Introduction: Self-heating packaging (SHP) is an active packaging with the ability to heat food contents without external heat sources or power. Packets typically use an exothermic chemical reaction and then woul be useful for military operations, natural disasters, or whenever conventional cooking is not available. These packages are often used to prepare main courses such as meat dishes, which are more palatable when hot.The system consists of three compartments that are separated within the can: the first is the packaged food item; the second, exothermic chemical material(such as calcium hydroxide); and in the third, water. Once the calcium hydroxide is dissolved within the water, it generates, in just 3 minutes, a large amount of heat (up to 60 degrees Celsius), which heats the food item that is located in the first compartment of the can and allows for it to remain hot for up to 20 minutes.For consumption,consumer must remove a seal on the base of the can to reveal the activation button. Pressing the button activates the heater. After 2-3 minutes, the contents of the can must be lightly shaken to ensure contents are at an even temperature. Setting the can upright, the consumer opens the package and enjoys a hot food or beverage.
The present study would focuse on finding the new exothermic chemical materials for reducing cost or producing upper temperature.Therefore, the main objectives of this study were to determine the effect of type and amount of heat-producing compositions on heat-produced and temperature profiles of self heating cans.

Material and methods: In this study,the designed self-heating canswere consisted of twoseparated compartments within the can.The first section of can was used for putting of food and the second section was used for storage of exothermic chemical materials. A misture of 6 exothermic chemical materials alkali-acidic, (Sodium hydroxide+citricacid ,Sodiumhydroxide+tartaric acid , potassium hydroxide +citric acid, potassium hydroxide +tartaric acid, Calcium oxide+citricacid and Calcium oxide+tartaric acid) was selected. alkalian-acidic composition was mixed in the ratio 1:1.5 and mixture weighing 150, 200 and 250 g were used in this investigation and placed in the free space between cans. For added degree of heat insulation using of glass wool as label outer of cans. Cans wall andcanned food (canned beans and eggplant caviar) temperature were investigated to determine the best combination of level and type of heat-producing composition. In addition, Time-Temperature profiles of each combination were plotted.

Results&Discussion: Observations indicated that amount of Heat-producing compositions had significant effect on heat-generated and the best result was obtained with 250g of Heat-producing compositions(p<0.05). In the other words,the most amount of Heat-producing compositions is used, more heat-generatedwill produce and this results was adapted with the resultsofCarvalho et al., 2007 and James, 1996.Mixture type also had significant effect (p<0.05) on investigated parameter and mixture of Sodium hydroxide and citric acid produced the most heat. However, type of acidic composition (citric or tartaric acid) had no significant effect on heat-produced. After mixing sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and tartaric acid, a mixture of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and citric acid, potassium hydroxide (KOH) and tartaric acid, potassium hydroxide (KOH) and citric acid, calcium oxide (lime) and tartaric acid and Finally, calcium oxide (lime) and citric acid to produce the highest to the lowest temperature respectively.
Compare the speed and amount of heating in two canned food items revealed that eggplant caviar have a higher rate of heating than Canned Beans. Uniform texture than canned beans, canned eggplant caviar leads to better heat transfer and increase the rate of warming eggplant caviar has been created. In canned beans, bean shells on the seeds, such as an insulator practice and therefore has a longer period of time warming the canned. In addition, results of quantitative analysis of time-temperature profile showed that it takes about 6 minutes to reach its maximum temperature.

Conclusion: It was concluded that these compositions, especially sodium hydroxide - citric acid, have a good potential to be used asHeat-producing compositions in self-heating Cans. There was no significant difference between the selectionof Citric acid and tartaric acid.The profile of temperature showed 6 minutes needs that temperature reaches its maximum and 6-10 minutes, the temperatures remained stable.This time relatively acceptable time to warm up and stay warm for canned foods.


The article deals with industrial development of agricultural regions of the country in the days of the third fiveyear plan and its specific features. The importance of raw material and fuel sources of Kuban and Stavropol Territories for the economy of the country is noted. The problems of manufacturing process management are analyzed as well as issues of workplace discipline at enterprises. The process of expansion of production for the purpose of manufacturing more consumer goods and construction materials is revealed. The achievements of manufacturing establishments in the pre-war years are depicted. Tasks of the national economic complex of Krasnodar and Stavropol territories were, without exaggeration, grandiose. Of course, the main emphasis was placed on the agricultural sector, the development of fuel and raw material base, based on the full and peaceful conclusion of the third five-year plan. And the workers of the Kuban and Stavropol, overcoming various production problems, creating industry in the special conditions of agricultural regions. Thus, the space included in the decision key common to the whole country problems. Plans for development of the industry would be met, it acquires a "second wind" and a new look. But the creative work and the achieved results were interrupted by the Great Patriotic War.


Preface - Acknowledgements - Introduction - American Literature and the Failure of American Culture - Imperial History: O Pioneers! and the Settlement of the Plains - My Antonia and the Americanization Debate - One of Ours: the progressive Bildungsroman and the Death of Idealism - The Professor's House and the Incorporation of America - Death Comes for the Archbishop: the Ideology of Cather's Catholic Progressivism - Notes - Bibliography - Index


We introduce a technique to electrostatically modulate the height of bound particle labels on a biosensor surface by exchanging the buffer. In an evanescent wave biosensor, height modulation leads to a modulation of the scattered and reflected light intensity. We measured a lower scattering and, therefore, a higher reflection for a decreasing ionic strength, which can be explained by an increasing electrostatic force repelling bound particles from the surface. By comparing bonds with troponin, 105 base pair (bp) DNA and 290 bp DNA, we found that the signal change for an ensemble of bound particles was related to the length of the analyte. Additionally, we observed for individual particles that the thermal fluctuations of scattered light intensity became smaller for decreasing ionic strength and that the average intensity shifted toward lower values, corresponding to larger particle heights. A quantitative model comprising electrostatic repulsion and van der Waals interaction could fit the measured height ...


This paper investigates an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted wireless powered mobile-edge computing (MEC) system, where the UAV powers the mobile terminals by wireless power transfer (WPT) and provides computation service for them. We aim to maximize the computation rate of terminals while ensuring fairness among them. Considering the random trajectories of mobile terminals, we propose a soft actor-critic (SAC)-based UAV trajectory planning and resource allocation (SAC-TR) algorithm, which combines off-policy and maximum entropy reinforcement learning to promote the convergence of the algorithm. We design the reward as a heterogeneous function of computation rate, fairness, and reaching of destination. Simulation results show that SAC-TR can quickly adapt to varying network environments and outperform representative benchmarks in a variety of situations.


Recently, the introduction of advanced "Hydrogen Gas Cutting" was investigated but finally abandoned due to the problems of several accidents occurred, cost merit and safety. The facility is called "Hydrogen-Oxygen Mixture Gas Generation System" and stores the hydrogen detonating gas (when hydrogen and oxygen are mixed to 2:1 in volume ratio, the mixture gas violently explodes if ignited), so that it is susceptible to explosion accidents even with a small amount of static electricity, if occurs. In addition, because a large quantity of propane is mixed to avoid reaching the explosion limit, the system is less advantageous from the cost point of view and has a problem concerning safety. The hydrogen gas cutting system that we introduce in this report is of "hydrogen-oxygen full separation occurrence method" and therefore less susceptible to explosion, or safe. In addition, the new type torch that does not use propane at all makes high-speed cutting possible. It is the "new hydrogen gas cutting system" that incorporates new technologies to solve the problems of conventional systems. Besides, "The Kyoto Protocol" (global warming effect preventive measures) has taken effect, and Japan has been obliged to reduce the emission of greenhouse effect gas. In such circumstances, the new steel cutting system that uses "hydrogen", or environment-friendly clean energy without "CO2" emission, has suddenly come to draw attention. Compared with conventional gas cutting systems that use fossil fuel, such as acetylene gas and propane gas, the new system has many advantages not only from the environmental point of view but also from the viewpoint of cost and productivity. Under the present circumstances where companies are required to seriously tackle global environmental issues, hydrogen is drawing attention as clean energy. This report introduces the advanced safe cutting method using hydrogen. This cutting method can meet ecological (environment friendly) as well as economical requirements and is expected to become a dominant cutting method for steel in the future.


The phenomenon of split-ticket voting was seen in Taipei city mayoral election in 1998. In 2002, the voting pattern of split ticket emerged again. The split-ticket voting behavior has inspired me to explore why voters split their tickets. Are split ticket voters "intentional" or "unintentional"? If voters are intentional to split their tickets, then voters' awareness of checks and balances might be one of the reasons to the split-ticket voting. Generally speaking, the perception of checks and balances could be categorized the following three levels. First of all, voters do not consider deliberately the core meanings of check and balance; voters make their split tickets just relying on their simple evaluation of divided and unified government. Secondly, voters do have the concept of "cognitive Madisonianism" of checks and balances, which leads voters to split their tickets. Thirdly, voters intend to get the moderate policy and then split their tickets. We consider analyzing Taipei city electorates' split ticket voting behavior in terms of their perception of checks and balances. To this end, we begin with the search of the changes in Taipei city voter's perception of checks and balances between 1998 and 2002. And then, we would also discuss why voter's perception of checks and balances will drive them to make split tickets. In this paper we will use the multi-nominal logit model to discuss what factors influence voters to split their tickets. The analytical results showed that Taipei city voters' cognition of checks and balances has no significance effect on their split tickets voting. In the 1998 Taipei mayor election, we found that some factors such as political generation, ethnic background, Taiwanese/Chinese identity, party identification, and the level of strength of party identification are the prominent factors to influence voters to split their tickets. For the 2002 mayor election, we found that voter's ethnic background, Taiwanese/Chinese identity, party identification, the level of strength of party identification, perception of candidate images, evaluation of government performance, internal and external political efficacy are the significant factors to influence voters to split their tickets. In summary, we found that the most important factors influencing Taipei city voters' split ticket behavior are their ethnic background, political generation, Taiwanese/Chinese identity, party identification, and the level of strength of party identification, rather than voters' perception of checks and balances.


