This work reviews site diversity concepts and models and presents the results of a site diversity experiment, in which radiometers were used to measure attenuation on Earth-space paths, performed at Columbus, Ohio, for a period of one year. Attenuation statistics are presented first in the form of the joint probability density function of attenuation at the two sites. From these are derived the cumulative two-dimensional distribution of attenuation at both sites, the cumulative distribution of attenuation at each site, the effective cumulative distribution of attenuation for a diversity system that always switches to the better of two signals, and the effective cumulative distribution of attenuation for a system with maximal-ratio signal combining. The switched-system diversity gain is compared with D.B. Hodge's (1982) predictive model, and the diversity improvement is compared with L. Boithias' (Radiowave Propagation, McGraw-Hill, 1987) model. Fade-duration and interfade-interval statistics are presented for each site and for systems that use switching and maximal-ratio combining. Rain-rate and interrainfall interval statistics are included. >


Reactions of dyes, some of which contain a carboxylic acid group, on polyamide have been investigated using nine different dyes of differing chemical structures. Fixation characteristics and dye–fibre bond stability to alkaline washing were also studied. Light fastness and ability to cover barre effects on nylon were investigated. Studies were also made on the effect of carbodiimide on fixation and dye–fibre bond stability of these dyes on nylon fibres.


Abstract In a recent survey conducted by the University of Nebrask's Center for Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology of Agricultural Network (AGNET) users, the results of potential evapotranspiration (ETp) projections (calculated using the Blaney-Criddle approach, which employs "normal" climatic data to project ETp, estimates up to three days into the future) were labeled "unrealistic". To improve these projection National Weather Service (NWS) forecast variables were used as input into the Blancy-Criddle and Penman equations. ETp, projections calculated according to the Penman equation, with data measured by automated weather stations as input, were assumed to represent the "best" attainable. ETp projections calculated using NWS forecasted values were compared with the "best" projections for the summer of 1985. Increased accuracy in ETp, projections due to increased accuracy in the individual forecasted input variables was evaluated. Overall, daily ETp, projections made with the Blancy-Criddle equati...


A system has a compressor (22), a heat rejection heat exchanger (30), first and second ejectors (38, 202), first and second heat absorption heat exchangers (64, 220), and first and second separators (118, 210). The heat rejection heat exchanger is coupled to the compressor to receive refrigerant compressed by the compressor. The first ejector has a primary inlet coupled to the heat rejection exchanger to receive refrigerant, a secondary inlet, and an outlet. The first separator has an inlet coupled to the outlet of the first ejector to receive refrigerant from the first ejector. The first separator has a gas outlet coupled to the compressor to return refrigerant to the compressor. The first separator has a liquid outlet coupled to the secondary inlet of the ejector to deliver refrigerant to the first ejector. The first heat absorption heat exchanger is coupled to the liquid outlet of the first separator to receive refrigerant and to the secondary inlet of the first ejector to deliver refrigerant to the first ejector. The second ejector has a primary inlet coupled to the liquid outlet of the first separator to receive refrigerant, a secondary inlet, and an outlet. The second separator has an inlet coupled to an outlet of the second ejector to receive refrigerant from the second ejector, a gas outlet coupled to the compressor to return refrigerant to the compressor, and a liquid outlet. The second heat absorption heat exchanger is coupled to the liquid outlet of the second separator to receive refrigerant and to the secondary inlet of the second ejector to deliver refrigerant to the second ejector.


OBJECTIVE
Provide the suggestion for MDAEs monitoring and the reference to strengthen the medical device administration by analyzing the 1900 reports of MDAEs.

METHOD
With retrospective case study, analyze 1900 MDAE reports in Henan province in 2008. RESULT Orthopedic implants and the intrauterine device (IUD) caused the higher proportion of adverse events with serious degree. The scope that the reports covered needs to be raised.

CONCLUSION
Further focus monitoring on orthopedic implants and the IUD should be strengthened. The medical device adverse events monitoring should be promoted by improving regulations, training and publicity.


Introduction: Short stature affects approximately 2% of children, representing one of the more frequent disorders for which clinical attention is sought during childhood. Despite assumed genetic heterogeneity, mutations or deletions of the Short Stature Homeoboxcontaining gene (SHOX) are found quite frequently in subjects with short stature. Haploinsufficiency of the SHOX gene causes short stature with highly variable clinical severity, ranging from isolated short stature without dysmorphic features to Léri-Weill syndrome and, with no functional copy of the SHOX gene, Langer syndrome. Methods and Results: To characterize the clinical and molecular spectrum of SHOX deficiency in childhood we assessed the association between genotype and phenotype in a large cohort of short-statured children from 14 countries. Screening of 1608 unrelated individuals with sporadic or familial short stature revealed SHOX mutations or deletions in 68 individuals (4.2%): complete deletions in 48 (70.6%), partial deletions in 4 (5.9%) and point mutations in 16 subjects (23.5%). While mean height standard deviation score (SDS) was not different between short-stature subjects with or without identified SHOX gene defects (-2.6 versus -2.6), detailed examination revealed that certain bone deformities and dysmorphic signs, such as short forearm and lower leg, cubitus valgus, Madelung deformity, high-arched palate and muscular hypertrophy, differed significantly between subjects with or without SHOX gene defects (p<0.001). Discussion: Phenotypic data were also compared for 33 children with Turner syndrome in whom haploinsufficiency of SHOX is thought to be responsible for the height deficit. A phenotype scoring system was developed that may assist in identifying the most appropriate subjects for SHOX testing. This study offers a detailed genotype-phenotype analysis in a large cohort of children with short stature and provides quantitative clinical guidelines for testing of the SHOX gene. on 7 January 2007 jmg.bmj.com Downloaded from


Nowadays the photonics will be the stage of all-optical photonic applications. Photonic devices with develop to light controlling with light. Natural dyes are attractive photonic media and subject to investigate in the applications due to the linear and nonlinear optical response. An optical pump-probe technique was presented to demonstrate the possibility of realizing the all-photonic switching. Two overlapping laser beams are used for this purpose, due to which a low-power beam passing collinear to a high-power laser beam will undergo cross phase modulation and thereby distort the spatial profile. Natural organic dyes extracted from plants in different method, such as, beet root, blackberry and cherry possessing large optical nonlinearity were prepared in ethylene glycol was used as solvent. Optical properties was performed to characterize the prepared the samples. Based on the optical nonlinear response, an interesting of figures of merit was calculated to assess the natural dyes for presented device. The results showed that the blackberry and beet root natural dyes, respectively, for design of all-photonic switches indicates that 84 and 80 % modulation at switching response time of 37 and 13 ms can be achieved with a control pump laser beam of 10 mW. These dyes are a precursor for developing ultra-photonic switches and in the development for application in solar cell devices.


