Plans for the instrumentation effort associated with the Hanna IV experiment are nearly completed. Thirty diagnostic wells and surface probe arrays will be used for the eight techniques (thermal, in-seam gas sampling and pressure, subsidence, passive acoustic, two remote electrical methods, and a high-resolution seismic survey) to be fielded. Fielding is scheduled for spring and summer with test initiation in September 1977. Thermal data from Hanna II have been validated based upon resistance and circuit noise measurements. These data have been analyzed to provide detailed characterization of the thermal gradients, combustion front profiles and local gas fluxes during gasification. A modular thermocouple design for general in situ applications has been defined and will be evaluated on Hanna IV. A well-to-well induced seismic technique was able to detect the progression of the process during Hanna II. An assessment of this technique is underway and the causes of changes in time-of-arrival and amplitude of induced signals have been determined.


In a semiconductor manufacturing process wirebonding is considered to the most key critical process steps. It is where the interconnection between the Silicon (Si) die to external package is made. On top of the first and second bond, wire looping is another challenge to consider specifically using Copper (Cu) wire. In general, Cu wire had a specific characteristic that cannot be directly compared to Au wire such as it natural natures of inherent material hardness. Looping requires a consistent and stable form for the interconnection between silicon die to the external package. Typical loop trajectory used in mass production is normal forward loop bonding due to fast and easy to control, though others may be useful as well such as the reverse bonding or even folded loop depending on the necessity or complexity of the device bonding configuration. In this paper a different approach of looping formation has been explored in order to satisfy the added process step before the package encapsulation or molding to help address some concerns of the device related to its electrical performance. Unconventional looping profile has been developed achieving the desired loop formation we called as 'hook loop'. The hook loop formation was achieved through some loop parameter manipulation despite for the limited machine software features. The new loop form found out with higher wirepull test response as compared to the normal or conventional looping used in mass production. The break mode of failure during wirepull test observed it breaks way above the ball bond neck area which indicates a less stress incurred on the wire loop formation and robust in terms thermo-mechanical impact with low risk of ball neck cracking during reliability stress. Such loop formation may also help minimize the risk of ball-pad peeling due to a less direct vertical pulling effect on the wire as the bond in motion especially in those sensitive pad structure devices.


This paper introduces the reconnaissance study on the performance of New Orleans levee system during Hurricane Katrina.It discusses the factors contributing to the levee failure.Experiences are summarized as the lessons for the construction of flood protection systems.Based on this,recommendations are provided on levee system design and construction.These include to incorporate system theory and risk based design,to improve soil erosion control by using soils with good erosion resistance or by incorporating proper protection measures for erodible soils,and to improve levee protection design.The paper suggests the utilization of biological measures in levee protection.The importance of close collaborations between geologists and engineers is also emphasized to ensure the proper selection of engineering parameters in design.


Objective The purpose of this study is to characterize the out-patients in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in Chinese Level-Ⅱ Hospital on UN peace-keeping mission in Lebanon,and to offer some reference for the following medical teams to provide better service.Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 390 out-patients present at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in Chinese Level-Ⅱ Hospital on UN peace-keeping mission in Lebanon from July 2008 to June 2010.Results Of the total number of patients,167(42.8%) were diagnosed with otological diseases,88(22.6%) with rhinological diseases and 124(31.8%) with pharynological diseases.Suppurative diseases and deafness were the most common cases,accounting for 61.0% of the out-patients in the department of otorhinolaryngology.Allergic rhinitis and epistaxis were evidently correlated with seasons.Conclusion Doctors in Chinese Level-Ⅱ Hospital on UN peace-keeping mission in Lebanon need more strengthened training on the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases of otorhinolaryngology,and relevant medicine should be prepared based on the characteristics of the diseases.


A method of hardening by plastic deformation surfaces of articles shaped as continuous helical coils and having essentially round cross-section by means of deforming elements wherein said deforming elements are arranged at the opposite sides of said article for forced rotation in engagement with the surface of the material of said article, while said article is rotated about its longitudinal centerline and subjected to ultrasonic oscillations. The deforming elements are rotated in opposite directions so as to form on the surface of said article a regular microrelief in the form of an intersecting mesh-like pattern. By changing the ratio between the angular rotational velocities of the deforming elements, a microrelief of desired geometry is attained.


Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are both mechanical circulatory support technologies that augment the native heart and/or lung function. They involve drainage and reinfusion of blood while performing extracorporeal gas exchange. 1 In both devices, contact between patient blood and the non-endothelialized surface of the circuit triggers an inflammatory response and pro-coagulation cascade. 2–5 As a result, prophylactic anticoagulation is integral to prevent catastrophic thrombosis of the circuitry. In rare instances, there exist contraindications to heparin use, necessitating alternative management strategies. 6 In this review, we will examine heparin contraindications in mechanical circulatory support and summarize alternative approaches to anticoagulation in these circumstances.


Questioning notions of art in Saskatchewan, Borsa looks at each artist's work and argues for its authenticity in relation to the regional experience. Biographical notes. 69 bibl. ref.


For TRECVID 2004, CMU participated in the semantic feature extraction task, and the manual, interactive and automatic search tasks. For the semantic features classifiers, we tried unimodal, multi-modal and multi-concept classifiers. In interactive search, we compared a visual-only vs a complete video retrieval system using visual AND text data, and also contrasted expert vs novice users; The manual runs were similar to 2003, but they did not work comparably to last year, Additionally, we shared our low-level features with the TRECVID community. Overview We first describe the low-level features, which formed the input for all our analysis and which were distributed to other participants. Then we sketch out the experiments done for the semantic features, followed by the search task experiments (manual, automatic and interactive). Low-level 'raw' features Low-level features are extracted for each shot. "Low-level" means the features which are directly extracted from the source, videos. We use the term 'low-level' to distinguish them from the TRECVID high-level semantic feature extraction task. The low-level features are derived from several different sources: visual, audio, text and 'semantic' detectors, such as face detection and Video OCR detection. In TRECVID 2004, we extract 16 low-level raw features for the whole data set. This data was provided to all participating groups to encourage other researchers to use or compare their approaches with a standardized feature set. Image features A shot is the basic unit in our system; therefore, we extract one key-frame within each shot as a representative image. Image features are then based on the features extracted from that representative image. There are 3 different types of image features: color histograms, textures and edges. For all image features, we split the image into a 5 by 5 grid that tries to capture some spatial locality of information. The distributed data lists the features for each grid cell by rows, starting at the top. HSV, RGB, HVC and HCSqr Color Histograms Three different color spaces are used to construct color histogram features: HSV, HVC and RGB. Each grid presents its color histogram in 125 dimensions. Each channel is represented by 5 dimensions and plotted in a 3D histogram. Therefore, for each image, the dimension of the color histogram is 3125 (5*5*125). Due to this high dimensionality, we also provide the mean and variance for each grid and reduce the dimension to 50 (5*5*2). We also add an alternative feature called hcsqr, which is derived from the HVC color histogram, but removes variance and linearizes Hue and Chroma into a 2D histogram. Texture Images are first gray-scaled. Each image is convolved with six orientated Gabor filters. For each filter, the image is divided by 5 by 5 grids. The resulting filtered grids are then threshold and reduced to 16 bins histogram. The dimension is 2400 (6*16*5*5). Edge The edge detection is done using Canny edge detection. The result of Canny edge detection is convolved with 8 orientations. For each grid, there are 8 dimensions which show the mean magnitude for the 8 orientations. The dimensionality is thus 200 (5*5*8). Audio features We extract audio signal every 20 msecs (512 windows at 44100 HZ sampling rate). However, the basic unit of analysis is a shot which has variable length. We therefore calculate the mean and variance for each shot. FFT FFT is based on the Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT). The features are the means and variances of the spectral centroid, rolloff, flux and zerocrossings. Another feature called low energy is added. Therefore, they are 9 (4*2+1) dimensions. MFCC MFCC features are based on 10 Mel-Frequency cepstral coefficients. SFFT SFFT is a simplified FFT. It only lists the mean for the spectral centroid, rolloff, flux and zerocrossings. Motion features Motion features try to capture the movement within the shot. Although they very noisy, motion features potentially allow us to move from still image analysis to analysis of the moving video. Since the video was encoded with different MPEG encoders using different motion block numbers, we did not use the MPEG P-frame motion blocks. Kinetic Energy Kinetic energy measures the pixel variation within the shot. We convert the image to gray level and calculate the frame by frame differences for every shot. The value is the mean of the difference within the shot. Although we could still split it into 5 by 5 grids, we utilized this feature as a measurement of the stability of a shot and did not split the image. Optical Flow The optical flow motion is calculated for every 5 frames. It's 5 by 5 and each grid contains 3 dimensions. The 3 dimensions are the mean x direction, mean y direction and variance of the magnitude. Text features The text feature is derived from the audio transcript. Semantic Detector features Two of our features are not quite "low"-level features. However, they are very basic measurements that discover peculiar characteristics in the video. Since people play important roles in news video, face detection gives us useful information. VOCR (video optical character reader) often shows people names and locations. Faces The face result collects the information of the most confident face detection result within the shot. The 5 dimensions are confidence, face size, face pose (1 is front, 2 is left, 3 is right), x coordinate of center point, and y coordinate of center point. Center point is the center location of the face detection box. VOCR VOCR result generates the information about VOCR detection boxes. The VOCR detection box is the detection result which shows the possible places to contain VOCR. The four dimensions are the number of boxes, average size of boxes, mean of x and mean of y coordinate. The timestamped contents of the recognized text are listed in a separate file. High-level semantic features To classify the 10 high-level semantic features (Boat/Ship, Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton, Train, Beach, Basketball scored, Airplane takeoff, People walking/running, physical violence and Road), our baseline was a single modality classification approach. For each, we chose one single feature set of our standard low-level feature classes and built a classifier for that feature. Separate runs used a multi-modality classification strategy. Here, we built classifiers for each low-level feature and then combined them with a meta-classifier (stacking). The main challenge for semantic feature extraction from video is the large diversity. Low level features tend not to capture a complete semantic class well. For example, 'outdoors' contains many different concepts, as well as colors, textures and shapes. It may be an urban scene, a rural scene, a beach scene or another natural scene, each with different colors, textures, etc. Therefore, we attempted to utilize other semantic features to boost the performance of a specific classifier (or detector). For example, if we want to build a classifier for outdoor scenes, we can build (hopefully easier) classifiers, like sky, ocean, tree, grassland, road, building and other outdoor-related concepts. Ideally, the outdoor classifier can gain power from other easy and strong detectors, like sky, ocean and grassland, and thus the outdoor detector will be able to correctly classify many different scenes. Our approach in TRECVID 2004 was to find other concepts related to the classification task. Then, using the principles of causation and inference, we developed two classification strategies. ID Target Concept Causally related concepts 28 Boat/Ship Boat, Water_Body, Sky, Cloud 31 Train Car_Crash, Man_Made_scene, Smoke, Road 32 Beach Sky, Water_Body, Nature_Non-Vegetation, Cloud 33 Basket Scored Crowd, People, Running, Non-Studio_Setting 34 Airplane Takeoff Airplane, Sky, Smoke, Space_Vehicle_Launch 35 People Walking/running Walking, Running, People, Person Table 1. Causal relationships for the TRECVID 2004 concepts. 36 Physical violence Gun_Shot, Building, Gun, Explosion 37 Road Car, Road_Traffic, Truck, Vehicle_Noise Causation The common annotation set, distributed in TRECVID 2003, labeled several hundred semantic concepts in TRECVID 2003 development set of 47322 shots. Among those concepts, there are 190 concepts which have a frequency higher than 10. We analyzed the causal relationship of these 190 concepts to 8 high-level semantic features concepts, listed above We excluded Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton, because the latter were more suitable for specific person x search strategies describe below. We selected the top 4 causal origins for each concept and grouped them together. Table 1 shows the respective 4 concepts which were determined to cause the evaluated target concepts. Inference Using each group of 5 concepts (4 causal ones and the target concept), we built a multi-modality classifier for each concept. To train the combination parameters, we split our training data into two sets. The first set is used to build the classifiers for each individual concept. The second set is used to validate the combination. The next step is to infer the causational concept classifier results into target concept. We then experimented with two approaches (A and B) to combine the classifier results. AWe use the confidence of causal relationship (form 0 to 1) and the error rate obtained on the training set to combine the results.


