Discussing the electrical energy production of a PV system realized by PV modules with a large range of tolerance for the rated power values is the aim of this paper. In particular, the paper shows how the incidence of tolerance can be significant, in terms of output power reduction, when the PV system works in partial shading condition. For this issue, using a tool developed for this purpose, several simulations have been run, which consider different tolerance values for the module rated power and different shading patterns for the PV array. The authors quantify the peak power values of the different system configurations, showing the importance of the choice of modules with reduced tolerance and providing useful indications for designers of photovoltaic systems as well. The proposed methodology is useful to calculate the payback time of PV system for each module choice.


Objective To summarize our preliminary experience of dignosis and treatment of aortic dissection. Methods All the 26 cases with aortic dissection,including of 21 men and 5 women with the mean age of 54.3±3.6 years,had chest pain,which were excluded myocardial infarction by electrocardiography. All of them were underwent contrast enhanced CT or CT angiography (CTA). Results All patients were diagnosed by CT and type Stanford A in 4 cases and B in 22 cases,were managed with pain-released and depressurization. 15 cases were treated with no operation. 7 died of aortic dissection rapture (including of 2 cases with pericardial tamponading) in 7 days of admission,and 2 died of rapture and heart failiue respectively in 2 weeks of admission. 11 patients were performed surgical management including of desceding aorta replacement in 3 cases and endovascular stent-graft placement in 8 cases. 1 patient died after desceding aorta replacement. 10 cases with surgical treatment had been followed up for 8 months to 4 years. 1 cases with endovascular stent-graft placement appeared hang-nail of ascending aorta without chest pain,and the other 9 were in good condition. Conclusion It is very vital for CT scan to lay out and perform operation,and endovascular stent-graft placement has good effectiveness in the treatment of aorta dissection.


The strongly cytotoxic, antibiotic, and immunosuppressive palau'amine was isolated from the Belau sponge Stylotella aurantium, along with less active 4-bromo and 4,5-dibromo derivatives. Three corresponding isomeric compounds, all less active, were also isolated, and full details of the isolation and all structure proofs are provided.


The MMRDT and UCBT groups did not differ in terms of T-cell engraftment, CD4 (cid:2) and CD3 (cid:2) cell recoveries, while Ig replacement therapy was discontinued sooner after UCBT (adjusted P (cid:1) .02). There was a trend toward a greater incidence of grades II-IV acute GVHD ( P (cid:1) .06) and more chronic GVHD ( P (cid:1) .03) after UCBT. Theestimated5-yearoverallsurvivalrates were 62% (cid:3) 4% after MMRDT and 57% (cid:3) 6% after UCBT. For children with SCID and no HLA-identical sibling donor, both UCBT and MMRDT represent available HSC sources for transplantation with quite similar outcomes. ( Blood . 2012; 119(12):2949-2955)


OBJECTIVE:To investigate the state of drug couseling service in our hospital,in order to improve the quality of pharmaceutical service.METHODS:508 cases of drug counseling records in our hospital from 2007 to 2009 were analyzed statistically.RESULTS:Doctors and nurses were the main groups of the counseling,and the drug information needs of patients were constantly increasing.The type of drugs involved mainly were anti-infective agents,endocrine system drugs,digestive system drugs and cardiovascular drugs.The main contents of counseling included drug selection,dosage and usage,drug use for special group,name and composition of drugs,skin test,etc.CONCLUSION:The development of drug counseling service can improve the level of rational drug use.


In this note, We obtain some necessary and sufficient conditions such that a singular Z-matrix is a singular irreducible M-matrix.


ABSTRACT Objective: The hip joint is a crucial part of the kinetic chain for throwing baseball pitches. Nevertheless, few reports have described assessments of the functional development of the hip joint in young baseball players. Methods: We examined 315 young baseball players, 7–14 years old, all of whom had completed a self-administered questionnaire including items related to the dominant side and throwing-related hip joint pain sustained during the previous year. We measured the hip ranges of motion (ROMs: external and internal rotation and flexion) and hip muscle strengths (external and internal rotation) on the dominant and non-dominant sides. The differences of hip ROMs and muscle strengths between the dominant and non-dominant sides and between age groups were investigated. Correlations were calculated between the players ages and hip ROMs and muscle strengths. Results: No baseball player reported hip pain. The hip external rotation on the dominant side was smaller than that on the non-dominant side, whereas the hip internal rotation on the dominant side was greater than that on the non-dominant side. However, no significant difference was found between the dominant and non-dominant sides in terms of the hip muscle strength. Significant positive associations were found between the player's age and hip muscle strengths, whereas significant negative associations were found between the age and hip ROMs. Conclusions: Our data concerning the relationship between age and hip joint development could be useful for supporting strategies for the prevention and rehabilitation of throwing injuries; however, hip injuries might be rare among young baseball players.


This article provides information on how transit agencies are finding new ways to provide paratransit services for an aging population. Based on Metro magazines's fourth annual paratransit survey, the two largest public paratransit agencies in the U.S. are San Francisco's, with 1,732 revenue vehicles, and Chicago's, with 1,496. The smallest has three vehicles. Small and mid-size buses make up just over 41 percent of respondents' fleets, while vans comprise 17.8 percent and taxis make up 40.8 percent. These figures show a slight increase in the use of small buses and a small decrease in the number of mid-size buses. The article is illustrated with a number of charts, which break down vehicle purchasing plans, integration of paratransit with fixed-route service, percentage of paratransit vehicles by type, greatest driver-related concern, and others. The article also describes operational challenges as well as innovations. Included is a brief accompanying article on safety procedures for wheelchair lifts.


Entity Suggestion with Conceptual Explanation (ESC) refers to a type of entity acquisition query in which a user provides a set of example entities as the query and obtains in return not only some related entities but also concepts which can best explain the query and the result. ESC is useful in many applications such as related-entity recommendation and query expansion. Many example based entity suggestion solutions are available in existing literatures. However, they are generally not aware of the concepts of query entities thus cannot be used for conceptual explanation. In this paper, we propose two probabilistic entity suggestion models and their computation solutions. Our models and solutions fully take advantage of the large scale taxonomies which consist of isA relations between entities and concepts. With our models and solutions, we can not only find the best entities to suggest but also derive the best concepts to explain the suggestion. Extensive evaluations on real data sets justify the accuracy of our models and the efficiency of our solutions.


Objective To observe the effects of S-nitrosoglutathione(GSNO)on cardiac myocyte hypertrophy induced by prostaglandin F2α(PGF2α),and to probe primarily its mechanisms.Methods Neonatal rat cardiomyocyte hypertrophic response and the antihypertrophic effects of GSNO were assayed by measuring cell diameter and protein content.The nitric oxide(NO) concentration and the intracellular free calcium concentration((Ca2+)i) in cultured cardiomyocytes were measured by colorimetry or by using Fura 2/AM as a fluorescent indicator,respectively.Results PGF2α at 10-7mol/L significantly increased the cell diameter,protein content and(Ca2+)i in cultured cardiomyocyte,but had no effects on NO release.GSNO at 10-4mol/L could significantly inhibit the cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by PGF2α.Oppositely,NO release was reduced by GSNO(P0.05).Similarly,(Ca2+)i was reduced by GSNO.Conclusion Cardiomyocyte hypertrophyic response could be abolished by GSNO partly,which may be related to its effects on the increase the release of NO and then inhibiting the increase of(Ca2+)i induced by PGF2α.


The large p small n problem is a challenge without a de facto standard method available to it. In this study, we propose a tensor-decomposition (TD)-based unsupervised feature extraction (FE) formalism applied to multiomics datasets, in which the number of features is more than 100,000 whereas the number of samples is as small as about 100, hence constituting a typical large p small n problem. The proposed TD-based unsupervised FE outperformed other conventional supervised feature selection methods, such as random forest, categorical regression (also known as analysis of variance, or ANOVA), penalized linear discriminant analysis, and a unsupervised method, multiple non-negative matrix factorization, when applied not only to multiomics datasets but also to synthetic datasets. The genes selected by TD-based unsupervised FE were enriched in genes known to be related to tissues and transcription factors measured. TD-based unsupervised FE was demonstrated to be not only the superior feature selection method but also the method that can select biologically reliable genes. To our knowledge, this is the first study in which TD-based unsupervised FE has been successfully applied to the integration of this variety of multiomics measurements.


Metallothioneins (MTs) are a group of ubiquitous low molecular weight proteins with a high affinity for heavy metal ions. The aim of the present study was to investigate MT expression in a series of endometrial carcinomas. We wished to determine whether MT expression in endometrial carcinoma was related to established prognostic factors such as tumour grade, stage and histological type. We also wanted to establish if high MT expression in curettings of endometrial carcinoma was predictive of high expression in the subsequent hysterectomy specimen.


The dual-mode nebulization system in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry was newly designed for practical use, using a small spray chamber and a concentric nebulizer. The drain in the one-way mode was simply switched to the nebulizer with a rotary valve for the recycling mode. The present system allowed nebulization to maintain for 20 min with a 2 ml sample, a rapid sample exchange within 10 min, and a low memory of 0.01%. A


A radical restructuring of R&D activity, shifting emphasis away from basic research towards customer services, is on the way for Deutsche Bundespost Telekom, the third largest telecommunication network operator in the world. The shake-up is being implemented as the German Government pushes for privatisation of the state-owed organisation.


Many studies have found that the impact of schooling on earnings is greater for females than for males, despite the fact that females tend to earn less, both absolutely and controlling for personal characteristics. This study investigates possible ...