Abstract A formulation is presented for barotropic, steady, inviscid flow through a rectangular opening by a rotating fluid. The magnitude of the flow depends on the difference in free surface height δ ζ, force of gravity g, Coriolis parameter f, and opening width w. It is not necessary for the channel to approach the Rossby radius in width for important rotational effects to be felt. When W/w<1 (the ratio of a novel width scale W=(2gδ ζ)½/f to channel width), the Garrett and Toulany (1982) prediction for mean velocity of =gδζ/fw is found. In the converse limit, =(2gδ ζ)½−½fw. Both are confirmed by laboratory experiment. The laboratory flow approximately matches the assumption that relative vorticity is −f. There are straits in the oceans and flows through mountain passages which may be governed by the laws discussed here.


Agro-ecological assessment of proliferation of rill erosion channels in the humid tropic was conducted between January and July 2022. The purpose of the study was to seek possibility of preventing proliferation of rill erosion channels using a variety of crops; vetiver grass, potato plant, groundnut and fallow vegetation in erosion control. Different land slopes of 4, 5 and 6 per cents representing blocks 1,2 and 3 were used for the study. Soil samples were collected from each unit for laboratory determination of soil textural characteristics. Plots dimension of 10m x 80m were delineated on each slope to form a block. Sub plots of 10m x 10m were delineated from each block for each crops cover types. In-situ measurement of parameters, viz; number of rill erosion channels, length, width and depth of channels were accomplished. The total number of rill channels from each crops' plot was statistically analyzed to determine their Coefficient of Variation (CV). The CV values for vetiver, potatoes, groundnut, fallow vegetation and control plot indicated; 40.50%, 31.11%, 60.62%, 38.00% and 62.50% respectively. Result of channel characteristics showed that fallow plot recorded the lowest number of channels of 1.8, width of 2.3cm and length of 142.5cm respectively. Average length and depth recorded in vetiver plots are 143cm and 1.6cm, Potatoes has a total depth of 2.2cm and length of 194.3cm. Similar result was recorded in fallow plot, indicating that vetiver, potatoes and fallow vegetation exhibited similar erosion control potential. Conversely, the highest length, width and depth and number of rill channels were traced to control plot with a mean of 3.8 spillways, depth of 4.8cm, width of 25.8cm and mean length of 312.5cm seconded by groundnut plot. Implying, soil protection as well as crop production can be guaranteed with the right choice of crops in the humid tropics


Improved thermal efficiency, reductions in fuel consumption and pollutant emissions from biodiesel fuelled diesel engines are important issues in engine research. To achieve these, rapid and better air-fuel mixing is the most important requirement. However, the use of biodiesel in an engine results in variation in engine performance and emissions due to variation in physical and chemical properties of the biodiesel. The effects of these physico-chemical properties on the air-fuel mixing and fuel supply system such as fuel pump have already been reported. The mixing quality of biodiesel spray with air can be generally improved by selecting the best injection parameters and better design of the combustion chamber.


The article is devoted to solving a practical problem: the choice of equipment for pre-treatment of salt water that feeds the desalination plant. The preliminary stage of desalination is the purification of water from sand particles, which can significantly reduce productivity and even damage the desalination plant, which is situated at the next stage. For pre-treatment, settling tanks, hydrocyclones, sand filters, etc. are used. The main dimensions of hydrocyclones of standard designs are calculated based on well-known recommendations. Modern computer simulation systems allow you to create three-dimensional models of the apparatus being studied, and then calculate the velocity and pressure fields in them. It was necessary to estimate the amount of sand contained in the feed water. To solve this problem, an experimental hydrocyclone was developed and manufactured. The hydrocyclone was numerically simulated and the sand capture coefficient was estimated under various operating conditions. It has been established that an experimental hydrocyclone reliably captures grains of sand 50 microns in size and above. The average daily mass of trapped sand was experimentally determined. Numerical modeling made it possible with reasonable accuracy to estimate the sand capture coefficient by an experimental hydrocyclone. During the tests, the mass of sand entering the pipeline per day was determined. The hydrocyclone reliably captures sand particles of 50 microns or more. At the same time, a significant part of particles less than 50 microns is not captured by the hydrocyclone, which is why a sand filter was chosen for industrial use. In the future, it is advisable to use a serial connection of a hydrocyclone and a sand filter, but such a solution requires additional technical and economic calculation. It is concluded that in the case under consideration, it is advisable to use a sand filter for preliminary water treatment


Abstract Whilst the number of maternal deaths attributable to massive obstetric haemorrhage continues to fall, it is important not to become complacent. It can become life threatening in a very short space of time. The most recent death rate attributable directly to obstetric haemorrhage in the United Kingdom is 3.3/million maternities, the majority due to antepartum haemorrhage. If haemorrhage occurs antenatally not only are there consequences for the mother but also for the fetus. Recurrent antepartum haemorrhage is a condition which is often difficult to manage and the true significance of multiple minor episodes of bleeding may not be recognized. A multi-disciplinary team approach with good communication within the team is the key to successful management and good outcomes for these women and their babies. This article discusses three different cases of antepartum haemorrhage and their management.


This work addresses the origin of the transient body potential variation in silicon on insulator (SOI) with deposited metal contacts, under back-gate bias sweep from accumulation to inversion. The phenomenon arises from the difficulty to inject carriers into the silicon film due to the Schottky contact between the metal and the low p-type doped silicon. The Schottky diode current is controlled by the back-gate voltage, which fixes the potential at the bottom of the low-doped film. When the back-gate voltage drives the silicon film towards inversion, the limited current from the Schottky contact induces a deficit of minority carriers in the film and brings the body potential in an out-of-equilibrium regime. This phenomenon will be reproduced with numerical modelling based on Poisson and continuity equations, including the quasi-Fermi potential. The transient character and its dependence on the Schottky barrier height will be evidenced. A simple and effective combination of the classic Schottky current equation and inversion current calculated from the Lambert function, as in fully depleted (FD)-SOI MOSFETs, confirms the origin of the effect.


