Semiconducting materials, crystalline or amorphous, feature a diverse family of emergent transient properties (excitons, free carriers, plasmons, polarons, etc.) of interest to energy science, which are observed (indirectly or directly) in carefully designed experiments. Theoretical methods, which provide detailed and accurate information about the excitations of small molecules, have trouble with large systems because of computational limitations, such that a thorough selection of algorithms plays a crucial role. With a wide range of research opportunities in mind, in this Perspective we consider, from a first-principles perspective, the techniques available to calculate optical and electronic properties of materials and discuss (i) challenges in density-functional and wave function methods for materials and energy science, (ii) a method developed by us for describing excited-state phenomena (which consists of the linear response analysis of perturbed initial states), and (iii) opportunities for using ma...


For obtaining optimal cross-sectional dimensions of rods for a 3-RRR planar parallel manipulator (PPM) to minimize energy consumption, the inverse dynamics of the manipulator is modeled based on the Newton–Euler method, after which the coefficient matrix of the inverse dynamics equation is decomposed based on matrix theory. Hence, the objective function, that is, the logical relationship between the energy consumption of the manipulator and the cross-sectional dimension of each rod, is established. However, in solving the multidimensional constrained single-object optimization problem, there are difficulties such as the penalty function's sensitivity to the penalty factors if the problem is transformed into the one of unconstrained multiobjective optimization. Therefore, to properly handle the constraints, an improved butterfly optimization algorithm (IBOA) is presented to ensure that the new iterated point always falls into the feasible region according to the butterfly optimization algorithm (BOA). Finally, the comparisons among the IBOA, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and BOA and further experiments of the physical prototype are implemented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical model and numerical algorithm. Results indicate that the proposed IBOA is more suitable for solving the constrained single-object optimization problem with better convergence speed and accuracy.


At present,moral education in higher educational institutions appears inefficient,and one of the causes of this is the negligence of the students' subjectiveness.The family culture of China and the communitarian ideology are believed to blame.Man's subjectiveness serves as the premise of China's transformation from planned economy to market economy,quick development of modern science and technology and the individual all-round maturation.In the process of moral education,both the educator and the educated must aim to develop man's subjectiveness from each of their dimensions.


The toxic effects of 3,4-Benzopyrene( BaP) exposure on the growth and development of mosquitofish( Gambusia affinis) were investigated in this paper. The results showed that: after male mosquitofishes were exposed to different concentrations( 1,10 and 100 μg/L) of BaP for eight weeks,their body length,body weight and gonadal histological structure did not change obviously,while their liver weight,liver gland index,sperm count and sperm survival rate had varying degrees of changes( P 0. 05 or P 0. 01). After female mosquitofishes were exposed to BaP for eight weeks,their body length,body weight,liver weight and liver gland index had no marked changes,but their gonad and gonad index under high concentration( 100 μg / L) of BaP exposure had different degrees of changes( P 0. 05 or P 0. 01),and their number of pregnancy at the earlier stage of embryonic development reduced significantly. It was concluded that BaP had obvious environmental endocrine disrupting effect on male mosquitofish, and it also had some impacts on the earlier development of pregnancy in female mosquitofish.


Abstract Ernst Lange's Letters - a Suprisingly Vivid Encounter. The recently published selection of letters of the German forefront figure (1927- 1974) of church reform, ecumenism and practical theology in the 1960s is reviewed, with quotes from some of his most impressive letters.


Using Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) data, the total precipitable water (TPW) over the Arabian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal has been estimated. The monthly and seasonal variations of TPW show a very systematic pattern that correlates closely with the monsoon.


This article describes the planning, performance and assessment of guided visits at the National Museum for pupils in state schools in Rio de Janeiro. The theoretical basis was the personal, physical and socio-cultural approaches for facilitating learning in museums contained in the John Falk model. The main objective was to create access to heritage, culture and education in an informal environment for a section of the population that lives in marginal areas without cultural amenities. The aim was also to establish the National Museum as an informal space for teaching chemistry. Questionnaires completed before, during and after visits provided data that was used to assess the procedure and to identify differences between visiting pupils, based on their level of education. The results lead us to conclude that the procedure and dynamic applied in this program generated affective and cognitive benefits for the visitors, and that the physical environment of the National Museum is suitable for informal chemistry teaching, particularly for secondary school pupils.


In the early 1950s, politicians apparently allowed themselves to be spectators to the anticommunist witch hunt of Senator Joe McCarthy and his supporters, leading to a particularly grim chapter in American politics. In part, they did so because they thought the public supported McCarthy. Although politicians lacked contemporary public opinion data, they apparently inferred McCarthy�s support from key Senate race outcomes. The few senators who initially stood up to McCarthy lost their reelections when McCarthy campaigned against them. In this article, we revisit the case of McCarthy�s influence and investigate whether politicians fundamentally misinterpreted support for McCarthy. Using county- and state-level election data from across the twentieth century, we develop plausible counterfactual measures of normal electoral support to assess McCarthy�s influence on electoral outcomes. We adopt a variety of analytic strategies that lead to a single conclusion: There is little evidence that McCarthy�s attacks mattered to the election outcomes. Our results imply that politicians can greatly err when interpreting the meaning of elections, and point to the importance of research on elections to help prevent such errors.


Motivations of Sports Tourists An Empirical Analysis in Several European Rock Climbing Regions This paper analyses how complex sets of motivations influence destination choice of sports tourists. This is done by using the example of rock climbing tourism. The paper demonstrates that rock climbing tourists can be segmented into four distinct customer groups according to their different motivations. The standard three-step procedure of factor analysis, cluster analysis and segment description is used on the data, but special attention is given to determining an optimal cluster analysis solution. To achieve this, solutions with different numbers of clusters derived from Ward analysis as well as Quick-Cluster analysis are statistically compared. It is shown how the four standard criteria for acceptable market segments can be used in this context. Cluster analysis based on motivation dimensions finally led to four distinct segments. Based on their motivations the clusters were termed Scene Climbers, Adventure Climbers, Novelty Seeking Tourists and Sportand Leisure Tourists. Revealing the preferences of climbing tourists, the results enable destinations to adjust their strategy accordingly. Each segment has specific requirements that have to be met. This motivation-based analysis provides clear implications on how to make a destination more attractive to climbing tourists.


In the following Paper, it is proposed to illustrate more fully the hint explanatory of certain atmospheric colours, given in a notice of the remarkable red hue of condensing steam, communicated on the 21st January. Since that time, I have examined with care the principal authors who have adverted to the subject of the colour of the sky generally, and of the redness of sunset in particular; and since, in the course of that research, I have found much to confirm, and little to modify, the view which I have already taken of the subject, I hope that the present Paper may be considered as a fit appendix to my former experimental notice. It will be recollected that in it I stated the singular fact, that steam does not pass at once from the state of invisible pellucid vapour to that of a misty white cloud, such as issues from the spout of a tea-kettle; but that an intermediate stage occurs, in which it is coloured, even very highly, giving to transmitted light a hue varying from tawny yellow up to intense smoke-red. I then observed, that, since this phenomenon does not require steam of high tension for its production, it is very probable that the tints of sunset and of artificial lights seen through certain fogs, may be owing to the absorptive action of watery vapour in this critical condition.


PURPOSE: Historical racial disparities in lung cancer surgery rates resulted in lower survival in Black patients. Our objective was to examine racial differences in thoracic radiation treatments and toxicities in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A large institutional review board–approved statewide patient-level database of patients with stage II-III non–small-cell lung cancer who received definitive thoracic radiation from March 2012 to November 2019 was analyzed to assess associations between race and other variables. Race (White or Black) was defined by patient self-report. Provider-reported toxicity was defined by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4.0. Patient-reported toxicity was determined by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Lung quality-of-life instrument. Univariable and multivariable regression models were fitted to assess relationships between race and variables of interest. Spearman rank-correlation coefficients were calculated between provider-reported toxicity and similar patient-reported outcomes. RESULTS: One thousand four hundred forty-one patients from 24 institutions with mean age 68 years (range, 38-94 years) were evaluated. Race was not significantly associated with radiation or chemotherapy approach. There was significantly increased patient-reported general pain in Black patients at the preradiation and end-of-radiation time points. Black patients were significantly less likely to have provider-reported grade 2+ pneumonitis (odds ratio 0.36, P = .03), even after controlling for known patient and treatment factors. Correlation coefficients between provider- and patient-reported toxicities were generally similar across race groups except for a stronger correlation between patient- and provider-reported esophagitis in White patients. CONCLUSION: In this large multi-institutional study, we found no evidence of racial differences in radiation treatment or chemotherapy approaches. We did, however, unexpectedly find that Black race was associated with lower odds of provider-reported grade 2+ radiation pneumonitis. The stronger correlation between patient- and provider-reported esophagitis and swallowing symptoms for White patients also suggests possible under-recognition of symptoms in Black patients. Further research is needed to study the implications for Black patients. A comprehensive guide to past, present, and future therapeutic approaches for patients with advanced melanoma.


