Nowdays, one of  the well-known  means of communication is internet or also known as the new media. The internets is used as a main source for communicating and searching for information. This very media is what no longer makes distance and time a problem. The internet has developed and become an efficient  and  effective  way  of  communication.  The  internet  has  grown  into  a  communicative  mean  and cannot  be  disregarded.  Internet  users  are  mostly  students,  due  to  the  facilities  being  easy  to  use  and accessed. Most people use internet connection to receive information and entertainment. Accordingly to the Mcquail application which states that there are four  motives on the usage of media,  1.  Information  (surveillance)  with  four  subs:  a.  seeking  news  regarding  events  and  conditions relevant  with  the  closest  environment,  society,  and the  world.b.Seeking  for  guidance  on  practical issues,  opinions  and  such  which  are  related with  choosing  an  option,  c.To  fulfill  curiosity  and public interest,  d.  To learn, self- education,  2. Personal identit motives consists of four subs:  a.  To find support on personal  values,b.To  find  a behavior  model,  c.To  identify  oneself  with  other  values  found within  the media,  d.To  gain  an  understanding  of  oneself.  3.  Integration  and  social  interaction  motives  (Personal Relationship) consists of six sub chapters:  a.  To obtain knowledge regarding the circumstances of  others, b.  To identify oneself with  others  and gain  a  sense  of belonging,  c.To  find  conversation  material  and social  interaction,  d.  To gain friends  beside  humans,  e.  To  assist social  role,  f.  Makes connecting with family, friends and society possible.  4. For entertainment motives (Diversion) there are five sub chapters: a.  To  release  oneself  from  problems,  b.To  relax,  c.To  achieve  spiritual joy  and esthetical joy,  d.  To fill time, e.To channel emotions, f. To stimulate sexual desires. It  may be  concluded that the  aforementioned  theories  stated by McQuail  are proven  by twitter accounts of class XI class of 2013 students of SMA  Negeri Surakarta within the period of November until December, aside from that the writer has also foundchanging motives which happens within information motives and entertainment motives.


In general, geologists and engineers view work on fractured reservoirs from a different point of view and approach. Geologists characterize the reservoir rocks and fracture systems in a semi-quantitative manner, thus describing the basic building blocks of the reservoir. Geologists are often rather optimistic toward fractured reservoir potential. Engineers work with the effect of fractures on reservoir performance from one or more fluid response points of view. Engineers are often pessimistic toward fractured reservoir problems. Integration of characterization (geology) and response (engineering) is absolutely mandatory for effective evaluation of fractured reservoirs. In addition to differences in point of view and scope of study between technical disciplines, the author contended that exploration and production management views fractured reservoirs somewhat differently than those technical workers doing the detailed evaluations. Various differences arise for three basic reasons: (1) a limited understanding of fracture system distribution and petrophysical characteristics, (2) the absolute necessity for interdisciplinary approaches, and (3) improper communication of risk analysis factors in these reservoirs. The result of these is a generally pessimistic view toward fractured reservoirs by upper management and a tendency toward evaluation overkill by the workers. Both make exploration for and development of fractured reservoirs more difficult and costly.more » A discussion of the differing view of management and scientists could only help to alleviate the problems both groups face in their work.« less


The principle of solidarity rather than competition is considered the basic constituent element of Germany's health care system, but competition de facto has always existed in the health care sector. This includes competition among private health insurance funds, among private and social health insurance funds, and among outpatient or ambulatory care physicians. Many see such competition as an instrument to enhance efficiency within the system. The question being debated in Germany is: How much and what kind of competition is required to increase efficiency without violating the basic principles of a social insurance system? And what is the government's role in this respect? Answers to these questions have to consider the following principles of social insurance as they are laid out in the Social Code (Sozialgesetzbuch):


With administrative roles come many changes for faculty leaders, including the perceptions of others, the perception of self, and the skills necessary to remain credible.


When is the hydropulser running, is a source of broad-band vibrations. Removing these unfavourable influences, which act negatively on environment and especially on human beings, is by an elastic support possible. Rubber or air springs are inserted between the frame of the hydropulser and the floor. Under these conditions, the transmission of vibration transferred to the floor declines according to values of natural frequencies. In this paper are discussed two possibilities of base plate (base) support. Especially using of air springs shows high efficiency of vibration insulation springing base


ANVIL was the name assigned to the series of underground nuclear experiments conducted at the Nevada Test Site from July 1, 1975 to September 30, 1976. This report covers the tests publicly announced by the United States Energy Research and Development Administration. Remote radiation measurements were taken during and after each nuclear experiment by a telemetry system. Monitors with portable radiation detection instruments surveyed reentry routes into ground zeroes before other planned entries were made. Continuous surveillance was provided while personnel were in radiation areas and appropriate precautions were taken to protect persons from unnecessary exposure to radiation and toxic gases. Protective clothing and equipment were issued as needed. Complete radiological safety and industrial hygiene coverage was provided during drilling and mineback operations. Telemetered and portable radiation detector measurements are listed. Detection instrumentation used is described and specific operational procedures are defined.


Oral care implement having a head and a container portion, the head portion having a plurality of tooth cleaning elements on one surface thereof, and a container containing at least one active agent. Capillary channel through at least a portion of the oral care implement, in order to deliver one or more active agents to one or more outlets. In one case, it provided a vibration generating means, such that at least a portion of the oral care implement vibration, to enhance the functionality of the tooth cleaning elements by capillary action and the delivery of active agent. It may be administered in a wide variety of active agents for the treatment, sanitation, and / or other benefits such as breath freshening, teeth whitening, or generate heat, cold, or tingling feeling.


Dike B. Ojji, MBBS, FWACP, FACP; Samuel O. Ajayi, MBBS, FWACP; Manmak H. Mamven, MBBS, FWACP; Peter Alabi, MBBS, FMCP Background: It is well known that factors like high blood pressure, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, obesity and hyperuricemia tend to cluster together giving rise to what is called metabolic syndrome. In spite of the high prevalence of hypertension in Nigeria, there is a dearth of data describing the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Nigerian hypertensive patients. We therefore set out to look at the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in hypertensive patients presenting to the cardiology clinic of a tertiary institution in Abuja, Nigeria.


Generally, a geographical area consists of many regions called cells in wireless networks. Each mobile host(MH) in a cell communicates with a base station(BS) located in the center of the cell. The BSs are connected to each other by a static wired network. Since users are expected to move around during communication sessions, one of the most important QoS factors is related to the handoff. But, the handoff could fail due to unavailability of sufficient bandwidth in the next cell. As the individual cell size gradually shrinks to accommodate increasing the number of MHs, the probability of successful handoffs can be dropped. In this paper, we suppose a bandwidth reservation method to guarantee MHs against connection failure in case of frequent handoffs. This method predicts the mobility based on the geographical information and assigns the bandwidth reservation in proportion to the speed of MHs' motion. As a result, we can expect more exact moving path of MH and to reduce the waste of bandwidth


The present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of pox infection in goatsinPakistan. Theskinsamples were collected from different locations of Northern,AridandSouthernregions of Punjab. From northern region ,the total number ofsamples collected from slaughter houses, t anneries, goat s and h ide markets were 3438, 5038, 2841 and 4135 respectively. From arid region sthe total samples numbercollected were 1873, 935, 3313 and 1110 respectively. From southern region sthe total samples collected were 2243, 1758, 3745 and 1045 respectively. The prevalenceof capripox viruswas highest in arid region followed by southern region and northern regions. The data wereanalyzedbyage and sexon the basis of clinical manifestation and postmortem lesions found in the infected animal s. Prevalencewasmore in adults as compar ed to the kids. Female goatsweremore sensitive than male goats. The histop athological examination was performed and the characteristic changes were recorded. For goat pox the prevalence between the regions and samples collecting spots was highly significant (P<0.05).


Abstract Recently, sonochemistry has been used for the synthesis of inorganic compounds, such as zinc borates. In this study using zinc sulphate heptahydrate (ZnSO4·7H2O) and boric acid (H3BO3) as starting materials, a zinc borate compound in the form of Zn3B6O12·3.5H2O was synthesized using an ultrasonic probe. Product's characterization was carried out with using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy. Zinc borate compound's chemical bond structure was observed with Raman and FTIR. From the XRD results it was seen that Zn3B6O12·3.5H2O can be quickly synthesized upon heating at 80°C and 85°C (55 min) or 90°C (45 min) in very high yield (>90%). The minimum particle size obtained was ~143 μm from the SEM results. Zinc borate compound was synthesized at a lower temperature in less time than other synthesized zinc metal compound in literature.


Abstract : Biophysical data were collected on human volunteers to study the effects of the motion sickness syndrome. Physiological parameters were analyzed by descriptive statistical methods and by means of a spectrum analyzer. Descriptive statistical analysis showed at least five separate physiological parameters were linearly correlated to a motion sickness symptom index. Spectral analysis showed definite frequency and amplitude shifts during the onset of motion sickness for various parameters. Low frequency brain wave activity on the order of 0.1 Hz was discovered as the subject approached nausea. A multiple linear regression model was constructed from the correlated data obtained by descriptive statistics. Six separate physiological parameters were useful in describing a predictive motion sickness model that can be used as a major construct in developing a complete biofeedback system for countering effects of motion sickness. Keywords: Galvanic Skin Reflex; Surface Skin Temperature; Electrocardiogram; Pallor; Respiration; EGG and EIG; Theses.