Past and current research efforts in the use of nondestructive testing to evaluate the integrity and capacity of drilled shafts containing defects are described. The results of a drilled shaft test program containing both controlled and uncontrolled defects (five shafts at a dense soil site and six shafts at a soft soil site) are presented. The test program was designed to demonstrate in a relative way the ability to find defects, the ability to quantify the location and magnitude of defects, and the correlation of defects with acceptance criteria. Planned defects were created by attaching soil-filled bags to the rebar cages. Uncontrolled defects were created by using improper drilling procedures, such as pulling the tremie pipe out of the concrete, using low slump concrete for portions of the shaft, and using improper slurry control procedures. All shafts contained four preplaced access tubes attached to the rebar cage and were tested using both sonic logging and gamma logging procedures as well as surface reflection techniques (sonic echo test and transient dynamic response test). The approximate costs and relative effectiveness of the different nondestructive techniques in finding and quantifying defects in the shafts are discussed.


Introduction: Melioidosis is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by a soil transmitted saprophyte Burkholderia pseudomallei, a Gram-negative bacillus with bipolar staining. Melioidosis has expanded its occurrence from the tropics to other parts of the world. It usually causes abscesses in lung, liver, spleen, skeletal muscle and parotids in patient with risk factors such as Diabetes mellitus, heavy alcohol use, smoking, chronic lung and kidney disease, corticosteroid use. This organism is acquired through percutaneous inoculation and inhalation. Meliodosis can present with septicemia, visceral abscesses, cavitory pneumonia and rarely multifocal osteomyelitis. Aims and Objectives: Musculoskeletal melioidosis is not common in India even though sporadic cases have been reported mostly involving soft tissues.Objective of this study is early diagnosis and to start appropriate treatment in patient with melioidosis. Material and Method: During a period of two years (March 2017 to April 2019), we had seven patients with musculoskeletal melioidosis. All patients presented with multifocal osteomyelitis, recurrent osteomyelitis or septic arthritis cause by concomitant staphylocococcus aureus and burkholderia pseudomallei organism. All patients were diagnosed on the basis of clinical, microbiological and radiological correlation. All patients were treated by surgical debridement followed by a combination of antibiotics; (ceftazidime, amoxyclavulanic acid and co-trimoxazole and doxycycline) for minimum period of three months to maximum period of six months. All patient were followed up for a period ofone year and all patients recovered completely with no recurrences. Result: With early diagnosis and appropriate treatment all patient were cured of the infection with no recurrence. Conclusion: Diagnosis of Melioidosis missed in many parts of the world due to lack of awareness of this infection and lack of adequate diagnostic techniques. It mimics other disease such as tuberculosis and infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Delay in diagnosis or treatment against melioidosis can worsen the outcome. Initial therapy with intravenous antibiotics followed by oral maintenance therapy and appropriate surgical intervention remains vital in the management.


The grindingaid mechanism of multiamidocyanogen sodium phosphate as grind additive was investigated by studying the influences of multiamidocyanogen sodium phosphate on the grinding efficiency of quartz and clay containing materials, and on the fluidity and ξpotential of the slip with the aid the IR analysis. The results showed that the surface energy of the ceramics materials could be reduced by the adsorption of multiamidocyanogen sodium phosphate on the materials surfaces, which result in the obvious improvement on grinding efficiency. At the same time, multiamidocyanogen sodium phosphate could increase the fluidity of the clay containing slip to some extent, which also leads to improving grinding efficiency. By comparison between the two functions, the former plays a more important role in the grinding process.


This paper is under the research background of the national and local tax information comparison system. According to the actual demand of the two taxes information comparison business, a detailed description of the overall architecture and the design progress of the national and local tax information comparison data warehouse is presented. Amounts of data can be extracted and analyzed quickly due to the building of the NLICS DW. Condominium household and tax dodgers can be identified, exception households can be approved accurately, and abnormal data can be found further. The accurate and informative data can be supplied to special tax administrator to manage the household and evalue well.


oncogenic RNA viruses. It has also been reported (24) that single-stranded polyribonucleotides at very low concentrations inhibit DNA polymerase of Rauscher leukemia virus. In this report, we present data that show a way in which RNA indirectly affects DNA synthesis. These data show that RNA markedly inhibits ribonucleotide reducÃ-asefrom Ehrlich ascites tumor cells, at concentrations which could be of physiological significance. Previous studies showed that there is a direct relationship between tumor growth rates and ribonucleotide reducÃ-ase levels (7) and between Ihe level of ribonucleolide reducÃ-ase and levels of DNA synlhesis in vivo (5). The role of ribonucleotide reducÃ-ase in normal DNA synlhesis is, Iherefore, very imporlanl. The faclors lhat control Ihe in vivo activity of ribonucleotide reducÃ-asemusi be elucidaled.


Minimum price system compared with the quota model –effectiveness and efficiency Which compensation model can best promote electricity generation from renewable energies? Currently, in a comparison in Europe 1 minimum price systems are being applied to a large extent. These systems are often contrasted with the quota model as a supposedly more efficient promotion instrument. In the European comparison minimum price systems, compared to quota schemes, up until now clearly perform better in terms of installed capacity, newly installed wind turbines and current average compensation rate of wind power. They are not only more effective but also more efficient. The minimum price system is characterized by the legally determined minimum price and a general duty to purchase " green " electricity on the part of the grid operator or utility. In contrast, the key component of a quota scheme is the government regulation of a quantity or amount of electricity from renewable energies that should be provided, purchased or sold by a specified group of market participants. Allocating certificates controls compliance to the respective committed quantity. Bidding models also exist: regenerative electricity producers compete in individual bidding rounds to cover a previously determined quantity contingent. The winning bidders then receive a fixed-term purchase guarantee for the electricity they generate. 1 EU-15 countries are considered, without the acceding countries since May 1 st , 2004. German Wind Energy Association (BWE) Background information: Minimum price system compared with the quota model – which system is more efficient? 2 When comparing the annual growth rate for developing wind energy, countries within Europe and across the globe with fixed compensation for electricity fed into the grid are at the top: in 2003 Germany, Spain and Austria recorded the highest figures in newly installed capacity (see graphic). Denmark, Europe's wind pioneer, is also among the leading group who traditionally and now after a short pause, again uses a feed-in compensation model – although in a qualified sense. However, a system change is brought up in conversation again and again in the current debate in the individual countries and at the EU level. In the following document, the most important arguments for this are subjected to critical examination. Claim number 1: " In comparison to minimum price systems, quota systems lead to higher cost reductions per generated kWh " Quota system advocates argue with examples of increased competition among the producers and strongly falling prices for …