In this paper, the outline of MTSAT, the draft schedules of MTSAT observations and disseminations, and the status of development of the operational products of MTSAT are introduced. Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT), which is the successor to Geo-stationary Meteorological Satellite-5 (GMS-5) is a three-axis attitude stabilized spacecraft and has two main missions, i.e. meteorological and aeronautical missions. MTSAT-1R and MTSAT-2 have new imagers with a channel at 3.7μm in addition to the three infrared and one visible channels of GMS-5. The quantization of the infrared channels will be improved from 8 bits to 10 bits, and that of the visible channel will be also improved from 6 bits to 10 bits. MTSAT-1R is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter (winter) of 2004 and will be operated in the spring of 2004. Following MTSAT-1R, MTSAT-2 will be launched in the first quarter (winter) of 2005 and be in operation in 2009. Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has been developing and improving some operational products for MTSAT. Cloud Motion Winds (CMWs) and Water Vapor Motion Winds (WVMWs) will be derived from successive images at 15-minutes interval. The additional 3.7μm channel data will bring substantial improvements in Satellite Cloud Grid Information Data (SCGID) and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) calculation. SST will be calculated more accurately with the infrared channels data of 10bits. The Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT), which has been used for monitoring dust aerosol originate in northwestern China will be calculated more accurately with the visible channel data of 10 bits.


A single electric field of an electrostatic precipitator installed for collecting fly ash from a 320-MWb boiler burning low-sulphur coal was energized with a pulse generator of original design. The tests showed a good performance of the pulse generator, a statistically significant decrease of dust emission in comparison to the conventional energization, and a lower power consumption.


The effects of temperature, treatment time and levels of SO2 and NH3 on the in vitro digestibility and chemical composition of corn stover and barley straw were evaluated. Sulphur dioxide improved (P > 0.05) in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and in vitro cell wall digestibility (IVCWD) of corn stover when treated at 70 °C for 24 h. However, high SO2 levels (4 and 6%) at higher temperature (90 °C) and for a longer time (72 h) reduced (P < 0.05) IVDMD and IVCWD and increased (P < 0.05) lignin content. When barley straw was treated with SO2 at 70 °C, IVDMD and IVCWD were greater (P < 0.05) when the treatment was carried out for 72 h than for 24 h. The improvement in in vitro digestibilities with SO2 was associated with solubilization of large amounts of hemicellulose. Ammonia treatment at 70 °C for 24 h reduced (P < 0.05) hemicellulose content and increased (P < 0.05) IVDMD and IVCWD as well as apparent lignin content. Suphuration enhanced the effect of ammoniation on IVDMD and IVCWD and reduced lign...


We present a study of the effects of an abandoned mining site on the environment and human health and discuss possible mechanism to raise public awareness of the risks posed by mining sites, and environmental risks in general. The case study reported concerns the Campo de Jales mining site located in the interior north of Portugal which is currently being sealed. The presentation and discussion are oriented by the actions lines established by the 6 th environmental action programme.


The invention discloses an access method from a public network WEB (World Wide Web) to an intranet database. The method comprises the following steps of setting a database query program, a database executing program and a first buffer area in a public network, setting a permanent client program and a second buffer area in an intranet, wherein a HASH table is arranged in the first buffer area, initiating a request by the intranet to the public network for continuously opening a webpage of the public network, so as to download and upload data. The access method provided by the invention has the advantages that the method provided by the invention can be used for replacing the original public network to initiate a request to the intranet, in such a way, a WEB server of the public network does not actively initiate a connection to the intranet, the firewall allows such situation for the situation is very safe; in the method, an enterprise WEB website in the public network can access the data of the intranet real-time without establishing a database; and moreover, the field and read-write permissions of the data can be predefined; and meanwhile, the intranet can be provided with a full firewall, so as to forbid the public network to access the intranet, and the access of the public network to the intranet data is not influenced.


There have been three main proposals regarding to the structure of the English existential construction: small clause, bare-NP, and ternary analysis. Each has some merits in accounting for its syntactic properties, but at the same time leaves out certain empirical issues unaccounted for. This paper critically reviews these three previous analyses and offers a hybrid analysis that allows both the bare NP as well as small clause structure for the construction. We sketch this hybrid analysis within a Construction Grammar perspective.


The recent discovery of various biological activities of natural resources has focused much attention on their efficacy, and in consequence, the application of medicinal plants has expanded globally. To illustrate, medicinal plants are used for research on new drug development in primary health care. Nevertheless, natural resource protection policies such as the Nagoya Protocol have promoted global competition, wherein a challenge is posed by the high cost of natural resources. To overcome this challenge, it is essential that attempts are made to discover novel plants among agricultural by-products and tropical plants, which are currently used as simple ornamental plants. Furthermore, it is anticipated that going beyond the use of plants in humans and studying their use in livestock and pets would extend the scope of application for plants.


The invention provides a preparation method of an idose derivative, and specifically relates to a method for preparing the idose derivative with a compound represented by a formula (I) as a raw material. Compared with traditional methods, the method has a short route and low cost, and is suitable for industrialized productions. The idose derivative can be used for synthesizing glycosaminoglycan intermediates, pharmaceutical raw materials and related preparations.


Tropical river basins have experienced dramatically increased hydropower development over the last 20 years. These alterations have the potential to cause changes in hydrologic and ecologic systems. One heavily impacted system is the Upper Paraguay River Basin, which feeds the Pantanal wetland. The Pantanal is a Ramsar Heritage site and is one of the world's largest freshwater wetlands. Over the past 20 years, the number of hydropower facilities in the Upper Paraguay River Basin has more than doubled. This paper uses the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) method to assess the impact of 24 of these dams on the hydrologic regime over 20 years (10 years before and 10 years after dam installation) and proposes a method to disentangle the effects of dams from other drivers of hydrologic change using undammed "control" rivers. While most of these dams are small, run-of-the-river systems, each dam significantly altered at least one of the 33 hydrologic indicators assessed. Across all studied dams, 88 of the 256 calculated indicators changed significantly, causing changes of 5–40%, compared to undammed reaches. These changes were most common in indicators that quantify the frequency and duration of high and low pulses, along with those for the rate and frequency of hydrologic changes. Importantly, the flow regime in several undammed reaches also showed significant alterations, likely due to climate and land-use changes, supporting the need for measurements in representative control systems when attributing causes to observed change. Basin-wide hydrologic changes (in both dammed and undammed rivers) have the potential to fundamentally alter the hydrology, sediment patterns, and ecosystem of the Pantanal wetland. The proposed refinement of the IHA methods reveals crucial differences between dam-induced alteration and those assigned to other drivers of change; these need to be better understood for more efficient management of current hydropower plants or the implementation of future dams.


Inhalation anaesthesia in small laboratory rodents has become very popular in Biomedical Research. A  common method to deliver volatile anesthetic agents is through a face mask. The main disadvantage of this  method is the exposure of personnel to anaesthetic agents. The authors describe a low-cost face mask, made  with materials commonly accessible in the operating room that can be connected to an anaesthetic machine  eliminating personnel exposure to hazardous levels of anaesthetic agents and allowing for effective adjustments  to the anaesthetic depth.Â


The photovoltaic pumping (PVP) is one of the more promising applications of renewable sources in the energy supply of agricultural process. However, the implementation of PVP systems is still scarce especially because the lack of standard criteria relating the involved variables such as meteorological parameters, PV panels characteristics and pump performance. In this work, the effects of meteorological parameters, pump selection and tilt angle variation on the PVP system performance are studied using the SICADT (solar irrigation computer aided design tool) simulation program developed by the authors. This study is accomplished utilizing a standard PVP system comprised of a PV array; an inverter and a submersible electric driven centrifugal pump. This system can be used for pumping the subterranean water in North Sinai region for drip irrigation network.


To deal with requirements in current product-development and limitations of project management and workflow,this paper proposed a hierarchical process model with a project breakdown structure and multi-level workflow space as a core.This solution monitored and tracked the product-development in all levels,and strengthened the practicability of the project management and workflow in PDM.It has been successfully applied in enterprises.


AbstractBacillus cereus (B. cereus) is a rare cause of invasive infection. To our knowledge, we report the first case of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individual diagnosed with a B. cereus endovascular infection. We also present the largest literature review to date of reported B. cereus endovascular infections. A 65-year-old woman with well-controlled HIV and active injection drug use presented with an acute febrile illness. Blood cultures for multiple consecutive days after admission were positive for nonanthrax Bacillus species despite appropriate intravenous antibiotic therapy. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to identify B. cereus. Our analysis of previous cases reveals injection drug use and prosthetic heart valves as major risk factors for B. cereus endovascular infections, and we propose that HIV status does not play a significant role. In addition, the use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for a rapid and accurate identification of this organism highlights the potential of this technology, and providers should be aware of its availability and utility.


