In the last decade, motivated by the success of Deep Learning, the scientific community proposed several approaches to make the learning procedure of Neural Networks more effective. When focussing on the way in which the training data are provided to the learning machine, we can distinguish between the classic random selection of stochastic gradient-based optimization and more involved techniques that devise curricula to organize data, and progressively increase the complexity of the training set. In this paper, we propose a novel training procedure named Friendly Training that, differently from the aforementioned approaches, involves altering the training examples in order to help the model to better fulfil its learning criterion. The model is allowed to "simplify" those examples that are too hard to be classified at a certain stage of the training procedure. The data transformation is controlled by a developmental plan that progressively reduces its impact during training, until it completely vanishes. In a sense, this is the opposite of what is commonly done in order to increase robustness against adversarial examples, i.e., Adversarial Training. Experiments on multiple datasets are provided, showing that Friendly Training yields improvements with respect to informed data sub-selection routines and random selection, especially in deep convolutional architectures. Results suggest that adapting the input data is a feasible way to stabilize learning and improve the generalization skills of the network.


The paper deals with nominative sentences in choosen Fet´s poems. The author analyzed them in syntactical aspect and gave their characteristics. The work was written in collaboration with the supervisor M.A. Oxana Ushakova, Ph.D.


Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause of global death from chronic diseases. Data mining using machine learning (ML) converts massive volumes of raw data created by healthcare institutions into meaningful information that can aid in making predictions and crucial decisions. After an HF, collecting and analyzing follow-up data from patients is critical to monitor their health recovery. The aim of this study is to use ML and predict the survival possibility of patients after HF based on the follow-up data. Three supervised classifiers i.e., Random Forest (RF), XGBoost (XGB), and Decision Tree (DT) have been used in our study. Moreover, we proposed to design a supervised stacked ensemble learning model that can achieve a prediction accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score of 99.98%, 100%, 99.98%, and 99.98%, respectively. The ensemble structure has three base learners (DT, RF & XGB) and one meta learner (RF). The integration of multiple algorithms boosted the prediction performance, which is a significant improvement from the other contemporary studies. Our results demonstrate that Ensemble ML can be a powerful intervention tool to predict accurately, beforehand, the recovery status of a chronic HF patient and prevent potential fatalities.


1. Has water privatization peaked? The future of public water governance 2. Changing paradigms in water and sanitation services in Argentina: towards a sustainable model? 3. The remunicipalization of Parisian water services: new challenges for local authorities and policy implications 4. A pragmatic approach to multiple water use coordination in Chile 5. Hydroelectric power generation in Chile: an institutional critique of the neutrality of market mechanisms 6. The global commodification of wastewater 7. The role of the public and private sectors in water provision in Arizona, USA 8. Virtual water hegemony: the role of agribusiness in global water governance 9. D. Kumar response to Sojama et al and rebuttal D. Kumar 10. Private sector participation in water service provision: the eye opener to governance gaps 11. Privatization and water service provision in the United States: a recommendation for expanded oversight and the development and adoption of best practices 12. Access to water in a Nairobi slum: women's work and institutional learning 13. Basic issues revisited and experiences in the provision of water for all 14. Intermittent water supplies: challenges and opportunities for residential water users in Jordan 15. Conclusion: Public and private governance of water: outlook and lessons learned


The focal curve of an immersed smooth curve γ : θ 7→ γ(θ), in Euclidean space R , consists of the centres of its osculating hyperspheres. This curve may be parametrised in terms of the Frenet frame of γ (t,n1, . . . ,nm), as Cγ(θ) = (γ+c1n1+c2n2+· · ·+cmnm)(θ), where the coefficients c1, . . . , cm−1 are smooth functions that we call the focal curvatures of γ. We discovered a remarkable formula relating the Euclidean curvatures κi, i = 1, . . . , m, of γ with its focal curvatures. We show that the focal curvatures satisfy a system of Frenet equations (not vectorial, but scalar!). We use the properties of the focal curvatures in order to give, for l = 1, . . . , m, necessary and sufficient conditions for the radius of the osculating l-dimensional sphere to be critical. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for a point of γ to be a vertex. Finally, we show explicitly the relations of the Frenet frame and the Euclidean curvatures of γ with the Frenet frame and the Euclidean curvatures of its focal curve Cγ . Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) : 51L15, 53A04, 53D12.


Arsenic in drinking water is a worldwide health problem that is associated with cardiovascular disease, but the cause is currently unknown. In order to examine whether arsenic affects vasomotor tone in blood vessels, we investigated the effect of arsenic on agonist-induced vasorelaxation and vasoconstriction using the isolated rat aortic rings in in vitro organ bath system. Treatment with inorganic arsenite (AsⅢ) inhibited acetylcholine-induced relaxation of aortic rings by inhibiting production of nitric oxide in endothelium.


The present invention provides a time resolution fluorescence system. The time resolution fluorescence system comprises the following parts: a control module used to control and coordinate working of other modules and electrically connected with a sample information collection module, an integral sphere type optical module, a photoelectric conversion and amplification module, an analysis module and a storage module; the sample information collection module for collecting sample information; the integral sphere type optical module for illuminating the sample and collecting light signals; the photoelectric conversion and amplification module for conversing the light signal transmitted from the integral sphere type optical module into an electrical signal and amplifying the signal; the analysis module for analyzing the signal transmitted from the photoelectric conversion and amplifier module; and the sample storage module for storing sample information and a test result. The system provided by the invention has the advantages of small volume, easiness for carrying, quantitative detection and accurate data.


Summary. The serum iron, iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation has been estimated in a random sample of the Welsh population. The results indicate that iron deficient erythropoiesis is not uncommon, being present in 22 per cent of women and 6 per cent of men. Iron deficiency has only a low correlation with haemoglobin concentration and it is commonly found in subjects with a normal haemoglobin concentration by conventional standards.


The objective of this study was to identify the effect of Management Styles and Employee Behaviours on Customer Satisfaction in the Electronic Manufacturing Industry in Malaysia. The study examined three Management styles namely Authoritarian, Participative and laissez-faire management styles and four Employee Behaviour factors namely patience and acceptance, team player, employees' self perception of themselves and interpersonal relationships. The theoretical framework has been drawn out and questionnaire was designed based on the factors chosen. The data collected were analyzed by using SPSS program which provide relevant analysis such as reliability analysis, frequency analysis, and regression analysis. Ten hypotheses were developed to study the relationships between management styles and employee behaviour on the customer satisfaction in the Electronic Manufacturing Industry in Malaysia. The entire hypotheses were successfully tested with SPSS and three hypotheses were accepted. The regression analysis result shown that the most significant factors affecting employee behaviour is the authoritarian management styles. Participative management styles and the laissez-faire management styles found to have no significant effect on employee behaviour. In contrary to this, participative management styles found to be the most significant factor affecting customer satisfaction. Authoritarian and laissez-faire management styles found to have no significant effect on customer satisfaction. However among four identified employee behaviours namely; patience and level of acceptance, work as a team player, perception of self, and interpersonal skills; only self perception found to be the significant factor affecting customer satisfaction.


This survey examined the management of Community Based Education (CBE) field activities at Jimma University (JU). The study used both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected from students and academic staff through structured questionnaire. Qualitative data were gathered from top university officials: deans and college/institute CBE coordinators via in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed into frequencies and percentages, while qualitative data were analyzed qualitatively and interpreted based on themes. The results showed that the management of CBE field activities was surrounded by setbacks, such as lack of awareness and commitment from some instructors, wrong perception and little commitment of some students, staff concerns about the adequacy of CBE workload, overlapping schedules and low payment for CBE supervision, shortage of budget and logistics, community fatigue, duplication of activities, reluctance of some officials (college deans, CBE coordinators and top authorities) and lack of participatory approach in supervisor assignment. Therefore, it can be concluded that the management of CBE field activities needs improving. Uniform workload and schedule across colleges/institutes and programs for identical CBE courses, regular staff induction with emphasis on CBE issues, and adequate orientations to students are necessary. Participatory approach in supervisor assignment and maximizing the commitment of all CBE actors are also recommended.


The aim of the research was to record the recent scholarship on the use of social networks as a communication tool, education and learning in health care, with emphasis on the Facebook social network. The investigacaofoi held on the basis of Capes Journal Portal data, using the keywords "Facebook, educacaoe health", with the criterion of buscao use of most current open access content published during the period between 2005 and 2011. The methodology used was the bibliographical research, followed by the work of analysis in accordance with the specified topics on the keywords. The study resulted in 37 scientific papers on the subject studied, 2 brasileirose 35 international. The survey categorized 37 scientific articles highlighting the profile of each job according to the theme addressed and methodology used. Much of the production was to cut out the use of social network Facebook as a teaching tool / learning and many used the survey as a basis for research.


In a game with rational expectations individuals refine their information with the information revealed by the acts of other individuals. We show that, at a Nash equilibrium of a game with rational expectations, the information of individuals is essentially symmetric, and their acts are common knowledge.