Stakeholders in the improved cookstove sector have called for better monitoring tools to quantify the adoption and technical performance of these devices. To meet this need. researchers at Oregon State University developed the Fuel, Usage and Emissions Logger (FUEL). an Integrated logging load cell and temperature sensor that measures household fuel consumption and cookstove usage, This paper outlines the design process of the FUEL system using a mixed-method ethnographic approach that combines qualitative and quantitative data to inform each step in the design process. The ethnographic methods used for field studies in Guatemala, Honduras, and Uganda included participant observation, semi-structured interviews, survevs, and focal follow. Triangulation of these results was used to validate or invalidate design hypotheses. Findings highlight general challenzes faced during the design process of humanitarian technologies, including product adaptability, symbolism of "everyday" objects, and pro-innovation bias. Overall, results contribute towards a framework of ethnographic design research for humanitarian technologies.


A closed loop method and apparatus for controlling the administration of an hypnotic drug to a patient. Electroencephalographic (EEG) signal data is obtained from the patient. At least one measure of the complexity of the EEG signal data is derived from the data. The complexity measure may comprise the entropy of the EEG signal data. The EEG signal data complexity measure is used as the feedback signal in a control loop for an anesthetic delivery unit to control hypnotic drug administration to the patient in a manner that provides the desired hypnotic level in the patient. An EEG signal complexity measure obtained from the cerebral activity of the patient can be advantageously used in conjunction with a measure of patient electromyographic (EMG) activity to improve the response time of hypnotic level determination and of the feedback control of drug administration. A pharmacological transfer function may be used, along with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic models.


Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) is a clinical syndrome characterized by widespread bleeding arising from the pulmonary microvasculature.1 It was first described by Osler in 1904.2 DAH can be a manifestation of either a systemic disease or localized injury to the lung. Most patients present with symptoms of cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and the presence of new alveolar infiltrates. Early bronchoscopy with diagnostic lavage is necessary for diagnosis. Therapy is mainly supportive with a combination of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs.


Radially and azimuthally polarized beams are highly desired for many applications. We proposed to engineer such beams using space-variant inhomogeneous media (SVIM) on subwavelength scale. We conducted optical experiment providing such polarization states with high purity.


Channel fracturing technique changes the concept of proppant fracture conductivity generation by enabling hydrocarbons to flow through open channels instead of the proppant pack. The new technique is based on four main components: proppant pulsing at surface with fracturing equipment and software, a special perforation strategy, fibrous material to deliver stable channels, and a set of models to optimize channels geometry. Channel fracturing in Russia's oil fields began in 2008 as field testing operations in tight collaboration with the development team. Full-suite logs provided geomechanical models and ensured fracture channels optimization. An important result of those first treatments was long-term channels stability. The treated wells continue to show stable productivity over a fouryear period. As of today, more than 90 channel fracturing treatments have been pumped in Russia with no screen-outs. A very low screenout risk has become one of the most important advantages of the technology; the fibers make fluid more stable while the presence of clean pulses around proppant structures ensure bridging-free flow. As the channel's conductivity does not depend on proppant size to hold channels open, treatments can be performed with smaller proppants (20/40 or 16/20 mesh) instead of larger proppants (12/18 mesh) that have an increased risk of screenout. In combination with abrasive jetting perforations, channel fracturing has proven to be an efficient stimulation solution for Russia's multi-layered reservoirs. This completion technique ensures proper flow distribution into perforation clusters according to the channel's specific requirements. It also allows reliable proppant admittance through jetted caverns. Channel fracturing increases the effective half-length with increased treatment size. A considerable number of channel fracturing jobs with proppant mass equal to standard fracturing designs have been performed—significantly increasing channeled length and providing better production in low permeability (1 to 3 mD) oil reservoirs. Based on production analysis of stimulated wells in five different areas, a correlation between incremental channel fracturing productivity over the conventional stimulation technique and kH value of the formation can be made: the higher the kH the more significant the advantage of the channel fracturing is in oil wells. Introduction Hydraulic fracturing in western Siberia is by far most effective method of oil production enhancement. Majority of the Neocomian formations have low permeability (1-3 mD) and high lamination in the fields around Nefteyugansk City. Priobskoe Field, one of the world's largest conventional oil fields is a representative sample for the area. This giant field produces from three formations – AS12, AS11 and AS10, whose properties are shown in the Table 1. Many wells have simultaneous production from several intervals in which massive hydraulic fracturing treatments were placed since 2002 to maximize production. A history of the propped fracturing designs evolution was written by Timonov et al. 2006 and Nikitin et al. 2007. Priobskoe was always a primary target for new stimulation technologies, since it is relatively well-studied; fullsuite logs, core analysis, geomechanics studies and fracture geometry measurements are available for dozens of wells. Another feature of the formations is low water contents. Since this significantly lowers the risk of the fracture growing into a water zone, the optimum fracture design can be modeled without restrictions on the treatment size and proppant concentration. Several iterations in the optimization process were made with various new technologies that deliver longer


A joint review by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and Forfas, based on an international benchmarking exercise, which used consultations with researchers, institutions, enterprise and research and development agencies to uncover current strengths and investment needs of research infrastructure in the higher-education sector in Ireland.


In various countries, the application of Justice Collaborators varies, the application of Justice Collaborators was first recognized in Italy, at that time a member of the Italian mafia Joseph Valachi was tested for crimes committed by his group, then followed by America and Australia legally protection. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, arrangements regarding new Justice Collaborators are regulated in joint regulations with law enforcement officials as well as a circular letter from the Supreme Court. In giving testimony, in general, Justice Collaborators were motivated by a reduced term of detention or from their heart the intention to repent. However, in testimony, sometimes a Justice Collaborator is harassed or hindered by a fellow member who commits a crime, and this is what every country in the world needs to regulate so that the dismantling of a crime case can run optimally. In responding to Corruption cases, countries in the world have responded with various regulations so that they can create a deterrent effect for the perpetrators of these crimes, regarding the Justice Collaborator rules they have included in their country's laws. However, in Indonesia, the rules regarding witnesses, perpetrators and reporters are only regulated in the Supreme Court Circular Number 04 of 2011 and regulations with law enforcement officials and the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK). It is fitting that the rules regarding the protection of reporting witnesses and collaborating witness witnesses be included in the laws of our country, so that the courageous mentality of the witnesses can continue.


Background
 Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. High-dose methotrexate is the cornerstone of treatment for PCNSL, often in combination with other agents. Outcomes are poor with an estimated 5-year overall survival (OS) of 30-40%. Outcomes in AIDS-related PCNSL have been historically inferior to immunocompetent individuals, although recent data suggests some improvement with anti-retroviral therapy. We sought to evaluate clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes of patients with PCNSL at our institution.
 Methods
 A total of 30 patients were diagnosed and treated for PCNSL at Parkland Health and Hospital System (Dallas, TX) between 2010 and 2019. Parkland is a safety net hospital for Dallas County and is affiliated with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Electronic records were reviewed and data on demographics, clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes were extracted. Descriptive statistics and survival data, comparing HIV(-) and HIV(+) patients, are presented.
 Results
 Median age at diagnosis was 51 years (range 24-78). Two thirds of patients were male and 40% (12 patients) were HIV(+). HIV(+) patients were younger compared to HIV(-) with a median age of 40 vs 57 years. Seventy three percent of patients belonged to minority groups (40% Hispanic; 33% Black). First line treatment consisted of chemotherapy in 18 (60%), chemotherapy and radiation in 4 (13%), and radiation alone in 8 (27%) patients; the latter was primarily used in HIV(+) patients (58%; 7/12). The most common chemotherapy regimen was CALGB 50202.HIV(+) patients were also started on anti-retroviral therapy. Fifty percent of the patients had a complete response (CR) to first line therapy. Five patients with a partial response converted to a CR with additional treatment for a final CR rate of 67%. CR rate was higher in HIV(+) patients. Five patients (17%), all HIV(-), experienced progression of disease while on 1st line treatment. Patients with progression of disease on treatment had poor response to salvage therapy and short survival (median OS 49 days). The majority of the patients were not eligible for autologous stem cell transplant (A-SCT) due to financial constraints or comorbid conditions. Only one patient underwent consolidation A-SCT, after achieving a second CR.
 After a median follow up of 51 months, median OS was not reached. Three-year OS was 74% for the entire cohort. HIV(+) patients had a longer 3-yr OS compared to HIV(-) patients (91% vs 61%), this difference was statistically significant (p=0.034).
 Conclusion
 We report the outcome of PCNSL in a minority enriched population treated at a safety net hospital. Compared to prospective clinical trials, HIV(-) patients in our cohort had a lower than expected CR rate, although survival rates were comparable. In addition, we observed higher response rates and better overall survival in HIV(+) patients, including in those who were treated with combination of antiretroviral agents and radiation.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The general direction of my position in this study is that, the on-going Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria`s NorthEast region is negatively affecting the development of tertiary education in the region. The study identified the impact of the insurgency on students` enrollment and academic performances. The study also investigated the impact of the insurgency on academic staff occupational mobility and infrastructural development in four selected tertiary institutions in the North-East region. The University of Maiduguri, Federal Polytechnic Mubi, College of Agriculture Gujba and Mai Idris Alooma Polytechnic Geidam were the four selected tertiary institutions studied in the research. The research used qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry. Reduction in level of students  ̀ enrollment, rising record of poor academic performances, departure of academic staff and destruction of developed facilities and obstruction of infrastructural development were found out to be part of the impact of Boko Haram Insurgency on the development of tertiary education in North-East Nigeria. Improving security within and around tertiary institutions as well as providing lucrative risk allowance package for academic staff of tertiary institutions in the North-East region was part of the policy suggestions made by the study.