OBJECTIVE: To note the functional outcome of recurrent anterior shoulder dislocation with Bankart repair (BR) treated with arthroscopic stabilisation with suture anchors. METHODOLOGY: This prospective cohort study was conducted at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Lahore General Hospital, Lahore, from January 2021 to June 2022. Patients undergoing arthroscopic BR with anterior instability of the glenohumeral joint with at least >6 episodes of dislocation/subluxation in the last six months were analysed. Functional outcomes were assessed at one-month, three-month and six month intervals post-surgery using "Modified University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)" and "Simple Shoulder Test (SST)". RESULTS: Of 25 patients, 24 (96.0%) were male. The mean age was 27.20±4.0 years. The mean duration of symptoms was 9.1±6.2 months. In 16 (64.0%) patients, 2-suture anchors were utilised, while 3-suture anchors were used in the remaining 9 (36.0%) patients. Pre-surgery, the mean UCLA score was 16.4±5.6 and improved to 1-month, 3-month and 6-month as 16.6±5.1, 22.8±6.2 and 28.4±6.6 respectively (p<0.001). Pre-surgery, the mean SST score was 4.7±2.4 which improved to 1-month, 3-month and 6-month as 5.4±2.6, 8.1±3.3 and 11.2±3.1 respectively (p<0.001). All patients (100%) had full range of motion after six months post-surgery. CONCLUSION: Arthroscopic BR in recurrent anterior shoulder dislocation was a reliable procedure regarding functional outcomes and range of motion after six months of follow-up. KEYWORDS: Arthroscopy, Bankart repair, shoulder dislocation, suture anchors, range of motion


Process algebras are often advocated as suitable formalisms for the specification of telecommunication protocols and distributed systems. However, despite their mathematical basis, despite standardization attempts (most notably the Formal Description Technique Lotos), and despite an ever growing number of successful case-studies, process algebras have not yet reached a wide acceptance in industry. On the other hand, description languages such as Promela or Sdl are quite popular, although they lack a formal semantics, which should prohibit their use for safety-critical systems. In this paper, we seek to merge the "best of both worlds" by attempting to define a "second generation Formal Description Technique" that would combine the strong theoretical foundations of process algebras with language features suitable for a wider industrial dissemination of formal methods. Taking the international standard Lotos as a basis, we suggest several enhancements, which fall into three categories: data part, behaviour part, and modules. Our work was initiated in 1992 in the framework of the Iso/Iec Committee for the revision of the Lotos standard. Several of our suggestions have been accepted and will be integrated into the revised standard E-Lotos. The other suggestions are considered in the context of Lotos NT, a variant of E-Lotos for which a prototype compiler/model-checker is under development at Inria. H. Garavel, M. Sighireanu


Objectives : This study was designed to investigate the effects of Tong Xin Lou (TXL) on lipid accumulation in liver tissue in Hypercholesterolemic mice. TXL is new drug, which is one of Cardiotonic Pills. TXL is used for activating the blood flow in the restoration stage of cerebral infarction, and for alleviation of angina pectoris including the symptoms as chest oppressed and stabbing pain. Methods : Hyperlipidemia was induced by providing high fat diet for 6 weeks. Normal group was provided with normal rodent diet. TXL was administered orally in the concentration of 10 mg/day for 2 weeks (TXL group). D/W was administered orally in CTL group for 2 weeks. We observed histopathological changes in liver and heart tissues, and also investigated the effect on body weights, and levels of total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride in serum. Results : In this study, TXL did not affects weight gain in hypercholesterolemic mice. TXL group showed downward tendency of lipid accumulation compared with CTL group. In addition, oral administration of TXL lowered levels of total cholesterol (P


Developing countries have diverged sharply over the past quarter of a century in rates of output and productivity growth. Some have experienced stunning success, others disappointing failure. As a group, the East Asian economies consistently outperformed other developing regions, and their achievement has attracted the attention of policymakers everywhere. Although there are considerable differences among the East Asian economies, their generally superior performance justifies an East Asian focus in the analysis of government policies and growth. Governments the world over have tried to speed up economic growth by intervening in the marketplace. The failures have far outnumbered the successes. But some of the successes have been spectacular. East Asian economies, such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan made remarkable progress under moderately interventionist policies. And now China, with only gradual market reforms, is achieving the most rapid and sustained growth of any large country in the world. The region's success raises three crucial questions: was the nature of government interventions very different in East Asia than in other regions? Were the effects of government interventions very different in East Asia? What might account for these differences? In considering these questions, this paper distinguishes government interventions from market distortions. Intervention does not necessarily lead to growth-reducing distortions. Whether they do depends on their scope, quality and scale. The paper shows that the main reason for East Asia's superior performance was not that governments there intervened less - in fact, on average, they intervened as much as anywhere else in some areas such as public expenditures. Rather, the East Asian government intervened efficiently and in ways that contained and minimized overall price, trade, and macroeconomic distortions. They key to the region's better results was not so much any unique cultural factors as the development of effective policies, institutions and practices.


Electromagnetic transient simulation can be used to model complex non-linearities that are very difficult to represent adequately in the frequency domain. After reaching the steady state the voltage and current waveforms, represented by sets of discrete values at equally spaced intervals (corresponding with the integration steps), are subjected to fast Fourier transform processing to derive the harmonic spectra. However, the accuracy of the EMTP approach is limited by the restricted frequency dependence representation of the AC system components. It is shown that this problem is greatly reduced with the use of frequency-dependent network equivalents for the linear part of the system.


This paper outlines the progress made during the last few decades in the implementation of a frequency standard using the optical-microwave double resonance technique and laser optical pumping in a sealed cell containing an alkali atom vapor in a microwave cavity. An analysis is presented based on a three-level model, describing the basic phenomena taking place in that approach. The expected frequency stability is calculated. The various frequency shifts taking place are described and their importance is evaluated. Several laser systems generally used in this context are described as well as the various techniques for stabilizing them. The results obtained by several research groups are outlined, compared to the analysis, and evaluated in the context of the implementation of a practical frequency standard. Conclusions are drawn relative to the future of a realistic implementation of such a laser pumped frequency standard.


