The invention relates to a method and a system for pre-obtaining browser webpage information. The method comprises the following steps: creating a reverse index according to fetched webpages and historical webpages as well as a set of website characteristics corresponding to the fetched webpages and the historical webpages respectively; judging whether a website to be accessed, input by a user is in an access record or not, obtaining historical webpage information or fetched webpage information according to the reverse index, or extracting the website characteristics of the website to be accessed; creating a candidate set according to the extracted website characteristics; calculating the similarity between the website to be accessed and each website in the characteristic candidate set, and selecting historical accessed websites according to the similarity weight; taking website information corresponding to the historical accessed websites as a prediction candidate set, calculating the probability of each piece of website information, and returning the website information with maximum probability as a final prediction candidate result. According to the method, the webpage loading speed is greatly increased after DNS (domain name system) prediction analysis, TCP (transmission control protocol) prediction connection and resource prediction loading according to the return result.


The electronic conductivity of MgO was determined by measuring the dc conductivity and ionic transference number as a function of temperature (1200° to 1600°C), oxygen pressure (10−1 to 10−13 MPa), and trivalent solute concentration (65 to 1500 ppm) using samples doped with Al, Fe, or Sc so that only one dopant controlled the defect structure. The electronic conductivity showed ap- to n-type transition with decreasing oxygen pressure, consistent with a defect structure in which the concentrations of the electronic species are negligible with respect to those of the ionic defects, so that MgO is a fully compensated semiconductor. From the temperature dependence of the electronic conductivity minima, a thermal band gap of 650±50 kj/mol (6.8±0.5 eV/electron) and electron and hole mobilities of 24 and 7 cm2/V·s were determined at 1400°C. From these results, the defect-reaction equilibrium constants were determined.


Surgical audit is not a new phenomenon. As early as 1750 BC, King Hammurabi of Babylon issued decrees for the punishment of negligent physicians, particularly surgeons. In such a decree discovered at Susa in Iran and inscribed on a 2-m-high black diorite stone, Hammurabi states that: If a doctor inflicts a serious wound with his operation knife on a free man's slave and kills him, the doctor must replace the slave with another. If a doctor has treated a free man but caused a serious injury from which the man dies, or if he has opened an abscess and the man goes blind, the man is to cut off his hands. Not surprisingly, internal medicine rather than surgery was popular at that time. Indeed, to many surgeons today, this edict still seems to be exacted in a sublimated way. The outcome of surgical intervention, whether death or uncomplicated survival, complications, or long-term morbidity, is not solely dependent on the abilities of the surgeon in isolation. The patient's physiological status, the disease that requires surgical correction, the nature of the operation, and the preoperative and postoperative support services have a major effect on the ultimate outcome. It is evident to surgeons worldwide that raw mortality and morbidity rates do little to expound these differences, and that the use of such statistics is at best inaccurate and at worst dangerous. When taken to an extreme, mortality rates can achieve what appears to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The unit that selects only low-risk cases achieves a low mortality rate and therefore attracts more patients, perhaps undeservedly, whereas the unit that cannot select only low-risk cases is left with a worsening case mix, and their performance as judged by mortality rate will appear to deteriorate still further over time.


This seminar is co-organized by CITE & the Faculty of Education

In recent years, research on digital games has emerged as an intriguing and challenging area of scientific inquiry. The earliest research literature in the area centered on the negative effects of gaming. However, recent emphasis has shifted towards examining also the positive effects and educational potential of games on human development and learning. The aim of the seminar is to present the research and development work conducted by the multi-disciplinary research group "Human-Centred Development of Games-Based Learning Environments". This group focuses on the development and the analysis of the use of digital learning games in different educational contexts. The research project applies and further develops human-centred development research as its methodological approach. It investigates the principles and features of games-based learning. The goal of this research is to enhance the quality of games-based learning and more generally the pedagogical practices supported by information and communication technologies. The research group has developed several learning game prototypes e.g. GameWorld in close collaboration with Nancy Law from the University of Hong Kong.


. We derive a sufficient condition for asymp- totics as n —• oo, for E np (W) := inf{||(x n + P(x))W(x)\\ Lp(R) : deg(P) < n}, where 1 < p < oo, and W(x) is a weight function supported on R. This will be used in a forthcoming paper to show that if W a (x) := exp(-|x| a ), x € R,a > 0, then, for 1 < p < oo, where ß a and K p are constants depending only on a and p respectively.


The invention relates to a steel pipe roundness measuring instrument, comprising a rack, displacement sensors and a data collection and disposal system, wherein the displacement sensors are electrically connected with the data collection and disposal system. The steel pipe roundness measuring instrument is characterized in that a plurality of scored pulleys and a power mechanism are arranged on the rack, wherein a reference round ring is arranged on the rack, and is supported by the plurality of scored pulleys in a sliding manner; the output of the power mechanism is in transmission connection with the reference round ring; a plurality of telescopic booms pointing to the circle center are arranged on the equal diversion points of the circumference of the reference round ring; one displacement sensor is arranged at the end part of one end, which points to the circle center, of each telescopic boom; the plurality of telescopic booms are driven by a synchronizing mechanism; the plurality of displacement sensors are always kept on the same circumference; and the power mechanism and the synchronizing mechanism are controlled by the data collection and disposal system. The steel pipe roundness measuring instrument has the characteristics of being reasonable in design and simple in structure, and is capable of achieving the noncontact on-line measurement.


We present Hubble Space Telescope measurements of surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distances to early-type galaxies that have hosted Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). The agreement in the relative SBF and SN Ia multicolor light-curve shape and delta-m15 distances is excellent. There is no systematic scale error with distance, and previous work has shown that SBFs and SNe Ia give consistent ties to the Hubble flow. However, we confirm a systematic offset of ~0.25 mag in the distance zero points of the two methods, and we trace this offset to their respective Cepheid calibrations. SBFs have in the past been calibrated with Cepheid distances from the H0 Key Project team, while SNe Ia have been calibrated with Cepheid distances from the team composed of Sandage, Saha, and collaborators. When the two methods are calibrated in a consistent way, their distances are in superb agreement. Until the conflict over the "long" and "short" extragalactic Cepheid distances among many galaxies is resolved, we cannot definitively constrain the Hubble constant to better than ~10%, even leaving aside the additional uncertainty in the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, common to both Cepheid scales. However, recent theoretical SBF predictions from stellar population models favor the Key Project Cepheid scale, while the theoretical SN Ia calibration lies between the long and short scales. In addition, while the current SBF distance to M31/M32 is in good agreement with the RR Lyrae and red giant branch distances, calibrating SBFs with the longer Cepheid scale would introduce a 0.3 mag offset with respect to the RR Lyrae scale.


Automotive components, for the most part, are designed to last for the life of the vehicle. This is especially true for more expensive subsystems. As we move towards electrified vehicles with large traction batteries, it becomes increasingly important to (a) reduce the cost of the batteries and (b) improve battery life. This life challenge for the traction battery is quite different from that of most consumer electronics applications, which often require no more than a few years of life and a few hundred cycles of full charge and discharge. In this paper, we provide context for the automotive battery landscape and subsequently introduce a potential solution pathway to the cycle life problem associated with high capacity negative electrodes for lithium ion batteries. The approach is based on a solid (in the substantially lithiated state) to liquid (in the absence of significant lithium) transition for the gallium electrode. Because of gallium's low melting point (29°C), heating the cell to just above ambient temperature transforms the electrode to a semi-liquid state, cracks vanish, to a large extent, and the electrode heals.


Objective:To investigate the effect of Tanreqing-injection on lymphocytes in patients for squamous cell carcinoma of lung after radiotherapy.Method:Seventy cases with squamous cell carcinoma of lung treated by radiotherapy were divided equally into two groups: control group and test group treated by Tanreqing-injection,at the same time both groups were treated by radiotherapy.The patients of both groups were subjected to relevant laboratory examination to observe the routine blood indexes and simultaneously peripheral blood lymphocytes were detected by flow cytometry(FCM)before or after medication.The ordinary silver staining technology was to measure the relative content(I.S) of AgNORs in lymphocytes.The incidence of radiation esophagitis and radiation pneumonia for the both groups was also investigated.Result:After radiotherapy,the routine blood indexes of the both groups reduced,but Hb,WBC and lymphocyte count inTanreqing-injection group were obviously higher than control group(P0.05).The incidence of radiation esophagitis and radiation pneumonia in Tanreqing group were obviously lower than control group(P0.05).Meanwhile the improvement of peripheral-blood lymphocytes subset and I.S% value of test group patients was observed more notablely powerful than control group's(P0.01).Conclusion:Tanreqing-injection has certain immunoregulation action on lymphocytes in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of lung after radiotherapy.Tanreqing-injection also possess prophylaxis prevention action on radiation esophagitis and radiation pneumonia caused by radiotherapy.


ON PYLKKÄNEN'S SEMANTICS FOR LOW APPLICATIVES Richard K. Larson Stony Brook University Ross, John Robert. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA. Ruys, E. G. 1992. The scope of indefinites. Doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University. Utrecht: LEd. Schlenker, Philippe. 2003. A plea for monsters. Linguistics and Philosophy 26:29–120. Schwarz, Bernhard. 2001. Two kinds of long-distance indefinites. In Proceedings of the 13th Amsterdam Colloquium, ed. by Robert van Rooy and Martin Stokhof, 192–197. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, ILLC. Stechow, Arnim von. 1984. My reaction to Cresswell's, Hellan's, Hoeksema's and Seuren's comments. Journal of Semantics 3: 183–199. Winter, Yoad. 1997. Choice functions and the scopal semantics of indefinites. Linguistics and Philosophy 20:399–467.