Antisense oligonucleotides (AS-ONs) are short sequences of DNA or RNA designedto be complementary to a specific sequences of nucleic acid and to inhibit gene expression at thelevel in transcription or translation.The application of AS-ONs technology opens a new way ofapproaching physiological problems.This article gives brief accounts of how to design and deliveroligonucleotides and some recent application of AS-ONs in physiological study.


A nonstationary coupled problem is considered for thermoelasticity of a plane layer of semi-transparent gray, absorbing, radiating, and isotropically scattering elastic material. One of the boundary layers is heated by an external flow of radiation energy and convection at constant intensity. To solve the problem numerically, a vector modification of the Thomas method is used. The thermal and strain fields in the half-transparent material have been determined. Their interaction manifests itself by temperature pulsations and quantitative variation in the values of thermoelastic stresses of an object. A wide range of optic parameters are considered for the medium and the conditions of heat transfer with the environment.


Dissolved oxygen levels in biological processes depend on the biological, chemical, and physical properties of the process being monitored. The analysis of dissolved oxygen concentration is a key test for process control and optimization. A review of the measurement methods for dissolved oxygen concentrations will be presented in this paper. Included in this review are the chemical, volumetric, tubing, electrochemical electrode, and optode methods. Advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed and key considerations for their use are summarized.


Until recently, and for a variety of reasons, most historical Jesus scholarship has typically seen Jesus as essentially non-political. Recently, this has begun to change, to a large extent because of the fuller description of the social world of Jesus made possible by the use of interdisciplinary models and insights. Seen within the context of a social world described as a peasant, patriarchal and purity society, many of the Jesus traditions reflect both a sharp critique of society and advocacy of an alternative social vision. Jesus' action in the temple (including E P Sanders view of it) is treated as a case study of the difference made by an interdisciplinary understanding of the social context of Jesus' public activity.


In this paper, the hemp / cotton / polyester mesh knitted fabric (Han / C / T) is treated by alkali treatment, conventional dyeing and alkali pre-treatment dyeing. We have obtained the conclusion that alkali treatment improves the dyeing effect. Alkali pre-treatment dyeing was done after alkali treatment. The fabric dyeing effect is improved obviously. The optimum process come from orthogonal experiment (dyes 2.5% owf, Na2SO4 :30g/L, Na2CO3:10g/L, liquor ratio (1:50) and 90°C×50 min). Through this optimum process, dyeing effect for hemp / cotton / polyester mesh knitted fabric is close to the pure cotton fabric dyeing effect.


The tractor-trailer mobile robot with off-axle hitching is a classical nonholonomic system.It is difficult to use one controller to achieve path following when the linear velocity of the tractor is time-varying and sign changeable. This paper investigates the arbitrary path following problem of off-axle tractor-trailer robots with time-varying and sign changeable linear velocity.The error state model is first derived from the kinematic equations of the system and the virtual vehicle.The coordinate transformation is used to convert the simplified linearized error model to a normal form,and then a path-following control law is constructed via Lyapunov methods.Assume that the linear velocity of the tractor is bounded, not convergent to zero,and its derivative is bounded,then the designed control law guarantees that the tractor-trailer system is able to follow an arbitrary desired path.The size of the ultimate bound is proportional to the derivative of curvature. Moreover,asymptotic exponential convergence of the tractor-trailer to the desired path is achieved when the derivative of curvature is zero or convergent to zero.Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.


Navy have been a .horized to carry out inocu'ation against yellow fever and to issue the international forms of certificate at approved centres at home and abroad. These certificates will be stamped with the official stamp of the ship or naval establishment concerned. These arrangements came into eltect on May 1, 1948, but certificatf previously issued should be considered valid for the periods`fid down in the International Sanitary Conventions of 1944. British Overseas Airways Corporation.-Arrangements have been made under which certificates of inoculation and vaccination issued by medical officers of British Overseas Airways Corporation at home and abroad will be in the international forms prescribed by the International Sanitary Conventions of 1944 and will bear the official stamp of the medical department of the corporation. Medical officers of British Overseas Airways Corporation have been authorized to carry out inoculation against yellow fever at approved centres and to issue the international form of certificate. These certificates will also bear the official stamp of the medical department of the corporation. These arrangements came into effect on Sept. 1, 1948, but certificates previously issued should be considered valid for the periods laid down in the International Sanitary Convention of 1944.


Production of near net shape thin strips using vertical twin roll casting method has been studied. In a typical VTRC process, the simultaneous action of solidification and rolling makes the process quite attractive as well as complicated. An industrially popular alloy A356 has been chosen for the VTRC processing. It is challenging to identify VTRC processing parameters for the alloy to produce thin strips because of its freezing range and complex composition. In the present work processing parameters of VTRC like roll speed, roll gap, melt superheat and the interface convective heat transfer coefficient have been investigated through modelling of the process. The mathematical model was developed which simultaneously solves the heat transfer, fluid flow and solidification, using commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4. VTRC sheets of alloy A356 were produced in an experimental set up and attempts were made to correlate the microstructures of VTRC A356 alloy to that predicted from the numerical studies to validate the model.


Data in the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) Zodiacal History File were analyzed to extract dust band locations and peak brightness measurements from approximately 1,000 individual IRAS scans. The study had three goals. One was to show that the prominent solar system dust bands are associated with Hirayama asteroid families and thus that collisions between asteroids account for a significant fraction of the particles in the zodiacal cloud. Recent work suggests that while the Hirayama families are a major source of the dust in the bands, there may also be contributions from two or three smaller, more recently recognized asteroid families. A second goal was to show that there is evidence in the IRAS dust data for the transport of particles from asteroid belt to the Earth by Poynting-Robertson light drag and thus account for the fact that asteroid particles are collected in the Earth's stratosphere. Results of the study will confirm the location of the dust bands within the inner asteroid belt, and show conclusively that the material seen by IRAS is now spread over a wide range of distances from the sun. The third goal was to construct a model of the background zodiacal cloud that satisfies the proper dynamical constraints. Figures are provided to show the scans processed to remove zodiacal background and Galactic signals, and the resulting polynomial fits to the 25 micron scan. The latter provided objective estimates of band widths, peak locations, and peak fluxes. Modelling and analysis of the resulting band data has been presented at several conferences and is the subject of a number of forthcoming papers.


Abstract BACKGROUND Maize varieties that are rich in carotenoids have been developed to combat vitamin A deficiency in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Unfortunately, after harvest, carotenoids degrade and off‐flavor volatiles develop, which affect nutrient intake and consumer acceptance. This study evaluated carotenoid retention and aroma compound stability in provitamin A biofortified maize, variety Pool 8A, as influenced by dry milling and storage in different packaging and temperature conditions. RESULTS The lowest amount of total carotenoids was found in flour stored in laminated paper bags at 37 °C (only 16% retention after 180 days), attributable to the high storage temperature and oxygen permeability of the packaging material. No significant effect on carotenoid degradation was found for dry milling, either by rotor mill or freezer mill, but the formation of volatile compounds was significantly (P < 0.05) affected. Volatile compounds such as hexanal, 2‐pentylfuran, 1‐propanol, 2‐heptanone, butyrolactone, limonene, and hexanoic acid were found in different proportions after milling. The highest concentration of hexanal was in flour milled by rotor mill or freezer mill, and stored in laminated paper bags at 37 °C after 180 days, and the lowest concentrations were for flour in aluminium bags and double‐layered polyethylene bags stored at 4 °C. CONCLUSION Maize flour stored in double‐layered polyethylene bags had the highest carotenoid retention and aroma stability. Importantly, the use of these bags is economically feasible in low‐income countries. Overall, our results show that effective control of storage conditions is crucial to prevent carotenoid loss and decrease off‐odor formation. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.


In Nigeria, an estimated 545 maternal deaths occur for every 100,000 live births. Within the country, gaps exist between urban and rural areas, with more maternal deaths occurring in the rural areas. The knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of Emergency Obstetric care (EmOC) among health care providers, are important determinants of the quality and outcome of care. The study determined and compared the KAP of EmOC among health care providers in urban and rural public secondary health facilities in River state, South-south Nigeria; and also assessed the availability of resources for EmOC provision.Information was obtained from 304 doctors and nurses, using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire and a facility checklist was used to obtain relevant information about resource availability for EmOC in 13 health facilities. Data were analysed using EPI-INFO version 3.5.1. Findings showed that more (28.9%) respondents from urban facilities had good knowledge of EmOC than their rural counterparts (16.4%). More respondents (96.1%) from rural facilities had positive attitude compared to the urban counterparts, (93.4%), however more urban respondents (77%) reported good practice compared to 40.8% in rural facilities. Approximately a third of respondents (urban: 28.5%, rural: 33.1%) reported having obstetric protocols in their facilities. A mean of 7.5 obstetricians/gynecologists were employed in the 4 urban compared to 0.3 in the 9 rural facilities. More deficits in meeting the criteria for Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEmOC) were seen in the rural than the urban facilities; as at study time, all rural facilities neither had capacity for managing complications that could arise from pregnancy-induced hypertension nor a blood bank. Findings revealed that urban health workers demonstrated better knowledge and practices than their rural counterparts. Resources were inadequate in both areas albeit better in urban facilities. Regular training and re-training of staff on EmOC, with adequate and equitable distribution of resources between urban and rural facilities is recommended.