In modern digital speckle measurement method, we usually adopt subtraction to derive a digital speckle fringe pattern, which is information carrier for post-processing and inherently full of multiplicative noise. Noise reduction is needed before next processing step in order to guarantee the measurement precision. Which filtering methods should be adopted is much important. The authors expatiate some often used filtering methods in the digital speckle fringe pattern after reading a lot of concerned papers. Some representative filtering methods are selected for the purpose and the results are analyzed. At the end of the paper, the development direction of the filtering methods of digital speckle fringe pattern is presented.


To control a new type of piezoelectric ultrasonic micro dissection tool,frequency scope from ,amplitude scope,a driving power for piezoe lectric actuators are designed using direct digital synthesizer and direct curre nt amplifying principle.Also,the technologies both single chip and FPGA were ado pted. Finally,the regulate for the acceleration of the microdissection too l was achieved.


Background: Infliximab (IFX) is an effective rescue therapy for hospitalized steroid refractory acute ulcerative colitis (ASUC). Treatment response is associated with serum IFX trough levels. Intensified dosing regimens with escalated dose and/or shortened interval are increasingly used to compensat


Synthesis of metal nanoparticles using plant extracts is attracted much to the recent researchers due to its simplicity, which integrates chemical technology. Special attention is given to the green synthesis of nanoparticles by easily available plants with an eco-friendly system compared to other conventional methods. Silver-Gold nanocomposite (Ag-Au NCp's) is synthesized by bi reduction of silver nitrate and gold chloride. These metal salts are simultaneously reduced by tea extract to form respective silver and gold nanocomposite. The structure and morphology of as-prepared Ag-Au NCp's sample were characterized by employing powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) tool and by Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) tool, respectively. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectral study was undertaken to know the bonding in the prepared silver sample. Morphology and particle size of the above composite was studied by the Transmission electron microscope (TEM) tool. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) study was undertaken to know the formation of Ag-Au NCp's. Antibacterial activity study is undertaken to know its biological behavior.


1. The scope of the problem of the diagnosis of coronary artery disease is discussed. 2. The value and limitations of routine electrocardiography is outlined. 3. The Master "2-step" exercise test is described and the diagnostic value is stressed. 4. The ballistocardiogram is presented as a valuable means for early detection of coronary disease.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of Portuguese obesity websites. A cross-sectional, quantitative and observational study was designed. The evaluation of 127 sites found using the Google in "Advanced Search" option "pages in Portuguese", country "Portugal" was performed. The quality criteria used in this study resulted from the merger/adaptation from several authors previously published. The information on obesity was evaluated according to the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network: Management of Obesity, a National Clinical Guideline, 2010. The quality criteria most mentioned in the websites, were the purpose 80.3% and authority 73.2%. On the other hand, the editorial review 7.9% and references 15.7% were mentioned in the narrowest websites. The websites analyzed had a mean quality score of 5.2 points ± 2.1 out of 11. A significant correlation was found between the score of information on obesity and quality score for adults group 0.282 and both ages group 0.437. In Portugal, the websites that provide information on obesity had, generally, a low quality score.


Based on the sliding-mode and adaptive control theories, the distributed consensus tracking problem under directed topology is investigated for multiple mechanical systems in the presence of general disturbances. We consider that only a subset of the follower mechanical systems can get the information from the dynamic leader mechanical system. First, with the upper bounds of the general disturbances and the leader's acceleration, a distributed sliding-mode tracking scheme is proposed. Then, when considering the high conservation of sliding-mode control, an improved algorithm with adaptation laws for the upper bounds is developed. Both the proposed algorithms can make tracking errors for each follower mechanical system asymptotically stable. Numerical examples and comparisons are provided to show the effectiveness and the performance of the proposed control strategies.


When neutrinos travel through a normal matter medium, the electron neutrinos couple differently to gravity compared to the other neutrinos, due to the presence of electrons in the medium and the absence of the other charged leptons. We calculate the momentum-dependent part of the matter-induced gravitational couplings of the neutrinos under such conditions, which arise at order $g^2/M^4_W$, and determine their contribution to the neutrino dispersion relation in the presence of a gravitational potential $\phi^{\mathrm{ext}}$. These new contributions vanish for the muon and tau neutrinos. For electron neutrinos with momentum $K$, they are of the order of the usual Wolfenstein term times the factor $(K^2/M^2_W)\phi^{\mathrm{ext}}$, for high energy neutrinos. In environments where the gravitational potential is substantial, such as those in the vicinity of Active Galactic Nuclei, they could be the dominant term in the neutrino dispersion relation. They must also be taken into account in the analysis of possible violations of the Equivalence Principle in the neutrino sector, in experimental settings involving high energy neutrinos traveling through a matter background.


The embodiment of the invention provides a mobile banking authentication method and system for conveniently and fast performing self-help registration through an identity card. The method includes the mobile banking registration step and the mobile banking log-in step. The mobile banking registration step includes the steps that a user inputs an initial password, the front side and the back side of the identity card are photographed with a mobile banking client, and characters and person images on the front side and the back side are recognized through optical character recognition; video of the face of a registrant is photographed; SIM information and hardware information of a mobile phone are read; position information of the mobile phone is read; binding relations between the information and information of a mobile banking registration client are established. The mobile banking log-in step includes the steps that the video of the face of the client is photographed through the mobile banking client, and the SIM information and the hardware information of the mobile phone are read; the position information of the mobile phone is read; whether information acquired by the mobile banking is matched with the information of the mobile banking registration client or not is judged, if yes, log-in information passes verification, and if not, the verification fails. With the method and system, registration can be performed within 20 seconds.


In this paper, we propose a novel tunneling graphene nanoribbon field effect transistor by modification of the conventional structure in a way that its drain high-doped extension part is replaced by lightly linear doped region. Then the proposed structure has a Schottky contact at the drain side. As the source contact is ohmic and the drain contact is Schottky, this structure is called Schottky–Ohmic tunneling graphene nanoribbon field effect transistor. Electrical behaviors of the proposed device are investigated by mode space nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism in the ballistic limit. Simulation results show that without increasing transistor length, IOFF, ION/IOFF, ambipolar behavior, delay time and PDP of the proposed structure improve, in comparison with the conventional tunneling graphene nanoribbon field effect transistor with the same dimension. Also subthreshold swing which is one of the evident characteristics of the tunneling FET is preserved in this structure.


