Class VII, totaling 9877 respondents, from which a sample of 385 respondents was determined using Yamane's formula. Stratified sampling was used to create seven (7) different strata based on the zones, according to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of 2012. From each zone, five (5) schools, one (1) head teacher, and one (1) teacher-counsellor were selected using purposive sampling. However, from each sampled school, nine (9) learners in Class VII were selected using a simple random method to avoid bias and favouritism. This sampling procedure involved a sample of 35 head teachers, 35 teacher-counsellors, and 315 learners in Class VII. Questionnaires were used to collect data from learners in Class VII, as were interview guides for head teachers and teacher-counsellors. Piloting was conducted among 38 respondents from primary schools in informal settlements in Kibra sub-county to establish validity and reliability. The opinions of educational psychology professionals were used to confirm the study's validity. The split-half method was used to calculate reliability, and the reliability coefficient (r = 0.728; p<0.05) at the 0.05 level of significance revealed a high degree of internal dependability. The goals guided the theme analysis of qualitative data, which was then presented in narrative style. Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS 23) was used to do a descriptive analysis of the quantitative data (frequency counts, mean, and percentages) and an inferential analysis in order to evaluate the hypotheses, and the results were shown in frequency tables and bar graphs. The results revealed that teacher support, supervision, encouragement, and individualised teaching strategies play a crucial role in shaping pupils' perceptions of their academic abilities. The findings emphasise the significance of these interactions in fostering a positive learning environment and improving academic self-concept. It is concluded that effective teacher-learner interactions can positively impact students' self-perception and motivation to excel academically. Recommendations include promoting training for teachers to enhance their interactions with students, thereby contributing to improved academic self-concept in primary school settings.


With that stated, let me contextualize my argument. A debate has been raging in political philosophy and philosophy of education over the best approach to doing normative philosophy. Often this debate is framed within the Kantian/Rawlsian tradition and revolves around the distinction between ideal and nonideal theory. While this debate has yielded interesting discussions, the framing of this debate is based upon the false assumption that normative philosophy is best done within the Kantian/Rawlsian tradition. Even critics of ideal theory work within this tradition when they construct free-standing principles from which to judge social issues prior to an immanent analysis of society. However, as critical theorists such as Axel Honneth, Jurgen Habermas, and others have argued, the Kantian/Rawlsian approach is problematic for a number of reasons.1 One major weakness in framing the debate in this manner, as Axel Honneth explains, "is that it has been decoupled from an analysis of society ... [and] although theories of justice necessarily formulate normative rules according to which we can assess the moral legitimacy of social orders, today these principles are drawn in isolation from the norms that prevail in given practices and institutions, and are then only applied secondary to social reality."2


The three-dimensional spectral elasticity problem is studied in an anisotropic and inhomogeneous solid with small defects, i.e., inclusions, voids, and microcracks. Asymptotics of eigenfrequencies and the corresponding elastic eigenmodes are constructed and justified. New technicalities of the asymptotic analysis are related to variable coefficients of differential operators, vectorial setting of the problem, and usage of intrinsic integral characteristics of defects. The asymptotic formulae are developed in a form convenient for application in shape optimization and inverse problems.


This autobiographical paper describes the teaching of an adjunct faculty member at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, and the doctoral and postdoctoral students he taught. The paper discusses the author's study of the area of biography and autobiography; the use of ethnography, history, and biography in qualitative research; the "legitimation process" of qualitative research; students' dissertation projects; and the author's writing projects such as "Nora Barlow and the Darwin Legacy" and an essay on the biographical method for the "Handbook of Qualitative Research." The paper proposes that: (1) intense personal educational experiences lead to deeply held educational beliefs that may be strong enough to influence, if not control, educational practices, which has major implications for teacher education at all levels; (2) lives have interwoven strands that continue over long periods of time, and these strands can be broken into meaningful units such as episodes and projects, by individuals themselves or by outside researchers; (3) educational inquiry, including ethnography and action research, should occur in college and university classes; and (4) settings in which researchers live and work are important, as group norms are sometimes elevated to the status of "natural laws." (Contains approximately 50 references.) (JDD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Living Lives, Studying Lives, Writing Lives: An Educational Potpourri or Pot au Feu?


There are few tissue‐based biomarkers that can accurately predict prostate cancer (PCa) progression and aggressiveness. We sought to evaluate the clinical utility of prostate and breast overexpressed 1 (PBOV1) as a potential PCa biomarker.