Efficient bean nodulating Rhizobium strains, isolated from different Brazilian cerrado soils, were characterized by RAPD. This study showed great genetic heterogeneity among R. tropici and R. leguminosarum bv. phaseoli strains and allowed the constitution of genetic clusters, besides indicating the most suitable primers for this characterization. The groups of genetically distinct strains can be used in competitiveness studies to select appropriate Rhizobium strains for bean inoculation in cerrado soils.


Does soccer explain the world? Or does the world explain soccer? Is soccer a cause of global integration? Or does it result from global integration? These questions animate much recent writing on the beautiful game. Analysing this writing from the perspectives of the globalization of politics, economics and culture, this essay concludes that the game follows globalization trends more than it causes them in the realms of politics and economics. However, it shapes the cultural realm significantly by forming a hybrid, cosmopolitan 'glocal' culture. Soccer may not bring world peace or move global markets, but it does bring cultures together under the 'sign of play'. It is a triumph of the global imaginary, if not yet a driving force in global politics or economics.


Portrait of Margaret Elizabeth Selwyn as a girl photographed by Mrs Williams of Wolverhampton, England, in about 1883.
Inscriptions: Verso - M E Selwyn
Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Physical Description: Albumen print, 9.5 x 6 cm, mounted on card


Various aspects of radar cross-section (RCS) techniques are summarized, with emphasis placed on fundamental electromagnetic phenomena, such as plane and spherical wave formulations, and the definition of RCS is given in the far-field sense. The basic relationship between electronic countermeasures and a signature level is discussed in terms of the detectability range of a target vehicle. Fundamental radar-signature analysis techniques, such as the physical-optics and geometrical-optics approximations, are presented along with examples in terms of aircraft components. Methods of analysis based on the geometrical theory of diffraction are considered and various wave-propagation phenomena are related to local vehicle geometry. Typical vehicle components are also discussed, together with their contribution to total vehicle RCS and their individual signature sensitivities.


Aspectual middleware platform DCAM is a middleware computing environment, which satisfies the self-adaptability requirements of on-demand computing and supports the real-time reconstruction of system platform. Based on the analysis of the existing aspect-oriented architecture description languages, this paper proposes a kind of holographic view language HVL4DCAM for middleware platform based on XML language. HVL4DCAM can be used to describe the states of components and aspects running on DCAM platform and the dynamic relationship between them. HVL4DCAM is a symmetrical aspect-oriented architecture language and improves the reusability of aspects. A performance assessment system running on DCAM platform is described in HVL4DCAM as a case study.


The incomplete densification in vacuum-sintering of carbonyl iron fine powder having a small amount of carbon impurity (0.03 mass%) was examined, with the result that the cause was considered to be the high equilibrium pressure of CO gas which was formed by the reduction reaction of the oxide with the carbon impurity and was trapped in closed pores. The addition of the metals which produce a stable oxide having low standard free energy of formation was found to be effective for the complete densification


In a cellular network it's very difficult to make spectrum resource more efficiently. Device-to-Device (D2D) technology enables new service opportunities, provides high throughput and reliable communication while reducing the base station load. For better total performance, short-range D2D links and cellular links share the same radio resource and the management of interference becomes a crucial task. We propose a radio resource allocation for multi-hop D 2D routes based on interference avoidance approach. Our analysis and numerical results indicate that even with Channel State Information (CSI) knowledge, we are able to improve the system performance in terms of throughput by allowing coexisting D2D communications while satisfying the cellular user's constraints.


of the Dissertation Atmospheric Compensation and Surface Temperature and Emissivity Retrieval with LWIR Hyperspectral Imagery by Michael Pieper Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering Northeastern University, August 2017 Vinay Ingle, Adviser Accurate estimation or retrieval of surface emissivity spectra from long-wave infrared (LWIR) or Thermal Infrared (TIR) hyperspectral imaging data acquired by airborne or space-borne sensors is necessary for many scientific and defense applications. The at-aperture radiance measured by the sensor is a function of the ground emissivity and temperature, modified by the atmosphere. Thus the emissivity retrieval process consists of two interwoven steps: atmospheric compensation (AC) to retrieve the ground radiance from the measured at-aperture radiance and temperatureemissivity separation (TES) to separate the temperature and emissivity from the ground radiance. In-scene AC (ISAC) algorithms use blackbody-like materials in the scene, which have a linear relationship between their ground radiances and at-aperture radiances determined by the atmospheric transmission and upwelling radiance. Using a clear reference channel to estimate the ground radiance, a linear fitting of the at-aperture radiance and estimated ground radiance is done to estimate the atmospheric parameters. TES algorithms for hyperspectral imaging data assume that the emissivity spectra for solids are smooth compared to the sharp features added by the atmosphere. The ground temperature and emissivity are found by finding the temperature that provides the smoothest emissivity estimate. In this thesis we develop models to investigate the sensitivity of AC and TES to the basic assumptions enabling their performance. ISAC assumes that there are perfect blackbody pixels in a scene and that there is a clear channel, which is never the case. The developed ISAC model explains how the quality of blackbody-like pixels affect the shape of atmospheric estimates and the clear channel assumption affects their magnitude. Emissivity spectra for solids usually have some roughness. The TES model identifies four sources of error: the smoothing error of the emissivity


Taylor and Francis RWHR_A_556317.sgm 10.1080/09612025.2011.556317 Women's History Review 0961-2 25 (pri t)/1747-583X (online) Original rt cle 2 1 & Francis 0000Ap il 201 D KatieBa cl y k.barcl email@example.com The 17th Annual Conference of the Women's History Network (UK) was hosted by the Centre for Gender History, University of Glasgow on 5–7 September 2008. The Centre for Gender History was formed in 2008 and developed from the recognition that the School of History at Glasgow University has the largest concentration


The grid brings a new era to the Internet, by introducing new mechanisms, resources, and concepts which allow it to advance from a passive information medium into an active tool for creating, exploring, and sharing knowledge. In the meanwhile, the realisation of this trend is further spurred by the emergence of next generation grids (NGG) and the far more efficient, cost-effective, and broadly applicable infrastructure they introduce to cover a broader spectrum of business needs. Towards this direction and taking into account that mobility has become a central aspect in business, education, and entertainment, mobile grid has been recently developed as a full inheritor of grid covering the mobility aspects of applications, such as m-learning. In this context, this book chapter focuses on providing a business-technical presentation of mobile grid, as an enabling technology for next generation m-learning applications. We present a general mobile grid architecture able to serve the strict requirements such an m-learning application poses, and analyse the main trends and challenges in the mentioned sector. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-882-6.ch008


A prospective cross‐sectional study was developed in order to determine reference ranges for the umbilical cord cross‐sectional area (UCCSA) during normal pregnancies (patients with known dates of LMP and an ultrasound examination before the 20th week, without any pathologic condition). The measurements of the UCCSA were obtained in a plane adjacent to the insertion of the cord abdomen, as proposed by Raio et al, 1999. The inclusion criteria were: (1) singleton pregnancy, (2) gestation age >20 weeks, (3) intact membranes, (4) normal umbilical Doppler flow velocimetry. The exclusion criteria, in the presence of any of those, were: (1) congenital and/or chromosomal abnormalities; (2) pregnancy complications (any type); (3) inadequate size for gestational age when the examination was performed, i.e. the weight below the 10th percentile or above the 90th; (4) abnormal AFI for the gestational age. The patients were examined and included only once. During the period of the study (February 2000–May 2001), 545 patients were examined, after meeting the inclusion criteria determined for the present study. The age of the patients ranged from 15 to 42 years (mean = 26.7 ± 4.8), 242 patients (44.4%) had two gestations, 135 patients (28.1%) were at their first gestation, 129 patients (23.7%) were at their third gestation and 39 patients had four or more gestations (3.8%). The ultrasound machine used was the Synergy Multi Sync M 500 and the statistical analysis was performed by the program called Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Our data were considered normally by the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and then we figured the nomogram by linear regression analysis. The analysis of variance obtained through the F‐test (value = 356.27) showed that our regression model was significant at the level of P < 0.001, showing that the curve represented well the studied population and that the confidence interval (95%) contained the real value of the UCCSA. The regression equation was: y = − 532.27 + 44.358x − 0.6555x2. We conclude that, there is a progressive increase in the UCCSA up to the 32nd week of gestation, followed by a stabilization until the 34th week and a fall of the values from the 35th week of gestation.


Objective: The bacterial bloodstream infections in the surgical patients after their procedures at Boston Children's Hospital and potential risk factors have never been evaluated. The goal of this study is to determine potential risk factors and ascertain whether the current practices of the Department of Anesthesiology are effective in preventing the transmission of infection. Methods: We analyzed all Boston Children's Hospital surgical patients from 2012 who had blood cultures drawn within 48 hours of being in the operating room. From this, we attempted to identify risk factors for the infections through multivariate logistic regression. We compared the infection rate at Boston Children's Hospital to a national benchmark (10%) using a test of binomial proportions to determine if current practices are effective.