The confidence in ramp up scenario design of the China fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR) can be significantly enhanced using validated transport models to predict the current profile and temperature profile. In the tokamak simulation code (TSC), two semi-empirical energy transport models (the Coppi-Tang (CT) and BGB model) and three theory-based models (the GLF23, MMM95 and CDBM model) are investigated on the CFETR relevant ramp up discharges, including three DIII-D ITER-like ramp up discharges and one EAST ohmic discharge. For the DIII-D discharges, all the transport models yield dynamic ℓi within ±0.15 deviations except for some time points where the experimental fluctuation is very strong. All the models agree with the experimental βp except that the CT model strongly overestimates βp in the first half of ramp up phase. When applying the CT, CDBM and GLF23 model to estimate the internal flux, they show maximum deviations of more than 10% because of inaccuracies in the temperature profile predictions, while the BGB model performs best on the internal flux. Although all the models fall short in reproducing the dynamic ℓi evolution for the EAST tokamak, the result of the BGB model is the closest to the experimental ℓi. Based on these comparisons, we conclude that the BGB model is the most consistent among these models for simulating CFETR ohmic ramp-up. The CT model with improvement for better simulation of the temperature profiles in the first half of ramp up phase will also be attractive. For the MMM95, GLF23 and CDBM model, better prediction of the edge temperature will improve the confidence for CFETR L-mode simulation. Conclusive validation of any transport model will require extensive future investigation covering a larger variety discharges.


Banks provides the impetus for economic growth and the financial crisis of 2007-2008 emanated from tremendous use of financial innovation, causing a major drawback that triggers new trends in the study of financial risks. The aim is to explore the moderating role on the financial risks, business risk and firm value nexus. The study applies the balanced panel data to analyse the 16 commercial banks in Nigeria over the period 2009 to 2017 making up to 144 observations. The empirical results reveal that credit risk is significantly positive with firm value while liquidity risk, operational risk, market risk and solvency risk have a significant negative effect on firm value. Further results revealed that business risk is significantly negative with firm value. The financial innovation significantly moderates the relationship between financial risks, business risk and firm value of the banks. Other factors that significantly affects the firm value in the model of the study are bank size, GDP growth, diversification, profitability and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The study provides practical implications in expectant that managers of Nigerian banks should focus on investing in innovation through considerable investment in R&D and aligning their innovative capabilities with their risk management policies and available financial resources (i.e. derivative financial instrument, employee trainings, expertise, technology and finance) to improve their management of inherent risks and firm value relationship. It is imperative for banks to reduce credit related risk to the barest minimum. This is because an increase in credit risk might be a precursor to financial crises and anti-real sector's growth. Remarkably, this study contributed to existing knowledge as prior studies on financial risk components are often related to profitability and have repeatedly lack logical consistency in extant literature. Hence, within the limit of the researchers' knowledge, this study is one of the very few studies that offers new insights on the relationship between business risk and firm value and provides useful information on the dynamic role of innovativeness that is of phenomenal value to the regulatory authority to determine relevant policies.


Studing of the Raman spectra was established that an optical parameters of oxygen-polyhedral ferroelectric single crystals can be improved by increasing the degree of structural ordering of the cation sublattice along the polar axis by doping them. In this case the impurity ions with the ionic radii close to the radii of the main cations (Li+ and Nb5+) and charges intermediate between those of main cations (1<Z<5) in the area of rather low concentrations were shown to exert an ordering effect on the cation sublattice of a congruent lithium niobate single crystals. Moreover the crystal resistance to laser radiation is also observed to grow. It was determined that the effect of diminishing photorefraction while the crystal is doped correlate well with the discovered ordering of the sublattice along the polar axis and both of them are observed for the same, relatively narrow, range of concentrations and the type of doping impurities.


BACKGROUND
Recent work conducted with healthcare workers and middle-aged populations has recognized the association between acne vulgaris (AV) and mask wearing.

OBJECTIVE
This study aims to evaluate the correlation between the face mask and AV in a group of university students, triggering factors, the awareness, and attitudes of the students.

METHODS
A face-to-face survey was conducted to 200 participants (84 males, 116 females) who composed of third and fifth grade medical faculty students. The questionnaire compiled the demographic data, skin care habits, mask wearing habits, skin lesions developed on their faces with the use of face masks, awareness and attitudes of the students.

RESULTS
The mean age of the participants was 21.39±1.34 (range, 19-26 years). While 40.5% of the students developed new AV, 20.5% had exacerbation of their old AV. Lesions developed most frequently in the cheek (51%), chin (45.5%) regions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, being female (p=0.04), prolonged masks use (p=0.001), and fewer mask changes throughout the day (p=0.01) were found to be associated with the development of AV. Moreover, 90.5% of students stated that the face mask could cause the development of AV. The most frequent protective precautions of the students were the intermittent removal of face masks and regular handwashing.

CONCLUSION
The use of face masks triggers the development of AV in young people. Wearing masks over long periods of time without breaks and infrequently changing one's mask throughout the day may lead to the development of new or worsening of AV in young populations.


Despite having a similar four‐chambered heart, crocodilians and birds differ widely in their aerobic capacity. We investigated whether this is due to differences in outflow tract design, which allows for cardiac shunting in crocodilians, but not in birds. We hypothesized that removal of cardiac shunt will improve aerobic capacity (VO2max) by forcing the entire right ventricular ejection volume to the lungs. We surgically occluded the left aorta in alligator hatchlings to render them incapable of shunting. After 17 months of growth and exercise training, we subjected alligators to a graded treadmill exercise test and measured their VO2max. We found no significant difference in VO2max between surgically‐altered (7.7 mlO2/kg/min) and sham‐operated (8.0 mlO2/kg/min) alligators. To further test whether cardiac shunting occurs during exercise, we measured blood flow in the left and right aortae. Shunting (net forward flow in the left aorta) occurred at rest in undisturbed animals, disappeared at the onset of forced exercise, and returned slowly during undisturbed recovery. This suggests cardiac shunting ability does not limit aerobic performance in crocodilians, because the shunt is turned off during exercise. We propose that non‐avian theropods may have continued to enjoy benefits of cardiac shunting, even as they evolved a more superior aerobic capacity. Funded by NSF IOB 04445680 to JWH.