Introduction of solid phase assays and adoption of flowbased human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antigen-coated beads as the method of choice for detection of HLA antibodies heralded a new age in the pretransplant assessment of organ transplant recipients. For the first time, a technique was available which showed greater sensitivity and accuracy than the complement dependent cytotoxicity technique for both the detection and specificity determination of HLA antibodies. Although this development has been of benefit for the clinical management of the transplant recipient, it has raised questions regarding the clinical interpretation of the data generated (1). In this issue of Transplantation, Visentin et al. (2) have addressed a feature of HLA antigen-coated beads having both technical and clinical implications. Using bead antibody detection technology, they studied a cohort of sensitized renal transplant recipients for incidence and clinical relevance of HLA class 1 antibodies directed at cryptic epitopes on denatured HLA molecules (dHLA), not accessible to antibody when the HLA heavy chain is complexed with A-2-microglobulin in its native state (nHLA). The methods used for coating beads with HLA molecules for antibody detection (screening beads) and accurate antibody specificity assignment (single antigen beads [SAB]) rely on different technologies. In the former case, molecules are immunoprecipitated from cell lines, whereas SAB are bound with HLA molecules produced using recombinant technology. The dHLA molecules occur on SAB, most likely caused by the different methods of manufacture and the amount of dHLA binding varies from bead to bead (3). This issue has been addressed by the manufacturers who have produced iBeads, which have largely intact HLA molecules on their surface, although there is evidence that levels of nHLA differ between beads and may differ from normal SAB beads by having a lower density of HLA molecules on their surface (3), both factors impacting on the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) obtained. Previous studies have demonstrated that antibodies to dHLA class 1 can be found in a proportion of normal nontransfused, nontransplanted males (4), suggesting they are not formed as a result of previous exposure to alloantigens. Cross-reactivity with epitopes found on microorganisms or allergens have been suggested as a likely source of immunization (4, 5). The question that concerns those involved in transplantation centers around the potential role of anti-dHLA in rejection and how they should be considered in the organ-matching process. Some reports (2, 5) suggest that they are not associated with renal transplant rejection, although Visentin et al. (2) were unable to show a statistically significant difference in rejection rates between those with donor-specific antibodies (DSA) to dHLA versus those with DSA to nHLA owing to small numbers of rejection cases in both groups. In contrast, Sicard et al. (6) showed that antibody-mediated rejection could occur in nonimmunized male patients with HLA class 1 or class 2 DSA detected by SAB, although they did not demonstrate that these antibodies were directed at dHLA. The findings demonstrating a lack of effect on rejection incidence of anti-dHLA is not unexpected given the lack of antibody accessibility to cryptic epitopes on an intact cell. Visentin et al. (2) however have suggested a multicenter study to further address the clinical significance of these antibodies. Such a study should also include thoracic transplant recipients and examine whether antibodies to dHLA are formed de novo after transplantation. The fact that dHLA antibodies occur commonly in nonimmunized male individuals does not preclude the fact that they could also be formed as a result of exposure to alloantigen by means of the indirect presentation route. The impact of antibodies to class 2 dHLA in graft outcome also requires further study. The second concern is the exclusion of patients with dHLA DSA in the matching process. The use of iBeads and, where applicable, the cell-based flow cross-match, where dHLA is not a confounding variable, can assist in interpretation. However, instances occur where the flow cross-match is negative in the presence of antibodies to nHLA, so caution must be exercised. In addition, the MFI of dHLA antibodies tend to be in the lower range (G3,000) (2), which can assist in the decision making process. These findings highlight again the importance of defining antibodies in epitope specificity rather than allele specificity. This is of importance in recipient-donor matching where an antibody to dHLA may co-occur in a patient with an antibody to a defined nHLA epitope on the same allele. ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY


A kernel $J$ of a digraph $D$ is an independent set of vertices of $D$ such that for every vertex $w,in,V(D),setminus,J$ there exists an arc from $w$ to a vertex in $J.$ In this paper, among other results, a characterization of $2$-regular circulant digraph having a kernel is obtained. This characterization is a partial solution to the following problem: Characterize circulant digraphs which have kernels; it appeared in the book  Digraphs - theory, algorithms and applications, Second Edition, Springer-Verlag, 2009, by J. Bang-Jensen and G. Gutin.


Data gathered from 45 farms in the Kagera Region of Tanzania were used to estimate critical nutrient levels (CNL) of foliar tissue and norms of the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) for bananas (Musa spp.) grown in the highlands of East Africa.

CNL values are proposed as 3.1 % N, 1.13 % Ca, 0.48 % Mg, 18.4 ppm Zn and 10.0 ppm B. Optimum ranges for cation ratios were estimated as 0.54—0.67 for K/(K + Ca + Mg), 0.22—0.32 for Ca/(K + Ca + Mg) and 0.09—0.15 for Mg/(K + Ca + Mg). Productivity of bananas and foliar levels of P, K, S, Fe, Mn and Cu were too weakly related to estimate CNLs for these nutrients. A set of DRIS norms for East African Highland bananas is presented.


Drawing on justice theory, the author examined the consequences of abusive supervisor behavior. As expected, subordinates who perceived their supervisors were more abusive were more likely to quit their jobs. For subordinates who remained with their jobs, abusive supervision was associated with lower job and life satisfaction, lower normative and affective commitment, and higher continuance commitment, conflict between work and family, and psychological distress. Organizational justice mediated most of these effects, and job mobility moderated some of the deleterious effects of abusive supervision.


BACKGROUND: Lynch syndrome is associatedwith an increased incidence of colorectal carcinomas and extracolonicneoplasms. Patients fulfilling the "Revised Bethesda criteria" orthe Amsterdam Citeria I or II should be screened for DNA mismatchrepair deficiency. Mutation carriers and high risk individuals should undergointensified annual screening, as recommended by the S3 guidelinefor colorectal carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All families ofthe Regensburger study group with a verified mutation were includedin this study. Data acquisition was conducted by telephone interviews.We determined the number of family members who had been informed aboutthe diagnosis and how many of them participated in the recommendedscreening program. Additionally, an information letter was sentto family members providing information about the opportunity ofa predictive mutation analysis. RESULTS: 90 family members of 12 familieswith a total of 42 carcinomas and a mean age of tumor diagnosisof 41.3 years were included. At the beginning of the study 97.4 % ofthe family members were informed about the diagnosis. In the courseof the study the number of family members participating in the mutationanalysis increased from 29.5 % to 42.3 %.The number of index patients complying with the recommended screening programwas over 90 %, in contrast to the number of family memberswhich varied between 30 - 60 %. CONCLUSIONS: Relatives of index patientsare not sufficiently informed about the importance of predictivetesting and the re-commended surveillance guidelines. An insufficientimplementation of Lynch syndrome specific aspects of the S3-guideline canbe assumed. For an improved implementation barriers of physicians' adherencemust be systemically analyzed. It is essential for these high-riskfamilies to establish and enforce awareness in order to create intensifiedsurveillance.


This paper adopts problematic approach to study several important problems of internationalpublicity translation.It proposes that "international publicity" is not the goal but the way;"foreign language" is the"destination" but "Chinese" is not certainly the "starting point".Therefore,"foreign language 1 to foreign language2" and "foreign language 1---Chinese---foreign language 2" should be covered in "international publicitytranslation" in addition to "Chinese to a foreign language".This paper also puts forward that the best translatingstrategy for "international publicity translation" is not "domestication" or "foreignization" but "integratedtranslation".


An experimental method has been developed to measure the dynamic relaxation times of aerosol particles. The particle relaxation time (τp) is determined from the ratio of the velocity amplitude of an aerosol particle (vp) to the velocity amplitude of the medium (ug) while the aerosol is subjected to acoustic excitation of a known frequency. A differential laser Doppler velocimeter is used to measure vp, while a microphone is used to measure ug. From the value of τp, the aerodynamic diameter of the particle can be determined if the particle density is known. The method can be applied to real−time in situ measurement of size distribution of an aerosol containing both solid particles and liquid droplets in the range of 0.1−10.0−μm diameters.


Most studies on the compilation of localized textbooks are about their adaption to the local learners' traits such as the learners' education background,their level of the target language,their purposes,time and interest in language learning.This paper argues that localized textbooks should adapt to the local language-teaching environment.This paper gives an investigation of 30Thai middle shools and concludes that such textbooks should take the local Chinese-teaching environment into consideration,in line with which are the design of the teaching objectives,the teaching contents and supplementary materials.


Four isozymes of nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP) linked isocitric dehydrogenase can be demonstrated by starch gel electrophoresis in normal human epidermis. In the lesions of psoriasis and in basal cell carcinoma only two of these isozymes can be demonstrated. With healing of the psoriatic lesion the two missing isozymes return.


This paper examines implementation issues associated with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). In particular, it discusses whether ISTEA is more a truly revolutionary change in policy, or a continuation of the status quo. The article considers these issues in the context of a legislation battle that did not produce clear winners and losers, where both sides appear to have achieved what was important to enable a test of their own hypotheses, and where each has an interpretation of what the "spirit" or the intention of ISTEA is, and how it ought to play out. The result is an "experiment" testing the viability of two world views. One view sees a public policy largely at odds with the real public sentiment on transportation, where the will of the people has been distorted by federal intervention to favor SOVs and urban sprawl. Given an alternative, this view predicts the public will opt for different behavior and lifestyle changes. The other view sees public policy as largely consonant with abiding public preferences, behaviors and land use patterns that are unlikely to change quickly as a result of the flexibility and local focus introduced by ISTEA. The complexity is compounded by the new role of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, especially with regard to requirements for public participation and clean air. Finally, since the expression of public preference is related both to the outcome of the policy experiment and to the ongoing legitimacy of the institutions (including MPOs) charged with its implementation, this participatory framework is critical to understanding the future direction of transportation policy.