But this is a sterile debate: who would deny that stopping smoking, taking more exercise, controlling high blood pressure, and having nutritional counselling to reduce excess body weight and needlessly high cholesterol concentrations are reasonable strategies in pursuing a healthier lifestyle? What of those who already have evidence of coronary heart disease? Aspirin, thrombolysis, 3 blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, risk stratification by cardiological investigation, revascularisation by surgery or angioplasty, and transplantation are some of the factors that have generated justifiable optimism in cardiology during the past decade.20 Yet with resources scarce and under pressure there can be no complacency about the monumental problem of managing coronary heart disease not just in Scotland but world wide. The cost ofthese techniques and treatments is the greatest stimulus to invest more modest resources in a healthier future. Without doubt, preventive strategies must be strengthened for those already known to have coronary heart disease, with the aim of preventing the progression of atheroma or even inducing regression,2 22 especially since the results of trials of secondary prevention have been encouraging."2-25 And primary prevention? We have to acknowledge that the major risk factors and socioeconomic influences explain only part of the overall prevalence of coronary heart disease; other possible mechanisms include climate, latitude, stress, water softness, and viruses.26 27 But even if half of all coronary heart disease is not explicable on the basis of current knowledge the other half leaves plenty of scope for action. Thanks to projects such as the Scottish heart health study and the Scottish MONICA study28 we have more information on risk factors and the prevalence of coronary heart disease than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. Yet Scotland is the only country within the United Kingdom that has no national programme aimed specifically at coronary heart disease. The priority that coronary heart disease deserves in Scotland has already been recognised in several local initiatives such as "Good Hearted Glasgow" in its programme of public education and individual counselling. In a population with high cholesterol values nutritional change is the key,29 while the contribution of lipid lowering drugs will become clearer as the results of prevention studies become available. A holistic approach, as envisaged by the Scottish Health Education Group, has advantages over one that is disease specific.30 Firstly, it addresses other common preventable diseases whose risk factors or markers overlap with those for coronary heart disease. Secondly, it does address the risk factors, albeit indirectly; and, thirdly, it should be supported by those who remain sceptical about the results of trials of risk factor modification in coronary heart disease but who nevertheless accept that their control is in line with the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. What is required now is a much more vigorous and committed effort in health promotion that recognises the priority of coronary heart disease in Scotland. This population approach should be complemented by a programme to detect and manage people at high risk-justified by the dramatic reduction in risk that can be achieved by simultaneous attention to nutritional counselling and cigarette smoking on an individual basis.'73' The complexities of the direct association between ill health and poor social circumstances should be seen as a challenge, not a deterrent, to everyone concerned in health promotion.32 Finally, any serious commitment to the problem of coronary heart disease in Scotland requires adequate funding. The results of the Scottish heart health study have shown where extra resources might be needed most. Scotland needs the diversion of a fraction of that fervour so evident in the sporting arenas of the world towards creating a healthier national lifestyle. Winning the international league championships for coronary heart disease year after year is becoming boring; this is one title the Scots can afford to lose.


This paper examines the economic role of preliminary injunctions in legal disputes. We present a model in which differences in financing costs drive the use of preliminary injunction and explore the implications of this legal remedy for ex post efficiency and ex ante incentives. Controlling for the nature of the dispute, we examine the relationships between the financial status of litigating parties and whether a preliminary injunction is requested. The empirical analysis uses detailed data compiled for a sample of 252 patent suits and reveals patterns generally consistent with those suggested by the model.


updating (targets at 3, 4.5, & 6 meters) • Experiment 2: Decoupling walking direction and direction of spatial updating during backward walking (targets at 3, 4.5, & 6 meters) • Experiment 3: Decoupling walking direction and direction of spatial updating during backward walking (targets at 2, 4.5, & 7 meters) Decoupling the Biomechanics of Locomotion and the Direction of Spatial Updating During Blind-walking Tasks


The work points out the importance of the use of the information and communication technologies in education. The overview of elementary, advanced and specialized informatics and information related knowledge and skills that every teacher should master and apply in the educational process is presented. Stress is laid upon the importance of the application of modern aspects of communication by using computers in schools. The work features a model of introducing and creating the knowledge base of high quality necessary for the application and use of information and communication technologies in the educational process in the Republic of Croatia.


As a motor designed for electric vehicles(EV),the stator-doubly-fed doubly salient(SDFDS)motor had the advantage of regulating the field flux independently.To satisfy the demands of EV of high efficiency and fast torque response in wide range of velocity,the loss model based controller(LMC)was used to realize the on-line efficiency optimization and high dynamic response of SDFDS motor.But its performance depended on the accuracy of the loss model,which affected by the parameter variations and simplifying assumptions.To solve this problem,the loss model parameters were identified by the least-squares algorithm with the measured data in this paper.Based on the identified loss model,the simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.


A battery of screening tests, including dynamic tonometry, arm‐to‐retina fluorescein circulation time, and carotid‐compression tonographic tests, were applied to a clinical material of surgically induced or idiopathic carotid artery obstruction. The following conclusions were drawn: 1. A marked stenosis or full occlusion following I. C. A. clamping for intracranial aneurysms will yield results similar to those observed in spontaneous, unilateral I. C. A. obstruction by the applied tests. 2. Dynamic tonometry offered positive results in 100 % of unilateral and 83 % of bilateral cases of spontaneous, symptom‐yielding carotid obstruction; it is recommended as a valuable, easy and accurate method for the screening of carotid occlusive disease. 3. A slight ocular hypotension, which may be of diagnostic importance in some cases, is present on the symptomatic side in most cases of unilateral and bilateral carotid occlusive disease.


The impact of different topping times on the nicotine content and quality of Burley tobacco in Enshi was studied. The results showed that topping treatment could significantly increase the total dry matter accumulation,and could also enhance the satiation degree of leaf epidermic cells. The treatment of topping could improve the physical and chemical qualities of flue-cured Burley tobacco leaves,and the nicotine content in different parts of leaves all showed a decreasing trend along with the postponement of topping time. In order to improve the quality of Burley tobacco in Enshi more effectively,topping should be carried out from the beginning of flowering stage to flourishing flowering stage.


Abstract In this study, the overall stability constants of copper(II) complexes with some α-amino acids (glycine, dl -alanine, dl -valine, l -leucine, l -asparagine, l -glutamine) were determined by potentiometric titration in water, 25% dioxan–75% water, 35% dioxan–65% water, 50% dioxan–50% water, and 60% dioxan–40% water. The titrations were performed at 25°C, under nitrogen atmosphere, and the ionic strength of the medium was maintained at 0.10 M by using sodium perchlorate. The formation curves of their complexes ( n -p[L]) were obtained by means of the titration data. Then the stability constants were determined in relation to these curves. The mol ratio of copper(II) to α-amino acid was also determined and it was found that the complexes were CuL2 type. Another important result obtained was that the tendency of amino acids to form complexes with copper(II) was greater in dioxan–water mixtures compared to water.


The best and first way to become sustainable is to reduce consumption in every day activities, being more careful about how much energy is used and avoiding unnecessary use. Energy-chip App aims at reducing energy consumption in places where energy resource is shared between several users (e.g., a company) with their self-interest. The solution proposed consists of hardware and software which are used together to monitor users energy consumption, raise his awareness, stimulate them to save energy with economic incentive, reward mechanisms, and social pressure. In addition, gaming techniques will be used in the software application to make the energy saving experience more attractive and interesting. Given the results from the literature and projects in raising people awareness over energy consumption and keep motivation in energy savings, we envision as an outcome of the project the possibility for the University of Groningen to save at least 20% of the electrical energy bill a year. Considering the financial point of view the project is attractive (positive net present value) with a pay-back time of almost three and half years.


Qualitative and quantitative differences in dominant airborne fungal spores at premises related to the paper industry were assessed to determine their potential to incite respiratory allergy among employees. The 2-year study (September, 1999–August, 2001) was carried out using a two-stage Andersen viable particle sizing sampler. A total of 26 fungal types from all the survey sites were recorded during the period of which the most dominant were Aspergillus niger (36.1%), Cladosporium cladosporioides (30.2%) and Fusarium solani (11.62%). As with previous reports airborne fungal levels were shown to be non-normal in distribution, while the Friedman test showed that, except for airborne spores from the fungi above plus Aspergillus fumigatus (2.6%) and Curvularia lunata (3.03%), overall the other types were insignificant in relation to their incidence. Clinical investigations by skin prick test with antigenic extracts of the eight commonest spore types clearly demonstrated their allergenic nature. It was evident that among the 53 patients tested, the highest positive reaction (2+ or more intensity) was produced by Aspergillus niger (30.1%) followed by Aspergillus fumigatus (22.6%), Cladosporium cladosporioides (20.7%) and Curvularia lunata (18.8%). Allergenic symptoms were more pronounced during monsoon (44.5%) and post-monsoon (40.7%) but less frequent in the summer (14.8%). It is proposed that the high frequency of positive response among workers was due to an increased prevalence of these fungal forms in their work environment resulting from the moderate temperatures (28–32°C) and high RH (80–88%) that favour mould growth and sporulation.


This paper presents a new modified Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) Algorithm inspired by the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The main features of the proposed algorithm called PSO Inspired Grey Wolf Optimization (PSOIGWO) is the integration of global best and inertia weights into the basic GWO algorithm that allows the better searching capability and quicker convergence. The combination of wellestablished features of PSO into the newly developed GWO algorithm provides an efficient hybrid algorithm which comprises the best features of the both algorithms. Experiments on standard optimization problems show the usefulness of the combined approach and its ability to efficiently and quickly search the solution.


The research reported here is an investigation into the development of a computer program with general problem solving capabilities. This investigation involved the construction of one such computer program called the General Problem Solver (GPS, although more properly GPS-2-6) which was accomplished by modifying an existing program conceived in 1957 by A. Newell, J. C. Shaw, and H. A. Simon.


When Deaconess Medical Center and its neighbor, Billings Clinic, merged in 1993, the goal was to reduce duplication and add new services. Three years later, they refocused on a higher level of integration--and, experts say, they're over the hump in achieving their goal.


Abstract The diacetyl monoxime colorimetric method of determining urea in soil extracts was modified for microplate format. A 100‐μL aliquot of extract was treated with color reagent in a disposable plastic microtiter plate (96 wells/plate), and color was developed by heating the plate in a low‐temperature oven at 87°C for 55 min. After cooling for 20 min at ambient temperature, absorbance measurements were simultaneously performed on all 96 wells using a microplate reader. The microscale method was faster and more convenient than the conventional method; moreover, the volume of waste was markedly reduced. Studies to compare the two methods showed very little difference in accuracy, precision, or sensitivity.


