This thesis studies the problem of learning mixtures of distributions, a natural formalization of clustering. A mixture of distributions is a collection of distributions D = {D1, ... DT}, and mixing weights, {w1,..., wT} such that Σiwi = 1. A sample from a mixture is generated by choosing i with probability wi and choosing a sample from distribution Di. Given samples from a mixture of distributions, the problem of learning the mixture is that of finding the parameters of the distributions comprising D and grouping the samples according to source distribution. A common theoretical framework for addressing the problem also assumes that we are given a separation condition, which is a promise that any two distributions in the mixture are sufficiently different.
In this thesis, we study three aspects of the problem. First, in Chapter 3, we focus on optimizing the separation condition while learning mixtures of distributions. The most common algorithms in practice are singular value decomposition based algorithms, which work when the separation is Θ pswmin p , where σ is the maximum directional standard deviation of any distribution in the mixture, and wmin is the minimum mixing weight. We show an algorithm which successfully learns mixtures of distributions with a separation condition that depends only logarithmically on the skewed mixing weights. In particular, it succeeds for a separation between the centers that is Θ pTlogLp , where T is the number of distributions, and Λ is polynomial in T and the imbalance in the mixing weights. We require that the distance between the centers be spread across Θ(T log Λ) coordinates. In addition, we show that if every vector in the subspace spanned by the centers has a small projection, of the order of 1TlogL on each coordinate vector, then, our algorithm succeeds for a separation of only O ps*TlogL p , where σ* is the maximum directional standard deviation in the space containing the centers. Our algorithm works for Binary Product Distributions and Axis-Aligned Gaussians. The spreading condition above is implied by the separation condition for binary product distributions, and is necessary for algorithms that rely on linear correlations.
Motivated by the application in population genetics, in Chapter 4, we study the sample complexity of learning mixtures of binary product distributions. In this thesis, we take a step towards learning mixtures of binary product distributions with optimal sample complexity by providing an algorithm which learns a mixture of two binary product distributions with uniform mixing weights and low sample complexity. Our algorithm clusters all the samples correctly with high probability, so long as d(μ1, μ 2) the square of the Euclidean distance between the centers of distributions is at least polylogarithmic in s, the number of samples and the following trade-off holds between the separation and the number of samples: sdd2pm1,m 2p≥adnlogslogpnsp for some constant a.
Finally, in Chapter 5, we study the problem of learning mixtures of heavy-tailed product distributions. To this end, we provide an embedding from R n to {0, 1}n', which maps random samples from distributions with medians that are far apart to random samples from distributions on {0, 1}n', with centers that are far apart. The main application of our embedding is in designing an algorithm for learning mixtures of heavy-tailed distributions. We provide a polynomial-time algorithm, which learns mixtures of general product distributions, as long as the distribution of each coordinate satisfies two properties: symmetry about the median and ¾-radius upper-bounded by R. The separation required by our algorithm to correctly classify a 1–δ fraction of the samples is that the distance between the medians of any two distributions in the mixture should be O pRTlogL+R TlogTd p , and this distance should be spread across O(T log Λ + T log Td ) coordinates. A second application of our embedding is in designing algorithms for learning mixtures of distributions with finite variance, which work under a separation requirement of O ps*TlogL p and a spreading requirement of O(T log Λ + T log Td ). This algorithm does not require the more stringent spreading condition needed by the algorithm which offers similar guarantees in Chapter 3.


Taking the pioneer( Zhoushan Putuo) and the rising star of China Island Tourism( Sanya Betel nut Valley) as research samples,this study is to make qualitative analysis of the influence of the tourism development of Mount Putuo and Betel nut Valley on local food culture,characteristic culture and daily lifestyle by the means of the questionnaire. The study found:( 1) the tourism development has considerably affected local diet culture in both area,especially the fact that the use of Buddhism or Li diet tourism commodity of great cultural value has become an important carrier of residents employment and participation tourism development.( 2) Buddhism and Li culture,which are regarded as the Mount Putuo,Betel nut Valley local characteristic culture respectively,have been impelled to be commercialized and secularized by the development though more attention are paid to local residents' participation in benefit sharing.( 3) the tourism developments of two areas,though rather different,have already made positive effects on the local residents' daily life. However,the impact of spiritual life and daily lifestyle are still in dispute.( 4) the island tourism development,to some extent,has contributed to inheriting and protection to local crafts in both area.


1. 1 Quantitative Linguistics 2. On Semantic Quantitative Analysis (by Tesitelova, Marie) 3. On Verbal Semantics from the Quantitative Point of View (by Uhlirova, Ludmila) 4. A Contribution to the Semantics of Modal Verbs from the Quantitative Point of View (by Nebeska, I.) 5. On the Semantics of Pronominal Adverbs from the Quantitative Aspect (by Ludvikova, M.) 6. On the Semantic Analysis of Prepositions from the Quantitative Point of View (by Confortiova, H.) 7. On Some Issues of the Reverse Dictionary of Words and Forms (by Tesitelova, Marie) 8. On the Quantitative Syntactic Characteristics of Fiction and Non-Fiction Historical Texts of the Twentieth Century (by Stepan, J.) 9. On the Statistical Investigation of Explosives (by Kramsky, J.) 10. A Note on the Thematic Character of the Subject in English in Comparison with Czech (by Duskova, Libuse) 11. The Interrelation between Rhythm and Metre in a Poetic Text (by Sabol, J.) 12. 2 Algebraic Linguistics 13. Remarks on Linearly Grammatizable Languages (by Novotny, M.) 14. On Projectoidity and Antiprojectoidity (by Nebesky, L.) 15. The Role of Linguistics in the Development of Computers (by Sgall, Petr) 16. Topic, Focus, and Reference (by Hajicova, Eva) 17. The Boundary between Lexicon and Grammar in the Meaning of the Sentence (by Panevova, Jarmila) 18. Prepositions Expressing Appurtenance in Czech (by Pitha, Petr) 19. Factual Content of a Communication and its Linguistic Expression in Applied Systems Based on Natural Language (by Buranova, Eva) 20. Designing Meaning Negotiation Dialogues in DOSYS (by Machova, Svatava) 21. Linguistic, Computational and Logical Aspects of Inferences (by Hajicova, Eva) 22. Some Problems of a Machine Translation Experiment (by Kirschner, Zdenek) 23. Disambiguating Interrogative Sentences through a Logical Analysis of Answers (by Materna, Pavel)


SUMMARY (n-Grid) prosumer. An n-Grid a (PV) battery energy storage (BESS), electric vehicle (EV) charger(s) serving the electric load. These offer high flexibility to the power grid given proper incentives. A particular option is to offer ancillary service products (ASPs) through aggregation to the wholesale electricity market (WEM). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 2222 paves the way by mandating the WEM operators across united states to enable participation of DER aggregators in ASP markets. DERs, however, are connected to the distribution grid where the number of outages is much higher than the transmission grid. Also, they are usually energy limited resources whose stored energy might be drained during outages to supply their local loads when the grid is unable to do so. Therefore, they may be vulnerable to large distribution grid outages where many of them might be disconnected, and the aggregator might be unable to deliver the ASPs support in real-time. this paper, the impact of weather-related distribution feeder outages on the performance of n-Grid aggregator participating in the WEM ASPs is investigated. First, the probability of failure of distribution grid feeders is derived using novel machine-learning (ML) based algorithms. Using a past weather conditions, geographical features, aerial imagery and historical outages, the ML model is trained to predict the risk levels for each part of the distribution grid. Next, a novel bidding strategy for n-Grid aggregator participation in the day-ahead market (DAM) for energy and spinning reserve (SR) products is proposed. The feeder outage probabilities are incorporated in the proposed model for informed decision making of the aggregator. The simulation results demonstrate the aggregator can leverage this decision making model to optimally trade energy and ASPs and hedge the financial risks associated with over-committing n-Grid resource availability to support these products. CIGRÉ is an international non-profit association for promoting collaboration by sharing knowledge and joining forces to improve electric power systems of today and tomorrow. The NGN exists to develop the next generation of power industry professionals.


Affective prosodic features, such as syllabification and fundamental frequency, are important aspects of human communication. Praat software has enabled detailed analysis of prosody but is usually used to analyze small snippets of task-based speech. To study prosody in more ecologically valid ten-minute conversations, we designed Prosodyad, a Praat script designed to extract several emotionally salient prosodic features from conversations between two people. Prosodyad is designed to overcome several technical obstacles inherent to multiple speakers by using human labeling on Praat "textgrids" to analyze signals only from noise-free, non-overlapping speech. Prosodyad works over lists of matched textgrids and audio files, extracting salient features such as F0 floor, minimum, maximum, and standard deviation, mean and standard deviation of F1 and F2, HF500, and intensity mean, min, max, and SD, and a syllable count for each unbroken interval. Floor and ceiling for pitch, windowing options for the analysis, as well as max formant as well as thresholds for ASD can be set by the user. We illustrate potential research and clinical applications and give examples of analyses relevant to ten-minute conversations among people with dementia. The software is available on Github at https://github.com/jjatria/pluginprosodyad.


This article deals with the main features of China's foreign policy. It gives the different points of view about the nature of this policy at the present stage and makes predictions about the possible changes.


The aim of this study is to investigate the activity of supermolecular iron and ruthenium cylinders and their interactions with the DNA replication fork, as the possible target of action for cylinders. The impacts of two homologues, triple helical iron(II) and ruthenium(II) homologous, as metallodrug agents on U20S cells are studied using different techniques. Both complexes demonstrate toxicity with significant IC50 values against U20S cells, although they improve the nongenotoxicity effect in this cell line. These outcomes contrast with the results of cisplatin, both in comet and MTT assays. In this study, cisplatin slightly damages the DNA helix and does not show significant cytotoxicity against the studied cells. The cellular uptake results prove that cells can absorb the ruthenium cylinder, but just one fifth of the total ruthenium concentration is detected inside the nucleus, and most is trapped in the membrane.