ABSTRACT The article presents one of the possible ways of overcoming the misconception that is one of the myths about mathematics, which says that teaching mathematics is based only on the transfer of mathematical knowledge in the finished form – often in the form of certain algorithms. The newly proposed method of access to mathematics teaching is illustrated on the selected part of the secondary mathematics curriculum, namely the introduction of the term parameter. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed new method was also validated experimentally at selected secondary schools in Slovakia. The results of the research were processed by using selected statistical methods – quantitative analysis methods. Research has shown that the new proposed method is effective. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed new method was also verified experimentally and the results of the experiment were evaluated using statistical methods.


The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on various aspects of life today. The tourism sector is one of the sectors affected by COVID-19, especially by the policy of social restrictions and foreign tourist visits. Derawan Island is one of the leading tourist destinations in East Kalimantan which has been affected by the COVID-19 infectious disease. The purpose of this research is to find out the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marine tourism on Derawan Island. The research was conducted in December 2020 – March 2021, using survey methods based on primary and secondary data. COVID-19 causes changes in habits, visit patterns, and the number of visits to Derawan Island marine tourism. The number of tourist visits decreased by 58% from the previous year, even as of December 2020, diving tourism actors are the parties most affected by COVID-19 due to the absence of diving tourists since the reopening of the leading tourist destination Derawan Island. The decline in tourist arrivals causes a decrease in income in the tourism sector, especially the income of tourism actors on Derawan Island.


Three main apple cultivars were used in this study conducted in Albania: "Golden Delicious", "Gala" and "Starking", grafted on the M9 rootstock. The orchards with the above combinations were 5 years old and are placed in two different ecological areas: Korca and Lushnja. For each of the combinations, 5 trees were taken on which there have been several measurements dealing with the evaluation of the elements of the crown architecture: crown height and length and diameter, crown diameter 10 cm above the grafting point, diameter of the rootstock 10 cnm below the grafting point, diameter of skeletal branches up to 1.5m, structure of fruiting elements. The results have shown that yearly growth expressed in the diameter growth of the rootstock was smaller under the ecological conditions of Lushnja. This was also reflected in the development of other structural elements of the crown. 'Gala'/M9 combination encourages an earlier bearing and being an early ripening cultivar is more effective for the growing conditions of the coastal area (Lushnja) supplying the market during the first days of August.


Today, the Internet users need an optimal search for information on the web. The display of web pages within a search engine is not a mystery. This implies good mathematical modeling and good knowledge of computer science for its implementation. The web is a directed graph that must be exploited. The matrices of its graph contain a structure of the links and the navigation of the Internet user. Considering the billions of hosted websites and the dynamism of the web, its links can be added at any time. Changing this link structure impacts the PageRank. Thus, for good stability, the algorithms must be improved. PageRank algorithm that displays a good web page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) taking into account the score of each page, pay attention to many researches that make improvements day by day. Even though it is a basic formula, the PageRank algorithm makes a successful business. In this paper, we had not only implemented this algorithm in python but also explain how it works and calculated its complexity


Abstract Purpose The present study investigated the intra-subject variability in auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) recorded using a vertical montage and compared the results with the ABRs recorded using an ipsilateral montage. Methods A total of 31 adults with normal hearing were involved in this study. The ABRs from vertical and ipsilateral montages were recorded at 80, 50, and 30 dBnHL using 0.1 ms click stimuli on the right ear with a stimulus rate of 19.1 Hz. Each participant was tested in two clinical sessions with a 7-day interval between sessions. The ABR results between the sessions and montages were compared and statistically evaluated. Results The ABR results were generally consistent between the two sessions in both the ipsilateral and vertical montages. The test–retest mean differences (test session 2 minus test session 1) between the ipsilateral ABR and vertical montage ABR results were also similar. Coefficient of variation values indicated that more variability was associated with smaller amplitude ABRs than higher amplitude ABRs. Conclusion The ABR recorded through the vertical montage had, in general, a similar reliability to the ABR recorded using the ipsilateral montage.


The Total Organic carbon (TOC) test is a quick and successful explanatory strategy to assess the cleaning of biopharmaceutical assembling supplies. This system can help guarantee that the cleaning methods meet foreordained cleanability criteria for single and multiproduct creation territories. This article displays a research endeavor portraying the utilization of the TOC test to accept the cleaning techniques utilized for two sorts of bio-assembling supplies. Stainless steel plates were utilized as a part of the swab recuperation test to recreate producing supplies. One side of each one plate was spiked with an answer of dynamic substance or cleaning specialists. The plates were permitted to dry totally overnight at room temperature. An Alpha Swab Tx761 was saturated with low TOC (< 50 ppb) water and the spiked plate surface was swabbed both vertically and on a level plane. The swab end was decreased off, put into a vial to which we included 40-ml of low TOC water. The vial was topped tight, vortexed, and permitted to remained for one hour before examination. The same volume of each one arrangement that was spiked onto the plates was independently spiked specifically into 40-ml of low TOC water and investigated. The reason for this study is to exhibit how to create and validate a TOC system for cleaning applications. Approval of the cleaning methods for assembling or transforming gear has been exhibited in this paper.


The objective of this diploma thesis is to analyze the production process of selected product and propose streamlining of this process by using lean manufacturing elements. The theoretical part is the literature review of available sources dealing with industrial engineering methods and serves as the basis for the practical part. Practical part is divided into three sections. The first section introduces the company, in which the thesis was elaborated. The second section analyzes the current manufacturing situation of the selected product. The third section discusses the design of the proposed measures to streamline the manufacturing process of the product. At the end of this diploma thesis the project results´ benefits are summarized.