Viking Lander, Pathfinder, and Mars Exploration Rover missions to Mars have found abundant sulfur in surface soils and rocks, and the best indications are that magnesium sulfates are among the key hosts. At Meridiani Planum, MgSO4 salts constitute 15 to 40 wt.% of sedimentary rocks. Additional S is hosted by gypsum and jarosite. Reflectance and thermal emission spectroscopy is consistent with the presence of kieserite (MgSO4 H2O) and epsomite (MgSO4*7H2O). Theoretically, the dodecahydrate (MgSO4*12H2O) should also have precipitated. We first examine theoretically which MgSO4 minerals should have precipitated on Mars, and then how dehydration might have altered these minerals.


This article presents a review of the book "The Strategic Management of Technological Innovation," edited by Ray Loveridge and Martin Pitt.


The need of systematic explanatory and propaganda activities among representatives of employers on a subject of duties in the sphere of labor protection, and the available possibilities of financing of actions for labor protection is proved in the article. This work is, in fact, one of the forms of development of institutional trust promoting, finally, the increase of efficiency of standard and legal regulation. A special role in carrying out this task is played by higher educational institutions of legal specialization. Keywords : labor protection, development of institutional trust, legal regulation


Sulphur emissions from ships fell dramatically January 1, 2015 in the northern Europe's waters because of the emission rules in the Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA) became harder. This report describes the advantages and disadvantages of different technologies that can meet these increased demands in a literature search. The report also includes three shipping companies' approach to the new requirements and how they have met them. The method used to determine the shipping companies' approach was interviews with key people in Donsotank, TransAtlantic and Finnlines.

The goal with this report has been to investigate the underlying factors to the crucial decisions to meet the oncoming of the new requirements in the SECA. Shipping companies interviewed in this report have used two different solutions, which have been ULSFO or scrubbers. Factors that influenced these decisions have proven to be what type of vessel and the current price of oil, where oil prices have been a key factor to a limited extent.


Person re-identification with natural language description is a process of retrieving the corresponding person's image from an image dataset according to a text description of the person. The key challenge in this cross-modal task is to extract visual and text features and construct loss functions to achieve cross-modal matching between text and image. Firstly, we designed a two-branch network framework for person re-identification with natural language description. In this framework we include the following: a Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) network is used to extract text features and a truncated attention mechanism is proposed to select the principal component of the text features; a MobileNet is used to extract image features. Secondly, we proposed a Cascade Loss Function (CLF), which includes cross-modal matching loss and single modal classification loss, both with relative entropy function, to fully exploit the identity-level information. The experimental results on the CUHK-PEDES dataset demonstrate that our method achieves better results in Top-5 and Top-10 than other current 10 state-of-the-art algorithms.


The proposed PNG-Australia gas pipeline project has put PNG oil and gas back in the spotlight. This article discusses various PNG legal issues that the authors believe will be of interest to developers and financiers in planning and negotiating oil and gas projects and the financing of those projects. The article discusses the impact of the Oil and Gas Act 1998 (PNG) and customary law on the rights of the state and traditional landowners and the consequences for developers and financiers. The article then considers PNG law issues of broader application that might impact on the project (particularly if it is project financed) and discusses some of the ways in which those issues can be resolved.


In fact, several publications have reported cases of severe silicosis associated with the use of reconstituted stones (artificial stones made from quartz and resin) in manufacturing kitchen countertops and bathroom coverings in various countries, particularly Israel, Spain, Italy and the United States. The concerned workers are those who cut and/or produce the material and/or install it in private homes, especially when cutting is done while dry. These types of silicosis can affect very young workers, and latency times may be shorter than those commonly observed for silicosis.


A parallel compression / decompression algorithm is put forward for the massive fault recording data in IEEE COMTRADE format.A lossless data recovery formula is given for the time information in COMTRADE data file and an optimized coding algorithm is proposed for the status data.The highfrequency analog data are transformed with the lifting wavelet,quantified with hard-threshold,and then compressed by the Deflate algorithm based on the LZ77-Huffman hybrid entropy coding while the lowfrequency analog data by the RLE coding algorithm.A data partitioning algorithm is proposed to effectively compress the COMTRADE data file in turn,which is based on the optimal layers of wavelet decomposition for high-frequency analog data for patching the least zeros.Mapped to different CPU cores,the compression / decompression threads access the computing data through the competition of channel serial number.The format of compressed file and the technology of variable-length storage and access are introduced.Test indicates that,the great compression ratio is gained and the linear acceleration ratio is obtained along with the increase of CPU core quantity and COMTRADE file size.


Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is one of most common chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases, affecting about 0.2 % of the population. As of today, there is no specific dietary guideline for managing AS patients, and no RCT-studies on diet intervention have been published. Furthermore, there is a lack of data on the relevance of dietary quality on disease outcomes in AS patients.The aim of this study was to assess dietary nutrient intake in AS patients and examine whether it differs compared to persons without AS.AS patients (modified NY criteria) at the rheumatology clinic in Region Västerbotten, northern Sweden, were invited to take part in the Backbone study which investigates disease severity and comorbidities [1]. In total, 155 patients were included. Nutritional intake was assessed by the semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire MiniMealQ [2]. Controls were collected from the Swedish CArdioPulmonary BioImage Study (n = 30154) (3), a study that invited randomly selected participants from the Swedish population register, 50-64 years of age. Out of the 155 patients with AS, 81 (52.3%) were in the same age-span. Four controls were collected for each AS patient, matched on age (± 1 year), sex and geographic location. Data on dietary intake was available for 318 controls. Statistical comparisons between patients with AS and controls were done by T-test, Fisher's exact test and by exact conditional logistic regression analysis, adjusted for country of birth, educational level, single household, weight, smoking status and energy intake. Variables already adjusted for energy intake (energy percentages, fiber density and energy intake itself), were analyzed without additional adjustment for energy intake.Characteristics of the AS patients and controls are shown in the Table 1. AS patients had a higher proportional intake of carbohydrate coupled with a lower fiber density, a lower intake of marine omega-3 fatty acids (Figure 1). Further, a lower intake of vitamin-D, E and K was seen as well as a lower intake of selenium, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin-A and β-carotene (a marker of vegetable and fruit intake).Our results suggest that AS patients have an impaired dietary intake. Notably, intake was lower in several nutrients theorized to have anti-inflammatory properties (fiber density, marine-omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin-D and selenium). Further, we propose that nutrition screening might be incorporated in the management of AS patients since they appear to have an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies.[1]Forsblad-d'Elia H et al. Biomechanical Properties of Common Carotid Arteries Assessed by Circumferential 2D Strain and β Stiffness Index in Patients With Ankylosing Spondylitis. The Journal of rheumatology. 2021;48(3):352-60.[2]Christensen SE et al. Two New Meal- and Web-Based Interactive Food Frequency Questionnaires: Validation of Energy and Macronutrient Intake. J Med Internet Res. 2013;15(6):e109.[3]Bergström G et al. The Swedish CArdioPulmonary BioImage Study: objectives and design. J Intern Med. 2015;278(6):645-59.Table 1.Characteristics of patients with ankylosing spondylitis and age- and sex-matched controlsPatients with AS, n = 81Controls, n = 318Mean ± SD or N (%)Mean ± SD or N (%)P-valueAge (year)57.9 ± 4.858 ± 4.60.9Male54 (66.6)210 (66.0)1.0Height (cm)171.5 ± 9.6174.7 ± 8.50.003Weight (kg)84.9 ± 21.882.9 ± 15.80.4Symptom duration (year)34.6 ± 8.4-HLA-B27 positive80 (98.8)-ASDAS-CRP1.9 ± 0.76-BASFI3.3 ± 2.2-mSASSS122.3 ± 22.1- Median (25p, 75p)16.0 (3.8, 34.8)-Energy intake (kcal)1810 ± 7271740 ± 6530.4Born in Sweden79 (97.5)296 (93.1)0.1Single household18 (22.2)51 (16.0)0.2Ever been a smoker42 (51.8)142 (44.7)0.3Educational level0.2 Junior high school or lower6 (7.4)35 (11.0) Senior high school51 (62.9)166 (52.2) College or university24 (39.6)117 (36.7)1Due to non-normal distribution, median and 25thand 75thpercentiles are shown.We would like to thank research nurse Viktoria von Zweigbergk for her work with the Backbone study.None Declared.


The problem of finding the exact analytical closed‐form solution of some families of non‐linear functional equations is studied, in some detail, by the Special Trans Function Theory (STFT). The mathematical genesis of the analytical closed‐form solutions and the structure of theoretical derivation, are presented. Undoubtedly, the proposed analytical theory implies the qualitative improvement of the conventional approaches.