Objective To explore the proper method of rehabilitation after operation of arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.Methods A total of 86 cases treated by arthroscopic rotator cuff repair in Beijing Jishuitan Hospital from March 2002 to December 2006 were included in our study and randomly divided into two groups which are normal group and intensive group.The two groups were treated with same rehabilitation protocol but had different frequency in hospital.American Shoulder Elbow Surgeons' Score(ASES score) and Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment(GEPI) were adopted before operation and one year follow-up.Results There were no significant difference between two groups in ASES and GEPI scores before the operation(P0.05).Comparing with preoperation,there were significant difference between the two groups in ASES and GEPI scores 1 year after operation(P0.05).Comparing with the normal group,the intensive group have higher ASES scores than that of normal group and lower GEPI scores than that of normal group 1 year after operation(P0.05).The range of motion of active forward flexion and external rotation were tested at the 7th week,12th week and 1 year after the operation,all the result of intensive group were better than that of normal group(P0.05).Conclusion Customized and systematic shoulder rehabilitation training therapy for the patients with rotator cuff repaired is an effective method to restore the function of shoulder joint.Intensive treatment has better result.


Ultrasonic inspection for nondestructive analysis is already widely applied to the control of structural integrity of concrete, presenting among other advantages the reliability, the simplicity and low costs. Although ultrasonic testing are mainly used for nondestructive evaluation of defects, it may be also applied to follow the changes of mechanical properties occurring in a material which evolves in time, such as during the crosslinking of thermosetting resins. These time dependent properties may be measured by longitudinal and shear ultrasonic velocity operating by pulse-echo and/or through-transmission methods. In this work, ultrasonic wave propagation has been applied to the monitoring of the progress of the curing reaction of an epoxy adhesive for civil applications. The data have been collected in isothermal conditions on the neat resin, as well as in a coupled system concrete-resin-concrete. The measurements of longitudinal and shear velocity have been used for the calculation of Young and shear moduli. The change of velocity during cure must be considered a powerful tool for the measurement of the progress of ambient temperature cure reactions like in the case of adhesives for civil applications.


Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in the USA. Stroke survivors often do not regain bilateral use of their impaired arm. Five design principles are presented as a way of implementing motivational requirements to help robot-assisted therapy environments actively train hemiplegic stroke survivors to manage their compensatory tendencies, use their impaired arm, and regain bilateral arm use.


Interaction between dumbbell shaped pile-cap and group piles in a super large bridge was analyzed with ANSYS software of 3D elastic-plastic finite element during the collision of ship and bridge.Horizontal and vertical spring in the interface between piles and soils was used to model the pile-soil-pile interaction under the vertical and horizontal load.Two design schemes of maximal scour and resistant scour were compared with the characteristics of axial force,shearing force,and moment of piles,etc.The computed results of the two design schemes were compared with those of centrifuge modelling.It could be seen that resistant scour scheme was better than the maximul scour scheme in the resistance of impact load of ship and bridge from the point of moment of piles etc.


Abstract:F. Scott Fitzgerald's notes contain repeated references to an incident with a man named 'Bunny Burgess', a memory associated with the summer during which he composed The Great Gatsby. Ignored by Fitzgerald scholars and biographers, the story of Bunny Burgess vexes standard readings of Nick Carraway as Fitzgerald's authorial proxy. This essay uses the search for Bunny Burgess as a way to challenge the presumptions usually made about both 'biographical criticism' and 'anecdotal criticism', arguing that the anecdote of Bunny Burgess is emblematic of Fitzgerald's authorial practices, as well as the benefits and costs of biographical criticism, becoming a kind of ur-anecdote for Gatsby.


This paper purposes to compare about traditional linguistics and structural linguistics concept. This study is based by assumed if traditional linguistics concept is the oldest genre had took the way to modern linguistics study, it was signed by structuralism of Ferdinand de Saussure ideas. The focus of this study is the ideas or basic concepts of prominent figure in traditional and structural linguistics, and language essence and its phenomena. Its result of this study, the writer founded some general principles of traditional and structural linguistics. Traditional linguistics applied Greek and Latin grammar to describe a language. On the other side, structural linguistics described a language based on the unique characters that language. The lenguistics study on that era was started by Plato and Aristoteles ideas. Structuralism was born in 20th century or in 1916. It is the structuralism birth year that signed by publishing of Course de Linguistique Generale book by Ferdinand de Saussure.


In order to inquire the laws of hot water flooding dissociation of natural gas hydrates in porous medium,experimental equipments on dissociation of natural gas hydrates have been design and laws on dissociation frontal brim of hydrates are inspected through thermal elect-dipole and resistance in these experiments.Results from massive experiments show that three steps characteristics(reservoir bed temperature rise,equal dissociation and frontal brim breach) are exhibited distinctly.In order to reveal substance of dissociation of natural gas hydrates,model on dissociation moving frontal brim of hydrates is built.Fit values and experimental values of temperature and electric resistance are analyzed contrast.It shows from fit values and experimental values that correlation express preferable,but more times of dissociation was needed for fit value than experimental value to break the dissociation frontal brim of natural gas hydrate.


in present study, Fe-22Cr-4.5al oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic alloys were fabricated using a pre-alloyed powder with different minor alloying elements, and their microstructures and tensile properties were investigated to develop the advanced structural materials for high temperature service components. Planetary-typed mechanical alloying and uniaxial hot pressing processes were employed to fabricate the Fe-Cr-al oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic alloys. Microstructural observation revealed that oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic alloys with Ti, Zr additions presented extremely fine micro-grains with a high number density of nano-scaled oxide particles which uniformly distributed in micro-grains and on the grain boundaries. These oxide particles were confirmed as a fine complex oxide, y 2 Zr 2 o 7 . These favorable microstructures led to superior tensile properties than commercial ferritic stainless steel and oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic alloy with only Ti addition at elevated temperature.


Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) aims to judge the sentiment polarity of specific aspects in text reviews, and is a fine-grained sentiment analysis task. In the current e-commerce era, ABSA based on user reviews is of great significance to consumers, producers and sellers. In order to make full use of the dependency information in the text, we propose a dependency graph convolutional network model for ABSA. Two graph convolutional networks are used to encode the dependency edge and the dependency tag respectively, and then a biaffine module is used to realize the interaction between the two. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms all other comparison models on 8 datasets in Chinese and English, including CMPR, SemEval 2014 Task4, Twitter, etc.


Applications of non-destructive testing devices such as Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) provide crucial estimates of pavement health that assist in the optimisation of pavement management systems. However, regularly conducting these tests at a network level and post-processing of the collected data is cumbersome, which requires technical expertise, significant time, funds, and other resources. Due to this structural aspect of pavements during the selection of maintenance or repair, decisions are often ignored. This study attempts to develop reliable correlations for estimates of two different deflection basin parameters using a number of structural, functional, environmental, and subgrade soil attributes as input. The data has been obtained through field tests over a 124 km long pavement network. Different artificial neural network-based models are trained by varying the number of hidden layers and neurons in these layers, for the above-mentioned purpose. The coefficient of determination and mean square error is decisive for the selection of best network architecture. These outcomes are also compared to the results of the classical multiple linear regression method, and the superiority of neural networks over non-intelligent approaches for non-linear problems of pavement engineering is appreciated. In addition to this, the results justify the fact that the properties of the asphalt layer predominantly impact the entire pavement condition. The proposed approach is an alternative way to facilitate quick pavement condition assessment by reducing the frequency of deflection testing without compromising with the accuracy of its estimates. It would encourage the increased application of structural condition data in pavement maintenance and rehabilitation necessities with ease. However, the study does not intend to completely avoid conducting deflection testing and serve as a base for future studies.


Terahertz vector-sum phase shifters capable of 360° phase control over the frequency range of 240 to 310 GHz are presented. Because the impedance mismatch of the variable-gain amplifiers employed in the phase shifter determines the flatness of the offset phases, a new broadband VGA design with its input and output impedances unaffected by dc bias is introduced. The measured results on the phase shifter fabricated using 0.25 μm InP HBT technology show incremental phase shifts of 45° with an average RMS offset phase error of 3.6° and insertion loss of -1 to -13 dB for eight basis dc bias states.


Introduction: Unpleasant mouth odor, known as halitosis, is an oral manifestation commonly observed in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing hemodialysis treatment. Aim of the Study: The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of the hemodialysis duration on halitosis in CKD patients. Material and Methods: The study was targeted at 70 end-stage CKD patients from the northeast of Bulgaria, aged 32-89 years, undergoing chronic dialysis treatment of different duration. Halitosis was measured objectively as well as subjectively. The degree of halitosis was objectively recorded with FitScan Breath Checker (HC-212SF, Tanita Corporation, USA). The device measured the content of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) and hydrocarbons from the mouth-exhaled breath, taking readings in 5 degrees: 0 no odor, 1 slight odor, 2 moderate odor, 3 heavy odor, 4 strong odor, 5 intense odor. The subjective method entailed data collection by means of a questionnaire, asking the participants: "Do you have any complaints about bad breath in the mouth?" The answering options needed to be either Yes or No. Results: The subjects were divided into 2 groups depending on the duration of the hemodialysis treatment they had underwent: Group 1 (dialysis treatment > 5 years) and Group 2 (dialysis treatment < 5 years). The FitScan Breath Checker found halitosis in all patients, where nearly half of them (48.60%, 34 patients) exhibited halitosis of the 4th degree. Patients with 2nd degree halitosis in Group 1 were found to be significantly more than patients from Group 2 (5:1.5 ratio), whereas in patients with the 5th degree halitosis the ratio was 1:5. A statistically significant positive correlation was established between the duration of hemodialysis and halitosis (rs = 0.28, p = 0.019). However, there was no evidence of correlation between halitosis obtained with the FitScan device and the participants' subjective perception of bad breath (χ2 = 3.807, p = 0.433). There was no statistically significant dependence between the duration of treatment and the patients' subjective responses (t = 1.525, p = 0.132). Conclusion: The duration of hemodialysis treatment proved to have a statistically significant effect on the objectively detected halitosis. There was no statistically reliable dependence between the subjective sense of unpleasant mouth breath and the objectively present halitosis.