Background: Forecasting bud physiologic conditions can help 'Fuji' apple farmers manage their orchards more efficiently. Being able to determine the nature of a bud before bud burst is one such forecast that could be of use to these 'Fuji' growers. The aim of this research project was to determine if a device, a visible/near-infrared spectrometer, could be employed to determine whether a bud is a flower or non-flower bud without destroying the bud. Methods: Experiments were conducted on buds taken from a 'Fuji' apple tree, beginning on January 29 through to March 31, 2021, three days before bud burst. The data from the visible/near-infrared spectrometer clarified whether a bud was a flower or a non-flower bud. The Spectro data Classification Learner App proved to be an accurate classification method to analyze flower and non-flower bud Spectro data.
Result: Three days before bud burst, the chlorophyll content levels of the non-flower buds were markedly higher (P≤0.05) than those of the flower bud, which explains why the visible border of the near-infrared spectrometer might have been changed by the chlorophyll content of buds. The visible and near-infrared bands of the buds showed that the Spectro data of the non-flower buds were higher than those of the flower buds when measurements were made three days before bud burst. Three days before bud burst Cubic KNN of KNN classifier analyzed flower and non-flower buds smoothly. Spectro data were labeled as accuracy 75.9%, sensitivity 86% and specificity 67%. The results that were obtained suggest that farmers could use a visible/near-infrared spectrometer to identify flower and non-flower buds in their orchards, without damaging the buds, three days before bud burst.


Distinguished hosts, colleagues, Crawford Fund Chairman Tim Fischer, Professor Derek Tribe, and Tim Besley, President of ATSE, I am honored to speak with you today on the occasion of receiving the first Derek Tribe Award from the Crawford Fund. My own institution, CIMMYT (the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), and the farmers for whom CIMMYT works, are greatly indebted to Professor Tribe and to the Crawford Fund for consistently raising awareness of the importance of international agricultural research. On a more personal note, I would like to emphasize how rewarding it is for me to receive this recognition in Australia. I arrived in this country in the mid-1960s as a Narrabri Rotary Club scholarship student from India. It was here that I received my doctorate in wheat genetics, and it was here that I was directed towards my life's work at CIMMYT.


Due to rapid development of the Internet, recent years have witnessed an explosion in the rate of data generation. Dealing with data at current scales brings up unprecedented challenges. From the algorithmic view point, executing existing linear algorithms in information retrieval and machine learning on such tremendous amounts of data incur intolerable computational and storage costs. To address this issue, there is a growing interest to map data points in large-scale datasets to binary codes. This can significantly reduce the storage complexity of large-scale datasets. However, one of the most compelling reasons for using binary codes or any discrete representation is that they can be used as direct indices into a hash table. Incorporating hash table offers fast query execution; one can look up the nearby buckets in a hash table populated with binary codes to retrieve similar items. Nonetheless, if binary codes are compared in terms of the cosine similarity rather than the Hamming distance, there is no fast exact sequential procedure to find the $K$ closest items to the query other than the exhaustive search. Given a large dataset of binary codes and a binary query, the problem that we address is to efficiently find $K$ closest codes in the dataset that yield the largest cosine similarities to the query. To handle this issue, we first elaborate on the relation between the Hamming distance and the cosine similarity. This allows finding the sequence of buckets to check in the hash table. Having this sequence, we propose a multi-index hashing approach that can increase the search speed up to orders of magnitude in comparison to the exhaustive search and even approximation methods such as LSH. We empirically evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm on real world datasets.


The following discussion between Olivier Messiaen and Bernard Gavoty, music critic of Figaro, took place at a Youth Music concert in Paris in February of this year immediately before a performance of Messiaen's Trois petites Liturgies de la présence divine. It was subsequently published in the Journal Musical Français to whom we are indebted for permission to print the following translation.


Covid-19 has rapidly become greatest human tragedy of all time. Its huge dimension and speed world over has caught everybody unaware. After a short pause scientific community has risen strongly to the cause of finding remedy for this menace which started in the end of 2019 in Huanan wet market of Wuhan, China. While there are a number of compounds [1] attracting interest for trial in COVID-19 of some drugs with minimal proof are prescribed considering emergent situation. Recent blanket permission of use of hydroxychloroquine by FDA is a case in point. One such compound is camostat which is approved for other indication and which has a very interesting mechanism of action. It has very long and interesting history and recently gained interest as an alternative treatment for covid-19.


The four populations of Fomes fomentarius from Maoer Mountain,Changbai Mountain,Liangshui and Benxi were studied.The growth rates of F.fomentarius from four locations were compared by measuring the hypha growth in the PDA plate at 23℃ and 28℃,as well as the biomass by means of the mycelium dry weight in the PDA liquid medium at 23℃.The results displayed that the average growth rate of the fungi from four locations was 0.9cm/d at 23 ℃,and 0.64cm /d at 28 ℃.The growth rate of F.fomentarius at 23℃ was notably faster than that at 28℃ in the PDA plate,which indicated that the growth of this fungal species was sensitive to the temperature,for that 23℃ was more appropriate.F.fomentarius from different locations had no significant difference in growth rate at the same incubation temperature.So did the biomass of the fungi.The activities of three main lignin degradation enzymes(laccase,lignin peroxidase,manganese peroxidase) produced by F.fomentarius were detected by colorimetry.The results showed that the activity of three lignin enzymes produced by F.fomentarius increased gradually during 12 day incubation.There was significant differences in the enzyme activities cultured in different media,in which the activity of three enzymes in the PDA medium were significantly higher than that in complete medium.And also the activity of laccase was in the highest,manganese peroxidase in the second and lignin peroxidase in the lowest.The activity of the same enzyme from different locations had no significant differences.The sequence-related amplified polymorphism(SRAP) was used to evaluate genetic diversity and genetic differentiation among four populations of F.fomentarius.The results showed that Benxi population had the highest genetic diversity among the four populations,followed by Maoer Mountain and Liangshui,Changbai Mountain was the lowest.AMOVA analysis revealed that the genetic differentiation was 24.74% among populations,and 75.26% within population,that meant the genetic differentiation of F.fomentarius came up intra-populations mainly.Cluster analysis by UPGMA dendrogram based on Nei′s genetic distance revealed that the populations from Maoer Mountain and Benxi clustered first,Changbai Mountain population was in the second,and Liangshui population was the last.This study will provide useful information for the further research and utilization of lignin enzyme from the wood rot fungi,as well as lay the foundations of developing the engineering strains of F.fomentarius in the future.


This study aims at developing a nanotechnology-based screening test that would reliably detect early stage tuberculosis (TB) infection and discriminate active from latent infections. The use of urine in TB testing has been hampered by 1) extremely low concentration analytes and 2) protein lability. A novel urine collection system based on bait functionalized hydrogel nanoporous particles is developed that in few instants concentrates the analytes present in a large volume of urine (e.g. 30 mL) in a small volume of bait functionalized particles (e.g. 50 ul) and protects the captured analytes from degradation. Hydrogel particles can be shipped to the analysis laboratory at room temperature without the need of costly freezing preservation. A novel separation method based on magnetic nanoparticle tags permits the harvesting of hydrogel particles in few seconds without using high speed centrifugation. This technology can enable the production of an urinary TB antigen test applicable in developing country settings where the access to conventional laboratory equipment might be limited.