Activation of innate immune system may occur as a result of either external (mostly infection-mediated inflammation) or internal factors (systemic inflammation). Distinct stimuli act on the immune cells to induce diverse pathways leading to characteristic gene expressions in these cases. Bacterial inflammation, caused primarily by its lipopolysaccharides (LPS), conceives an array of diseases including intestinal bowel disease (IBD), ulcerative colitis and sepsis. In contrast, release of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 or TNF-α leads to chronic inflammatory diseases, for example, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Castleman's disease, etc. It is important to understand the signatures of infectious and systemic gene expression for better designing of treatment regime against inflammatory diseases. To understand the distinctive pattern of gene expression between infectious inflammation and systemic inflammation, THP-1 macrophages were treated individually with LPS (100 ng/mL), IL-6 (50 ng/mL) or TNF-α (10 ng/mL) and global transcriptomic analysis was performed using Agilent's human 8x15K array. The common set of differentially expressed genes in IL-6 and TNF-α-treated cohorts were compared with LPS-treated cohorts. Our analysis revealed that 2743 and 150 genes contributed to LPS-mediated inflammation and systemic inflammation with respect to untreated samples, respectively (fold change ≥ 1.5). 868 commonly expressed genes contributed to systemic inflammation with respect to LPS-mediated inflammation. Among these commonly expressed genes, only 68 genes were observed to contribute to both types of inflammation, suggesting their importance in activation of diverse pathways in LPSmediated and systemic inflammation. A detailed functional annotation of these genes revealed that EGR1, JUN, NF-kB, REL, STAT-1 and BCL-3 are important transcription factors (TFs) for distinctive signatures between these two types of inflammation. In addition, these TFs were found to be involved in innate immune response. Further investigation into the gene expression dataset from rheumatoid arthritis patients (treated with anti-TNF-α antibody) revealed 24 genes which are present within these 68 genes having an inverse mode of expression. This observation suggests the importance of these 24 genes for designing novel therapeutic targets. Citation: Das, A.S., Sarkar, A., Sarma, M., Ghosh, Z. and Mukhopadhyay, R. A comparative study between infectious and systemic inflammation [Abstract]. In: Abstracts of the NGBT conference; Oct 02-04, 2017; Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India: Can J biotech, Volume 1, Special Issue, Page 100. https://doi.org/10.24870/cjb.2017-a86


In the Blank verse of Paradise Lost, Milton chides his fellow poets for elevating false heroes and for neglecting to write of the true heroism of "patient martyrdom." Critics generally agree that Milton's blank verse eventually influenced Dryden. But the immediacy of Milton's substantive influence after the winter of 1668-1669 has been overlooked. Notable changes in both style and substance in Dryden's critical theory and serious drama occur after his probable reading of Paradise Lost that winter. His criticism before 1669 shows little concern for moral instruction in drama; it concentrates instead on what will "delight." Then immediately after that winter of 1669, his critical attention is on exposing vice and promoting virtue--even to teaching precepts of piety in serious drama. Before 1669, his characterization of heroism is flawed by inconsistency and inadequate attention to central thematic statement. Then in early spring of 1669, Dryden wrote, "in haste," Tyrannic Love,, which dramatizes the contrast between false heroism in the tyrant Maximin and true heroism in St. Catharine--a patient martyr. Dryden's early criticism had not distinguished the "heroic play" as a separate kind. After reading Milton's impressive epic, Dryden must have re-examined the validity


Academic Pharmacy Section (AcPS) of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has a strong strategic implementation plan already in place. The Executive Committee (ExCo) determined ways forward by reviewing some key documents and conducting an environmental scan on higher education and the future of Pharmacy. In a retreat in April 2022, using a World Café method, the ExCo received valuable input regarding the identity of the organisation, who the members are, what has been accomplished in the section and an assessment of the sections strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. This has culminated in the evolution of the section's mission, vision, and strategic implementation plan to incorporate additional and restructured objectives and goals. This manuscript presents novel direction to this section and an opportunity to reflect on the vision of the ExCo from the 2022 retreat.


There is lack of evidence supporting early weight bearing in physical therapy treatment programs after open reduction and internal fixation of fractures. Up to our knowledge there is no published work performed to investigate the effect of adding early weight bearing to the protocol of treatment after open reduction internal fixation surgeries of tibial plateau fracture. Thirty patients diagnosed with tibial plateau fractures Schatzker type II fixed by locked buttress plates with sub-articular screws were referred from orthopedic surgeons after the operation, their ages ranged from 25-45years.The patients were included in the study if they have a diagnosis of tibial plateau fractures Schatzker type II fixed by locked buttress plates with sub-articular screws, age ranges from 25-45 years. Patients were randomly assigned into two groups. Group A treated with physical therapy program with introducing early weightbearing training. Group B treated with physical therapy program and delayed weight bearing training. Criteria for progression were based on surgeon judgment, pain level, condition of surgical site and strength of the lower extremity. The outcome measures were: Digital X-ray to assess the fracture stability pre-and posttreatment, visual analogue scale to assess pain level and fluid-filled inclinometer to measure the ROM during rehabilitation. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between groups regarding fracture stability (pre-p=1,00 and post p=.0599) and ROM measurement pretreatment (p=.325) post treatment (P=0.095), and there was no significant difference between groups in pain intensity level (VAS) pre (p =.60) and post treatment (p=.192). There was a significant difference between pre-and post-treatment within group A regarding (VAS, P=0.0001) and (ROM, P=0.0001) and group B regarding (VAS, P=0.0001) and (ROM, P=0.0001). there was significant difference regarding fracture stability within group A (P=0.0001). and within group B regarding fracture stability (P=0.0001).Based on the results, early weight bearing treatment approach of tibial plateau fractures fixed with locked buttress plates with sub-articular screws can be a cost-effective approach for treatment. This study can serve as a guidance for the clinicians who are dealing with this category of orthopedic patients to avoid complication of delayed weight bearing.


For the use in routine technical quality assurance (TQA) we developed a tissue-mimicking phantom and an evaluation algorithm. Key properties of US phantom materials are sound velocity and acoustic attenuation. For daily clinical use the material also has to be nontoxic, durable and easy in handling and maintenance. The base material of our phantom is Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), a synthetic polymer. By freezing the phantom body during the production process, it changes its sound velocity to closely match the one of the human body. The phantom's base form is a cuboid containing a large anechoic cylindric target. In routine QA it is required to gain comparable and reproducible results from a single image. To determine spatial resolution of phantom images, we calculate a modulation transfer function (MTF). We developed an algorithm, that calculates a radial MTF from a circular structure representing spatial resolution averaged across all directions. For evaluation of the algorithm, we created a set of synthetic images. A comparison of the results from a traditional slanted edge algorithm and our solution showed a close correlation. The US phantom was imaged with a commercial US-scanner at different sound frequencies. The computed MTFs of higher frequency images show higher transfer percentages in all spatial frequencies than the MTFs of lower frequency images. The results suggest that the proposed method produces clear statements about the spatial resolution of evaluated imaging devices. We therefore consider the method as suitable for application in technical quality assurance of diagnostic ultrasound scanners.


In recent years, diagnosis by the whole body PET (Positron Emission Tomography) Images attracts attention as an effective diagnostic method of cancer. The diagnostic method, which a doctor performs at the time of the conventional interpretation of radiogram, is matching the medical knowledge of the position of anatomical internal organs and physiological accumulation and the specific position in images in the doctor's head, and describing the report. The semantic information which pixel group in images corresponds to internal organs is not clearly recorded in that case. Reuse of the diagnostic information at the time of interpretation of radiogram is difficult. In this paper, it aims at the diagnostic support which used DB. Medical knowledge and image data are associated by defining clearly the domain corresponding to internal organs and accumulation which the doctor extracted at the time of interpretation of radiogram, and accumulation and reference are possible. For that purpose, we design the schema, which has 3 layers---knowledge, notional existence at the time of interpretation of radiogram and image data. Moreover, we have implemented this schema on practical DBMS -the usefulness of this schema and the practicality of this system were shown by actually inquiring the database. Keyword Medical Information Processing, Medical Image Database, PET, Positron Emission Tomography , Diagnosis Support


We give a proof based on an integral equation for an explicit prediction formula for fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index less than 1/2.


A preliminary analysis of exclusive $\btou$ decays to the final states $\pi^\pm\ell\nu$, $\pi^0\ell\nu$, $\rho^\pm\ell\nu$, $\rho^0\ell\nu$\ and $\omega\ell\nu$ based on $2.2\e{6}$ $\bbar$ decays collected at CLEO is presented. We have measured the first exclusive $\btou$ branching fraction $\bbpi=[1.19\pm0.41\pm0.21\pm0.19]\e{-4}$ ($[1.70\pm0.51\pm0.31\pm0.27]\e{-4}$), with the ISGW (WSB) model used for efficiency determination. A 90\% C.L. upper limit on $\bbrho$ similar to the previous CLEO limit is obtained. The ratio $\gamrho/\gampi<3.4$ at the 90\% confidence level for both the ISGW and WSB models. This ratio provides some discrimination between form factor models.


Since there are different species and strains of Artemia, biometrical studies of the present strain can be of help to aquaculturists by providing new economic food sources for their fish culture. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the diameter of untreated and decapsulated cysts as well as the chorion thickness for 17 Artemia populations from Tunisia. The Tunisian Artemia populations were compared to commercial cysts of Artemia franciscana from Great Salt Lake and San Francisco Bay in trying to evaluate their potential use in aquaculture. One-way ANOVA (Tukey test, p < 0.05) was used for analyzing the data. Results showed that the diameter of hydrated cysts ranged from 221.0 to 284.9 µm for the San Francisco Bay and Sabkhet Korzia populations, respectively. Statistical analysis shows different degrees of variation among studied populations, and does not show any particular similarity between them. The diameter of decapsulated cysts varied from 208.2 to 258.8 µm. Significant differences (one-way ANOVA, p<0.05) were also found for decapsulated cysts diameter, the cysts from Sabkhet Korzia and El Melah being significantly larger than the others. Both low (4.7 µm in Sabkhet Halk El Menzel and Great Salt Lake) and high (13.2 µm for Sabkhet Mhabel) values were recorded for chorion thickness.