Secondary isotope effects on the kinetic basicity of amine ligands in boronate-amine complexes and ammonium salts were first determined by taking advantage of the rate constants of the dissociation of the amine ligands measured by the dynamic NMR method. The basicities of amine ligands are enhanced by the α-deuterations in the both compounds and the isotope effect caused by a deuterium is larger in the boronate complexes than the ammonium salts. These isotope effects are discussed on the basis of the inductive and steric effects.


Objective To investigate the effect of cluster care on the psychological state and quality of life of patients with threatened abortion. Methods 92 patients with threatened abortion were randomly divided into control group and observation group. The control group accepted routine care, the observation group accepted cluster care, the two groups were evaluated by SF-36 health survey,symptom checklist SCL-90 score and evaluation of nursing satisfaction one week later. Results After using cluster care,GH,VT,MH three dimensions in observation group improved significantly in comparison to the control group(P 0.05),GH,VT, SF, RE, MH in the control group after 1 week significantly decreased in comparison to the norm(P0.05). In observation group, the incidence of somatization, depression, anxiety significantly decreased in comparison to the control group(P 0.05), in the control group, the incidence of somatization,depression,anxiety increased significantly(P 0.05) in comparison to Chinese norm. 23 patients in the control group were evaluated as good care,21 cases of general observation group,38 cases were rated as good,9 cases in general,significantly better than the control group(P0.05). Conclusion Cluster care can improve the quality of life of threatened abortion patients,and reduce the incidence of adverse psychological reactions.


Sirs, We have recently shown that some histological and biochemical abnormalities can be observed in fetuses with cystic fibrosis at 19 weeks of gestation (Szabo et al. 1985). More recently we diagnosed a case of fetal cystic fibrosis by low amniotic fluid trehalase enzyme activity and by ultrasound at an even earlier stage of gestation (Papp et al. 1985), and we present here the morphological changes found in the fetus. In a pregnancy at a 1 in 4 risk of cystic fibrosis, ultrasound at the 15th gestational week showed an echo-rich unusual mass in the fetal abdomen. The trehalase enzyme activity in the amniotic fluid sample taken by transabdominal amniocentesis was low (0.443 U/g) (Szabo et al. 1984, 1985). The amniotic fluid was unusually viscous and of greenish colour. Two weeks later the dense echogenic area was more evident by ultrasound. The couple refused a further amniocentesis and requested termination. The abortion was induced using 100 ml of 0.1 % Rivanol solution injected transcervically into the extra-amnia1 area, with an oxytocin drip infusion the following day. The female fetus weighed 170 g and was autopsied two hours after delivery. Dissected samples from various tissues were fixed in 8% formaldehyde-ethanol solution for 48 h, dehydrated in graded alcohols, and embedded in paraffin. The 5 pm sections were stained with Alcian blue-PAS (pH 2.9). The most obvious alterations were found in the intestinal tract. There was intensive goblet cell hyperplasia with strongly alcianophilic mucinous material in the lumen, and the bulging goblet cells seemed to crowd out the intervening columnar epithelium in some places (Fig. l a and lb). Otherwise the small intestinal villous and microvillous architecture seemed to be normal. The large intestine was inspissated with dense meconium closely attached to the mucosa and this caused wide dilatation of the crypts and flattening of the lining epithelial cells (Fig.


Sustainability and Going Green have been the recent buzz words in the solid waste management field. These two words have an ongoing impact on planning (for either a new project or for refurbishment), performance, people, planet Earth and our quality of life. So the challenge for solid waste professionals is to optimize a balance among environment, natural resources and solid waste management technologies. This paper describes such a sustainability and greening effort through a public–private partnership initiative for an integrated solid waste management for our two Broward County, Florida facilities. Water conservation and use of wastewater, experimental use of waste (sludge) from water treatment plants, continuous quality improvement by monitoring, process optimization and design approaches are some of the on-going areas where efficiencies are being realized.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


A panel discussion on the use of proprietary data was held at SIGIR 2012 in Portland. This report summarizes the positions put forward by the six panelists and the points that arose during the wider discussion that followed.


Objective: understand the meanings of women in the experience of planned home birth. Method: qualitative research in the phenomenological approach with the methodological / philosophical support of Martin Heidegger. Nine women who experienced the planned snowball participation at phenomenological meetings took place from September 2016 to March 2017. The project was carried out by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Juiz de Outside under Opinion No. 1.701.030. Results: the meanings were analyzed from the Heideggerian theoretical-methodological perspective. From the testimonies, two meaning units were identified. They meant being wonderful, transformative and one of the greatest experiences of their lives; and have felt safe, welcoming and respected during home birth. It was evident that the assistance provided in the parturition process transcended the technical dimension by valuing and respecting the subjectivity of women, contributing to the good outcome of childbirth. Conclusion: the choice for home birth is related to the humanization and de-medicalization of care. The results point to the need for ontological consideration of women so that childbirth is a positive and human experience


The stability of electronic power systems is essential to the safety and reliability of the system designs. Optimum stability analysis and measurement techniques are being discussed more frequently in the literature. One approach of assessing system stability is the Generalized Nyquist Criterion (GNC), which is based on d-q frame impedances. An impedance measurement unit (IMU) can be used to acquire d-q frame impedances for a three-phase balanced system. A novel d-q frame impedance measurement method, namely the single-phase impedance measurement approach, is applied to a three-phase balanced passive circuit and a voltage source inverter (VSI) separately. In this approach only single-phase data are needed. A comparison of measured results proves the capability of the single-phase impedance measurement method to obtain three-phase d-q frame impedances. In the passive circuit, both measurement methods only demand single-phase perturbation. In the converter circuit, the three-phase impedance measurement method still only needs a single-phase perturbation while the single-phase impedance measurement method requires three separate balanced single-phase perturbations.


Do the author consider that "population decline" = "decrease of the intrinsic growth rate" as suggested in the abstract? I would rather think of population decline as the population size decrease rather than the intrinsic growth rate. I imagine that decreasing the growth rate gives a lower population size but a population decline can come from many other possible mechanisms, for instance fragmentation. →As requested, we clarified the link between population decline and our model. The sentence is now: "We next assume an external disturbance that decreases the partner population by lowering its intrinsic growth rate.". Note that, differentiating the equilibrium population at equilibrium (A* in system of equation (3)) shows that the population decline when the growth rate declines in the case of our model.


Objective: The main objective of our study is to control the vector-borne disease. It is one among the major disease burden in developing countries. There are lots of researches carried out using the various plant extracts against larvicidal activities of the Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti . The present investigation was aimed to investigate the phytochemical analysis and mosquito larvicidal activities of Solanum trilobatum in acetone extract against the second instar larvae of C. quinquefasciatus and A. aegypti. Methods: The leaf extract of S. trilobatum was subjected to phytochemical analysis and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry analysis. The mortality rates of the second instar larvae were recorded after 24, 48, 72, and 96 h of exposure. The lethal concentration (LC) 50 and LC 90 were determined followed by probit analysis. Results: The LC 50 values for were be 265.69 ppm, 227.59 ppm, 212.42 ppm, and 189.47 ppm at various time intervals, and the LC 90 values were 558.27 ppm, 504.92 ppm, 479.09 ppm, and 444.28 ppm. Similarly, LC 50 values for were noticed at 301.09 ppm, 256.01 ppm, ppm, and ppm and the LC 90 values were 582.34 ppm, 477.52 ppm, ppm, and 371.84 ppm for the time interval of 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 96 h. Conclusion: The result of the current work revealed that the leaf extract of the S. trilobatum has the potential to be acted as an alternative for the controlling of the mosquitoes.


In this work, the characteristics of high-current operation modes of planar magnetron sputtering system with magnetically insulated anode without going to the arc discharge mode is investigated. The possibility of using an additional spatially modulated magnetic field in the anode region to prevent a transition from the magnetron to the arc is shown experimentally. It is shown that the use of such a magnetic field configuration provides efficient interruption of the arc current without external forced shutdown of the discharge. PACS: 51.50.+v, 52.25.Jm


Yellow dye was chemically extracted from wood of Berberis vulgaris L. using water and ethanol and its effectiveness as staining agent for angiosperm stem tissues was studied. The dye stained the lignified tissues of both monocotyledonous as well as dicotyledonous stem cross sections. However, the dye extracted in ethanol (10% w/v) was found more effective to stain the lignified tissues of plants.


Ruth McElroy and Caitriona Noonan (2019) give a holistic overview of the production of drama for public service broadcasters (PSB) in their book Producing British Television Drama. The authors present an introduction to the importance of drama for audiences, arguing that we are not in the 'golden age' of television anymore. The book examines four main topics. First, the changes in production of television drama on an executive level of the PSB stations. Second, it assesses the importance of local production and regional representation in a globalized TV market. Furthermore, it looks at the conditions of labour in television production. Finally, it explores the impact of drama productions on tourism of a specific region.