Introduction: Nutritional status of children is influenced by dietary. Better dietary diversity helps ensure intake of essential nutrients especially for growing school-aged children. The aim of this study was to assess both the nutritional status of school children in Ibanda and Nyantende health districts, as well as the level of consumption and of dietary diversity score in their household.
Methods: in a cluster cross-sectional survey, the present study examined nutritional status, through weight-for-age (WA), height-for-age (HA) and weight-for-height (WH) and dietary diversity score of 750 school children aged 6 to 12 years old. Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups.
Dietary diversity was appraised with two types of indices: a dietary diversity score (DDS) based on the number of food categories consumed over a week and a weekly food frequency score (WFFS) which also takes into account the frequency of food intake
Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups.
Results: Chronic malnutrition is still a public health problem in school-aged children in all studied children, 35.9% of children aged 6 to 12 years were stunted (H/A <- 2ET) of which 16.4% in the severe form (H/A <-3ET); 2.0% were thinner for their height, so they were suffering from acute malnutrition (BMI <-2ET); 5.3% were moderately underweight (thinner for their age (W/A <-2ET).
The stunted growth of the child was related to maternal illiteracy (p <0.05); girls were thinner for their height than boys (p <0.05).
Overall, 7% of households had a food consumption limit and 19.6% had a non-diversified diet. Food consumption and dietary diversity scores were better in urban than in rural areas (p <0.000). Both indices were significantly associated with maternal age and the mother's high level of education (p <0.05).
Conclusion: The prevalence of different types of malnutrition confirms the existence of real public health problems.
Socio-demographic characteristics have significant influence on food consumption and dietary diversity among households in our study field.


This paper offers the author's personal reflections on the past 50 years of research in engineering management. I suggest that the most important development in this field has been the continuing broadening of the relevant bodies of knowledge and the increased attention paid by scholars in the pertinent social science and systems disciplines to issues involving technology and its management. The paper concludes with a brief speculation on the future of the field.


We present preliminary results from Hitomi observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) N132D and G21.5-0.9 which were selected for the performance verification as well as initial calibration of the Hitomi satellite. N132D is the X-ray brightest SNR in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It is a member of a rare class of oxygen-rich young SNRs, characterized by the presence of fast-moving oxygen-rich optical knots thought to result from He-burning nucleosynthesis in the cores of massive stars. In the early phase of the Hitomi observation of N132D, the satellite attitude control was unfortunately lost due to problems in the star tracker system (STT). Therefore, the exposure time of the soft-X-ray spectrometer (SXS) observation was unexpectedly short (less than an hour). Nevertheless, the SXS successfully detected some K-shell lines from highly-ionized sulfur and iron, thanks to its excellent spectral resolution and gain accuracy. On the other hand, the soft X-ray imager (SXI) was able to catch N132D even after the STT anomaly, thanks to its large field of view. Therefore, we obtained a statistically-rich SXI spectrum. We also investigated X-ray spectra taken by the Suzaku XIS and the NuSTAR FPM, and found clear signatures of Fe Lyα and Fe Heβ (Bamba et al. 2017 in preparation). Based on our modeling of the combined SXI+XIS+FPM spectra, we revealed that the Fe-K emitting plasma is recombining, and that the SXS-detected Fe-K lines complex, namely the strongest Fe-K feature in the X-ray spectrum, is likely to be Fe Heα lines. Using the SXS spectrum, we found these Fe Heα lines to be redshifted by ∼30 eV or ∼1500 km s. This velocity is much larger than the LMC's systemic velocity along the line of sight (278 km s: Mateo 1998, ARA&A, 36, 43), which can be naturally explained by an asymmetric supernova explosion. In addition, we were able to measure a line of sight velocity of the S Heα lines to be ∼5 eV or ∼600 km s, roughly consistent with the LMC's systemic velocity. It should be noted, however, that the SXS energy-scale uncertainty in the low-energy band is larger than that around Fe Heα, and may be equivalent to the shift measured for S Heα. Cautious investigations of the SXS energy scale are now in progress to better constrain the S Heα lines' centroid. G21.5-0.9 is a plerionic SNR with a bright Crab-like pulsar wind nebula (PWN) in our Galaxy, having a filled synchrotron nebula centered on the ∼62ms pulsar, PSR J1833-1034. Hitomi observed G21.5-0.9 with the SXS, SXI, and the hard X-ray imager (HXI), providing a high-statistics wide-band (∼1–60 keV) spectrum. The wide-band spectrum can be statistically better fitted with a broken power-law model than a simple power-law model, consistent with the previous NuSTAR result. This indicates either a break in the injected electron energy spectrum or energy losses due to particle transport in the PWN (Nynka et al. 2014, ApJ, 789, 72). The pulsation period and the period derivative of PSR J1833-1034 were measured in radio and GeV gamma-rays to be P = 61.86ms and Ṗ = 2.0 × 10 s s (Camilo et al. 2006, ApJ, 637, 456; Abdo et al. 2013, ApJS, 208, 17), but have not yet been detected in the X-ray band. So far, our timing analysis using both the HXI and the SXS does not show any significant pulsations partly due to the much brighter PWN. However, given that the pulsed fraction (if any) would be fairly small in X-rays, we need further careful analyses of systematic uncertainties to find possible pulsations or give a stringent constraint on a pulsed fraction. In addition to these studies, a survey of emission and absorption lines in the SXS spectrum is ongoing, which will be presented in a forthcoming paper.


In this study,the detection of 6 strains of classical swine fever virus(CSFV) from 120 healthy pig tonsils and 84 abortive fetuses in Guangxi was carried out by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).The results showed that nine materials of which one was from tonsil and eight were from abortive fetuses were identified to be CSFV positive.The E2 genes of CSFV of one tonsil and five abortive fetuses were cloned and sequenced.Homology comparison of E2 seqences between the six strains and hog cholera lapinised virus(HCLV),Shimen strain,etc,from other provinces of China and other countries was carried out using DNAstar software.The results showed that the homology of nucleotide and deduced amino acid among six strains of CSFV from Guangxi were 93.1%-99.6% and 86.3-99.2%,respectively.No cystein residue was changed on E2 gene of six strains,which demonstrated that E2 protein of CSFV strains from Guangxi still remained high stability in antigenic structure.Compared with HCLV and Shimen strains,amino acids on positions 721 and 724 of E2 protein of Guangxi strains were changed on the antigenic domain B and C which related to neutralizing activity.Phylogenetic tree revealed that the CSFV strains were classified into two major genogroups and one cluster.One strain from tonsil and five strains from abortive fetuses,with HCLV,Shimen strains belonged to genogroup I,which indicated that CSFV strains from tonsil and abortive fetuses from Guangxi were close to HCLV and Shimen.


The operating voltage for integrated circuits (ICs) in cellular phones, camcorders, and laptop computers is being reduced from about 3 to 2.5 V, with the advance of IC microfabrication technology, and it will be 1.9 V in the near future. Hence, rechargeable microbatteries which can be charged fully in the same voltage range, i.e., around 2.5--1.9 V, would be required for power supply of the IC memory backup. If such rechargeable lithium batteries are used, there is a substantial weight savings because of their high energy density and no requirement of a voltage adjuster in the devices body. On this basis, niobium pentoxide is one of few cathode candidates for 2 V rechargeable lithium batteries, as described. Niobium pentoxide was synthesized by heating niobium hydroxide in the temperature range of 600--1,100 C. The crystal system of Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} compounds depended on the heating temperatures, i.e., hexagonal, orthorhombic, and monoclinic Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} compounds were obtained at ca. 600, 800, and {gt} 1,000 C, respectively. Electrochemical lithium intercalation into the three Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} compounds was investigated in a cell with a LiClO{sub 4}-propylene carbonate electrolytic solution for application as lithium battery cathodes. As a result, they displayed good charge-dischargemore » performance as the cathode of a 2 V lithium battery, which will play an important role in power supply for integrated circuit memory backup developed recently. The thermodynamics and kinetics of lithium intercalation into the Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} cathode and their characteristics have been investigated. The thermodynamic parameters, such as standard free energies, lithium partial molar entropy, interaction energies between ions, crystal lattice parameters, and kinetic parameters, such as chemical and self diffusion constants, have been obtained as a function of x value in Li{sub x}Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5}. These results were compared to those of a Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} thin-film electrode prepared by a radio frequency sputtering method, which has high potential for fabricating thin microbatteries.« less


A major problem with orthopedic joint prostheses is establishing their permanent fixation to bone. The use of porous surfaces for biologic attachment of implants by the ingrowth of bone offers a valuable alternative to acrylic bone cement as a means of fixation.lU It is well established that bone will infiltrate the pores of an inert porous system,l1 provided the implant is initially stabilized and minimal movement occurs between the implant and bone.3 Several investigators have studied bone ingrowth into porous systems with different pore sizes. Hulbert et ~ 1 . ~ showed that a pore size of 100 p m allows bone ingrowth, but a pore size greater than 150 p m is required for osteon formation. For polymeric systems, Klawitter et ul.' observed bone ingrowth into porous high density polyethylene (PHDPE) possessing a pore size as small as 40 pm; Spector et al. l2 demonstrated bone growth in PHDPE con-


In this paper, we present an improved comprehensive learning particle swarm optimiser (CLPSO) by using a generalised opposition-based learning concept (GOBL). The proposed approach, called GOCLPSO, employs similar schemes of opposition-based differential evolution (ODE) for opposition-based population initialisation and generation jumping with GOBL. Experimental studies on 13 benchmark functions show that GOCLPSO could achieve more accurate solutions than CLPSO for the majority of test cases.


