Teaching and learning activities Japanese listening skills need the motivation to support learning. However, learning motivation sometimes fluctuates, and the use of learning methods and media is not precise. This  study aims to analyze the level of motivation and listening ability of students after using anime learning media. This study used a qualitative method with a note-taking technique and the sample used in this study are 16 students Departement of Japanese language in Bandung State West Java. The results of data showed that the use of anime in listening comprehension learning was able to increase learning motivation and listening skills. This is evidenced by the activities carried out by students when learning takes place and the value of assignments obtained by students has increased.


RESUMEN This research was conducted in the district of El Rosal (Cun dinamarca) in a Typic Hapludand soil and sought to evaluate the effect of foliar and soil applications of different doses of manganese (Mn) (0, 1, 2 and 3 kg ha -1 ) on the potential yield of the Criolla Colombia cultivar. Sulphate Mn granules (Microman ® ) and chelated Mn (MF-Mn ® ) were used as sources. We used a split-plot, randomized complete block design with four replications per treatment. The variables studied were: weight and number of tubers per category. The results show that the application of both soil and foliar Mn exerts a positive response in the criolla potato, with increases of 52% in commercial yield and more than 100% in first category yield with respect to traditional fertilization. The optimal dose is between 1.5 to 2.0 kg ha -1 for both soil and foliar Mn, with an economic optimum between 0.8 to 1 kg ha -1 Mn, edaphically applied. The results showed no differences between the techniques of foliar and soil application for yield potential, but did for number of tubers. Esta investigacion se realizo en el municipio de El Rosal (Cundinamarca), en un suelo Typic Hapludand y tuvo como objetivo evaluar el efecto de la aplicacion edafica y foliar de diferentes dosis de Manganeso (Mn) (0, 1, 2 y 3 kg ha -1 ) sobre el potencial de rendimiento del cultivar Criolla Colombia. Como fuente se aplico Sulfato de Mn granulado (Microman ® ) y Quelato Mn (MF-Mn ® ). Se utilizo el diseno de parcelas divididas con bloques completos al azar y cuatro repeticiones por tratamiento. Las variables evaluadas fueron: peso y numero de tuberculos por categorias. Los resultados muestran que la aplicacion de Mn tanto edafico como foliar ejerce una respuesta positiva en el cultivo de papa criolla, con incrementos de un 52% en el rendimiento comercial y mas del 100% en el rendimiento de categoria primera con respecto a la fertilizacion tradicional. La dosis optima esta entre 1.5 a 2.0 kg ha -1 de Mn tanto edafico como foliar, con un optimo economico entre 0.8 a 1.0 kg ha -1 de


This article takes a close look at the Indian Software Industry which has been growing at a phenomenal pace over the past 15 years. The concepts discussed in this paper draw on a range of contemporary research and thought on entrepreneurship and strategy. Further, the paper is based on detailed interviews conducted with owners, managers and even clients of successful Indian software firms. The interviews included both structured questions and open-ended discussions. The paper draws the conclusion that organisations which are active in services projects with a fair amount of domain knowledge can be successful in their foray to product development in related domains. With an increasing number of Indian IT companies moving towards productisation, there is a very good opportunity to collect relevant data and to conduct research on issues relating to development and marketing of software products. It is anticipated that the current slowdown in the world economy will affect the smaller IT firms much more than their larger counterparts. The larger companies have a lower cost structure and on the other hand, the smaller firms do not enjoy economies of scale. Some of these smaller firms are mimicking large firms and are investing in developing software products.


We have developed Y2O3:Al2O3 (YAlO) composites to simplify the architecture of superconducting YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) thick films on polycrystalline metal substrates. By implementing the use of YAlO, we have reduced the total number of non-superconducting layers between the polycrystalline metal substrate and the YBCO film from five (as in the standard architecture used by industry) to three. The YBCO films grown on this simplified platform exhibited an in-plane mosaic spread of less than 4° in full width at half-maximum, correlated pinning centered at , and an α value (the proportionality factor of the critical current density H − α) of around 0.38 over the field range of 0.1–1.0 T. We believe that the excellent structural stability at high temperatures and the exceptional chemical inertness in an oxidizing environment make YAlO a good choice for use in the growth of biaxially oriented MgO and subsequent buffer and superconducting layers.


In this paper, we analyses heart beat data to identify subjects stress state (binary) using heart rate variability (HRV) features extracted from heart beat data of the subjects and implement supervised machine learning techniques to create the mental stress classifier. There are four steps need to be done: data acquisition, data processing (HRV analysis), features selection, and machine learning, before doing performance measurement. There are 56 features generated from the HRV Analysis module with several of them are selected (using own algorithm) after computing the Pearson Correlation Matrix (p–values). The results of the list of selected features compared with all features data are compared by its model error after training using several machine learning techniques: support vector machine, decision tree, and discriminant analysis. SVM model and decision tree model with using selected features shows close results compared to using all recording by only 1% difference. Meanwhile, the discriminant analysis differs about 5%. All the machine learning method used in this works have 90% maximum average accuracy.


LIN6 is anew protocol thatsupportsmobility for IPv6. It supports two distincthand-off mechanismsto accommodatevarious securityneeds.In this paper , we evaluatea prototypeimplementation of LIN6 andanalyzeits performanceduring hand-off. Our resultsshow thatLIN6 can complete a hand-off in about 50 milliseconds. We feel that this level of performanceis adequateeven for voice applications if supplementedby suitableerrorcorrection mechanisms.Fromourexperiments,wealsofind outthat thecurrent IPv6specificationsdonotadequatelysupport fastmobility .


Cytogenetic studies of cultured amniocytes demonstrated a karyotype of 46, XX/47, XX,+mar. A bisatellited, dicentric, distamycin‐DAPI negative, NOR‐positive marker was present in 76 per cent of the metaphases examined. Similar markers have been associated with cat eye syndrome (CES). We report on the utilization of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with a 14/22 a‐satellite probe and a chromosome 22‐specific cosmid for locus D22S9 to determine the origin of the prenatally detected supernumerary marker chromosome. FISH studies demonstrated that the marker is a derivative of chromosome 22 and enabled us to provide the family with additional prognostic information.


The rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) not only brings lots of benefits and convenience to people, but also poses many problems and threats to people's daily life. Among many challenges dealing with those problems, the most significant one is that it is difficult for people and even organizations to identify the types of devices connected to their internet. Under such circumstances, this research was aimed at using several machine learning (ML) algorithms, including Random forests, K-nearest neighbors (KNN), and Adaboosting, to address this challenge. This research mainly concentrated on the 46 kinds of pcap files of different devices in 1GB dataset provided by Professor Nick Feamster from the University of Chicago. To begin with, each pcap file was read as dataframe, then labeled and finally saved as csv files. Then all the data were divided into two categories: trainset (80%) and test set (20%). Finally, the method of grid research was used to select the best combination of features and parameters of each ML algorithm to achieve the best performance. Overall, the trainset and test set accuracy of our IoT device identification model is up to 99.9% and 99.2%, respectively.


Non-unitary evolution can give rise to novel steady states classified by their entanglement properties. In this work, we aim to understand the effect of long-range hopping that decays with r−α in non-Hermitian free-fermion systems. We first study two solvable Brownian models with long-range non-unitary dynamics: a large-N SYK2 chain and a single-flavor fermion chain and we show that they share the same phase diagram. When α>0.5, we observe two critical phases with subvolume entanglement scaling: (i) α>1.5, a logarithmic phase with dynamical exponent z=1 and logarithmic subsystem entanglement, and (ii) 0.5<α<1.5, a fractal phase with z=2α−12 and subsystem entanglement SA∝LA1−z, where LA is the length of the subsystem A. These two phases cannot be distinguished by the purification dynamics, in which the entropy always decays as L/T. We then confirm that the results are also valid for the static SYK2 chain, indicating the phase diagram is universal for general free-fermion systems. We also discuss phase diagrams in higher dimensions and the implication in measurement-induced phase transitions.


© 2021 Indian Journal of Medical Research, published by Wolters Kluwer Medknow for Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research Ecological interactions between different domains of life impact the balance of ecosystems and human health. This point is made with destructive clarity by the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-2. The pandemic has its origin as a zoonotic pathogen but its transmission pathway to humans is presently unknown1. As the pandemic progressed, it became clear that many other animals and in particular mammals, were secondary targets of the disease. Also, the presence of virus in sewage and waste water, and probably also in packaged frozen food, represents enormous reservoirs of virus loads and a potential for increased infections through evolution of more transmissable virus variants2. This will invariably affect the efficacies of both detection methods as well as the vaccines currently in use. Thus, to respond to the current challenges the world is facing, an integrated vision that humans, animals, the environment and climate are intricably linked is more important than ever3.