Topology control is the problem of assigning power levels to the nodes of an ad hoc network so as to create a specified network topol- ogy while minimizing the energy consumption of the network nodes. While considerable theo- retical attention has been given to the issue of topology control in wireless ad hoc networks, all of that work has concerned stationary networks. In this paper we carry out a theoretical study of a topology control problem in mobile wireless ad hoc networks (MANETs). For MANETs, we define a topology control problem under the Simple Mobile Network model, where there is one moving node and n stationary nodes. The goal is to minimize the maximum power used by any node in producing a connected network. We provide three polyno- mial algorithms for solving this problem. Sur- prisingly, the fastest algorithm runs as fast as the best known algorithm for stationary networks. I. INTRODUCTION In a mobile wireless ad hoc network (MANET), where nodes move freely and self-organize using communication based on radio propagation with- out pre-existing infrastructure, the network topol- ogy is formed based on the transmission ranges of and the routes followed by the nodes. Each node functions, when necessary, as a relay so as to allow multihop communications. The objective in topology control is to maintain a specified network topology such as connected or biconnected. The desired effect of topology control is to reduce energy consumption and MAC layer interference between adjacent nodes, and to increase the ef- fective network capacity. The primary method of accomplishing topology control is by adjusting the transmission powers of the network nodes. That is, each node is assigned a transmission power level so that the induced graph of the network satisfies the specified prop- erties. Further, the assignment of transmission


the object of this article is the sociological research of the relationship between man and woman, in which is implied the analysis of the socio-cultural and historical occurrences and variables involved in the construct of what has been conventionally called masculine and feminine. Thus, this text will attempt to illuminate some of the issues in the academic debates concerning the relationships between the genders masculine and feminine, and for this purpose the study of their terminological discussions will be taken into account.


Objective To identify the expression of complement regulatory protein CD46, CD55, and CD59 on primary murine pallium astrocytes and the effect of inflammatory factors on it in order to lay the foundation for studying the complement system in AD. Methods The primary murine astrocytes were cultured and purified. The expression of CD46, CD55, and CD59 on the levels of mRNA and protein was assayed by immunofluorescence before and after the stimulation of LPS and IFN-γ. Results The expression of CD59 mRNA was confirmed, but the expression of CD46 and CD55 was indefinite. There was no significant difference between stimulation and non-stimulation groups. Immunofluorescence results indicated that CD59 was positive, while CD46 and CD55 were weakly positive. Conclusion Protectin CD59 expresses copiously on primary murine astrocytes, which presumably protects astrocytes from the lysis of complement.


The universality and simplicity makes USB interface a good choice for data transmission between data acquisition system and embedded system.Therefore,this paper designed a data acquisition system using MAX197 chip for AD conversion and the USB interface chip PDIUSBD12 for data transmission.The paper also introduced the implementation of the firmware program and the embedded driver.Finally,this paper verified the availability of the system through the sine wave signal test,and raised improvement measures against the corresponding problems.The improved overall system is of low power consumption,high reliability and the transmission speed can meet the actual data acquisition tasks.


Body condition is an important determinant of ecological fitness but is difficult to measure in field studies of live animals. Live mass and subcutaneous fat are often used as proxies for body condition and related to fitness. We investigated the relationship between blood-chemistry parameters and live mass and back-fat thickness and assessed their usefulness as predictors of ecological fitness in a wild arctic ungulate population, Svalbard reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus). Female reindeer were sampled in late winter between 1995 and 2002 and concentrations of blood parameters were related to subsequent survival and successful calving. There was marked annual variation in all blood parameters, live mass, and back-fat thickness, reflecting variation in weather and food availability. At the individ - ual level, variation in blood-parameter concentrations was not closely related to variation in live mass or back-fat thick - ness, instead reflecting shorter term nutritional status. Blood parameters could therefore provide useful additional information, enhancing the predictive power of fitness models based on live mass. The urea:creatinine ratio signifi - cantly improved adult survival models, while β-hydroxybutyric acid and creatinine concentrations were significant pre - dictors of calving success. The applications for blood parameters in ecological investigations look promising and should be tested more widely in other field studies. Resume : La condition physique est un important facteur determinant du fitness ecologique, mais elle est difficile a evaluer en nature chez des animaux vivants. La masse vive et la graisse sous-cutanee dorsale servent souvent de mesu- res de remplacement et elles sont alors mises en relation avec le fitness. Nous avons determine la relation entre les pa- rametres chimiques du sang, d'une part, et la masse vive et la graisse sous-cutanee dorsale, d'autre part, et evalue leur utilite comme variables predictives du fitness ecologique chez une population sauvage d'ongules de l'Arctique, les ren- nes de Svalbard (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus ). Des prelevement effectues chez les femelles en fin d'hiver de 1995 a 2002 ont permis de relier les concentrations des parametres sanguins a la survie subsequente et au succes de la mise


The WTO Secretariat plays an important role in supporting the activities of the WTO membership. This extends to dispute settle- ment. This paper addresses the question whether the Secretariat may have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the current crisis in the WTO dispute settlement system as has been suggested by some observers. The role of the WTO Secretariat in WTO dis- putes cannot be underestimated and merits more attention than has been given to it. It would be wrong to blame the Appellate Body crisis on the Secretariat but to ignore its role in the functioning of the WTO dispute settlement system would not be correct either. My focus in this paper is on two related problems that received some attention in WTO reform debates: its role in advising panels and the Appellate Body on legal issues; and its role as ' invisible experts ' on non-legal issues such as the assessment of economic arguments and econometric evidence. In particular in the area of providing economic expert advice, there appears to be a problem of legitimacy and due process as a result of the non-transparent role played by the WTO Secretariat. " This paper discusses the role of the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the context of the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO. The paper criti-cally looks at the Secretariat's role in dispute settlement given the criticism the Secretariat has received, as some have even gone so far as to put part of the blame of the current crisis of the dispute settlement system on the Secretariat. The paper fi rst describes the role of the WTO Secretariat in dispute settlement as envisaged by the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). Thereafter, the paper examines the concerns that have been raised by WTO Members and academics over the role played by the Secretariat when " assisting " panels and the Appellate Body. A third discusses certain relating to the role played when advising and the Body on non-legal


In according with the difference of RD algorithm and CS algorithm' processing flow and calculation method,this paper analyzed processing gain of two algorithms in the environment of shift-frequency jamming,and deduced formulas of the SJR processing gain about two algorithms.The academic analyzing result demonstrates that the restrainable capability of RD algorithm about shift-frequency jamming is stronger than CS algorithm if the sampling rate of distance dimension is equivalent with the band width of the signal.And at the condition of the over sampling rate about azimuth dimension,the SJR processing gain of RD algorithm is larger than CS algorithm because of two dimension matching fliter of RD algorithm.If the over sampling signal is filtered in azimuth dimension,the SJR processing gain of CS algorithm is uniform with the RD algorithm.Finally,the computer simulation testifies the validity and availability of theory analyzing results and conclusion.


Abstract To alleviate the agglomeration and deposition of MoS2 nanofluid, MoS2 nanosheets were modified using self-made surface modifier. The self-made surface modifier was synthesized using triethanolamine (TEA) and stearic-acid (SA). Both total weight and mass ratio of TEA and SA were researched to gain modified MoS2 nanosheets with better dispersion stability. The modified MoS2 nanosheets prepared using surface modifier with optimal mass ratio and total weight were characterized by FT-IR and TEM. An organics solvation layer with a thickness of 15–17 nm was found adsorbed on MoS2 nanosheets, which prevented their agglomeration and improved their dispersion stability. Both four-ball tribotester and Molecular Dynamics simulation method were conducted to learn the effects of surface modification on the tribological properties of modified MoS2 nanofluid. The diffusion rate, interlayer distance, interlayer adsorption energy and shear stress of modified and unmodified MoS2 nanosheets were calculated. Due to interaction between MoS2 nanosheets and surface modifier, the interlayer distance of modified MoS2 nanosheets was increased. And the interlayer adsorption energy and interlayer shear stress were decreased, especially when the normal pressure was applied. The modified MoS2 nanosheets had not only better dispersion stability, but also excellent tribological properties. Graphical Abstract


The bilirubin is bound to glucuronide to form conjugated bilirubin (direct bilirubin). Direct Bilirubin measurement is accomplished by a colorimetric method. Direct Bilirubin in biological fluids reacts with sulfanilic acid at acidic pH to produce a red colored complex. The optical density of produced color has a direct relationship with Direct Bilirubin concentration in the solution.


this paper presents comparative study of various image compression techniques to assess the progress made in the field of image compression effects on different images for different applications. The advancement in the computer vision increases the demand of high data transmission speed as well as need of large storage space. Thus the field of Image compression is now essential for such applications where such high volume data is required to transmit and stored. In this paper, we review about the image compression, need of compression, its principles, and types of compression and different algorithms used for image compression.


Management of the water released from dams, particularly the temperature of this release, will have direct impacts on the ecological health and biodiversity of regulated rivers downstream of the dams. Water released from the hypolimnion of the storage can decrease maximum summer temperatures and diurnal temperature ranges which may adversely affect the aquatic ecology. These impacts can be reduced using multilevel storage offtakes, however, these structures can be costly, and their efficacy needs to be assessed. The NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation (DL WC) has developed a model that can investigate a river system's thermal response to variable inputs. The DLWC's Integrated Quantity Quality Model (IQQM) can be applied to any river system, and operates on a time step of one . slay or less to simulate river system behaviour. IQQM has been implemented to manage water quantity and salinity issues in river systems in NSW and Queensland, and has now been upgraded to simulate daily water temperature. Thermal loading in IQQM is calculated as the sum of heat exchange from river inflows, river outflows, short and long wave radiation, evaporation and surface conduction/convection. Assumptions in the model are that transport processes are significant only in the main flow direction; mixing is complete and instantaneous within each computational reach, and advection can be accounted for using hydrological routing and lagging. This paper reports on how temperature modelling was implemented in IQQM, a process that included a review of other water quality models with temperature capability. Calibration, testing and validation of the model were undertaken using temperature data downstream of Windamere Dam in the Macquarie River System. Information from this study will be used to develop decision support tools for operation of multilevel offtakes and to investigate the effect of storage and stream management policies on the stream thermal regime.