Confocal microscopy is applied using two different methods (live- and fixed-cell microscopy), to survey the cellular uptake of cylinders in addition to their binding affinity to the DNA major groove. Hoechst is used for this purpose, as it is a well-known minor groove binder probe. Hoechst decrease in fluorescence as a result of cylinder replacement is not observed by these imaging techniques, and the results do not show cylinder interaction with the DNA major groove in U20S cells, despite previous results in other cell lines. Meanwhile, the protein immunoblot analysis does not produce desirable results regarding the DNA replication fork interaction with the ruthenium cylinder. The P-ChKl detection results for the iron cylinder could not be repeated, despite the fact that in some cases they do demonstrate stress on the replication fork.


Mafic sills from Cape St. Mary's on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland give an U–Pb baddeleyite age of 441 ± 2 Ma. This age corresponds with the earliest ages recorded for the climactic Silurian orogenic event that dominantly affected rocks of the Central Mobile Belt in Newfoundland. The age is consistent with but in no way necessitates that the Avalon and Gander zones were juxtaposed during the Silurian. Because sills tend to form in poorly lithified and undeformed sedimentary rocks, it is unlikely that Cambrian sediments hosting the sills were affected by Ordovician orogenic events that strongly affected central Newfoundland. Negative Nb and Ti anomalies on mid-ocean-ridge basalt normalized diagrams show that the sill geochemistry is consistent with formation in a transpressional tectonic environment. Mafic magmas clearly associated with the Silurian event share these chemical and tectonic affinities. Thus both the age and geochemical data are consistent with but do not require a link between the Gand...


Prof. Atchison opened the session with a brief report on the World Conference on Computer Education, held the previous week.


One type of game that is popular and growing today is Hyper-casual. Even though it looks easy to play, some players may find it very difficult or frustrating if they are not matched with qualified skills to play this game. Moreover, this genre has a low retention rate. Therefore, there needs to be a way to keep the game going so players don't find it too difficult or too easy when playing this hyper-casual game. This study aims to create an adaptive difficulty level system at the game level based on the player's facial expressions. A Deep Learning Algorithm performs facial expression recognition called Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) model previously trained on the FER Plus dataset. From facial expressions that the system can recognize, it will affect the level of existing game obstacles. Changes in the player's facial expressions during the game will be able to make dynamic changes at the game level. We use the Thirsty Ghost, similar to the Flappy Bird game, as an object to implement the adaptive difficulty level. Playtesting was done by comparing games with adaptive difficulty levels with identical games without adaptive difficulty levels. The questionnaire results show the Thirsty Ghost Game with the proposed adaptive difficulty level is preferred because it is easier to play. Players also can achieve better scores in the game with adaptive difficulty rather than without this system.


Welcome to the Book Reviews Column. We hope to bring you at least two reviews of books ever y month. In this column three books are reviewed. 3. Vicious Circles by Barwise and Moss. Reviewed by Alex Dekhtyar. This is a book that investigates what happens if you allow sets that are not well founded. 1 Overview Let n be an integer bigger than 1. Is n a prime? If n is composite, how difficult is it to determin e its factorization? If one can factor n, then one can easily compute 40(n), where denotes Euler' s totient function. Conversely, does there exist an easier way to compute .(n) than factoring n ? These are the kind of questions which are of interest both for computational number theorists an d for cryptographers. For instance, the most famous public key cryptosystem is RSA whose securit y depends on the presumed difficulty in factoring large composite integers. The book is based on six lectures given at a short course on number theory and cryptology i n August 1989 at the summer AMS meeting in Boulder, Colorado. Six chapters in the book, Chapter 2-7, correspond to the six presentations. Chapter 8 is an additional contribution which fits perfectl y into this context, whereas Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the topic. The contributions t o the book discuss the most important subjects which are related to computational number theor y and cryptology and can be seen as the state of the art at that time .


Objective To improve out understanding of tracheal bronchus by studying the airway management method during operation.Methods Clinical manifestations and anesthesia of a patient with tracheal bronchus admitted to our hospital were analyzed with its related literature reviewed and experiences in its diagnosis and treatment summarized.Results The patient was a 60-year-old female.She underwent left upper lobectomy under general anesthesia and diagnosed with a tracheal bronchus according to her chest CT findings.A double lumen endo-bronchial tube was placed at its proper position under fiberbronchscopic guidance after anesthesia.The patient was followed up after operation,during which no severe complication was found.Conclusion Tracheal bronchus is extremely rare and should be early detected and treated.


Electric energy has become essential nowadays not only for the daily life of each of us but also for the economy of different countries. The dissemination of geographic information plays an important role in national development as it facilitates communication between managers, investors, and consumers in this sector. Since the management of electricity network data was previously done in Tunisia based on paper maps and plans, the purpose of this article is to present a case of planning based on GIS, Web, and 3D Web GIS, which would have significant positive consequences on this sector from a technical and financial sides with an improvement in customer satisfaction and the creation of an intelligent electricity network which will be a real decision-making tool. This work draws up an inventory of the network MV (Medium Voltage)/LV (Low Voltage) of the region of Medjez El Bab which routes electricity to the big centers of consumption with access to MV/LV subscribers. The analysis of the network's impedance allowed carrying out different scenarios to optimize performance and obtain more realistic routes. Many thematic maps were produced as part of this project (Slope map, Land use map, map of the MV voltage domains, map of the MV/LV transformer stations power, etc.). A three-dimensional virtual city has been developed to visualize the graphical and attribute data for the study area. A Web and 3D Web GIS applications that allows the publication of the interactive maps on the Web as well as the database information have been developed to offer users the possibility of consulting the produced products by internet. Finally, a website related to the study was developed.


An efficient video transcoding structure, which is based on H.264 video coding standard, is proposed in this paper. The structure is an improved version of Cascaded Pixel Domain Transcoding (CPDT) structure, which can significantly reduce the computational complexity through reusing motion vectors and simplifying transcoder's structure. Compared with Open Loop Transcoding (OLT) structure, the proposed one can overcome the influence caused by drift errors through compensating the difference between reference frames in transcoder. Experimental results show that, the proposed structure can provide comparable reconstructed video quality with CPDT's while decreasing the transcoding time greatly, which can be applied in real-time processing. Therefore it is an efficient transcoding structure.


Productivity research is Canada has traditionally focused on narrow economic issues. In our view, it has given inadequate attention to the broader ramifications of productivity, both in terms of shedding light on the importance of productivity for the advancement of various aspects of social progress and in terms of understanding the feedback mechanisms running from social conditions and factors to productivity growth. The objective of the second issue of the Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress is to attempt to fill, at least in part, the lacuna in the literature in Canada on this two-way relationship between productivity and various aspects of social progress. The 15 papers in this volume (including the introduction) address the general issue of the linkages between productivity and various aspects of social progress. The papers are organized into five sections. The three papers in the first section discuss productivity concepts and trends in Canada and OECD countries. The two papers in the second section examine the impact productivity has on government balances and natural resources and environmental sustainability. In the third section, four papers explore the relationships between population, education, health and social divergence and productivity. In the fourth section, three papers address the theme of whether productivity should be a social priority, including discussion of the attitudes of Canadians to productivity. In the fifth and final section two papers examine the relationship between social policy, inequality and productivity. The purpose of this introduction is twofold. First, it provides a detailed overview of the main findings of all chapters in the volume. Second, it provides a synthesis of what the editors see as the main themes that emerge from the different chapters, including a discussion of the implications for public policy.


Dr Alan March MPIA is the 2016 recipient of PIA Victoria's prestigious Planner of the Year award. The award recognises his tireless efforts in improving State planning practices around bushfire vulnerability, disaster risks and resilience. An Associate Professor in Urban Planning and the Director of the Bachelor of Design at the University of Melbourne, he was also recognised for his leadership in education and research across urban design, planning law, bushfire risk reduction and disaster risk reduction.


For prevention and health protection, but are not limited to particular antioxidant, immunopotentiating, hepatoprotective, cardiotonic, diuretic, digestive, Sida sps having choleretic properties, the nature of nerve sedative. , Vitis vinifera, Withania somnifera, providing a novel herbal soft drink containing Boerhaavia diffusa and Tinospora cordifolia decoction of selected plants such from.


Recent results on the dynamical behavior of patterns in two and three dimensions are reviewed. Based upon symmetry properties of patterns, it is shown that transitions to other patterns can be explained by analysing low-dimensional model equations. Examples include transitions from rigidly-rotating one or multi-armed spiral waves to meandering or drifting spirals.


Abstract Objectives: The composition of one's social network has been associated with cognition such that a greater proportion of family is associated with worse cognition compared to a greater proportion of friends. It is not clear whether this association between network composition and cognitive aging is driven by potential negative effects of family interactions or positive effects of friend interactions. Methods: Using the Health and Retirement Study (T1: 2006/2008, T2: 2010/2012, T3: 2012/2014), a longitudinal mediation model was conducted to test the effects of composition on episodic memory and latent change in memory through contact frequency with friends and family. Results: Analyses revealed indirect effects of composition on both T2 memory and latent change in memory through contact frequency with friends. A greater proportion of family in one's network was associated with lower contact frequency with friends and in turn lower memory. Composition was also associated with higher contact frequency with family; however, contact frequency with family was not associated with memory. Conclusions: These findings suggest that spending time with family may not affect episodic memory in older adulthood, but spending time with friends may be beneficial. Potential mechanisms and implications regarding the importance of friendships in later life are discussed.