Cytoplasmic dynein-1 (dynein) is a microtubule-based motor protein that is essential for maintaining proper spatial and temporal organization of the cellular interior during both interphase and cell division. To do so, dynein carries out diverse functions including transport of intracellular cargos, organelle anchoring, mitotic spindle assembly and nuclear migration. To carry out these diverse functions, dynein is regulated by multiple factors including Lis1, dynactin and activating adaptors. In this thesis, I present interdisciplinary work investigating the mechanisms of regulation of dynein. In chapter 2, a combination of biochemistry, single-molecule assays and cryo-electron microscopy was used to investigate how yeast dynein is regulated by Lis1. Previous work showed that Lis1 binds directly to dynein's AAA+ motor domain and slows its motility by causing dynein to tightly bind microtubules. The work presented here revealed that in addition to this role, Lis1 can also induce dynein to weakly bind microtubules. The mode of regulation used by Lis1 is determined by the nucleotide state at dynein's third AAA domain and the stoichiometry of the Lis1-dynein interaction. Both modes of Lis1 regulation of dynein are required for dynein to position the mitotic spindle in yeast cells. In chapter 3, the mechanism of regulation of human dynein by Lis1 is investigated. Human dynein requires dynactin and an activating adaptor for directional long-distance movement on microtubules. The work presented here shows that Lis1


The present research work bases its content on the inclusion of environmental practices for the state contracting of the CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVA Y CONTABLE ESPECIALIZADA DE INGENIEROS - EJERCITO NACIONAL. Through the identification of the contracting modalities that are executed in the CENAC of INGENIEROS, it became necessary to include good environmental practices that allow supporting and proposing mechanisms and tools that mitigate the generation of environmental impacts to the environment. Through this, it was possible to identify the environmental verification documents and the environmental criteria that will be required in the procurement processes. This in order to demand that prospective bidders want to participate in the processes called by the CENAC of INGENIEROS that must comply with the environmental regulations stipulated in Colombia. It is hoped that through the implementation of environmental practices, CENAC de INGENIEROS will strengthen its contracting processes, as well as create an environmental awareness of the contracting chain, ranging from suppliers of the bidders to the awarded entity.


Except in the most trivial examples of inflammation, tissue is lost during the inflam matory process. This can result from the direct action of the injurious agent itself upon the living cells in its vicinity, e.g. the dermo-necrotic factor of staphylococci, or indirectly from ischaemia as a consequence of local vascular stasis or thrombosis. The replacement of the necrotic tissue by a living tissue requires two preconditions: the removal of the necrotic material by a combination of phagocytosis and enzymic digestion, both intra- and extra-cellular, and the presence of viable cells able to reproduce. Moreover, the reproduction of such viable cells and the formation of their corresponding extra-cellular secretions are dependent upon local and systemic fac tors, such as the persistence or otherwise of the original irritant, the ability of the local blood supply to adapt itself readily to the increased demands resulting from the metabolic activity of the proliferating cells, and the nutritional status of the organ ism. The replacement of lost tissue may be of two kinds:


The authors describe the differential enthalpies of solution of RbBr in water at 298.15{Kappa} measured in the molality range 0.1-5.0 mol kg/sup -1/. The experimental system was a Tian-Calvet calorimeter type adapted to this particular case and tested in previous works. From the experimental results the molality dependence of the relative apparent molar enthalpy Lphi (m) has been obtained up to 5.0 mol kg/sup -1/.


In the city area, soil for plant revegetation has been surrounded with concrete.The influence on growth of the plant was concerned due to shifting from acid soil to alkali soil by addition of the alkali material.On this research, we paid attention to the elution of alkali from concrete block, and aimed at the elucidation of the elution course.After the akatama soil was packed into container, the concrete block was set in center of container, and the change of the pH (H2O) of soil adjacent block was measured in every day.Moreover, another block was sunk in the plastic bucket filled with tap water, and the pH (H2O) of the water in the bucket was measured day by day.This experiment was conducted on three conditions.These are only tap water without concrete block, tap water was exchanged every day with concrete block, and tap water was not exchanged with concrete block.The pH (H2O) of soil at near the concrete block tended to rise, and the change of the pH (H2O) of soil in the moist soil tend to happened.In water, big rise of the pH (H2O) was occurred in the early stages, and the pH (H2O) was decrease gradually in late stage.


The main objective of this study is to investigate the relation- ship of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) with exchange rate and exchange rate volatility. The set of the determinants of FDI can be very large but exchange rate is one of the profound determinants. Nonetheless, exchange rates have become extremely volatile due to its fragility to adapt to the changes in domestic and international financial markets. In this study, time series data have been used for foreign direct investment, exchange rate, exchange rate volatility, trade openness and inflation from 1980-2010 for Pakistan. After collection of data on above stated variables, different time series econometrics techniques (unit root test, volatility analysis, cointegration technique and causality analysis) have been applied for the purpose of analysis. The results squeezed from the study demonstrate that FDI is positively associated with Rupee depreciation and exchange rate volatility deters FDI. Trade openness dramatically increases FDI while the premise doesn't hold for inflation as it is insignificant. The results of Granger causality test suggested that exchange rate volatility granger causes foreign direct investment but not vice versa.


Morphological and immunocytological changes of intermediate filaments of cultured human malignant glioma cells were studied by adding various growth factors or cytokines using stereoscopic high voltage electron microscopy operated at 1,000 kV. The gold-colloid immuno-cytochemical method was used to stain GFAP and vimentin. Growth rate of tumor cells increased when EGF, TGF-alpha, and PDGF administered and decreased when FGF, TNF, and CLN-IgG administered. Morphological changes of cells were not remarkable when EGF, PDGF, IL-1, and FGF were administered. The cytoplalsmic organellaes were damaged after administrating TNF and CLN-IgG to cells.


Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a combination of levodopa and virtual reality (VR)-based therapy for the enhancement of upper limb recovery following acute stroke. Methods: This was a pilot single-blinded case series of acute stroke patients with upper extremity hemiparesis randomised to standard care with concomitant administration of either levodopa alone (conventional therapy or control group) or combination therapy consisting of VR-based motivational visuomotor feedback training coupled with levodopa neuromodulation (combination therapy or VR group). Main clinical outcome measures were the Fugl-Meyer-Upper Extremity (FM-UE) assessment and Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). Kinematic measurements of the affected upper limb movement were evaluated as a secondary measure of improvement. Results: Of 42 patients screened, four were enrolled in the VR group and four in the control group, from which two patients dropped out during the trial. Patients receiving combination therapy had clinically significant improvements in FM-UE assessment scores of 16.5 points compared to a 3.0-points improvement among control patients. Similarly, ARAT scores of VR group patients improved by 15.3 points compared to a 10.0-points improvement in the control group. Corresponding improvements were noted in kinematic measures, including hand-path ratio, demonstrating improved quality of upper limb movement in the VR group. Conclusion: Our results suggest that VR-based therapy and pharmacotherapy may be combined for acute stroke rehabilitation. The bedside acquisition of kinematic measurements allows for an accurate assessment of the quality of limb movement, offering a sensitive clinical tool for quantifying motor recovery during the rehabilitation process after acute stroke.


High noise levels can lead to physiological, psychological, and performance effects in man, ranging from irritability, annoyance, and sleep interference to interference with verbal communication and fatigue, and to temporary or permanent threshold shift at more extreme levels. The current study evaluated the acoustic environment of the STS50/USML-1 mission. The major objectives were to gain subjective assessments of the STS-50 noise levels, document impacts of noise upon crewmember performance, collect inflight sound level measurements, compare noise levels across missions, evaluate the current Shuttle acoustic criterion, and to make recommendations regarding noise specifications for SSF and other long-duration manned space missions. Sound measurements indicated that background noise levels were 60, 64, and 61 A-weighted decibels, respectively, on the Orbiter middeck, flight deck, and Space lab. All levels were rated acceptable, with the Spacelab environment rated the most favorably. Sleep stations afforded attenuation from airborne noise sources, although all crewmembers reported being awakened by crew activity on the middeck. Models of distance for acceptable speech communications were generated, identifying situations of compromised verbal communications to be avoided.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) or corn gluten feed (CGF) as a replacement for soybean meal (SBM) in a Boer goat diet. A total of 75 meat goat kids (26.9 0.2 kg) were placed in 25 pens (3 kids per pen and 5 pens per treatment) for a 35-day experimental period at the Kansas State University Sheep and Meat Goat Center. Kids were allotted to one of the following isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets that varied in protein source: 1) SBM; 2) 100% DDGS/0% CGF; 3) 66% DDGS/33% CGF; 4) 33% DDGS/66% CGF; and 5) 0% DDGS/100% CGF. Diets were pelleted and supplied the sole source of nutrition. Goats and feeders were weighed weekly to determine ADG, ADFI, G:F, cost per kg of diet, and cost per kg of gain. Data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS (SAS Inst., Cary, NC) with pen serving as the experimental unit. Differences were considered significant if P0.05. Treatment did not impact BW (P = 0.999), ADG (P = 0.723), ADFI (P = 0.210), or G:F (P = 0.796; Table 2). While diet cost differed due to differences in price of soybean meal and the corn co-products, there was no evidence (P = 0.941) that cost per kg of gain was less for goats fed the corn co-products. However, feed cost per goat was less (P = 0.0008) with diets containing corn co-products, regardless of level. These data allow producers to make more informed feeding decisions with a broader understanding of potential implications of corn gluten feed use in goats.


This paper presents a multistage algorithm for the job shop scheduling problem (JSP). A theorem is proved that the calculability of a solution is the sufficient and necessary condition for its feasibility. Therefore, an infeasible solution will be discarded immediately and the improved critical path algorithm is applied to perform the local search for a feasible solution. The computational results of the standard benchmark problems achieved by the new multistage algorithm demonstrate that the algorithm obtains high-quality solutions within reasonable time.


This introduction presents the main common themes that join the works collected in the present special issue. The articles describe the origins of neoliberalism in Latin America in the context of the specific historical developments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Mexico. The five articles take a long period view emphasizing the main actors and their domestic and international networks during the XX century. JEL codes : B2


Gain, saturation and polarisation characteristics of a near-travelling-wave 1.5,μm BH semiconductor laser amplifier are reported. An internal cavity peak TE gain of 26.8 ± 0.5 dB with a gain ripple of 2.9 ± 0.1 dB, and TE saturation output power of 3.5±1.5dB at 22.2±0.5dB small-signal gain have been achieved.