This paper describes the low-power channel-selection switched-capacitor filter for WCDMA applications. The 5/sup th/-order elliptic lowpass filter consists of the operational amplifiers that incorporate the slew-rate enhancement technique in order to achieve low-power performance for a high sampling clock frequency. The filter is fabricated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m 2P4M CMOS technology and power consumption is 21.36 mW for a single supply voltage of 3.0 V.


The concept of farm to consumer direct marketing has been popularly known to create opportunities for farmer-consumer relationship and enhance the sustainability of the local farming business. The objective of the present study was to predict the consumers' willingness to pay for fresh produce in the direct marketing outlets and agritourism activities. An Internet survey relating to direct marketing and agritourism was conducted to understand the characteristics of consumers. A total of 1,134 participants completed the survey from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Based on their responses, an ordered probit model was developed at a low premium (1-5 percent), medium premium (6-10 percent) and high premium (11percent and above) to predict respondents' willingness to pay a premium for produce sold at direct marketing outlets. The estimated results show that consumers' willingness to pay more to help preserve farmland or local business is highly significant. However, we discovered an inverse relationship for the Mid-Atlantic fresh greens shoppers. On average, as the travel distance increases, the likelihood of paying a higher premium decrease based on each additional mile they travel. The results of the ordered probit model will help all relevant stakeholders from the Mid-Atlantic States to promote direct marketing and agritourism industry in the region and enhance their knowledge of the industry. SAARC J. Agri., 15(2): 19-30 (2017)


The following papers were presented at this session of the conference: Upstream Geomembrane Liner for a Dam on Compressible Foundations (Eigenbrod, KD, Irwin, WW and Roggensack, WD); Waterproof Covering for the Upstream Face of the Lago Nero Dam (Monari, F); Geotextiles and Geomembranes for Rockfill Dams: An Application in Saudi Arabia (Dejong, RL); Design of Dam Using Geomembrane-Geotextile Sandwich, Robertson Lake Project, Lower North Shore, Quebec (Akber, SZ, Dascal, O, Rollin, AL and LaFleur, J); Use of Thin PVE-Foils on Embankment and Cofferdams for Power Plants on the Austrian Danube (Grassinger, H); Automated Fabric Dam Aids Water Research Project (Doty, CW, Thayer, WB and Jesseup, RG); Flexible Membrane Lining for Emergency Spillways (Timblin, LO and Grey, PG); The Use of Geomembranes in Foundations on Collapsible Soils (Acevedo, PM and Ortigosa, P); The French Experience on Membranes in Fill Dams (Girard, H, Gourlot, J and Spillemaecker, PM). For the covering abstract of the conference see TRIS 394682. (TRRL)


The coherent control of multi-partite quantum systems presents one of the central prerequisites in state-of-the-art quantum information processing. With the added benefit of inherent high-fidelity detection capability, atomic quantum systems in high-energy internal states, such as metastable noble gas atoms, promote themselves as ideal candidates for advancing quantum science in fundamental aspects and technological applications. Using laser-cooled neon atoms in the metastable 3P2 state of state 1s 22s 22p 53s (LS-coupling notation) (Racah notation: 2 P 3/23s[3/2]2) with five m J -sublevels, experimental methods for the preparation of all Zeeman sublevels |m J ⟩ = |+2⟩, |+1⟩, |0⟩, |−1⟩, |−2⟩ as well as the coherent control of superposition states in the five-level system |+2⟩, …, |−2⟩, in the three-level system |+2⟩, |+1⟩, |0⟩, and in the two-level system |+2⟩, |+1⟩ are presented. The methods are based on optimized radio frequency and laser pulse sequences. The state evolution is described with a simple, semiclassical model. The coherence properties of the prepared states are studied using Ramsey and spin echo measurements.


The author studies the concepts of rationality, egoism and community applied in Co llective Actions Theories and suggests a psychoanalytic reflection on them. He analy zes social insecurity problems and the concept of profit ideal. Finally he exposes a fragment of his doctoral thesis.


The invention discloses a hybrid bumper beams and methods for making and using the same. According to the invention, a method of making a hybrid energy absorbing beam, comprises: forming a polymer member comprising a first portion, wherein the first portion includes a first ledge and a connecting ledge connected by a first portion wall; and a rib extending from the first portion wall, wherein a cross-section of the rib taken along a line, A-A, comprises a first channel formed from an opening between a channel wall and a first traverse wall of a lobe, wherein the lobe comprises the first traverse wall and a second traverse wall with a connecting wall disposed between the first traverse wall and the second traverse wall; wherein the first channel extends along a portion of a length, Lp, of the polymer member; and forming a metal/composite member; and attaching the polymer member to the metal/composite member on an opposite side of the polymer member as the connecting wall.


Seizures are finite episodes of brain dysfunction resulting from abnormal discharge of cerebral neurons. Aim of this study was to investigate the anticonvulsant effect of Apium graveolens.Mice (28) were divided into 4 groups,one and two receivedtwo doses of Apium graveolens (A.g.) for 10 days,at day eleven convulsions were induced by lidocaine,three and four were injected with D.W. (and diazepam (DIZ) respectively 30 minutes before lidocaine.No significant differences were found in convulsion onset between all groups.15 g/kgA.g. not significantly delayed onset of convulsion. Duration of convulsion was high significantly increased (p<0.01) in D.W. group,whereas it was non significantly reduced in 15 g/kgA.g. compared to DIZ,while it was high significantly decreased (p<0.01) in A.g. 15 g/kg compared to 7.5 g/kg.Ataxia didn't occurred in 7.5 g/kgA.g. and D.W. groups. The 15 g/kg A.g. significantly (p<0.05) delayed onset of ataxia in comparison to DIZ.Onset of drowsiness was significantly (p<0.05) delayed in 15 g/kgA.g. compared to D.W.,while it was non significantly delayed in15 g/kgA.g. compared to 7.5 g/kgand DIZ groups.In conclusionA.g. has anticonvulsant activity.


THE EARLY 1970'S MAY BE REGARDED SOME DAY by educational historians as the point when declining enrolments in the field of modem languages finally persuaded FL teachers that there was something basically wrong with their programs. It is significant that the current literature is beginning to offer some reasons for this decline as well as some intriguing solutions. While Reinert' has suggested that the usual reasons which we have offered our students for learning a modem language no longer seem relevant to them, Wilga Rivers2 has pointed the finger at the audio-lingual approach as being responsible for part of our problem, and Shuman3 has proposed the radical step of removing modem languages from high school entirely, housing them in some central institution. The fact is that our programs are no longer bringing in the clients whom we need if we are to stay in business.


Flexible pavement roads in Ethiopia often deteriorate in different ways, because of the harsh climatic conditions, lack of proper design and quality control, sudden increasing of traffic due to the construction of different industries, high loads and inadequate assessment for identifying causes of deteriorate before carrying out Maintenance and Rehabilitation. A possible remedial measures had been organized for every observed failure or deterioration to obtain normal pavement condition of the study area. An investigation was made by using laboratory and field test to determine the adequacy of the underlain material to serve as a subgrade, sub base course and base course for road construction based on project specifications and Ethiopian Road Authority (ERA) Specification. The investigation covered field tests to determine the in-situ condition of the road materials while laboratory tests on representative samples were extracted from site to determine the engineering properties of soil materials and to compare test results with the existing conditions of pavement layers. From the field tests and laboratory tests carried out, it is observed that the causes of flexible pavement deterioration of this road section are mainly due to the inadequacy of existing thickness of the base layer for the current traffic loading, overloading, engineering properties of the pavement layers material, poor method of construction, poor design quality and lack of side drainage. To reduce these causes, use boulder rocks at subbase course, reconstruction the base and providing proper drainage for the deteriorated sections must be required to reduce more damage of the flexible pavement the road section. Raveling, pumping, potholes, edge cracking and rutting are the most dominant type of deteriorations constituting more than 27% of the deterioration densities along Bako-Gedo road section.


To weld the core support of 600 MW reactor pressure vessel(RPV-600)is quite a few difficult because of the following factors, different materials, the bad weldability, the deep groove. Based on some tests and discussions, a series of full-side parameters of welding procedure were provided to make the products to be up to the technical requirements. The paper emphasized the ressearch of the weldability of Ni-base alloy, the grinding and other auxiliary process measures.


Abstract Objectives: Increasing body of experimental and clinical data indicates that early brain injury after initial bleeding largely contributes to unfavorable outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). This review presents molecular mechanisms underlying brain injury at its early stages after SAH. Methods: PubMed was searched using term 'subarachnoid hemorrhage' and key words referring to molecular and cellular pathomechanisms of SAH-induced early brain injury. Results: The authors reviewed intracranial phenomena and molecular agents that contribute to the early development of pathological sequelae of SAH in cerebral and vascular tissues, including cerebral ischemia and its interactions with injurious blood components, blood–brain barrier disruption, brain edema and apoptosis. Discussion: It is believed that detailed knowledge of molecular signaling pathways after SAH will serve to improve therapeutic interventions. The most promising approach is the protection of neurovascular unit including anti-apoptosis therapy.


The oxidation of trimethylphenol by 30% hydrogen peroxide with one component catalyst of heteropoly acids is studied in acetic acid water solution at different reaction conditions. The results show that at the optimum reaction condition, the yield of trimethylbenzoquinone is up to 90% that is much higher than the literature value of 78%.


The work presented here was carried out within the FABRIC project 1 , which aimed at the integration of middleware standards used in home networks to provide high quality streaming over heterogeneous network s. In this paper we propose an adaptive QoS framework for efficient resource management, called the Matrix approach. The Matrix is a concept to abstract from having detailed technical data at the middleware interface. In stead of having technical data referring to QoS parameters like: bandwidth, latency and delay we only have discrete portions that refer to levels of quality. The underlying middleware must interpret these values and map them on technical relevant QoS parameters.