Treatment with granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has been shown to benefit a subset of patients with adult pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP). A 47 year old woman with PAP, confirmed by lung biopsy, and severe physiological and symptomatic disturbances was not improved by repeated unilateral whole lung lavages. Six months after the last lavage …


We studied the available specimens of Altiphylax stoliczkai (Steindachner, 1867) collected during the Second Yarkand Expedition (1873–74) by Ferdinand Stoliczka. During our study we found some characters that exhibit intrapopulational variation which were not reported in previously published works on this species. We also examined ZSI 3792, said to be the ZSI syntype of Altiphylax yarkandensis (Anderson, 1872) and provide comments on its taxonomy and true status. Based on our study of specimens of A. stoliczkai and comparison with the published description and photographs of the Natural History Museum (NHM) syntype of A.yarkandensis , we regard the former to be a junior synonym of A. stoliczkai .


This research was carried out when Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic occurred in various countries. This virus attacks the respiratory system and spreads very quickly to various parts of the country, one of which is Indonesia. The spread of the virus has forced the government to issue several policies aimed at breaking the ropes of the spread of the virus. One of the policies issued is to conduct online learning. This study answered three research problems, namely how to prepare, process, and results of teaching English speaking skills through online learning. This study used a descriptive qualitative method by conducting interviews. The results of this research indicated that teaching English in speaking skill through online learning is less optimal than face-to-face speaking learning. The teacher used WhatsApp as a media and take advantage of its features as a method of learning. Those media and methods are very effective compared to other methods and media. The teacher conducted learning by recording sound about the explanation of material. The researcher concluded that teaching English in speaking skills through online learning was not optimal. WhatsApp is an effective application used as a medium and method in teaching English in speaking skills through online learning.


. Through the Southern Cone Initia-tive, Chagas disease was effectively 'whac'd' byintergovernmental partnerships supervised by thePan American Health Organization (PAHO),and transmission halted in Uruguay (1997),Chile (1999), and in most areas of Argentina,Paraguay and Bolivia, by eliminating the insectvectors and blood transfusion transmission.Called the silent killer, Chagas disease usuallydemonstrates mild symptoms during the initialweeks following infection (swelling at the site ofinfection, fever, malaise and lymphadenopathy),so diagnosis at this stage is rare. Most patientsprogress to the 'silent', sometimes decades-longasymptomatic period before 20–40% of infectedpeople advance to fatal heart disease and/ormegasyndrome. Around 80% of transmissionoccurs via insect vectors; parasites in the fecestypically gain access through the bite wound ormucous membranes. Transmission by bloodproducts and solid-organ transplantation, con-genitally and even by contaminated food or drinkalso occurs. Different strains of


This paperconsidersa numberof factorsrelatedto the recordingof the voicesof operaticsingersfor acousticanalysis.We wantedto developa techniqueforrecordingthesesingersin non-anechoicenvironmentsso we testedhead-mountedmicrophones.Wetested their effectivenessin recordingthe direct soundproducedby the singerwith relativelylittle interferencefromthe reflectionsof the sound in the recordingenvironment.Weexaminedthe effectivenessof variousnear-fieldmicrophonepositionsusinga head and torsosimulator in anechoic conditionsand applied these observationsto recording an operatic soprano, comparingthe head-mountedand reference microphones.Wealso determined,that, for this singer,therewas appreciablemovementof the headand bodyduringoperaticsinging,even when the singertried to avoidmoving.


1 Abstract—This paper describes several challenges facing programmers of future edge computing systems, the complex and diverse multi-and many-core devices that will soon exemplify commodity mainstream systems. To call attention to programming challenges ahead, this paper focuses on the most complex of such architectures: integrated, power-conserving systems, inherently parallel and heterogeneous, with distributed address spaces. When programming such complex systems, several new concerns arise, such as computation partitioning across functional units, data movement and synchronization, managing a diversity of programming models for different devices, and reusing existing legacy and library software. We observe that many of these challenges are also faced in programming applications for large-scale, heterogeneous distributed computing environments, and solutions used in practice as well as future research directions in distributed computing can be adapted to edge computing environments. Further, optimization decisions are inherently complex due to large search spaces of possible solutions and the difficulty of predicting performance on increasingly complex architectures. Cognitive techniques are well-suited for managing systems of such complexity. We discuss how recent trends of using cognitive techniques for code mapping and optimization support this point. We describe how cognitive techniques could provide a fundamentally new programming paradigm for complex heterogeneous systems, where programmers design self-configuring applications and the system automates optimization decisions and manages the allocation of heterogeneous resources to codes.


This study reviewed a concept of Korea-type zero-energy building and a promotion strategy for reaching its goal and proposed a design process for systematically introducing an element technology by phase based on the project implemented for the technology development and demonstration of the domestic zero-energy buildings. The proposed design process was limited to the phase from building planning to final design and the consecutive approach and phase-specific considerations and the technical identifications were also presented. According to the result of this study, it's important to set a goal in the planning phase for implementing the zero-energy building and it's necessary to systematically apply the element technology by phase. For these purposes, the design phase-specific energy performance should be analyzed based on the objective data on whether the goal of project was carried out or not and then the progress towards the next phase was decided by conducting the review and evaluation on the analysis result would meet the goal of project. In order to implement the zero-energy building as such, this study tried to use the integrated design process to meet at the same time the building energy performance and the design as the basic data for implementing the Korea-type zero-energy building.


It is pointed out that high-power, pulsed, solid-state radar transmitters require special considerations for the power supplies. Unlike their vacuum tube predecessors, the solid-state transmitter amplifier operates from a low voltage (LV) power supply. High power at low voltage implies very high peak currents. The state of art is such that these high peak currents must be provided by energy storage capacitors located in close proximity to the RF power amplifiers. The power supply, then, must serve the function of a precision capacitor recharging circuit. The power supply is an integral part of the transmitter design and its design requirements are driven by the RF output power and transmitter stability requirements. The stability of the power supply is one of the most important factors in achieving the specified performance criteria for the radar system.<<ETX>>


The goal of TCRP Research Project B-1 is to develop information to assist local transit providers in the implementation of appropriate service options and enhancements to serve individuals with disabilities. The specific research objective, consistent with this goal, is the development of a methodology for transit managers and planners to design and evaluate integrated transit systems that (1) provide accessible integrated service complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA); (2) facilitate the appropriate use of paratransit service; and (3) support service or system enhancements to encourage travel on accessible fixed routes by individuals with disabilities. This Research Results Digest presents the Phase I findings. Phase I, which was completed in Fall 1993, identified service options and described enhancements.


This study aims to determine the learning strategies used by teachers, especially PAI teachers at SDN Cikokol 3 Tangerang City. Knowing how PAI teachers apply learning strategies to students. The process used on this occasion are interview and documentation techniques. The learning strategies used by PAI teachers generally apply expository learning strategies. and demonstrations. With the learning and learning strategy, it is hoped that the learning and learning process will run well so that it can improve student achievement and have behavior that is in accordance with the teachings of their religion.


Results of ab initio self-consistent-field (SCF) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the gas-phase structure,acidity (free energy of deprotonation,G0) and aro-maticity of tetraselenosquaric acid (3,4-diselenyl-3-cy-dobutene-1,2-diselenone,H2C4Se4) are reported.The global minimum found on the potential energy surface of tetraselenosquaric acid presents a planar conformation.The ZZ iso-mer was found to have the lowest energy among the three planar conformers and the ZZ and ZE isomers are very dose in energy.The optimized geometric parameters exhibit a bond length equalization relative to reference compounds,cyclobu-tanediselenone,and cydobutenediselenol.The computed aromatic stabilization energy (ASE) by homodesmotic reaction is -77.4 (MP2(fu)/6 - 311 + G //RHF/6 - 311 + G) and - 54.8 kJ/mol (B3LYP/6 - 311 + G //B3LYP/6 -311 + G).The aromaticity of tetraselenosquaric add is indicated by the calculated diamagnetic susceptibility exaltation (A) - 19.13 (CSGT(IGAEM) - RHF/6 - 311 + G// RHF/6-


Transport of high concentrations of suspended particles is one of the major water quality concerns for water supply reservoirs, including the New York City water supply system (NYCWSS). Ongoing changes in snowpack accumulation and winter streamflow patterns could potentially lead to increased turbidity levels in early winter and a reduction in turbidity loads at the time of traditional spring runoff. In this study we examine the potential effects of these simulated changes on reservoir turbidity levels. Our analysis focuses on Ashokan Reservoir, which can at times receive significant watershed turbidity inputs mainly from stream channel erosion from the Esopus Creek. Both measured and simulated turbidity loads and climatology are input to CEQUAL-W2 (W2), a reservoir turbidity transport model that can simulate reservoir turbidity and other water quality parameters. In this study, the W2 model is applied to estimate the effects of hydro-climatology on settling rates and turbidity transport as a result of differences in reservoir thermal structure during summer and winter events. Our results indicate that the two-dimensional hydrodynamic transport model is able to capture summer and winter turbidity processes. Simulations suggest that the settling velocity is substantially lower at low temperatures during winter time. Winter average stream flow is simulated to increase by 12 and 20%, which lead to increases in reservoir turbidity by 11 and 17% for the future period 2046–2065 and 2081–2100, respectively. This analysis is expected to have potential implications for reservoir operations under winter conditions.


To develop and investigate an imbalanced dual gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor (GIPR)/glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor (GLP‐1 R) agonist with Fc fusion protein structure.