The AN/FSY-3 Space Fence Radar, located on Kwajalein Atoll, is a ground-based S-band radar integrated with an Operations Center designed to greatly enhance the Air Force Space Surveillance Network. Space Fence will revolutionize Space Situational Awareness using advanced phased array radar technology. Space Fence will provide catalog completeness, accuracy and timeliness with vastly improved performance in Low Earth Orbit and capability to support missions in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit. Modeling & Simulation has played a key role in all phases of the Space Fence radar program. In addition, Modeling & Simulation will play an important role in the formal Government testing of requirements that depend on simulated environments or unique orbital events.


e early emergence of infeccious andcontagious mouth diseases in children, as dental caries and periodontal disease, is a result of an imbalance between the d...


In order to evaluate the effect of damage on buildings and predict the failure forms of structures,a series of tests with different configurations were carried out subjected to various cyclic loading patterns.Typical failure modes and probable damage reasons were discussed in depth.Cumulative hysteretic energy,maximum deformation,maximum load,yield displacement and yield load were calculated for all connections.Then,the various index models were summarized and applied in all the tests,and the damage developmental curves of ten damage indices for each connection were obtained based on these basic parameters.Finally,the prediction and evaluation capacity of various damage models were compared for describing the degraded performance and failure modes.The tests and analysis results show that: The loading history significantly affected the distributive shapes of the damage indices.For "large amplitude" loading,specimens indicated a progressive failure while a sudden failure for "small amplitude".Different damage indices have their own scope of application.The selected parameters of the damage indices have great effect on the degradation curves.The model with only displacement variable was recommended,which is easy to be formulated and embedded in application program.


Mechanism for preventing setting of a dose which exceeds the amount of medication contained in the reservoir in the injection device. The apparatus is provided with a piston rod, limiting member and the drive member having a threaded. These three elements, the limiting member during dose setting to move towards the inner volume of the end position, are arranged such setting of the dose in the position is limited. The present invention has an embodiment of a cumulative and non-cumulative. The present invention further relates to a mechanism for preventing dose release exceeding the set dose.


World Menopause Day is marked each year on October 18th, a time to celebrate what has been achieved and reflect on what still needs to be done. The history of Menopause is quite short, the term first being coined in 1821 [1] to describe the permanent cessation of menstruation, a phrase still used to define menopause today. Of course, an understanding of post reproductive life dates back not two hundred, but at least two thousand years and the triumph of finding a word to describe the end of menstruation did nothing to help women who lived long enough to reach that milestone and experience the consequences. It was another century before 'an ovarian hormone' was first described [2] and, even then, remedies for the symptoms experienced by women during their transition from reproductive to post reproductive life were based more on hope than on science. A classification of the stages from reproductive to post reproductive life was established by The Stages of Reproductive Ageing Workshop + 10 [3]. STRAW +10 has enhanced our understanding of the different stages of the menopause transition by developing consensus-based criteria using menstrual bleeding patterns to describe the changes which occur from early menopause transition to late menopause transition and, following the final menstrual period (FMP), the postmenopausal era. STRAW +10 also uses supportive data to describe changes in sex hormones and gonadotrophins and the development of menopausal symptoms. The determinations of STRAW +10 were facilitated by earlier studies, notably a series of longitudinal studies conducted in the 1980s and 1990s [4–8] and have been reinforced and enlarged upon by a major US longitudinal study commenced in 1996. The Study of Women Across the Nation [9] (SWAN) commenced in 1996 and has continued to accumulate evidence on reproductive hormonal changes, menstrual cycle changes, menopausal symptoms, mental health and changes in physiological systems and functions which are influenced by the menopause transition. Importantly SWAN examined these diverse outcomes in women of different ethnicities including African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Chinese and Japanese, albeit living in a western country. SWAN has shown us that midlife women experience different patterns of hormonal change during the menopause transition and that the timing and duration of the phases of the menopause transition are subject to individual variation influenced by ethnicity, lifestyle, family history, intercurrent health and genetics. When it became clear that the menstrual bleeding patterns and symptoms used to identify stages of the menopause transition were caused by fluctuating and, ultimately, declining levels of sex hormones, researchers soon deduced that replacement of the missing hormones may alleviate the symptoms. The age of hormone replacement therapy began just over 80 years ago with the initial goal being alleviation of associated symptoms. Large observational studies and randomized controlled trials [10,11], exploring the effects of menopause on wider aspects of midlife women's health, including mental, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and genitourinary health, and the effect of exogenous hormone therapy on those conditions followed and have led to the establishment of guidelines for the appropriate use of menopausal hormone therapy and the overall care of postmenopausal women. We have learned much about the effects of low levels of estrogen on the health of women as they age and the role of menopausal hormone therapy in alleviation of menopausal symptoms and amelioration of the disease burden associated with prolonged hypoestrogenism. Well we might for, in many parts of the world, the life expectancy of a female infant born today is predicted to be 100 years, meaning she will live approximately half of her life in that hypoestrogenic state. The brief history of menopausal medicine above illustrates that a clinician charged with the care of a woman passing through the menopause transition and into postmenopausal life is now required to know more than a little about endocrinology, gynaecology, mood disorders, cognitive disorders, management of declining bone density and muscle mass and cardiovascular health. Psychology and communications training might also be useful. Do we need a new specialty of menopausal medicine? I think not. The constellation of signs and symptoms noted above are, mostly, part of a normal physiological process through which most women pass with minimum bother. The care of these women is best placed into the hands of a well-qualified


In the vehement competition environment of telecom information value-added system, China Telecom needs to improve the integration and the high availability of the system to get the high profits. So there come the serial products of CompactPCI, which can not only enhanced the integration of the system, but also improved the system's high availability sufficiently. In this paper, we will analyze the application based on compactPCI.


From Hutchinson's Story Magazine and Cassell's Magazine to The New Magazine and The Grand Magazine, standard illustrated popular magazines are a neglected but rich source for anyone interested in short fiction. In this essay, I examine how these magazines' brand identity and editorial practices affected their fictional contents. In order to do so, I explore just one subgenre of short fiction published in these magazines during the early 1920s: the artist story. Through an examination of five humorous artist stories by Morley Roberts, Joyce Cary, Robert Magill, H. C. McNeile and Christine Castle, published in The Strand and The Royal, I argue that these stories were shaped both by the magazine's intended readership and the publication's wider stance on art, as indicated by their editorials and accompanying non-fiction pieces.


Song activity, length of song period and nesting success were studied in the promiscuous Corn Bunting Miliaria calandra in order to evaluate the significance of song. The quality of territories was assessed through duration of territory occupation and the habitat composition of territories. The Corn Bunting starts territorial behaviour in high quality territores in winter. The large size dimorphism is suggested as a result of social dominance in winter flocks. Early occupation of territories may be a necessary cost in order to obtain the best territory. Territories were aggregated and high quality territories were situated in distribution centres near each other. These territories were small, and still they probably held a large amount of resources. The song activity of the males is suggested to function as a means of female attraction. Annual and diel song activity was high. Many females were recorded in territories belonging to males with a high song activity, and the breeding success of females nesting in these territories was high. Successful males continued to sing late in the breeding season allowing attraction of renesting females and evaluation of breeding success of males by females. Males only invest in territorial behaviour and copulations whereas the breeding activities are performed nearly exclusively by the female.


Shift change handover by nurses in patients' rooms is an international practice already common in many Portuguese hospitals. Its main objective is to involve...


Using fluent software simulations to analysis the temperature field and the velocity field of the equal and changing diameter condensing coils at different positions of heat pump water storage tank, and made experiment of R1234-ze on the heat pump water heater storage tank with equal and changing diameter condensing coils ,experimental analysis and simulation results show that changing diameter condensing coils make the tank temperature raise stability, which is beneficial to the stability of the system operation.


The 21 century is a digital era. The protection of cultural heritage is combining with the modern information techniques. It is natural to apply digital technology to protect the intangible cultural heritage. This paper bases on the theory of digital protection for the heritage,cards known techniques and practice in the world,and then analyses the challenge and opportunity for intangible cultural heritage,as well as its values.


The extracts of thoracic ganglion from adult Macrobrachium rosenbergii were chromatographed on a Sephadex G-50 column, the resulting second peak was further isolated by HPLC, and 9 fractions were obtained. Among the fractions only the first fraction significantly increased the oocyte diameter in vitro of the stage ovary in M. rosenbergii. The increasing effects were depended on the protein concentration of the fraction for culture. The molecular weight of the substance in the fraction 1 was about 1.3kDa.The results show that the thoracic ganglion of M. rosenbergii can secrete peptide hormone which stimulates the oocyte development of the prawn.