Ubiquitous computing, a new type of network environment has been generating much interest recently and has been actively studied. In ubiquitous computing, the sensor network which consists of low electric power ad-hoc network-based sensors and sensor nodes, is particularly the most important factor The sensor network serves as the mediator between ubiquitous computing and the actual environment. Related studies are focused on network . management through lightweight hardware using RFID. However, to apply these to actual environment, more practical scenarios as well as more secured studies equipped with secures and efficiency features are needed. Therefore, this study aims to build a wireless network based on PTD for multi users, which provides the largest utility in individual networks, and propose an appropriate management method. The proposed method is designed to enhance security and efficiency related to various services required in wireless networks, based on the reliable peripheral devices for users or pm. using pm, which has been applied to electronic commerce transactions in existing papers, this study also proposed an appropriate management method that is suitable for a dynamic environment and setting a temporary group to provide various services.


Space-time codes are an effective and practical way to exploit the benefits of spatial diversity in multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems. As the name suggests, the coding of space-time codes is performed in both the spatial and the temporal domains, introducing correlation between signals transmitted by different antennas at different time instants. At the receiver, this space-time correlation is exploited to mitigate the detrimental effects of fading and to improve the quality of received signal. The use of space-time codes allows the system to profit from transmit diversity without any power increment and with no channel knowledge at the transmitter. Among the existing space-time coding schemes, orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs) (Alamouti, 1998; Duman & Ghrayeb, 2007; Larsson & Stoica, 2003; Tarokh et al., 1999) are of particular interest because they achieve full diversity at low receiver complexity. More specifically, the maximum likelihood (ML) receiver for OSTBCs consists of a linear receiver followed by a symbol-by-symbol decoder. In order to correctly decode the received signals, the ML receiver for OSTBCs must have perfect channel knowledge. Unfortunately, this channel information is not normally available to the receivers; therefore channel estimation techniques are essential for the system to work properly. When the channel is static, methods such as those presented in (Vucetic & Yuan, 2003) and (Larsson et al., 2003) can be successfully used. However, the channel may be time-varying due to the mobility of the transmitter and/or receiver, to changes in the environment, or to carrier frequency mismatch between transmitter and receiver. In these cases, the estimation algorithm must be able to track the channel variations. One of the most widely known approaches to channel tracking is Kalman filtering (Enescu et al., 2007; Kailath et al., 2000; Komninakis et al., 2002; Piechocki et al., 2003; Simon, 2006). An important characteristic of the Kalman filter (KF) is its inherent ability to deal with nonstationary environments. In (Komninakis et al., 2002) for instance, a Kalman filter that uses the outputs of a minimum mean squared error (MMSE) decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) is developed to track Rice MIMO frequency-selective channels. Channel estimation using Kalman filters for MIMO-OFDM systems is studied in (Enescu et al., 2007; Piechocki et al., 2003). The use of Kalman filters to estimate channels in space-time block coded MIMO systems is also developed in the literature. In (Liu et al., 2002), a KF is used to estimate fast flat fading MIMO channels in Alamouti-based schemes. Therefore, it is limited to the case of two transmit 13


Following extensive development effort, approximately a dozen adaptive optics facilities are now available for research in astronomy, and a similar number is nearing competition or in advanced planning. The scientific productivity, measured by research papers, is rapidly increasing. From a survey of published research and a review of research provisionally discuss the contribution of natural guide star adaptive optics to astronomy. The most active research topics for adaptive optics astronomy have been in solar system studies and in the observation of young stars and star forming regions. The benefit of adaptive optics most prominently exercised in these observations has been high resolution imagery, and the most common area of concern is the point spread function. The scientific success supports the position that adaptive optics will son be required for large telescopes to remain competitive in certain research areas. At the same time, most areas of astronomy research remain untouched by adaptive optics techniques.


High power optically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers with front and end pump are reported. The gain chip consists of 15 repeats of In0.26GaAs/GaAsP0.02 multiple quantum wells and 30 pairs of Al0.2GaAs/Al0.98GaAs distributed Bragg reflectors. The maximum output power of 3 W, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 22.4%, and slope efficiency of 29.8% are obtained with 5-°C heatsink temperature under the front pump, while the maximum output power of 1.1 W, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 23.2%, and slope efficiency of 30.8% are reached with 5-°C heatsink temperature under the end pump. Influences of thermal effects on the output power of the laser with front and end pump are discussed.


Context. HH 223 is a knotty, undulating nebular emission of ∼30 �� length found in the L723 star-forming region. It lies projected onto the largest blueshifted lobe of the quadrupolar CO outflow powered by a low-mass YSO system embedded in the core of L723. Aims. We analysed the physical conditions and kinematics along HH 223 with the aim of disentangling whether the emission arises from shock-excited, supersonic gas characteristic of a stellar jet, or is only tracing the wall cavity excavated by the CO outflow. Methods. We performed long-slit optical spectroscopy along HH 223, crossing all the bright knots (A to E) and part of the lowbrightness emission nebula (F filament). One spectrum of each knot, suitable to characterize the nature of its emission, was obtained. The physical conditions and the radial velocity of the HH 223 emission along the slits were also sampled at smaller scale (0. �� 6) than the knot sizes. Results. The spectra of all the HH 223 knots appear like those of intermediate/high excitation Herbig-Haro objects. The emission is supersonic, with blueshifted peak velocities ranging from −60 to −130 km s −1 . Reliable variations in the kinematics and physical conditions at smaller scales that the knot sizes are also found. Conclusions. The properties of the HH 223 emission derived from the spectroscopy confirm the HH nature of the object; the supersonic optical outflow most probably is also being powered by the YSOs embedded in the L723 core.


Ultimately, medicine is a moral enterprise. In mainstream medical ethics courses, doctors learn to consider clinical practice in light of the four principles respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence , and justice . This ''principlistic'' approach [1] was developed to ensure the welfare and will of vulnerable patients in the context of curative medical care. It is first and foremost a tool for analysing ethical questions in the clinical encounter. The principlistic paradigm is not meant as a tool for remote planning, goal setting, prioritizing, and overall coordination of medical care. Things have changed since the four principles were launched around 1979. A ''risk epidemic'' has occurred in biomedical research and publishing [2]. Clinical practice has become characterized by a strong emphasis on prevention of future disease among currently asymptomatic people. As opposed to well-established, comprehensive community-oriented preventive programmes involving, for example, sanitation and immunizations, individually oriented preventive medicine is characterized by fragmentation, biological monitoring, and technological interventions for which there is often limited evidence of effectiveness [3,4]. There has been little debate about ''downstream'' effects of this development, in terms of consequences for the individual, the healthcare system, and society at large. ''The first decision to make when developing a public-health strategy must be to decide the philosophical basis on which it is to stand.'' This statement appears in a Lancet commentary [5] to the White paper Choosing health: making healthy choices easier , issued by the Department of Health for England in 2004. The commentators perceive that the White paper fails to resolve philosophical tensions that have prevented the genesis of a coherent public-health strategy. ''What is the balance that should be struck between state intervention and individual freedom? Choosing health cannot make up its mind'' [5]. The commentary also asks for an analysis of ''the tension between the desire to allow people to decide their own actions, and the need to recognize the power of circumstance on people's lives''. We welcome this call for an explicit and coherent philosophical foundation for the planning of public health programmes [6]. However, in relation to individually oriented preventive medicine, an even more comprehensive philosophical analysis is warranted. The classical ethical principles are challenged by the nature of the preventive medical paradigm [7,8]. Preventive medicine actively approches people who do not feel diseased and are not necessarily asking for help, and the basis for autonomy may thereby be threatened. Furthermore, it applies measures that are derived from groupbased knowledge and may have limited validity for the particular individual. This obscures the issues of benefit and harm. Finally, it focuses on highly selected biological variables that are often mediators rather than the true causes of ill health and health inequalities. This may challenge the principle of justice. Let us consider some thought-provoking facts that relate to individually oriented intervention, with an emphasis on the area of cardiovascular disease prevention. The three scenarios listed below reflect clinical recommendations that represent optimal medical care, according to authoritative experts and societies:


1. What is basic equality? 2. Why we are moral equals 3. Basic equality: neither acceptable nor rejectable 4. Rationality, equal status, and egalitarianism 5. The irrelevance of the concept of worth to the debate between egalitarianism and non-egalitarianism 6. Equality, universality, and impartiality-how they work and why they matter 7. On the (re)construction and basic concepts of the morality of equal respect 8. Against equal respect and concern, equal rights, and egalitarian impartiality 9. Do liberal egalitarians really believe in equality given their commitment to equality of opportunity?


AIM To establish the quality evaluation for Fuzheng Huayu drug delivery system(Savia miltiorrhiza Radix et Rhizoma,Cordyceps Mycelium,Gynostemmatis pentaphylli Herba,Schisandrae chinensis Fructus,Pini Pollen).METHODS HPLC method was used for determining the contents of salvianolic acid b and protocatechuic aldehyde of Savia miltiorrhiza Radix et Rhizoma.UV spectrophotometric method was used for determining total saponin and polysaccharides of Gynostemmatis pentaphylli Herba,and total polysaccharides of Cordyceps.RESULTS Average ginsenoside Rb1 content in three batches of Fuzheng Huayu drug delivery system was 0.148 mg/g.The average recovery was 101.7% and the RSD was 2.67%.Average glucose content was 73.24 mg/g.The average recovery was 96.45% and the RSD was 1.05%.Average salvianolic acid B content was 52.98 mg/g.The average recovery was 101.59% and the RSD was 1.87%.Average protocatechuic aldehyde content was 1.05 mg/g.The average recovery was 100.87% and the RSD was 2.40%.CONCLUSION The method is high sensitive,accurate,reproducible and stable.It can be used for the quality control of FuzhengHuayu drug delivery system.