Sedimentation experiments have been performed on a polydisperse bacterial DNA sample over a wide range of ionic strength (8 × 10−4M to 2M Na+), at very low DNA concentrations (5–30 μg ml). True sedimentation constant distributions were obtained by careful analysis of experimental data and extrapolation to infinite dilution. In order to give a quantitative description of macromolecular shape, the changes of the exponent as in the general equation, s0 = ksM  a s , have been determined by comparing sedimentation constant distributions obtained at different ionic strengths. as has been found to vary from 0.419 at 2M Na+ to 0.200 at 8 × 10−4M Na+. As well as the decrease of the mean sedimentation constant, this result indicates a pronounced expansion of DNA molecules with decreasing ionic strength. A discussion of the distinct mechanism responsible for the expansion behavior of DNA is given. Furthermore, the dependence of the Mandelkern‐Flory parameter β on ionic strength has been calculated by combining the s0 data with the corresponding [η] values of the sample.


This month's assembly section focuses on the day every member of the family traditionally takes a turn at stirring the Christmas pudding for good luck


This article explores issues facing mediators in cross-cultural conflicts, offers suggestions for conducting cross-cultural mediations, and proposes a template of factors that mediators should consider when assisting parties in cross-cultural mediation. The factors will come largely from the research by social scientists anthropologists, particularly Edward T. Hall and Geert Hofstede, Some of the factors are comparable to negotiation interests, which have a basis in cultural differences, and are referred to as Cultural Dimension Interests (CDI's). The recommended approach to cross-cultural mediation is: 1) Learn the cultural stereotypes about the culturally different parties who will come to the mediation, 2) Investigate the actual people involved, as well as the problem, 3) Be flexible and understand that the parties may well act differently than the stereotypes, and that the stereotypes still are useful in planning for the mediation, and 4) Use the approach to apply a variety of approaches in mediation based upon the Cultural Dimension Interests (CDI's) to resolve the dispute.


Considering the problems and details of modeling process of cold rolling, it was constructed a theoretical model of deformation area based on a set of equations, which were practical testing. The model is based on cold-rolled numerical solution of differential equations of forces equilibrium in the deformation area by Karman. In the model there are included modules for calculating strip temperature and strip gage at the exit from the stand, considering elastic recovery of the strip. For adaptation of the equations to the specific conditions of cold rolling of HSLA steels in the continuous five stand mill 2030 and assess the deviation of calculated data from the actual, a procedure of correction for hardening curve of rolled steel has been developed. The model allows defining the energy-power parameters of rolling: average unit rolling force, the full force of rolling, rolling moment, rolling force, an average temperature of strip at the inlet and outlet of each of the mill stands, steel hardening curve when rolling. The model is implemented as software using object-oriented approach in the language of C++ Builder.


The objective was to determine the diagnostic value of direct immunofluorescence (DIF) in ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid (ocular MMP), taking into account immunofluorescence patterns and biopsy sites.


The effect of 150 MeV Ag9+ ion irradiation on electrical characteristics of Si photo detectors has been analyzed through in-situ Current voltage (I-V) and Capacitance voltage (C-V) measurements. Ideality factor (n), series resistance (Rs) and reverse leakage current (IR) are extracted from I-V characteristics. The value of n for pristine detector is found to be 1.24 and it has increased gradually along with the fluence. The value of IR for pristine is found to be 4.97 × 10−8 A and it increases to about three orders of magnitude at the fluence of 1 × 1013 ions/cm2 and further there is no observable change. Also, C-V characteristics exhibit considerable degradation. The value of capacitance decreased from 1.13 ×10−8 F to 3.97 × 10−10 F and also carrier concentration (NA) undergoes slight decrease with the increase in fluence. The 150 MeV Ag9+ ion induced displacements, vacancies in the bulk region mainly attribute to the observed degradation in the electrical characteristics. The ionization and displacement damage profiles were estimated from SRIM/TRIM (Stopping power and Range of Ion in Matter/Transport and Range of Ion in Matter) simulation codes. The observed degradations are explained in terms of TID (total ionization dose) and Dd (displacement damage dose).


The new high Tc oxide superconductor CaSr2(Cu0.83Bi0.17)3Oz has been found with Tc=75 K in as-grown single crystals and lattice parameters a=3.802 Å, b=12.901 Å, c=3.296 Å and γ=107.14°.


—This study disseminates the idea of managing the call routing problem in another perspective, which is named as the call-distribution-based view (CDBV). In this study, decision problems for telecommunications routing management are stratified into three classes; external, internal and strategic (perse) by synthesizing two very fundamental theories: systems theory and the theory of management hierarchy. It is identified that for the strategic decisions, the top management of an operator is usually concerned with a main routing decision problem: how to decide an appropriate call distribution portfolio, as to keep the service profitable and to maintain the quality of service. Such problem involves the key performance indices of a voice service operation. It arose with the end of the monopoly in the telecommunications sector, but it is seldom addressed. Accordingly, the CDBV view is proposed to conceptualize the problem and it is shown to have decision analysis functions by a call-distribution decision case. By demonstrating that CDBV underlies an existing linear programming (LP) approach that was designed to decide the call distribution 'scenario', it is also shown to lend theoretical grounds for future problem modeling purpose. Therefore, future generalized models for determining a real optimal call distribution 'portfolio' can be expected.


The study's objective was to comprehensively assess kidney function alterations in patients with COVID-19. The study was carried out in Moscow (Russia) in 2021. 100 patients of 19-30 years old (51 females and 49 males) took part in the survey. The study collected participant data on basal urine, serum creatinine, and estimated glomerular filtration rate from medical histories before COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 diagnosis (delta strain) was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction test. Serum creatinine was measured, considering age and race. Micro-albuminuria levels from daily urine samples were established. Laboratory blood tests included quantitative indices of blood-forming elements, hemoglobin levels, and biochemical parameters. Based on the results, the study observed a slight increase in serum creatinine levels after COVID-19 infection, with concentrations of 78.4±6.4 mmol/L before infection and 87.5±7.7 mmol/L after the disease (p≥0.05). The microalbuminuria-creatinine ratio also showed an increase. The glomerular filtration rate in renal glomeruli declined from 93.3±10.1 mL/min/1.73 m2 before infection to 78.9±8.7 mL/min/1.73 m2 after the disease (p≥0.05). These findings suggest a trend towards decreased kidney function in young patients with moderate COVID-19 severity. However, normoalbuminuric compared to creatinine was significantly higher than normal after COVID-19. Urine tests indicated a trend of decreased renal glomerular filtration rate. Clinical symptoms included high temperature, weakness, cough, and, in some cases, liquid stools. Laboratory findings revealed significant deviations in hematocrit, neutrophil, and eosinophil concentrations. Parallel tests focusing on cystatin C and beta-2 macroglobulin are recommended to assess kidney function and identify potential dysfunction.


Abstract:This multidisciplinary essay examines the hugely influential—yet surprisingly overlooked—Birth Series sculptures. Created in 1939 by Dr. Robert L. Dickinson (obstetrician-gynecologist and leader of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America) and sculptor Abram Belskie, they illustrate the process of human development from fertilization through delivery. First displayed at the 1939–1940 World's Fair in New York City, they were reproduced in a variety of forms and sent out across the United States and overseas. Hardly a brief fad, their popularity persisted into the 1980s. This essay has four purposes. First, it tells the stories of Dickinson and Belskie to appreciate their contributions as artists to twentieth-century medical knowledge. Second, it demonstrates that the sculptures serve as the missing link in the rise of modern twentieth-century visions of pregnancy, decades before Lennart Nilsson's much-heralded photographs in Life magazine in the 1960s. Third, it assesses the uniqueness of the visual story the Birth Series told, in that it depicted in utero development as a romantic tale that began with the union of sperm and egg and unfolded to reveal the birth of a precious child—imagery that would later become the hallmarks of the modern pro-life movement. Fourth, it addresses the conundrum of Dickinson's intent. A deeply religious man, Dickinson hardly intended to make a visual case against abortion. Rather, he believed firmly in the necessity of its practice, not despite his religious views but because of them. He then set out to make the religious case for contraception and abortion.


In this research, we conducted the Sweden game and described its educational effect. The Sweden game is one way to determine cost-sharing for the construction of a pipeline. Three groups of about 40 students were used, with each group consisting of six teams. A good solution was obtained. Additionally, students learned practical methods, how to strategize, and how to bargain. We realized that this experiment resulted in a desirable educational effect. We also evaluated the results of the Sweden game. Keywords-component; gaming; sweden game; students education


Julz Espensen '23 (history) blogs about her adventures in research and history-focused projects, including WWII reenactment, clothing restoration and cooking historical dishes.


Securing data transferred over a WSN is required to protect data from being compromised by attackers. Sensors in the WSN must share keys that are utilized to protect data transmitted between sensor nodes. There are several approaches introduced in the literature for key establishment in WSNs. Designing a key distribution/establishment scheme in WSNs is a challenging task due to the limited resources of sensor nodes. Polynomial-based key distribution schemes have been proposed in WSNs to provide a lightweight solution for resource-constraint devices. More importantly, polynomial-based schemes guarantee that a pairwise key exists between two sensors in the WSNs. However, one problem associated with all polynomial-based approaches in WSNs is that they are vulnerable to sensor capture attacks. Specifically, the attacker can compromise the security of the entire network by capturing a fixed number of sensors. In this paper, we propose a novel polynomial-based scheme with a probabilistic security feature that effectively reduces the security risk of sensor-captured attacks and requires minimal memory and computation overhead. Furthermore, our design can be extended to provide hierarchical key management to support data aggregation in WSNs.