The present investigation deals with pharmacognostical, physicochemical, phytochemical analysis, and in vitro anti-arthritic activity of ethanolic extracts of Adiantum venustum D. Don. The macroscopic and microscopic characters, physical constant values, extractive values, ash values, color analysis, and fluorescence analysis were performed. The stems were 13–14 cm in size while leaves were 3–5 mm. Stems were straight with nodes while leaves were triangular and fan shaped. Transverse section of aerial parts of A. venustum showed epidermis consists of closely packed cells with single layer. No intercellular space was found. Endodermis is indistinct. On microscopic examination, the powder showed wavy epidermis, parenchyma cells, Phloem, fiber, trichome, brownish matter, and crystals. Physical constants performed were loss on drying, ash content, acid insoluble ash, and water soluble ash. Extractive values in chloroform and alcohol were determined. Fluorescence studies of the powder were carried in UV, UVB, and day light with various solvents. Phytochemical screening of successive extracts showed positive reactions for steroids, flavonoids, carbohydrates, phenols, and tannins. In vitro anti-arthritic activity was performed by the inhibition of protein denaturation method. The ethanolic extracts of aerial parts exhibited remarkable anti-arthritic action. The protein denaturation was also found to be maximum at 75.293 ± 0.735 and 79.956 ± 0.9 % at a dose of 500 μg/mL by protein denaturation egg albumin and bovine serum albumin method, respectively.


The purpose of this paper is to orient universities on their first versions of the sustainability reports based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, which, as mentioned by Hussey et al. (2001), Lozano (2006) and Morhardt et al. (2002) is the best option for sustainability reporting in universities. The paper analyses the sustainability indicators reported by 26 universities following the GRI guidelines, 18 revised by the authors and others reviewed by Lozano (2011), in order to establish a pathway for new universities wanting to elaborate their sustainability reports and also offers a perspective of new indicators that can be covered in forthcoming reports.


For a few years, active airflow control by plasma actuator has been enriched by a comprehensive literature focused on the analysis of the discharge interaction with the surrounding airflow as on its potential industrial applications. Flow around flat plate, airfoil model, turbine blades, cylinder have been extensively studied. In this paper, plasma actuators are used to control the jet exhausting from a circular pipe (internal diameter of 50 mm) equipped with a small-angle diffuser ( α =22°). Two plasma actuators are placed in opposite position at the wall of the diffuser. The electrode arrangement produces a counter-flow action on the initial region of the free turbulent shear layer. PIV measurements are used to characterize the time-averaged flow fields for baseline and controlled airjet at a primary airjet velocity of 20 m/s (Re D =64.000). The control strategy involves actuation by two dielectric barrier discharges operating in phase (axisymmetric excitation mode) and with a π /2 angle phase (flapping excitation mode). The time-averaged results indicate that axisymmetric actuation fails to enhance the mixing in the jet wake. Streamlines and spatial POD modes reveals that actuation acts on the vortex organization but the imparted energy is too weak to alter the far field region. This differs from the obtained results with flapping excitation. In this case, the potential core is largely shortened, the jet spreading is enlarged and the vortex dynamic is strongly affected by the actuation. In particular, results demonstrate that a significant mixing enhancement is performed when the actuation is in flapping mode at a normalized frequency St=0.1.


The tris‐onium ethers (XIII, A and B) and the tetra‐onium ethers (XV A, B and C), together with the corresponding polymethylene tris‐onium (XIV A and B) and polymethylene tetra‐onium compounds (XVI, A, B and C), have been synthesised. Replacement of a methylene group in the inter‐onium polymethylene chain by an ether link almost always lowers muscle relaxant potency.


The utility model discloses a power distribution circuit piercing clamp installed by an operating rod, which comprises a roughly C-shaped conductive clamp body. Upper pressing teeth are fixedly arranged on the lower end surface of an upper bending portion of the clamp body, a threaded rod is in rotary connection to a lower bending portion of the clamp body, a sliding block is in movable connectionto the top end of the threaded rod, lower pressing teeth opposite to the upper pressing teeth are fixedly disposed on the sliding block, a fixed pin in cross-shaped connection with a threaded rod body is arranged at the lower end of the threaded rod, and a leading wire fixing screw hole is disposed on the clamp body. The piercing clamp installed by an operating rod can be mounted through a special operating rod from a long distance without needing a worker to climb to a working station for installing in a near distance; the piercing clamp has simple structure, quick installation, no limitation of field conditions, and good application prospect.


Abstract Mines are known to generate environmental impacts both during their useful lifetime and after they have ceased to be in operation. At closure, when the mine is not generating any income, it is difficult if not impossible to raise the financial resources necessary to carry out any meaningful remedial works. It is therefore important to plan the closure phase and to make financial provision to meet all environmental requirements while the mine is still in production. It has become the accepted practice in many countries that measures are in place to ensure that, after closure, mines are left in a condition which will minimize long‐term environmental problems. Good planning is the key to the successful control of long‐term environmental problems associated with the post‐operational phase of mining, and planning for mine closure should be an integral part of the general mining plan. In Ghana, mines are required to operate in accordance with, inter alia, the Minerals and Mining Law (PNDCL 153), Ghana'...


Providing an electrical induction furnace having a lining wear detection system, the electric induction furnace for heating and melting an electrically conductive material, when the proper operation and maintenance of electric induction furnaces, the lining wear detection system may detect alternative furnace lining wear.


A set of nonlinear fluid equations which includes the effect of finite ion Larmor radius is derived to describe microturbulence [k⊥ ρs ≂O(1), k∥R≂O(1), n1/n0≂ ρs/Ln, and B1/B0≂ρs/R ] in an inhomogeneous plasma with a strong magnetic field of general geometry. Here ρs is the ion Larmor radius at the electron temperature, Ln is the density gradient scale length, R is the radius of curvature of the magnetic line of force, k is the wave vector, and n1/n0 and B1/B0 are relative levels of density and magnetic field perturbations.


As tourist attractions, museums have long contributed to the economic development of their communities. Yet financial planners rarely see museums as potential partners. This manual offers practical advice for institutions seeking better collaborations with business and government. Strategies range from pairing cultural attractions with non-cultural ones, such as sports events or shopping malls, to promoting several museums as a single "destination attraction". Case studies help illustrate how museums can form profitable partnerships.


The concept of the threshold food concentration that allows metabolic main- tenance of an animal (CO) has been used as an analogy to Tilman's R* (equilibrium resource requirements) to explain competitive abilities of cladoceran species. Until now, however, theoretical analysis has been hampered because CO was measured in experiments where cladoceran growth was determined in response to fixed, low food concentrations, not as a result of the cladocerans' grazing activity. CO is an indirect estimate from nonequilibrium conditions. It still needs to be shown that growing Daphnia are efficient enough to suppress resource concentrations to levels equivalent to their CO. We designed flow-through exper- iments to establish equilibrium conditions between algal inflow and cladoceran population biomass with three differently sized Daphnia species. The equilibrium food concentration resulting from the daphniids' grazing activity was labeled C*, as it can be used to predict competitive abilities in analogy to Tilman's R*. Equilibrium was reached in each experiment. Daphnia grew to carrying capacity without fluctuations in numbers or biomass, and biomass remained constant after this level was reached. Mortality was compensated for by somatic growth or, in the case of the small species D. ambigua, by production of offspring. When the carrying capacity was reached, algal concentrations remained constant at C*. As pre- dicted from previous growth experiments, larger species suppressed algal concentrations to lower levels, i.e., they were predicted to have higher competitive ability. This prediction was tested in a mixed-species experiment with D. pulicaria and the smaller D. galeata. That experiment clearly demonstrated the mechanism of exploitative competition. In the beginning, the smaller D. galeata performed better, but as soon as the food concentration fell below D. galeata's individually determined C*, the smaller species suffered mortality. At this point, D. pulicaria had not yet reached its C*. It continued to grow and replaced D. galeata. Numerical values of D. pulicaria's C* were slightly higher than the indepen- dently determined, corresponding CO values. This was to be expected as CO applies to zero mortality. However, the rank order among species was identical for both characteristics. We propose that both C* and CO have strong predictive power for mechanistic models of competitive interactions.


The Second International Conference on Accelerating Biopharmaceutical Development was held in Coronado, California. The meeting was organized by the Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE); SBE is a technological community of the AIChE. Bob Adamson (Wyeth) and Chuck Goochee (Centocor) were co‐chairs of the event, which had the theme "Delivering cost‐effective, robust processes and methods quickly and efficiently." The first day focused on emerging disruptive technologies and cutting‐edge analytical techniques. Day two featured presentations on accelerated cell culture process development, critical quality attributes, specifications and comparability, and high throughput protein formulation development. The final day was dedicated to discussion of technology options and new analysis methods provided by emerging disruptive technologies; functional interaction, integration and synergy in platform development; and rapid and economic purification process development. © This meeting report was written for and published by Landes Bioscience in the journal, mAbs. Reichert JM, Jacob N, Amanullah A. Second International Conference on Accelerating Biopharmaceutical Development: March 9–12, 2009, Coronado, CA USA. mAbs 2009 1(3); http://www. landesbioscience.com/journals/mabs/article/8491 Biotechnol. Prog., 2009


By using phylogenetic computational methods, this project aims at testing the Austro-Tai Hypothesis which proposes a genetic relation between Tai-Kadai and Austronesian languages (Benedict 1942, 1975). We test the Austro-Tai Hypothesis at two levels. We first measure the degree of genetic relatedness between Tai-Kadai and Taiwanese (i.e. Formosan) languages. Austronesian languages are believed to have originated from Taiwan. In a short lapse of time, between 4,000 and 2,000 BC, Austronesian speakers rapidly moved throughout the Pacific. This migration wave is called by Austronesian specialists the "Express Train to Polynesia" (Gray & Jordan, 2000). At a second level, we test a hypothesis of population expansion, the Northeast-to-Southwest Hypothesis, which is the idea that Tai-Kadai groups migrated from the Northeast (Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi) to the Southwest (Malay Peninsula). This migration movement would be the sole model compatible with the Austronesian Hypothesis.