Be present mangrove forest pressured by human needs, then mangrove forest be decrease. The mangrove forest have much function, it is enduring abrasive, as habitat of sea, etc. The research method use to descriptive method. Colecting data be conducted with observation, interview, and documentation tecnique. The research result show that Probolinggo City have mangrove forest 74.68 Ha, covered: 6.13 Ha at Ketapang Village, 19.34 Ha at Mangunharjo Village, 12.30 at Mayangan Village, 20.09 at Pilang Village, and 16.82 at Sukabumi Village. The mangrove village at Probolinggo have been degradation (42%). However, the mangrove forest at Probolinggo have potention for ecotourism, and supported by another facilities and natural potention at enviromental of Probolinggo City. Keywords : mangrove forest, ecotourism


A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA NIGERIA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, FACULTY OF SCIENCE AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA NIGERIA


Surface materials in spacecraft are exposed to complex environment. Various effects i.e., contamination, ageing and erosion are at play and synergy induces severe degradation of performance. The THERME experiment investigates these mechanisms in EEO orbit on a large set of samples.


Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2017 Page 32 Abstract The main objective of this paper is to study the performance of the various combinations of electrodes for soil and cow dung slurry substrates which plays an important role in the Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) for the generation of electricity. The present work is an experimentalstudy concerned with selection of the electrodes for the best performance of an MFC. The various combinations of anode/cathode materials like copper, zinc, aluminium, for MFCs has been systematically studied along with different substrate like cow dung, soil, and out of which Al/Al and Cu/Zngave higher voltage output.


The extracellular matrix plays a critical role in mechanosensing and thereby influences the secretory properties of bone‐marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs). As a result, interest has grown in the development of biomaterials with tunable properties for the expansion and delivery of MSCs that are used in cell‐based therapies. Herein, stress‐relaxing hydrogels are synthesized as hybrid networks containing both biopolymer and synthetic macromer components. Hyaluronic acid is functionalized with either aldehyde or hydrazide groups to form covalent adaptable hydrazone networks, which are stabilized by poly(ethylene glycol) functionalized with bicyclononyne and heterobifunctional small molecule crosslinkers containing azide and benzaldehyde moieties. Tuning the composition of these gels allows for controlled variation in the characteristic timescale for stress relaxation and the amount of stress relaxed. Over this compositional space, MSCs are observed to spread in formulations with higher degrees of adaptability, with aspect ratios of 1.60 ± 0.18, and YAP nuclear:cytoplasm ratios of 6.5 ± 1.3. Finally, a maximum MSC pericellular protein thickness of 1.45 ± 0.38 µm occurred in highly stress‐relaxing gels, compared to 1.05 ± 0.25 µm in non‐adaptable controls. Collectively, this study contributes a new understanding of the role of compositionally defined stress relaxation on MSCs mechanosensing and secretion.


A spatial analysis of decision-making by unanimity rule shows that outcomes largely depend on the initial state or the status quo. The closer the status quo is to the ideal points of the actors, the more restricted, more biased and likely less socially efficient the set of decisions by unanimity tends to be. Calculations show that any point inside the Pareto-optimum set of alternatives bounded by the actors' ideal points only can be reached from a status quo placed outside an area which is at least eight times larger than the area of the Pareto-optimum set. The social-utility optimum point which minimizes the sum of the squared distances from the actors' ideal points only can be reached from a status quo placed outside an area which is at least three times larger than the Pareto-optimum set. From very unsatisfactory initial states, very satisfactory and stable outcomes are feasible; from more satisfactory initial states, mediocrity tends to endure.


Metal forming is a pivotal teaching subject owing to its extensive use in automotive, aviation, energy, military, and other metal industries. An effective educational method for studying key principles in metal forming theory is hands-on learning rather than traditional classroom teaching. At Ben-Gurion University, a unique laboratory was established to promote the teaching of a metal forming curriculum. In this laboratory, metal forming processes were illustrated and practiced using Plasticine as a metal substance formed by "3D printed", additive manufactured (AM) nylon tools. Vaseline was the prime lubricant used to demonstrate the influence of friction on metalwork. Metal forming operation forces were directly measured using a weight scale. The strain distribution of different forming processes was evaluated by measuring the change in the thickness of colored Plasticine layers across the workpiece in comparison to numerical simulation results. Students discovered correlations between the calculated forces according to classic empirical equations and the actual measurements that evidenced the influence of friction. It was found that students who participated in "metal" forming in the laboratory using Plasticine not only had a more comprehensive understanding of metal forming processes, but they also had more confidence in the theory as it was learned in class. Figure 1: Mechanical properties of Plasticine [11].


Using the Science and Technology Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh as a case example, this paper discusses three key ideas: Patron needs arising within the technology transfer process; Information resources that facilitate that process; and Services provided to bring patrons into contact with the information they need. The discussion focuses on the types of materials and services most useful to The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and its users in facilitating technology transfer


Melaka's rice industry exhibited a slightly poor performance between 1988 and 2019. The paddy parcel area has decreased from 10,418 ha to 1,837 ha in 32 years. Between 1988 and 2015, the crop intensity factor (CIF) was below 50%. Thus, this research will examine the trend of paddy yield and rice productivity in Melaka from 1988 to 2019 and estimated yield and rice output for 2020 to 2030. This study applies production theory. Data were analyzed using multiple regression with OLS estimation. The findings showed that Melaka paddy production reduced during 1998-1999, 2004-2005 and 2008-2009 due to Asian crisis and global financial crisis. The forecasting study used a 95% confidence range for the average growing rate. Even though paddy output increased by 24.6 percent, the amount forecasted for high paddy yield and rice production in 2030 is unachievable due to high agricultural land needed. Nevertheless, the nuclear paddy is expected to produce more paddy and rice in 2030 than present varieties. Thus, the government should support the development of nuclear paddy varieties, as well as expand paddy parcel area in Melaka. This will assist Malaysia achieve its food security goal of 75% rice self-sufficiency level in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan 2021-2025.


Knowledge of molecular structures of emerging charge acceptors, such as hexaaza-triphenylene-hexacarbonitrile (HATCN), on metal surfaces is essential for their optoelectronic device applications. Here, we studied the two-dimensional molecular ordering of HATCN at submonolayer coverages on Au(111) using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Linear and hexagonal porous structures were observed at atomic steps and terraces, respectively, and our density functional theory calculations revealed that the structures were stabilized with CN···CN dipolar interactions. The hexagonal porous structures possess chirality, and they form only small (<1000 nm2) phase-separated chiral domains that easily change their structures in subsequent STM images at 80 K, which explains the no electron diffraction pattern reported previously.


Although vegetable oils provide good lubricity, they still need optimization by certain additive technology for practical applications. ZDTP improve antiwear properties of vegetable oils. However the additive performance depends on quality of the base oil. Antioxidants were applied to prevent the auto-oxidation of vegetable oils. Good synergistic effect of anti-wear and anti-oxidant additives was confirmed.


Piagetian theory is suggested as a possible epistemological model for creating an interaction between the sciences and theology. Piaget's (1974) developmental paradigm is discussed with particular emphasis upon preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations and their relation to reality formation and integration. Integrative and nonintegrative approaches to theology and science are traced throughout history and analogously to Piagetian thought. Kuhn's (1970) theory of scientific paradigm shifts is summarized and theology/science communication is discussed. It is concluded that science and theology are facets of a complementary continuum of epistemological systems.


Due to flexible deployment, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mounted aerial access points are capable of expanding the coverage capabilities of existing terrestrial base stations (TBSs). Different from TBSs, however, UAV access points (UAPs) are of high mobility in horizontal and vertical dimensions, which may deteriorate the coverage performance. Worsestill, the mobility of UAPs would as well increase the pressure of wireless backhaul. In this light, we investigate the performance of the cache-enabled UAV communications network (CUCN) in terms of network spatial throughput (ST) by analyzing the line of sight (LoS) connections and non-line of sight (NLoS) connections. It is found that the network ST is exponentially decreased with the square of UAP altitude. Furthermore, contrary to intuition, a large cache size may deteriorate the network ST when UAPs are over-deployed. The reason is that a large cache size increases the hit probability, which may increase the activation of UAPs and consequently result in complicated interference. Aiming to maximize the network ST, we optimize the cache strategy under limited backhaul. Remarkably, the results show that network ST could be substantially improved by the optimized cache strategy and the performance degeneration brought by UAP high mobility could be even eliminated especially when the UAP altitude is high.


Burmese amber continues to provide a plethora of unexpected fossils, with its extraordinarily rich and speciose mid-Cretaceous fauna of Arthropoda and particularly of Hymenoptera (Ross, 2015; Rasnitsyn et al., 2017; Li et al., 2018; Rasnitsyn and Öhm-Kühnle, 2018a, b; Zhang et al., 2018a–d). Among these specimens, there are abundant, minute and specialized wasps of the superfamily Serphitoidea, the wasp described in the present paper, in which characters of both Serphitidae and Archaeoserphitidae appear.