LAND OWNERSHIP SYSTEM OF THE NAGAS. ABSTRACT Naga is one of the major tribe who live mostly in the North Eastern part of India. They are of Indo-Mongoloid race speaking Tibeto- Burman language of having more than 50 ethnic sub -tribes collectively known as "Nagas"..They are known for its rich cultural heritage.   Land particularly for the Naga tribe has been inherent economic guardian since time immemorial. The Naga social and cultural system and identity are closely linked with their land. For them land is not only for physical sustenance but also social, cultural, political and spiritual life too. Land is related with their day to day life govern by their customary laws and they cannot think of their spiritual life without land since it is closely related with surrounding environment and spiritual belief system too. Therefore it is difficult to differentiate and separate them. As the land is important and inseparable domain of the Nagas, Land ownership system and transfer of land is strictly follows as per their customary laws,  for such reason Land, culture, and environment are kept in such a way that it can be a good example for maintaining ecological balance in today's world. KEY WORDS.  Land and Culture:  inseparable domain of the Nagas.


A projective symmetry group has been regarded as a classification theory of spin liquids. However, it does not include a topological insulating/superconducting property of fermionic spinon excitations, and we try to extend it by including the information of the topological insulator phase protected by the time-reversal symmetry, especially in the case of the Kitaev model. The Z2 invariant can be defined purely by the time-reversal and translation symmetries on condition that the time-reversal symmetry is implemented projectively. Thus, it is an intrinsic class of topological Kitaev spin liquids, which has been ignored for a long time. Its classification is related to that of magnetic topological insulators and we would discuss the generalization to three dimensions.


Ocean current or tidal power is a promising renewable resource. For the generation of electricity from them, it is important to construct waterproof system with reducing mechanical energy loss. However, there is no appropriate sealing system that is completely waterproof and low friction. So, we developed a new type of seal system for using in ocean current and tidal power generation. We introduced seal lips made of a polyvinyl formal (PVF). PVF lips were attached to a rotating shaft, and a non-Newtonian, aqueous solution of 3.0wt% polyethylene glycol (PEG) with a molecular weight of 2.0 million was applied as lubrication. This sealing system was low water leakage, less than 0.05ml/h, was recorded throughout the experiment. Mean frictional torque was lower than those with a mechanical seal or an oil seal, both of which are generally used for industrial components. Furthermore, frictional torque was stable, and friction was independent of the speed of the rotating shaft.


The present invention relates to the manufacture of hollow capsules used in food, drugs and other vegetable matter with the gum, and a rapidly disintegrating substance prepared from the plant gum hollow capsules. The present invention is hydroxypropyl starch 12 ~ 25wt% of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, 0.1 ~ 9wt% of hydroxypropyl starch or acid-treated, 0.4 ~ 2wt% of a gelling agent and a balance of water were mixed, i.e. prepared vegetable gum for the preparation of hollow capsules. The hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, at 20 ℃, a concentration of 2wt% aqueous solution of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose having a viscosity of 3 ~ 7mpa · s; said acid-treated hydroxypropyl starch or substitution degree DS of hydroxypropyl starch in the range of 0.004 to 0.55. Preparation of conventional capsules prepared, according to the invention for the preparation of hollow capsules vegetable gum can be prepared rapidly disintegrating hydroxypropylmethylcellulose hollow capsules.


This research focuses on analysis student problems in learning to speak English at Vocational High School number 1 Jambi City. This research used qualitative research design. The aims of this research was to find out what problems students faced in speaking English during the covid-19 pandemic and the solutions students made to overcome these problems. In this case, a direct analysis of the problems faced by students in learning to speak English in the classroom during the covid-19 pandemic. This research took six students of class XI Accounting 1 as research subjects. This research used interview sheets and interviewed students to collect data. Based on the results of the study, regarding the problems of students in learning to speak at Vocational High School number 1 Jambi City, there were several student problems during the pandemic, located in the sixth question about the difficulty of speaking English, namely, lack of confidence, embarrassed to speak English, online learning made students feel less confident. self-confident. learning time in class, so that the problems faced by students are lack of pronunciation, fear of making mistakes when speaking English, lack of motivation of students in speaking English, students get into trouble because it is based on problems experienced and experienced by themselves. that happens in everyday life. In learning to speak English, and based on interviews, there are solutions to the problem, such as, using more English, translating sentences on Google, by listening to English music.


Anatomical SUMMARY: The auriculotemporal nerve (ATN) is an important structure lying within a limited area of an infratemporal region (ITR). The ATN is originated from the posterior branch of the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve (V3). The ATN conveys somatosensory, secretomotor, and parasympathetic fibres of the V3 and gustatory nerve (CN IX). In literature, the most common pattern of the ATN is composed of 2 roots that encloses the middle meningeal artery (MMA). However, in many studies, it has been reported that there are many variations in ATN pattern formation. To study the variation of ATN pattern formation in Thai cadavers, 73 hemifaces from 39 Thai embalmed cadavers were dissected and the relations of the ATN to the MMA were recorded. This study concluded that there were 4 patterns observed in Thai cadavers. The common pattern is 2 roots (67.1 %), 3 roots (15.1 %), 1 root (9.6 %), and 4 roots (8.2 %). Knowledge of this variation in the ATN may be useful in understanding the symptoms of temporo-orofacial pain, paresthesia of temporomandibular joint (TMJ), possible side effects from the TMJ surgery and the efficiency of auriculotemporal nerve block for regional anesthesia of the temporomandibular joint in Thai people.


Airy observed the star γ Draconis with the telescope vertically. During observation, he introduced a tube with water in the telescope and expected to adjust the inclination of the telescope. The result was that the star's image was the same with or without water in the tube. With
 water in the tube and no dragging of light by the moving medium, this article indicates that the image captured by the telescope has a shift of 0.053 mm that may not be observable; therefore, there is no need to adjust the inclination of the telescope. Considering the dragging of light
 by the water in the tube, the derived formula of the drag coefficient in the framework of Newtonian physics based on Airy's experimental result is identical to that offered by Fresnel based on the ether theory.


Hard choices have to be made about how the National Health Service spends its limited budget. The Government established the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to examine interventions and advise on whether and to what extent they should be made available. The approach is explicitly technical with the recommendation depending on health gain, measured where possible as the number of quality adjusted life years (QALYs), in relation to the cost. However, as Smith has noted, there is more to rationing than simple technical considerations.2 Values also play a part, as they did in 1999 when a previous Health Secretary, faced with the potential consequences of the anti-impotence drug Viagra (sildenafil) for the allocation of funds in the NHS, issued guidance that it could only be prescribed for men with a specified list of disorders or after specialist assessment. This action was highly controversial.3 The European Union Transparency Directive4 says that any exclusion of a drug from a national health system requires a statement of reasons based on objective and verifiable criteria. Viagra's manufacturer, Pfizer Ltd, successfully challenged this decision in the English High Court.5 The court ruled on the basis of European law that a breach of the Transparency Directive had occurred as the Health Secretary had given no reasons based on objective and verifiable criteria. The court also expressed concern about the implications of the decision for clinical freedom.

In response to the ruling the Health Secretary issued new advice, which effectively restated the earlier restrictions but emphasized that they were simply advisory. This conceded that there were limits to the power of the Health Secretary to determine what the NHS would cover where, as with Viagra, detailed assessments of cost utility had not been undertaken. However, even this more limited position was challenged by Pfizer, again on the basis of the Transparency Directive. Pfizer argued that decisions about what to fund could be made on the basis of comparative cost-utility analysis, comparisons of health gain from interventions in different disease areas, and even specified a method for assessing utilities (contingent valuation). While this may at one level be seen simply as an attack on the basis for the Health Secretary's decision, it has wider ramifications because it indicates that the pharmaceutical industry may have conceded the value of the so-called fourth hurdle to which it had previously been opposed—namely, the requirement to show that new products are more cost-effective than existing ones.6 Although NICE appears to have adopted a benchmark whereby an intervention is likely to be recommended if it can deliver one QALY for less than about £30 0007 it has so far avoided explicit comparisons. The thrust of Pfizer's argument was that failure to undertake such an analysis precluded the Health Secretary from acting.

In November 2002 the Appeal Court ruled in favour of the Health Secretary,8 and in doing so established several important principles. The court held that the criterion of a 'treatment's affordability in the context of competing priorities' is a sufficiently objective and verifiable criterion on which to decide what should be funded, without the requirement to undertake a detailed technical analysis. It accepted that, while assessment of QALYs may assist in determining which treatments are cost-effective—showing, for example, whether a treatment for a particular condition that has a higher price is actually more cost-effective than a cheaper treatment because it is more efficacious—QALYs cannot 'assist the Secretary of State in deciding which diseases or conditions should be regarded as the higher priorities in the NHS'. This is very important because the court has reiterated the point (noted by the House of Commons Health Committee9) that what should be paid for by the NHS is a political rather than a technical matter. The court also noted that the values underpinning such a decision could be made more explicit, referring to the Commons Health Committee's recommendation that the Government should specify a set of ethical and rational values to allow the 'relative costs and benefits of different NHS spending to be comparatively assessed in an informal way'.9 However, it emphasized that this could be achieved only in the long term and, until this happened, NHS priorities should continue to be established on a political basis.

Successive governments have tried to distance themselves from decisions about what the NHS should pay for, sheltering behind complex technical arguments. It would be surprising if the present government wished this position to change; therefore, ministers may hope that the court's ruling will remain largely unnoticed. However, the court's will is clear and action will be required sometime. Other countries have achieved consensus about the values underpinning the provision of healthcare,10 so the task is possible. In view of the methodological challenges and the lack of consensus on how to resolve them, now is a good time to start.


Epidemiological Surveillance, the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, of health data in the process of describing and monitoring a health event, with the objective of supporting the planning, implementation and evaluation of public health interventions and programs (WHO, 1997), is an important component of any public health system. The data collected usually describes the incidence of diseases. They may include risk factors, disabilities or health practices in the communities.