More than 5000 rock structure sites are found in northeastern United States, but their cultural attribution has long been debated. Some argue than many are prehistoric in origin, while others maintain they all date to colonial times. Few have been dated, and of those that have, the association of the dated material and the rocks can be challenged. Here, we provide luminescence analysis on the rocks themselves at a large site in eastern Pennsylvania. Our results suggest an age coeval with the Adena culture of the Ohio Valley.


ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to provide new insights into the stability in water of the prepared feeds for echinoculture. The stability tests of four prepared feeds were carried out in laboratory in two different trials corresponding to different temperature levels (24°C and 19°C) and four different times of immersion (up to 72 h). Temperature and duration of immersion significantly affected the stability of feeds. Feed 1 was the most stable whereas Feed 3 was the least stable feed, as it started to dissolve in a few hours. Feed 2 and Feed 4 remained stable at 19°C all along the trial, whereas at 24°C remained intact for only 30 h. To optimize the echinoculture practice at temperature >19°C, we recommend a feeding regime at least 3 times a week, whereas at lower temperature we suggest an intermittent feeding regime.


Skid-mounted system accompanies work crews From May to September, 70 people work at a US Forest Service (USFS) camp at Petersburg, Alaska, 120 mi southeast of Juneau. They depend on surface water and, because they frequently camp and move through rough terrain, they need to be able to carry their treatment system with them. The USFS has bought three modular skid-mounted systems. Two are mounted on 4x 8-ft skids that have


The TM data of Beijing areas acquired on October 31, 2000 has been selected and the ETM data acquired on February 18, 2003. We take the images of Beijing city and the surrounding area in 2000 for example to compare the single band threshold method with Spectral Relations method and the Water Index for measuring surface water. The result shows that the Spectral Relations method is more effective than the other two methods in removing false water information in urban areas. And we use the same method to extract water information from the data of 2003, then obtain water dynamic change information in these three years. Using the density segmentation of water depth in Guanting Reservoir to estimate the Reservoir storage capacity. The Water pollution situation of the Dianchi Lake in Kunming and the Donghu in Wuhan has analyzed by using ETM data.


Nowadays, local oscillator is an essential component of the RF front-end. For market need, many kinds of wireless protocols have been setup, like IEEE 802.11b, UWB, WiMAX, IEEE 802.11n, etc. IEEE 802.11a is one of them using UNII band (5.15GHz ~ 5.35GHz,5.725GHz ~ 5.825GHz) and by OFDM to transmit data. This band allows high speed data communications (54Mbs), so becomes more attractive and fascinates more realization of wireless link and mobile communication, compared to the 2.4GHz (802.11b/g) counterpart.
 In wireless transceiver design, we often use a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit to synchronize the receiving signal and the receiving clock and then to analyze the signal. The PLL circuit used in wireless transceiver is called frequency synthesizer, or local oscillator. Frequency synthesizer is a very important component of RF circuit. And the design of a frequency synthesizer with agile settling speed, low phase noise and high frequency resolution has become a challenge.
 It has been well acknowledged that integration of an RF frequency synthesizer into a transceiver poses great challenge because the large dynamic range of the input signal and wide channel bandwidths have set stringent requirements for the synthesizer phase noise and spurious sideband levels. To cover such a wide tuning range and overcome the temperature and process variation, the voltage-controlled oscillator in a frequency synthesizer is the key point. Usually we need a low gain of VCO (KVCO). While techniques to avoid large KVCO have been developed, the characteristics of wide range and low sensitivity still cannot be realize concurrently in that high frequency of 5GHz. Voltage-controlled oscillator almost dominates the phase noise of a frequency synthesizer and determines the output frequency of frequency synthesizer. So it is the key point to design a good VCO.

This Thesis discusses the influence of the MASH Sigma-Delta Modulator (SDM) to the synthesizer output phase noise. The integrated fractional-N frequency synthesizer is implemented with a MASH 1-1-1 SDM. On one hand, better fractional and reference spurious suppression are achieved by randomizing the modulus of frequency dividers; on the other hand, the spurious noise can be pushed to a higher frequency and will be further filtered out by the PLL.


With the unprecedented growth of cross-border trade, a growing number of multinational firms have coped with logistical challenges of shipping products to and from unfamiliar territories in foreign soils. These logistical challenges include the cross-border transportation of products destined to inland regions isolated from major waterways. In particular, the lack of access to major waterways would not only constrain the intermodal transportation option, but also make the door-to-door, containerised delivery services very difficult. Such a limited option would eventually lead to increased transportation costs and transit time, and thereby discouraging international trade with land-locked countries such as Uzbekistan and Mongolia. To help multinational firms tackle the problem of determining the optimal transportation route to inland destinations in land-locked countries, this paper proposes an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)-based Decision Support System (DSS).


This paper proposes a fast path planning algorithm for complex 3D environments with many narrow passages, which is named Random Particles Boosted Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree(RP-RRT). This method is an improvement of the basic Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm, which is composed of preprocessing, random tree growth, collision checking and optimization. For preprocessing, random particles are uniformly distributed in the whole 3D collision-free space. Then, there are two phases in random tree growth. In the first phase, the generated particles are used to guide a random tree to grow out of the narrow passages within a few iterations. In the second phase, the basic RRT algorithm is used to extend that random tree to find the mission goal in 3D space. Simplified collision checking and optimization methods are used to reduce the consumption of computation resources. To demonstrate its efficiency and robustness, the proposed method is examined and compared with basic RRT algorithm in various practical complex 3D environments with narrow passages.


Our goal is to develop a syntactical apparatus for propositional logics in which the accepted and rejected propositions have the same status and are being treated in the same way. The suggested approach is based on the ideas of Ƚukasiewicz used for the classical logic and in addition, it includes the use of multiple conclusion rules. A special attention is paid to the logics in which each proposition is either accepted or rejected.


The soils of mulberry fields infected with and without root-rot, were examined to identify pedological causes, if any, in the incidences of root-rot in Nakhon Ratchasima of Northeast Thailand. The results obtained showed that the causes of mulberry root-rot were associated with topographical factors and physical and chemical properties of soils. Among them, the following factors were of particular significance: one was the location near the foot of a gentle concave slope, where water tends to stagnate; and the other was the existence of an impermeable layer in the subsoil, which interfered percolation of water to a lower part of the profile. These factors caused a serious air-deficiency under the extremely wet condition after heavy rainfalls. In addition, a large amount of exchangeable Al appeared to adversely affect the root growth. It is therefore concluded that the root-rot incidences in Northeast Thailand are closely related to pedological status. Discipline: Soils, fertilizers and plant nutrition Additional keywords: impermeable layer, physical and chemical properties, soil morphology, topography


Purpose: In recent years, various diagnostic methods, including culture, immunological detection, conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods, and microarray experiment have been applied for detection of Mycoplasma genitalium and Ureaplasma urealyticum infection. We assayed results of real time PCR and culture of variable clinical samples and evaluated various diagnostic indexes for assessing the clinical usefulness of the Accupower UU Real-Time PCR Kit (Bioneer Corp.) for detection of U. urealyticum/parvum. Materials and Methods: We surveyed 111 results of culture test and antibiotic sensitivity test of Ureaplasma spp. that were requested to the department of laboratory medicine, National Police Hospital from January to April 2011. The specimens of Ureaplasma spp. were collected from 97 uterine cervical swab samples, 13 urine samples, and one expressed prostate secretion sample. Real-time PCR and culture methods were performed using the Accupower UU Real-Time PCR Kit (Bioneer Corp.) and Mycoplasma IST2 Kit (BioMerieux). Results: The real-time PCR results showed that 80 clinical specimens were infected with U. urealyticum/parvum. These results were compared with those confirmed by microbiological culture. Compared with the culture, the diagnostic indexes (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value) of Accupower UU Real-Time PCR were 88.6%, 38.8%, 48.8%, and 83.9%, and the concordance between the Accupower UU Real-Time PCR Kit and the microbiological culture method was 58.5%. Conclusions: Accupower UU Real-Time PCR is a very valuable technique which can process analysis of a massive number of samples with high speed, high sensitivity and specificity, and a high detection rate, particularly for Ureaplasma spp.


Frequency converters are commonly used in drives with controlled rotational speed of three-phase induction motors. The power inverter built in the system is a component with varying impedance, is switched into the circuit between the supply source and the load. The load is subject to the assessment of reliability of shock protection. The internal setup of the power inverter causes that the shorting circuit is different from circuits with linear components. The difference relies on the impossibility to determine the instant short-circuit impedance. In the paper on the example of an industrial installation with built-in power inverter, made in accordance with current requirements of in-rule standards and internal regulations at the considered plant, an analysis of reliability of used measures for anti-shock protection during a fault was carried out.


It talks about the necessity, possibility and feasibility of the al translation from the cultural blending and permeating angle, and also gives some reasonable consideration. Finally the co-authors conclude that the strategy of alienation works better for effectively preserving and dissimilating the source language cultural peculiarity and heritage to the target reader.


We have developed pattern transfer process transferring a micro pattern of a planer mask onto a cylindrical surface of a tube-like structure. For this process, a rolling exposure system was constructed by modifying the conventional exposure system for IC fabrication process. The deposition process of thin photoresist on the cylindrical surface by using electrophoretic resist was also developed. The 20 μm line and space pattern could be transferred on the cylindrical surface of the 3 mm in diameter glass tube. The medical applications of this process are also described. A stent, one of the medical implements, has the tube-like 3 D structures. The process developed was used to fabricate the high performance stent. The complicated stent pattern was transferred on the cylindrical surface of a 5 mm in diameter Titanium tube, and the tube was etched through by using the pattern as a mask. This process was key technology to fabricate the high performance medical implements/instruments for minimally invasive treatment.