Every movement starts from and ends in some posture, so that I think a discussion of "Animal Posture" falls well within the scope of the intention of Dr. William Croone, when he founded these annual Lectures to promote the study of "Muscular Motion." Before beginning I wish to emphasise how greatly I appreciate the honour of delivering before you this Lecture, and how I especially enjoy the pleasure of doing so with Sir Charles Sherrington in the Chair, who long ago took the trouble to introduce me to his beautiful methods of investigating the central nervous system, and to allow me an insight into his fruitful views on the function of nervous centres. As it is impossible to consider the whole problem of posture in one short lecture, I propose to speak to you to-day on four partial problem.5, which are closely connected with each other, and which provided the starting points for investigations which have been carried out in my laboratory at Utrecht, with the aid of a great number of able collaborators. These partial problems are :— 1. Reflex standing . —In order to carry the weight of the body against the action of gravity, it is necessary that a certain set of muscles, the "standing muscles," should have by reflex action a certain degree of enduring tone, to prevent the body from falling down on the ground.


Ru‐modified Pt nanoparticle surfaces were prepared using Ru electrochemical or spontaneous deposition on commercial‐grade carbon‐supported Pt nanoparticles (Pt‐Vulcan XC72, E‐TEK). Evidence for CO mobility was provided by cyclic voltammetry and FTIR reflectance spectroscopy experiments in weakly specifically adsorbing electrolyte such as 0.1 M HClO4. Since the diffusion of CO is slow, a "two peak" voltammetric behavior was observed for 0 < θRu < 10%. A further increase in Ru coverage leads to the observation of only one CO oxidation peak at a potential ca. 150 mV less positive. FTIR reflectance spectra recorded on Ru‐modified Pt nanoparticles show a band located around 2000–2020 cm–1, which is attributed to adsorbed CO on Ru sites. Exchange between CO species adsorbed on Ru and Pt sites was also observed along with a complete oxidation of a pre‐adsorbed CO monolayer at a potential relevant for DMFC applications. These results confirm that the formation of a PtRu alloy is not a pre‐requisite for obtaining CO‐tolerant electrocatalysts.


The relationship between clinical mastitis and milk yield of dairy cows has been widely studied and many such studies can be found in the literature (Janzen, 1970). Various approaches to the problem have been described (Morris, 1984) but most of the time the study of the relation between mastitis and lactation is carried out with a general overview, by means of linear models taking into account the variation factors of milk yield. The aim of the present work was to bring out the temporary fluctuations of milk production, or falls of milk yield, as they are often observed by farmers during cases of clinical mastitis ; it was carried out from the data of a survey on 26 non experimental herds. MATERIAL ET METHODS Data


This essay explores a few of the reasons for the failure of Western theories to capture Chinese religious experiences. It will include Durkheim's insight that "The sacred … is society in disguised form" and variants of secularization theories in contrast to Confucian ones, especially Xunzi's theory about ritual, read as representative of religion. This article will examine the impossibility of asserting a straightforward claim, without exception, that could capture the three thousand years of historical and contemporary diversity manifested by the three institutional religions (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism), the continuous formation of popular religious movements, ever developing sectarian groups, and pan-Chinese quasi-religious practices like ancestor veneration, divination, healing practices and the like. The study will start by looking at variable categories used in the study of different religions, the similarities in assumptions among the three institutional religions such as the "good" and self-cultivation, and the central place of secularization theory in the contemporary study of Chinese religions. A theoretical orientation of both flexibility and indeterminacy is suggested based on indigenous ideas.


An integrated propulsor has a strong interaction with the flow over the stem and prevents that flow from separating as it would in the absence of the propulsor. Traditional propulsor design procedures based upon interaction coefficients are inadequate for this type of application. A logical design process has been developed which accounts for the strong influence of an integrated propulsor on the afterbody flow. Since propellers are designed to operate in the circumferential mean inflow at the propeller plane, all flow field computations are currently done using axisymmetric viscous flow solvers. This methodology can be applied to both axisymmetric and three-dimensional afterbodies. A ducted preswirl integrated propuls01· will be used as an example to demonstrate the design procedure.


The two-step approach proposed by Tsai is simply implemented, and widely used in different applications. But Tsai calibration method requires prior information such as the image center and the scale factor which would affect the accuracy of calibration results in the end. An improved approach is presented in this paper. Firstly, the image center is updated in the imaging model with radial distortion by minimizing the projection error. Secondly, the external and internal parameters of the camera are refined by the nonlinear optimization algorithm to optimize the global parameters. Experimental results show that the calibration accuracy of presented method is over 10% higher than that of Tsai's.


This paper deals with the experimental and numerical simulations of variabledensity flow and solute transport in an analogous model of a homogeneous and saturated porous medium. The analogous model is constituted by a transparent Hele-Shaw cell. The numerical simulations were performed with the FRIPE code that uses a combination of the mixed hybrid finite element and discontinuous finite element methods. The specific point of interest in this study is the investigation of dense plume behavior locally injected into an "ambient groundwater flow field".


Considering the linguistic means for expressing the concept of a border in
 the Serbian language, Professor Predrag Piper listed several typical nouns
 that represent lexical means in that categorial-semantic complex. This paper
 investigates other nouns that serve this function in the Serbian language.
 The starting point is the assumption that the role of a boundary is probably
 performed by those nouns in the Serbian language that are more often than
 others used with prepositions, that is to say, preceded by a preposition in
 most cases. A list of all such nouns was made using the electronic corpus
 SrpKor, followed by excerpting only the nouns suggesting some type of a
 borderline which are most often used directly after the following
 prepositions: do, od, iz, na, oko, pred, u. Subsequently, a further
 selection was made based on semantic and pragmatic criteria, and thus the final list of delimiting nouns described in this paper was obtained.


Most of the debate surrounding the War on Terrorism has focused on human rights abuses, suspensions, or partial suspensions of the rule of law and the need for balance between human rights and security. While it is of great importance to discuss these matters, it is also essential to ask whether or not U.S. security measures are designed to effectively prevent and combat the current threat of terrorism. This article seeks to determine just that, by evaluating mass registration and surveillance measures and their appropriateness in dealing with the terrorist threat.


The National Government in the search of the signing of the Peace Agreement, for which it began conversations in 2012 with the armed group FARC, arranged a whole normative, institutional and organizational block in order to facilitate the process in the most fluid way. Seeking that the execution was effective and efficient in each one of the previously programmed and agreed negotiation points with the Guerilla. In this sense, it is essential to follow up on the implementation of the entire regulatory framework to be created in terms of public policy, which is why an emphasis is placed on the execution processes of the PDETs, as a central tool for implementing the actions in social policy in the territorial entities.
Consequently, if we take into account that the PDETs will be implemented through precepts based on deliberative democracy, with community participation in the prioritization of policies to be implemented in the territory, it is essential to establish, from multi-level and collaborative governance processes, if indeed the PDETs increase the capacity of government of the different territorial spheres, in their relationship with the communities.


Slow‐time‐scale magnetic fields driven by fast‐time‐scale electric fields are discussed from Vlasov–Maxwell equations in unmagnetized plasma. An equation for slow‐time‐scale magnetic fields is obtained for nonstationary plasma.


Energy-efficiency is a critical factor in designing clustering protocols of Wireless Sensor networks. In this paper, we propose an Energy-based Cluster-head Inheritance Algorithm (EICA), which adopts a novel kind of CH inheritance mechanism with each cluster based on an energy threshold to balance energy cost among the network. Simulation results show that ECIA algorithm performs much better than the classical clustering algorithm LEACH and our previous work.


Objective To investigate the effect of different doses of Vitamin K3 on the expression of osteopontin in rats kidney. Methods After different dose of Vitamin K3 were injected to different groups of rats feeded with same stone-inducing agent, the level of expression of OPN in renal tissues was observed with immunohistological staining. Results OPN expression located at distal convoluted tubule when the rats feeded without stone-inducing agent, and the OPN expression stain was extended to proximal convoluted tubule when the stone-inducing agent was feeded. Vitamin K3 can decrease the extension of OPN expression induced by the agent and more doses of Vitamin K3, more effects. Conclusions Vitamin K3 can decrease the expression of OPN in the kidney tubule of rats feeded with stone-induced agent.


claims made through those selections. The chapter considers "competing theories of how to generalize from the particular" through discussion of Aozora and the mid-twentieth-century zenshū compendia central to the crafting of canon heretofore. Long postulates that "the digital archive is a chance to rethink . . . the various meanings of the individual text and what textual interpretation stands to gain (and lose) from projecting this multiplicity" (p. 127) at scale. Chapter 3, "Genre and Repetition," explores the "slippery ontological status" (p. 128) of the I-novel (shishōsetsu) by building a model to synchronically and diachronically compare stylistic techniques and assess "the belief that I-novels represent a coherent genre" (p. 131). Examining repetition as a fictional mode, Long crafts a model that draws on word frequency and diversity through type-token ratio. Regardless of one's interest in the I-novel, the chapter's brilliance lies in how Long again puts the conceptualization of the model and its results into conversation with both the literary historical debates of the moment and contemporary critical and theoretical problematics. Chapter 4, "Influence and Judgment," considers the circulation and transformation of streamof-consciousness narrative technique to examine the "nature of literary influence across linguistic and cultural borders" (p. 170) and how "judgments of equivalence or nonequivalence" and "algorithmic competence" can reframe the "(im)possibility of transnational and translingual influence" (p. 171). Long devises a syntactical and lexical model of "linguistic and stylistic features with distinct distributional tendencies" (p. 174) and describes the discursive figuration of stream-of-consciousness by authors such as Kawabata Yasunari and Itō Sei, identifying a moment in which experiments pushed "the boundaries of what it looked like to narrate the internal workings of the mind," while making a general argument for how "latent formal innovations . . . prepare the ground for foreign forms" (p. 205). Chapter 5, "Discourse and Character," teases out a methodological reading of Edward Said's Orientalism about how "constricted vocabulary" and "categorizing logic" become "affixed to racialized Others under empire" (p. 213) through the description of characters and examines the voices of racialized colonial subjects in imperial-era discourse. Long uses sampling to ask "how numbers might intercede . . . in th[e] long running tension between general context and individual utterance in the study of racial discourse" (p. 210) by analyzing how the association of "discrete lexical items" with racial identifiers, in tandem with close readings of stories by Kikuchi Kan, Kunieda Shirō, and Wang Chaoxing. Long has given us a truly pathbreaking book, one that at last brings the field of modern Japanese literary studies into ongoing methodological conversations that are rippling through the humanities. As someone who barely passed introductory computer science in high school, will I personally begin incorporating computational modeling into my scholarship? Unlikely. Will I eagerly look forward to future work by Long and the scholars sure to follow in his footsteps in opening new horizons for the field? Absolutely.