Moisture content takes a special place among food quality factors as a parameter that changes during the processes of storage and processing, and, in many cases, determines consumer properties of different food products. Modern grain moisture meters' uncertainty is restricted to not more than 3 % of relative full scale error. Main task of the research is to receive robust linear static function for the grain moisture meter with four capacitive sensors. Robustness of new static function had been checked with a help of dispersion analysis. It was possible to conclude that values of repeatability and adequacy dispersions for new linear static function are approximately three times smaller, so as F-test values are seven times smaller in comparison with initial static function of a moisture meter, what proves its' better robust properties.


An east-west chain of three stations was established in north China near geomagnetic latitude 29.6° (L = 1:3) within a geomagnetic longitude span of 40.2°from Oct.10 to Nov.29 in 1996. Propagation and polarization characteristics of low-latitude Pc3 pulsations were studied. It is concluded that the westward propagation of Pc3 pulsations is dominant in the morning and the eastward propagation is dominant in the afternoon. NW-SE of major axis azimuth and right-handed polarization are dominant in the daytime.


This article highlights concerns regarding judicial interpretations and understandings of the application of Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights to control the deportation of foreign criminals from the United Kingdom. It examines the broad scope of the provision arguing that it is somewhat unclear, vague and unpredictable for those seeking to rely on it.


Analytical redundancy technique is of great importance to guarantee the reliability and safety of aircraft engine system. In this paper, a machine learning based aeroengine sensor analytical redundancy technique is developed and verified through hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. The modified online sequential extreme learning machine, selective updating regularized online sequential extreme learning machine (SROS-ELM), is employed to train the model online and estimate sensor measurements. It selectively updates the output weights of neural networks according to the prediction accuracy and the norm of output weight vector, tackles the problems of singularity and ill-posedness by regularization, and adopts a dual activation function in the hidden nodes combing neural and wavelet theory to enhance prediction capability. The experimental results verify the good generalization performance of SROS-ELM and show that the developed analytical redundancy technique for aeroengine sensor fault diagnosis based on SROS-ELM is effective and feasible.


The study explored performances of cross-hedging emerging/frontier market currency risk with developed market currencies from Thai investors' perspective. The results showed that Thai investors can use a cross-hedging strategy to reduce currency risk and improve risk adjusted return from their emerging market investment. Single cross hedging can reduce portfolio risk significantly as confirmed by the F-test. Multiple cross-hedging showed signs of improvement from single cross-hedging both in currency risk reduction and risk adjusted return improvement, but the statistical test failed to prove that the improvement is significant. While the portfolio return was penalized by the hedging cost. The risk reduction justified the hedging cost and improved risk adjusted return performance indicators; Sharpe ratio and Sortino ratio. The improvement was confirmed by standard paired bootstrap test of the ratios. The study also revealed that, in some cases, Ederington hedge effectiveness and Sharpe/Sortino ratio can be contradicting, both measures must be considered before making a hedging decision. When investment risk is significantly higher than the FX risk, the improvement will not be as prominent as when investment risk and FX risk are in the same level. Thus, in this study, cross-hedging bond investment showed more significant risk adjusted return than stock investment. In our study, the rebalancing strategy affects the cross-hedging performance, 3-month rebalancing strategy produced a significantly higher risk adjusted return than 1-month rebalancing strategy. Sharpe ratio and Sortino ratio were equally effective and always went in the same direction. The results are sensitive to market conditions and situations, thus selection of recent data set and continuous monitoring in the actual implementation of currency cross-hedging will be crucial.


We describe our approaches for the Social Media Geolocation (SMG) task at the VarDial Evaluation Campaign 2020. The goal was to predict geographical location (latitudes and longitudes) given an input text. There were three subtasks corresponding to German-speaking Switzerland (CH), Germany and Austria (DE-AT), and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia (BCMS). We submitted solutions to all subtasks but focused our development efforts on the CH subtask, where we achieved third place out of 16 submissions with a median distance of 15.93 km and had the best result of 14 unconstrained systems. In the DE-AT subtask, we ranked sixth out of ten submissions (fourth of 8 unconstrained systems) and for BCMS we achieved fourth place out of 13 submissions (second of 11 unconstrained systems).


The paper presents a methodology to evaluate safety hazardous condition in a road network. Poor and delayed maintenance of roads leads to road accidents. Several maintenance components like poor surface condition (pothole, rutting, shoulder drop-off), improper traffic signs, road marking, poor lighting etc. affects road safety. Road maintenance is generally limited to improving carriageway surface condition like filling pothole etc. without replacing missing traffic signs, road marking and other safety features essential for a safe road network. Maintaining the roads in safe condition require huge resources in form of man machine and materials. Thus, Identification and evaluation of maintenance components effects on road safety is very important task for assessing the maintenance needs for improving road safety. Limited studies are available on identification of effects of maintenance components on road safety. A methodology is developed based on the identification of effect of poor maintenance on road safety and by considering inter-relationship between various maintenance components. Also a methodology is developed to evaluate the effects of these components on road safety. It is expected that this study will be useful in assessing the maintenance needs and effectiveness of various maintenance components in improving road safety. Keywords: Road Maintenance, Road Safety, Maintenance Components, Safety Hazardous Conditions.


The effectiveness of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) depends on a non-trivial manual crafting of their topology and parameters. Typically, practitioners resort to a time consuming methodology of trial-and-error to find and/or adjust the models to solve specific tasks. To minimise this burden one might resort to algorithms for the automatic selection of the most appropriate properties of a given ANN. A remarkable example of such methodologies is Grammar-based Genetic Programming. This work analyses and compares the use of two grammar-based methods, Grammatical Evolution (GE) and Structured Grammatical Evolution (SGE), to automatically design and configure ANNs. The evolved networks are used to tackle several classification datasets. Experimental results show that SGE is able to automatically build better models than GE, and that are competitive with the state of the art, outperforming hand-designed ANNs in all the used benchmarks.


This article describes the changes underway in the European telematics market. The objective is effective telematics cockpit control that takes into account the special requirements of driving a vehicle. The author suggests that the European consumer will be offered through telematics new capabilities that expand safety, security and travel services. A big challenge for Europeans has been overcoming language and cultural differences. However, new technology has overcome those challenges. The author also describes the human-machine interface which is aimed at telematics are not provided in an unsafe manner. He reports government involvement in this area is active and growing.


Pure [CH2CHCH2]+ and ions are generated only in metastable fragmentations of [CH2CHCH2X]+˙, X=Cl, Br, I, and [CH3CXCH2]+˙, X=Br, I, respectively. For ion source generated [C3H5]+ ions there is some structural interconversion. The structure characteristic feature of their collisional activation mass spectra is the ratio m/z 27 ([C2H3]+): m/z 26 ([C2H2]+˙). For the ratio is only weakly dependent upon the translational energy of the ion. For [CH2CHCH2]+, the ratio rises sharply as translational energy is reduced, from 0.9 at 8 kV to c. 3 at 1 kV. [CH2CHCH2]+ ions generated by charge reversal of [CH2CHCH2]− show higher ratios, resulting from their lower average internal energy content. It must therefore be emphasized that [C3H5]+ ion structure assignments should only be made using reference data which apply to specific experimental conditions. [C3H5]+ daughter ion structures for a number of well-known fragmentations have been established. The heat of formation of the 2-propenyl cation was measured to be 969±5 kJ mol−1. Labelling experiments show that at low internal energies, allyl cations do not undergo atom randomization in c. 1–2 μs; high internal energy ions of longer lifetime (c. 8 μs) show complete atom randomization. H˙ atom loss from [13CH3CHCH2]+˙ has been shown to generate [13CH2CHCH2]+ and without any skeletal rearrangement.


This 8-year-old girl was born with multiple congenital anomalies. The child had broad, short feet; postaxial polydactyly of the feet bilaterally; brachydactyly of the hands; cystic dysplasia of the kidneys; a single atrium; ventricular septal defect; retinitis pigmentosa; flat nasal bridge; and anteverted nares.


Over a typical career piano tuners spend tens of thousands of hours exploring a specialized acoustic environment. Tuning requires accurateperceptionandadjustmentofbeatsintwo-notechordsthatserveasanavigationaldevicetomovebetweenpointsinpreviously learned acoustic scenes. It is a two-stage process that depends on the following: first, selective listening to beats within frequency windows, and, second, the subsequent use of those beats to navigate through a complex soundscape. The neuroanatomical substrates underlyingbrainspecializationforsuchfundamentalorganizationofsoundscenesareunknown.Here,wedemonstratethatprofessional piano tuners are significantly better than controls matched for age and musical ability on a psychophysical task simulating active listening to beats within frequency windows that is based on amplitude modulation rate discrimination. Tuners show a categorical increaseingraymattervolumeintherightfrontaloperculumandrightsuperiortemporallobe.Tunersalsoshowastrikingenhancement of gray matter volume in the anterior hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus, and an increase in white matter volume in the posterior hippocampus as a function of years of tuning experience. The relationship with gray matter volume is sensitivetoyearsoftuningexperienceandstartingagebutnotactualageorlevelofmusicality.Ourfindingssupportaroleforacoreset of regions in the hippocampus and superior temporal cortex in skilled exploration of complex sound scenes in which precise sound "templates"areencodedandconsolidatedintomemoryovertimeinanexperience-dependentmanner.


The Human Body Body Sizes Mobility Muscular Work Body strength and Load Handling The Human Mind How We See How We Hear How We Sense Objects and Energy How We Experience Indoor and Outside Climates Body and Mind Working Together Mental Activities Hard Physical Work Light and Moderate Work Workload and Stress Organizing and Managing Work Working with Others The Organization and You Working Hours Night and Shift Work Human Engineering Designing the Home Office Design Computer Design Workplace Design Making Work Pleasant and Efficient References Index


It was put forward that the development trend of contracted design of modern commodity's package upholstering format are individuation,localization and internationalization through the discussion on the contracted design and commodity's package upholstering format.It concluded that contraction is not simple,not even subtraction,but high abstracted design factors,more specific design idea,more visual wallop,more faddy,and more green.