It is now reasonably well established that attributes appropriately identified as vocal registers exist in the human voice. Generalized (if not operational) definitions can be seen in the literature; one of the earliest being that of Garcia (1840) who indicated that a voice register is 'a series of succeeding sounds of equal quality, a scale from low to high produced by the application Of the same mechanical principle, the nature of which differs basically from another series of succeeding sounds of equal quality produced by another mechanical principle.' In the years to follow, many vocal pedagogists, laryngdogists and phoneticians offered like definitions; virtually all described voice registers in much the same terms as did Garcia (see for example APpelman, 1967; Fields, 1970; Hollien, 1974; Large, 1972; Preissler, 1939, Ruth, 1963; Vennard, 1962). It would be of little value to list any portion of these hundreds of definitions or labels (see Morner et al., 1964, for examples of terms) as they add little to the rather simplistic concept articulated by Garcia. Our use of the term simplistic is not intended to be judgmental or


Matrix/linear algebra continues bestowing benefits on theoretical and applied statistics, a practice it began decades ago (re Fisher used the word matrix in a 1941 publication), through a myriad of contributions, from recognition of a suite of matrix properties relevant to statistical concepts, to matrix specifications of linear and nonlinear techniques. Consequently, focused parts of matrix algebra are topics of several statistics books and journal articles. Contributions mostly have been unidirectional, from matrix/linear algebra to statistics. Nevertheless, statistics offers great potential for making this interface a bidirectional exchange point, the theme of this review paper. Not surprisingly, regression, the workhorse of statistics, provides one tool for such historically based recompence. Another prominent one is the mathematical matrix theory eigenfunction abstraction. A third is special matrix operations, such as Kronecker sums and products. A fourth is multivariable calculus linkages, especially arcane matrix/vector operators as well as the Jacobian term associated with variable transformations. A fifth, and the final idea this paper treats, is random matrices/vectors within the context of simulation, particularly for correlated data. These are the five prospectively reviewed discipline of statistics subjects capable of informing, inspiring, or otherwise furnishing insight to the far more general world of linear algebra.


Mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are drivers of a subset of lung cancers. In recent years, the treatment of non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially with EGFR inhibitors, has made rapid progress, and the median progression‐free survival (PFS) of patients with EGFR gene‐sensitive mutations has been significantly prolonged. However, the response effect of some uncommon EGFR mutations to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) remains unclear.


In this paper, we introduce an algorithm for solving the fixed point problems for total asymptotically nonexpansive multi-valued mappings in Banach spaces, weak and strong convergence theorems are proved. The results presented in this paper improve and extend some recent corresponding results.


Abstract The authors examined whether Reading Rescue continues to be an effective literacy intervention and factors that impact its effectiveness. Data were collected on 143 first-grade students, tutored by 104 tutors at 38 schools. There was significant growth on all foundational skills (ps < .001) and significant change in proportion of students attaining grade-level reading status pre- and postintervention (ps < .001; d = 1.62 sight words, d = 1.68 oral reading/comprehension). Student-level factors of Individualized Education Program status, program completion, number of session, and invented spelling; tutor-level factors of sessions delivered and years of experience; school level factors of school size and percentage of language minority students all predicted grade-level passage or word reading (all ps < .05). Findings indicate Reading Rescue continues to be highly effective, even while expanding substantially as a program since Ehri et al.'s (2007) study. Efforts should focus on ensuring program completion and increasing program exposure in neediest schools.


This study examined the effect of response format on the conclusions drawn in a categorical reasoning task. In Experiment 1, participants were required to respond in either a multiple-choice format or were required to produce their own conclusion (without any choices presented). In the multiple-choice task, people responded with a wider variety of conclusions, more No Valid Conclusion responses, and had a smaller forward bias. In terms of theoretical predictions, Mental Model Theory was better supported in the multiple-choice condition and more conclusions corresponded with initial models in the production task while more conclusions corresponded with alternative models in the multiple-choice condition. The predictions made by the Probabilistic Heuristic Model were not affected by the conditions; however more min conclusions were found in the production task than the multiple-choice condition, and there was an increase in the p-entailment heuristic for the production task. Experiment 2, which included a persistent reminder about No Valid Conclusions in the production task, showed that No Valid Conclusions increased greatly for the production task and there was no longer a difference in forward bias. Also, neither theory showed any cross condition differences now. THE EFFECT OF RESPONSE FORMAT 3 The Effect of Response Format on Syllogistic Reasoning Of critical importance to people's ability to successfully navigate the modern world is the capacity for both logical and abstract reasoning skills. Without these skills, it would be very difficult to generalize and carry information from one task to another. This would make learning difficult and time consuming. One of the types of reasoning that people use on a daily basis is categorical reasoning, which is used to find links between known information in order to derive connections with different pieces of information. The goal of this study was to discover what mechanism is likely at work when people perform categorical reasoning. In particular, this paper looked at changes in the kinds of conclusions that are drawn when an individual is confronted with different types of response formats. The conclusions drawn from these syllogisms will, in theory, reflect the kind of reasoning used and whether or not the type of reasoning changes with the response format. Categorical Syllogisms Categorical reasoning is a type of deductive logic that typically consists of two premises that make claims about various groups and their relations with one another. In a syllogism, these groups are typically represented by terms (e.g., A, B, or C), and quantifiers (i.e., All, Some, No, or Some... not) that are used to describe the relation these groups have with one another in statements called premises. For example, a pair of premises may state that 'All B's are A's' and that 'Some B's are C's'. These premises can be combined to form a syllogism that can be used to express a deductive argument. In such an argument, there will be two terms that appear once in the entire argument (i.e., the end terms: A and C) and one term that appears twice (i.e., the connecting term: B). Below is an example of a syllogism presented in a standard format: THE EFFECT OF RESPONSE FORMAT 4 All B's are A's Some B's are C's Therefore? All reasoning performed on categorical syllogisms is deductive. It is important that people assume that both of the premises are true when trying to determine a conclusion, otherwise the premises would be violated. This means that a conclusion must be necessarily true given the premises that are presented in a syllogism. From the above premises, one can deduce that 'Some A's are C's'. To illustrate, if every B is an A, and if some of those B's (which are A's) are C's, then it follows that at least some A's must be C's. However, it should be noted that it is possible that people could respond that 'Some C's are A's'. The end terms can appear in either order, as long as the conclusion still holds true (this is discussed further below). Categorical syllogisms can also come in several possible forms, and some have no deductively valid conclusion. Here is an example that is similar to the previous syllogism but in a different form: All A's are B's All C's are B's Therefore? Notice that the terms in the premises are both in different orders and the quantifiers have also changed. Unlike the previous syllogism, there is No Valid Conclusion for this syllogism. This is because unlike the previous syllogism, there are no answers that must be correct regardless of the possibilities. For example, it is possible that in addition to all A's being B's, all A's are also C's. It is also possible though that while A's and C's are B's, they are still mutually exclusive of each other (for example, chairs and tables are both furniture, but no chair is also a table). THE EFFECT OF RESPONSE FORMAT 5 This shows that there are several different orderings or syllogistic figures possible for the same syllogism. There are four syllogistic figures that premises can be placed in. These are ABBC, AB-CB, BA-BC, BA-CB, and each represents a figure (i.e., ordering of terms in the two premises) that each premise could take. For example, the first syllogism above would be syllogistic figure BA-BC because both premises describe the linking term (B) at the beginning. The second syllogism would be syllogistic figure AB-CB because the first premise has the end term (A) in front and the second premise has the end term (C) first. Finally, conclusions can be phrased with the terms presented in either order. For example, someone could derive a conclusion of 'All A's are C's' or 'All C's are A's'. While these are not equivalent statements, the point is that it is possible for a conclusion to be written either in a forward or a reverse order. For example, in the following syllogism: All A's are B's All B's are C's Therefore? the conclusion can be framed as being either 'All A's are C's' (which is a valid conclusion) or 'All C's are A's' (which is not a valid conclusion). The first is in a forward order because the terms appear in the conclusion in the same order they appear in the premises (i.e., A-C); the second conclusion is in a reverse order because the terms are in the opposite order as they appear in the premises (i.e., C-A). Different orderings can affect a conclusion's validity in some syllogisms, as in this example. However, in the first example above, order did not matter. As stated earlier, in most research involving categorical reasoning, there are four possible quantifiers (All, Some, No, and Some... Not) that can be used in the two premises with each individual premise using one quantifier. When the four quantifiers are combined with the four THE EFFECT OF RESPONSE FORMAT 6 possible syllogistic figures, there are 64 possible combinations of syllogistic figures and quantifiers. Out of the 64 possible syllogisms, only 27 have valid conclusions with the rest having No Valid Conclusion. Methods of Testing Syllogistic Reasoning Similar to how there are different ways to design a college exam, there are a number of different ways that syllogistic reasoning can be tested. One way is to present the premises of a syllogism and to ask people to produce their own conclusion. An example of this is a set of experiments conducted by Johnson-Laird and Bara (1984) in which participants were asked to produce a conclusion from a given set of premises. In this experiment, participants were presented with cards that had single premises written upon them. After both of the premises were presented, the individuals then drew conclusions from scratch and wrote them down upon a piece of paper. Similar methods were also used by Goodwin and Johnson-Laird (2008) using transitive and pseudo-transitive inferences instead of straight forward categorical syllogisms (e.g., A is a blood relative of B, or A overtook B) and Jahn, Knauff, and Johnson-Laird (2007) which looked at how models were used in reasoning with spatial layouts. One of the benefits of using a production task is a significant change in relative difficulty, which can be used to test how a theory holds up under tougher conditions. This is because all conclusions must be generated by the participants themselves. This increases difficulty because a production task requires additional resources (e.g., Copeland & Radvansky, 2004). However, a drawback of using a production task like this is that it may increase the difficulty of some tasks to the point that it can create floor effects. As participants try to derive a conclusion and try to determine the best solution to a problem, the difficulty of a problem could likely make it harder to render any decision of merit. In this scenario, people may not be able to come up with a THE EFFECT OF RESPONSE FORMAT 7 conclusion on their own. It may also cause participants to respond in unorthodox ways that are not score-able. For example, an individual may give an illegal answer using a quantifier not used in the task (e.g., "most" or "few") or draw a conclusion using the connecting term instead of the end terms (e.g., 'All A's are B's' or 'Some C's are not B's'). A second technique that can be used to present syllogisms is to present them in a multiple-choice format. In this manner, the premises are presented and followed by a set of choices. Participants are asked to select the conclusion they thought best fit a given syllogism from the list of all nine possible conclusions. This method was used by Copeland and Radvansky (2004) and Copeland (2006) using all nine conclusions in a computer based test, and earlier by Dickstein (1978) who limited the choices to the conclusions that were in a forward order (i.e., this study omitted the four conclusions that are in a reverse order) or a response of No Valid Conclusion. This method allows researchers to score the task more effectively and quickly than a production task as multiple-choice requires


The aim of this paper is to show that the construction of semantic resources is a sine qua non if one wishes to tackle such complex and ambitious tasks as word sense disambiguation or (machine) translation selection, which are notorious stumbling blocks in most natural language processing systems. More specifically, I will illustrate my contention with examples featuring o/phrases to show that semantically-oriented lexicons are absolutely essential if one wishes to develop systems able to parse phrases and recognize their heads, a necessary step in word sense disambiguation.