Abstract : Contents: Super neutron monitor and pressure data obtained at Mt. Chacaltaya during the period: July 1967 to June 1968, and Graphical representation of the corrected super neutron monitor data obtained at Mt. Chacaltaya during the period: July 1967 to June 1968.


This study has provided evidence that exposure of the wild‐type MCF‐7 human breast carcinoma cell line to the mutagen ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS), followed by selection in vincristine (VCR), resulted in a stably‐resistant subline, designated VCREMS, which expressed an approximately 14‐fold level of resistance to VCR. This VCREMS subline showed cross‐resistance (3‐fold) to adriamycin (ADR) and to etoposide (3‐fold), but not to cisplatin. The addition of a non‐toxic concentration of verapamil (6.6 μM) significantly enhanced VCR cytotoxicity only in the resistant subline. This resistance was associated with over‐expression of P‐glycoprotein (Pgp), but without a concomitant increase in Pgp mRNA or gene amplification. In addition, activities of total glutathione S‐transferases (GST) and glutathione peroxidase were elevated in this resistant subline, with over‐expression of the GST‐pi isozyme and its associated mRNA being identified, without gene applification. This VCR‐selected resistant MCF‐7 cell line therefore provides another example of a breast carcinoma subline in which there is co‐ordinate over‐expression of both Pgp and GST‐pi, without attributing a causal relationship to either event, and extends the range of anti‐tumour drugs known to elicit modifications in glutathione metabolism. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The objective of this study was to assess the influence of job insecurity on
organizational commitment mediated by job satisfaction experienced by
outsourced employees of PT. Asia Outsourcing Services working for PT. X
(N=80). Samples were taken using purposive sampling. The Job Insecurity
Questionnaire developed by Hellgren et al (1999), Organizational Commitment
Scale and Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short form were used as
measuring instruments. To test the hypothesis, a series of regression analysis were
performed. Mediation was tested using three steps recommended by Baron and
Kenny (1986). Data analysis was carried out with the help of SPSS version 17.0
for Windows program.
Regression analysis results corroborated the hypothesis that organizational
commitment was negatively influenced by job insecurity. Job insecurity also
found to have negative influence on job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results also
showed that organizational commitment was positively influenced by job
satisfaction. In order to test hypothesis 4, stating that job satisfaction will mediate
the influence of job insecurity on organizational commitment, a last series of
regression analysis was performed. The results revealed that job satisfaction fully
mediated the influence of job insecurity on organizational commitment
experienced by outsourced employees of PT. Asia Outsourcing Services working
for PT. X. Job insecurity impairs job satisfaction, which in turn reduces
organizational commitment.


The quality of electricity supply, among other issues, deals with continuity indicators as one of the most important factors for the characterization of an adequate service as far as power quality is concerned. In this context, one of the major problems responsible for the unscheduled interruptions is related to the degradation of electrical cables insulation and the well-known water tree effect emerges as an important cause for the deterioration of their insulation layer. If this phenomenon happens large loss of insulating properties of dielectric material used to build up such component will occur. In light of these facts, the development of procedures to evaluate, predict and indicate the operational status of operating cables shows highly attractive in order to improve the quality and reliability of energy supply. Focusing this subject, this paper presents a synthesis of existing methods and a new trend towards the mentioned matter. By using experimental measurements, carried out in medium voltage commercial operating cables in a distribution utility throughout non-invasive approach, applied voltage and insulating leakage currents are obtained so support the analysis. The data are used to obtain degradation indexes to estimate the cables physical operational conditions and the found indicators are further considered in viewing the effectiveness of the strategies for the diagnosis purposes.


The effectiveness of hydrocortisone in suppressing inflammation in rheumatoid joints when injected intra-articularly is well established. Since the synovial fluid of inflamed knee joints can be readily withdrawn by aspiration, an opportunity is presented for direct observation of the chemical alterations produced in the hormone by the tissue on which it is acting. Moreover, this technique makes it possible to follow the metabolism of other steroid substances in vivo by a peripheral tissue, ih both normal and diseased states. Such studies could indicate whether the anti-inflammatory effect of hydrocortisone involves chemical transformation of the steroid or is independent of it. It is well known that, when administered systemically, cortisone and hydrocortisone do not differ greatly in their ability to suppress the inflammatory reactions of rheumatoid arthritis. Upon being injected directly into the synovial cavity, however, cortisone has little or no effect , while hydrocortisone exhibits local anti-inflammatory power. This difference is in contrast to the local effectiveness of both steroids in some other inflammatory conditions. The ineffectiveness of cortisone in the synovial cavity suggests that chemical transformations are involved in anti-inflammatory activity, and that these cannot be adequately effected by synovial tissue when cortisone is injected. I t was hoped, therefore, that a comparative study of the metabolites produced from cortisone and hydrocortisone might throw light on the mechanisms by which their anti-inflammatory activities are exerted.


This thesis describes the development of a pilot override control system that prevents aircraft entering critical regions of space, known as prohibited volumes. The aim is to prevent another 9/11 style terrorist attack, as well as act as a general safety system for transport aircraft. The thesis presents the design and implementation of three core modules in the system; the trajectory generation algorithm, the trigger mechanism for the pilot override and the trajectory following element. The trajectory generation algorithm uses a direct multiple shooting strategy to provide trajectories through online computation that avoid pre-defined prohibited volume exclusion regions, whilst accounting for the manoeuvring capabilities of the aircraft. The trigger mechanism incorporates the logic that decides the time at which it is suitable for the override to be activated, an important consideration for ensuring that the system is not overly restrictive for a pilot. A number of methods are introduced, and for safety purposes a composite trigger that incorporates different strategies is recommended. Trajectory following is best achieved via a nonlinear guidance law. The guidance logic sends commands in pitch, roll and yaw to the control surfaces of the aircraft, in order to closely follow the generated avoidance trajectory. Testing and validation is performed using a full motion simulator, with volunteers flying a representative aircraft model and attempting to penetrate prohibited volumes. The proof-of-concept system is shown to work well, provided that extreme aircraft manoeuvres are prevented near the exclusion regions. These hard manoeuvring envelope constraints allow the trajectory following controllers to follow avoidance trajectories accurately from an initial state within the bounding set. In order to move the project closer to a commercial product, operator and regulator input is necessary, particularly due to the radical nature of the pilot override system.


This article examines renewable energy (RE) technologies in a multiple-objective framework of sustainable development. We begin by locating RE in a portfolio of options available for climate change mitigation. Observing current trends in technologies, deployment levels, and costs, we discuss the future deployment levels envisioned in mitigation scenarios. We focus on biomass, given its importance in climate mitigation scenarios and because of the ongoing debates about its role in sustainability objectives. We also examine trends and successes in RE support policies. We conclude by linking the multiple objectives of sustainability to multiple policy instruments, emphasizing the need to closely consider the interaction between different policy instruments incentivizing sustainable development.


Include being security-conscious when using the internet and checking bank.The challenges that oppose electronic banking are the concerns of security and privacy of. A secure end-to-end transaction requires a secure protocol to.with regulations, but also for the high exposure of e-banking platforms to attacks. Easy Solutions is the only security vendor focused exclusively on fraud. Hong Kong Association of Banks. PUBLIC eBanking Security.W. Symantec Security Response, Dublin.Online.


A printed circuit of the present invention the substrate has the first surface and its opposing second side a provided with a substrate body and a semiconductor chip mounting region on the first surface of the substrate body provided with a plurality of semiconductor chip mounting which a semiconductor chip mounted to the the semiconductor chip mounting a plurality of external terminals to correspond to the through region, and a second surface on said plurality of semiconductor chip mounting portions on the substrate body having a plurality of through-spheres penetrating the substrate body to the rim portion of the area and an outer terminal forming regions formed portions are arranged.


of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor Bruno De Oliveira. No. of pages in text. (86) We study the relationships of the algebra of symmetric twisted differentials, the algebra generated by tangentially homogeneous polynomials and the quadric algebra of a smooth projective subvariety whose codimension is small relative to its dimension. It is conjectured that these three algebras coincide when the dimension of X ⊂ P satisfies n > 2/3(N −1) and we prove this for complete intersections and subvarieties of codimension two. The connection between these three algebras leads to questions about the local projective differential geometry of X, trisecant varieties and the linear system of quadrics through X.


Most Chinese rural primary and secondary schools have undergone reforms,but the low grade teachers in rural mountainous regions are ignored.They face great challenges due to their inefficient quality,number,and aging.Teachers are the primary resources of education,and it is imperative to perform the construction of teachers for rural compulsory education.The balanced development of compulsory education demands optimization of low grade teachers,and construction of the policies.