This paper reports results of a study aimed at assessing agricultural researchers' access to information technology facilities. It also examines to what extent such facilities are used in facilitating researchers' access to scientific information. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey to 321 agricultural researchers selected randomly at 13 research centres throughout the country. The response rate obtained was 76.3%. Out of 244 respondents, 170 (69.7%) reported having access to internet or e-mail facilities. While 79.3% of the respondents having access to the internet reported using the facility frequently for information search, the e-mail facility was not popularly used by the respondents for information requests to sources outside respondents' institutions. CD-ROM technology was found not to be readily available to many respondents because of the unavailability of such facilities at their research centres and minimal use of e-mail facilities for resource sharing with other centres' CD-ROM databases. It is concluded that, along with a low level of information technology development in the country, the available information technology facilities have not been fully exploited to facilitate agricultural researchers' access to information. Some measures to improve information technology infrastructure and its use for improvement of research productivity are recommended.


4010 Background: About 60% of mCRC patients (pts) discontinue oxali prior to disease progression (PD), largely driven by cumulative neurotoxicity (NT). CONcePT (Combined Oxaliplatin Neurotoxicity Prevention Trial) was initiated to test if an intermittent oxali (IO) schedule of FOLFOX/bevacizumab (BV) allows pts to remain on therapy longer compared to a conventional oxali (CO) "treat-to- failure" approach. To explore the impact of IV calcium/magnesium (CaMg: Ca-gluconate 1g, Mg-sulfate 1g, pre/post oxali) on NT, pts were randomized in a 2x2 factorial design (IO vs. CO) x (CaMg vs. placebo [PL] - double-blinded). Methods: Eligibility criteria included measurable disease, PS 0–1, no neuropathy. In CO arms, pts received mFOLFOX7 (oxali 85mg/m2, LV 200mg/m2, 5FU 2,400mg/m2 x 46h) plus BV (5mg/kg) q2wks. In the IO arms, pts alternated every 8 cycles with and without oxali. After 140 pts, a protocol amendment eliminated the CaMg vs. PL randomization and 40 subsequent pts all received CaMg. TTF (primary endpoint)...


Neural information for encoding and processing temporal information in speech sounds occurs over different time-courses. We are interested in temporal mechanisms for neural coding of both pitch and formant frequencies of voiced sounds such as vowels. In particular, in this study we will describe a strategy for quantifying the ability to discriminate changes in spectral peaks, or formant frequencies, based on the responses of neural models. Previous studies have explored this question based on responses of computational models for the auditory periphery, that is, responses of the population of auditory-nerve (AN) fibers (e.g. [1]-[2]). In this study we quantify formant-frequency discrimination based on the responses of models for auditory midbrain neurons at the level of the inferior colliculus (IC). These neurons are tuned to both audio frequency and to low-frequency amplitude modulations, such as those associated with pitch.


A practical near-IR blood vessel imaging system, the 'VascuLuminator', was developed to facilitate the puncturing of blood vessels for different procedures. Technical solutions were found for certain difficulties, such as obtaining a maximum image contrast by reducing the interference of IR light present in the surroundings. In phantom studies it was shown that the device is able to visualize blood vessels of different sizes to a clinically relevant maximum depth. In a preliminary clinical study, the use of the VascuLuminator resulted in decrease of the failure rate in blood withdrawal in young children from 13% to 2% and the laboratory technicians were satisfied with the practical application of the device. After this study, the effectiveness of the VascuLuminator was investigated to facilitate arterial cannulation in a group of children undergoing cardiac surgery. In an ongoing study, 71 children up to 3 years of age were included and time of arterial cannulation, number of punctures and puncture site were recorded. In 38 patients, cannulation was performed without the VascuLuminator and in 33 patients with VascuLuminator by pediatric anesthesiologists. The initial results do not show significant differences in time and in number of punctures with and without the use of the VascuLuminator. However, the VascuLuminator was able to visualize the arteries in most cases. In 11 of the 33 cases, the artery was located by using only the near-infrared image was used, without palpating for a pulse or knowledge of anatomical landmarks. Further clinical studies are needed to identify the patients groups that will benefit the most from VascuLuminator-assisted vessel punctures.


The article analyzed the existing methods of building technologies for the maintenance of civil and military aircraft and identified mathematical methods that can be used to study the prospects for the development of aircraft maintenance systems, which allowed to form the purpose of the study in this development. The chosen topic is quite relevant, because the formation of transport and technological schemes for the delivery of support for the maintenance of combat aircraft can increase the efficiency of resource use and reduce the time for training at Ukrainian airports in a conflict situation. One of the ways to reduce maintenance time is to determine the effective distribution of transport and technical means for the preparation of aircraft. It was established that in the scientific developments of foreign scientists, solutions were proposed related to the construction of transport and technological schemes for the delivery of support for the maintenance of various types of aircraft. Most of these solutions were aimed at using agent-based simulation models for application to the process of generating combat sorties of aircraft - this made it possible to process a large amount of data and generate management decisions in the transport service system. Also, most authors propose to take into account the conditions of uncertainty and time constraints when building a methodology to improve the efficiency of aircraft maintenance. An algorithm for the rational distribution of transport resources for aircraft preparation at Ukrainian airports has been developed, based on the results of simulation modeling of the aircraft maintenance process under different service conditions (time of day and climatic conditions that affect the time of aircraft maintenance and the time of movement of vehicles along transportation routes). On the basis of the developed algorithm of rational distribution of transport resources for aircraft preparation, the technology of aircraft maintenance at Ukrainian airports is proposed, which indicates the sequence of operations aimed at determining and comparing the normative values of the duration of maintenance of the corresponding aircraft with the calculated values and determining their rational number.
Keywords: methodology, transport and technological scheme, means of support, combat aircraft, airports.


A method to classify blueberry varieties based on an improved EfficientNet is proposed, aiming at the high cost of manual classification and the difficulty of manual confirmation of new varieties. First, considering that there are few datasets of blueberry leaf samples available on the internet, blueberry leaf samples from different seasons are collected and photographed, and four blueberry leaf image datasets are established, including germination, maturity, dormancy, and mixed stages. Second, to better allocate feature weights, an improved EfficientNet is introduced to generate a blueberry variety classification model. Finally, experiments on different datasets are conducted using different models for blueberry variety classification. For the recognition results of the dormant-stage dataset, the accuracy rate of the improved EfficientNet method reaches 99.85%, exceeding EfficientNet-B1 by 3.05%. For the recognition results of datasets of the germination, maturity, dormancy, and mixed stages, the accuracy rates of the improved EfficientNet method are 98.50%, 99.65%, 99.85%, and 97.92%, respectively. These results show that the improved EfficientNet can be applied to blueberry variety recognition with a high recognition rate, and it has a certain robustness to different periods of leaves. This research can provide new inspiration and technical support for blueberry variety recognition.


This paper addresses the miniaturization of an Archimedean spiral antenna by using stacked pre-fractal metallic rings. Such rings are electromagnetically coupled to spiral antennas in order to reduce the diameter of the radiating elements. A methodology for selecting a very compact pre-fractal profile is reported. For experimental validation the fabrication of spiral antennas incorporating the selected pre-fractal rings is in progress by using flexible substrate and ink-jet printing technology.


The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries gave its opinion by written procedure in December 2010 on request by the European Commission for an assessment of the proposed management plan submitted by Italy for hydraulic and boat dredges for molluscs. How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can place an order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details by sending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758. The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national. The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) has been established by the European Commission. The STECF is being consulted at regular intervals on matters pertaining to the conservation and management of living aquatic resources, including biological, economic, environmental, social and technical considerations. LB -N A -2681-E N -N


This paper aims to determine the performance of diesel engine and increase the injection pressure by varying the fuel temperature using biodiesel B40 with a compression ratio of 21:1 and an injection pressure of 150 Bar. The parameters were calculated include, h at the orifice, the volume of fuel used, fuel consumption time, and engine rpm. In the tests carried out, it was found that variations in fuel temperature affect engine performance parameters such as effective shaft power, average effective pressure, thermal efficiency values, air fuel ratio, and specific fuel consumption. The results of the fuel temperature test with variations of 50oC, 55oC, 60oC, 65oC and 70oC. Where for the value of the largest effective shaft power at a temperature of 60oC with a value of 3.7892 kW at a load of 25,000 kg/m2 and the largest BMEP (Brake Mean Effective Pressure) at a temperature of 70oC with a value of 1275.321 N/m2, for the value of thermal efficiency, specific fuel consumption, ratio of air and the best fuel at a temperature of 65oC with a thermal efficiency value of 92.333 % at a load of 25,000 kg/m2, for a better air-fuel ratio with a value of 157,660 at a load of 5,000 kg/m2, and the smallest specific fuel consumption with value 0.00002291 kg/kJ at a load of 25,000 kg/m2.