We have examined genetic differentiation at 23 loci in 12 populations of sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, by means of starch gel electrophoresis. Based on two measures of overall genetic distance and two clustering methods, our analysis shows that there are three genetically distinct groups of lamprey in eastern North America: (1) anadromous populations plus those in Lake Champlain, (2) populations in Lake Erie and the upper Great Lakes, and (3) populations in Lake Ontario and three interior New York Lakes (Cayuga, Seneca, and Oneida). Analysis of population subdivision using contiguity partitions and simultaneous test procedures (STP) confirms the above conclusions and offers additional insight into the genetic structure of lamprey in this area.Key words: sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus; genetic variation, electrophoresis, population structuring


Study Design:  Needle orientations for lumbar and cervical facet injection were measured in cadavers and compared with facet angles measured on magnetic resonance images (MRIs).


An analytical steady-state theory of the detonation 'diameter effect' is presented. This theory, which includes the off-axis flow, is a generalization of the Wood-Kirkwood analysis. When the state dependence of the reaction rate is stronger than that of the product of the sound speed squared and the flow divergence, detonation failure can occur. The leading term in the extrapolation of the detonation velocity to infinite charge size is quadratic in the inverse charge size and not linear as popularly believed. When calibrated to the detonation velocity vs. charge-size data, the theory reproduces the limited amount of experimental shock loci to a high degree of accuracy.


The dynamic programming approach is applied to a partially observed constrained Markov decision process problem with both total cost and probabilistic criteria. The Markov decision process is partially observed, but it is assumed that the constraint costs are available to the controller, i.e., they are fully observed. The problem is motivated by an adaptive sequential detection application. The application of the dynamic programming results to optimal adaptive truncated sequential detection is demonstrated using examples involving the optimization of radar detection processes.


Boron nitride nanocapsules with gold and iron oxide nanoparticles were produced by arc melting in a nitrogen gas atmosphere using a tungsten electrode and a boron-based mixture powder. High-resolution electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy showed that the gold and iron oxide nanoparticles were encapsulated in the boron nitride sheets. The present work indicates that conducting and magnetic nanoparticles surrounded by insulating boron nitride sheets can be produced by the ordinary arc-melting method.


Real‐life examples will be given to assess the efficiency of the cluster techniques and artificial neural network‐based methods in complex machine diagnostics.


This paper presents a human-computer interaction model in pervasive environment based on dynamic sharing niche technology. It begins with a discussion of some important issues related to human-computer interaction. Then it describes niched co-evolving approach, and based on dynamic sharing niche technology, the group model and classified algorithm is introduced. At last, it further explores sharing learning for increasing the self-adaptation of human-computer interaction and discusses directions for future research.


This paper present a Frame-Per-Processor (FPP) scheme. The proposed method allocates dedicated processors to each image frame for real time processing. Compared to the conventional methods, it requires less overhead to supply paralell computing platform and it does not require frequent modification of the code during the porting. Under the proposed scheme, unique processing mechanisms for image processing is implemented.


Waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE or e-waste) contain hazardous organic and inorganic substances. On the other hand, WEEE is an important secondary resource due to its base (mainly Cu) and precious metals (Au, Ag and Pd) content. Improper management of this waste stream leads to economic losses as well as environmental pollution if disposed in landfills with municipal wastes. The major part of heavy and precious metals in WEEE is present in waste of printed circuit boards (WPCB). This study highlights the economic potential of WPCB with regards to its base and precious metal content. In addition, environmental characterisation procedures were tested using WPCB (18.5% Cu, 86 g/t Au, 694 g/t Ag and 97 g/t Pd) collected from obsolete computers. TCLP test (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure) results showed that WPCB should be classified as "hazardous waste" due to high lead (Pb) concentration in the leachate. In the SPLP (Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure) and EN 12457-2 (European Standard Leaching Test) tests, some metals (Ba/Al/Pb/Cu) also determined to be highly solubilised. These results indicated that recovery of metals from WEEE through recycling/recovery processes is the most suitable route for proper management compared with disposing these wastes in landfills


A two-stage light gas gun was used to conduct a high-velocity impact test on the aircraft's typical composite/metal connecting structure (CFRP/AL). The battle damage simulations used for the CFRP/AL connecting structure were carried out under different intersection conditions. Then, the damage morphology and mechanism of high-velocity prefabricated spherical fragments on typical structures, the dynamic process of hyper-velocity impact, and the formation of debris clouds on the secondary damage morphology of different component structures were investigated. Next, based on the X-ray computerized tomography (CT), the typical mode of different damage areas and evolution trends of CFRP under high-velocity impacts were explored. Finally, a simulation model was established for battle damages of typical structures by combining FEM methods, and structural components' energy dissipation capabilities for fragments under different velocities were analyzed. The study results provide a reference and model support for the rapid repair of battle-damaged aircraft and aircraft survivability design.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between pre-training competencies of apprentices and their productivity at the workplace.,For the analysis, the authors use firm-level data on apprentices' oral and writing competencies and competencies in basic mathematics, information technology and problem solving. The authors regress the apprentices' productivity on these school competencies and include a number of firm and apprentice-specific control variables. By reducing the authors' data set to firms that only have one apprentice the authors transform the firm-level data into quasi individual-level data.,The main findings are that not all competencies are equally related to productivity. Problem-solving competencies followed by oral and writing competencies show the strongest relation to the productive potential of apprentices. IT competencies are also positively but weakly related to the apprentices' productivity. In contrast, higher levels of basic mathematical competencies leave productivity levels largely unchanged. Differentiating between occupational groups, the authors find that the positive relation between the competencies and productivity predominantly exists in commercial occupations rather than in industrial and technical occupations.,The results show that better school competencies are associated with a higher productivity of apprentices, which in turn lowers the firms' training costs. From a policy perspective, this finding is important because it implies that, by improving the apprentices' competencies, the firms' willingness to participate in the apprenticeship system can be increased. Moreover, the results are important for training firms because they show on which competencies firms should focus in their recruitment decision.,The paper studies for the first time the relation between pre-training competencies and productivity of apprentices at the working place. A practical implication from the authors' analysis is that it could be useful to implement tools measuring the problem solving and oral and writing competencies of apprenticeship applicants in the process of recruitment.


This guide acts as an introduction to ActiveX programming and covers ActiveX integration, scripting, and using and building controls. The 21 day structure includes daily lessons and review sections, and references with short examples are included.


This article traces the development of the legend of Arthur's return from Avalon from Geoffrey of Monmouth's inception of the motif to its early reception history, exploring its relationship to Welsh and Breton prophetic traditions and the impact of Avalon on subsequent English and French understandings of a constructed genre of pan-British political prophecy.


Significance The current study identifies CCR8+ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) as drivers of immunosuppression and provides compelling evidence of a self-feeding mechanism by which, at an autoimmune site, CCL1 produced by FOXp3+ Treg cells upregulates the expression of its own receptor, CCR8, on these cells, and potentiates their in vivo proliferation and suppressive activities as driver Treg cells. The suppression of ongoing autoimmunity by a stabilized version of the chemokine (CCL1–Ig) highlights the translational potential of these findings. The current study identifies CCR8+ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) as drivers of immunosuppression. We show that in human peripheral blood cells, more than 30% of Treg up-regulate CCR8 following activation in the presence of CCL1. This interaction induces STAT3-dependent up-regulation of FOXp3, CD39, IL-10, and granzyme B, resulting in enhanced suppressive activity of these cells. Of the four human CCR8 ligands, CCL1 is unique in potentiating Treg cells. The relevance of these observations has been extended using an experimental model of multiple sclerosis [experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, (EAE)] and a stabilized version of mouse CCL1 (CCL1–Ig). First, we identified a self-feeding mechanism by which CCL1 produced by Treg cells at an autoimmune site up-regulates the expression of its own receptor, CCR8, on these cells. Administration of CCL1–Ig during EAE enhanced the in vivo proliferation of these CCR8+ regulatory cells while inducing the expression of CD39, granzyme B, and IL-10, resulting in the efficacious suppression of ongoing EAE. The critical role of the CCL1–CCR8 axis in Treg cells was further dissected through adoptive transfer studies using CCR8−/− mice. Collectively, we demonstrate the pivotal role of CCR8+ Treg cells in restraining immunity and highlight the potential clinical implications of this discovery.