The flue gas desulfurization(FGD) technology used in thermal power plants is growing popularly and the flue gas in stacks is strongly corrosive,so that the corrosion protection of stacks becomes more and more important. Constructive comments of stack corrosion protection are proposed after analyzing corrosion environments,operating environments,and applications of anticorrosion materials in stacks and factors of design for stack protection.


The video coding standard H.264/JVT uses intra prediction and multi-block motion estimation to improve rate-distortion (RD) performance. However, full RD cost calculation for all intra-prediction modes and exhaustive searches for optimal motion vectors for all block sizes increases the computational complexity considerably with the number of prediction modes allowed. Wc propose an enhanced fast intra-prediction mode selection strategy based on edge mapping and a novel block segmentation approach to fast inter-prediction mode selection based on notion detail analysis, bearing in mind the full utilization of the already-available intermediate calculation results. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can efficiently reduce computational cost by about 43.3% and 84.7% respectively while maintaining similar visual quality and bit rate.


Hereditary cancer syndromes provide powerful insights into dysfunctional signaling pathways that lead to sporadic cancers. Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) is a hereditary human cancer stem cell syndrome currently linked to deregulated imprinting at chromosome 11p15 and uniparental disomy. However, causal molecular defects and genetic models have remained elusive to date in the majority of cases. The non-pleckstrin homology domain β-spectrin (β2SP) (the official name for human is Spectrin, beta, nonerythrocytic 1 (SPTBN1), isoform 2; the official name for mouse is Spectrin beta 2 (Spnb2), isoform 2), a scaffolding protein, functions as a potent TGF-β signaling member adaptor in tumor suppression and development. Yet, the role of the β2SP in human tumor syndromes remains unclear. Here, we report that β2SP+/− mice are born with many phenotypic characteristics observed in BWS patients, suggesting that β2SP mutant mice phenocopy BWS, and β2SP loss could be one of the mechanisms associated with BWS. Our results also suggest that epigenetic silencing of β2SP is a new potential causal factor in human BWS patients. Furthermore, β2SP+/− mice provide an important animal model for BWS, as well as sporadic cancers associated with it, including lethal gastrointestinal and pancreatic cancer. Thus, these studies could lead to further insight into defects generated by dysfunctional stem cells and identification of new treatment strategies and functional markers for the early detection of these lethal cancers that otherwise cannot be detected at an early stage.


Aims to provide an analysis of the introduction of Internet‐based skills into small firms. Seeks to contribute to the wider debate on the content and style of training most appropriate for employees and managers of SMEs.


Manuscript Number: PONE-D-14-21052R1 Article Type: Research Article Full Title: Polymorphisms of an Innate Immune Gene, Toll-Like Receptor 4, and Aggressive Prostate Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Short Title: TLR4 polymorphisms and aggressive prostate cancer Corresponding Author: Yen-Ching Chen, ScD Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Taipei, NA TAIWAN


Abstract Background Racial and ethnic minorities comprise an increasing proportion of the US population, and are disproportionately affected by HIV. Dyslipidemia is a key comorbidity in HIV due to high prevalence and demonstrated racial disparities in testing and treatment among non-HIV patients. Previous analysis has showed that HIV-positive African American (AA) patients were less likely to have had a lipid profile done and less likely to have been diagnosed with dyslipidemia than other racial groups. Methods Electronic medical records (EMR) identified 1,457 HIV patients from the HIV clinic at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan from March 2013 to November 2015. Race/ethnicity and gender were identified by self-report and then a retrospective EMR review of patients tested for, and documented ICD-9 codes for dyslipidemia was done. Descriptive analyses and group comparisons were performed between AA and other racial/ethnic groups. Results 1,220 HIV patients had lipid levels tested with 25.7% having dyslipidemia after HIV diagnosis. Among those, it was found that lipid abnormalities varied by race; on average, Hispanics, had lower total cholesterol (P = 0.040), AA patients had lower triglycerides (P < 0.001), and White patients had higher triglycerides (P > 0.001). HDL levels were higher in AA patients and lowest in White patients (P < 0.001), while Hispanics had lower LDL values (P-value 0.009). There was no statistically significant (P = 0.519) difference between the lipid lowering drug (LLD) group prescribed by race, and the type of dyslipidemia was the primary predictor of LLD provided to the patients (P < 0.001). Patients prescribed fibrates were statistically more likely to have met their ATP III treatment goals at 1 year as compared with statins, regardless of race (P = 0.005). The odds of meeting treatment goals were 54% (OR 0.46, CI 0.26–0.71) less among AA patients regardless of medication. Conclusion Dyslipidemia is prevalent in our HIV population. Racial differences in testing, lipid abnormalities and treatment outcomes among these vulnerable HIV minorities necessitate further investigation to close the gaps in care and improve our management of dyslipidemia for our HIV patients. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


Objective The reservoir of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) latently infected cells is the major obstacle for eradication of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Due to the noisy environment and multiple influencing factors in the organism, current dynamical models cannot reach a common understanding of the molecular mechanism of HIV latency. In this work, through a new dynamical structure decomposition, the deterministic part of the equation can be separated from the stochastic noise. Thus, the fixed-point analysis of ordinary differential equation is enough to obtain the different steady states of the system. Methods We established a dynamical model of HIV transcription process by using continuous stochastic differential equations, which simplifies the dimensions of equations needed to describe the system and increases the explorable space of the model. Different states between latency and activation of virus and their relations can be intuitively represented by potential functions and probability distribution functions. Results Based on our model, the influence of different dynamical parameters on stability is quantitatively analyzed, the parameter ranges of the system in bistable and monostable states are obtained respectively. The theoretical basis of this work is verified by comparing the effects of different factors on dynamic bifurcation with the results of biological experiments. Conclusion This paper goes beyond previous discrete stochastic methods, and can quantitatively analyze the dynamic mechanism of HIV transcriptional regulation through ordinary differential equations, which is beneficial to the promotion to deal with the high-dimensional situation, and further study the occurrence and development of AIDS in vivo, so as to guide the design of experiments and search for clinical treatment.


We present a case of 78 year old female, who was treated orally with ibandronic acid. It is widely accepted drug, used in osteoporosis treatment. After sev- eral months, she started to suffer because of thigh pain. She was diagnosed with impending atypical femoral fracture after following diagnostic protocol. Immediate discontinuation of further drug use and limited weight bearing on affected extremity, led to clinical improvement and pain relief. The patient avoided complete femoral fracture. The regression of changes was proved in SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography).


Russian banks are gaining increasing popularity among investors, usually both Russian and foreign, strategic as well as portfolio investors. Despite the fact that the demand is active and has led to the increase of banks' worth, investment opportunities still remain limited. While foreign strategists are buying up promising assets, all the market participants are waiting for the first banking IPOs as the first truly market-oriented deals.


A new machining method-arc envelope machining method for the free curved surface is proposed,and the generated errors (cusp) on the surface are simulated.In the arc envelope machining method a round profile tool is used and therefore the tool width can be used and the tool life can be prolonged,but the cusp is generated on the machined surface.The result of computer simulation shows that the cusp is decreased when the radius of the arc tool is enlarged and the traverse pitch is reduced.If the arc tool radius r=20 mm,traverse pitch Δl=0.1 mm,a cusp about 0.06 μm can be reached.


Immunotherapy for stage IV melanoma has dramatically changed the overall prognosis and treatment strategies. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether changes in systemic immunotherapy options have significantly altered surgical resection rates for patients with stage IV melanoma.


Recent studies have linked polymorphisms in serotonin receptors with obesity. We examined the −261 T/G polymorphism of the 5‐HT1B receptor gene and its relation to body mass index (BMI). The total population for this study consisted of normal body weight individuals (BMI ≤ 25 kg/m2) and obese individuals (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). Subjects were genotyped using DNA extracted from either blood samples or buccal swabs and PCR was used to amplify the regions surrounding the polymorphism. Restriction enzyme digests using Pas I were then run on the PCR products, which produced fragments of different sizes depending on the genotype. Allele frequencies between groups were not significantly different for males or females (p=0.91 and p=0.96 respectively). Similarly, genotypes of the 5‐HT1B polymorphism for obese males (GG=20.7%, GT=51.7%, TT=27.6%; N=87) and normal body weight males (GG=21.6%, GT=51.1%, TT=27.3%; N=88) were not statistically different based on chi‐square statistical analysis (p=0.98). Genotypes of the 5‐HT1B polymorphism for obese females (GG=16.5%, GT=58.7%, TT=24.8%; N=121) and normal body weight females (GG=19.8%, GT=51.6%, TT=28.6%; N=91) were also not statistically different (p=0.59). All groups were within Hardy‐Weinberg equilibrium except for obese females (p=0.045).