This article discusses the need to consider the organizational communicator and public relations as an actor in the integration process of Latin American society from the regional to global. This idea is present in the powers of communication in Latin America, but most of the analysis will focuse on media, journalism or public communication. It has been ignored the potential for this purpose, action and orientation of the communities and relationships in organizations, public and private, as an actor in the construction work of Latin American integration.


The analysis in this paper has shown that, according to Maxwellpsilas equations the propagation speed of EM fields are nearly infinite in the near field and reduce to the speed of light in the far field. In addition, the propagation speed is dependant on the velocity of the source in the near field and only approximately independent in the far field. The field propagation has been shown to be independent of whether the source or observation point is moving, which is consistent with Galilean relativity. Einstein relativity is also based on this assumption but in addition assumes that the speed of light is constant. Since this assumption has been shown to not to be valid in the near field, relativity theory has been reanalyzed and has been shown in this paper to reduce to Galilean relativity in the near field and to approximately Einstein relativity in the far field. Because the absolute nature of space and time can not depend on experimental configuration (i.e. use of near-field or far-field EM fields), it is proposed that that Einstein relativistic effects are an illusion caused by the propagation time delays of EM fields used to measure time and space. Instead Galilean relativity is proposed to describe the real nature of space and time. The Lorentz transforms, with the new proposed definition of gamma is still very useful for calculating apparent space contraction and time dilation effects when high velocity systems are observed from non-moving reference frames. If a physical system is measured using near-field propagating EM fields then the apparent space-time changes will not be very noticeable and simple Galilean transformations can be used, but if physical systems are measured with far-field EM fields then the Lorentz transform can be used to calculated the altered space-time illusion, but it must be stressed that these effects are not real. Time and space are not to be interpreted as being flexible.


We present in this paper a laser-driven coherent EUV beamline resulting from the combination of a versatile high-order laser harmonic generator with a robust plasma-based EUV laser amplifier. Both devices can be used separetely or in synergy. Seeding of the plasma amplifier by a high-order harmonic beam leads to a strong improvement of the EUV laser beam divergence and uniformity. Moreover the system can be turned easily into a IR pump-XUV probe setup for plasma opacity probing. The possibility to generate two separate harmonic sources from the same gas cell offers the opportunity to explore EUV pump-EUV probe experiments.


During the Great Leap Forward Movement in 1958-1960, Mao Zedong put forward his own idea about technological revolution and technological innovation in "An Gang Constitution" of industry, "Eight words Constitution" of agriculture. His idea had led to some achievements, meanwhile some serious negative effects as well. First, human power and resources were wasted greatly. Second, there was a separation between the technological development and technological practice. Thirdly, there were only some simplifying and minifying of the designs and omitting of technology without any more technical innovation in nature.


The process of doing Science in condition of uncertainty is illustrated with a toy experiment in which the inferential and the forecasting aspects are both present. The fundamental aspects of probabilistic reasoning, also relevant in real life applications, arise quite naturally and the resulting discussion among non-ideologized, free-minded people offers an opportunity for clarifications.


Much interest has recently been shown in the economic literature to problems relating to the actions of OPEC and other oil-related events and their effect on different aspects of the U.S. economy. Two recent examples are Hamilton (8), where U.S. recessions are found to be correlated to preceding oil price hikes, and Daly and Mayor (5), where the market for used automobiles in the United States is found to be affected by the same oil price hikes of the Arab embargo of 1973 and the Iran revolution of 1979. While our initial intention in this paper was to analyze the effects on gasoline con sumption of the 1973 embargo, our data in dicated some interesting structural changes in the consumption time series coinciding with the events of 1979. We devote much attention to these events as well. An analysis of monthly consumption data1 for motor gasoline in the United States from January 1969 through February 1984 reveals that these data may be partitioned roughly as follows: pre-1974 data, 1974 through 1978 data, and data for the period 1979 to the present. The first data set corresponds to consump tion of gasoline before the occurrence of the October 1973 embargo. The embargo is shown to have acted as a shock to the series, which changed in level afterwards. This early time series subset exhibits much regular ity, an upward trend and seasonal variation, and is modelled nicely using the theory of ARIMA models discussed by Box and Jen kins (2). The data in the middle period, 1974 through 1978, exhibits the effects of an inter vention affecting the series mean. Such inter ventions are discussed by Box and Tiao (3), Tiao, Box and Hamming (10), and by Box and Tiao (4) where the idea of the comparison of forecast and actuality to determine the effects of change is described. The time series model developed for the pre-1974 data is still found to be suitable in the 1974 to 1978 period, after adjusting for a shift in series mean. The last data set, consumption figures for 1979 to the present, represents an era where gasoline consumption is unstable, of lower mean level than during previous years, decreasing in level, not exhibiting the regular ity and structure of the previous data, and not following the historic model. These data represent a drastic change in gasoline con sumption behavior, which has deep implica tions which will be discussed in the following sections.


The results of this study showed that the walnut leaves extract had a powerful stomach poisoning action on Stilpnotia candida. The death rate of Stilpnotia candida treated with different concentrations of the extract were differert significantly. Among various concentrations of the extract, the 5 times dilution had the shortest LT50, but its insecticidal effect had no obvious difference between the solution and the primary solution. The results also showed that the walnut leaves extract had no antifeeding and contacting effect, but it could inhibit development of Stilpnotia candida.


This R&D project has investigated why train passengers take cycles with them on board the train. The study looks at the attitudes of train passengers towards the carriage of cycles, the experience of train personnel when it comes to transporting cycles and different types of services for the carriage of cycles that are offered in other countries.


Groundwater is the main and safest source of water used for drinking purposes in many urban and rural communities worldwide. A deep knowledge of aquifer systems in terms of quality, vulnerability and renewability is fundamental to preserving groundwater resources. Thanks to contributions by different members of Water Alliance in synergy with Sapienza University, during November 2019 a multiisotopic regional scale analysis was carried out on groundwater tapped for drinking purposes in a wide area of the Lombardy Region. The study aimed to improve knowledge of recharge mechanisms, the groundwater's relative age, and the impact of human activities on groundwater quality. Each Water Alliance supplier selected some wells and springs drawing water from different aquifer groups and distributed from north to south, for a total of 121 samples. Groundwater stable isotope analyses were performed on all the monitoring points, while tritium, nitrogen isotopes (15N and 18O in nitrates), sulphate isotopes (34S and 18O) and 13C isotope in Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) were analysed in selected monitoring wells based on previous data and major ion concentration results. The results confirm the key role of a multi-isotopic approach in defining aquifer recharge processes, relative groundwater age and the origin of pollutants, offering a useful tool to highlight local issues which could be investigated in depth by each water supplier. Parole chiave: approccio multi-isotopico, gestori servizi idrici, Water Alliance, risorse idriche sotterranee, Regione Lombardia.


The paper discusses the data format transforms,the water conservation thematic layer design and method of transfer electron map with the JAVA language for 1∶50 000 Songhuajiang and Nenjiang Mainstream Strip Map.


together pro-ducers, test equipment manufacturers, standard test method in a to hear about industry trends to gain an understanding of the suffering points, evolving lubricant /antioxidant additive technologies, and changing equipment designs and operating a on how these factors impact and the state-of-the-art lubricants, which are characterized by them. Several new test methods are under development specifically targeted to evaluate varnish formation plaguing gas turbines, particularly units operating in peak or cyclic service and to evaluate long life steam turbine oils manufactured with highly refined and synthetic base stocks.


Describes a L-band receiver developed under European Space Agency (ESA) contract by Marconi Space Systems as part of the Advanced Technology and Systems Programme (ATSP). The receiver operates in the INMARSAT return link (ship to shore) frequency band of 1626.5 to 1656.5 MHz. A single down conversion is made to 250 MHz of intermediate frequency (IF) to alleviate filtering requirements but yet to stay within capabilities of SAW filters. Such receivers are intended for applications in spacecraft multiple beam phase array front ends. Hence design and development of such receivers not only demands state of the art performance but also very low mass and high degree of producibility to ensure accurate tracking and alignment between relatively large number of receive elements. The critical performance parameters of this receiver are an overall noise figure (NF) of 1.5 dB with corresponding gain of 60 dB, and multicarrier (i.e 125) C/I/sub 3/ of 60 dB, over an acceptance temperature range of -5 degrees C to +55 degrees C. In addition to this RF performance a major design driver has been to reach a mass target of 200 gms. The author describes the receiver system in full but dwells on low noise amplifiers (LNAs) and RF filter which represent advanced design technology.


This paper presents a novel technique for modeling the electrostatic discharge snapback phenomenon in integrated circuits (ICs). The macromodel is built using standard components: BSIM3v3.2 model for the MOSFET, a bipolar transistor modeled by Mextram 504.7, and a substrate resistor. The IC under test is characterized by its die and package impedance. The model should allow easier simulation program with IC emphasis implementation, high simulation speed, less convergence issues, and wider availability of a gate-grounded n-type MOSFET protection device. Our model determines the interaction between the protection device and the internal circuitry of the IC. The model parameters are extracted with MATLAB script. Simulation results are compared with transmission-line pulsing measurement for a voltage regulator NCV4949 and a controller area network transceiver TLE6250G.


Pectin is an extremely complex polysaccharide typically found in cell walls and middle lamellae of higher plants. It is widely employed in food and pharmaceutical applications due to its efficient gelling and stabilising properties. Commercial pectins are typically recovered from citrus peels or apple pomace as a waste from beverage industries. Other novel sources, including sugar beets and sunflower heads, have been sought but have not been commercially viable. Pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis), a citrus fruit native to South East Asia, is another promising source of pectin due to its richness in albedo (spongy white peel), which accounted for 30% of the fruit weight. The main objective of this study was to explore the alternative extraction of pomelo pectin using acid treatments. The effects of extraction parameters (such as acid type and pH) on pectin properties – including its yield, degree of esterification, and average molecular weight – were evaluated. Furthermore, rheological properties of extracted pomelo pectin were examined.