This work is aimed at controlling copper weight after the crushing process, since during this process 50% of the energy is consumed. For this purpose a laboratory-scale prototype has been designed and built at the National University of Loja (located in southern Ecuador), using as a model the Retch, German-made crusher, only that the one presented herein shows some design modifications, such as a double drum that serves as a counterweight. Once the prototype was running, we carried on open loop tests to obtain some experimental data to find the mathematical model of the crusher brand. Then four different control strategies were implemented (PID, Smith Predictor, MPC, L.Q.R.) using for this step inputs signal and the MATLAB® program. Finally, it permits to select the strategy that was based on Smith s Predictor. Hereafter, the control loop is implemented and validated by means of a strain gauge, the Arduino® MEGA board, the MATLAB®/Simulink program and a step in motor, this control loop in real time.


Bistatic radar involves the use of a physically separated transmitter and receiver. This paper describes a bistatic radar system which uses the combination of a spaceborne synthetic aperture radar transmitter on board the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite, and a low-cost, stationary, groundbased receiver. The advantages of this variant of the bistatic configuration involve the passive and therefore undetectable nature of the receiver, in addition to standard bistatic considerations such as forward scatter. Experimental results obtained using the receiver, and an analysis into the utility of the system for moving target detection in the presence of clutter, based on a simulation in Matlab of the electronic Displaced Phase Centre Antenna technique are both presented. It is found that the DPCA method considered has a possible signal-to-clutter-and-noise ratio after cancellation and processing of approximately 10dB although this is with the assumption of adequate received pulses and so integration gain, to offset the signal-to-noise ratio degradation caused by the canceller. A discussion of future experimental work, including the possible use of two such receivers for an investigation into interferometry concludes.


Dispersion exists in many scientific and engineering applications, especially for CO2 enhanced gas recovery, which is a vital factor for controlling the contamination of remaining natural gas and gas recovery. In this paper, an in situ method for the dispersion coefficient measurement of liquid/supercritical CO2–CH4 in a sandpack using CT was proposed. The dispersion coefficient in the sandpack was obtained directly from the CO2 mole fraction profiles translated from a CT greyvalue image, which eliminate the deviation caused by the entry/exit effect. The finite difference method, Crank–Nicolson method, was applied to solve the advection dispersion equation for obtaining the dispersion coefficient. The breakthrough profile of the effluent gas was also analyzed and the apparent dispersion coefficient containing the entry/exit effect was measured using the dynamic column breakthrough method. The entry/exit effect enlarged the dispersion coefficient in the range of 14–23% under a water-free experiment according to the deviation between the two methods. And the dispersion coefficient with the sandpack containing residual water was smaller than that of the water-free condition, which was probably caused by the dissolution of CO2 in the displacing frontier into residual water. The dissolution stabilized the dispersion in the displacing frontier and resulted in the reduction of the dispersion coefficient.


For the complex non-linear relationship between the piezometric level and its influencing factors in the seepage safety monitoring model,and the difficult problem of model factors selection,support vector machine model is used to simulate the nonlinear relationship between piezometric level and its influencing factors.And then the simplex particle swarm optimization method is applied to optimize the kernel parameter,penalty coefficient and non-sensitive loss factor in support vector machine.Finally,the simplex particle swarm optimization-support vector machine model(SMPSO-SVM) is established to predict the piezometric level of earth dam.Compared with multiple linear regression model,stepwise regression model,genetic regression model and least squares support vector machine model,the results show that the SMPSO-SVM model has high prediction accuracy and good stability.


Adhocnetworks areveryimportant forscenarios wherethere isnotfixed network infrastructure. These scenarios mayappear bothinthemilitary andthecommercial world. Even though there ismuchadvancement inthearea ofthese networks, theydonotscale well. Thisisduetotheinability oftheexisting protocols (e.g., MAC,routing, security) totolerate thedynamics ofthese networks whentheir size becomes large. Aremedy isto apply these protocols inahierarchical manner. Thehierarchy generation inthese dynamic environments canbeadvantageous since thenetwork appears tobesmaller duetotheaggregation andabstraction resulted fromthegrouping ofnodes. The numerous topological changes canbetolerated easier andthe applied protocols canperform better. Thisdivision greatly reduces overall overhead (e.g., routing overhead withnnodes goesfrom0(n2) to0(nlogn)) andallows protocols tobetuned tomorehomogenous conditions). Ontheother hand, hierarchy hastobegenerated carefully inorder tobebeneficial forthe network otherwise itmayharmit,duetotheimposed maintenance overhead. Towards this objective wehavetotake intoconsideration thenetworkenvironment anddesign appropriately thehierarchy generation algorithms. Inthis paper we present a mobility baseddomaingeneration algorithm (DGA),whichina distributed mannerattempts toexploit similarities inthemobility pattems oftheparticipating nodes by utilizing asetofmobility metrics. Bygrouping together nodes withsimilar mobility characteristics, themobility based DGA targets thegeneration ofrobust tomobility hierarchical structures. Thealgorithm presents better scalability and robustness characteristics fromwellknownexisting distributed domain generarion algorithms.


The decision-making methods have in the past been the topic of several investigates, both within as well as additionally outdoors your business administration area. Several authors have incorporated significantly to boost the study of the issue. An important spot on this location was delivered by Simon, which offered an exceptional payment covering worrying excess of reason in decision making. The searchings for affirm that BA is winding up being extremely well understood one of a lot of providers worldwide, being used if you desire to reinforce business procedure effectiveness. This paper gives an extensive overview of business analytics. Keywords—Business Analytics, BI, publications


Ten pedons representing the Saint Onesime, Manie, Mont Carmel and Ixworth soil series were studied to respectively characterize the well to very poorly drained members of a toposequence formed on glacial till deposits along the north flank of the Appalachian Highlands. The parent material was generally homogeneous in the occurrence area except in the western part where glacial lakes along the Chaudiere Valley controlled the deposition of a coarser till material. Soil reaction was extremely acid in the solum and pH reached approximately 6.0 in the parent material. Base saturation was low, which was related to the large amounts of aluminum hydroxypolymers present in the clay fraction. Mineralogical analysis of the clay fraction indicated an extensive transformation of illite not only to the swelling minerals, vermiculite and montmorillonite, but also to kaolinite. Chlorite was absent in the A horizons of the well drained profiles. The soils were underlain by fragic horizons. This fragipan had a moderately d...


Article 64 of Rule of Evidence in criminal proceedings first, in the form of judicial explanation, expressly prescribes that judges, in the situation of having no legal provisions, or no express legal provisions, have the power to use their common knowledge to make judgment. This provides the systematic basis for judges' "no law" justice. Judges' discretion cannot be made without judicial experience. The judicial experience in broad sense refers to the knowledge and skills gradually collected in judicial practice about laws and dispute settling, and the judicial professional common sense in the whole judicial activities. The judicial experience in narrow sense only means a judge's self understanding and experience and the knowledge and skills collected in judicial practice. In the context of statute, the function of judicial experience is mainly embodied in the process of hearing facts. Concretely speaking, judicial experience is of great importance in the following aspects such as judicial cognition, fact determination, law and evidence choice, evidence determination and evidence adoption. Therefore, judicial experience should be emphasized and effectively used in judicial practice. At the same time, in order to prevent the abusing of judicial discretion, the use of judicial experience shall be limited within the scope of reasonable system.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) leads to end stage kidney disease (ESKD) and the need for kidney transplantation (KTX). Native nephrectomy is required when the polycystic kidneys are too large to safely implant a renal transplant in the iliac fossa. Open nephrectomy (ON) using a flank incision for KTX is extremely invasive. Although transperitoneal laparoscopic nephrectomy for kidneys affected by ADPKD has been reported by some centers, the retroperitoneal approach is preferred, because the kidney is implanted in retroperitoneal space. Therefore, we used retroperitoneoscopic native nephrectomy (RN) for ADPKD. METHODS: Twenty consecutive kidney recipients (10 men, 10 women) were enrolled in this study. The mean age of the recipients was 54.5 ± 9.6 years. Unilateral native nephrectomy was performed to allow for the creation of sufficient space just before KTX. RN was performed for 10 recipients, and ON for 10 recipients. In the RN procedure, the kidney is completely delivered with 4 ports (12mm×2 ports and 5mm×2 ports) and the kidney is then extracted through Gibson incision (15cm) made for KTX. In ON, the flank incision (20cm) for nephrectomy was made, followed by the Gibson incision (15cm) for KTX. We compared the perioperative outcomes and early complications for the two procedures. RESULTS: There was no difference in the age, gender and body mass index of the patients between the two groups. The operative time for nephrectomy, intraoperative blood loss and nephrectomized kidney weight were similar between the two groups. Conversion to open surgery was not observed in RN group. Although there was no intraoperative complication observed in RN, a pleura injury led to the insertion of thoracostomy catheter in the ON group. The frequency of post-operative analgesics was significantly lower in the RN group compared to that in the ON group (4.7 VS. 8.5 times, P<0.05). Furthermore, the time to transit recovery was significantly shorter in the RN group than in the ON group (1.2 vs. 1.9 days, P<0.05). There were no severe post-operative complications in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: RN for ADPKD in KTX is well-tolerated and is less invasive compared to open surgery. These results suggest that RN could be a feasible option for nephrectomy with ADPKD undergoing KTX. Table. No title available. Source of Funding: none


[Problem] Species provide safe and good steering feeling of the electric power steering apparatus, which includes a laterally offset from the lateral displacement suppressing or inhibiting function, to be able to better reduce the lateral offset or lateral displacement driver load effect. [Solution means] electric power steering apparatus includes means for calculating a correction value by correcting the motor current based on the motor current command value of the motor current correction value of the correction signal, the motor current correction value calculating unit of the vehicle for determining the state of straight running the straight running state determining means (110, 120), for straight travel determination unit based on the straight running state determination result, the steering angle ([theta]) and force (SAT estimated value) calculated motor correction signal (SG4) and adaptive arithmetic unit output for outputting a vehicle speed (V) corresponding to the vehicle speed gain (Ga) of the vehicle speed sensitive gain unit (133) and a vehicle speed gain (Ga) and the motor correction signal (SG4) is multiplied and output of the motor current correction value (of Imc) output of the arithmetic unit (105, 106) configured. Further, by storing during straight running is determined at the right motor correction signal exceeds a threshold time a steering angle (theta] 1), for the stored value sets a new threshold value (TH3, TH4) respectively on the upper and lower sides, and comparison of the motor is determined based on the correction signal with a threshold in order to suppress or includes a laterally offset from the lateral displacement suppressing function.