A 52-year-old woman presented with erythema, papules, pain, and itching on the buttocks and trunk that had persisted for 1 week. Twenty-two days before admission, the patient received three intramuscular injections of vitamin K1 in the gluteal muscles. Two weeks after the last intramuscular injection edematous hard erythema developed bilaterally on the gluteal muscles, accompanied by itching, pain, and a burning sensation. Afterward, the erythema and papules gradually spread to the trunk, with notable itching. Dermatological examination revealed a large area of well-defined edematous hard erythema, and blisters around the injection sites on both hips. The skin temperature was high, with mild tenderness. Dense distributions of edematous erythema and papules were observed on the trunk, some of which were fused into pieces. The patient received a diagnosis of a skin reaction induced by intramuscular injections of vitamin K1. Therefore, she was administered glycyrrhizin, calcium, vitamin C, antihistamines, topical polysulfonic mucopolysaccharide cream, and glucocorticoid cream, and the lesions subsided after 2 weeks.


The identification of Lame parameters in linear elasticity is considered. An optimum experimental design problem is formulated, which aims at minimizing the size of an associated confidence ellipsoid by optimizing the shape of the specimen. Representations of the Eulerian shape derivative and the shape gradient are derived by means of shape calculus and adjoint techniques. Numerical experiments are conducted, yielding specimens of improved shape.


Apparatus for picking olives and the like, comprising: a support rod adapted (2) to be gripped; shaker unit (3), comprising a support rod adapted to be mounted (2) on top of the storage box (7); at least one comb sector (6, 60), forming a plurality of teeth (10), and the storage box (7) carried by the movable support structure (9, 99); a motor means for substantially swinging motion actuator the movable comb sector (6, 60). A support structure (9, 99) is rotatably constrained sleeve (12,120,121), the sleeve (12,120,121) is hinged to the storage tank (7) at the transverse axis (13), to produce a support structure (9, 99) about a transverse axis (13) of the first rocking motion. Teeth (10) support structure (9, 99) through pivot engagement element (18) is constrained to the storage tank (7) in a portion remote from the sleeve (12,120,121), thereby producing a support structure ( 9,99) about its longitudinal axis, the second swing motion.


By using the ICP-AES,the content of 16 kinds of inorganic nutritive elements were mensurated for the soils of 133 tea gardens in 25 counties or sections in the north of Sichuan Province,the characters of the background value of nutritive elements were emphasized.The result showed that the contents of S,P,K,Ca and Ti were all inadequate evidently.Sb and Se were enrichment relatively,the coefficients of enrichment were 9.47 and 5.38 respectively.The content of other elements such as Al,Mg,Mn were corresponded to the background of soil in China.The background value of nutritive elements changed in the different soils.Sb and Zn were significant differently for the different soils.The content of S and Sb were high in the gritstone soil,K,Mg,Ca,Se,Ti were high in the acidic purple soil,the Al and Mo were high in the yellow soil,and the P,Mn,V,B,Zn,Co and N were high in the brown soil,respectively.


During more than forty years of conflict, Colombian intellectuals and politicians have debated around the conflict, its characteristics and implications. However only few people have talked about a peace agreement, the tasks of peace implementation and its costs. For this reason, this research intends to deepen on the peace possibilities and the costs of the main agreements that the government and the major guerrilla movement of the country: the FARC could made. The first step to estimate the cost of the peace is determining the kind of peace that could be possible to get in Colombia. According with the World Bank definition, this peace could minimalist, maximalist or intermediate. The minimalist approach says that peace agreements only must take into account the tasks related with reincorporation of the excombatans and cease fire. The maximalist approach argues that the peace must include the solutions of the structural causes of the conflict. It implies economic, political and social reforms and it will be a long term process. The intermediate option takes into account only a couple of the basic causes of the conflict and its structural solutions and the reincorporation process of the excombatans.


This study examined educators' preferences for learning technology integration skills in order to provide the education community with justifiable data concerning the need for educator training alternatives. A survey was distributed to compare preservice educators, inservice educators, and professional development personnel's perceived effectiveness of eight training methods (N=759). The four research questions examined were: Do differences exist among preservice educators, inservice educators, and professional development personnel in the perceived effectiveness of different methods for learning technology integration skills? (2) Do differences exist among preservice educators, inservice educators, and professional development personnel in the perceived effectiveness of different methods for learning technology integration skills when categorized by age? (3) Do differences exist among preservice educators, inservice educators, and professional development personnel in the perceived effectiveness of different methods for learning technology integration skills when categorized by total hours of instruction? (4) Do differences exist among preservice educators, inservice educators, and professional development personnel in the perceived effectiveness of different methods for learning technology integration skills when categorized by locus of control? All groups were measured for similarities and differences in preferences on credit classes, workshops, open computer labs, technology personnel support, peer support, online help, printed documentation, and trial and error. In addition, those training preferences were cross-referenced with age, training hours, and the locus of control personality factor. MANOVAs and post-hoc analyses were performed for each major research question as well as trends in the data were examined. This study indicated that the most effective training methods were technical support, peer support, and credit courses. The least effective training methods were online help, printed documentation, workshops, and computer labs. Age, amount of training hours, and locus of control score did not provide as much information as did educator type when predicting training preference. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that educator training programs be revamped to include the methods that the educators themselves have affirmed as effective for learning technology integration skills. This assures that teachers are prepared to integrate technology into the curriculum and students are prepared for a technological society.


Once upon a time, there were diseases for which patients had to die without cure and to be treated only to relieve or retard symptoms, such as diabetes, myocardial infarction, postsurgical bronchopleural fistulas, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.


With the popularization of embedded devices, security issues continue to occur. The existing automated security testing methods for embedded devices are mainly carried out from two aspects: the Web interface of the device or the firmware binary file. This paper proposes a testing framework ZeroWFuzzer that combines the Web interface of embedded devices with firmware binary, which automatically generates test cases through the Web interface, and uses binary instrumentation to guide the fuzzing test. Experiments in embedded devices have found that ZeroWFuzzer has higher efficiency and quantity of triggering vulnerabilities than the protocol fuzzing tool Boofuzz and the Web security testing tool Xray.


Fig. 1: Parallel-connected elements; 1-early-wood The authors' innovative proposal consists of keeping the wood specimen intact and to evaluate the individual elastic properties of early and late rings under these conditions. Softwood specimens (pine-wood) with dimensions of 20 mm x 20 mm x 50 mm (R*T*L) were tested under compression. These specimens contain several annual rings. The elastic properties of the specimen are determined by the elastic properties of the different rings. In a softwood specimen having a tangential-radial (T-R) cross-section, the early-, and late annual rings (the corresponding early, and late-wood segment/region, respectively) are parallel-connected (Figure 1). When the cross-section of the specimen is longitudinal-tangential (L-T), the adequate regions are serial-connected. Starting from this fact, it became useful to establish their individual elastic properties for a more accurate and easier finite element modeling. In [1; 3] the authors presented the analytical calculus and experimental approach of the Young moduli.


The effect of microscopic Mn cluster distribution on the Curie temperature (TC) of (Ga,Mn)N is studied using density-functional calculations together with the mean field approximation. We find that the calculated TC depends crucially on the microscopic cluster distribution, which can explain the abnormally large variations in experimental TC values from a few K to well above room temperature. The partially dimerized Mn2-Mn1 distribution is found to give the highest TC>500K, and in general, the presence of the Mn2 dimer has a tendency to enhance TC. The lowest TC values close to zero are obtained for the Mn4-Mn1 and Mn4-Mn3 distributions.


The present study deals with UV spectrophotometric method development and Validation for estimation of Tizanidine and Aceclofenac in bulk drug and tablet dosage form by absorption correction by interference method. The method is based on by using two wavelengths, 274 nm for aceclofenac and 318 nm for Tizanidine. The Linearity of Tizanidine and Aceclofenac was found to be in the range 0f 2–10 μg/ml and 5–25 μg/ml respectively. The % recovery of Tizanidine and Aceclofenac was found out to be 98–102% respectively. The proposed method was validated as per ICH guidelines.


ISSN:2157-2526 JBTBD, an open access journal J Bioterr Biodef Bioterrorism: Disaster preparedness education and public health In 2009, I participated in the Joint Urban Warrior exercise sponsored by the Marine Corps War fighting Laboratory and the Joint Forces Command-Joint Irregular Warfare Center, focusing on the problem of integrating military and civilian efforts in stability operations. In my analytical cell, the question arose as to where the necessary expertise could be found in civilian agencies, and in our discussions, it quickly became apparent that, for the most part, the applied skills were found not in federal civilian agencies, but in state and local government agencies. Besides representing a lesson lost within the military Civil Affairs community (in the Second World War Civil Affairs and Military Government soldiers were largely recruited from academia and sub-national government officials), but also an important cue that even in national security areas, the federal government may not always know best. A state extension officer, for example, may well know more about practical aspects of crop production than a federal USDA expert in agricultural price supports. In areas like biodefense or emergency preparedness, intricately entwined with public health, local officials are also likely to be the key players in effective incident response.


Planning retrofit actions on bridge networks under tight budget constraints is a challenging process. Because of the uncertainties associated with this process, a probabilistic approach is necessary. In this paper, a probabilistic methodology to establish optimum pre-earthquake retrofit plans for bridge networks based on sustainability is developed. A multicriteria optimization problem is formulated to find the optimum timing of retrofit actions for bridges within a network. The sustainability of a bridge network and the total cost of retrofit actions are considered as conflicting criteria. The sustainability is quantified in terms of the expected economic losses. The uncertainties associated with seismic hazard and structural vulnerability are considered. The methodology is illustrated on an existing bridge network. Genetic algorithms are used to solve the multicriteria optimization problem. The effects of deterioration on bridge seismic performance are considered. The effects of the time horizon on the Pareto optimal solutions are also investigated.