Complex systems consist of many disciplines or components, which are often difficult to the design optimize as a overall. They need to be broken down into different components, and then coordinate the links between different parts. ATC (Analysis Target Cascade) - one of the multidisciplinary design optimization methods, is an effective way to solve such intricate problems. In the traditional multidisciplinary design optimization methods, there is only one objective function. But the multi-objective optimization problems are often emerged in practical engineering problems. So, we will focus on the multi-objective optimization problems in multidisciplinary design optimization, and solve them with particle swarm optimization. The original problem is firstly decomposed into multiple coupled sub-problems and then coordinate the relation between each sub-problems by ATC method. The system-level sub-problem is a multi-objective optimization problem and the other subsystems are the general single-objective optimization problems, the MOPSO method and the sequence quadratic programming (SQP) method will be used to solve them respectively. The final optimization result is consistent with the optimization result before the original problem is decomposed. Finally, we used two examples to demonstrate the feasibility of particle swarm optimization (PSO) method to get the solution of the multi-objective problems with ATC method.


The purpose of this article is to study the influence of fascist/neo-fascist ideo? logy in Chile, frequently termed nacionalismo,1 from the 1930s to the present day. I will concentrate especially on three distinct historical stages: the National Socialist Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Chileno?MNS) in the 1930s; the group formed around Jorge Prat and the Estanquero magazine, 1946-54; and the years immediately preceding and following the military coup of Septem? ber 1973. I intend to discuss the similarities and/or differences within the three periods, and hope to explain the survival of the ideas. Of these three movements, only the MNS was a bona fide political party, and so it is difficult to assess quantitatively the 'success' of nationalist ideas. It is fairly safe to say, however, that even at their height none of the move? ments commanded more than 4-5% of the electorate.2 In the post-war period, nationalism was restricted to intellectual or university circles rather than strictly political ones. None the less it has always been possible in Chile for small intel? lectual groups, especially those with some influence in either of the two main universities in Santiago, La Universidad de Chile or La Universidad Catolica, to play a political role out of all proportion to their size. Chilean politics has always been elitist in this sense, a trait which has become more marked since General Pinochet came to power.3 Direct access to the President, the Junta or Ministers has become the major, if not the only source of influence and power. Since the coup, however, the nacionalistas have been consistently out-manoeuvred by the better-organized and well-connected 'Chicago Boys'. For methodological reasons, the work will not entail a discussion of fascism, or of fascism in the Third World. In defining Chilean nationalist movements as fascist, I am using three criteria:


The NHS has set out plans to alter how it investigates serious incidents, as part of a new national patient safety strategy in England.

Published by NHS Improvement and NHS England,1 the strategy says that the NHS should move away from current thresholds for investigating serious incidents and should prioritise incidents that give the best opportunity for learning.

The strategy is designed to encourage staff to speak up and contribute to continuous improvement, by learning and acting when things go wrong. It includes a raft of recommendations (see box) which, if implemented successfully, could save around 1000 lives and £100m (€111m; $126m) in care costs a year by 2023-24, said NHS Improvement.

A significant part of the strategy is the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework, due to be implemented throughout England by …


We address the problem of anonymizing user queries when accessing location-based services. We design a novel location and query anonymization protocol called MAZE that preserves the user privacy without relying on trusted parties. MAZE guarantees the user's anonymity and privacy in a decentralized manner using P2P groups. Compared to prior works, MAZE enables individual user authentication for the purpose of implementing a pay-peruse or membership subscription model and is resistant to collusion of the P2P users. We extend MAZE to L-MAZE, a multi-stage protocol that is resistant to collusion of the P2P users with the LBS, at the expense of higher communication overhead.


In this interview Koop reflected on his most sustained campaign as U.S. Surgeon General, his campaign against smoking, and
 particularly his emphasis on the health costs of smoking to non-smokers. He also warned against the dangers of using smokeless
 tobacco. Koop praised efforts by local jurisdictions to ban smoking in public places and facilities as well as the sale of
 cigarettes to minors through vending machines.


: Livestock snow disaster is one of the most serious natural hazard-related disasters with long duration and wide influences in pastoral regions during winter and spring, which can cause a large number of livestock deaths and injuries. It has seriously threatened and restricted the production and high-quality development of animal husbandry in pastoral regions, with increasing uncertainties in its risk under climate change. Based on the natural disaster system theory, this study examined the theoretical framework of livestock snow disaster formation mechanism and risk assessment, and systematically summarized the progress of relevant research and methods in view of hazard, disaster formative environment, exposure, and risk assessment, along with identifying existing questions. Finally, future research directions of livestock snow disaster are proposed as follows:


Indonesia has a target of tourist arrivals in 2019, a total of 20 million tourists to visit. Ternate City is the one of government target to increase tourist visitation. They saw that this city has a a variety of tourism products especially the gastronomy who was known influences spice in Europe since 1510. This study was designed to find Ternate featured gastronomy that deserves to become gastronomy tourism destination. The approach used in this study is a descriptive exploratory study, contain description of the data in tabular form and narrative facts corresponding field. The primary data obtained from interviews, observations and focus groups involving all tourism stakeholders. The results obtained showed that Ternate has a varied potential gastronomy with very full featured. This city has potential gastronomy which is presented for ceremonial purposes that have not been commercialized. The people of Ternate saw five menu that can be used as icon and attraction such as Papeda, Gohu Fish, Fufu Smoked Fish, Soru Fish Soup, Garu Vegetable. The promotions and strategies to educate travelers about the gastronomy profile need to be done to make the maximum of the Ternate featured foods familiar to tourists. Keywords— Gastronomy, familiarization and educated


This study examines the magnitude of reconciliation payments and clinical spending reductions necessary for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to break even in the first 4 performance periods of the BPCI-A (Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced) program.


The spacecraft in-plane circular fast fly-around based on C-W equation is studied in this paper. Two methods for the forced fly-around are presented. In the first method,the natural elliptical trajectories in plane which are obtained based on C-W equation are stitched to be a nearly circular fly-around trajectory. And then the control impulses for stitching fly-around are calculated. In the second method,a reference flyaround trajectory is designed regarding the desired fly-around radius and period. The proportional-differential( PD) control law is used to track the reference trajectory accurately. The control laws of these two forced fly-around are obtained under the assumption of constant thrust. The orbital simulation results show that the both methods can accomplish the fast forced fly-around in plane. By comparing with the reference trajectory fly-around,the trajectory of stitching fly-around is not a standard circle corresponding to a fixed fly-around period. But the on-off times and the velocity increment of thrust for the stitching fly-around control are less than that for the reference trajectory fly-around control.


The design of systems today often involves computer simulation to assess performance and design margins. Understanding how variability erases design margin is important to assure adequacy of margins, especially in optimization efforts. In this paper, we develop a toolchain using open source code libraries in Python, and encapsulate it in Jupyter notebooks, to provide an open source, interactive uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis toolchain. This works generally with simulation tools, where a reference folder is created containing a script that reads an input file of parameter values and runs the simulation. With that easily created, the toolchain executes the necessary uncertainty quantification steps with replicates of that reference folder. This approach fits within a broader workflow outlined that defines the variation modes to study, maps to simulation inputs, and screens the variables for sensitivity before conducting an uncertainty quantification. An example is shown in the simulation analysis of a Stirling engine.


To determine the prevalence of periodontal disease and need for treatment in pregnant women at the District Hospital II - 1 Laredo - Trujillo. Period January - April 2014. Material and Methods: A transversal, descriptive and observational cut; the study population consisted of the total of pregnant women attending for care at Hospital District II - 1 Laredo - Trujillo; during the months of January to April 2014. Results: Al on the prevalence of periodontal disease in pregnant women determined according to the CPITN, it appears that 79.6 % of pregnant women have some degree of periodontal disease instituted; still code 2, 59.1 % with the highest incidence; therefore there is a higher prevalence of treatment need NT2, with 61.4 %; followed by the need for treatment NT1 with 18.2 %, while there is no need for treatment ( NT0 ) in 20.4 % of pregnant women; and no pregnant woman was found in need of treatment NT4. Conclusions: We found that periodontal disease does not differ in the different trimesters. There is a predominance of NT2 need for treatment in pregnant women evaluated; is need for prophylaxis and RAR, according to an identifying code 2 and 3 respectively


For a holonomic system with variable mass, the conformal invariance and the conserved quantity of Mei symmetry of Appell equations are investigated. First, by the infinitesimal one-parameter transformation group and the infinitesimal generator vector, the Mei symmetry and the conformal invariance of differential equations of motion for Appell equations in a holonomic system with variable mass are defined, and the determining equation of Mei symmetry and conformal invariance for Appell equations in a holonomic system with variable mass are given. Then, the Mei-conserved quantity corresponding to the system is derived by means of the structure equation to which the gauge function satisfies. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the application of the result.