A large number of different kinds of wells are now being drilled in the broad territory between the Ural and Volga Rivera. Study of cores from these wells has thrown light on several questions of a geologic nature and has clarified features of the distribution of disseminated bitumens (bitumoids according to N. B. Vassoyevich) in the Meso-Cenozoic and Upper Paleozoic sediments. Features of the distribution of disseminated bitumens in the sediments of this region have been studied along the section of structural-cartographic, prospecting, and parametric wells (see Fig. 1) located in the north border zone of the Caspian depression (Kurilov, Novouzen, Tsyganov wells), in the central part of the interfluve area (wells on the Zarechen, Dzhangalin, Akmay-Ushkul'tas, Auketaychagyl, Port-Artur, Urdin, and Akobin salt dome structures), and in the south coastal zone (wells on the Karatyube, Dzhambay, and Martyshi salt domes). Investigations were thus made of sections of the supra-salt complex of rocks in very different geotectonic environments: areas of salt domes, sectors between salt domes, and areas adjacent to the north border of the Caspian depression. About 300 samples were studied from 15 deep wells, 63 structural-cartographic wells, and 5 parametric wells. The investigations were carried out according to the usual method (2, 3).


Introduction: There is an evidence-practice gap between guidelines for diagnosing pulmonary embolism (PE) and emergency physician practice. Computed tomography (CT) scanning is being overused to exclude PE in Canadian emergency departments (EDs) and current guidelines do not fit well with the ED model of patient care. There is a lack of research on patient opinions on PE testing, and a poor physician understanding of patient-specific goals in the ED. We are addressing this by conducting patient interviews to identify patient-specific values and opinions on PE testing in the ED. These will be used to develop patient-centered educational tools which physicians and patients can use to discuss the decision to order a CT PE scan. The aim of this study is to identify patient expectations and priorities on PE testing in the ED. Methods: This qualitative study uses constructivist grounded theory to analyze patient values and opinions on PE testing in ED patients from two hospitals. Participants are screened by monitoring the ED patient tracker. If a patient is being tested for PE, they are approached and consented by a researcher to take part in a 30-minute semi-structured interview. Each interview is transcribed verbatim and independently analyzed by four researchers using constant comparative coding. The researchers meet weekly to compare codes and agree on common coding terms. The codes are grouped into themes, and the interview script is modified to maximize information on emerging themes. From this, major themes with associated subthemes will be derived, each representing an opportunity, barrier or value which must be addressed in our new patient education tools. We have performed 23 interviews and expect to reach theme saturation at 30 interviews. Full results will be available by the 2019 CAEP conference. Results: From the patient interviews conducted so far, we have mapped four major themes: patient satisfaction comes from addressing their primary concern (for example, their pain); patients expect individualized care; patients prefer imaging over clinical examination when testing for PE; and patients expect 100% confidence from their ED physician when given a diagnosis. Conclusion: These four domains will be used to create a new patient-centered approach to PE testing in the ED which will include physician education, patient information and organizational changes to patient processing. This study incorporates evidence-based medicine with ethical and social implications to improve patient outcomes.


The plastic behavior of the <110>//RD orientations, and specially that of the {001}<110> orientation, under severe cold reductions is addressed. Based on the orientation dependence of the stored energy, the {001}<110> orientation is known to lack from structured misorientation gradients and significant dislocation storage after plastic deformation which makes the former orientation not particularly prone to enhancing the recrystallization process. Recent evidences, however, indicate that {001}<110> orientation plays a relevant role in the origin of {h11}<1/h,1,2> orientations (predominantly {311}<136> and {411}<148> orientations) observed in the recrystallization texture of severely deformed IF steels. The complete understanding of the development of the recrystallized {h11}<1/h,1,2> orientations in IF steels is, therefore, of relevance as it deteriorates the optimum γ-fibre texture required for deep-drawability applications. The plastic instability of {001}<110> grains in a cross-rolled IF steel is evaluated in the present work. The extensive characterization of the deformed substructure along with partially recrystallized data confirmed the oriented nucleation origin of {h11}<1/h,1,2> orientations from deformed {001}<110> grains. Innovative crystal plasticity calculations accounting for the position of the grain boundary plane suggested that the recrystallized {h11}<1/h,1,2> orientations could result from a low Taylor value nucleation criterion.


Finding charts, accurate coordinates, and light curves are presented for 106 variable stars including 6 which are newly discovered. Parameters descriptive of the light curves are tabulated including periods for 16 stars which lacked them. The periods from the General Catalog of Variable Stars for ten stars were found to be seriously in error. The classification of the stars is discussed. Revisions or refinements of the classifications from the General Catalogue of Variable Stars are suggested for 20 stars and classifications are given for 7 which were previously unclassified. 15%-23% of the Bailey type ab RR Lyrae stars show scatter in their light curves which is suggestive of the Blazhko effect. O 1996 American Astronomical Society.


The invention relates to the field of building materials, in particular to a lightweight insulating brick. The lightweight insulating brick is prepared by mixing the following raw materials: 8 to 15 percent of gelled material, 30 to 50 percent of aggregate, 25 to 55 percent of lightweight material, 1 to 2 percent of aids and 3 to 4 percent of waterproof powder. Because lightweight materials of industrial and agricultural wastes are added into the lightweight insulating brick, the lightweight insulating brick changes waste into valuable, protects the environment, is energy-saving, insulates sound and heat, has strong insulating property and is warm in winter and cool in summer; and compared with an air-entrained cement building block, the lightweight insulating brick has the advantages of strong water resistance, water leakage resistance, high strength, strong safety, good compactness, slurry drop resistance, low investment and easy popularization.


Concrete box-girder bridges are one of the most commonly used bridge types owing to ease of maintenance and economy in construction. However, current design codes do not realistically consider the effects of haunches and web restraints on the strength enhancement of the top deck slab in the box-girder bridges. The purpose of this paper is to propose a rational model that can consider the effects of arching and haunches on the prediction of ultimate load capacity of deck slabs in concrete box-girder bridges under vertical loading. A rational frame model for the transverse direction of box girders that considers the effects of rigid joints and nonprismatic elements was formulated in this study. The flexural strength enhancement of the upper slab from the restraints of webs and arching action also was derived. To verify the model, a comprehensive experimental program was set up, and several full-scale concrete box girders were tested. The displacements and strains of steel bars and concrete were measured for test box girders during the vertical loading process. It was found that the cracking patterns and failure modes of box girders vary greatly depending on the existence and size of haunches. The present test results also indicate that an increase in haunch size increases the ultimate load capacity of the deck slab of a box girder greatly. The load capacity of a haunched deck slab is more than two times greater than that of the deck slab without haunches depending on the size of haunches. This effect is taken into account in this analysis through the consideration of arching action for the upper slab with various haunch sizes. Comparison of the proposed theory with test data shows good agreement on the ultimate loads and displacements. This study indicates that the theory without considering arching action greatly underestimates the ultimate load capacities of deck slabs in box-girder bridges. Therefore, the effects of haunches and arching action must be considered realistically for more advanced and economical design of box-girder bridges.


Teacher preparation programs in the United States within institutions of higher education (IHEs) have been beset by criticism from a diverse group of stakeholders. Such critiques have appeared in the scholarly literature as well as in various news media and public programming venues. The purpose of this editorial is not to add another critique to the existing collection or to comment on them. Rather, its purpose is to look at the response of institutions to the challenges associated with how they go about the complicated task of preparing future educators. Some of these institutions have responded to the pressure to justify themselves passively, by not responding or actively by defending their programmatic status quo\ others have taken up the gauntlet and are examining the extent to which they offer a "value-added" experience through their programs to those who will be responsible for the education and well-being of their students. The second of these groups is diverse in perspective and in action; they are, however, institutions where critical self-examination is taking place, particularly around the question of how well candidates are being prepared for the challenges they face in today's classrooms, schools, and communities to which they will hopefully contribute in significant ways. At some of these institutions, particular structural or philosophical elements are held constant, and changes in parts of existing programs are being made, while at others, a complete restructuring is taking shape. In this editorial, I argue that whatever changes are made must take account of three things about which those in the teacher education research community are contributing new and generative perspectives. These include (a) the beliefs which teacher candidates hold about their students' capacity for learning, (b) the kind of deep learning possible for youth in out-of school learning contexts, and (c) the power of partnership with community leader and community organizations in supporting the growth and impact of teachers. 1 provide brief and selective comments on each of these below. Beliefs About Student Capacity Numerous scholars have contributed to our knowledge of the understandings and beliefs that those with a desire to become teachers have about the capacity of children to learn (Carter Andrews & Castillo, 2016; Nelson & Guerra, 2014; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992). These beliefs are shaped in part by candidates' experiences in teacher preparation programs, but they are influenced even more by experiences they have accumulated over their many years as learners and with particular teachers they have had. These factors, in addition to the fact that most of the present teaching core is White and middle class, often result in teachers taking a deficit stance with regard to the perceived skills and needs of youth (e.g., Lee, 2007), particularly youth in high-poverty urban environments (Howard, 1999). Practicing teachers as well as teacher candidates often do not appreciate the funds of knowledge that students bring with them into schools, nor the legitimacy of this knowledge and the language and cultural practices in which students engage (Bang, Warren, Rosebery, & Medin, 2013; Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2014), as contributors to student learning. These beliefs about students also are shaped in potent ways by contextual factors, including the nature of field placements (Anderson & Stillman, 2013). One of the challenges that teacher preparation programs face is how to use the relatively little time they have with potential teachers to provide compelling experiences that will shape their views of learners and provide leverage for effective instruction. Youth Learning in Community-Based Contexts Work in this area has been quite varied with respect to the settings in which youth interact, which has included such spaces as museums, nature, and history centers (see, for example, Davidsson & Jakobsson, 2012); after-school programs (e. …


The invention concerns an active dual-polarization electronically scanning microwave reflector, adapted to be illuminated by a microwave source to form an antenna. The reflector comprises two interleaved waveguide arrays (21, 22), the base of each guide being closed by a phase-shifting circuit producing reflection and phase shift of the wave it receives, one array being designed to receive a polarization and the other array being designed to receive a polarization perpendicular to the former.