Raju and colleagues did not elaborate on the established role of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in their clinical review of inherited cardiomyopathies.1

In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy such imaging allows accurate measurement of wall thickness, location of …


This chapter looks at the nature of the Latin poetry by Czech exiles which shows that it is primarily religious, and practised by Protestant clerics in particular. In some cases the effort to bring their works to the ears of the powerful led to an interesting form of publishing. One example is the hanging broadsheet in Latin and German by Jeremias Slovacius, Idea religionis orthodoxae sive emblema theologicum . Dedicated to the Swedish king Gustav Adolf and the Saxon Elector George, it is printed on green silk. The chapter then turns its attention to other authors of the Czech exile who portrayed Gustav Adolf in their Latin poetry. The most extensive panegyric of those examined is the work of Matthaeus Crocinovsky Collatio duorum celeberrimorum heroum, Augusti, Romanorum imperatoris, et Gustavi Magni, Sueciae regis . Keywords:Czech humanists; Gustav Adolf; Latin poetry; Protestant clerics; Swedish king


Under ballast mats (UBM) have demonstrated their capacity to reduce section stiffness and ballast degradation. However, UBM can cause ballast destabilisation under some circumstances due to excessive vertical track deflections, requiring the installation of geogrids over the mat which increases costs and time. As alternative to this solution, this paper shows the design of GridMat: a sustainable technology for ballasted railways that combines the concepts of geogrids and under ballast mats (UBM) manufactured from recycled crumb rubber. This aims to provide damping capacity while limiting the oscillations and settlement of ballast layer. To obtain the optimal GridMat design, five different configurations varying the aperture size and void areas were assessed through laboratory box tests reproducing the track section including the GridMat. Results showed that the optimal Gridmat was of 55 mm aperture seize and 25% void area. To evaluate the sustainability of this design, the expected number of conservation and renewal operations were calculated from full-scale laboratory tests and a life-cycle assessment and life-cycle cost analysis were undertaken. GridMat showed long-term reduction in ballast degradation and track settlement, reducing need for maintenance and renewal operations in comparison with standard mats.


The effect of H1 and H2 receptor‐blocking agents on antibody‐dependent cell‐mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) was studied. The H1 receptor blocker clemastinum and the H2 receptor blocker cimetidine dose‐dependently inhibited the antibody‐dependent cytotoxic activity of normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells on chicken erythrocytes. The inhibition cannot be explained either by a direct toxic effect on effector cells or by blocking of Fc receptors. The possible involvement of histamine receptor‐bearing effector cells in human ADCC is suggested.


Xenon-135 is the fission production, which can lead to the xenon spatial concentration distribution period oscillation with time in the thermal neutron reactors. The period of xenon oscillation is about 20 hr. Xenon oscillation is a three-dimension space-time problem, which is stimulated by the reactivity perturbation, for some of the control rods malfunction or operators' mistakes. And the power spatial oscillation will be triggered In this paper, the coupled code of three-dimension physics program (RMARK) and single-channel thermal-hydraulic program (THEATRE) is used to assess the axial xenon oscillation of a PWR. Meanwhile, a simplified xenon oscillation model is validated by the coupled code, the result indicates the simplified model is reasonable in simulating xenon oscillation.


Multi-hop car to car communications are useful for supporting many vehicular applications that provide drivers with safety and convenience ranging from office on the wheel to real traffic query, vehicle safety, parking space searching and on-road advertisement. Developing multi-hop communication in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) is a challenging problem due to the rapidly changing topology and frequent network disconnections, which cause failure or inefficiency in traditional ad hoc routing protocols. The problem of frequent network disconnections can be partially addressed using a carry-and- forward mechanism which may incur higher delay. However, our connectivity aware routing (CAR) protocol addresses this problem by selecting an optimal route with the least probability of network disconnection and avoids carry-and-forward delay. This can be achieved using our new probabilistic model of network connectivity which takes into account a more realistic clustering phenomenon of vehicle traffic in city scenarios that is caused by traffic lights. Our simulation results show that the proposed CAR protocol outperforms existing VANET routing protocols in terms of data delivery ratio, data packet delay and network throughput. In addition, CAR improves performance for both sparse and dense networks.


In recent years, the fabrication of hydrophobic surface has become a research hotspot. In this paper, three different patterns were fabricated successfully on the silicon wafers by lithography technology and the effects of dimension and interval parameters on surface wettability were the highlights in this study. Due to the different structural features, the overall average of linear pattern's contact angles were less than the overall average of grid pattern's contact angles and dot pattern's contact angles. What's more, the dimension parameters played a more important role than the interval parameters on the surface wettability. The smaller dimension of microstructure obviously preferred to have higher contact angle with better surface hydrophobic performance, especially when the size is less than 100μm. When the dimension of microstructure was 60μm, the contact angle were all larger than 90°, and some of them even reached the super-hydrophobic surface (larger than 150°).


Article analyses sources of financial risk, define uncertainty and risk developments, gives classification of risks is. Risks of financing of the innovative project and the business plan as a factor of decrease in innovative risk are shown.


M. sieboldii spp. juponica, living on restricted habitat, often forms small isolated populations. In order to evaluate the effect of genetic drift and other factors in determining genetic variation in these small populations, microsatellite genetic variation was compared among two remote mountain regions, the Ohmine and the Ishizuchi. Significant positive correlation between population size and genetic diversity and significant or nearly significant isolation-by-distance in each of the regions suggested that genetic drift was predominant in determining genetic variation within each of the regions in M. sieboldii, and that populations were at or near drift-gene flow equilibrium. However, these relationships differed among the regions, with low genetic diversity in the Ohmine populations. Although we could not determine the real factor changing the level of genetic variation among the regions, weaker and not strictly significant TBD in the Ishizuchi populations might suggest more frequent gene flow or recolonization processes in the Ishizuchi region, and narrower allele size ranges in the Ohmine might reflect historical bottlenecks. Moreover, an interruption of microsatellite repeat motifs a t one of the locus found in the Ohmine populations suggested different mutation rate at microsatellites among the regions.


Bisphosphonate pharmacokinetics may affect individual responses. Skeletal retention of pamidronate infused monthly to patients with bone metastases was highly variable (12‐98%) and did not diminish with time, showing the capacity of the skeleton to retain large amounts of bisphosphonate. Relationships between skeletal retention of pamidronate and rate of bone resorption are complex and depend on previous treatment and the total amount of retained bisphosphonate.


In real-world applications, such as loan approvals or claims management, machine learning (ML) models need to be updated or retrained to adhere to new rules and regulations. But how can a new model be built and new decision boundaries be formed without having new training data available? We present the AI Model Explorer and Editor tool (AIMEE) for model exploration and model editing using human understandable rules. It addresses the problem of changing decision boundaries by leveraging user-specified feedback rules that are used to pre-process training data such that a retrained model will reflect user changes. The pre-processing step uses synthetic oversampling and relabeling and assumes black-box access to the algorithm that retrains the model. AIMEE provides interactive methods to edit rule sets, visualize changes to decision boundaries, and generate interpretable compar-isons of model changes so that users see their feedback reflected in the updated model. The demo shows an end-to-end solution that supports the full update lifecycle of an ML model.


A ceramic heat-exchanging plate (100, 200) and ceramic heat-exchanging core (900) assembled thereby; the ceramic heat-exchanging core (900) comprises a sealing strip (3) and the ceramic heat-exchanging plate (100, 200); a plurality of ceramic heat-exchanging plates A (100) and a plurality of ceramic heat-exchanging plates B (200) are alternately laminated; edge sealing strips (3) are arranged in top-surface linear grooves (43) of the ceramic heat-exchanging plates A (100) and bottom-surface linear sealed grooves (44) of the ceramic heat-exchanging plates B (200); edge sealing strips (3) are arranged in top-surface linear grooves (43) of the ceramic heat-exchanging plates B (200) and bottom-surface linear sealed grooves (44) of the ceramic heat-exchanging plates A (100); a plurality of ceramic heat-exchanging plates A (100), a plurality of ceramic heat-exchanging plates B (200) and a plurality of sealing strips (3) are assembled as the ceramic heat-exchanging core (900); and the ceramic heat-exchanging core (900) is sintered into an integrated body. The present invention has a reasonable structure, is convenient to manufacture, improves air impermeability, corrosion resistance and abrasion resistance of a product, and greatly extends a service life of the product.


The application situation of divided fixed jaw of jaw crusher in Baiyinnuoer Leadzinc Mine is summarized, which reduced the usage of liners and crushing cost, improved the economic profit, and obtained good effect.


This guide is designed fvr federal executives and managers who have a responsibility for the planning and management of software projects and for federal staff members who are affected by, or involved in, making software changes, and who need to be aware of steps that can reduce both the dir.ficulty and cost of software maintenance. Organized in a question and answer format, the guide provides answers to 64 questions that address: (1) the feasibility and applicability of software reuse; (2) the development of maintainable software; (3) the improvement of existing software; (4) achieving programmer and software productivity; (5) the three key attributes of maintainable software--correctness, understandability, and reliability; and (6) software configuration management (ECM), including software tools that can aid in making existing code more maintainable. Also included are a list of supporting ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology) documents and eight suggested additional readings. (JB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S Department of Commerce National Bureau of Standards Computer Science and Technology NBS Special Publication 500-130 Executive Guide to Software Maintenance


Once a pest has been correctly identified, its genus and species name can provide a link to valuable indications of its ecology, biology and life history that are critical for developing control strategies. Importantly, this link should exist even when the pest was known under other names (synonyms), or was not considered a pest at all (National Research Council, 1968). Many examples have shown that incorrect identification or classification of a pest has led to fruitless searches for biocontrol agents in the native range, incorrect assignments as disease vectors, and costly, yet misdirected, suppression measures. As new approaches for delimiting species based on molecular information become more widely used, the process of correctly identifying a species has become even more complex. Fortunately, we have good systematic frameworks and nomenclatural systems that are able to cope with these challenges. Here we review challenges associated with classification and identification within the Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) species complex. These pests and the viruses they transmit have emerged in the past few decades as among the most damaging to food and fibre crops globally (Varma & Malathi, 2003; Pimental et al., 2005; Seal et al., 2006), especially in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). The systematics of the B. tabaci species group has been a highly debated topic for years (Boykin, 2014). Putative species are indistinguishable morphologically, so other biological data have been collected to investigate the species in the complex. Based on genetic differences (Colvin et al., 2004; Sseruwagi et al., 2005; Boykin et al., 2007; Boykin et al., 2013; Hsieh et al., 2014) and mating incompatibility (Colvin et al., 2004; Liu et al., 2007; Xu et al., 2010), B. tabaci is now recognized as a species complex that consists of at least 34 putative species (Boykin et al., 2012). The rapid discovery of significant species diversity has led to many changes in the informal names used over the last 10 years (Boykin, 2014), creating confusion in the literature.