Particulate and dissolved pollutant transport rates are predicted using a pollutant transport modeling system. The latter is a finite element model capable of simulating three-dimensional transport and interaction of cohesive sediments and inorganic pollutants in rivers and estuaries. This modeling system includes a hydrodynamic module, cohesive sediment transport module, and both dissolved and particulate pollutant transport modules. The modeling system was used to simulate sediment and pollutant transport in a 11.3 km long partially stratified tidal river.


Abstract : Aiming at global analysis, the well known mathematical manifold is perhaps the most important subject of modern mathematics. Based upon mathematical manifold, this numerical manifold method is a newly developed general numerical method. This method computes the movements and deformations of structures or materials. The meshes of the numerical manifold method are finite covers. As the material domains, the finite covers overlapped each other and covered the entire material volume. On each cover, the manifold method defines an independent cover displacement function. The cover displacement functions on individual covers are connected to form a global displacement function on the entire material volume. The global displacement function are the weighted averages of local independent cover functions on the common part of several covers. Using the entire finite cover systems, continuous, jointed, or blocky materials can be computed in a mathematically consistent manner. For a manifold computation, the mathematical mesh and physical mesh are independent.


With the recent announcement that Apple and Google will introduce a contact-tracing API to iOS and Android, and later add contact tracing functionality directly to their OS's, it seems increasingly likely that contact tracing via a smart phone will form an important part of the effort to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent resurgences of the disease after an initial outbreak.However, contact-tracing models have shown that there remains a high degree of uncertainty over whether contact tracing alone will be enough to control the virus. Here, we suggest complementary policies that could be used as part of a responsive policy to increase the effectiveness of smart phone contact tracing in the event that a resurgence looks imminent.


Aims –  To determine the etiologic role of neurocysticercosis (NC) in a hospital‐based sample of epilepsies divided according to International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) epidemiological criteria and number of seizures prior to presentation.


The pear native of Central Asia, stands 2 nd in ranking after apples as the most important delectable tree fruits and is grown in all the continents of the world under warm temperate to temperate climatic conditions. In India, pear occupies third place in temperate fruits in acreage and production and can be grown from foot hills to high hills experiencing 500 to 1500 chilling hours [1]. Due to very high chilling requirements, the superior cultivars of pear (Pyrus communis L.) are confined to valley and high hills of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. In Jammu and Kashmir the diverse agro-climatic zones offer the favourable agro-ecological conditions for pear production. The climate of Kashmir valley is sub-humid temperate. The average annual rainfall is 887.6 mm with average annual temperature of 20.2 o C maximum and 8.60 o C minimum. Currently the area under pear fruit is 13883 ha with annual production of 54847 MT in our state [2]. Due to the economic importance of this fruit crop, it has drawn the attention of numerous researchers in recent years. Amongst the various factors required for sustainable pear production, the inherent fertility status of soil influence to a large extent the tree health and fruit production. The physiographic features like slope aspect, relief, altitude and depth have pronounced effect on physico-chemical properties and also on the nutrient supplying capacity of the soils, thereby influencing growth and yield [3]. The most important soil considerations for pear production are water table (soil-depth) and drainage conditions [4]. Many soil fertility characteristics (including organic matter content, pH, cation exchange capacity and phosphorus availability) show significant altitudinal variations. With the variations in altitude, climatic factors (temperature, precipitation and solar radiation) also change which results in a differential composition of soil organic matter dynamics [5] by controlling soil water balance, soil erosion, geologic deposition processes, species and biomass production of the native vegetation and cultivated plants [6]. The altitude and soil depth have pronounced influence on the available nutrients in soil. However, the nutrient supplying power of a soil depends on dissociation of nutrients from the exchange site, which is in turn depend on the degree of saturation of the nutrients on the exchange site, type of clay and complementary ion-effect [7].The detailed information about the Abstract A total of thirty six soil samples collected from twelve representative pear orchards were analyzed for fertility parameters using the standard procedures. Interestingly, results revealed that pH showed significant (p<0.05) but electrical conductivity recorded non-significant variation with altitude and depth. Significantly higher organic carbon content (1.16%) was recorded at high altitude and in surface soils. Significantly higher amount of calcium carbonate (p<0.05) was recorded in sub-surface horizons of mid low and high altitudes. The cation exchange capacity recorded was significantly higher in mid altitude and in sub-surface soils (p < 0.05). Available N, P and K were recorded significantly higher in pear orchards at high altitude as well as surface soils (p<0.05) whereas Ca recorded non-significant variation with altitude and depth. Significantly higher Mg (286.24 ppm) and S (11.13 ppm) amounts were observed in surface soils only. Zn and Cu showed significant decline with altitude and depth with higher amounts in surface soils of high altitude whereas Mn and Fe observed non-significant variation. However, B and Mo observed significant decline with depth (p<0.05) but non-significant variation with altitude.


The Northwest of Paraná had sustained colonization in the small property and the coffee plantations, with the man living in the countryside and exploring the land directly. In the 1970s coffee was in crisis and gave way to mechanized farming in soils derived from basalt and grassland soils originated from the sandstone formation Caiuá. More recently, these forms of culture begin to jostle for space with the sugar cane. The changes are dynamic throughout the middle region, but are more intense in areas of sandstone-basalt contact, which is the focus of this work.


For more and more popular in mechanical and electrical major,how to implement the experiment units in distance education becomes a focus of research.Through the cases in our distance-teaching process,it analyzes the development method of remote experiments and tries to explore a way for the mechanical and electrical engineering practice.The virtual experiments have been used in teaching practice.


Purpose:Medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD) is a tetrameric flavoprotein essential for the beta-oxidation of medium chain fatty acids. MCAD deficiency is the most commonly recognized defect of mitochondrial b-oxidation. It is potentially fatal, but shows a wide clinical spectrum.The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of the G985A mutation carrier in the medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD) gene in Turkish population. Material and Methods:We analyzed 1400 DNA samples. Mutation detection was performed with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in which a NcoI restriction site was created in the presence of a G985A mutation in the PCR product, followed by the digestion, and 8% polyacyrlamide gel electrophoresis. Results:We detected a G985 carrier frequency of 3 in 1400 Turkish population. Conclusion:The incidence of MCAD deficiency is lower in our population than other populations. The present study suggest that different MCAD mutations responsible for Turkish Population' MCAD phenotype, because the disorder shows a strong founder effect and consanquinity very common in our population than other European countries


Anapa bay bar degrades due to strong anthropogenic impact [Krylenko, 2012]. Information about current morphological changes is necessary for developing of measures for its conservation. This data were obtained from air laser scanning survey, carried out in 2013 and 2015 with 1 cm height resolution. Calculated difference digital elevation model (DDEM) has revealed changes of bay bar relief for 2 years. Comparison of DDEM with maps of bay bar landscape-morphological structure, compiled at preceding years by high resolution satellite images and digital air photos, allowed to investigate various by type and genesis morphological changes. 41 spots with different character of morphological changes, were allocated. They were grouped into 7 regions with prevailing of specific type of changes. All changes were divided to: natural, with natural wind and waves processes; natural-anthropogenic (where natural destructive processes are intensified by human impact) and anthropogenic changes. Natural processes prevail only at 30 % of bay bar. The main of them are: aeolian accumulation of sand at beach dunes; sand blowing out at windward slopes of dune ridges and accumulation behind the ridge; wave abrasion of dune seaward slope at narrow beach. In regions with anthropogenic impact and destruction of vegetation cover, processes of sand blowing out at windward slopes are intensified. Along transverse roads to beach blowouts with aeolian and hydrogen cones are forming; erosion along them was detected by DDEM. Anthropogenic changes are the strongest: dunes are digging out; lakes are filling up during preparation for construction; destroying of defense ridges and creation of new ones for optimization of their position.


The Chinese intellectual of the ancient times attaches importance to the ideal personality design which origin of the Confucianism or Dao very much.Putting particular emphasis on thinking that this designs that the different history period says to Confucianism or Dao when being baffled,different to some extent then.If the body gets along chaos caused by war period Ruan Ji,Ji Kang,their more complying with say that thought starts off,exceed, construct up thereby one kind of ideal unconventional personality to try to explore by denying reality.


Major affective disorders appear to consist of several subgroups with varying prognostic indicators. As a result, treatment strategies are becoming more sophisticated and complex. Overall, response as well as mortality rates appear to improve when attention is paid to adjunctive treatments and environmental stresses


In proton-coupled secondary transporters, conserved anionic residues situated in transmembrane helices often play a role in proton and/or solute translocation. To decipher the proton-coupling mechanism of Lyp1 we replaced conserved anionic residues with neutral ones and measured the activity and localization of the Lyp1 mutants. We found that mutants E206A and E323A/Q do not longer transport lysine and do not support growth of a lysine auxotrophic strains. We subjected these strains to directed evolution and found second-sitesuppressor mutations for E206A at positions Lys256 and Val385, while only revertants of E323A/Q were isolated. Combining our localization, activity and growth screen studies, we conclude that Glu206, Glu323, Lys256, and Glu249 are key for protoncoupled solute transport in Lyp1. (1) Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (2) Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands (‡) correspondence to firstname.lastname@example.com (manuscript in preparation) Author contributions: F.B. designed research; F.B., J.S.v.t.K. and D.M. performed research; F.B. analyzed data and F.B. and B.P. wrote manuscript.