In recent years, rare-earth-doped optical planar waveguides have attracted considerable attention owing to their potential use in the field of integrated optics. To this end, several processes have been employed to produce rare-earth-doped waveguides. Here, we report on the fluorescence of europium bivalent ions in TiC>2 planar waveguides fabricated by using the sol-gel method and the dip-coating procedure. 2-mol % Eu 3+ : Ti02 films were deposited on optically polished pyrex substrates. These films are 80 nm thick and their refractive index is ranging from 1.8 to 2.1 depending on the annealing temperature (100°C-600°C).The fluorescence of Eu 3 * ions was obtained by the excitation in the 5 E>2 level with an Argon ion laser (wavelength = 465.8 nm). At room tempurature, the fluorescence spectra were recorded for different annealing temperatures. A correlation was seen between the luminescence spectra and the structural evolution of the gel network. Indeed, it was observed that heat treatment increases the Stark splitting which partially removes the transitions J-degeneracy, indicating that Eu 3+ ions occupy low-symmetry sites and are more embedded in the Ti02 gel (densification of the Ti02 gel). Furthermore, it was observed that increasing the annealing temperature entails a high frequency shift and a broadening of the SDQ-^^O transition, which shows that Eu 3 * ions occupy more distorted sites, these observations are in good agreement with results obtained by waveguide Raman spectroscopy.


Based on the analysis of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process,a fuzzy judgment matrix was established and its judgment consistency was tested. For the complexity and fuzziness of investment estimation problem,a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model was present for factors affecting the accuracy of investment estimation. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was presented combining with example. It provides reference for improvement on investment estimation accuracy.


The invention aims at providing a method and device for providing target information according to terminal attributes of user equipment. The method comprises the following steps of: obtaining the target information corresponding to an access request submitted by the user equipment, determining a terminal attribute type corresponding to the target information according to the target information, adjusting the target information according to the terminal attribute data in the user equipment so as to obtain the adjusted target information, wherein the terminal attribute data corresponds to the terminal attribute type; and providing the adjusted target information to the user equipment. Compared with the prior art, the method and device disclosed by the invention ensures that the target information adapts to the terminal attributes of the user equipment, thereby reducing the processing expenditure for carrying out terminal adaptation by a network equipment side, improving the efficiency for obtaining the target information by the user equipment and promoting the network using experience of users.


Changes in the activity of antioxidant enzymes, proline, and total soluble carbohydrates (TSC) were evaluated in tomato (Solanum lycopercicum cv. Superchief) plants in response to salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) and inoculation with CMV (Cucumber mosaic virus) on days 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 15 after virus inoculation (dpi). Results showed that proline content increased in all treatments except for control while TSC content decreased in all treatments except the control. TSC content decreased by 50% in CMV treated plants, but the reduction was very slow in hormone treatments. SA decreased the catalase (CAT) activity until 6 dpi and then increased CAT activity to 15 dpi while other treatments except the control increased CAT activity over time. The highest activity of peroxidase (POD) was observed in SA+JA treatment and the highest activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) was related to SA+JA+CMV treatment. These results show that combination of SA with JA can control the CMV in tomato plants cv. Superchief through the inhibition of TSC reduction which is an indicator of normal photosynthesis capacity.


The relationship between physical and electrical parameters is reviewed. Some of the newer technologies are discussed. The interdigitated structure is compared with the two main alternatives offered at present. At the same time a basic correction is made to the well established approximation of power gain as applied to power devices. The necessity for this correction is also developed with respect to modules, leading to the conclusion that thin film modules offer probably the only chance to utilize fully the intrinsic power gain capability of devices. As the useful limit of silicon appears now in sight, numeric examples are used wherever possible.


Oak Ridge National Laboratory is currently conducting a research program for the United States Air Force, the purpose of which is to assist them in their emergency planning for HAZMAT spills. This paper describes the first two tasks in the program. These tasks are oriented towards: determining the extent of the hazardous materials (HAZMAT) problem and establishing plans directed toward HAZMAT incident management.


The purpose of the present paper is part of a line of investigation to help mitigate the problem of the environmental pollution caused by the indiscriminate use of nitrogenous fertilizers becoming sterile farmland of stud, using plant growth promoters and free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria. We evaluated the effect of inoculation with Endophytes free-living diazotrophic bacteria, isolated from Asparagus officinalis L. root surface "wild" about the growth of asparagus cultivated. The method relies on comparing measures of growth variables (length of the plant, root length, fresh biomass and dry biomass) of seedlings inoculated seedlings without inoculation. First isolation of bacteria in tubes containing medium semi-solid Nfb, it was subsequently planted by Red Agar Congo and Agar Pope of Groove. Getting 5 isolates belonging to the genus Azospirillum by phenotypic identification and biochemical characterization. These isolates were inoculated in seeds of asparagus Asparagus officinalis L. The effect of inoculation on the growth of seedlings under laboratory conditions was evaluated. Found that the inoculated treatment presented significant differences in the test of Tukey (p≤0.05) with respect to the other treatments and this is considered a promising alternative of biofertilization in asparagus plants.


The starting point of this thesis is a problem posed by the electromagnetism group at EADS-CCR: How to solve several linear systems with the same coefficient matrix but various right-hand sides ? For the targeted application, the matrices are complex, dense and huge (of order of a few millions). Because such matrices cannot be computed nor stored in numerical simulations involved in a design process, the use of an iterative scheme with an approximate matrix-vector product is the only alternative. The matrix-vector product is performed using the Fast Multipole Method. In this context, the goal of this thesis is to adapt Krylov solvers so that they handle efficiently multiple right-hand sides. Some preliminary works dealing with one right hand side show that GMRES was an efficient and robust solver for that application. Consequently, we mainly focus, in this thesis, on variants of GMRES. The orthogonalization schemes that we implemented for GMRES are some variants of the Gram-Schmidt algorithm. In a first part, we have investigated the effect of rounding errors in the Gram-Schmidt algorithms. Our results answer questions that have been around for the last 25 years. We give theoretical explanations of what was currently observed and accepted, namely: * modified Gram-Schmidt algorithm generates a well-conditioned set of vectors, * and Gram-Schmidt algorithm iterated twice gives an orthogonal set of vectors. These two sentences holds when the initial matrix is ``not-too-ill-conditioned'' in a sense that is clearly defined. Furthermore, when the Gram-Schmidt algorithm is iterated with selective reorthogonalizations then, in a third part, we give a new criterion. We prove that the resulting algorithm is robust while the most commonly used criterion might have some weakness. In a fourth part, we generalize standard results for modified Gram-Schmidt from norms to singular values. This enables us to propose an a-posteriori reorthogonalization procedure for modified Gram-Schmidt algorithm based on a low rank update. These results have several direct applications, we give examples for Krylov methods for solving linear systems and for eigenvalue computations. Finally, instead of using the Euclidean scalar product, we have derived our results on Gram-Schmidt algorithm with the A-scalar product, where A is an Hermitian definite positive matrix. The relevance of such a study is illustrated in a collaboration with the Global Change team at CERFACS, the Lanczos algorithm with reorthogonalization is used for data assimilation in a climate modeling problem. In a second part, we have implemented variants of the GMRES algorithm for both real and complex, single and double precision arithmetics suitable for serial, shared memory and distributed memory computers. This software implementation, that complies with scientific library standard quality, is described in detail. For the sake of the simplicity, flexibility and efficiency the GMRES solvers have been implemented using the reverse communication mechanism for the matrix-vector product, the preconditioning step and the dot product computations. Several orthogonalization procedures have been implemented to reduce the cost of the dot product calculation, that is a well known bottleneck for the Krylov method efficiency in a parallel distributed environment. The implemented stopping criterion is based on a normwise backward error. The variants available are GMRES-DR, seed-GMRES and block-GMRES (that adds to standard GMRES, flexible GMRES and SQMR). An LU-matrix-vector product step is performed in GMRES-DR in order to store the approximate eigenvectors on the first Krylov vectors. Implicit restart and implicit preconditioning is done in seed-GMRES to avoid a matrix-vector product and a preconditioning step per right-hand side and per GMRES cycle. The block-GMRES version allows the user to select either no deflation or deflation based on the singular value decomposition of the Krylov vectors. Finally we extend existing theoretical result that relates the norm of the residual to the smallest singular value of the space constructed by the Krylov solver from GMRES to block-GMRES. The third part is dedicated to the improvement of these standard methods for the solution of linear systems arising in electromagnetic applications. After a deep presentation of the code we use, we study the influence of the level of non-symmetry in the SQMR algorithm and illustrate the behaviour of the GMRES-DR method in our example. Then we mainly focus on the multiple right-hand sides solves. First of all, we examined in details techniques to adapt single right-hand side method in the multiple right-hand sides case: increase the quality of the preconditioner, initial guess strategy or gathering strategy. In the context of the monostatic radar cross section calculation, we prove that the number of independent right-hand sides is finite. The dimension of the space of right-hand sides given by our theory and the dimension numerically observed corresponds well each other. This property enables us to reduce considerably the number of linear systems to solve. In this context, a particular implementation of the block-GMRES method is given. Then, some specific issues about the seed and the block methods are discussed. Finally more prospective results are given. First, different strategies to extract and add spectral informations in a GMRES cycle are presented and compared. Then, we exploit the fact that the Fast Multipole Method is an inexact matrix-vector product for which the accuracy can be tuned. The less accurate the matrix-vector product is, the fastest the computation. We show how to take advantage of this by using relaxed schemes (inexact Krylov methods) or inner-outer schemes (flexible GMRES). Finally we study the relevance of the normwise backward error as a stopping criterion for the iterative solvers in the monostatic radar cross section problem.