For the detection of impurities, a diameter-dependent first signal is obtained at langsbewegtem yarn in a first measurement and the intensity of light for a second measurement in response to the first signal set so that the by the yarn (1) free diffusely reflected light from the influence of the size of the yarn diameter and in that the second electrical signal is directly evaluated for detection of impurities. DOLLAR A The invention improves the detection of impurities, for example on spinning or winding machines.


The Specialty of Postgraduate, known in the Latin American context Specialties, have as an objective the formation of a high quality professional, according ...


The melastatin Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channel TRPM4 mediates pressure‐induced smooth muscle depolarization and vasoconstriction of cerebral arteries. Interestingly, recent reports show that several members of the TRP superfamily are gated by directed movement of channel protein into and out of the plasma membrane. We hypothesized that activators of TRPM4‐dependent currents such as elevated intracellular Ca2+ and protein kinase C (PKC) induce surface expression of TRPM4 protein, thus increasing the number of functional channels present in the membrane. We created a fusion protein consisting of green fluorescent protein (GFP) covalently linked to the carboxyl terminus of TRPM4 (TRPM4‐GFP) and transiently expressed this construct in the smooth muscle‐derived A7r5 cell line. In whole‐cell patch clamp experiments, cells expressing TRPM4‐GFP exhibit electrophysiological properties similar to those of native TRPM4 channels. Live‐cell confocal imaging and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) analysis of cells expressing TRPM4‐GFP indicate that channel protein is packaged in discreet, mobile vesicles, consistent with a potential role for vesicular trafficking in TRPM4 regulation. Preliminary cell surface biotinylation assays reveal surface expression of TRPM4‐GFP. These techniques will be used to investigate the effects of Ca2+ and PKC on channel mobility. AHA0535226N


The statistical parameters of surfaces to be measured for industrial applications vary over several orders of magnitude. Surfaces with large slopes or edges are particularly difficult to be recorded. Some measuring methods developed in our laboratory are compared and the range of applications are discussed. For polished and fine ground glass and metal surfaces a heterodyne profilometer with a vertical resolution of 0.5 nm, lateral resolution of 0.6 μm, and large scanning length is discussed. The interferometer can be changed from single- to double-pass operation by rotation of a quarter-wave-plate. For rougher surfaces a profilometer of the photometric-balance type with resolution Rq < 4 nm and dynamic range of 20 μm and an interference microscope with automated fringe evaluation is described. An integral white light roughness sensor covers the roughness range 0.04µm to 10µm and measures independently mean roughness and autocorrelation width.


In this paper discloses running technique with high lifting hips, are given guidance, recommended methods of teaching are proposed embodiments and best practices, de-fined common mistakes and correct them in the exercise. We were analyzed typical mistakes made by schoolchildren in the exercise «running high lifting hips» identified the possible cause, recommendations on their IP-rule. It is con-cluded that the simplest and most commonly exercise underrepresented in educational and methodical literature, and teachers and trainers need to know the theoretical aspects of the exercise.


Magnetic resonance MR image analysis is generally performed by spatial domainbased image processing, referred to as inter-pixel image processing, which takes advantage of spatial correlation among sample pixels. Unfortunately, in many areas, several tissue substances are usually present and mixed in a single image pixel in which such an inter-pixel processing either fails or is ineffective. To resolve this dilemma, this paper develops an unconventional approach, called intra-pixel processing, which considers MR images as multispectral images where a multispectral MR image pixel is actually a pixel vector, of which each component is captured by a particular image pulse sequence used for MR image acquisition. Since the commonly used receiver operating characteristic ROC curves cannot directly deal with the issues arising in intra-pixel processing, a 3D ROC analysis is developed by including a parameter t as the third dimension that represents abundance fractions thresholded by τ.


Introduction: Cancers of the upper aero digestive tract (UADT) regroup tumors of the oral cavity, of the three stages of the pharynx (cavum, oropharynx, hypopharynx), of the larynx and of the facial mass. ENT tumor pathology is a public health problem and has specific treatment features due to the specific features of the disease and the patient. The aim of this study was to highlight the difficulties in diagnosing and UADT's cancer treatment in Ziguinchor, a town in the south of Senegal. Materials and methods: This were a retrospective study in the ENT department of the regional hospital of Ziguinchor over a period of 10 years, from January 1st , 2010 to December 31st , 2020. All patients with UADT's cancers with histological confirmation during this period were included in our study. Results: Out of 87 patients with histologically confirmed UADT's cancer, there were 56 men and 31 women, for a sex ratio of 1.80. The most affected social stratum was housewives, i.e., 27.58%. Lesions were either exceeded or inoperable in 63.21% (of the patients. The time to pathology results was on average 1 month with extremes of 04 days and 10 months. Fifty-nine-point seventy-seven percent of the patients had surgery. Conclusion: The treatment of UADT's cancers in Ziguinchor requires intervention by the state and partners between an increasingly poor patient (from diagnosis to treatment) and increasingly refined therapies and therefore more and more expensive.


This article explains how the structural engineering Eurocodes will revolutionise design offices, and reports on the profession's reaction hitherto. Within ten years, structural engineers in 18 European nations will be designing to the same codes, and within 20 years, most of the world will be using them. Perhaps because of the recession in the construction industry, most British structural engineers have apparently taken little notice of the first three draft codes published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) during the last two years. However, at least 12 final drafts will be published in 1994, followed by many more in the next few years. In order to remain competitive, British structural engineers should consider the drafts properly, to ensure satisfactory final versions. The European Standards Organisation (CEN) is responsible for producing harmonised structural designed codes. A table gives the timetable for drafting the codes, whose functions are classified into: (1) basis of design and actions on structures; (2) design of concrete, steel, composite steel and concrete, masonry, and aluminium alloy structures; (3) geotechnical design; and (4) earthquake-resistant design of structures.


This research describes the development, analyzing the communications strategy of socialization migration of tv analog to digital in Central Java using descriptive qualitative method. Data collection is done by interviewing 200 informants in four areas namely Semarang, Magelang, Purwokerto, and Pekalongan. Data analysis was undertaken by using analysis phase of strategic communication which includes formative research, strategy, research, and evaluation tactic. The results show a majority of residents Central Java did not know about migration plan of analog to digital tv. It is a challenge to plan a proper communications strategy according to conditions in Central Java so that the migration can run well and make benefit for all parties. Certainty roadmap migrations will ease the preparation of the communications strategy. The contribution of this research is to provide communication strategy of socialization of digital broadcast system in Central Java.


This paper describes a novel framework allowing for a hybrid representation of heterogeneous objects. We consider the advantages and drawbacks of the conventional representations based on scalar fields of different kinds. The main result is introducing a hybrid representation called Hybrid Function Representation (HFRep) that preserves the advantages of the Function Representation (FRep) and Signed Distance Fields (SDFs) without their drawbacks. This new representation allows for obtaining a continuous smooth distance field in the Euclidean space for the FRep. We present the mathematical basics for our approach that uses the Discrete Distance Transform (DDT) and a step-function. The procedure for generation HFRep using continuous interpolation and smoothing techniques are also described. A few examples show how the approach works in practice.


The Endangered Freedom of Art: A Commentary on Hanno Rauterberg – In three books, the art historian and critic Hanno Rauterberg examines the process of change in the art world towards post-autonomy. This change raises certain questions anew: the quality of art and its social place. As the freedom of art has recently been questioned by art and its institutions, but also in social media, Rauterberg combines this diagnosis with a look at the crisis of the liberal-democratic model of society in Western countries. He asks: how free is art?


In this paper, we study asymptotic behavior of proportions of sample observations that fall into random regions determined by a given Borel set and an order statistic. We show that these proportions converge almost surely to some population quantities as the sample size increases to infinity. We derive our results for independent and identically distributed observations from an arbitrary cumulative distribution function, in particular, we allow samples drawn from discontinuous laws. We also give extensions of these results to the case of randomly indexed samples with some dependence between observations.


The office culture in China is advanced as a whole,while some unhealthy cultures exist in some departments and places.So-called "Table Culture","Circle Culture","Face Culture" and "Bureaucratic Culture" are around us and affect the normal government work badly.By the analysis of the real meaning of the office culture and the negative consequences induced by the abnormal cultures,the paper brings forward the effective ways to boost the healthy office culture.


In this study, a Mycobacterium bovis knockout strain in phoP-phoR and mce2 operons was tested as an antituberculosis experimental vaccine in animal models. The double mutant strain was signi fi cantly more attenuated than the wild type strain in inmunocompetent and inmunode fi cient mice. Vaccination with the double mutant protected mice against challenge with a virulent M. bovis strain. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Thank you very much for reading feng shui the ten thousand years manual tables and formulas. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look numerous times for their chosen books like this feng shui the ten thousand years manual tables and formulas, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some malicious bugs inside their laptop.