The purpose of this study was to determine (1) the nectar plant utilization of a population of Leptidea sinapis L. by following individual adults in their natural habitat, and (2) whether L. sinapis pollinates the flowers visited by collecting insects immediately after their visiting flowers and identifying pollen grains on the proboscis, palpi, head and thorax. Approximately 90% of the flower visits were made to Viola canina, V. riviniana and Lathyrus montanus. Although the strong flower preference exhibited by L. sinapis would make it a suitable pollinator, it seems unlikely that any flowers were pollinated by the butterflies in view of their low pollen load (im = 3.0 grains/specimen). Thus, L. sinapis should be regarded as a parasite on its nectar plants. Since the feeding behaviour of L. sinapis is typical of most butterflies we advance the tentative hypothesis that butterflies as a group may have evolved to occupy a parasitic mode of life as adults, feeding on the nectar of flowers without pollinating them. If so the evolution of the long pliable proboscis of butterflies may have opened a whole new feeding niche for adult butterflies by making accessible not only the exposed nectar from unspecialized flowers but also the formerly hidden nectar from a vast variety of bee and bumblebee flowers. However, since the above hypotheses are based on little evidence from but one butterfly species a broad study is needed to test their validity.


In 1996-97 the maximum area of 9.16 million hectare was achieved leading to a production of 17.5 million bales. Over the last 40 years this was the record production. In spite of achieving the maximum production in 1996-97 the area and production came down to 8.7 million hectares and 16.8 million bales respectively during 1999-2000. To know the reason for this decline trend in cotton cultivation in Tamil Nadu the present study was proposed and conducted at Salem District of Tamil Nadu. By employing snowball sampling technique 144 farmers were selected in this study. The well structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used for collecting the relevant data. By adopting percentage analysis, suitable inferences was made from the collected results. It was found that the majority of the respondents (64 %) reduced their acreage under cotton from their potential cotton area and one fourth of the respondents had reduced their - area under cotton to the extent of 26-50 per cent of their total potential cotton area. Among the reasons for the decline, more pests and diseases, high cost of cultivation, income not to commensurate with cost of production, reduction in yield year after year and no remunerative prices were the most important reasons for decline of cotton cultivation as expressed and ranked I to V by the majority of the respondents. It is suggested that the policy maker, chief executives and field level workers may take this research findings in positive way and work to restore the situation as soon as possible to enrich our farming community wealth and health by producing quality kapas.


Acute localized bullous lesions (ALBL) characterized by fluid-filled blisters due to extravasation injury associated with hyperosmolar total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is a painful event especially for neonates and elderly patients. Here, the case of hyperosmolar TPN-induced ALBL was progressed through an extravasation injury while administrating through peripheral venous access catheter. Immediate discontinuation of the TPN administration and proper localized supportive cares helped the bullous lesions to heal within a week. Peripheral administration of hyperosmolar TPN increases the risk of extravasation injury which may lead to acute bullous lesions, and immediate care and withdrawn of the TPN solution may be effective to recover the associated harm shortly.


There is much information in the medical literature concerning the medical home concept. Each medical practice must utilize that literature to devise a system of care—a patient-centered medical home—that best meets the needs of patients, families, and practice staff. This article is Goldsboro Pediatrics' attempt to describe its system of care, its patient-centered medical home.


Inductors with ultra-low DC resistance (DCR) are preferred in DC-DC converters due to low power loss and high efficiency. Previous lossless DCR current sensing method suffers from bad current readback accuracy for ulta-low DCR inductors, due to leakage pin current of the controller. This paper proposes a novel accurate current sensing scheme to improve the current readback accuracy. Only one resistor and one capacitor are added into previous DCR current sensing scheme to balance the leakage pin current and improve noise immunity performance. The proposed scheme is low cost, and very simple for implementation. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed current sensing scheme. With the proposed current sensing scheme, +-3% current readback accuracy can be achieved in industry power uModule products [1] [2].


Through the force analysis of the flexible needle puncture process, the corresponding mechanical model is established, and the main factors that cause the flexible needle bending deformation are analysed, and the bending model of the flexible needle puncture process is initially established. By discretizing the bending model, combined with experimental verification, a relatively complete bending model is obtained. Based on the RRT algorithm, the goal guidance algorithm, the optimal path selection algorithm, etc. are proposed, combined with the bending model of the flexible needle, and an improved RRT algorithm suitable for the flexible needle insertion method is established. Through simulation analysis and combined with experimental verification, it is concluded that path planning based on the improved RRT algorithm can bypass important human organs and soft tissues more flexibly, accurately puncture the target position, and achieve relatively safe surgery.


To help developers understand and reuse programs, semantic queries on the source code itself is attractive. Although programs in heterogeneous languages are being controlled for collaborative software development, most queries supported by various source code repositories are based either on the metadata of the repositories, or on indexed identifiers and method signatures. Few provide full support to search for semantic structures that are common across different programming languages. To facilitate the understanding and reuses, in this paper, we propose a novel source code query framework that (1) supports the semantic code queries across different programming languages with a new query language, (2) transforms source code to a unified abstract syntax format and handles heterogeneity at the abstract level, (3) stores source code on a cloud-based NoSQL storage in MangoDB. The efficiency of the framework has been evaluated and confirmed by experiments.


The phase diagram of the SiO/sub 2/-- UO/sub 2/ system in a hydrogen atmosphere is established. This diagram is analyzed thermodynamically with the values of free and internal energies and the entropy with respect to the pure liquid phases of UO/sub 2/ and SiO/sub 2/. The structure of the melted products is described. The masses obtained from these melts by crystallization during cooling is given, with concentrations up to 7 g UO/sub 2//cm/sup 3/. The mechanism of the crystallization is determined. Some properties of the masses, with respect to their utilization as fuels for nuclear reactors at high temperaturea, offer the advantage of retaining the fission gas. (tr-auth)


Using the research methods of literature consultation,survey interview,logical analysis method and such research methods,the research focus on the topics of college sports teaching and campus sports culture,and from the perspective of mutual promotion to explore the development of sports culture.On this basis,to build the interactive development model diagram.Proposes to establish scientific development concept of physical education.Teaching philosophy to be consistent with the campus sports culture development.Increases investment in sport material culture.Emphasis on extracurricular activities and sports competitions.Constantly improves the level of teaching organizations,and such seven recommendations.


In low temperature oxidation experiment,coal can produce oxidation gas products,some of which can be used as the indicator gases. An understanding of the change rule of these gases can effectively forecast the spontaneous combustion in mined- out area. Through the comparison between the fresh coal samples and the oxidized coal samples in the coal seam of 7128 workface in Longdong Coal Mine in low temperature oxidation experiment,the gaseous products of fresh coal samples and those of oxidized coal samples are measured in different temperatures. Results show that the oxidized coal samples are the continuation of fresh coal samples,and both of them can produce such oxidizing gases as CO,CO2,CH4,C3H8,C2H4,C2H6,C2H2,C4H10,iC4H10,but the temperatures of the gases produced are different. In addition,when the temperature reaches 70 ℃,CO can be used as the indicator gases and C2H4 as the auxiliary index gases to serve as the early prediction of coal spontaneous combustion in 7#coal seam. Both the increase trend and the critical value of indicator gases can be adopted to forecast the mined- out area of coal oxidation conditions. In order to prevent the coal from spontaneous combustion, the research on coal 's low temperature oxidation experiment will monitor the temperature in mine- out areas.


We have investigated the magnetic properties of four model alloys (18Cr8Ni0.5Si, 16Cr10Ni1Si, 13Cr20Ni2Si, and 10Cr30Ni3Si) for simulating radiation induced segregation in SUS304 austenitic stainless steels. All alloys are paramagnetic at room temperature. With reduction of temperature, a structural transition was occurred for alloys with lower Ni content (18Cr8Ni0.5Si and 16Cr10Ni1Si), which produced ferromagnetic martensite. Alloys with higher Ni content (13Cr20Ni2Si, and 10Cr30Ni3Si) became ferromagnetic at low temperature without martensitic transformation. Different effects of stress on the structure and magnetism were found also. Martensitic transformations and magnetic properties of austenitic stainless steels depend strongly on its chemical composition and can be classified by the value of Ni equivalent. This study suggests the possibility of applying magnetic methods to the nondestructive detection of radiation induced segregation.