Studies have revealed a role for pro‐inflammatory effector‐like CD3+ T cells in the pathogenesis of experimental hypertension. Despite these observations, our knowledge of the role that T cells and subsets of T cells (memory vs naïve) play in the development of human hypertension is unknown. We hypothesized that circulating cells of hypertensive patients exhibit a pro‐inflammatory T cell phenotype, as determined by the balance of memory (effector) versus naïve CD3+ cells. Using flow cytometry, subsets of circulating T cells and markers of antigenic memory were analyzed in male hypertensive patients and normotensive subjects. There were no differences in the overall percentage of CD3+ cells in normotensive (63.3 ± 3.7%) (n=5; mean age 34 yrs; mean systolic BP 128.6 mmHg) vs. hypertensive men (62.2 ± 5.5%) (n=6; mean age 53.5 yrs; mean systolic BP 154.7 mmHg). The percentage of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets were not statistically different between groups. Further subset analysis revealed that the ratio (1.6 ± 0.3 vs 0.7 ± 0.1; P <0.05) of memory (CD45RO+CD3+) vs. naïve (CD45RA+CD3+) T cells as well as the percentage of CD8+CD62L(low) cells (70.4 ± 4.5 vs 52.8 ± 6.3; P <0.05) were increased in hypertension. These results demonstrate an imbalance in effector memory / naïve T cells in hypertensive men and provide further evidence that chronic antigen exposure may be involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Supported by NIH‐HL107675‐01, Marie Curie‐IIF ‐ 276147 and British Heart Foundation.


I thank Earth Science and Engineering Department, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia for providing computational facilities that were used to conduct model simulations. The observational and simulation results are available from the author upon request


The mechanism by which UV laser pulses bring about the etching of tissue surfaces with a minimum of thermal damage to the substrate has been a matter of controversy. There are two aspects to this problem which are: (i) the reaction path in which the chemical bonds are actually broken, and (ii) a quantitative model of etch behavior as a function of pulse width, wavelength, and fluence. The second aspect is addressed here. A model is proposed1 which relates the time-dependent passage of the laser pulse to experimental parameters which control the etch behavior. A photochemical mechanism is assumed and the rate of decomposition of the polymer in its excited state is viewed as a process which competes with alternative processes which do not lead to decomposition. The width of the laser pulse is a critical factor because it is only the flux of absorbed photons above a threshold value that will be available for bond-breaking. The predictions made from this model regarding the relationship between the pulse width and fluence thresholds are being tested and have yielded encouraging results.


This paper seeks to shed light on the determinants of local tax rates in Italy by focusing on the mutual interactions between local scal policies and the features of the electoral system, which is the key insight of the yardstick competition theory. In a framework of asymmetric information, voters use tax rates set by adjacent municipalities as a yardstick to evaluate the performance of their incumbents. Local administrators anticipate this behaviour and move as a herd, mimicking each other. Within this analytical framework we study the extent and the sign of spatial correlation among Italian municipal property tax rates in the years 1998-2006. We follow a spatial panel approach in order to control for individual time-invariant characteristics and gauge the extent of genuine tax mimicking behaviour. Our results are supportive of positive spatial correlation among property tax rates. Own tax rates appear to react more strongly to neighbours policy choices than to standard determinants of tax setting decisions. Our conviction that tax herding is driven by information spillovers rather than resource ows comes from the low mobility of the tax base and from a counterfactual evidence of tax rates increasing over time. Furthermore, such evidence calls for measures aimed at containing the risk of tax collusion that may arise from herding behaviour.


Paints and coating films are vulnerable to a range of biological attacks. These may range from the enzymatic attack of primitive bacteria to the colonization of larger, relatively advanced marine species such as barnacles and mussels. In all cases, the key to growth is moisture; in the absence of water no microorganisms can grow. This articles discusses wet paint infestation, the growth of fungi and algae, the defacement and deterioration of painted and unpainted surfaces, and the more common control strategies. To combat bacterial attack, paint, wash water, and the paint raw materials--particularly the latex and cellulosic thickener solutions--must be inoculated with a wide spectrum biocide against bacteria. Perhaps to a lesser extent, they must be inoculated against fungi, both yeasts and molds.


The 2×600 MW boiler of Zhanjiang Orimulsion Power Plant is the first boiler specially designed for burning orimulsion oil. Some problems existed in the plant,such as that the boiler can not get designed load,the ash conveying system was blocked,the air preheater was blocked and others. The reasons of these problems were analyzed,and,by research,the methods solving these problems were given.


presented and the analysis of the creation of information in the scientific aspect was made. The overview of studies as well as papers published within the framework of the theory of information which is being created was made and the research approach concerning information was indicated in the particular scientific fields. Subsequently, an analysis of the concept of estimating the value of information by J. Marschaka, T. Bayesa and V. Schindela.


This study focuses on non-discursive practices connected to the transformation of individuals in the context of Bulgaria. It constitutes an attempt at presenting a decentred history of the present through the vantage point of the architecture of the panel block. Under totalitarianism, the panel block constitutes an institutionalization of a specific politics of space in Bulgaria through which it is shown that the 'socialist citizen' becomes an entity that can be constructed or made. During the last years of the regime and after the transition to democracy, the functioning of power relations within the panel block are significantly altered, yet not completely erased. The revolution of 1989 is a symbiosis between a certain discontinuity with the past and a contradiction of the old forms of subjectivities, and on the other, a silent continuity of the everyday lives of individuals. Today, the panel structures remain, in the peripheries of the cities, still reminiscent of a time passed, yet visually


The essence of antagonisms between teachers and students is both at higer educational establishment and at a society; these form attitude of students to the lessons of physical culture and a desire of strengthening own state of a health. The term "health" has three kinds (psychological health which characterizes a state of psychological environment, physical health which characterizes present state of functional possibilities of organs and an organism and social health which characterizes a system of values, the directives and the motives of a behaviour at social environment). So we can point out important role social health when students' attitude to the lessons of physical culture and a desire of students to strengthen own health state. This statement is based on not only on the base of this fact that the motives of a behaviour is formed at social environment but on the base of an importance of such factor of providing a health as "a mode of life"; such factor is about 55 % as an element of a health; a genetic factor has about 15 – 20 %; an ecology has 20 – 25 %; a medical care has 10 – 15 %.
These antagonisms are the same time with this fact that at Ukraine a physical bringing up, physical culture and sport are at negative state; it does not promote a satisfaction of demands of a major of a population at physical development and at supporting a health on the account of active lessons of physical culture and sport. There are negative changes of ideological, psychological and value priorities of young people because of a commersialization of physical culture branch and rolling up a major of state programms of a development of this branch.
This leads to negative physical preparing. Various negative features are at the same time with that fact that a minor of young people do physical culture and sport; it is a proof of negative level of a motivation to social adaptation and to self – realization at a context of helth mode of life. So at Ukraine among 100 students there are about 96 persons which have variouis non – health; among 10 students there are nine students which have certain deviations at a health; certain amount of students treat; each fifth student is at special medical group; more than 49 % students do not correspond to the mean level of the state standard of physical preparing.


Splitting of porcelain supporter has large endangerment for the safety of person, equipment and power grid. Taking 5 splitting faults happened in Baiyin power network as examples, the possible reasons are analyzed, and corresponding measures are taken to prevent same kind of faults.


The authors have studied the pathological appearances of follow-up and post-operative radiculography. It has been possible to distinguish between lesions due to arachnoiditis and periduritis.


Aims: To examine the level of expression of the pleiotropic regulators galectins‐1 and ‐7 in relation to neoplastic progression of hypopharyngeal (HSCCs) and laryngeal (LSCCs) squamous cell carcinomas.


Exploring and using surface engineering technology into the Anti-aging antibacterial mold of mulberry silk brocade fabrics through multiple dipping and padding to carry out limited permeation and effective bonding strength on material surface. It has obvious effect on antibiotic action and less effect on the silk materials' original performance.


The subject of this paper is the utilization of the "infant mortality" or decreasing failure rate effect to improve the reliability of repairable devices. Decreasing failure rate implies the possibility that devices which exhibit it can be improved by "burn-in testing" of each unit. Such a test serves to accumulate operating time while shielded from the full costs and consequences of failure. A general formulation of the burn-in test decision for repairable devices is presented and some special cases are solved. A class of models, indexed by the degree of partial replacement present in the repair process, is considered and numerical results for the optimal policy are given for several members of that class. A comparison of those results reveals the profitability of testing increases with the complexity of the repairable device.


The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for connecting an antenna of a near field communications in a portable terminal. The attachment and detachment of a wireless charge cover including a second antenna of a near field communications is sensed. An IC is connected to the first antenna of the near field communications or the second antenna according to the sensed result. The IC provides the near field communications. The first antenna is included in a battery.


Just months old, new federal health reform still has that "new legislation shine," but it seems some of your peers doubt that luster will last.


Visible-light-driven photocatalysis is a robust technology for amending the negative effect of pollutants on the environment with a minimum energy use. Herein, we describe a simple approach to producing such a photocatalyst by coupling conjugated polyvinyl chloride (cPVC) with the TiO2 nanotube (TNT) thermolysis method. By activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to make a cPVC/TNT/PMS system using visible light as the source, we obtain a significant enhancement in the photocatalytic performance. We show that PMS use at a concentration of 3 mM can fully degrade rhodamine B (RhB) solution at a remarkably high concentration (200 mg L-1) just in 120 min under visible light. The cPVC/TNT/PMS system also shows excellent stability in recycling tests for at least five times. Further, by confining the active species in photocatalytic reactions, we report a thorough understanding of the extent of involvement from those radicals. Our work presents a robust approach to make a high-performance, visible-light-driven photocatalyst, which can be potentially used in practice.


A brief introduction of the general process of ground target laying of ZY-3 satellite in-orbit geometric calibration,introduce the key technologies of the application of part of the operating,for the other satellites in-orbit geometric calibration ground target laying for reference.