Scientific studies regarding the use of belts for athletic endeavours is scarce. Much more evidence and insight exists for the use of belts in occupational settings. The relevant information from occupational usage is discussed in this article and is blended with the limited work on athletic/performance use. I will also conclude with my own opinion. The intention of this article is to assist the reader in making their own decisions on whether or not to wear a belt and to suggest guidelines for their prescription and use.


In this paper, we propose a fuzzy similarity based classification approach for 3D face recognition. In the feature extraction method, we exploit curve concept to represent the 3D facial data, two types of curves was considered: depth-level and depth-radial curves. As the dimension of the obtained features is high, the problem "curse of dimensionality" appears. To solve this problem, the Random Projection (RP) method was used. The proposed classifier performs Fuzzification operation using triangular membership functions for input data and ordered weighted averaging operators to measure similarity. Experiment was conducted using vrml files from 3D Database considering only one training sample per person. The obtained results are very promising for depth-level and depth-radial curves, besides the recognition rates are higher than 98%.


We present a method of calculating the parameters, such as the working velocity of the solution in the crystalliser, the range of sizes of the swirling particles, the porosity of the beds, the diameter of particles that are separated from the bed, with the aid of a nomogram


The purpose of this article is to discuss possible scenarios for UK sugar beet production after the reform of the sugar regime. The analysis is built on an evaluation undertaken by the University of Cambridge and The Royal Agricultural College of the impact that reforming the EU sugar regime may have on UK agriculture. The analysis focuses on the implications of reductions in quota and the support price and on the possible reactions by British Sugar, as the final outcome in terms of production will depend on the interaction between British Sugar and sugar beet farmers. The analysis indicates that British Sugar strategies such as reallocating the available quota to the more efficient producers or paying higher beet prices might mitigate the impacts of the reform. The key factor in limiting the overall impact on production is the extent that the industry can restructure and reduce its cost base. For example, following a 40 per cent reduction in the sugar beet price we estimate that if farmers could reduce their average costs by 20 per cent, about 52 per cent of UK beet production would still be viable, compared to less than 20 per cent if costs were not altered. Copyright The Agricultural Ecomomics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists 2006.


Mr. Yin Huanxian is the first one who wrote article "Discussion on the Criterion of Words' Written Forms" in 1962. After the publishing of the article, Gao Gengsheng proposed the concept of "heterographs". For decades, a great many articles are published and ardent discussions involved in are holden. These articles mainly refer to the subject character of sorting out heterographs, the definition of heterographs, the classifying of heterographs as well as the way and principles of heterographs' criterion. Chinese Northeast dialect is one of the basic dialects in mandarin. With the development of the society, the influence of Northeast dialect is expanding. Because of its humorous and straightforward features, Chinese Northeast dialect was recognized and loved by more and more people. However, a large number of heterographs are produced in the formation of Northeast dialect. After inspecting, they are divided into three conditions on the whole, including homophones, dialectal heterographs and Yixu Heterographs, which are in the same word element but different order in it. Based on the concept and connotation, this paper focuses on studying, collecting and summarizing the "heterographs" in Chinese Northeast dialect, and describing the meaning of the standardization research of heterographs in Chinese Northeast dialect.


Public libraries exist in the society to meet the information needs of community people. Public libraries are very important organizations that help building knowledge based society. In this age of ICT the role of public library has changed radically in developing countries. However public libraries in developing countries like Bangladesh are using ICT facilities very slowly due to financial constraints, lack of infrastructural facilities, and lack of skilled manpower and so on. This article explores the existing status of ICT in public libraries of Bangladesh. The author attempts to identify the hindrance that impedes the gradual development of public libraries in Bangladesh as well as give some recommendation for improving its current ICT status.


In the development of application software for networked embedded systems a significant step to improve interoperability and reuse consisted in relying on a service layer providing an abstract interface through a well-defined programming paradigm (e.g., object-oriented, tuplespace or database). During application development this layer can provide a simulation model of the actual platform while during implementation it can be mapped onto an actual middleware. During application development the choice of the programming paradigm is driven by productivity while during deployment the choice of the middleware is driven by efficiency and availability. Keeping the same programming paradigm in these two phases limits design-space exploration while changing paradigm requires to re-write the application. In this work we describe 1) a SystemC-based service layer providing different paradigms, i.e., object-oriented and tuple space, 2) design reasons for translating the application between these paradigms, and 3) a methodology for this translation.


The present invention is a sealing agent for a gold plated member that fully functions even if the liquid composition is neutral to acidic, and is a sealing agent comprising an aqueous liquid composition containing an inhibitor, wherein the inhibitor is benzotriazole and 2-carboxymethylthio. Provided is a sealing agent containing benzothiazole. It is preferable that pH is 3.0 or more, It is preferable that content of benzotriazole is 10 ppm or more and 1000 ppm or less, and content of 2-carboxymethylthio benzothiazole is 10 ppm or more and 1000 ppm or less. The present invention also provides a sealing method using the sealing agent.


The confinement property in helical toroidal plasmas is clarified. The analysis is performed by use of the one-dimensional transport equations with the effect of the radiative loss and the radial profile of the electric field. The analytical results in the edge region show the steep gradient in the electron temperature, which indicates the transport barrier formation. Because of the rapid increase of the radiative loss at the low electron temperature, the anomalous heat diffusivity is reduced near the edge. Next, the efficiency of the heating power input in the presence of the radiative loss is studied. The scaling of the critical density in helical devices is also derived.


This article explores the activities and experiences of a women's peace museum in Japan which especially tries to pass on the history of Japan's military sexual slavery, or the 'comfort women' issue. The system of Japan's military sexual slavery had not been written as a part of history until courageous survivors testified and documentary evidence was unearthed in the 1990s. With few material exhibits of sexual violence, testimonies play a significant role in the exhibitions. Panels displaying the testimony of both survivors and former soldiers try to represent the person as a whole, situating sexual enslavement or crimes as part of their overall life, rather than extracting the harsh experience in an isolated way. The concrete and detailed activities of this privately run museum show the challenges faced by museums dealing with the dark history of their own country.


Disturbance of the balance between mitochondrial fission and fusion has been implicated in cerebral ischemia and several neurodegenerative diseases, whereas the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In the present study, we attempted to investigate the role of dynamin‐related protein 1 (Drp1), a key mitochondrial fission protein, in the pathogenesis of cerebral ischemia.


Previously, we developed a particle bombardment-mediated transformation protocol in Phyllostachys nigra bamboo by expressing hygromycin phosphotransferase gene (HPT) and neomycin phosphotransferase II gene (NPT II). Although these marker genes could introduce to several tissue cultured organs (e.g. leaves, buds, and calli) of Phyllostachs bamboo species, some organs showed a high susceptibility and/or a low selectivity to hygromycin and kanamycin. In this report, therefore, we describe advantages and technical details for generating stable transgenic bamboo cells using the particle bombardment method with the mutated-acetolactate synthase gene (mALS) from rice (W548L/S627IOsALS) as a non-antibiotic selection marker. A facile and efficient transformation was achieved with the mALS gene and enhanced fluorescent protein gene (mCherry). Approximately 490 and 1400 mCherry-expressing cells/dish/shot in average were observed in both P. bambusoides and P. nigra under fluorescent stereo-microscope. Stable transgenic bamboo cell lines were generated in a selection medium supplemented with 0.1 μM of bispyribac-sodium (BS) as ALS inhibitor. The integration of mALS gene was identified by in vivo ALS enzyme assay and a PCR-restriction fragment length polymerphism (RFLP) based detection procedures.


PURPOSE
To analyze the cleaning effectiveness of one type of instrument washer available for use in a dental office.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Dental instruments were heavily contaminated with blood and specific test bacteria. They were placed in cleaning baskets or within instrument cassettes, processed through the instrument washer, and analyzed for remaining blood and viable bacteria.

RESULTS
Information obtained indicated that the washer is an effective cleaning system for dental instruments.


Abstract The finite element method is used to determine the peak stress for narrow rectangular notches, with rounded corners, for a range of notch width to corner radius ratios, under mode I, mode II, and mixed-mode loading conditions. It is shown that the specific geometry and loading conditions are unimportant and that the loading is conveniently characterized by the mode I and mode II stress-intensity factors for an equivalent crack. Superposition of peak stresses for mode I and mode II conditions allows the peak stress in a semi-circular notch to be obtained from simple equations describing the surface tangential stress distributions. A notch shape factor, which dependes only on the notch width to corner radius ratio and mode-mixity parameter, is then used to modify the peak stress values obtained for a semi-circular notch. The method provides a relatively cheap and efficient means of determining stress concentration factors for what can appear to be complex geometries and loading situations.


Polysiloxane bearing pendant quaternary ammonium groups (PSI) was used to modify the surface properties of epoxy resins. In the cured resin, PSI formed the dispersed phase. Remarkable enrichment and gradient distribution of polysiloxane on the surface region of the epoxy resins were demonstrated by XPS analysis. The composition and properties of the surface of PSI-modified epoxy resin, which is in contact with the mold, are dependent on the material of the mold. Through the incorporation of PSI, epoxy resins with low surface energy and low friction coefficient were obtained. Polysiloxane with lower ionic group content shows a higher degree of enrichment on the resin surface and leads to a higher contact angle against water, while the polysiloxane having optimum compatibility with the epoxy resin shows a greater effect in reducing the static friction coefficient of the resin against glass.


This paper addresses a co-operative control strategy based on cyclic pursuit theory for spacecraft formation to maintain the configuration. Each spacecraft in formation tracks its nearest neighbor and only relative LOS measurement is required. The probability of this algorithm used in space mission is demonstrated. A reference beacon is introduced to the algorithm to compensate the control algorithm and improve its performance. A basic case of 4-spacecraft formation flying in a circular orbit in one plane is studied. Effect of different control gains to the performance is analyzed. Results show that the formation can achieve configuration maintenance autonomously. Moreover, the fuel consumption is approved to be balanced under the designed control law.