This is an update of Hall C experiment 97-101, which is part of a program to study the transition from low Q2 low t physics, where soft non-perturbative QCD processes characterized by constituent quarks dominate, to the high Q2 -high t regime where hard processes characterized by current quarks correlations are expected to play an increasingly important role, and even to where pQCD becomes important. We will focus on the impact of the new theoretical developments in Generalized Parton Distributions (GPD) to this reaction, and the connection of this reaction to other exclusive high t reactions through the GPD formalism. In Hall C experiment 94-014, the excitation of the and the S11(1535) resonances were observed via their decay into the and respectively at Q 2 near 2.8 and 4 GeV2/c2. Experiment 97-101 will extend these measurements to Q2 = 7.5 GeV2/c2, utilizing a 5.75 GeV electron beam energy. The experiment will measure the kinematically complete reactions . Since at high Q2 the protons emerge in a narrow cone around the vector, a large fraction of the in-plane and out-of-plane c.m. decay spectrum can be reconstructed using the HMS and SOS spectrometers. Reaction: @ Q2 ~ 7.5 GeV2/c2 * A. Afanasev, R, Davidson and A. Radyushkin will serve as theoretical participants. Ebeam Imax Target beam time proton detector electron detector 6 GeV 90 A 4cm LH2 25 days HMS SOS ∆ 1232 ( ) π η p e e' p , ( )π η , q


The seismic sections of Perales anticline show a coherent seismic anomaly in the frontal limb of the structure at the level of Castillo Formation. The outcrop characterization carried in this formation showed that Castillo Formation is intensely fractured and faulted at the steeper or overturned limbs of the anticlines studied. From the field study it was suggested that the anomaly could be due to dilatational fractures generated as splay fractures at the ends of the reverse/thrust faults. Two unsuccessful wells corroborated that Castillo Formation was intensely fractured. Although an important water influx confirmed the hypotheses of an open fracture network, the confined character of the influx might evidence a proportion of closed fractures. The objective of this paper is to combine the information of the outcrops with subsurface information to elucidate the nature of the anomaly. The analysis of fracture directions in the outcrops and wel-bore shows an apparent relationship between fracture orientation and the main structures, such as the reverse faults and the strike slips faults that segmented the anticline. Finally, with the information available from the outcrops and image loggings it cannot be concluded weather open fractures are the reason of the seismic anomaly. Therefore a more detailed study will be needed. Introduction Resolving the nature of the anomaly was considered crucial for the development of Castillo Formation as an oil reservoir at the steeper limbs of Perales anticline. Relaying in the hypotheses that this anomaly is due to fractures, an investigation of potential fractures and faults in the Castillo Formation has been conducted. In this report, we summarize the results of this investigation along with the results of two wells drilled following the surface analog study. Geological Setting The San Jorge Basin, located in the central Patagonia of Argentina is a Jurassic and early Cretaceous rift basin that evolved into a sag basin (Figure 1). The sedimentary record of the thermal stage is mainly continental, with deposits ranging from coarse alluvial fans in the flanks to high-sinuosity meander belts and shallow ephemeral lakes in the central area with significant pyroclastic supply. 250 Km SOUTH AMERICAN PLATE SCOTIA PLATE MALVINAS ISLANDS 42°


ABSTRACT Ikiztepe crude oil was subjected to four different steam temperatures during steam injection which was applied as an enhanced oil recovery process on a linear limestone model saturated with oil. Produced oils were characterized using density, viscosity measurements, pyrolysis experiments utilizing TGA and elemental analysis runs. Results showed that produced crude oils change in measured characteristics as compared to the original oil. These changes include an increase in H/C, and cracking activation energy, decrease in density, viscosity and amount of residue remaining after cracking (coke). Also, decrease in asphaltene amount, changes in the elemental composition of asphaltenes and increase in the cracking activation energies were observed at 225 °C run. These measurements show that the produced oils get lighter and differ compositionally from the original oil as steam temperature increases. Decrease in elemental sulphur amount is one of the major changes when environmental considerations are c...


Abstract Portions of an extensive literature were reviewed to evaluate the status of our knowledge relative to progesterone in the bovine. Studies related to the secretion and metabolism of progesterone have been hampered by the lack of chemical methods sufficiently sensitive and specific to quantitate the hormone in small samples. Certain bioassays are extremely sensitive but lack specificity and have undefined limits of error. Spectrophotometric determination of progesterone or progesterone derivatives appears specific but is sensitive to only 0.1–0.5 μ g. Fluorometric, gas chromatographic, and double-isotope derivative methods promise sensitivity to 0.01 μ g with adequate specificity and precision. Progesterone and 20 β -hydroxy-Δ 4 -pregnene-3-one appear to be the principal progestins in the corpus luteum (CL) of cycling and pregnant cows. Progestins have also been reported in bovine ovaries, adrenals, and blood. The CL appears to be the most important source of progesterone throughout bovine pregnancy. The CL from a previous cycle contains measurable progesterone for two or three days after estrus. Progestin in the CL and ovarian vein blood declines rapidly during proestrus from maximum levels observed 14–16 days post-estrus. In the pregnant cow, CL progestin levels decline about 40% from mid-cycle levels by 42–56 days of pregnancy, further decline slowly until 200 days, then rise again to the 28-day level; after 250 days, a decline to parturition begins. Similar changes are seen in blood levels of the hormones during pregnancy. Progesterone appears important in pregnancy maintenance, expression of estrus, normal cyclic function, and in hypophyseal-gonad interrelationships.


The object of research is the computer system of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Most modern UAVs are based on 2- or 4-core single-chip processors, between which between which the OS automated scheduler tries to evenly distribute computational tasks . One of the most problematic places in the described process is that the first core can instantly become extremely congested in the event of an urgent task from the UAV control system. Therefore, the subject of research is complex indicators of the state of the processor cores for various algorithms of task distribution proposed between the cores of a multicore single-chip processor. In the course of the research, methods for simulating the dispatching of tasks processed by the UAV computer system based on a quad-core single-chip processor are used. The expediency of using the energy of the measuring signal from piezoelectric sensors for partial compensation of the consumed energy by the UAV computer system is investigated and justified. To evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken to increase the efficiency of the use of computer system components, the HWMonitor utility is used. According to the research results from the developed certain optimal algorithm, which differs from the others by reserving the resources of the 1st core of a multi-core single-chip computing processor for calculations of primary importance. The use of such calculation algorithm provides an increase in flight time by 3.1 minutes and increases the range of professional tasks by 1.3 min (for UAV DJI Phantom 4). In comparison with similar known solutions, the proposed algorithm improves the UAV stable behavior in critical applications (loss of ground control, the occurrence of obstacles, the impossibility of obtaining GPS coordinates in the areas of radio electronic warfare, etc.).


As a young discipline, political science in Kazakhstan could be regarded a poster child of collective intellectual offspring that reflects well all political and socioeconomic transformations that an emerging community of political scientists has had to go through for the last three decades to thrive and promote the field. In this regard, the key purpose of the article is to share an interesting insightful story of developments in the discipline in this transitional nation. The research is mostly based on a retrospective analysis of key periods in introducing new agendas in university curricula and review of the latest trends, practices, and challenges in research and classroom from the perspective of professional communities in the field. This inherently ethnographic narrative, which is based on the analysis of rich empirical data, could be interesting for researchers who seek to understand the development of political science as a liberating phenomenon in a typical transitional context.


ABSTRACT Irrigation decision-making is complex. It requires balancing multiple risks . We examined if incorporation of weather forecasts into irrigation decision-making improved environmental and economic outcomes on dairy farms in Canterbury, New Zealand. We focused on understanding how farmers can manage irrigation decision-making with uncertain weather forecasts, and the associated impacts on drainage, pasture growth and economics. Previous work had demonstrated that weather conditions were not used in irrigation decision-making as much as desirable and that weather forecast uncertainty was not explicitly considered. , We incorporated weather forecasts as a perfect forecast and the best available forecast. We used probability percentiles to incorporate forecast uncertainty into decision-making. The research hypothesis was that through utilising risk profiles of factors that influence environmental and economic outcomes of irrigation decisions, farmers could improve decison-makingwhen faced with uncertain future weather states. When weather forecasts were integrated into irrigation decision-making, there were environmental and economic benefits relative to a simple deficit-based irrigation decision rule. Based on a case study, we predicted 5% additional profit (approximately, $200 per hectare) may be possible when the best available forecasts was used relative to a simple deficit-based decision rule, and a further 1% profit if forecast uncertainty was considered.


Delfini's way of writing is often tinged with intertextual quotations or allusions which prove to be functional within his work. In particular, the Poesie della fine del mondo, where the phenomenon acquires a status of unprecedented importance, are characterized by a kind of «teratology of quotation», which is peculiar to some Modernist texts. Intertextuality provides Delfini with a wide range of defensive as well as de-personalizing formulas, in a way akin to the more advanced contemporary poetry.


Recent determinations of αs (MZ) from the H1 and ZEUS Collaborations using inclusive-jet cross-section measurements in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at high Q2 are presented. A combined value of αs (MZ) = 0.1198±0.0019 (exp.)±0.0026 (th.) was obtained from these measurements. The determinations of αs at various scales clearly show the running of the coupling from HERA jet data alone and in agreement with the prediction of QCD.


Abstract A European bug Picromerus bidens (L.) is reported from Quebec feeding on larvae of the introduced sawfly Gilpinia frutetorum (F.) (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae). A colour photograph of the bug and an illustration of the anterior femur and tibia are included.