To evaluate the whole residual stress profile of sub-surface processes, existing methods such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) or central hole drilling method (CHD) require material removal, which is inherently destructive. A non-destructive residual stress measurement method using eddy current is utilized to capture the stress depth profile. The technique is demonstrated on nickel-based superalloy Inconel 100 (IN100) treated using deep cold rolling and shot peening to show that the method developed for stress profiling can be independent of the subsurface treatment. This paper presents the experimental results obtained with an experimental set-up based on the commercially available Nortec eddy current instrument and pencil surface probes. Test samples prepared from IN100 by deep cold rolling and shot peening for two different treatment conditions will be presented. The calculated residual stress profile using eddy current (EC) is compared with the equivalent residual stress profile using CHD for penetration depths from (100-550)μm to validate the measurement technique.


Google AdSense is owned by Google Inc. It is a free and simple program that facilitates website or blog owners to generate revenue by displaying targeted Google ads on their websites or blogs. Advertisers are individuals or organisations who pay Google for advertizing with Google AdSense. Publishers are bloggers or website owners and Google allows them to show various ads on behalf of advertisers. Based on the content of the blogs or websites and audience, Google AdSense automatically sends targeted text, image, video, and rich media based advertisements on these websites or blogs. Publishers can generate revenue based on the number of times audiences of their websites click the ads. If any entrepreneur has its website or blog, it provides an excellent opportunity for them to generate revenue using Google AdSense. This topic will cover the basics of the Google AdSense and how online entrepreneurs in India can capitalize on this new business opportunity.


This short essay is my contribution to the third issue of the Revue Européenne du Droit, which will be dedicated to the possible, desirable or misguided, transformation of some fundamental aspects of the functioning of the market economy. It heavily draws on "A Liberal Theory of Property".


We read with great interest the article by Zohoury, et al 1 on how to close the serological gap in the diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) by using non-criteria antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). In their well-designed study, the authors found that using 4 of 11 non-criteria tests [antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin complex (aPS/PT), antiphosphatidylserine (aPS), antiphosphatidylethanolamine antibodies, and anticardiolipin (aCL)/vimentin antibodies], an accumulative 30.9% of seronegative APS (SN-APS) patients were detected, and there was a further 5.9% increase when using the other 7 non-criteria tests. On the basis of their findings, the authors concluded that patients displaying clinical features of APS but negative for conventional criteria markers should undergo additional testing for non-criteria biomarkers.

Among those non-criteria biomarkers, aPS/PT has exhibited the most promising potential owing to the availability of the well-characterized and standardized commercial ELISA kits2. In this letter, we hope to contribute to this discussion by calling attention to an additional report that we recently published on the clinical relevance of aPS/PT in Chinese patients with APS3.

In our study, sera from 441 subjects were analyzed, including …

Address correspondence to Dr. Y. Li, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Key Laboratory of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Ministry of Education, No. 1 Shuai Fu Yuan, Eastern District, Beijing 100730, China. E-mail: LiYZ{at}pumch.cn or yongzhelipumch{at}126.com


Objective: This study aims to analyze the ketogenic diet that slows down weight gain in juvenile Musmusculus induced with benzopyrene (BZP). Method: Thirty-six female mice (Mus musculus), 6-8 weeks old,weighted 15-25 grams were divided into six groups randomly. K1 (negative control, standard diet) inducedwith oleum olivarum, while K2 (positive control, standard diet), P1 (ketogenic diet 1), P2 (ketogenic diet 2),P3 (ketogenic diet 3) and P4 (ketogenic diet 4) induced with BZP subcutaneously in the right breast at a doseof 0.3mg/20gBB/day for 14 days. The ketogenic diet was given for the next 28 days. Data were analyzedusing the ANOVA and post hoc LSD test. Results: After 42 days, the ketogenic diet mice experiencedslower weight gain (p=0.000) because BZP induced neurotoxicity and the administration of the ketogenicdiet in juvenile mice induced neurohormonal changes. The ketogenic diet increased ketone plasma level(p=0.000) and reduced blood glucose levels (p=0.002) due to nutritional ketosis state. Conclusions: Theketogenic diet with fat:protein ratio 60:30 slows down weight gain, increased ketone levels and decreasedblood glucose levels in juvenile mice with BZP as cancer inducer.


The caffeine content of 60 individuals of a low-caffeine population of tea plant was analyzed using HPLC and the molecular variance was studied using 42 EST-SSR markers,respectively.The results showed that the caffeine content of fresh weight ranged from 0.38% to 1.08%.Five individuals had lower caffeine content than female parent,and they can be used as breeding materials for further screening low-caffeine tea cultivars.One hundred and twenty-nine alleles were detected,each pair of primers could detect 2 to 7 alleles,an average of 3.86.The average number of Shannon-Weaver index(I) was 0.65.The polymorphism information content(PIC) of EST-SSR markers varied from 0.03 to 0.68,with average of 0.33.Three SSR markers,TM089,TM200 and TM211,related to variation of caffeine content were preliminary identified.It would be of important significance for screening excellent genetic resources and breeding new low-caffeine tea cultivars.


An efficient procedure for simulating the direct path loss between body-worn antennas is presented. Nearfield sources are used to simplify the simulations and reduce the number of mesh cells. The procedure is validated with conventional full 2-port CST T-solver simulations. Next, the direct path loss between each of five different hearing solutions and a connectivity device placed on the chest are presented and discussed. Finally, it is reported that the simulation time for some of the hearing solutions is improved with up to a factor of 5.


In practice, we often encounter situations where a sample size is not defined in advance and can be a random value. The randomness of the sample size crucially changes the asymptotic properties of the underlying statistic. In the present paper second order Chebyshev--Edgeworth and Cornish--Fisher expansions based of Student's $t$- and Laplace distributions and their quantiles are derived for sample median with random sample size of a special kind.


Objective To evaluate images quality and flexibility of low-dose CT in patients with traumatic rib fractures. Methods Thirty patients presented with thoracic injury were enrolled in this study and were divided into two groups. Fifteen subjects of group A underwent chest CT scanning with a fixed tube current of 200 mA, and 15 subjects of group B underwent chest CT scanning using Automatic Tube Current Modulation with noise index of 12.5. CT images were evaluated by two radiologists with double blind method. Images quality scores(IQS) of lung apex, middle lung and lower lung were made, the image standard deviation(SD) was measured, and the CT dose index volume(CTDIvol) and dose length produce(DLP) were also recorded. Student t test was used to compare two group's CTDIvol values, DLP values, image noise and IQS. P 0.05 represented the significant difference. The difference of the inter-observer was determined by kappa statistics. Results SD value of group B were higher than group A, but there was no statistical difference in IQS between the two groups. The diagnostic accuracy of two groups was 100%. The values of CTDIvol and DLP of group A were(12.8±0.5) mGy and(398.7± 12.86) mGy·cm, respectively. The values of CTDIvol and DLP of group B were(9.9±2.5) mGy and(223.8±23.4) mGy·cm, respectively, reducing 22.5% and 43.8% intrinsic dose compared to group A(P 0.01). Conclusion Rib fracture can be detected by the low-dose CT using the scan protocol with NI of 12.5.


The utility model provides a multimedia platform for network education. The multimedia platform comprises a position sensor, a controller, a pan-tilt camera, a video acquisition device, a display, a sound pickup, a microphone, an audio acquisition device, a server, a student computer and a sound console, wherein the position sensor is connected with the controller; the pan-tilt camera is connected at the rear of the controller; the video acquisition device is connected at the rear of the pan-tilt camera; the display and the server are simultaneously connected at the rear of the video acquisition device; the audio acquisition device is connected in front of the server; the sound pickup, the microphone and the sound console are connected and arranged in front of the audio acquisition device; the student computer is connected and arranged at the rear of the server; and the pan-tilt camera carries out real-time shooting and recording according to the image information scanned by the position sensor to ensure the images of the teachers to be always in the video pictures. The multimedia platform has simple integral structure, is convenient to install, operate and use and has high stability and reliability.


Information studies is concerned with information, but what is information for? That question is usually answered with reference to epistemic aims, the default of which is generally assumed to be knowledge. Following recent work in epistemology, this chapter argues that, from the perspective of information experience, understanding is an epistemic aim well suited to the field. Understanding refers to the grasping of inferential and explanatory relationships among a body of information. Two forms of understanding can be distinguished: ontological and ontic. Ontological understanding is the background activity through which perception and mentation happen. Thus, ontological understanding is a matter of an agent's conscious and experiential engagement with their environment – in short, it is one's making sense of their situation. Over this background, ontic understanding is made. Ontic understanding can be defined as a coherent and self-transparent network of knowledge that has been constructed by a conscious agent through ontological understanding. All in all, the concept of understanding provides an account for how bodily experience, recorded information, and other forms of information can contribute epistemically in concert.


Sustainable development is a concept with no-definite extension and is defined as atypical fuzzy concept. Based on the established fuzzy pattern recognition theory developed by theauthor, the paper presents the quantification theory, model, and method for regional sustainabledevelopment. This theory can be a pioneering work in the field of regional sustainabledevelopment study.


Preface Abbreviations Notes on the translations Chronology of John's life and posthumous rehabilitation Introduction Funerary Speech for Bishop John John's Letters from Exile 1. Introduction 2. Translation of thirty selected letters of John Appendices A. The Council of the Oak B. Theodoret's Lost Orations on John C. John in the Calendar of the Church of Constantinople D. Concordance to the Funerary Speech E. Concordance to Editions of Palladius, Historical Dialogue F. Concordance to John's Letters to Olympias Map of Asia Minor Bibliography Index


A second-order multibit EA A/D converter which uses a simple and fast digital correction scheme is presented. A correlateddouble-sampling fully-differential integrator is used in which the opamp needs only a low slew rate and moderate bandwidth for a baseband frequency of 20.5 kHz and a sampling rate of 5.25 MHz. The modulator, fabricated in a 2p CMOSprocess, shows a S/(N-tD) of 95 dB with an oversampling ratio of only 128 using the new system.