Based on the Winkler foundation beam theory, the effect of foundation width on the foundation beam rigidity and, in consequence, further on the load distribution in grillage foundation are discussed. A calculation formula of the baseplate width, which meets the requirement of bearing capacity, is established and, by using the iterative method or standard computer program, the baseplate width can be calculated easily. Thus, the problem of discordance of supposed baseplate width with the column lade distribution is solved


Water is the source of life and one of the most important material resources for human survival and development [...]


Abstract Let p be a prime number, Qp the field of p-adic numbers, K a finite field extension of Qp, K a fixed algebraic closure of K and Cp the completion of K with respect to the p-adic valuation. We introduce and investigate an equivalence relation on Cp, defined in terms of field extensions and metric properties of Galois orbits over K.


Mihailescu et al., "Combined Measurements With Three-Dimen (73) Assignee: There Nation, sional Design Information Verification System and Gamma Ray y, s s Imaging-A Collaborative Effort Between Oak Ridge National Labo (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this ratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and The Joint patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Research Center At ISPRA'47". INMMAnnual Meeting, Nashville, U.S.C. 154(b) by 696 days. TN., Jul. 16-20, 2006. "Imagers Provide Eyes to See Gamma Rays' Lawrence Livermore (21) Appl. No.: 12/170,323 National Laboratory, S&TR May 2006.


The present invention discloses a method for calculating the defect density, comprising the steps of: S1, calculating wafer production line Wafer chip product yield? Yield; S2, calculating the area of said product DieArea single chip; S3, the device according to the test item Device coefficient? Test? Bin, lithography coefficient Litho? Coefficient and technology coefficients Technology? Coefficient Coefficient computational complexity of the chip manufacturing process of the product N; S4, according to product yield Wafer chip? Yield, area Die? N Area and complexity coefficient calculated defect density D0. The present invention is N T computational complexity factor B by factor device test items, photolithography technology and factor coefficient L, the size of the defect density N by calculating the corrected error is reduced defect density and the actual wafer processing capability, while the calculation methods and processes without incurring additional costs.


Physiological dormancy in wild cardoon (Cynara cardunculus var. sylvestris) can be terminated by achenes exposure to alternating temperatures, likely with the participation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cyanide is a natural compound that mediates seed dormancy removal in some plant species in association with oxidative signalling exerted by ROS. To date, no study has been conducted on the cyanide effect on ROS homeostasis during the germination of cardoon. Here, we showed that the addition of cyanide at low concentrations in dormant cardoon achenes promotes dormancy breakage at a constant temperature, speeds up germination to alternating temperatures and promotes ROS accumulation in embryonic axes of dormant achenes. The in-silico transcriptome analysis showed that the expression levels of transcripts of genes associated with ROS signalling and production, calcium signalling, gibberellins biosynthesis and cell wall loosening were significantly up-regulated at the alternating temperatures imbibition condition. In contrast, the expression of gene transcripts associated with the inhibition of germination, ABA biosynthesis and signalling were up-regulated at the constant temperature imbibition. However, no significant difference in lipid peroxidation or protein carbonylation levels was observed when achenes were imbibed at constant or alternating temperature conditions. These results suggest that dormancy termination triggered by alternating temperatures or cyanide could be mediated by ROS production and signalling in the cardoon embryonic axis, but this does not determine extensive protein carbonylation.


The invention discloses an N95 type negative ion mask which is a layered matter comprising four layers of materials, wherein the first layer is a receiving layer, the second layer is an adsorbing layer, the third layer is a filtering layer and the fourth layer is a nursing layer; the first layer is the outward layer when the mask is used; the layers are sequentially stacked together; and an ultrasonic mask special device is adopted for processing, then the N95 type negative ion mask in various required shapes can be produced, the N95 type negative ion mask is a special mask for the public for prevention and control of a variety of epidemic situations and is characterized in that the N95 type negative ion mask not only conforms to the functions of masks made of American N95 standard filtering material and European standard masks, but also has the function of killing various bacteria and viruses, and can prevent the viruses from entering into the oral cavity and the nasal cavity, provide better air negative ions for the respiratory tract and prevent the occurrence of various diseases of the respiratory tract, and the N95 type negative ion mask additionally has the characteristics of excellent air permeability, comfort, appropriate product cost and the like.


This article investigates the equality of female representation in 2019 Global Original Netflix drama series by identifying trends of female representation across 82 series sample, assessing the quality of female representation in the most watched 2019 drama series and comparing analysis across British, American and International series. Overall, female representation in 2019 Netflix drama series conforms the existing literature on television studies concluding that women are underrepresented on-screen and behind-the-scenes.


C language is currently the most popular in the world, the most widely used computer programming language, in many application software runtime with command line parameters, actually these command line parameters can also be implemented in the C language program, the flexibility to use the command line parameters for processing can effectively improve the running efficiency of program, get twice the result with half the effort. This article mainly from the following aspects for the application of C language programming skills in C language learning specific detailed analysis.


The surface wave dispersion of a grounded layer of liquid crystals (LCs) is investigated by taking into account the inherent electrical reconfigurability of such a material. The spectral dyadic impedance Green's function of the tunable LC grounded slab is calculated and the dispersion curve of the fundamental mode supported by the structure is presented, showing that the orientation of the optical axis of the LCs modifies the surface wave dispersion curve significantly enough to be applied for surface wave propagation control. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the presence of an inductive metasurface on top of the LC layer impressively reduces the resonance frequency and increases the sensitivity to the continuous voltage biasing.


This paper is the result of the development of the Web application to register the Annual Work Program, in which goals and actions are assigned the financial resources to manage the annual work program identified. In this paper, we have identified five types of users: the first is the Administrator, in charge of monitoring the goals programmed in the period, as well as the resource assigned to reach those goals; the second corresponds to the purchasing department who is in charge of contacting the supplier and at the same time inform financial and warehouse of the acquisition through the system; the third corresponds to a warehouse in charge of validating the material and generate entry / exit official vouchers and send the purchase order to financiers; the fourth user corresponds to financial, this will identify through the system that all the procedure is completed to make the payment; and finally, the fifth user make up the set of all remaining departments. Finally, the system presents flexibility in case it is necessary to go adding departments.


MNL model is the basic type in logit model. It has a good future in application of traffic mode-split among the disaggregate methods.


Sex education is still a topic that is considered taboo in Indonesia, through Tiktok which is a popular application in the world in 2020, it is used as a medium to meet this information need by the @tabu.id account. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of intensity, media content and attractiveness of using social media on the TikTok @tabu.id account on the fulfillment of sex education information needs. This study uses a quantitative approach with an explanatory survey. The theory used is the Uses Effect Theory. The data collection technique used is a questionnaire or questionnaire and literature study. While the data analysis technique will be collected using a Likert scale. The results of this study are the intensity, message content and attractiveness affect the need for information about sex education. While the magnitude of the influence of sex education information is 6.75%, the magnitude of the influence of infographic messages on sex education information is 33.26% and the magnitude of the influence of sex education information is 15.02%.


The U.S. is witnessing an unprecedented growth in renewables, particularly wind and solar energy, thanks to a number of enablers including government subsidies, government mandates to utilities, impressive technological growth, price collapse in silicon production costs, and the geo-political uncertainty around fossil fuel production. While wind energy has more favorable market conditions due to its more relatively mature state and inherent advantages such as all-day production, the solar energy production is becoming more competitive primarily due to the rapidly declining supply chain costs and scale economy in solar panel production. In this paper, our focus is on the underlying factors for the supply chain cost decrease, which has led to a more attractive profitability potential in the industry, despite the price pressure on the revenue. However, we find no evidence that the supply chain cost gains can continue to dramatically lower the cost of production much further. This means that manufacturers need to find new ways to improve the manufacturing efficiencies subject to the theoretical limits on energy conversion efficiencies or move up the technology maturity curve to the next generation solar technology. If they stay too long close to such theoretical conversion efficiency this will be an evening twilight, and yet if they can switch at the right time to ride the technology curve, it will be a morning twilight. We begin with the overall market growth drivers for solar panels in Section 1 and their impact on the solar panels manufacturers. In section 2, we devote our attention to the efficiency drivers for various solar technologies. These include both the conventional ones in place today as well as disruptive technologies on the horizon and potential drivers that would make them more affordable. We conclude this paper in Section 3 with areas to explore as next steps.


The article is dedicated to tactical features of crime scene examination when investigating crimes associated with theft of energy carriers. It covers peculiarities of preparation for crime scene examination, actions of investigation officers on their arrival at a crime scene, peculiarities of the phase of careful examination.


This paper deals with a quantitative assessment of the production efficiency of the forestry sector in EU countries, which is largely neglected in the literature. Only a few studies have been conducted so far, processing data mainly in the first half of the last decade. In contrast to these studies, in this article we focus on the period between 2016 and 2020. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to compare the efficiency of the forest sector to fill the gap. The empirical results of this study show that the leaders in this sector are Germany, Finland, and the Czech Republic. These countries are fully efficient throughout the period under review. In contrast, Bulgaria lags far behind, with an efficiency score typically around 35%. The results of the cluster analysis show that although countries have similar characteristics, their efficiency scores are not necessarily at the same level.