Twisting two periodic lattices against each other at a small angle gives rise to large-scale interference-like motives, so called moiré pattern. Twisting a graphene layer against a boronnitride layer has been investigated in the recent past and gives rise to such pattern and a concomitant Hofstadter's butterfly spectrum in a magnetic field[1]. The physical behavior that emerges if one twists two single-layer graphene sheets against each other turns out to be even richer. The precise manipulation and twist of two graphene sheets was accomplished by Cao et al. in the above papers. Near a magic twist angle θ of about one degree a narrow band is expected to form from Wannier states of the large supercell[2, 3]. Cao et al. prepared such samples and identified correlated insulating, metallic, and superconducting states, depending on temperature and carrier concentration. In the context of correlated electron systems, the achieved ability to tune and manipulate a material is truly unique. The twist angle determines the electronic structure. The charge carrier concentration can be varied via a gate voltage over regimes that correspond to several carriers per unit cell. The moiré patterns of the reported twist angles θ = 1.05◦ and θ = 1.16◦ have a lattice constant a = a0/ (2 sin (θ/2)) of about 50 times that of graphene, where a0 ≈ 2.46 Å. This corresponds to approximately 8 × 10 carbon atoms per unit cell. Given indications for sample inhomogeneities, this makes the observations of low-T metallic charge transport impressive. Remember, closely-related quasicrystals display electron localization with a powerlaw-divergence of the resistivity[4]. Depending on the gate voltage, the carrier concentration was varied between ±4n0 relative to the charge neutrality point of graphene, see


This article presents the analytical overview of the foreign experience of the concept of inclusive education. The author seeks to identify the basic mechanisms contributing to the successful and effective implementation of the process abroad.


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Hypertension is a widely recognized risk factor for myocardial infarction, stroke, and death. Although highly effective antihypertensive drugs1 as well as interventions2–4 have been developed over the last decades, the optimal level of target blood pressure is still a matter of debate. While the ESC/ESH Guidelines5 recommend 140/90 mmHg as a target, the JNC-7 Guidelines allow up to 150 mmHg systolic in the elderly.6 A recent large randomized trial addressed this issue again,7 and its implications are discussed in the Editor's Page ' SPRINT: the race for optimal blood pressure control ' by Thomas F. Luscher and Isabella Sudano from the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland.8

Hypertension is, along with ischaemic heart disease, a major cause of heart failure.9 Of note, in patients with left ventricular heart failure, the development of pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction is common and contributes to disease progression, morbidity, and mortality.10,11 Stephan Rosenkranz from the University of Cologne in Germany addresses this issue in the Clinical Review ' Left ventricular heart failure and pulmonary hypertension '.12 Pulmonary hypertension related to left heart disease represents by far the most common form, accounting for over two-thirds of cases. The distinction between pulmonary arterial hypertension and that related to left ventricular dysfunction may be challenging, yet is therapeutically relevant. Despite advances in understanding and management, the haemodynamic inter-relationships in pre- and post-capillary pulmonary hypertension are complex, and evidence-based recommendations are lacking. The authors highlight the prevalence and significance of pulmonary hypertension …

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The present study was taken up in Sivagangai district to examine the issues of trend in climate change, association between climate change and area, production and productivity of crops and impact of climate change on production of crops. The climate trend in Sivagangai district was studied using the descriptive statistics of skewness, kurtosis, coefficient of variation and compound growth rate of climatic variables of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and rainfall over the past 50 years from 1971 to 2020. Pearson correlation technique was used to analyze the degree of association between climatic variables and area, production and productivity of principal crops namely paddy, black gram and groundnut. Cobb-Douglas production function model was fitted to study the quantitative relationship between the average production of principal crops grown in the district and the climatic variables of temperature and rainfall and cropped area. Maximum temperature and minimum temperature were negatively skewed and rainfall was positively skewed. Kurtosis for maximum temperature was platykurtic and for the minimum temperature and rainfall of Sivagangai district, the kurtosis was Leptokurtic. The maximum temperature and minimum temperature were less variable and rainfall was highly variable. Pearson correlation coefficient revealed that maximum temperature, minimum temperature and rainfall had significant association with area, production and productivity of crops in Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu. Cobb- Douglas production function analysis revealed that annual rainfall had a positive relationship with production of paddy. On the other hand, climatic variables of temperature and rainfall were not influencing the groundnut and black gram production.


This study investigates the differences in the behaviors between the speculative investors and the conservative investors in two separate experimental markets. Although the market for speculators shows greater price volatility in both bid/ask spread within a trade as well as with intraperiod variances, it exhibits several desirable properties. Specifically, the price patterns tend to converge closer, and at a greater speed to either the prior information equilibrium price or the rational expectation equilibrium price. It also achieves better allocational efficiency. And, it is also less likely to be misled by potentially "false" price information.


Several applications require that a telepresence system does not only transmit images, audio and video but also real-time motion. This work presents the implementation of a system that allows for telepresence using a humanoid robot and a motion capture device. The proposed methodology for motion imitation is fast and uses a low-cost motion acquisition sensor. The objective is to make the robot reproduce the motion of a person. In this way, remote actions can be executed through the robot sending also images and audio from the environment. The method has been applied to the humanoid robot called NAO, which has been able to reproduce human motions. This framework can also be used for different education purposes.


Encryption is one method used to protect or maintain the data. Data that has encrypted will be kept confidential where the contents of the data are altered, so it does not correspond to the actual data. To be able to read data that has been encrypted earlier required a process called decryption. In the science of cryptography, the data will be safeguarded consists of three main components, that is the message that will be read (plaintext), the keys to perform cryptographic techniques (Key), and a random signal that is unreadable (ciphertext). Testing is done by sending the data in the form of words or sentences by using a secret key. Results of analysis of data from tests performed show that with the incorporation of some algorithm plated confidentiality of information can be safer because it takes several different stages to solve.


The nitrogen concentration in dry matter of the fifth leaf during growth of a greenhouse tomato crop was determined. Plants of hybrid Monte Carlo were grown in 4.5 L bags, using a commercial substrate, in a plant density of 3.3 plants m-2. A nutrient solution containing, in mmol L-1: KNO3, 4.0; K2SO4, 0.9; Ca(NO3)2, 3.75; KH2PO4, 1.5; MgSO4, 1.0; iron chelate 19. 103, was used as reference. Microelements were added by a commercial mixture. The T3 treatment was equal to the reference nutrient solution, whereas in treatments T1, T2, T4 and T5 quantities of all nutrients from T3 were multiplied by 0.25, 0.50, 1.25 and 1.50, respectively. In each treatment, the volume of 1 L of nutrient solution was supplied to each plant once a week by fertigation. Periodically destructive measurements were made from anthesis to ripening of the first truss, to determine dry matter and N concentration in shoot and in fifth leaf tissues, counted from the apex to the bottom of the plant. Five dilution curves were fitted from data of N concentration in the fifth leaf and shoot dry matter accumulation during growth of plants. A general relationship was adjusted between actual N concentration in shoot (Nt) and in the fifth leaf (Nf): Nt = 1.287 Nf (R2 = 0.80). This relationship could be used to estimate the N status of plants by means of a nitrogen nutrition index (NNI), from analysis of the fifth leaf sap.


Perhaps a word should be added about those who deny that Sein und Zeit (or any of Heidegger's later work) has any bearing on theology. Both K. LOwith and H. Jonas claim that Heidegger operates under certain ontic-ontological presuppositions that are taken from and lead to an ontic negation of theology.'2 In a lecture delivered at Drew University Jonas even accused Heidegger of paganism and fatalism.'3 Anybody familiar with Heidegger's thinking knows, of course, how wrong this is. In an interview Heidegger granted to the magazine der Spiegel in 1966, mainly to clarify his political activity during the Nazi period, the question of God entered into the discussion. (The interview was published only after his death in 1976 as Heidegger had stipulated.) In connection with the dangers involved in our technological society Heidegger said, "Only a God may save us. For us there remains the only possible way to prepare, through thinking and poeticizing, a readiness for the appearance of God or the absence of God [and our] doom: that we will perish in the face of the absent God." ,4 These are only a few examples of the many authors Siefert discusses in her instructive book. The language is complicated, but the richness of the material as well as Siefert's keen insight reward the reader. An extensive bibliography and an index are added. ELISABETH FE1ST HIRSCH Trenton State College


In November, 2004, the famed Bewley's Oriental Cafes of Dublin shut their operations on Grafton and Westmoreland Streets. The news generated an intense response in the national media regarding the loss of an icon that defined the city, the loss of a storied place that marked many epochal changes in Dublin and Ireland, and the loss of what, for many Dubliners, was a home away from home."Dubliners are in shock," reported David McKittrick in The Independent. McKittrick continued,


To determine the efficiency of regional and local government public functions, the most used method in the empirical analysis is data envelopment analysis. This paper reviews 20 counties as part of regional government units in Croatia as well as the relationship between efficiency scores and exogenous determinants in the 2009-2016 period. The results of our analysis show that, among exogenous determinants, only the annual registered unemployed rate and annual average wage for full time jobs are statistically significant.


This article provides readers with guidance on the setting up and running of a veterinary dispensary. Following guidance and requirements from relevant bodies (such as the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) and Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS)), readers will be taken through some of the required and recommended policies and regulations associated with the management of a veterinary dispensary. It is important for the veterinary nurse to be aware of current requirements for veterinary prescriptions, prescribing cascade, suitably qualified person, waste guidelines and the understanding of stock control which has been included in this article.


On 1st July, 1954, the labourers working at the new lodge site at Aruba dam in the Royal Tsavo National Park, reported having seen a lone elephant calf come down to drink and go off again on its own. On the 3rd July, while watching some elephants watering at the dam, I noticed a small elephant calf wandering about in an aimless fashion at the far end of the dam. This calf made no attempt to join the herd watering, although it must have been aware of their presence, as they were making a considerable noise. After about twenty minutes the herd moved off, and the calf remained at the water's edge. This was obviously the same calf that had been seen by the labourers two days before. The surrounding country was extremely dry and there were several lions in the area, so I felt his chances of survival were pretty remote if left to his own devices. I decided, therefore, to capture him and try to rear him in captivity.