Introduction The Webster's defines convergence as "the act of converging and especially moving toward union or uniformity", and as "the merging of distinct technologies, industries, or devices into a unified whole". In the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) domain, convergence is better defined as the conversion of different industries from a "vertical" arrangement, where products and services are industry-specific, to a "horizontal" one where the structure of products and services is layered and each layer is potentially shared by different industries. The horizontal arrangement induced by convergence, far from implying uniformity, increases diversity as industries continuously expand or shrink depending on how many industry-specific technologies are shed and how many "common" technologies are added to offer new products or services that respond to customer needs. This paper elaborates on the following media convergence elements. 1. It starts from the seminal role of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) in fostering media convergence with its first standards issued 20 years ago; 2. It explores the growing number of dimensions in which media convergence is happening or is expected to happen, often ushered in by new generations of MPEG standards; 3. It shows that convergence is not a state where uniformity rules or where industry opportunities are reduced because they merge, but a state where increasing rewards are offered to industry and consumers; 4. It proposes to apply the rules and practice of technology-driven convergence to other non-technical areas.


For a class of 3rd-order switched linear systems, we explore a way to approximate the spectral abscissa by means of generalized coordinate transformations. Base on the classic result of matrix equation, the minimum of matrix set measure can be obtained after each transformation. By applying transformations iteratively, a computational procedure is developed for finding the transformation matrix and the least μ1 measure of the equivalence system which can be used as an upper bound estimate of the spectral abscissa.


【Objectives】To assess the safety and effectiveness of PDT in the NICU. 【Methods】80 cases of acute and severe patients in NICU needed tracheotomy were divided into the PDT group and the traditional surgery group. Then to compare the procedure time, complications (including peri procedural and Early/late post-operation), the cost and the time to insertion. 【Results】Time for insertion of PDT group was (10.89±3.26) minutes, while the ST group is (30.16±6.12) minutes(P 0.05), the complications in peri procedural were lower than ST group (P 0.05), but the early/late postoperative complications with the ST group was not significant (P 0.05). 【Conclusions】Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy is preferences in dealing with difficult airway, an emergency tracheotomy and preventive tracheotomy in NICU.


The present study was conducted to examine the taste of smoked hilsa ( Tenualosa ilisha ) treated with different spices (salt, garlic, onion, ginger and green chilly). Fresh hilsa fish were collected from different markets of Noakhali. The study was conducted for a period of five months from April to August 2013. Hilsa were smoked with different combinations of salt, garlic, onion, ginger and green chilli. At first the fish were grouped into four segments. One segment composed of salt, garlic (50g/kg), onion (250g/kg), ginger (50g/kg) and green chilli (50g/kg) was treated as treatment 1 (T 1 ). Treatment 2 (T 2 ) composed of salt, onion (250g/kg), garlic (50g/kg) and ginger (65g/kg). Other part composed of salt, ginger (120g/kg) and garlic (90g/kg) treated as Treatment 3 (T 3 ). The treatment 4 (T 4 ) consist of salt, garlic (90g/kg) and onion (350g/kg). Brine concentration for each treatment was about 70ppt that produce good test and flavor. 30 panelists check four treatments. Among the four treatments T 1 showed better results. About 80% panelists replied that treatment 1 (T 1 ) smoked hilsa was excellent and 20% said that it was very good. Peppery taste was found highest as 65% in the T 1 . Salty taste was strong about 12% in T 2 and neutral is about 85% in T 1 .Odour in T 4 was found highest (52%) among the four treatment due to its low spicy & smoky flavor. Color and external appearances of smoked hilsa was overall good. Texture of T 1 , T 2 , T 3 were soft and oily but in T 4 there were found slightly rubbery skin. Smoking is a popular method of fish preservation in many countries of the world. Smoked hilsa may be a commercialized food item if fish smoked with different spices. It can be said that T 1 was the best among the four treatments. So smoking hilsa fish with salt, garlic, onion, ginger and green chilli may be the potential food item in national and international market due to its spicy, good taste and flavor. Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.2(2): 307-312, August 2015


There is a holder (3) for a light-sensitive sensor, for example an electronic camera (2), behind a transparent pane (1), defining an interior of an exterior space, wherein the holder (3) with an almost closed housing a shadowing area on the inner side of the disk and a housing wall (4) inside the disc (1) substantially opposite each other, is covered with a moisture and light-absorbing substance (5).


This paper proposed a new metric of image quality assessment based on visual perception and gradient structural similarity(VI_GSSIM),which was a combination of visual perception information based on luminance and contrast masking effect.This method used the relevance between image quality and image content and distortion type of a degraded image,constructed visual perception with error visible and content visible to build a low-level HVS perception model,and then redefined structure information with image gradient to come into being the algorithm.The experimental results indicate that VI_GSSIM algorithm is more corresponding to the human visual system,especially suits to evaluate heavy distorting degraded image.


OLED,translated as Organic Light Emitting Diode,do not need backlight,and have low power consumption,higher brightness and lower cost.It has been widespread concern in many enterprises at home and abroad.This papaer mainly investigate the market situation and patent status of OLED,and through patent citation analysis to identifying the important patents in this field.


Within mainstream cancer literature, policy documents, and clinical practice, "work" is typically characterized as being synonymous with paid employment, and the problem of work is situated within the "return to work" discourse. The work that patients perform in managing their health, care, and everyday life at times of illness, however, is largely overlooked and unsupported. Drawing on feminist political economy theory, we report on a qualitative study of 12 women living with cancer. Major findings show that the work of patienthood cut across multiple fields of practice and included both paid and unpaid labor. The most prevalent types of work included illness work, body work, identity work, everyday work, paid employment and/or the work of maintaining income, and coordination work. The findings of this study disrupt popular conceptualizations of work and illuminate the nuanced and often invisible work that cancer patients may encounter, and the health consequences and inequities therein.


Background. Aceclofenac and Pregabalin in combination significantly reduce pain as compared to individual drug in chronic low back pain. Literature reveals that all the reported spectrophotometric methods either need tedious extraction procedures, do not offer high sensitivity, use nonspecific reagent, or recommend the measurement of absorbance in the near UV region where interference most probably occurs that does not offer suitable linearity range. Result. A selective, sensitive, accurate, and precise, high performance liquid chromatographic method with UV detector analysis of Aceclofenac and Pregabalin was investigated. Good chromatographic separation was achieved using an ODS-BP hypersil C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, i.d., 5 μm) and a mobile phase consisting of 0.05 M phosphate buffer (KH2PO4) (pH 6.0) : methanol (60 : 40, v/v) at a flow rate 1 mL/min. The ultraviolet detector was set at wavelength 218 nm. Retention time for Aceclofenac and Pregabalin was found to be 3.220 and 5.910 min, respectively. Rectilinear relationship with good regression coefficients 0.999 and 0.999 was found over the concentration ranges of 5–25 μg/mL and 3.75–18.75 μg/mL for ACF and PGB, respectively, with detection limits 0.64 and 0.35 μg/mL and quantitation limits 1.95 and 1.06 μg/mL. Conclusion. The mean percentage recoveries were in the range of 98.45–100.08 and 99.69–100.48 for ACF and PGB, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to the analysis of the drugs in their commercial tablets.


ABSTRACT:This paper examines the fact that the Song government, at least until 1141, only allowed vessels based in China to engage in foreign trade, while opening its ports only to foreign ships that were tribute vessels. This was a result of the Song's efforts to maintain the Sinocentric tribute system despite its diminishing power and international influence. However, worsening fiscal circumstances during the Southern Song period led the Song court to turn toward an anti-tribute policy due to the financial burden caused by the tribute system. By abandoning tribute practices, the Song came to permit trade with foreign ships as well. Reflecting this shift in the Song's policies, "Koryŏ merchants" and "Japanese merchants" appeared in maritime trade throughout the East China Sea, which had been dominated by Song merchants. These appellations are believed to be closely associated with the maritime route, rather than the ethnic origin of the merchants referred to.


The problem of controlling the motion of flexible manipulator is discu ssed. A simple designing method of controller is developed based on difference e quation and least-mean-square (LMS). If a faster sampling frequency is utilize d, some uncertain terms which are difficult to be characterized exactly can be n eglected, and the system performance can be held. Digital simulation results of single flexible manipulator are given to show that in the closed-loop system pr oposed by this paper accurate trajectory tracking and vibration damping can be a ccomplished.