In the last few years there has been much interest in studying the oscillatory behaviour of solutions of partial differential equations with deviating arguments. We refer the reader to Mishev & Bainov [1], [2], Yoshida [3], Georgiou & Kreith [4] and Cui [5]. However, only the papers [1] and [5] considered the oscillation for parabolic differential equations of neutral type. The purpose of this paper is to establish some new oscillation criteria for the linear parabolic equation of neutral type of the form


The research is aimed to analyze: (1) the correlation between principal leadership and teacher performance in Bodhisattva school Bandar Lampung, (2) the correlation between work climate and teacher performance in Bodhisattva school Bandar Lampung, (3) the correlation between work motivation and teacher performance in Bodhisattva school Bandar Lampung, and (4) the correlation between headmaster leadership, work climate, and work motivation in cooperate with the performance teacher in Bodhisattva school Bandar Lampung.
This research used quantitative correlation. In this research, the population is all of the teacher at Bodhisattva school to 49 teachers as respondents which is divided into 39 teachers as a respondents and 10 teachers as a sampling which is taken by random sampling. The Data collecting used questionnaires instrument.. The Data analysis was done by SPSS 16.0 for Windows (Statistical Product Solution System) by the results sample data is on the normal distribution.
The results of the research shows that there are (1) a positive, strong association between the principal's leadership and teacher performance, it was gotten correlation coefficient rx1y = 0.417 significantly, (2) a positive, strong association between the work climate and teacher performance, it was gotten correlation coefficient rx2y,= 0.655 significantly, (3) a positive, strong association between the work motivation and teacher performance, it was gotten correlation coefficient rx3y,= 0.832 significantly (4) a positive, strong and association between the principal's leadership the principal's leadership, work climate, and work motivated cooperation with teacher performance and it was gotten a correlation coefficient rx1, 2.3 y = 0.937.
Keywords: Leadership, Climate Work, Work Motivation, Teacher Performance.


While there are many models of what would constitute effective health practice, the 'theories' that people use to implement them are less well articulated. However, those charged with designing the implementation programmes for these models of health practice have internal mental models that comprise their 'theories of change' and which guide their actions. System Dynamics is a powerful tool to develop explicit representations of these theories. This study uses in-depth interviews with seven clinical, management and policy leaders within the New Zealand health sector to develop a 'theory of change' which is then described using system dynamics. The study uses cognitive mapping to elicit the key components of the 'expert' theories by analysing both the individual maps and a composite map developed by combining data from all seven interviews. A thematic analysis is conducted of this composite map and the resulting themes are used to inform the development of a system dynamics model. The system dynamics model highlights the key causal connections within the map, projections of how they evolve over time and the key modifiable variables that affect the future pathway. This paper describes in detail the development of one core component of that model, engagement and is part of a larger research effort which aims to develop a fully quantified system dynamics model that explores the dynamics of change in the implementation of chronic care management programmes. Modelling Theories of Change in Chronic Care Management page 1


This research is conducted to develop learning material of Narrative Text according to students' need. The purpose of this research is to analyze students' need for Narrative Text material, creating material development and testing the effectiveness. The method that used was Research and Development method of Sugiyono. The data collection techniques are questionnaire, pre-test, and post-test. The data analysis technique used is qualitative, consists of data collection, data reduction, presentation, and conclusion. The quantitative analysis techniques consist of content validity, normality test, homogeneity test, and t-test. The result of this research is described as follow; (1) Students need product in the learning process, the product overcome the problem of students 'lack of interest in the material, the use of video of Powtoon can improve students' enthusiasm. (2) The product is valid based expert validation. The validity of the product get a score of 85 from the first expert, the average is 2.65 included in the valid enough criteria, the second expert get a score of 87, the average is 2.71 included in the valid enough criteria, and the third expert get a score of 95, the average is 2.71 included in the valid criteria. (3) The product is effective. The effectiveness of the product is proven by result of t-count = 3.14. It is higher than t-table = 1.99, there is a significant difference between the control class and the treatment class. It means that the experimental group is better than the control group after getting treatment.


This study analyses the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for minimum price insurance in Côte d'Ivoire cocoa farming and the potential role of risk aversion using both experimental gambling approach with real payoffs and contingent valuation (CV) method. The findings reveal a relatively high level of risk aversion among Ivorian cocoa farmers with more than 45 percent of the households exhibiting severe to extreme risk aversion. Considerable interest in minimum price insurance has been found with 66 percent of farmers responding positively to the interest question. Furthermore, it appears that farmers' demand for insurance is affected by a range of independent variables like household size, farming experience, monetary value of livestock, share of cocoa in total income, age of cocoa farm, farm size and social network as coping mechanism. More importantly, we find a highly significant effect of risk aversion on farmers' insurance take-up decisions. In particular, high risk aversion has been found to inhibit the demand for insurance. This suggests that particular attention should be given to farmers' risk aversion in the formulation and implementation of rural development policies. Finally, the WTP analysis reveals that farmers' individual WTP for minimum price insurance are relatively low. Households are on average willing to pay between 8.5 and 13.42 percent of the option value they will receive as a premium depending on the option value.


Idea development is an important process within a knowledge-building discourse and it is crucial to understand the dynamics of idea development throughout the discourse, such as the growth, flourishing or fading of ideas. This study proposes a framework called Idea Pipeline that explores and tracks the dynamics of idea development within a knowledge-building discourse. This pipeline consists of three phases: discovery, identification and analysis, and 'rise above' of ideas. Each phase of the pipeline will be illustrated using findings from a comparison study of two online knowledge building discourses. During the discovery phase, a text miner is used to identify groups of related keywords from the discourse; this is represented as keyword graphs with weighted frequencies to show the diversity of ideas that were embedded within the knowledge-building discourse. In the idea identification and analysis phase, network analysis was conducted to help label key ideas that were promising to the discourse community; this would provide the community with information to decide which ideas to pursue so that advancement of communal knowledge could be achieved leading to the 'rise above' phase. This Idea Pipeline framework can be an additional method for the temporal analysis of a computer-supported collaborative learning discourse over a longer duration of weeks or even months.


Cancer is a relative rare disease in children, but represents the second leading cause of childhood death. Pediatric tumors are generally encountered using multi-modal treatment. Brachytherapy is rarely applied in children but already applied in few situations such as soft-tissue sarcoma. Brachytherapy presents several advantages in modern medicine and is favorably compared with other more aggressive techniques in specific pediatric applications. Brachytherapy can result on low toxicity on normal tissue and may decrease the odds for late malignancies.
The limitation of such a technique is the need for specific methodology adapted to the patient's characteristics. Monte Carlo simulations can determine accurately dosimetric parameters in realistic cases. The purpose of the present study is to validate the GATE toolkit on brachytherapy realistic applications, and to evaluate brachytherapy plans on pediatric applications for accurate dosimetry on sensitive, and critical organs of interest.
The GATE v7 MC toolkit was used and the human anatomy was modeled using the XCAT phantom. The simulations were executed using 1010 number of primaries resulting in statistical uncertainties lower than 3%. Initially, two High Dose Rate (HDR) 192Ir brachytherapy sources were simulated (Nucletron mHDR-v1 and Varian VS2000) and fully validated using the AAPM and ESTRO protocols. The MC simulations resulted on accurate dosimetry in terms of dose rate constant (Λ), radial dose gL(r), and anisotropy function F(r,θ) for both sources. The differences between the theoretical values, and the simulated ones range from 0.01% to 3.3%, with the largest discrepancies being observed in dose rate constant 6%.
A realistic brachytherapy plan was also simulated using the XCAT anthropomorphic computational model. The simulated data were compared to the clinical dose points Nucletron mHDR-v1 source was used for the validation of a realistic simulated plan based on a clinical brachytherapy scheme. Thus, an adult woman was modeled using XCAT and the Nucletron Oncentra's clinical dose points were compared to the simulated ones, resulting in differences lower than 5%. Finally, the same brachytherapy plan was simulated in a 14 years old girl (XCAT model), extracting the isodose curves, and the DVH for the evaluation of the absorbed dose per organ, with respect to heterogeneities of the human anatomy.
Brachytherapy techniques have already been applied on children. However, it is critical to fully evaluate pediatric brachytherapy using MC techniques leading in precise dosimetry. Our goal extends to evaluate a variety of pediatric brachytherapy schemes using a population of pediatric phantoms for several pathological cases. This study promotes precise dosimetry, heterogeneity of tissues and personalization of treatment, attempting to widen the use of the technique, while improving it.


Described herein are compositions useful in anticancer treatment and prevention. The compositions are composed of (a) a dithiocarbamate metal chelate and (b) an amphiphile, wherein the amount of amphiphile is sufficient to produce a liposome or micelle. Methods for using the compositions in anticancer treatment and prevention are also described herein.


(57) Abstract: 2,3,5-trimethyl hydroquinone (TMH) and phytol or isophytol (IP) and was acid-catalyzed reaction in a solvent, and optionally subsequently the thus obtained tocopherol acetic anhydride by esterification in, to provide a method of manufacturing a dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate or dl-alpha-tocopheryl, method, cyclic 5 optionally substituted, such as 1,2-propylene carbonate as solvent wherein to carry out the reaction at a temperature of 50 to 200 ° C. at 5-membered ring lactone which is optionally substituted membered like rings carbonate or γ- butyrolactone. The reaction, after reaction with TMH and phytol or IP, the reaction mixture was removed tocopherol upper phase separates out when cooled, and / or reaction mixture was extracted with suitable aliphatic hydrocarbons, extracted by reusing tocopherol isolated by distillation from the object, and a cyclic carbonate or γ- lactone isolated containing excess TMH and acidic catalyst optionally as solvent, it is particularly advantageous. Often, the reaction of the TMH and phytol or IP, with removal of water using a suitable hydrocarbon as an azeotrope, and / or ortho boric acid and the other oxalic acid as an acid catalyst, and tartaric acid or citric acid presence or BF Surprisingly, 5-membered ring carbonates and 5-membered cyclic lactones, also regarding stable with respect as well as their solvent properties under the reaction conditions, enough to make it possible to continuously carry out the process It proved to be well suited to.