In modern design of power electronic converters, reliability of DC-link capacitors is an essential aspect to be considered. The industrial field have been attracted to the monitoring of their health condition and the estimation of their ageing process status. The existing condition monitoring methods suffer from shortcomings such as, low estimation accuracy, extra hardware, and increased cost. Therefore, development of new condition monitoring methodologies that are based on advanced software algorithms could be the way out of the aforementioned challenges and shortcomings. In this paper, a proposed software condition monitoring methodology based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithm is presented. Matlab software is used to train and generate the proposed ANN. The proposed methodology estimates the capacitance of the DC-link capacitor in a three phase front-end diode bridge AC/DC/AC converter. The estimation is based on the usage of single phase output current and dc-link voltage ripple. The impact of training data type, source and amount are also investigated for estimation accuracy analysis. Experimental validation of the proposed method is also conducted.


Abstract Background: Bile duct injury (BDI) is one of the serious complications in laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC), but there is currently a lack of systematic review of risk factors related to BDI after LC. This study conducts meta-analysis on the risk factors related to bile duct injury after LC, the purpose is to provide reference basis for preventing and reducing BDI after LC. Methods: Using the Computer to retrieve of Chinese and English databases such as CNKI, WANFANG Data, the VIP Network, PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, etc. The time is from the establishment of each database until August 2021. A case–control study is selected that is related to the risk factors of BDI after LC. This meta-analysis using RevMan 5.4 and State 12.0 software is performed after two researchers independently sift through the literature, extract the data, and evaluate the bias risk included in the study. Results: The risk factors related to BDI after LC will be analyzed by systematic review. Conclusion: The conclusion of this study will play an important role in reducing BDI after LC. OSF Registration: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/2B3K9, the registration URL is https://osf.io/2b3k9.


In this work, a physics-based MOSFET drain thermal noise current model valid for all channel lengths was presented for the first time. The derived model was verified by extensive experimental noise and charge measurement of devices with channel lengths down to 0.18 /spl mu/m. Excellent agreement between measured and modeled drain thermal noise was obtained for the entire V/sub GS/ and V/sub DS/ bias regions.


The synthesis and charge-transfer (CT) spectra are described for a series of homopolymers and copolymers of poly(iminomethylenes),

, which contain pyridinium groups as acceptor and iodide ions as donor. The group R includes 3-[1-CH3-N⊕C5H4]CH2-(1c), 3-[1-CH3-N⊕C5H4]CH(CH3)- (2c), 4-[1-CH3-N⊕C5H4]CH(CH3)- (3c) and 4-[1-CH3-N⊕C5H4]CH2CH2- (4c), I− being the counter ion. The copolymers consist of either the monomeric units of 1c and 4c [ratio 1: 1 (5c) and 1:2 (5d] or of [3−[1−[2,4−(NO2)2C6H4CH2]−N⊕C5H4]]CH(CH3)N=

and C6H5CH(CH3)N=

(7c), Comparison is made between the iodide to pyridinium CT spectra of 1,3-dimethylpyridinium iodide (8) and the polymer of 4-vinyl-1-methylpyridinium iodide (9). With respect to the former compound, these CT bands of the polymers 1c-4c show a large bathochromic shift, which is largely attributed to their low microenvironment polarity. An even larger bathochromic shift was observed in the CT spectra of the copolymers 5a and 5d. This additional effect is attributed to iodide ions being intercalated between pyridinium cations. On complexing copolymer 7c with N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyl-1,4-benzenediamine, complete charge transfer occurred. This phenomenon is attributed to intercalation of the diamine between two dinitrophenyl groups.


Abstract : This research considers a particular form of M-ary signaling called 2 FSK/QPSK. It is a unique way of combining two modulation methods to produce an 8-ary signaling technique whose noise performance is shown to be significantly better than 8-PSK. A transmitter and receiver for 2 FSK/QPSK is designed, built tested and analyzed. Theoretical and experimental results are compared using a plot of probability of bit error versus signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Known theoretical performance of 8-PSK is used for comparison. Results show a 5 dB theoretical improvement in SNR and a 3 dB experimental improvement of 2 FSK/QPSK relative to 8-PSK. Keywords include: Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), Frequency shift keying (FSK), 8-PSK, and M-ary signaling.


We report a series of observations of Seebeck effect, resistivity, and heat capacity on high quality single crystals of antiferromagnetic insulating NiO as a function of temperature and stoichiometry. The magnitude of the resistivity is shown to be proportional to the stoichiometry and over the entire temperature range studied a quantitative association is obtained between the temperature dependence of the resistivity and the magnetic ordering. The heat capacity shows evidence of a lambda transition at the Neel point and is only very slightly affected by stoichiometry. The Seebeck effect data are insensitive to both the magnetic transition and stoichiometry and, but for an anomaly to be discussed, may be associated with the ionization energy of a hole from an Ni+2 vacancy. We also report the observation of a 1/2(volt/K) anomalous thermoelectric effect which appears below 400K in the most stoichiometric annealed samples. The anomalous time dependence, relative to the establishment of a temperature gradient...


Particle film applications (i.e. spraying canopies with a suspension of particles of various kinds of clay, including kaolin, leaving a film on the leaves) has long been used to limit the impact of water and heat stress on crops. Earlier work has focused primarily on crop yield and suggests that particle film applications, in some crops and under some conditions, increases yield. More recent and detailed work has been carried out using new kaolin products. Such work suggests that, besides other effects on fruit colour and size, kaolin generally reduces photosynthetic rates of individual leaves except under high temperature and/or heat stress. This is probably because kaolin films increase the albedo thus reducing leaf temperature and the consequent heat stress, but also reducing the light available for photosynthesis, possibly offsetting benefits of lower temperature, depending on the level of heat stress and incident irradiance. The few studies on the effects of kaolin applications on canopy photosynthesis report either an increase, or no effect, despite a reduction in photosynthetic rates of individual leaves. This is probably due to improved light distribution within the canopy, which increases the radiation use efficiency more than compensating for the slight reduction in canopy light absorption. In conclusion, kaolin applications appear to have the ability to reduce the effects of water and/or heat stress and, possibly to enhance canopy photosynthesis, at least under certain circumstances. These effects alone might not necessarily justify kaolin applications economically. However, when the kaolin film technology is adopted for pest management or for other purposes, it can be concluded that there are possible additional benefits.


During the two decades following the discovery of the denitrification process several notable papers were published on the isolation and characterization of denitrifying bacteria. A study of this literature reveals that Burri and Stutzer (1895) were the first to describe such organisms in sufficient detail to render them recognizable. This applies particularly to their Bacillus denitrificans II, an organism of wide distribution and outstanding characteristics, which has been isolated from straw, manure, soil, canal water, etc., and which students of the denitrification process have considered as a very common and easily identifiable denitrifier. Nevertheless, this species has been neglected in virtually all American literature dealing with systematic bacteriology, and in the most recent and authoritative treatise on the subject, the 6th edition of Bergey's Manual (Breed et al., 1948), it now can be found in an appendix to the genus Achromobacter with the notation: "Many of the following species were described before Gram and flagella stains had been perfected. Hence it is impossible to identify them definitely as belonging to Achromobacter. Comparative study is needed in other cases before the remaining species can be placed in their proper place in the genus." (p. 422). There is no justification for this attitude with respect to Burri and Stutzer's Bacillus denitrificans II. As the following account will show, the misconception may be ascribed to a number of factors, among which we mention specifically: (1) a strange confusion in the nomenclatorial status of the bacterium in question; (2) an error in judgment on the part of Migula; (3) a general lack of interest after 1905 in organisms causing denitrification; and (4) unfamiliarity with the species and with the pertinent literature on the part of some American workers. It is the contention of this essay that Burri and Stutzer's Bacillus denitrificans II should be restored to its position of prominence under the name Pseudomonas stutzeri.


In order to investigate the strength design problem of the brazed aluminum plate-fin heat exchanger header under complex external piping loads, the limit load interactions of the header under combined piping loads are studied in this paper. To establish the limit piping load interaction curves, nonlinear finite element analysis assuming the elastic perfectly plastic material model is performed by using the commercial finite element analysis software ANSYS and multiple piping load combinations, which are the combination of orthogonal bending moment components, torque component-shear force component, bending moment component-axial force component, compound bending moment-axial force component, and torque component-compound shear force, of the header with six opening ratios ranging from 0.5 to 1 are explored. The results of the interaction diagrams show that the feasible combined piping load zone of the header derived from the interaction curves can be simplified as a triangular zone determined by the individual limit piping load components safely and the simplified feasible zone is suggested to be used for establishing a simplified safety assessment method for the header under combined piping loads.