The coal mining has brought a series of ecological and environmental problems, including the most obvious one —land damage. Coal mine land reclamation can restore and rebuild the mine ecology, improve regional environmental quality, the establishment of social - economic - naturally coordinated development of a mine, ecologically virtuous circle of green industrial ecosystem. Open-pit coal mine of Baofa Coal Co., LTD. For its current land use, based on the "land reclamation technical standards" and other relevant standards and comprehensive study of area natural and socio-economic conditions, land suitability factors, the land reclamation countermeasures of open-pit coal mine are given out.


We report on the fabrication of self-protective self-assembled monolayers constituted by a highly fluorescent component and a linear alkyl chain. We demonstrate the formation of an interpenetrated molecular network in which the alkyl component acts as an ultra-thin protective layer able to effectively shield the functional component from several types of aqueous solution.


The Dzhidinsky orefield is located in the Zakamensky district of Buryatia. It is characterized by a high concentration of mineralization in a small area. The ores of the Dzhidinsky economic deposits are complex. This ore field includes Pervomaiskoye Mo, Kholtosonskoe W, and Inkurskoe W deposits. The catchment basin of the river Modonkul is located in the Dzhidinsky orefield. Mineral resource industry waste is a real threat to the city Zakamensk. Currently, the waste of deposits is located at the floodplain terrace and the watershed of the river Modonkul. In this work, the impact of the drainage mine and tributary Inkur on the formation chemical composition of the river Modonkul is studied. The 80 samples of water and suspended matter were taken from a surface of 0–0.5 m on seven sites. Physical and chemical parameters were measured at the sampling sites, and chemical composition was analyzed in the laboratory. In the natural background of the river, the major cations are, in decreasing order, Ca2+ > Mg2+ > Na+ + K+, and major anions are, also in decreasing order, HCO3− > SO42− > Cl−. Along the river, the chemical type of water changes from bicarbonate to sulfate across the sulfate-bicarbonate or bicarbonate-sulfate class and from calcium-magnesium across sodium-calcium-magnesium reverse calcium-magnesium group. Total dissolved solids (TDS) increase by a factor of 4.0–4.7 between the upper and mouth of the river. The dissolved and suspended loads were studied in the mixing zone of acid mine and river water. The different hydrochemistry characteristics may result from Fe, Al, and Mn hydroxide precipitation. The pH values and dissolved oxygen cycles could change the uptake of heavy metals on suspended iron and manganese oxides, and the mechanism of removing it in water. River particulates have the potential of regulating heavy metal inputs to aquatic systems from pollution. The ore elements or the heavy metals are removed from the water in two ways: by the runoff of Modonkul and the sedimentation of suspended material at the bottom. The inflow of mine water into the Modonkul river leads to the rare earth elements (REEs) composition with negative cerium and positive europium anomalies.


In 2002, Chinese artist Zhang Huan crossed through New York's streets wearing a bodysuit made of raw meat that shaped him with bulging contours and expanded his presence to into a humanoid, Hulk-like figure. By this time, it had been four years since Zhang left China. He had previously studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he graduated in 1993. With personal identity and existential survival being his most pressing topics at the time, Zhang was able to exercise a radical, self-exploitative practice as a performance artist. In 2021, as part of a collaboration with the Taipei-based tech platform EchoX, Zhang created Celestial Burial of an Artist, a digital project that revisited Zhang's meat-suit intervention My New York, his earlier work that now holds a firm position in the canon of performance art at the turn of the century. The two decades since Zhang's original performance intervention have seen a trend towards score-based, multiscale practices, depending less on artists' physical presence, and departing from extreme physical actions. Zhang's artistic trajectory relates to the conceptualization of the performative, too, even though his practice has since focused on the creation of object-based works.


A fuzzy correction of a deterministic semi-active control applied to an aircraft landing gear is presented. An existing computer code has been modified to allow its numerical verification during simulated drop tests and landings. The correction of the control action applied by the fuzzy controller seems to improve the dynamic response by reducing the amplitude of vertical ground load fluctuations.


The possibilities of interference compensation have been experimentally studied for spatial signal processing in a nonstationary SW communication channel It is shown that the mean efficiency of interference suppression by correlation methods is about 20 dB for quasimortochromatic interference and 12 dB for frequency-manipulated interference. The multipathing and dispersion of the communication channel are analyzed as the main causes limiting the characteristics of SW interference compensators. An empirical model of the channel has been proposed to ezplain the observed SW signal characteristics. One efficient technique of interference suppression in a communication channel is the method of spatiotemporal signal processing (STSP) which compensates for interference by an adaptive weighted s11mmation of voltages from an array of receiving antennas [1-3]. Most of the well-known optimal STSP algorithms were developed under the assumption of perfect conditions of signal propagation and interference in a nonrandom nondispersive medium when the wave front of the signal is plane (spherical) and the oscillations of the interference (signal) in the antenna elements are correlated and can therefore be compensated by weighted sllmmation. This assumption is not always reasonable since the inhomogeneities of the medium of propagation result in fluctuations of the refractive index of the wave, disturbing its coherence. There are also other reasons leading to the signal decorrelation in separated antennas. In particular, the anisotropy of the medium and the presence of several paths of wave propagation from the transmitter to the receiver give rise to multipathiug and nonstationarity of the received signal. The short-wave radio communication channel is inherently a multipath nonstationary channel with variable-parameters and cannot be considered perfect, Its properties impose severe restrictions on the choice and efficiency of a signal processing algorithm [4, 5]. Analysis of the influence of decorrelated antenna oscillations on the quality of spatial signal processing [6-8] shows that the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio decreases considerably at the adaptive summator output if the signal or interference correlation is decreased in the antenna array aperture. The maYimum (limiting) suppression of interference is reached through'a complete correlation of antenna voltages. The simplest STSP device is a two-channel interference compensator, in which a covariance matrix of size 2  2, consisting of oscillation powers Pl, P2 in the antenna elements and their covariance coefficient r0, is calculated in the processing of a signal-interference mixture from two separated antennas. Even such an elementary arrangement of an adaptive antenna array (which, however, is very important in the practical spatio-temporal processing of SW signals from mobile objects) provides a considerable gain in the signal-to-interference ratio for It0[ = 1. Hence, in the synthesis of an optimal STSP algorithm and in the estimation of its potential efficiency we must take into account the statistical properties of the signals (interference) in process, primarily, their


Objective
To investigate the experience of diagnosis and treatment of iatrogenic bile duct injury (IBDI).

Methods
Clinical data of 2 patients with IBDI who underwent hepatectomy in the People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region between January 2016 and April 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Case 1 was a 62-year-old female, presented with fever and jaundice 3 d after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). Case 2 was a 44-year-old female, presented with yellow skin and mucosa 3 d after LC. Both patients were diagnosed with obstructive jaundice and IBDI. The informed consents of two patients were obtained and the local ethical committee approval was received.

Results
Case 1 underwent ultrasound-guided transhepatic biliary drainage, and suffered from abdominal pain, abdominal distension and anorexia 1 month later. Computed tomography (CT) scan revealed multiple intrahepatic hypodense lesions, which were considered as liver abscess. Right hemihepatectomy combined with intrahepatic cholangiojejunostomy was performed in Case 1. Case 2 underwent exploratory laparotomy and cholangiojejunostomy after well preoperative preparations. The patient suffered from fever after 2 month. CT scan revealed liver abscess, CT angiography (CTA) revealed a pseudoaneurysm in the right hepatic artery. After multi-disciplinary consultation, right hemihepatectomy combined with left hepaticojejunostomy was performed. Two patients recovered well. No significant complication was observed in the patients during the 6-month follow-up after discharged from hospital.

Conclusions
For IDBI patients, CTA should be performed to check if complication of right hepatic artery injury exists. Revascularization should be performed timely. If it cannot be revascularized, bile duct repairing and right hemihepatectomy can be performed simultaneously. For patients with right hepatic artery injury which cannot be revascularized, postoperative conditions should be closely observed. Right hemihepatectomy should be performed timely when necrosis and liver abscess are detected in the right lobe.

Key words:
Iatrogenic bile duct injuries; Hepatectomy; Therapeutic uses


As a kind of hybrid financial instrument, the pricing of convertible bond (CB) has constituted a great challenge. This paper developed a novel method integrating support vector machine (SVM) with copula function. Different from existing single-factor or bifactor pricing models based on corporate value and the underlying stock price respectively, this model can effectively deal with many constrains on the CB pricing, such as nonlinearity, departure from normality, multivariate joint distribution, variable dependence structure, and so on. In particularly, the new model exhibited great flexibility in that copula function can portray dependence structure between the underlying stock price and interest rate, and that SVM can further tackle nonlinear relationship among variables. Empirical analysis showed that the proposed model enhanced generation ability of out-of-sample, with mark increase in CB pricing accuracy compared with the single SVM, and that the CB value sensitivity to the underlying stock and the dependence structure is also measured handily and effectively through the model.


This paper describes the performance of fan rib type highly accurate, highly reproducible mesh deployable reflector with precision screw type adjustment element for surface drawing and motor and link type deployment system. Surface error and its reproducibility for repeated deployment decreased less than 1/2 of previously developed fan rib type mesh reflector with spring type deployment system. No periodic distortion which corresponds to rib arrangements can be seen and thus mesh reflector with very low gore lobe and side lobe characteristics, which is very useful for frequency reuse, is achieved in C band. This paper also presents measured higher order passive intermodulation (PIM) products of mesh developed and used for this deployable reflector with the mesh tension as a parameter.