Anaesthetic trainee Mat Devlin tells Francesca Robinson why he and a colleague created a space where trainees could share a meal, socialise, and learn together


The new concepts of "structure" and "structural controllability" for a linear time-invariant control system (described by a pair ( A,b )) are defined and studied. The physical justification of these concepts and examples are also given. The graph of a pair ( A,b ) is also defined. This gives another way of describing the structure of this pair. The property of structural controllability is reduced to a property of the graph of the pair ( A,b ). To do this, the basic concept of a "cactus" and the related concept of a "precactus" are introduced. The main result of this paper states that the pair ( A,b ) is structurally controllable if an only if the graph of ( A,b ) is "spanned by a cactus." The result is also expressed in a more conventional way, in terms of some properties of the pair ( A,b ).


The purpose of this paper is to discuss what people say about literacy in real texts in discursive literacy practices. An attempt is made to integrate the linguistic theory of Critical Discourse Analysis with anthropological studies of literacy practices. The data consists of texts and a short play written by learners and teachers in a community adult literacy programme. The analysis of learners' texts indicates that learners often reproduce the dominant educational practice. This is achieved by means of a 'disciplinary subject position' which is constituted for them. The analysis of the play suggests, however ,that learners are aware of the unequal power relations and a second subject position is defined, that of the 'community subject'.


Recent experimental observations are shown to be quantitatively consistent with an extended concept of space-time having a discrete extra dimension of two points at the distance of 11.8 fm together with a nontrivial metric structure. In such a space-time, fermions appear in pair with their Kaluza-Klein siblings. The usual electromagnetic field is accompanied with a new vector boson $X17$, which receives a mass of $17~MeV$ from another Kaluza-Klein partner, a scalar boson $H$ of a mass in the range of $0.5-793~keV$ via an abelian Higgs mechanism. At a low energy scale, where nucleons can be treated as structureless in a good approximation, the natural particle model involving nucleons, electron, neutrino and their Kaluza-Klein partners coupled to the electromagnetic field and the massive vector boson $X7$ can lead to new phenomenological consequences, which are verifiable at the currently accessible energy.


Bluetooth is a recently proposed standard for short range, low power wireless communication. Bluetooth Technology has become a popular way of wireless interconnection for exchanging messages, data and other information. Security concern is one of the most important problems behind the mass adoption of this technology. This paper provides a brief overview of security issues and weaknesses faced by the Bluetooth technology.


Biomedical texts are a rich information source that cannot be ignored. There are several text annotation tools that may be used to extract useful information from these texts. However, the multi-domain characteristic of these texts, and the diversity of ontologies available in this area, demands a careful analysis before choosing an annotation tool. This work presents an evaluation of the existing annotation tools, with focus on biomedical texts. Initially, based on a set of required characteristics, a tool selection was conducted. AutoMeta and Gate tools were selected for a more detailed evaluation. They were quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated. Results of such evaluation are discussed and bring to light the best/worst of each tool. 1. Introducao The constant growth of data and publications in the Biomedical area has been pushing the creation and reuse of domain ontologies in that area, not only for structured data annotation, but also for text indexation and annotation. Particularly, text bases are a rich information extraction source, since many biomedical findings are available only in textual format. PubMed 1 is one of the most popular digital biomedical citation reference (more than 21 million texts). Each text citation is associated (indexed) using MeSH 2 thesaurus. However, in order to facilitate the extraction of information from texts, a more automated and detailed indexation is required. Biomedical area texts are typically multi-domain, and require different ontologies for their annotation. The Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry [Smith et al. 2007] and the NCBO BioPortal [Noy et al. 2009] provide together more than 300 ontologies. The motivation of this work is to provide support for annotation with multiple ontologies. For instance, a paper about drug targets usually refers to proteins, diseases, organisms, pharmacogenomics, etc. Each of these terms can be annotated by different domain ontologies such as: GO (Gene Ontology) [The Gene Ontology Consortium 2000], for gene and protein annotations, NCBITaxon 3 (NCBI organismal classification), for organisms, and PHARE (The PHArmacogenomic 1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ 2 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/ 3 http://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/1132/


Draft rules for artificial recharge operations, which use recycled waste water as a source water, require minimum travel times to production wells in California. Deliberate tracer experiments are the accepted method for determining travel times. An example of a tracer experiment using sulfur hexafluoride is discussed at an artificial recharge site located within a regional water table depression. The study shows the complexity in interpreting travel times because of the influence of recharge rates and water production. It also demonstrates the effectiveness of recovering recharged water at spreading basins surrounded by production wells.