Executive summary As eco-sustainability issues become increasingly important to most, if not all, Australian organisations, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry is expected to provide solutions that reduce material consumption (dematerialise), emissions (decarbonise), and energy use and waste production (demobilise) in both the ICT infrastructure and the business processes and practices of industries. The term 'Green ICT' represents this eco- sustainability enabling role of the ICT industry. The School of Business Information Technology and Logistics, RMIT University in collaboration with the Australian Information Industries Association (AIIA) surveyed all members and affiliates of the AIIA at the beginning of 2010 to understand Australian ICT firms' capability to enhance the eco-sustainability of other industries. Based on data collected from 133 ICT firms, this report constitutes the first comprehensive study that exclusively focuses on the Australian ICT industry.


We propose a branch-and-bound algorithm for minimizing a not necessarily convex quadratic function over integer variables. The algorithm is based on lower bounds computed as continuous minima of the objective function over appropriate ellipsoids. In the nonconvex case, we use ellipsoids enclosing the feasible region of the problem. In spite of the nonconvexity, these minima can be computed quickly. We present several ideas that allow to accelerate the solution of the continuous relaxation within a branch-and-bound scheme and examine the performance of the overall algorithm by computational experiments.


Many specialists and managers complain that, in spite of having formulated strategies "very "consistent", later, in the process of execution, do not obtain the awaited results. In the work they present two offers to face this: the practice that some corporations are applying of designates a "Executive of Strategy "; and the one that Charan and Bossidy present in his book " The Art of the Execution in the business ".


An inclusive search for the non-Standard Model production of two isolated leptons of the same electrical charge is presented. The search was performed with 2010 collision data in the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider for ee, e{\mu}, and {\mu}{\mu} channels. With 34 pb-1 of integrated luminosity, no disagreement with the Standard Model prediction was found, and limits on the fiducial cross section for generic same-sign production as well as four model-dependent limits for models of new physics were set. An updated same sign analysis with 1.6 fb-1 is underway and nearly complete for the {\mu}{\mu} channel. With new event selection criteria, improved data-driven background estimates, and significantly more collision data, the sensitivity is expected to improve significantly beyond that of the analysis completed with data from 2010. Initial results from the updated analysis are presented.


Dialectically, previously the handling and settlement of state administrative disputes used Law Number 5 of 1986 concerning the Administrative Court Law which was twice revised with Law Number 9 of 2004 and Law Number 51 of 2009 as the legal instrument of the procedure ( thesis). However, currently, the procedural law used in resolving state administrative and government administrative disputes also uses the Supreme Court Regulation instrument. This is because the Administrative Court Law Law cannot accommodate the development of material administrative law requirements and administrative law enforcement provided by sectoral laws. Apart from that, in practice, there have been changes and shifts in most of the content of procedural law (material and formal) in the Administrative Court Law. This shift was influenced by the enactment of Law Number 30 of 2014 concerning Government Administration and sectoral laws which later became the basis for the formation of a Supreme Court Regulation. The two regulations later became guidelines for proceedings in the Administrative Court Law which had a paradoxical relationship. In one aspect, there is an interrelation between the law on Administrative Court Laws, the law on government administration, and the regulations of the Supreme Court, but in other aspects, it creates an antinomy of norms. Therefore, it is important in legal reform to encourage systematic thinking to synchronize and harmonize the material and formal content of the material and formal procedural laws that are unified as a synthesis.Keywords: dialectics, harmonization of law, shifting, state administration judicial procedural law


Thank you very much for downloading the case of the postponed murder. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their chosen books like this the case of the postponed murder, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful virus inside their desktop computer. the case of the postponed murder is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Our books collection spans in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the the case of the postponed murder is universally compatible with any devices to read.


Characterized by weak local rice productivity, inefficient marketing and processing of paddy among other constraints, the local rice sector in Cote d'Ivoire has failed to meet domestic rice consumption needs. In the absence of comprehension action, the country is expected to face a deficit of 1,731,583 Mt in supply of rice by the year 2020, which could consequently result in huge drainage of foreign exchange through imports. To inform future policy decisions on rice towards mitigation of the adverse effect such occurrence may have on producers, consumers and the country as a whole, this study analyzed the acreage and output responses of rice in Cote d'Ivoire for the period 1966-2009. The results suggest that rice farmers respond more to changes in price of competitive maize crop than they do own-price due to inefficiency of collection, processing and marketing in the local rice industry, limited participation of various stakeholders in development of the rice supply chain, failure of most buyers to observe contract terms and surtax on producer price due to high cost of transportation. The stagnation observed in output between the years 1988 and 2009, is found to result from a significant inverse association between area cultivated and yield of rice. As a major importer of rice and based on results of the current study, it is believed that Cote d'Ivoire could improve on its rice supply and effectively meet the anticipated deficit by putting in place measures to increase land area under cultivation, ensure a harmonization between yield and acreage cultivated, reduce labor shortages, ensure continuous government support to the sector, address the adverse fiscal effect of the exchange rate system and promote stakeholder participation in development of the rice supply chain.


Xinjiang Province in China is the most important region and the corridor to the West where the Chinese economy makes a new leap forward and the reservoir of energy, where clear the way for the prosperous future of China. In this respect Chinese government has pushed forward the 'Great Development Strategy of Western China' in order not only to develop the western part of China, especially Xinjiang, but also to weakened the independent movement of Uyghur people. 5 independent states came into being with the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. Some of the newly independent states share a border with Xinjiang and Growing economic ties have further developed relations and boosted trade and investment between Xinjiang and Central Asian Countries. However, it could be an risk rather than opportunity for China because most of the people of Central Asian countries are the Turkic-Muslims who share common history, language, and culture. The appearance of new independent brethren nation has a strong influence on Xinjiang where indigenous Uyghur people have been fighting Chinese rule for decades. The paper examine the current interchange between Xinjiang and Central Asian countries and the history and the present of migration, integration, and conflicts of Uyghur people who has played leading role in Eastern Central Asia together with neighbouring Turkic brethren nations.


The analysis of control quality of technological process of melting of copper-Nickel sulfide materials is carried out. The structure of the automatic melting control system is proposed, information and control channels are described. The algorithm of process control using fuzzy logic, which allows stabilizing the copper content in the matte within the specified limits.


Cobalt(II) complexes, Co(ATSC) 2 Co(TTSC) 2 CO(VTSC) 2 and Co(FTSC) 2 were prepared by reacting Cobalt(II)acetate and bidenlate thiosemicarbazones derived from p-anisaldehyde (ATSCH), p-tolualdehyde (TTSCH), p-vanillin (VTSCH), and 9-fluorenone (FTSCH) and were characterized by IR, uv-visible spectra, molar conductance, magnetic moment and elemental analysis. The, observed spectral data on thiosemicarbonzones indicate thione form for the ligands and they act as anionic bidentate chelating agents. The coordination takes place through thiolato sulphur and azonmethine /imine nitrogen atoms. The tetrahedral flattened structures have been suggested for the cobalt(II) complexes under investigation. KEYWORD: Thiosemicarbazone; Cobalt(II) complex; IR; uv-visible; spectra; molar conductance; magnetic moment. Global Jnl Pure and Applied Sciences Vol.10(3) 2004: 391-395


In his paper on structured deposition the author exclusively focuses on the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeology of Britain. He shows the wide range of discussions from the the key paper by Richards and Thomas in 1984 to the most recent papers of the 'hyperinterpretive turn'.


The algebraic structure of some of the simplest algebraic models u(2), u(3) and u(4), widely used in several branches of physics either as toy models or as working instruments, are reanalyzed under a new perspective that releases the requirement that chains should terminate or pass through the angular momentum algebra. Unitary algebras are non-semisimple, therefore we first apply the Levi-Malcev decomposition. Then we use the theory of weighted Dynkin diagrams to identify conjugacy classes of A1 ∼ su(2) ∼ so(3) subalgebras: a complete classification of new angular momentum non conserving (AMNC) dynamical symmetries follows that we substantiate with examples.


This paper presents autonomous operant conditioning automata AOC. It involves a discrete computer model described self-automatic machines, including: set of actions, the state set; 'condition - action' rule set, the observed state transition, as well as operant conditioning learning law. And, it defines the behavior entropy based on the orientation value of the state of AOC. AOC provides a recursive run the program. AOC simulates biological operant conditioning mechanism, which has a bionic self-organizing feature, including self-learning and adaptive capabilities, can be used for description, simulation, design of a variety of self-organizing system. Based on the model this paper designs a bionic self-learning control method and uses it to simulate Skinner animal experiments to prove that AOC can simulate the learning mechanism of operant conditioning, which shows that AOC can be used to design a variety of intelligent robotic systems' behavior.