Over the last decade or so, addressing financial instability has become a policy priority. Despite the efforts made, policymakers are still a long way from developing a satisfactory operational framework. A major challenge complicating this task is the "fuzziness" with which financial (in)stability can be measured. We review the available measurement methodologies and point out several weaknesses. In particular, we caution against heavy reliance on the current generation of macro stress tests, arguing that they can lull policymakers into a false sense of security. Nonetheless, we argue that the "fuzziness" in measurement does not prevent further progress towards an operational framework, as long as it is appropriately accounted for. Crucial features of that framework include: strengthening the macroprudential orientation of financial regulation and supervision; addressing more systematically the procyclicality of the financial system; relying as far as possible on automatic stabilizers rather than discretion, thereby lessening the burden on the realtime measurement of financial stability risks; and setting up institutional arrangements that leverage the comparative expertise of the various authorities involved in safeguarding financial stability, not least financial supervisors and central banks. ______________ This paper was prepared for the 12th Annual Conference of the Banco de Chile, "Financial stability, monetary policy, and central banking", Santiago, 6-7 November 2008. This version has not been up-dated since. We would like to thank Marjorie Santos and Philippe Hainaut for excellent research assistance, Janet Plancherel for superb editorial support and Kostas Tsatsaronis for very helpful comments. Several ideas on financial stability measurement were initially developed when Mathias Drehmann was working for the ECB. He benefited from many discussions with colleagues and is particular thankful to John Fell and Philipp Hartmann. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the Bank for International Settlements.


Stockfarm asked Jackie Tucker, a ruminant specialist at Chemunique, a company that focuses on the improvement of animal production, about the effect of nutrition on lameness in cattle. Her first comment was that it is a very complex problem. There is no single cause and most certainly also no quick solution. Management, the environment and nutrition are some of the factors that play a role in the prevalence of this condition. "Lameness is divided into two groups, namely bacterial/contagious lameness and mechanical lameness. Bacterial lameness is linked to hygiene and biosecurity, while mechanical lameness can be attributed to environmental conditions such as the surface the animals walk on, the design of the milking parlour, heat and nutrition.


Advances in horizontal drilling and completions in shale reservoirs have allowed operators to extract hydrocarbons within low permeability reservoirs that were once impossible to access. The integration of time-lapse multicomponent seismic data with engineering technology aids in the characterization of these reservoirs through monitoring. This thesis investigates the fast and slow shear wave components of a time-lapse, nine-component seismic survey to determine the stimulated volume in the Niobrara and Codell reservoir intervals. The timelapse post-stack inversions of the shear wave datasets provide insight into how the shear impedance is affected by hydraulic fracturing through the work of cross-equalized seismic shear impedances and shear wave splitting. The study area is the Wishbone Section within Wattenberg Field, CO, which is owned and operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and contains eleven horizontal wells that vary in spacing and completion methods. Shear seismic data sets were acquired over this section before and after hydraulic stimulation. The time-lapse shear seismic inversions show an increase in fast shear wave velocity and a decrease in slow shear velocity after stimulation. The sensitivity of both the fast and slow shear seismic to stimulation correlates with the net pressure trends at each stage. Borehole image log interpretations are compared to the inversions to analyze the affect that a complex fracture network has on induced anisotropy. The stimulated volume for the Niobrara and Codell reservoir intervals are now more accurately defined. Time-lapse shear seismic is the only technology that is able to define the stimulated rock volume and reveal areas that are not being accessed by the wells currently drilled. These areas are now detected within the Wishbone section, and may be candidates for future re-completion.


Big data technologies do have great potential in the domain of computational biomedicine, but their development should take place in combination with other modeling strategies, and not in competition. This will min imize the risk of research investments, and will ensure a constant improvement of in silico medicine, favouring its clinical adoption. In this paper, we combine big data analytics with VPH technologies to produce robust and effective in silico medicine solutions. Index Term: Bio-medicine, clin ical adoption, data analytics


Heat transport in tokamaks is several orders of magnitude higher than predicted by the collisional theory. A physical understanding of the phenomena limiting energy confinement is a basic requirement in order to make reliable predictions about the fusion gain of the future tokamak reactor ITER and to investigate new scenarios and plasma regimes. Since decades anomalous transport has been addressed by means of empirical and semi-empirical models. The theoretical research assumes that micro-instabilities driven by plasma turbulence are responsible for the confinement degradation, but the full simulations with the comprehensive theoretical codes require far too long computing time to afford a validation against an extensive experimental database. Only in the early nineties one dimensional, theory based models have been developed, relying on the fluid approach. These models allow comparisons with the experimental results without any ad hoc adjustment of empirical fitting parameters and, on the other hand, without too long computing time. In the present work the most commonly accepted models are validated against a large database of selected ASDEX Upgrade discharges. Important results from JET, the largest tokamak built so far, are included as well, to test the models on a different sized device and to increase confidence in transport predictions and in extrapolations to ITER. As a result of the systematic comparison with the available data, qualitative as well as quantitative evaluations of the predicting capability of the models are presented. A physics interpretation of the heat transport phenomenology in the conventional scenario is proposed and discussed.


tC4H9N = VCl2(NHtC4H9) and the tert-butylamine complex [tC4H9N=VCl2(NHtC4H9)(NH2tC4H9)] have been prepared by reaction of tC4H9N=VCl3 with NH2tC4H9. 1H and 51V NMR data of these compounds are reported. The complex was investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis; the structure has been found to be a binuclear vanadium complex bridged by two Cl-atoms with a distorted octahedral arrangement of the ligands.


The increasing adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems in the USA has resulted in many new studies. In this issue of JAMIA , Krist ( See page 764 ) reports on needed functionality to better support primary care, while Feeley ( See page 772 ) describes how cancer care can benefit from information technology. However, it is well known that the quality of EHR notes is highly variable. Burke ( See page 910 ) proposes an instrument to assess the quality of EHR clinical notes that will help make comparisons across providers and inform the development of systems. We are just starting to quantify and fully understand the limitations of current EHR systems. Hanauer ( See page 925 ) compares associations found in structured diagnoses in …


Abstract Extensive natural hybridization occurs between black crappie Pomoxis nigromaculatus and white crappie P. annularis in Weiss Lake, Alabama. First-generation (F1) hybrids have faster annual growth than black crappies and white crappies in this reservoir. However, no information exists on hatching date and early growth differences among black crappies, white crappies, and F1 hybrid offspring. We collected age-0 crappies in early August 1992–1994 from Weiss Lake and identified species and their hybrids with starch gel electrophoresis. Hatching date and early growth were determined from otoliths. Swim-up dates of F1 hybrids peaked about a week earlier than those of parental species. The growth rate of F1 hybrids (0.86 mm/d) was significantly higher than those of black crappies (0.67 mm/d) and white crappies (0.72 mm/d). Back-calculated lengths at ages 10, 20, and 30 d were higher for F1 hybrids compared with black crappies. Thus, the faster growth of F1 hybrids starts just after hatching and continues...


Due to the unique linear-elastic characteristics of CFRP materials in stressed process,the strain state of the strengthened section should be determined during strengthening calculation.In order to help de- signers to master the method of strengthening design,combining with application of CFRP to strengthen a simply-supported reinforced concrete bridge with T-beam and applying the formulas for strength calculation of cross section of flexural components strengthened with CFRP sheets,the application method and points for attention for basic formulas in strengthening design and strength check are presented.Meanwhile, based on experimental researches,the coefficients for design are introduced to better understand the formu- las.The load test results indicate that T-beam strengthened with CFRP can not only enhance its stiffness and reduce the width of cracks,but also increase its load-beating capacity.


Increasing energy has become an important issue in high performance clusters. To balance the energy and performance, we proposed a novel, energy-aware duplication-based scheduling (NEADS). An existing energy-aware duplication-based algorithm replicates all qualified predecessor tasks in a bottom-up manner. Some tasks without direct relation may be replicated to the same processor, which cannot reduce the communication energy. Instead, the computation overhead may be increased. In contrast, the proposed algorithm only replicates the directly correlated predecessor tasks in the energy threshold range without lengthening the schedule length. The proposed algorithm is compared with the non-duplication algorithm and existing duplicated-based algorithm. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce energy consumption in various applications. It has advantages over other algorithms on computation-intensive applications.


The present invention can perform functions such as multi-tap dedicated management software and the multi-tap automatic control of the peripheral device power supply of the computer sleep in connection with the interior of the circuit configuration, then the document automatically saved by the user setting the computer power car end and the programs automatically terminate operation which it relates to a system for automatically controlling the computer and the power strip wherein the multi-tap for. The present invention is connected to the computer and the power strip with a USB port, and by interlocking a plurality of computer peripheral power and the computer main unit equipped with a predetermined multi-tap dedicated management software, a computer sleep during the power control of the peripheral devices, i.e., the power saving effect can be power-off the can increase dramatically, by matching the multi-tap dedicated management software with safe mode functionality using the link configuration of the power strip circuit, it can perform functions such as document PC power cars just after automatically saved by the user's settings and who you work and then safely stored documents can shut down the computer, a power strip that is applied to the computer power strip control system the control system can be equipped with a UPS function quit after the system securely stores the document you were working in case of a power failure in a power strip It provides. Computers, peripherals, power strip, power strip, dedicated management software


Mighan playa in the central part of Arak watershed receives heavy elements from urban, industrial and agricultural activities. In order to evaluate the pollutants of Mighan playa, 29 sediment and soil samples were collected from playa and heavy metal concentrations were determined and compared with local and upper crust reference. The concentration of heavy metals in most samples is lower than their concentration in the crust reference. Individual contamination index, such as contamination factor, determined the degree of contamination in all samples medium for Cu and Cr and low grade for other elements. However, indices such as ecological risk, enrichment factor, and geo-accumulation index were low for all samples. Moreover, integrated indices such as sum of degree of pollution, ecological risk potential and Nemerow index for sum of elements indicate low degree of contamination. Municipal wastewater, industrial and agricultural wastewater are the most important source of heavy metals in the Mighan playa. Therefore, efforts should be taken to reduce heavy elements from pollutants, especially municipal sewage in the vicinity of the Mighan playa.