*Faculty mentor COPYRIGHT 2016 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 21, NO. 4/ISSN 2164-8204) ABSTRACT. We examined undergraduate researchers' perceptions of the malleability of human traits and aspects of these students' relationships with their faculty research mentors. Undergraduate research students (N = 94) completed an online survey to capture their chronic implicit person theory, perceived feedback environment with their faculty research mentor, and whether they planned to continue research collaboration in the future. We observed no significant direct relationship between implicit person theory and trust. However, students' perceptions of the feedback environment significantly moderated the relationship between a positive feedback environment and students' intention to continue collaboration with the faculty member, F(3, 88) = 15.88, R 2 = .35, p < .001. This suggests that students perceiving a positive feedback environment will be more likely than students perceiving a negative feedback environment to continue collaboration with their faculty research advisor. We discuss future research ideas that should capture data from both students and their faculty research advisors to understand this relationship more holistically. Implicit Person Theory and Feedback Environment Interact to Shape Undergraduate Research Relationships


Given the increasing numbers of overweight children,the EuroGrowth Study is aimed at investigating predictors for an increased Body Mass Index (BMI).The multi-centre,Iongitudinal, observational study therefore examines the influence of early nutrition - until 4-6 months of age - on growth and weight. A total of 2,245 healthy children, born full term (1,154 boys and 1,091 girls),were included from 22 study centres in 12 European countries. Data on weight, size, and the educational standard of the parents as well as demographic and socio-economic factors and the babies birth data were included. Anthropometric measurements and interviews on nutrition were made until the fifth birthday. The most important predictor of genetically determined growth potential was the average height of the parents. Predictors of weight gain until 60 months of age were duration of breast feeding, time at which solid food was first taken, sex, educational level the mother, and the height of the parents. The BMI at 1 month was the strongest and the BMI of the parents the second strongest predictor of a BMI over the 90th percentile at an age of between 12 and 60 months. For the successful prevention of overweight in children, however additional significant predictors need to be identified.


Let $\{ X_n \}$ be a sequence of independent integral-valued lattice random variables involving only a finite number of distinct nondegenerate distributions $H_1 , \cdots H_r ,r\geqq 2$. Given that there are appropriate sequences $\{ A_n \}$ and $\{ B_n \}$$( 0 < B_n \to \infty )$ of constants such that $B_n^{ - 1} ( X_1 + \cdots + X_n ) - A_n $ converges in law to a nondegenerate distribution, this paper studies some sufficient conditions on $H_1 , \cdots ,H_r $ so that $\{ {X_n } \}$ will satisfy a local theorem in a modified strengthened form.


A multi-server queueing system with two types of customers as a model of a cell of mobile network is considered. Part of the servers is reserved for service of first type customers only. The customers who do not receive service can make repeated attempts. All the system parameters including the total number of servers and the number of reserved servers are influenced by a random environment. The process of the system states is constructed, the ergodicity condition is derived, the stationary distribution of the system states is computed. The formulas for the main performance measures of the system are presented.


In order to decrease the reflectivity of amplified spontaneous emission, suppress parasitic oscillations, an edge cladding that absorbs the reflected or scattered light is required. The residual stress of the edge cladding is an important parameter for bonding. The influence factors on the residual stress birefringence near the bonding interface are described in detail. The effects of fine annealing, polishing and bonding are investigated. The results indicate that the effects of the edge stress of samples on the residual stress near the bonded interface are in evidence; the poorer of polishing surface flatness makes, the larger birefringence near the cladding interface; and the low shrink percentage and modulus adhesive polymer have less impact for the residual stress near the interface.


Use cournot model to analyze cooperation in the development of regional coordination in the issue shows that the interests of regional cooperation will increase,and more than the total profits of non-cooperation can increase social the welfare of social.


ABSTRACT:Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) possess two unique characteristics when compared to other traditional wireless communication systems: (1) limited power supply of sensor node (2) Redundant data that are related among other nodes in the network. The above two are associated with energy consumption. In this thesis, three layer frameworksare suggested for data collection. This framework includes 3 major specific layers called sensor, cluster head and mobile collector. Mobile collector layer is also called as SenCar layer. These three layers have their own importance in collecting the data. Hence this framework introduces a method called LBC-DDU. The major motive is-achieving increased lifetime of network, also to achieve high scalability and even very low latency for data gathering. Sensor layer, at this layer an algorithm called distributed*load balanced clustering is used, where they organize themselves into clusters. After the sensors have self-organized themselves into clusters at sensor layer, at cluster head layer, transmission range for inter-cluster communication is chosen carefully so that there is guaranteed connectivity among the clusters. Lastly at SenCar layer, it is outfitted with multiple(say 2) 'antennas' that permits several cluster-head to forward the collected data from its cluster members to SenCar simultaneously using MIMO (multiple input Multiple output) technique. SenCar selects its polling point such that it is within transmission area (range) of multiple cluster-heads, hence collects the data from multiple cluster heads.