The objective of this study was to investigate low dose and long duration effects of aflatoxin B1 on different categories of the ovarian follicles in adult White Leghorn layers. The birds were put in 2 groups, viz. experiment and as controls. Every chicken of experiment group was received AFB1 @ 0.62 ppm/day through oral route for the duration of 120 days. At the end of experiment, all the birds were slaughtered, immediately their ovaries collected and preserved in 10% buffered formaldehyde solution. In both the groups, the macroscopic follicles i.e. SWF, SYF, LYF (including F1, F2, F3, F4, F5), and POF were recorded, and then the specimens were subjected to tissue preparation, for histomorphologic and histomorphometric studies. All types of ovarian follicular distributions (including healthy and atretic) were recorded. There was highly significant (P<0.001) decrease in populations of SWF and SYF in test group. The reduction in different types of LYF as well as POF populations in test group were significant. There were high significant reduction in healthy microscopic and raise in atretic microscopic follicles in test group. It may be concluded that aflatoxin B1 in low dose (0.62 ppm/day) for the duration of 120 days causes increase in ovarian follicular atresia and death of different categories of the macroscopic as well as microscopic follicles in Leghorn layers.


As long as the wind speed can be forecasted,the output of a wind power unit can be calculated according to the unit's power curve. A short-term combination forecasting model of wind speed is developed based on the seasonal periodicity and time-continuity of wind energy. With the pattern recognition technique,two kinds of samples to seasonal periodicity and time-continuity are selected separately. The two kinds of samples are used respectively to train two back propagation (BP) neural network models to obtain the lateral and vertical wind speed forecasting values. By importing the two values to a BP neural network again,the wind speed value is finally predicted. Forecasting results of a domestic wind farm indicate that the proposed combination forecasting method is valid and effective in short-term wind speed forecasting.


There is well known that the high precision frequency counters register errors generated by equipment time-base, which are relevant especially on high frequency radio communication. Also, the modern equipment realizes mathematic functions in real-time mode, so as to ensure the user all necessary information. This kind of equipment is generally used in laboratory conditions, but also in real field for radio-application: broadcast radio transmitter, antenna and feeder calibration and other. Actual technology employs microcontrollers which ensures all functions, but in high frequency range this kind of application generates non-linear errors, which are unpredictable and difficult to compensate.The paper proposes a reasonable-cost method for solving the precision impediments for high frequency meter keeping the precision at the highest level possible.


BACKGROUND
The early post-partum period is a crucial time for breastfeeding support. Mothers who have physical and emotional support during this period are more likely to be successful in breastfeeding. This study examined the relationship between father involvement and support for breast feeding initiation and duration in first-time mothers.

METHODS
Overall, 146 women who attended a childbirth education class or breastfeeding course at BABS were asked to fill out the Childbirth Experiences Survey, which explored key topics such as (1) breastfeeding initiation, (2) early post-partum breastfeeding, (3) breastfeeding plan, (4) post-partum breastfeeding support and (5) breast feeding duration. This was a voluntary self-reported ques-tionnaire. The surveys were completed by the mothers during the post-partum period.

RESULTS
45.9% (n=67) of mothers received helped from their husband or part-ner with breastfeeding while in the hospital, while 54.1% (n=79) of mothers did not receive support from their partners. Mothers who received early post-par-tum breastfeeding support were more likely to continue breastfeeding after leaving the hospital.

CONCLUSION
First-time mothers who identified as having breastfeeding support from their partners, the infant's father, during the early post-partum period were more likely to initiate breastfeeding and had longer breastfeeding durations.


The present invention is a human tumor necrosis factor-alpha-specific monoclonal antibody variable region and the gene encoding it, this gene is switched inserted a recombinant vector, and transformed with the recombinant vector, transformant, which coupled to a (human tumor necrosis factor-α) It provides the body. Human tumor necrosis factor alpha, the variable regions, monoclonal antibodies, the transgenic


The experiment to study the light intensity curve (LIC) of the LED lamp supporting structure with four LED emitting elements (LEEs) that are mounted in the glass bulb of a filament lamp with the E27 base is presented in the article. The LICs of the mass-produced supporting structure and the one developed in Tomsk state university of control systems and radioelectronics are compared.


The goal is to maximize customer time satisfaction andminimize the cost of site selection establish a mixed integer programming model. a hybrid immune simulated annealing algorithm is designed to improve the search efficiency of the algorithm. Taking the fresh demand point of fresh agricultural products in an area as an example, the optimal location scheme of pre warehouse is obtained. The results show that the time satisfaction of the obtained scheme is increased by 13.6% and 3.4% respectively compared with that of the immune algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm, and the total cost of location is reduced by 5729 and 8297 yuan respectively. The hybrid immune simulated annealing algorithm can accelerate the convergence speed, obtain higher time satisfaction and lower total cost of location, which provides a reference for the location of pre warehouse.


The isotopes of uranium and their daughter nuclides inside the UO2 pellet emit mono-energetic electrons and beta rays, which generate rather high dose rate near the UO2 pellet and could cause exposure to workers. In this work calculations of electron dose rates have been carried out with Monte Carlo codes, MCNPX and Geant4, for a UO2 pellet and a fuel rod. Comparisons between calculations and measurements have been carried out to verify the calculation results. The results could be used to estimate the dose produced by electrons and beta rays, which could be used to make optimization for radiation protection purpose.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Some problems that traffic managers face nowadays are traffic congestions in cities and highways, which are main contributors to the number of traffic-accidents and the increasing environmental impacts. Said congestions are caused, amongst other reasons, by the slow growth of the capacity of roads compared to the number of vehicles that travel in them. The development of new infrastructures is costly and upgrading existing ones causes traffic disruptions, leading to more problems. One solution to this problem is to improve the efficiency of the existing transportation systems. In order to do so, new and more efficient ways of gathering road usage data have to be developed. Automatic traffic surveillance for vehicle detection, classification and tracking using visionbased methods has attracted a great deal of interest from researchers in the past decade. Even though many solutions have been proposed, real-time fully automatic systems need to be further developed. Systems based on Convolutional Neural Networks provide solutions for many of the present-day problems in vehicle detection, classification and tracking, outperforming other techniques in Computer Vision. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is to propose a framework for vehicle detection, classification and tracking in traffic videos that can be used in a series of traffic applications, such as the system here presented. For vehicle detection and classification, we used the YOLOv3 model with pre-trained weights on the COCO dataset. In the next step, the results are fed into a multi-object tracking algorithm. The implemented tracker is based on the IOU tracker a track-by-detection approach where first an object detector is applied to a frame and second a tracker is used to associate the detections to tracks. Then a tracking zone is identified in the video image where the vehicles are tracked and counted. We validated our approach by testing our application for vehicle counting in videos captured by traffic cameras. The results obtained were compared with a previous study using unsupervised learning methods. Our approach showed significant improvements on the tasks of detection, classification and tracking especially when there were occlusions. YOLOv3 is a state-of-the-art object detection and classification system that can detect and classify objects in real time but it does not keep temporal information of the objects. We proposed a framework that introduces object tracking to the YOLOv3 model without worsening its performance. Our system achieves real-time detections, classification and tracking in videos which can be used in real applications. The domain of our framework is not limited to traffic systems and can be easily adapted to other applications such as people tracking. Categories: Computing Methodologies→Artificial Intelligence→Computer Vision→Computer Vision Problems→Object Detection.


U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of Global Threat Reduction (GTRI) recently removed legacy plutonium materials from Sweden in collaboration with AB SVAFO, Sweden. This paper details the activities undertaken through the U.S. receiving site (Savannah River Site (SRS)) to support the characterization, stabilization, packaging and removal of legacy plutonium materials from Sweden in 2012. This effort was undertaken as part of GTRI's Gap Materials Program and culminated with the successful removal of plutonium from Sweden as announced at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit. The removal and shipment of plutonium materials to the United States was the first of its kind under NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The Environmental Assessment for the U.S. receipt of gap plutonium material was approved in May 2010. Since then, the multi-year process yielded many first time accomplishments associated with plutonium packaging and transport activities including the application of the of DOE-STD-3013 stabilization requirements to treat plutonium materials outside the U.S., the development of an acceptance criteria for receipt of plutonium from a foreign country, the development and application of a versatile process flow sheet for the packaging of legacy plutonium materials, the identification of a plutonium container configuration, the firstmore » international certificate validation of the 9975 shipping package and the first intercontinental shipment using the 9975 shipping package. This paper will detail the technical considerations in developing the packaging process flow sheet, defining the key elements of the flow sheet and its implementation, determining the criteria used in the selection of the transport package, developing the technical basis for the package certificate amendment and the reviews with multiple licensing authorities and most importantly integrating the technical activities with the Swedish partners.« less


ABSTRACT This paper presents a new version of PROMETHEE IV, which considers the empirical distribution of the criteria through kernel density estimation to evaluate alternatives. The developed method has the ability to treat criteria according to their distribution. The classic PROMETHEE IV can produce divergent integrals, and this could be the cause for its insufficient exploration in literature. The proposed method overcomes this situation since large values have little weight compared to values near the mean.


Along with the soft economy, cement manufacturers must contend with rising energy costs in some parts of North America. Manufacturers must also contend with related risks that are becoming a greater concern. This paper identifies these risks and offers suggestions for realistic steps to diminish their impact.