Feeding behavior of three leafhopper species – Erythroneura vitis (Harris), Erythroneura ziczac (Walsh), and Erythroneura elegantula (Say) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) – reared on grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. cv. 'Seyval blanc' (Vitaceae), was investigated using histological techniques and DC‐electrical penetration graphs (DC‐EPG). Histological studies revealed that the Erythroneura species induced white stipples on the leaves and that these leafhoppers produced thin salivary sheaths in grapevine leaf tissues. The DC‐EPG system allowed the characterization of five waveforms associated with stylet penetration and feeding in leaf tissues. These waveforms were characteristic of feeding phases corresponding to epidermis penetration pathway, salivation, and ingestion. We calculated 28 parameters (e.g., number of probes, duration of phases, and time spent in the various tissues) to describe and compare the feeding behavior of the Erythroneura species. We conclude that the three Erythroneura species are mainly mesophyll feeders but may probably also feed in other tissues such as xylem.


Some Chinese characters,such as those of carbohydrate,protein and steroid,have been used in academic terms,but now are prohibited.These characters not only possess special academic meaning,but also are very simple and understandable.Moreover,they are still retained in XINHUA ZIDIAN.The author suggests that these Chinese characters should be resumed in academic terms.


According to experts, students respond better to challenges where creativity and innovation are boosted than in the classical teaching-learning model, this also includes the English classroom. Based on this premise, this mixed and pre-experimental design research seeks to share the effect of a social poster project on tertiary education students' productive skills performance in a public institution in Peru. The data was collected from 71 participants who were assessed before and after this through pre and post-test. In addition, a closed and open-ended questions survey was carried out to know the participants' views on their posters' creation experience and look for the most common rhetorical elements in their creation. The most noteworthy findings were the statistically significant score improvements in productive skills in the participants, upon project completion, and the favorable opinion about this, in conjunction with their preference for Logos design, at the time of persuading people.


Mpox or Variola M is a zoonosis caused by viruses of the genus Orthopoxvirus, which also cause common smallpox. It is a disease considered rare and self-limiting, being endemic in African countries. However, in 2022, it gained prominence due to the global outbreak that began when the world was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, as it is an emerging disease, this review aims to point out general aspects of what is known so far about Mpox, from its immunopathogenesis to current forms of prevention and post-infection care.


TOTALLY CONTRARY TO ITS LEADERS' INTENTIONS, the Soviet Union was a highly successful nation builder. Its final historical product was 15 sovereign nations in a region of the world where previously there had been none (if one excludes the brief pre-1940 nationhood of the Baltic republics). Why did this happen? Was it because those nations had always been chafing under Soviet tyranny, longing to be set free? Or was it because the Soviet state actually created nations with their own high cultures as a by-product of building socialism which then got out of hand? These are the questions Yekelchyk poses in considering the relationship between Ukraine and the Russian-oriented Soviet leadership. In answering them he draws on recent post-colonial theory, interpreting Soviet ideology on nationality issues as an imperial discourse which emerged as a result of complex interactions between the centre, Ukrainian officials and Ukrainian cultural figures. The 1920s generation of Ukrainian leaders viewed the national development of their country and the building of socialism as not only compatible but indissolubly linked. Their in-house historian, Matvii Yavorsky, wrote a history of Ukraine which highlighted the struggle of the 'exploited masses'—a concept that could be interpreted in both a socialist and a nationalist direction. When, however, he explained that Ukrainians had suffered worse under tsarist Russia than under the Poles, he was asserting something that the successors of the tsarist Russian state found it increasingly difficult to accept. He was arrested as a Ukrainian nationalist in 1933. At the same time, ironically, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, his opponent, was condemned for the same heresy. The result of the suppression of 'bourgeois nationalism' was not, as might have been expected, the final condemnation of a separate Ukrainian national identity but, on the contrary, its rehabilitation, only now in a new guise, as a member of the Soviet community of nationalities, led by the great Russian people, the 'first among equals'. Ukrainian national identity was now being subsumed in an overarching Russian – Soviet multinational identity summarised in the new canonic phrase 'friendship of the peoples'. The Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in September 1939 was presented by Molotov in primordial nationalist terms as a defence of 'our brothers of the same blood', and the territory was described as being 'primordial Russian lands that had been part of the Rurikids' empire' (p. 25). During the war Ukrainian publicists were able to trace their nationhood right back to Kievan Rus'. This was necessary to combat the rival nationalist discourse that was circulating in occupied Ukraine, and especially in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which regarded Ukrainians as a primordial nation to be liberated from Russia and from Bolshevism. After the war Ukraine occupied a particularly sensitive position among the Soviet nationalities. Stalin had united all the territory that might be called Ukrainian for the first time since the fourteenth century. Ukraine had emerged victorious from the war and was now moreover a sovereign member of the United Nations. It is not surprising that many Ukrainians EUROPE-ASIA STUDIES Vol. 57, No. 4, June 2005, 635 – 651


Traditional deformation parameters such as drained, unjacketed, and pseudo-bulk compressibilities are developed for a saturated porous medium, assuming they can be uniquely determined by measuring the liquid pressure, confining pressure, and changes in volume. Physically, however, the liquid volume fraction (porosity for a saturated porous medium) plays an important role, yet it is not directly measurable. In this paper the compressibilities are defined in terms of the experiments used to evaluate them and then mathematically related to the compressibilities of the liquid and solid phases and the volume fraction. The results can then be used to determine the effects of the volume fraction and compressibilities of each phase on the deformation properties of the porous medium. This theory is then shown to be a generalization of previous work, and comparisons are made with previously derived relationships of Zimmerman, Biot, and Gassmann.


Lawyers' right to refuse to give evidence is called lawyers' privilege. It is an essential part of lawyers' rights. With the rapid development of lawyers' defence in criminal cases, it is an urgent need that the lawyers' right to refuse to give evidence in criminal cases is ensured so that the defendant's legal right, and healthy development of lawyers' profession and lawyers system are guaranteed.


In this programmatic paper we explore the possibility of explaining the existence of grammatical functions (GFs) in languages as a consequence of the generalization by learners of correspondences between syntactic form and the representation of the thematic features of events and relations. The GFs Subject and Object are taken for granted as having descriptive and explanatory significance in the vast majority of grammatical analyses. In some theoretical approaches, such as Relational Grammar, Simpler Syntax, HPSG and LFG, they are taken as primitives of syntactic representation. Thus, they are assumed to be universals. In Chomsky (1965), Subject and Object are names given to universal properties of syntactic configurations. At the same time, there are significant exceptions. For example, Schachter (1976) argued that the grammars of Tagalog and other Phillipine languages are not organized around GFs, but around the marking of Topic and θ-roles. Mithun (1991) shows that there are 'active/agentive' languages that manage the correspondence between morphosyntactically marked grammatical arguments and θ-roles without appeal to GFs, while Mithun (2008) goes a bit further and argues that Central Pomo lacks a Subject GF, although it does have a construction that can be viewed as ?passivization?.. Many languages show 'differential argument marking', which suggests that what we think of as GFs are in fact various degrees of generalization of the correspondence between thematic structure and grammatical form. The idea that a language can be fully functional in expressing θ-roles and distinguishing arguments without fully general GFs or without GFs at all raises the question that we explore in this paper: Where do GFs come from, if they are not universal? And if they are not universal, what are they, and why are they so ubiquitous in the languages of the world? The idea that GFs are essentially grammatical categories that arise from the generalization of formal devices for marking thematic properties of arguments is not new. Shibatani (1991:103) writes that "our view on the subject is that: (a) it is a syntactic category resulting from the generalization of an agent over other semantic roles, (b) languages vary as to how far this generalization has taken place; i.e. the grammatical status of subject differs from one language to another, and therefore (c) the subject is not necessarily a universal category." And Keenan (1976) argues that an NP is a subject to the extent that it possesses a subset of properties on a list of semantic, thematic and syntactic properties. Our goal is to explore the mechanisms that yield the sorts of 'generalization' envisioned by Shibatani. The approach thus has three components. First, we must specify how events and other kinds of relationships between entities are represented conceptually. Focusing here on subject, this means that we have to say in more precise terms what it means for an argument to have