Relevance feedback has been shown to improve retrieval for a broad range of retrieval models. It is the most common way of adapting a retrieval model for a specific query. In this work, we expand this common way by focusing on an approach that enables us to do query-specific modification of a retrieval model for learning-to-rank problems. Our approach is based on using feedback documents in two ways: 1) to improve the retrieval model directly and 2) to identify a subset of training queries that are more predictive than others. Experiments with the Gov2 collection show that this approach can obtain statistically significant improvements over two baselines; learning-to-rank (SVM-rank) with no feedback and learning-to-rank with standard relevance feedback.


In the paper a new method of Random Telegraph Signal (RTS) noise identification is presented. The method is based on a standardized histogram of i nstantaneous noise values and processing by Gram-Charlier series. To find a device generating RTS noise by the presented method one should count t he number of significant coefficients of the Gram- Charlier series. This would allow to recognize the t ype of noise. There is always one (first) significant coefficient ( c0) representing Gaussian noise. If additional coefficients cr (where r > 0) appear it means that RTS noise (two-level as well as multiple- level) is detected. The coefficient representing the Gaussian component always has the h ighest value of all. The application of this method will be presented on the example of four devices, each with di fferent noise (pure Gaussian noise signal, noise signal with two-level RTS noise, noise signal with three- level RTS noise and noise signal with not precisely visible occurrence of RTS noise). K eywords: RTS noise, Gram-Charlier series, semiconductor devices, optocouplers.


The internal anatomy of the human body has fascinated mankind for many centuries, as evidenced by the popularity and number of anatomy textbooks ( Gray's Anatomy is in its 30th edition). Even though human dissection continues to play an important role in the initial learning of internal human anatomy, modern imaging techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging serve as a noninvasive looking glass for the internal human anatomy, as was only dreamed about a decade ago. The authors, Han and Kim, in their book Sectional Human Anatomy: Correlation With Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging , attempt to provide the correlation between cadaveric sectional anatomy, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. The book is divided into four parts: transverse and coronal sections of the head, brain, and neck, correlated with computed tomography; chest anatomy in both the transverse and sagittal planes, correlated with computed tomography; the abdomen and pelvis


Resent measurements and reports show that in most cases licensed spectrum is used sporadically resulting in large unutilized spectrum portions. Opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) is a promising solution providing methods to identify and exploit these portions. Most existing OSA proposals provide ways for unlicensed users to access the licensed spectrum. This paper describes a novel approach where licensed users of an infrastructure-based system exploit features of their system to detect spatial spectrum opportunities. Focusing on an interference-free solution, an alternative opportunistic operation mode is provided, allowing licensed users to increase utilization of their own spectrum.


The paper explores the dependence of lysosomal cysteine proteases (cathepsinsL and H) activity in plasma and various leukocytes on leukocytosis grade in patients with leg vein thrombophlebitis. Study shows significant cathepsin L activity raise in polymorphonuclear and mononuclear leukocytes, as well as significant decline of plasma cathepsin H activity in patients with leukocytosis.


SUMMARY The simulated annealing method was applied to jointly invert gravity and resistivity data to obtain the geometry of the density/resistivity interfaces and subsurface electrical resistivity distribution. The results obtained from the inversions of synthetic data indicate that the joint inversion significantly improves the solution decreasing the ambiguity of the models. The method was applied to gravity and resistivity data carried out in Sinai (northwestern Egypt). The results obtained revealed the geometry of the water-bearing zone with thickness ranging from 80 to 180 m and of the limestone‐bedrock interface dipping northwards.


The life of a blind person is quite challenging. They face lots of problems in their daily life especially when they are traveling from one place to another. Lack of vision leads them to accidents. Lots of work has already been done in this field of real-time object detection and recognition for visually challenged people. In layman's terms, we can say that object detection is finding where the object is present and object recognition is finding what is the object present in the image or in the surroundings. Here in this paper, we have performed theoretical as well as experimental analysis of the existing works in the form of a comparative table in which the parameters that have been taken for comparison are dataset, algorithm, and average precision. In addition that, we have identified the research gap in the existing works for visually challenged people and for the fulfillment of the research gap we have introduced about our research agenda which shows the method that could have been used to make a model that is much more feasible, i.e to make a model that can work on low computation devices like a smartphone.


Leaf blight disease of peas caused by Alternaria alternata and Alternaria tusi which is one of the major and important foliage diseases of peas. Leaf blight of peas was first reported occasionally in visconsin a commercial production fields in 1968 and 1976 but recently it has been seen in all peas growing areas of skardu and Kharmang olding. The losses occurs 2080% due to the attack of this disease depending upon the management practices. Alternaria tusi was fist reported from kwardu in 2018 at Tusi scientific research center kwardu. Keeping in view the losses caused by Alternaria alternata and Alternaria tusi in peas. The present study was carried out at Tusi scientific research center kwardu during the year 2018. The key objectives of this study were (a) Survey and sampling of leaf blight disease of peas in the surrounding of District Kharmang and different localities of Skardu (b) Isolation and identification of the leaf blight disease causing agent, (c) evaluation of in-vitro chemical control measures against the Alternaria sp. causing leaf blight of peas. The fungicides were tested at (50, 100, 200 ppm) concentrations whereas, All treatments were tested with three replications. The result of this study showed that the leaf blight disease of peas occurs in all fields with different intensities during the surveyed area. The maximum disease incidence (22%) was recorded at Muntazir abad followed by Bindiaq (18%) Maqpon abad (17%) whereas, the minimum disease incidence (11%) and 12% was recorded at Gulshan abad and hasnain abad respectively. Different fungi such as Alternaria alternata, Alternaria tusi Aspergillus sp and Penicillium sp with different number of colony frequencies (%) were being isolated from the leaves of leaf blight disease samples. The fungus Alternaria alternata and Alternaria tusi was isolated with maximum (88%) from muntazir abad followed by maqpon abad. Among all the tested fungicides the minimum colony mycelial growth 22.33mm and 32.33mm was recorded when Nativo fungicide used at highest doses 200 and 100 ppm whereas, at lowest dose 50 ppm, the growth of the tested fungus was recorded 39.33 mm. The Cabriotop resulted 33.66mm, 42.66mm and 52.00mm at 200, 100 and 50ppm doses respectively. The Topsin-M and Topas Fungicides did not proved better as compare to Nativo and Cabriotop fungicides. The overall results showed that all tested fungicites retarded the colony mycelail growth of the Alternaria tusi as compare to control.


Modified duration and average life are financial measures belonging to the mathematics of discounting. They are frequently confused, even by financial experts. The likely source of confusion is the failure of quantitative credit studies to have developed in tandem with market risk studies. Instead, mathematical ideas have been imported wholesale from trading and used in credit engineering without sensitivity to their different risk polymorphisms. But while market risk is short-term, credit is a long game where the key determinants of value are time and quality. A good incentive for building an authentic quantitative credit layer is the capital value and risk that remain buried in the mathematics of discounting.


The Grassmannian and the Lax pair approaches to the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) hierarchy are analyzed in the framework of (formal) principal fiber bundles. The underlying factorization problem is formulated as a local triviality condition. In particular the common object in the two approaches — the Baker function — coordinatizes the base space, the fiber consists of certain generalized differential operators. An example is constructed to show that despite the apparent similarity to the splitting in [8], the local triviality condition cannot be given a group theoretic interpretation. Introduction For about twenty years "completely integrable" nonlinear partial differential equations have been investigated intensively from different points of view. In particular, the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili hierarchy (KP-hierarchy) has been treated from the point of view of Grassmannian like manifolds [12], [13], Lax pairs [6], [7], [13], [14], and the general Riemann-Hilbert problem [8]. The original goal of this paper was to clarify geometrically the relations between these three approaches to the KP-hierarchy. In the end we were able to generalize the pseudo-differential operator approach of [13] to give a natural relation between the Grassmannian point of view and the Lax pair point of view via (formal) principal fiber bundles. Even something like a Riemann-Hilbert splitting appears (Theorem 3.6 and (5.7.27)). However, it turns out that this Riemann-Hilbert type of splitting cannot be obtained as a ''group splitting" as in [8]. At this point we have to leave it open to understand the relations between all these approaches from a higher, unifying approach. In §1 we recall the definition of the Grassmannian manifold X and the associated r-functions. In §2 we consider a set °1/F0 that will turn out in §4 to be a principal G£(//+)-fiber bundle over X and a map 0}, //_ = span {A; r<0}. We choose subspaces VCB(H+, //_), V~CB(H-, H+) such that V=(V , V~) is a Jordan pair, i.e. for x e V, y~ E V~, we have xy~x E V and y~xy~ E V~. In [2] we chose V, V~ as Asymmetric normed ideal" and thus imposed canonical Banach structures on V\ but for the purposes of this paper this seems to be only of minor importance. Nevertheless we have always these examples in mind. 1.2. Given V= (V', V") one constructs a variety X by (1.2.1) X= Vx V~l~, where the equivalence relation "~" is given by: (1.2.2) (*, y)~(x', y) itl~(y~y'}x is invertible and x' =x[I(y-y'}x]-\