The question of who, exactly, is truly responsible for writing the Com- I mon Core State Standards (CCSS) is a matter for debate. The CCSS website describes CCSS development in the following way:Building on the excellent foundation of standards states have laid, the Common Core State Standards are the first step in providing our young people with a high-quality education. It should be clear to every student, parent, and teacher what the standards of success are in every school.Teachers, parents and community leaders have all weighed in to help create the Common Core State Standards.Such a description is problematic. First, if the "states" have "laid an excellent foundation of standards," then why does the United States need CCSS? The first statement can be relegated as flat- tery meant to disguise the lack of details regard- ing CCSS origin on the CCSS website. Then there is the second statement, "Teachers, parents, and community leaders . . . weighed in"-this seems to be another dodge. A more promising document for discerning the truth behind CCSS creation is the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that states used to enter into with the US Department of Education for states applying for Race to the Top (RTTT) funding with the federal government.Let us closely examine a CCSS MOU. Accord- ing to Investopedia an MOU is "a legal document outlining the terms and details of an agreement between parties, including each parties [sic] requirements and responsibilities." This leads us to the State of Delaware's RTTT Application for Initial Funding. The CCSS MOU is located on pages 128-30. The copyrighted "owners" of CCSS are named in the title of the MOU:The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices Common Core Standards Memorandum of AgreementCCSS MOU PurposeThe first statement of the CCSS MOU is problem- atic because CCSS continues to be advertised as an idea coming from the states and not involving the federal government. However, it is clear from this CCSS MOU statement below that by using the CCSS MOU as part of the RTTT application pro- cess, the federal government is "demanding" that states "agree" to be "state-led":Purpose: This document commits states to a state- led process . . . that will lead to the development and adoption of a common core of state standards.If the process is "state-led," why is the state using the CCSS MOU to enter into a legal arrange- ment with the federal government to "ensure" that the state "leads" itself? If the state is "leading itself," how can the "standards" be "common" to other states? The simple answer is that this MOU tells the states how they are to "lead them- selves" in matters of CCSS.Let us look at the precise wording of the entire "pur- pose" paragraph:Purpose: This document commits states to a state-led process that will draw on evidence and lead to development and adoption of a common core of state standards (common core) in Eng- lish language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. These standards will be aligned with college and work expectations, include rigor- ous content and skills, and be internationally benchmarked. The intent is that these stan- dards will be aligned to state assessment and classroom practice. The second phase of this initiative will be the development of common assessments aligned to the core standards devel- oped through this process.Not only was the product, CCSS, never tested; in signing this MOU, states agreed to an as-of-yet undeveloped "second phase" of "common assess- ments." This sounds like the states signing these MOUs are "following," not "leading."The Background of the CCSS MOUThe context of the CCSS MOU is also interesting. The section titled "Background" includes infor- mation on previous efforts to develop "common" standards and assessments, including the Ameri- can Diploma Project (ADP) and the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP). …


analyses have the potential to contribute with more specific information about the underlying mechanisms that affect white matter microstructure during antipsychotic treatment. , Background: The neurotoxic and/or neuroprotective effects of individual antipsychotics remain controversial, with equivocal reports emerging from the animal and human literature, particularly in cognitively critical fronto-temporal areas. We investigated the relationship between antipsychotic dose and frontal white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) to determine potential neurotoxicity of atypical antipsychotics and the relationships between white matter FA, symptom severity and cognition. Methods: 3T diffusion imaging was performed in 10 chronic DSM-V schizoaffective and 9 schizophrenia patients (mean age 30.6 yr: 6 F, 13 M). Symptom severity was assessed with the PANSS (mean score = 96.1). Cognitive measures included Trails A & B, the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test. Patients were being treated with a mix of one or more atypical medications (aripriprazole, clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, palliperidone, risperidone). Fractional anisotropy (FA) of the major frontal tracts (genu, fornix, bilateral anterior limb inter-nal capsule, bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus—SLF) was extracted with FSLv5.3 FMRIB and co-registered to the JHU DTI atlas prior to FreeSurfer 5.0 segmentation. Exploratory linear regressions were the NODDI model, neurite orientation dispersion index (ODI), a putative marker of dendritic structure and complexity, was extracted from 50 cortical regions-of-interest (ROIs) spanning the entire cortical mantle. Mean ODI was calculated for 3 PFC sub-regions: lateral PFC, medial PFC, and orbitofrontal PFC. These data were then entered into a multivariate repeated measures ANOVA to asses for group, region, and hemisphere effects, and interactions. Results: Multivariate ANOVA revealed main effects of PFC region ( P < .001) and, importantly, a significant interaction between PFC region and group ( P = .002). Follow-up univariate tests revealed psychosis patients exhibited reduced ODI in the medial PFC of both the left ( P = .003) and right ( P = .002) hemispheres. Follow-up analysis revealed that both schizo- phrenia spectrum and bipolar disorder patients exhibited reduced ODI in the medial PFC. No group differences were detected in the lateral and orbitofrontal PFC regions. However, exploratory analyses of all cortical ROIs revealed additional ODI reductions in regions of the temporal lobe (ie, superior temporal gyrus) and parietal cortex (ie, precuneus). Conclusion: Dendritic complexity in the medial PFC measured in vivo using NODDI is reduced in psychosis. Reduced dendritic complexity within the PFC is consistent with post-mortem findings of reduced dendritic spine density and shorter total dendritic length, particularly in cortical layer 3, in schizophrenia. Further work is required to confirm the regional specific- ity and functional consequences of reduced PFC neurite complexity, and determine the effects of antipsychotic medication of neurite complexity measured in vivo in psychotic disorders.


A method and apparatus for buffering conference call are described. The methods and apparatus of the present invention stores a conference call between a plurality of users. Service center conference bridge and a conference server sets a conference call between a plurality of users. The service center will check the identity of the plurality of receiving-side apparatus for the audio stream corresponding to the conference call (corresponding to a plurality of users). Audio stream server providing audio stream to multiple receiving-side apparatus. Center belonging to the memory and / or receiving device as the position (local) memory to store the audio stream. User of the receiving-side apparatus can be selected to play a selected portion of the audio stream.


In this paper, we discuss a concept of the mixed Fourier transformation, when signals are transformed to the time-frequency domain, where the difference between the time and frequency is disappeared. Both cases of continuous-time and discrete-time signals are considered, and properties of the mixed transformations are described. The concept of mixed Fourier transform includes the fractional power of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) which is referred to as a discrete version of the fractional Fourier transform. Mixed Fourier transformations can be used for calculation of roots of the Fourier and identity transformations. Examples of such root transforms for signal processing and image encryption are given.


This paper addresses the potential impacts of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems on electrical networks. The paper starts by emphasizing the increased importance of generating electricity from PV arrays. The growth in PV installed capacity worldwide is elaborated; futuristic expansion plans for several countries as well as existing PV projects worldwide are highlighted. The paper continues by evaluating the most important impacts of PV electricity on electrical networks. Finally, the authors summarize the literature's findings regarding the maximum allowable PV penetration that can be safely integrated into existing networks.


A new strain of sulphate reducing bacteria was isolated from swampy forest soil. After 120 h reduction, sulphate conversion attained 100%, the molar ratio of the consumed lactate and reduced sulphate amounted to 2:1. This confirms the reduction mechanism proposed by Senez (1951).


We present a robotic control system endowed with attentional mechanisms suitable for balancing the trade off between safe human-robot interaction and effective task execution. These mechanisms allow the robot to increase or decrease the degree of attention toward relevant activities modulating the frequency of the monitoring rate and the speed associated to the robot movements. In this framework, we consider pick-and-place and give-and-receive attentional behaviors.


The excitation and dissipation of electron beam driven electrostatic turbulence has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. Optimization of the beam to wave power transfer efficiency is shown to depend on the details of the linear dispersion of plasma waves on the bounded plasma column. In addition, the time variation of the cw operated beam plasma system has been modeled by a coupled set of nonlinear rate equations for the intensity of unstable field fluctuations, the electron temperature, and the plasma density. Agreement with the experiment is excellent allowing identification of the important dynamics. In particular, the dominant dissipation mechanism is shown to be stochastic heating of (nonresonant) thermal electrons.


A new pulsewise fluidized bioreactor(biofilter)which uses immobilized microorganisms was developed for the effective biological treatment of high concentration organic wastewater. The content in the biofilter was mixed by the turbulence generated by the falling wastewater which has potential energy. Polyurethane foams were used for the support of microorganisms. In order to test the effect of mixing in the Biofilter pulse was off for 24 days during the experiment. When the pulse was off, the Biofilter performance was reduced dramatically. When the raw wastewater was introduced to the Biofilter without neutralization, COD removal efficiency and biogas generation rate were almost the same in the case of neutralization. During the 400 days experiment wastewater residence time was varied from 15 day to 1 day and soluble COD removals were 90-97%. In terms of COD load polyurethane foams showed with 90% soluble COD removal. This biofilter showed more than 15 times performance in COD removal than conventional anaerobic digestion. In spite of non-neutralizing the influent wastewater the reactor kept stable operation without disturbing the performance.


The aim of this pilot study was to assess the effectiveness and usability of Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) as a person-centred evaluation of the quality of care being given to people with dementia. The participants were residents of a long term psychogeriatric hospital in New Zealand. DCM was administered in four phases: baseline, pre-intervention, post-intervention and one month post-intervention. Intervention strategies included a range of daily activities for residents, staff education, and environmental adaptation. The findings suggest that occupational and psychosocial intervention can improve the quality of care provision and thus the well-being of people living with dementia.


Background: Subcutaneous enoxaparin administration often causes problems such as pain;
bruise and hematoma at the injection sites. In terms of these problems, cold application has been
found to have various therapeutic benefits as relieve pain by produce localized anesthetic effect and
controls bleeding by causing vasoconstriction. Aim of the study: To investigate the effect of cold
application on local problems among patients receiving subcutaneous enoxaparin. Design: Self
controlled trial design was utilized. Setting: The study was carried out in general surgery
department, orthopedic surgery department, and chest Intensive Care Unit at Beni-seuf University
Hospital. Study subjects: A purposive sample of 60 patients was included in the study. Data
collection tools: Data were obtained through Patient assessment tool, Bruising Category Scale,
Visual Analogue Scale for pain and Hematoma Formation Scale. Results: All studied patients had
pain and more than half developed bruise at injection site when they received enoxaparin without
cold application but more than three quarter of studied patients had pain and less than one quarter
developed bruise when they received injection with cold application. Meanwhile, the majority of the
studied patient did not develop hematoma whether cold applied at injection site or not. Conclusion:
The pre-injection cold application at enoxaparin injection site was effective in reducing the
occurrence of pain and bruising. Moreover, there was statistically significant relation between the
patients' pain intensity, the size of bruising and their demographic characteristics; age and gender.
Recommendations: Cold application should be included in standard protocol for the administration
of SC enoxaparin and providing on-going and regular in-service educational programs about it for
nurses.