This article describes the application of software tools to investigate the degradation /biodegradation of the commodity polymer polypropylene (PP) in the sanitary filling of Sao Giacomo in Caxias Do Sul, RS. A description is given of the sanitary filling, in addition to the physicochemical variables that are relevant for the process. The data are organized in matrices and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithm is applied to interpret the variables correlated with the degradation and biological activity. For analyzing the data, use was made of the tools Matlab and InfoStat, with the purpose of establishing the physicochemical parameters involved in the degradation/biodegradation, and for determining the correlated components in order to predict the behavior of the parameters and the polymer degradation in the sanitary filling. The PCA analysis allowed one to describe the structure and interrelations of the original variables for the biodegradation of organic matter. The important parameters were found to be DQO and DBO which measure biodegradability and ammoniac nitrogen, an indicative of biological activity.


(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionAgricultural activities differ from other businesses in that the former are subject to much wider range of risks. Specifically, besides commonly known input and output price risk, credit risk, institutional risk etc., farmers are exposed to risks emerging from changes in biophysical environment. Therefore, it is important to foresee the sources of risk, farmers' strategies, and government policies (OECD, 2009). An appropriate interaction among these components of risk management strategy might mitigate loss due to different types of risks.Risk management is of especial importance in the new European Union (EU) Member States, where agricultural sector has been experiencing serious economic, institutional, and social transformations since the 1990s. Indeed, the collapse of planned economy including large-scale collective farming systems induced certain volatility in factor markets and resulted in sub-optimal farming structure in some cases (Bilan & Chmielewska, 2013a,b). Furthermore, accession to the EU allowed receive the funding under the Common Agricultural Policy (Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania, 2015). The latter has been distributed in the form of both direct payments and investment subsidies. Demographic transition implies a decreasing labour supply in rural areas and thus calls for further mechanisation.According to to R. B. M. Huirne et al. (2000) and J. B. Hardaker et al. (2004) there are two broad categories of risk for agricultural activities, viz. business risk and financial risk. Business risk comprises production, market, institutional, and personal risks (Bernat et al. 2014). Financial risk stems from fluctuations at financial markets and farmers' money-related decisions. Specifically, increasing interest rates might render difficulties in repaying loans or create credit constraints. Farmers' decisions regarding capital structure might also impact the financial viability of farms.As regards the agricultural sector, much of literature has been focused on business risk and, particularly, risk aversion (e.g., Moschini, Hennessy, 2001). The estimation of risk aversion can follow either the attitudinal approach, or empirical approach. The attitudinal approach relies on questionnaire surveys or experiments aimed at identifying farmers' choices under different circumstances. The empirical approach relies on the analysis of factual data and can be carried out either parametrically (Bardsley, Harris, 1987; Bar-Shira et al., 1997) or nonparametrically (Gomez-Limon et al., 2003). The analysis of financial risk has been confined to estimation the impacts of certain financial ratios on probability to become unviable (Argiles, 2001). Such a framework rests on the ideas of Altman (1968, 2004). However, such a setting requires a priori specification of the dependent variable, which involves a certain degree of subjectivity. D. Jackson-Smith et al. (2004) and S. Davidova and L. Latruffe (2007) investigated the determinants of financial performance treating different indicators as dependent variables in regression models. However, no aggregate measures were introduced.In Lithuania, as well as in other Central and East European countries, financial risk constitutes an important dimension of farm viability due to investments in response to the aforementioned transformations there. First, excessive investments might be fuelled by investment support measures thus arriving at unreasonable leverage level. Second, credit constraints might be related to increase in interest rates. Therefore, it is important to offer appropriate methodologies for financial risk appraisal in Lithuanian family farms. The following scientific problem, therefore, emerges: even though a variety of techniques for analysis of financial risk are available, these usually require longitudinal data for estimation of variance; however, such data are not readily available for Lithuanian family farms where extensive time series are not available for multiple holdings. …


This book, written by National Book Award winner James Carroll, delves deeply into the painful Christian/Jewish relationships throughout history, reaching back to the Christian scriptures and continuing through present day initiatives. Since its initial publication last year, Constantine's Sword has been the focus of serious discussion and debate about historical honesty, cause and effect relationships, and alternate voices in the largely sad and tortured history of Jewish/Christian relations. From his point of view as a Roman Catholic, Carroll offers a road map for the future in addition to tracing this nearly two thousand year history. The future, in Carroll's eyes, can transcend the past, and build on prophetic voices articulated on occasion in the past, but never acted upon. The following conversation, excerpted from an Internet symposium hosted by Peter Gilmour, reveals something of the relevance and importance of Carroll's book for religious educators.


On 24 August 2011, the Commercial Court in Paris ordered the French competition authority, the Autorite de la concurrence (Autorite), to disclose documents relating to the settlement of an…


The PSA Informal Nutrition Symposium of 2003 was a small step in expanding our understanding about the role of the gastrointestinal system in nutrition. The symposium was held in honor of 8 academic advisors whose names are listed in this introduction (footnote 2). Most of the advisors were also mentors to the symposium presenters. Julia Dibner provided an in-depth treatment of the complexity of the digestive system. Such a system includes the gut, related organs, digesta, microflora, and the associated immune system. The opportunities to improve nutrient efficiency and health are tremendous and feasible. An example is a proper modification of the microflora. Walter Bottje elaborated on a potentially new role for the mitochondria as a critical factor in nutrient efficiency. The relationships between mitochondrial function and the phenotypic expression of feed efficiency were explored. To correlate the mitochondrial oxidative damage of proteins, lipids, and DNA with lower feed efficiency is feasible; however, more work is needed to further document such phenomena. Mark Cook explored the benefits of modifiers, such as antibiotics for nutrient


- Jatropha curcas L. is an oilseed species that is considered a source of biofuel. The Federal Government of Brazil considers it as a major potential crop to support family agriculture farming in order to alleviate poverty in the Northeastern semi-arid region of Brazil. In order to attain this, the species needs to be domesticated as a crop to be grown and cultivated under the natural stressing conditions of the semi-arid. Therefore, the present study aimed at characterizing the physiology of J. curcas during the early stages of its life cycle, i.e. during seed imbibition and seedling growth, under the combined conditions of water restriction and high temperatures and their influence on seed germination and reactivation of growth. Morphological and anatomical characteristics were analyzed in parallel with immunocytological analysis of the accumulation of tubulin as marker for reactivation of the cell cycle and growth. In addition, the expression of a number of stress-associated genes was monitored during germination and seedling growth under the various stress conditions.


Technology acceptance has received considerable attention in the Information Systems (IS) lit-erature. Accordingly, a number of theories and models have been advanced to explain technol-ogy acceptance. Recently, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) has been put forward on the basis of integrating eight technology-acceptance models. The de-velopers of UTAUT have suggested that future research should extend UTAUT by integrating habit into it in order to increase the explanatory value of UTAUT. To date, we have found no studies that have attempted to integrate habit into UTAUT. As a step in remedying this gap in the literature, we first developed such an integrated model and then tested it (N = 180). Our results support the integration: the extended UTAUT provides better explanatory value than UTAUT without habit. Implications for research and practice are suggested based on the findings.


Lecture given Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 4:00 PM at Abilene Christian University: "The mission of Eternal Threads is dedicated to improving the lives of women and children most at risk of extreme poverty, trafficking and other forms of exploitation by income-generating projects."


We consider a supply chain whose members are divisions of the same firm. The divisions are managed by different individuals with only local inventory information. Both the material and information flows in the supply chain are subject to delays. Under the assumption that the division managers share a common goal to optimize the overall performance of the supply chain (i.e., they act as a team), we characterize the optimal decision rules for the divisions. The team solution reveals the role of information leadtimes in determining the optimal replenishment strategies. We then show that the owner of the firm can manage the divisions as cost centers without compromising the systemwide performance. This is achieved by using an incentive-compatible measurement scheme based on accounting inventory levels. Finally, we investigate the impact of irrational behavior on supply chain performance and demonstrate that it is important for the upstream members of the supply chain to have access to accurate customer demand information.


ABSTRACT This analysis explores post-Qaddafi Libya as it becomes a failed state, alongside international efforts to mend its internal rifts and restore an effective government and thereby halt its national disintegration. Attaining a modus vivendi amongst the internal rival political and military actors looks to enable a war effort to loosen the grasp of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which infiltrated Libya's Mediterranean coast in 2014 and gained a strategic foothold in the heart of Libya and nearby its oil ports – Libya's economic lifeline. An internal agreement looks to rebuild the state security system that can confront the continuing tribal, ethnic, Salafi-jihadistic, and criminal militarisation of Libya, which also contributes to its bloody chaos. This exegesis focuses on the brief but challenging period of 2014-2016 in terms of the threats to Libya's governmental and territorial integrity, outlining the principal junctures and actors.