ABSTRACT The deformation of interatomic distances with respect to those of the perfect crystal generates atomic-level strain. In nanoalloys, strain can arise because of finite size, morphology, domain structure and lattice mismatch between their atomic compounds. Strain can strongly affect the functional properties of nanoalloys, as it alters their electronic energy levels. Moreover, atomic-level strain generates atomic-level stress, which in turn results in distortions induced by strain. When the stress accumulated in a nanoalloy exceeds a certain level, the particle can relax that stress by undergoing structural transitions such as shape and/or chemical ordering transitions. Atomic-level strain is then a powerful tool to control and manipulate the structural and functional properties of nanoalloys. This requires a combined theoretical and experimental approach both to deeply understand the physical origin of strain, and to characterize it with a sub-angstrom resolution. Here, we present a theoretical analysis of the main sources of strain in nanoalloys, we analyse how atomic-level strain can be experimentally measured with transmission electron microscopy, we discuss its effect on the functional properties of nanoalloys, finally we describe how atomic-level stress arises from atomic-level strain, and how stress can induce structural transformations at the nanoscale. Graphical abstract


Microstructures of porous inorganic membranes and permeation properties through those membranes were reviewed for amorphous ilica membranes and zeolite membranes. Silica membranes were compared by the permeation properties of hydrogen such as activation energies or selectivities over nitrogen or helium. The activation energies of hydrogen through silica membranes prepared by the sol-gel method and the CVD method were the same level, and relatively loose or dense structure can be made by both methods. The effects of intercrystalline pathways on the permeation properties through zeolitic membranes were investigated. The intercrystalline pathways were filled by coking of a hydrocarbon or counterdiffusion CVD method. The permeation properties through intercrystalline pathways were explained by an i-i model. According to this model, ethanol was permselective from ethanol aqueous solution through intercrystalline pathways of the MFI zeolite membrane.


In the second half of the nineteenth century, the travelogue, a
genre of travel writing, provided European readers with glimpses
of the culture and art of exotic people from colonial outposts in
far-away lands. Books printed in Europe were made available to a
European audience hungry for information about its colonies and
other exotic locations. These books often included lithographs of
plants and animals, prints and photographs of native inhabitants,
costumes, and occasionally musical scores representing traditional
folk music. Scores from these books provide us with the earliest
transcriptions of traditional musical forms from the Philippines.
These samples of music allow us a glimpse into the past and give
21st century musicologists the ability to piece together a history of
Philippine music forms that existed in the Spanish colonial period.
Comparison between these samples and present-day traditional
musics still persisting alongside newer, more familiar contemporary
forms and styles.

 Keywords: kumintang, travel writing, traditional song, awit, kundiman


Introduction: Pneumothorax occurs more frequently in the neonatal period than in any other period of life and is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Several risk factors for pneumothorax, including respiratory pathology, invasive and non-invasive respiratory support, and predictors of mortality have been described. Objective: To evaluate the prevalence, to assess risk factors and to describe the clinical characteristics, management and outcome of newborn infants with pneumothorax as well as identify predictors of mortality in these newborns. Methods: This retrospective case-control study included all newborns hospitalized in the NICU of Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Portugal, between 2003 and 2014, with the diagnosis of pneumothorax. A control group was selected among the newborns without pneumothoraces. The collected data included: demographics and perinatal data, pneumothorax characteristics, classification, treatment and clinical outcomes. Results: Our study included 240 neonates (80 with pneumothoraces and 160 controls), of whom 145 were male (60.4 %). Median gestational age was 37 (24-40) weeks and median birthweight, 2612.5 (360-4324) grams. The prevalence in our NICU was 1.5 %. Pneumothorax was significantly associated with RDS (p=0.010) and TTN (p<0.001). Invasive mechanical ventilation (p=0.016) and FiO2>0.4 (p=0.003), were independent risk factors for the development of pneumothoraces. The mortality rate was 13.8%. Hypotension, mechanical ventilation and thoracentesis followed by a chest tube insertion were found to be predictors of mortality in newborns having pneumothoraces, but pneumothorax was not. Conclusion: Pneumothorax is relatively frequent in the neonatal intensive care unit. Its risk factors and predictors of mortality should be known in order to prevent and treat this critical situation. Pneumothorax itself was not a predictor of mortality, probably due to the adequate and prompt management used in the NICU.


Adiposity is associated with early reduction in bone mass in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease" (2016). Endocrinology/Diabetes. 56. Adiposity is associated with early reduction in bone mass in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Short title: Adiposity and bone mass in inflammatory bowel disease ABSTRACT Background: The effect of adiposity on bone mass in the early phases of inflammatory bowel disease


Human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV‐1)‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) disease is a chronic neuroinflammatory disease, which is associated with HTLV‐1 infection. There is no effective and satisfactory treatment of HAM/TSP. It has been shown that curcumin exhibits modulatory effects on apoptosis and cytotoxicity‐related molecules in HAM/TSP patients. In the present study, we examined the effect of curcumin on the gene expression of caspase‐8, caspase‐10, and anti‐apoptotic protein c‐FLIP, in HAM/TSP patients. Furthermore, we compared the expression of these molecules between HAM/TSP and asymptomatic carriers. Real‐time PCR was performed to examine the mRNA expression of caspase‐8, caspase‐10, and c‐FLIP in studied groups. The mRNA expression of caspase‐8 and caspase‐10 was similar before and after curcumin treatment in HAM/TSP patients (P > 0.05). The mRNA expression of c‐FLIPL and c‐FLIPs was higher after curcumin treatment compared with before treatment and significant differences were observed between the two groups (P = 0.004 and P = 0.044, respectively). The mRNA expression levels of caspase‐8, caspase‐10, c‐FLIPL, and c‐FLIPs were not statistically significant between HAM/TSP patients and asymptomatic carriers (P < 0.05).


In binary classification problems, mainly two approaches have been proposed; one is loss function approach and the other is uncertainty set approach. The loss function approach is applied to major learning algorithms such as support vector machine (SVM) and boosting methods. The loss function represents the penalty of the decision function on the training samples. In the learning algorithm, the empirical mean of the loss function is minimized to obtain the classifier. Against a backdrop of the development of mathematical programming, nowadays learning algorithms based on loss functions are widely applied to real-world data analysis. In addition, statistical properties of such learning algorithms are well-understood based on a lots of theoretical works. On the other hand, the learning method using the so-called uncertainty set is used in hard-margin SVM, mini-max probability machine (MPM) and maximum margin MPM. In the learning algorithm, firstly, the uncertainty set is defined for each binary label based on the training samples. Then, the best separating hyperplane between the two uncertainty sets is employed as the decision function. This is regarded as an extension of the maximum-margin approach. The uncertainty set approach has been studied as an application of robust optimization in the field of mathematical programming. The statistical properties of learning algorithms with uncertainty sets have not been intensively studied. In this paper, we consider the relation between the above two approaches. We point out that the uncertainty set is described by using the level set of the conjugate of the loss function. Based on such relation, we study statistical properties of learning algorithms using uncertainty sets.


FURTHER READING Eastman Kodak Company (1977). Kodak Professional Photoguide, by Professional and Finishing Markets Division. Kodak Techbits (Summer, 1988). New Photographic Possibilities through the Use of Scanning Photomacrography, pp. 7–11. Stroebel, L. (1967, second edition, 1972). View Camera Technique. New York: Hastings Houise. Th e Professional Photo Source Book, by B&H, self-published in New York, (1998)


Roselle, water melon and grape juice are excellent sources of vitamin C. The shelf life of most fresh fruit juices stored under room temperature is very short. The use ofAframomum danielli (A. danielli) as a preservative is not known. Roselle juices processed at 1:1 and 1:2 with or without A. danielli of 15% concentration were stored for two weeks at room temperature and evaluated for chemical properties and sensory attributes. Sensory evaluation of the juices were done by a 10 membered panel randomly selected from male and female adults. At zero day of storage, roselle grape juice of 1:2 ratio with A. danielli was significantly higher in total solids (0.637%) and ash content (0.072%). The vitamin C content of roselle-water melon juice of 1:2 ratio with A. danielli was higher at p<0.01. At one week of storage, there was a decrease in ash, specific gravity and vitamin C content of the juice. Roselle grape juice of 1:2 ratio with A. danielli was higher in ash (0.0675%). The vitamin C content of roselle-water melon of ratio 1:2 with A. danielli (17.125%) was significantly higher. At two weeks of storage, there was a drop in ash, specific gravity and vitamin C content of the juices. Higher sensory scores were given to roselle based sample with A. danielli at 0, one and two weeks of storage. Roselle grape juice of ratio 1:2 with A. danielli was rated high in general acceptability at zero and one week of storage. In summary roselle grape juice of ratio 1:2 with A. danielli had acceptable nutrient and sensory qualities at one week of storage. Beyond one week, the preservative potential of Aframomum danielli at 15% concentration was low.