Methods and apparatuses for reducing the oscillatory motion of rotary crane payloads during operator-commanded or computer-cont rolled maneuvers. An Input-shaping filter receives input signals from multiple operator input devices and converts them into output si gnals readable by the crane controller to dampen the payload tangential and radial sway associated with rotation of the jib. The input signals are ch ar cterized by a hub rotation trajectory .gamma.(t), which includes a jib angular acceleration .gamma., a trolley acceleration x, and a load-line le ngth velocity L. The system state variables are characterized by a tangential rotation angle .theta.(t) and a radial rotation angle .phi.(t) of the load-line. The coupled equations of motion governing the filter are non-linear and configuration-dependent. In one embodiment, a filter is provided be tween the operator and the crane for filtering undesired frequencies from the angular .gamma. and trolley x velocities to suppress payload oscillation . In another embodiment, crane commands are computer generated and controlled to suppress vibration of the payload using a postulated asymme trical shape for the acceleration profiles of the jib, which profiles are uniquely determined by a set of parameters (including the acceleration pulse amplitude and the duration and coast time between pulses), or a dynamic programming approach.


Abstract On July 17, 1984 at Old Dalby in Leicestershire, UK, a spectacular staged rail crash took place between a 100 mph train and a Magnox spent fuel flask. Often replayed on the media, this event makes a lasting impression on the viewer of what a 'worst case' impact accident scenario would look like which might be imagined could cause a release of radioactive material during the transport of irradiated nuclear fuel by rail. It is less well remembered that this crash test was but one part of a comprehensive programme of work carried out by the then Central Electricity Generating Board, spanning four years and costing some £4M of early 1980s money. This programme clearly met a number of key objectives, to mention just a few it: (a) demonstrated the practicality and effectiveness of scale model testing to prove the impact integrity of spent fuel flasks made of ductile materials; (b) showed how simple analytical and more complex computer solutions could alternatively or additionally be used to estimate and refine predictions of impact forces and damage; (c) showed how route specific analysis might be used to determine the likelihood and potential magnitude of various impact scenarios, enabling typical, credible, 'worst case' scenarios to be postulated and their probabilities estimated; (d) enabled the severity of the IAEA regulatory tests to be compared with that of a realistic severe impact scenario; and (e) produced a large body of data and developed techniques which are applicable to other designs of radioactive material packages. This paper reviews the results of that work and recalls the major conclusions which have continuing relevance to present day programmes which are aimed at ensuring that radioactive material continues to be transported under the highest practical standards of safety.


Sparganosis is an infection that is caused by sparganum, the migrating plerocercoid larva of Spirometra spp. Manson first reported this condition in 1882. In Korea, Uemura reported the first case in 1917 in the muscle facia of a Korean farmer during the amputation of his leg. Since then, more than 100 cases have been reported. However, the number of unreported cases of sparganosis would be considerable. Human sparganosis is widely distributed in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Philippine, Malaysia, India, Australia, Africa, France, England and USA. Most human cases are from Southeast Asia including Japan and Korea. Sparganosis commonly involves the subcutaneous tissue, muscles, fascia with occasional migration into the brain. We report 3 cases of sparganosis, a 42 year old man, a 55 year old man and a 41 year old woman, who all presented with a tender mass in the right thigh.


Alzheimer's is a progressive disorder that impacts the brain, causing deterioration in memory and cognitive function. The condition is caused by the death of brain cells and their connections, leading to the brain's shrinkage. Diagnosis of Alzheimer's can be difficult as it presents itself differently in each individual. It can range from mild to severe cognitive impairment, or in some cases, there may be no obvious signs of dementia. The clinical history, neurological examination, and laboratory tests contribute to the diagnosis. Only trained experts can conduct the personal clinical history and neurological examination. Deep learning networks are types of artificial intelligence that learns from a given data and makes predictions based on such data. By examining brain scan images and identifying distinctions between healthy and diseased brain neurons. We have developed a model that aims to accurately identify the varying degrees of Alzheimer's disease. Through training, it is expected to achieve optimal precision.


We appreciate the comments of Dr. Shakya Bhattacharjee on our Teaching NeuroImage.1 Certainly, the present case raises concern about the final reason for this parkinsonism. We did not carry out dopamine transporter (DaT) SPECT scan because we did not think it would be of substantial help to understand the nature of our patient's parkinsonism. DaT SPECT is a useful tool, but is not the gold standard for parkinsonism diagnosis.2,3 DaT scan can also be abnormal in secondary parkinsonisms, such as vascular or mass-related parkinsonism.3,4 In any case, there are at least 3 published cases with parkinsonism associated to dilated Virchow-Robin spaces and abnormal DaT scan.5,6 Another case, with reviewed and updated information, including DaT status of several cases, was published last year.7