Objectives: many studies have shown that oral beta blockers reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass. The goal of this study was to determine whether landiolol, an intravenous beta blocker, reduces the incidence of atrial fibrillation after off-pump coronary artery bypass. Methods: 39 consecutive patients were given landiolol after coronary artery bypass, and 20 who were not given landiolol served as a control group. Landiolol was intravenously administered at 1 µgċkg−1ċmin−1 in the intensive care unit. Results: the mean dose of landiolol was 2.3 ± 1.2 1 µgċkg−1ċmin−1. The incidence of atrial fibrillation during intensive care unit stay was significantly lower in the landiolol group compared to the control group: 2.6% (1/39) vs. 20% (4/20). Heart rate after landiolol administration was significantly lower than that before administration, whereas landiolol had no effect on blood pressure. C-reactive protein and creatine kinase levels 7 days after surgery were significantly lower in the landiolol group. Conclusion: continuous administration of landiolol at a low dose after off-pump coronary artery bypass reduced the incidence of atrial fibrillation.


Light-driven carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and utilization is one of the most fundamental reactions in Nature. Herein, we report the first visible-light-driven photocatalyst-free hydrocarboxylation ...


The present work is an analysis of the strategies that a family must take in front of a social reality of gender identity that faces a young person of thirteen years, who by the very fact of being a puber still can define what his true inclination Sex until he reaches his age when he is really aware of the factors that influence his self-determination. The development of the subject had to approach closely the problematic of the sexuality in the adolescents their development and the traits that define the personality and the identity, also analyzed the role that the family must fulfill in the process of development of gender identity . The possible strategies to achieve that both the family and the adolescent are well directed in the way to continue in conflict developed from the personality of the young person were stipulated with scientific bases previously consulted and analyzed to solve the case that was raised like object of study of This analysis. In conclusion, the primary response is that a thirteen-year-old boy is not yet mature or emotional or physical to self-determine himself.


Asia`s growing need for cleaner coal technology will likely translate into increased opportunities for independent developers and equipment suppliers. Coal is projected to play a central role in meeting Asia`s rapidly growing electric power demand. In order to minimize the negative effects of coal comsumption, the application of clean coal technologies (CCTs) will be increasingly important for the viability of coal-fired plants developed by independent power producers. The environmental impact of coal consumption has created a growing market for clean coal technologies in Asia. A study commissioned by the US DOE estimates the market for new and retrofit installation of coal facilities in Asia to be between $410 billion and $560 billion between 1993 and 2010. Actual expenditures for CCTs during the same period are likely to be much less, but still significant. Cost continues to be a factor limiting the more wide spread application of these technologies. In most cases, the application of CCTs leads to a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in capital costs and 10 to 20 percent in operating costs.


Nano scale materials have many peculiar properties than the bulk ones and have led to break through in various fields of science and technology. Titanium oxide is one of the excellent and most demanded materials because of its various applications and properties such as such as large surface area. In this paper, Titanium oxide (TiO2) nanotube arrays were synthesized by electrochemical anodization of titanium foil. Dimension of nanotubes and elemental composition were detected by Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (FESEM- EDAX). From X- Ray Diffraction (XRD) the intensity of peaks, d- spacing values and phase of TiO2 nanotubes were analyzed. The Energy Bandgap (Eg) of the formed TiO2 nanotubes was determined by Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy from Kubelka-Monk Plot. From the obtained results, the synthesized TiO2 nanotubes are suitable for Photo Electrochemical Cell applications.


....................................................................................................................................3 Copyright .........................................................................................................................................4 Dedication ........................................................................................................................................5 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................6 List of Tables .................................................................................................................................10 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................12 Overview ............................................................................................................................12 Background ........................................................................................................................12 Problem Statement .............................................................................................................16 Purpose Statement ..............................................................................................................16 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................17 Research Question..............................................................................................................18 Null Hypotheses .................................................................................................................18 Definitions..........................................................................................................................19 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................20 Overview ............................................................................................................................20 Theoretical Frameworks ....................................................................................................21 Transformative Learning Theory ...........................................................................21 Community of Inquiry ...........................................................................................27 Related Literature...............................................................................................................33 Transformative Learning Environments ................................................................34


Shielded electrical cable (2) the cable (2) extending along the length (L), and the cable (2) one or more that are spaced apart from each other along the width (W) of including a set of conductors. Each conductor set (4) has one or more conductors (6) having the following dimensions 24AWG, each conductor set (4), the insertion loss of less than about -20 dB / meter over a frequency range of 0~20GHz having. The first and second shielding film (8) is arranged on opposite sides of the cable (2), first and second shielding film (8) comprises a cover portion (7) and the part sandwiched by (9) , in cross-section, it is combined cover portion of the first film and the second film (8), each conductor set (4) substantially surrounds, flanked the first film and the second film (8) portions are combined, are arranged to form a portion sandwiched between the cable (2) on each side of each conductor set (4). .FIELD 1


ABSTRACT The presence and characterization of plasmid-mediated fosfomycin resistance determinants among Escherichia coli isolates collected from pets in China between 2006 and 2010 were investigated. Twenty-nine isolates (9.0%) were positive for fosA3, and all of them were CTX-M producers. The fosA3 genes were flanked by IS26 and were localized on F2:A−:B− plasmids or on very similar F33:A−:B− plasmids carrying both blaCTX-M-65 and rmtB. These findings indicate that the fosA3 gene may be coselected by antimicrobials other than fosfomycin.


. The concept of operator frame can be considered as a generalization of frame. Firstly, we introduce the notion of operator frame for the set of all adjointable operators Hom ∗A ( X ) on a Hilbert pro- C ∗ -module X . The analysis operator, the synthesis operator and the frame operator are presented. Secondly, we study the stability of operator frame under small perturbations. We also study the tensor product of operator frame for Hilbert pro- C ∗ -modules. Finally, we establish its dual and some properties.


Though not found in Florida, this insect has been used to examine insect behavior, sexual selection, plant-insect interactions, and color variation. Learn more in this 4-page fact sheet was written by Christine W. Miller and published by the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, December 2011.
EENY-511/IN914: Heliconia Bug Leptoscelis tricolor Westwood (ufl.edu)


Construction of digital library is the product of currently vigorous development of computer science and quick popularity of network information technology. In order to create a large-scale digital library, Chinese government invested a key national project called as CADAL in 2003. After two building stages, CADAL had been successfully constructed. At present, nearly 2.5 million digitized books and other information resources are available in CADAL. This paper attempts to introduce the general situation and resource utilization of CADAL. To achieve the goal of CADAL project which is to realize the co-construction and sharing of global digital resources, this paper proposes several strategies for construction of CADAL, such as speeding the link among all members of university libraries and the CADAL central system, improving the website function, and strengthening the propagation of CADAL resources.


This paper discusses findings from Wainwright et al (2014) (research with doctors and patients) and Wainwright et al (2013) (research with employers and employees) into issues and potential ameliorating factors regarding sickness certification and return to work processes for chronic pain patients and stakeholders. They found that fit notes were perceived to be helpful if used in combination with other strategies for managing sick leave and RTW for people with chronic pain. These strategies may be applicable to other fluctuating, long-term conditions with medically unexplained elements.


The Govemment has launched a substitution program of petroleum bases oil with renewable energy sources. One of the programs implemented is substitution of diesel oil by biodiesel. However, there is a problem with biodiesel raw material resources, i.e. alternative of crude palm oil avoiding competition of food utilization. The prospective one is microalgae oil. The objective of this study is to explore fermentation profile of Nannochloropsis oculata growing in medium BG-11. Experiments used a bioreactor equipped with a gas absorber and N.occulata culture in medium BG-11. While culturing N.oculata, oxygen was supported in the gas absorber by circulating the medium through bioreactor-absorber-bioreactor. Sampling was carried out periodically once a day (24 hours) and analysis of samples included cell temperature, salinity, pH, cell dry weight, and oil content. The data were presented graphical form of the parameter profile.


The "malfunction of Okun's law" presently exists in China,which means that the high increasing rate of economy is combined with high rate of unemployment.Under the background of "malfuction of Okun's law",the problem of minority employment was emphasized.In order to solve the problem,we should develpe education,improve human's quality,adjust and optimize industrial structure,change the unreasonable and economic increasing mode.


Critically ill children requiring mechanical ventilation in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) are at high risk for mortality. Prior research regarding the impact of nutritional status on morbidity and mortality in PICU patients has been limited to single centers, small populations, or narrowly defined disease groups. We performed a multicenter, international cohort study to determine the unique contribution of nutritional status to mortality risk in mechanically ventilated children in PICUs. Nutritional status of subjects (age 1 month ‐18 years, N=1622) was 17.9% underweight (BMI Z score < ‐2), 54.2% normal weight (BMI Z score > ‐2 and <1), 14.5% overweight (BMI Z score > 1 and < 2), and 13.4% obese (BMI Z score > 2). The impact of nutritional status on mortality was evaluated using multilevel logistic regression. PICU size and location, admission type, and diagnosis were significantly associated with nutritional status category and used as covariates in the analysis. Compared to normal weight children, the odds ratio for mortality was significantly higher in underweight (OR 1.64; 95% CI 1.23, 2.19; p=.001), overweight (OR 1.67; 95% CI 1.12, 2.50; p=.01), and obese children (OR 1.72; 95% CI 1.10, 2.69; p=.02). Underweight, overweight, and obesity are important risk factors for mortality in PICUs. Longitudinal investigations of nutritional status in critically ill children are warranted.