 Key words: Roselle juice, A. danielli, preservation, water melon juice, grape juice.


Celiac disease is known as gluten-sensitive enteropathy. By enteropathy it simply means it is pathology of the gastrointestinal tract and that is why diarrhea (a common GI symptom) is usually one of the commonest presentations of celiac disease. So, it is safe to define celiac disease as an autoimmune disorder that mainly afflicts the small intestine. By autoimmune authors are referring to a disorder in which the body's immune system works against the body itself. It is a chronic disorder where the sufferer is not able to tolerate gliadin, which is the alcohol soluble component of gluten. Gluten of course is a protein that is usually found in common foods like barley and wheat. Celiac disease which can also be regarded as celiac sprue has a genetic and immunological aspect to its etiology both of which would need to be considered when screening anyone for celiac disease.


This article first presents a general numerical procedure for computing the probability of outage of a cellular mobile radio system that is equipped with a smart antenna to suppress a few strongest co-channel interferers out of a total of N/sub 1/ active interferers by adaptive null-steering. Aside from the interference-limited case, refined outage criterions that either treat receiver noise as co-channel interference (CCI) or consider a minimum detectable receiver signal threshold are studied. Exact closed-form formulas for both the basic and refined outage criterions are also derived by assuming that all the CCI signals are subject to Nakagami-m fading (positive integer fading index). Selected numerical examples are provided to illustrate the application of the theory which include the investigation into the effects of fade distribution of the CCI signals and traffic loading on the outage probability, and also the study of spectrum utilization efficiency improvement using a selective co-channel interference nulling technique.


Corneal pigmentation deposition has been reported in many systemic diseases. These include the lysosomal diseases, Wilson disease, amyloidosis, multiple myeloma, cystinosis, and hemochromatosis. These underlying conditions must be considered in the differential diagnosis of corneal deposits, as they might be treatable. We focus on an unusual case of corneal iron deposit ion in a patient with acquired hemochromatosis.


A pulse radiolysis technique has been used to measure the UV spectra of CH 3 SCH 2 and CH 3 SCH 2 O 2 radicals over the range 225-350 nm. At 285 nm, σ(CH 3 SCH 2 )=(9.8±1.7)×10 -18 ; at 250 nm, σ(CH 3 SCH 2 O 2 )= (4.3±0.7)×10 -18 cm 2 molecule -1 . Observed self-reaction rate constants, defined as -d[CH 3 SCH 2 ]/dt= 2k 6 [CH 3 SCH 2 ] 2 and -d[CH 3 SCH 2 O 2 ]/dt=2k 7obs [CH 3 SCH 2 O 2 ] 2 , were k 6 =(3.0±0.6)×10 -11 and k 7obs =(7.9±1.4),×10 -12 cm 3 molecule -1 s -1


The paper discussed the extraction of chitosan and the applications of chitosan to the control of the environmental pollution,such as the industrial foul water and the radioactive contamination.The advantages are that chitosan being as natural macromolecular compound has good effect of the pollution control and could be used repratedly.


Using sociomateriality as an ontological foundation, this study examined how best-practice knowledge is communicated in an organizational network in which the actors are both people and artifacts. ...


Abstract An automated method for the measurement of ammonium ions in Kjeldahl digests and 1M sodium chloride extracts of soils (for the determination of total nitrogen and cation exchange capacity respectively) is described. The method is based on the nitroprusside catalysed indophenol reaction, and using a 'Technicon AutoAnalyzer II' analysis rates of 100/h are possible. Results from 50 soils agreed well with results obtained by a standard distillation-titration technique.


Through case study research, this chapter discusses some of the challenges Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector face in identifying and adopting Ambient Intelligence (AmI) technologies to improve their operations. Ambient Intelligence technologies are also known as Pervasive computing or Ubiquitous computing, and we include the descriptions of these terms when we refer to AmI technologies. Our study includes case studies of three Australian ABSTRACT


This thesis explains why immigration detention persists as part of Australia's immigration policy. It argues that this form of incarceration has a long history in Australia, and that it fulfils specific social and political functions. The thesis also demonstrates that immigration detention is punitive and therefore breaches Australia's constitution.


This article concerns the influence of the physical characteristics of 18 fine mineral additions on water requirement, agglomeration and packing density of pastes. The main objective is to determine the principal parameters controlling their use in concrete mixtures. A standard Vicat test and, a new and simple test based on agglomeration of fine particles by capillary forces of a water drop, are used to determine the water requirement and the packing density. The influence of high-range water-reducing admixture is also studied. Results show that fine mineral additions unfavourably influence the water requirement and the packing density of cement mixtures in two cases. The first case concerns additions with irregular shaped particles, which lead to loose granular structures and very high water requirement. Both Vicat and 'single drop' tests could determine a critical threshold for water requirement. The second case concerns blended mixtures with a low cement content, where the cement–addition particles int...


This paper reports some of the results of a study into the development of procedural understanding for preuniversity students in South Africa. A number of students (n=237) in a science foundation year were given a preand post-test on their views of the quality of empirical data. This paper presents the analysis of one representative question about the use of control groups in biological experiments. Between, the pre- and post-test students had done practical work involving the use of control groups. Results show that students' procedural understanding improves especially with respect to recognition that the control group is part of the experiment. However, students approach the data from the control group in a variety of ways. This leads us to the conclusion that teaching should aim to ensure that students not only learn to recognize the purpose of an experiment, but should also be explicitly taught what a control group is, and how the results for the control group should be evaluated; thereby learning to...


A control system. An apparatus having a motor; a host processor for generating a message containing motor control information; a control board for receiving the message and for transmitting a command, corresponding to the message, to the motor; and a communications medium coupling the host processor and the control board. The communications medium supports a first communications path and a second communications path. The first communications path is for transmitting messages from the host processor to the control board. The second communications path is for transmitting messages from the control board to the host processor.


A London hospital's refusal to allow a seriously ill 5 year old girl to travel to Italy for treatment is a breach of her right to free movement under European Union law and to religious freedom under the European Convention on Human Rights, the High Court has been told.

Tafida Raqeeb has serious and irreversible brain damage and is on life support at the Royal London Hospital after an arteriovenous malformation rupture in February. Barts Health NHS trust, which runs the Royal London, argues that treatment is futile and that it would be in her best …


Adina microcephala which belongs to the family Rubiaceae is widely distributed in Africa. It is used in African traditional medicine for the treatment of diarrhoea and other stomach or digestive tract problems. A microcephala stem bark was collected, identified, dried and pulverized. The pulverized plant material was subjected to Soxhlet extraction using petroleum ether (60-80°C), chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol. The ethyl acetate extract was subjected to further purification by chromatographic techniques to yield a compound labeled R1 which was then fully characterized as 2, 4dihydroxycinnamic acid using IR, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques.


This paper investigates the determinants of vertical integration. We rst derive a number of predictions regarding the relationship between technology intensity and vertical integration from a simple model with nancial imperfections and incomplete contracts. Then, we investigate these predictions using plant-level data for the UK manufacturing sector. Most importantly, and consistent with theory, we nd that the technology intensities of downstream (producer) and upstream (supplier) industries have opposite e ects on the likelihood of vertical integration. Also consistent with theory, both these e ects are stronger when the supplying industry accounts for a large fraction of the producer's costs. These results are generally robust and hold with alternative measures of technology intensity, with alternative estimation strategies, and with or without controlling for a number of rm and industry-level characteristics. JEL: L22, L23, L24, L60.


Aim: To characterization of the diameter distribution and prediction of Weibull parameters of a plantation-grown Eucalyptus species. Study design: Stratified sampling method was adopted, in which the plantation was stratified into four age series. Place and duration of study: Afaka Forest Reserve, one month. Methodology: Fifty (50) sample plots of 20 x 20 m were laid across the age series. In each of the plot, all the trees were counted and data of variable of interest was collected and processed. A separate Weibull distribution is fitted to the diameter at breast height (dbh) frequency data from each of the plot for the estimation of Weibull parameters (location, scale and shape). The data set obtained from the Weibull parameter estimate was then used to develop regression equations with the stand variables. Coefficient of Determination (R2) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was used as goodness of fit test. Results: The result on the stand characteristics revealed that, the mean diameter at breast height (dbh) ranges between 13.4 – 18.2 cm across the four stands. This indicates that the species are still of pole sizes. The average site productivity of the species ranges between 24.0 m to 37 m at an index of 25 years. The mean Basal area varies between 14.13 to 26.85 m2 per ha, while the Original Research Article Saka; AJRAF, 7(3): 1-13, 2021; Article no.AJRAF.69899 2 average tree total height ranges between 24.6 to 28.2 m across the four species. The result on diameter class distribution shows that most of the species fell within dbh class of 11 -20 cm class except E. cloeziana in which the highest frequency fell into 16 – 20cm dbh class. Best equation were selected for each of the Weibull parameters (α, β, γ) per species based on fit statistics. The formation of straight line pattern from the plotted normal probability plots indicates the adequacy of the selected models for predicting Weibull parameters. A fluctuation pattern exists between the Weibull parameters and the stand characteristics. this may be due to variation in climatic factor, most especially fluctuations in rainfall pattern in the area at that particular period. Conclusion: The ease of fit and high value of coefficient of determination of the models in this study has re-affirmed the use of Weibull parameter in prediction of stand characteristics as been suggested by many authors in the literature.