The thesis is focused on one main topic a data relationship and similarity. The work is divided into several chapters, where, after introduction, a related work are summarized. Then, the all basic concepts and tools used further in the work are presented, explained and properly referenced. The most important part of the thesis is the Chapter 4 which contains a series of experiments performed by the author and published in his publications. The conclusion summarizes the presented results and contributions if the thesis. The formal style and presentation are no bad. Sometimes, the section header is followed by another subsection header instead of introducing text, which does not belong to good practice in writing. The quality of English should be netter. The articles are missing several times, and the structure of the sentences should be improved for better readability.


This paper will give a brief overview of the technology available at Laser Components and describe recent improvements in reliability and quality control. Results of recently demonstrated pulsed operation of lead salt lasers at and above room temperature will be presented. More traditional cryogenic laser operation promises to be straightforward in the future thanks to the recent development of a compact tunable IR laser source based on a lead salt laser combined with an innovative miniature Stirling cooler. This device will operate unattended and without any routine maintenance for prolonged periods and is suitable for a wide variety of laboratory and industrial applications.


This paper analyzes the applicability about the environment-friendly planning elements and elemental technology through the case study of the foreign Green certified building. This could grasp the tendency of the environment-friendly elemental technology activated practically and provide base data which contribute to activation of the domestic green building and design engineering improvement. In this research, LEED Canada Green Building Certification is introduced, and for examples of 92 green buildings which are certified by LEED Canada NC 1.0 from 2004 to 2010, we analyzed environment planning elements and the degree of application of Eco-friendly technologies applied to the buildings.


The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is an important component of the global environmental system, on which the snow cover greatly affects the regional climate and ecology. Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover products have been demonstrated to be appropriate for investigating the snow cover over the TP. However, they are subject to cloud obscuration, and the TP's extremely complex terrain makes the snow monitoring difficult. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a two-stage spatio–temporal fusion framework for the cloud removal of MODIS C6 snow products, including an adjusted Terra and Aqua combination (TAC) and a spatio–temporal fusion based on Gaussian kernel function and error correction (STF-GKF-EC). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a spatio–temporally continuous daily 500-m MODIS normalized difference snow index (NDSI) product has been generated for the TP, which greatly improves the spatial and temporal resolutions of the current snow cover products. The main stage, STF-GKF-EC, adaptively weights the spatial and temporal correlations by the Gaussian kernel function, and further takes the rapid changes of snow cover into consideration through the error correction. The experiments indicated that STF-GKF-EC removes clouds completely, achieving an overall accuracy (OA) and mean absolute error (MAE) of 91.48% and 3.88, respectively. Based on the cloud-removed results, during 2001–2017, as far as the intra-annual variation is concerned, a large proportion of the snow cover appears between October and May, with a peak in February/March, and the variation is mainly controlled by temperature. For the inter-annual variation, an obvious increasing trend of 0.68/year for NDSI is observed before 2005, followed by a slight decreasing trend of 0.16/year, in which precipitation is a better explanation factor than temperature.


Geopolitics provides a model for studying power relations within the art
world of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,7 when the concept of national
identities strongly influenced the history of art.8 The geopolitical approach, as
we define it, follows the three levels of analysis Fernand Braudel distinguished
in his Mediterranean: the longue duree of history and geography, the cycle of
socio-economical fluxes and transnational circulations, and the finer scale of
events, crisis, and artworks.9 Within those three levels, the geopolitical method
understands as object what Pierre Bourdieu would call the international field
of arts; that is to say, the social, transnational space polarized and regulated
by values and institutions accepted or contested within the field,10 as well as
the discourses—in the Foucauldian sense—that populate and define it. In the
international field of modern art, people, objects, and ideas from various origins
circulate, engage in dialogue, and compete, crossing over many national fields.
It is in these intersections between national and international fields that the
trajectories of artistic movements and artists' careers fall or flourish. Our current
representation of the art world (hierarchical and centralized) and of the history
of modern art (evolutionist and diffusionist) results from this very system.
To study those trajectories in the context of longue duree of cycles and
events, we rely on different methodological tools ranging from cartography
and statistics to prosopography and close readings of texts and artifacts. Such
a comprehensive approach provides the foundations for a global history
of modern art that is circulatory and inclusive, instead of hierarchical and
exclusive. By throwing a new light on the very objects of modernist stories,
artworks, artists—be they avant-garde or not—, and innovation, a geopolitical
study of the modern/modernist field finally challenges and enriches our
understanding and knowledge of artists' oeuvres and individual artworks.


Over a five-year period, much progress has been made in meeting the needs of health care personnel in the Detroit metropolitan area through library cooperation. These cooperative relationships have stimulated implementation of the following projects: (1) publications, (2) research on medical library problems, and (3) library programs at both the city and state levels.


This paper is concerned with regulator problem for SISO system using a PID controller. The controlled object is SISO system which is controllable and observable. Our purpose is to analyze stability of PID control system and to determine PID parameters so that the closed system is asymptotically stable. The main idea is based on the minimum phase property and Lyapunov's stability theorem. Quasi pole placement method is applied to stabilize asymptotically zero dynamics whose poles depend on PID parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by simulation results for various plants.


The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC). Participants were 79 parents of children born 2009 and attending kindergarten. Exploratory factor analysis showed that a two-factor solution best explained the data, the factors were lability/negativity and emotion regulation. The factors were not distinct as many items had loadings below the minimum norm applied (0,572). Furthermore, the items that loaded on the two factors did not in all cases load on the same factors as they did in the original factor structure (Molina et al., 2014). The internal consistency was acceptable for the lability/negativity subscale but it was not acceptable for the emotion regulation subscale. The correlation between the two subscales was low and negative (r = -0,22). The results suggest that the psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist are not acceptable for children in this age group. It is strongly believed that the small sample size had an effect on the results of this study. Further evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the questionnaire is needed with a larger sample.


The reduction of variation is one of the obvious goals in quality improvement. The identification of factors aff ecting the dispersion is a step towards this goal. In this paper, the problem of estimating location effects and dispersion eff ects simultaneously in unreplicated factorial experiments is considered. By making a one-to-one transformation of the response variables, the study of the quadratic functions becomes clearer. The transformation also gives a natural motivation to the model of the variances of the original variables. The covariances of the transformed responses appear as parameters in the variances of the original variables. Results of Hadamard products are used for deriving these covariances. The method of estimating dispersion effects is shown in two illustrations. In a 24 factorial design, the essential covariance matrix of the transformed variables is also presented. The method is also illustrated in a 25-1 fractional design with a model which is saturated in this context.


According to the features of the signal system in urban mass transit, the Automatic Train Control (ATC) system based on the CHECK mode is developed. The system is made of Check on Train Subsystem, Supervision Subsystem, Block Subsystem and Interlocking Subsystem. In this paper , on the basis of the principles of the Block Subsystem, PLC is used to implement the logic module for blocking in the original system (the transition signal system of the shanghai Mingzhu Subway Line) and CHECK mode Block Subsystem based on PLC is put forward; the safety and reliability of the PLC-based CHECK mode Block Subsystem are also discussed.


Reduced graphene oxide (RGO)–ZnNi alloys nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ growth of ZnNi alloy nanocrystals on graphene oxide (GO) accompanied with a chemical co-reduction process. The size and morphology of ZnNi alloy nanoparticles on RGO sheets can be tuned by simply changing initial concentrations of metal ions and molar ratio of Zn2+ to Ni2+ in the reaction system. The as-synthesized products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Magnetic measurements reveal that the nanocomposites have ferromagnetic characteristics and show composition dependent magnetic properties. Moreover, the RGO–ZnNi nanocomposites show remarkably enhanced catalytic activity and recycling stabilities toward the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), and can be easily re-collected from the reaction system by a magnet. It is believed that the obtained magnetic RGO–ZnNi nanocomposites with excellent catalytic properties provide a new opportunity for the application of graphene-based materials.


Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) is a clinical condition defined by the unusually abrupt onset of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and/or severe eating restrictions and at least two concomitant cognitive, behavioral, or neurological symptoms (Swedo et al. 2012). Because the PANS criteria define a broad spectrum of neuropsychiatric conditions, the syndrome is presumed to result from a variety of disease mechanisms and to have multiple etiologies, ranging from psychological trauma or underlying neurological, endocrine, and metabolic disorders to postinfectious autoimmune and neuroinflammatory disorders, such as pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS), cerebral vasculitis, neuropsychiatric lupus, and others (Swedo et al. 2012; Chang et al. 2015). In cohorts of well-characterized PANS patients, evidence of postinfectious autoimmunity and/or neuroinflammation is found in more than 80% of cases (Frankovich et al. 2015; Murphy et al. 2015; Swedo et al. 2015). Thus, treatment of PANS depends on three complementary modes of intervention:


The importance for manufacturing firms to add services to their offerings has been asserted over and over again (Neu and Brown 2005). Adding services to product sales require manufacturing firms to ...


This paper presents a physical layer performance evaluation of an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) upgraded to 10 Gbit/s transmission data rate, considering both transmission directions. The performance evaluation is based on an EPON physical layer simulator, which is briefly described. Moreover, the physical impairments that arise with the data rate upgrade are identified and alternative solutions are analyzed for mitigating these impairments on a 10 Gbit/s EPON, namely the use of optical pre-amplification and of an APD receiver, in the uplink, and the use of external modulation in the downlink transmitter.