In the 20 years since the writer reviewed the genus Turbinella in the New World (Vokes, 1964; 1966) there have been many changes in the age assignments of the formations in which the various species occur.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopment disorder. Clinical decision-making process is complex. Due to complex nature of disease sign and its symptoms clinical decision making may lead to misclassification. To deal with such complex medical problems methods or approaches of soft computing play an important role. This paper will focus on presenting an integrated Neuro-fuzzy model. This integrated model has the learning strength of neural network and knowledge representation ability of fuzzy logic. Modified Adaptive Neuro –Fuzzy inference system (M-ANFIS) is used here for classification and predication. Here Fuzzy C-mean (FCM) Clustering is used first to make classes of data before presenting in to ANFIS. This FCM based class will reduce the classifier computational overhead. Precision error and recall, F-measure and accuracy matrices are used to compare the experimental results with other classic methods.


We investigate the velocity statistics by calculating the Biot-Savart velocity induced by vortex filaments in steady counterflow turbulence investigated in a previous study [H. Adachi, S. Fujiyama, and M. Tsubota, Phys. Rev. B 81, 104511 (2010).]. The probability density function (PDF) obeys a Gaussian distribution in the low-velocity region and a power-law distribution ${v}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ in the high-velocity region. This transition between the two distributions occur at the velocity characterized by the mean intervortex distance. Counterflow turbulence causes anisotropy of the vortex tangle, which leads to a difference in the PDF for the velocities perpendicular to and parallel to the counterflow.


This paper presents the method of research and measurement of macrobending attenuation, present during alteration of geometrical system of optical fibre loop. Presentation of a measuring device, which allows to unifying measurements in (under) conditions close to those present in industrial constructions of devices. Annexed exemplary research of macrobending loss in systems deforming optical fibre loops made from various types of optical fibres.


The unrivaled strength of mathematical notation is its utility in describing, manipulating, and analyzing patterns. If a notational construction of mathematical gears and levers replicates patterns exhibited by a black box—an amoeba or a cyclotron, for example—then we are given to imagining that we have built a simulator for the mechanism inside the box. And yet mathematical notation is so facile we soon discover that there are many notational constructions that can, to one degree or another, replicate the pattern, each one giving a different view of what's in the box. How are we to select one over all the others? "Pick the one that is the best fit for our purpose" is an obvious, if slightly evasive, answer. If our purpose is to understand the mechanism exhibiting the pattern, then we would favor mathematical descriptions that were based on our current understanding of the mechanism. For example, if the pattern was the number of barrels of flour produced per day by a grist mill, then our mathematical construction would probably include the radius of the water wheel and the flow rate of the river that drives it. Our construction would probably not include the number of letters in the last name of the farmer whose grain was being ground. If, on the other hand, our purpose was solely to reconstruct the pattern, then we need not posit or be constrained by hypotheses about the box's inner workings. In our mill example, if the number of letters in the farmer's last name markedly improved our barrels-per-hour estimate, then there would be no reason not to use it in our mathematical description of the pattern. While there are certainly other motivations for describing patterns mathematically, understanding and prediction are two that are frequently encountered. With regard to just these two, the gold ring is thought to be mathematical constructions that yield the deepest insight and the most accurate prediction. Indeed, one might say that the working assumption of the use of mathematics in science is that insight and prediction are two sides of the same coin; that the accuracy of the prediction is a reliable measure— some might argue the only true measure—of the depth of the insight embodied in the construction.


Understanding the source of differences in first year students' engagement would benefit retention and completion rates. Meaningfulness and belonging play important roles in meeting psychological needs and driving student engagement. Academic momentum enhances learning autonomy and may also contribute to engagement. The present study aimed to distinguish groups of first year students based on their level of engagement and compare these groups on meaningfulness, belonging, and academic momentum. A total of 390 first year university students completed an online questionnaire and latent class analysis revealed a two group solution to the data based on engagement levels. The higher engagement group were found to be higher in meaningfulness, belonging, and academic momentum. Higher engagement was related to deferred study, mature age, and higher average study hours. Results suggest an institutional focus on student's autonomous learning via meaningfulness, belonging, and life experience would contribute to student engagement and learning success.


The rapid increase in intra-industry trade (IIT) between the EU15 and Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European (CESEE) countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union indicates a structural change in the nature of trade in CESEE and a new process of transition and real convergence to the EU. Using a product-level trade flows database and employing linear and non-linear panel data specifications, this paper assesses the determinants of intra-industry trade between the EU15 as the main trading block and CESEE, which are further divided into the JEL Classification: F14, F15, F10


Skeletalmetastases can be detected with the multicrystal scintillation camera after administration of 85Sr nitrate, 100, Ci, or Na 18F, 1000, Ci. Tracer levels in bone are quantified by the digital recording system of the camera. The most sensitive method of data analysis is measurement of the highest net count per two hundred seconds. Normal values of this parameter are presented for 85Sr measured in 26 subjects without skeletal metastases. Two alternative methods, quantitative color scintiphotography and the 200-second accumulation interval, are less sensitive indicators of abnormal tracer concentration.


Learning in a multi-agent system is difficult because the learning environment jointly created by all learning agents is time-variant. This paper studies the model of multi-agent learning in complete-information extensive games (CEGs). We provide two provably convergent algorithms for this model. Both algorithms utilize the special structure of CEGs and guarantee both individual and collective convergence. Our work contributes to the multi-agent learning literature in several aspects: 1. We identify a model of multi-agent learning, namely, learning in CEGs, and provide two provably convergent algorithms for this model. 2. We explicitly address the environment-shifting problem and show that how patient agents can collectively learn to play equilibrium strategies. 3. Many game-theoretical work on learning uses a technique called fictitious play, which requires agents to build beliefs about their opponents. For our model of learning in CEGs, we show it is true that agents can collectively converge to the sub-game perfect equilibrium (SPE) by repeatedly reinforcing their previous success/failure experience; no belief building is necessary.


This paper investigates the optimization on the energy efficiency of dynamically clustering for naturally scattering deployed cluster-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The nodes deployment would be approximated Gaussian distributed in large area for naturally scattering senior nodes. Thus, in this paper we based on the numerical results in previous works and further proposed a dynamically clustering scheme to improve the lifetime for large area WSNs. Simulation results show that the proposed dynamically distributed clustering scheme outperforms conventional LEACH scheme with lower scattering circumstances.


To reach >50 Gb/s bit data rates using 850nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) at distances up to a few hundred meters, narrow spectrum single mode VCSELs are used to avoid negative influence of the chromatic dispersion that can significantly limit performance beside the mode dispersion. Currently available single-mode VCSELs suffer from small oxide aperture diameter, and thus from higher resistances and lower powers. Oxide–confined apertures in VCSELs can be engineered such that the design promotes leakage of the high order transverse optical modes from the non–oxidized core region into the selectively oxidized periphery of the device. This novel leaky VCSEL approach may allow fabrication of single-mode VCSELs with significantly larger oxide apertures, improving the performance of the single-mode VCSELs. In this paper, we investigate the high speed transmission over long distance multimode fiber using single mode 850nm leaky VCSELs.


IN 1972, three states, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, recognized the need to give special attention to the serious soil erosion problems in the Pacific Northwest. Each state independently submitted a project proposal to the Congress for federal funding. Similarities in the proposals prompted the Congress to ask that the three states submit a single, joint proposal. What developed was a tri-state multidisciplinary, interagency research effort termed STEEP—Solutions to Environmental and Economic Problems.

Since the initial appropriation by the Congress in 1976, STEEP has funded, in part, the work of 55 scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the three state agricultural experiment stations. The result has been a concentrated effort to seek solutions to soil erosion problems in the Pacific Northwest ( 1 ).

Why success?

Several factors are responsible for the success of STEEP. A key was the influence of producer groups in obtaining congressional funding. The continued support of those groups is maintained by using them to evaluate and monitor research progress and to identify research priorities.

The multidisciplinary approach involved in STEEP is another factor. Scientists from as many as 10 disciplines work together on joint projects. This has improved the research and demonstrated to …


This research intends to reduce an electric vehicle's (EV) losses and increase its driving range by implementing a hybrid Energy Management Strategy (EMS). Various experimental procedures are used to determine the precise characteristics of an Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM). An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is formed to replicate the motor-inverter system. The longitudinal model of the vehicle is used to quantity the necessary kinetic energy on the axle to drive the automobile. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used in this study to determine the optimal operating criteria which need minimal force on the axles and ensure reduced power loss in the EV's electronics. When compared to the most frequently investigated driving cycle, WLTP, the outcome is an EMS that optimizes speed profile and saves energy by 9%.


The mode-locking stability of a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire is investigated by a newly developed real-time spectrum analyzer, which can seamlessly acquire the time-domain signals and provide time-varying power spectrum.


Abstract The paper documents the gestation of the General Index to Piero Sraffa's edition of The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. The available documents suggest that Sraffa made every effort to bring the editorial task he had been entrusted with to completion without sacrificing his standards of precision. They also show that he had good reasons for rejecting earlier versions of the General Index.


In aviation, components are categorized based on the consequences of a failure. This categorization significantly determines the development costs, test quantities and maintenance cost. A simulation can show how serious such a failure can be and thus simplify the classification of the components and finally may reduce costs. This paper describes the simulation of the undamped extension of a nose landing gear of an aircraft. Normally, a hydraulic cylinder is used to extend the landing gear in a controlled manner. The simulation will investigate what happens when this hydraulic cylinder fails completely. Then the landing gear drops down when opening the flaps simply due to its own weight and pushes hard into its end stop. The simulation should show, if afterwards a safe landing is possible.