Hospitalization presents unique challenges in older people. Older patients may be more likely to suffer from comorbid illness or have diminished physiological reserves that impair their ability to maintain homeostasis in the context of acute illness. A variety of geriatric syndromes, such as dementia, delirium, and gait disturbance, are more common in older patients admitted to the hospital than in younger patients. In addition, vulnerable elders (VEs) may develop nosocomial or hospital-acquired pneumonia as an iatrogenic complication of hospitalization. Likewise, the risks of complications after surgery are also generally greater for elderly patients, primarily because of the frequency and severity of comorbid illnesses. In this article, quality indicators (QIs) for the general medical care of hospitalized VEs are presented, with a focus on elderly patients with pneumonia and those undergoing major surgery. For each indicator, the available supporting data are reviewed.


Micro-contamination control is the hardcore in IC fab engineering design. Being the vibration contamination control, micro-vibration-proof plays an important role in the engineering design. The micro-vibration-proof technology involves quite some links. In this paper, we suggest that based on the site tests and the project experience, hold major links and follow the systematic ideas so as to find better solution for solving the problems in micro-vibration-proof.


Abstract : This document discusses the procedure for using the FASP, Facility for Automated Software Production, located at the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster, Pennsylvania. A datalink from the VAX in building 80 to NADC exists and may be accessed to assemble SPL code which is used within the UYS-1, a signal processor utilized by each sonar system. The procedure for processing the SPL code via the FASP, transforming it into a form usable within the UYS-1, and executing the code is explained.


The invention relates to a high-temperature double-sided adhesive tape. The high-temperature double-sided adhesive tape is prepared from the following raw materials in parts by weight: 8-12 parts of chloroprene rubber, 1-5 parts of a plasticizer, 4-8 parts of a solvent, 6-11 parts of acrylic resin, 5-7 parts of isocyanate, 3-8 parts of amino resin, 5-10 parts of epoxy resin, 2-6 parts of gelatin, 1-5 parts of stannous octoate, 4-9 parts of sodium hydroxide, 8-14 parts of methylcellulose, 4-10 parts of chloroprene adhesive and 2-7 parts of phenol resin. The high-temperature double-sided adhesive tape has the beneficial effects that the high-temperature double-sided adhesive tape can well withstand the high temperature and can be applied at a high temperature in a long term without decrease in binding property.


27 This work deals with the electrochemical degradation and mineralization of 28 perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Model aqueous solutions of PFOA (100 mg/L) were 29 electro-oxidized under galvanostatic conditions in a flow-by undivided cell provided 30 with a tungsten cathode and an anode formed by a commercial ultrananocrystalline 31 boron doped diamond (BDD) coating on a niobium substrate. A systematic 32 experimental study was conducted in order to analyze the influence of the following 33 operation variables: i) the supporting electrolyte, NaClO4 (1.4 and 8.4 g/L) and Na2SO4 34 (5 g/L); ii) the applied current density, japp, in the range 50-200 A/m 2 and iii) the 35 hydrodynamic conditions, in terms of flowrate in the range 0.410 -4 -1.710 -4 m 3 /s and 36 temperature in the range 293-313 K. After 6 hours of treatment and at japp 200 A/m 2 , 37 PFOA removal was higher than 93% and the mineralization ratio, obtained from the 38 decrease of the total organic carbon (TOC) was 95%. The electrochemical generation of 39 hydroxyl radicals in the supporting electrolyte was experimentally measured based on 40 their reaction with dimethyl sulfoxide. The enhanced formation of hydroxyl radicals at 41 higher japp was related to the faster kinetics of PFOA removal. The fitting of 42 experimental data to the proposed kinetic model provided the first order rate constants 43 of PFOA degradation, kc 1 that moved from 2.06 10 -4 to 15.5810 -4 s -1 , when japp varied 44 from 50 to 200 A/m 2 . 45


Musil, R., 1999: Životní prostředí v posledním glaciálu na území Moravy. Acta Musei Moraviae, Sci. geol., 84: 161-186 (with English summary). The environment in the Last Glacial on the territory oj Moravia. The environment of the territory of the South Moravia (Czech Republic) was not all the Last Glacial round an inhospitable arctic desert with the permafrost 200-300 m, corresponding roughly to the present taiga or tundra. The new information of the individual branches of science change essentially the view of the environment of this territory.


Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to assess genetic diversity in Bunium persicum (Boiss.) 'Fedtsch' (Apiaceae), a critically endangered medicinal plant collected from 15 locations in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, India. A high level of genetic divergence was observed in the collected accessions. A total of 173 bands were generated by 36 random 10-mer primers, of which 168 were observed to be polymorphic indicating a high level (97.11%) of polymorphism among the accessions studied. Similarity, measurement using UPGMA followed by dendrogram analysis, resulted in two major clusters. The results of this preliminary investigation suggests that there is alot of genetic diversity among the wild accessions of this endangered medicinal plant species which needs to be documented, characterized, conserved and used for its improvement.


A new class of conjugated polymers is prepared by means of a versatile palladium-catalyzed cyclopentannulation reaction using a series of specially designed diethynyl aryl synthons with the commercially available 9,10-dibromoanthracene DBA monomer. The target polymers, CPP1–3, display high solubility and excellent chemical stability, which allow their structural and photophysical characterization by various instrumental analysis techniques such as gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and 1H- and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV-vis absorption, and emission spectroscopy. GPC chromatograms of CPP1–3 display a high relative weight-average (Mw) molecular weight in the range of 15.8 to 34.3 kDa with a polydispersity index (Đ = Mw/Mn) of ∼2.5. Investigation of the iodine adsorption properties of CPP1–3 reveals their high uptake, namely ∼200 wt% for CPP2, whose sorption property was sustained even after its reuse several times.


Intrapelvic hemorrhage can be life-endangering and pelvic neoplasms may be unresectable. We assessed our experience in transarterial embolization (TAE) of 60 arteries in 22 patients to determine the efficacy and safety of this method in treating the aforementioned conditions and to identify the optimal embolic materials to use. In addition, we also evaluated the adequacy of unilateral and superselective embolization of the anterior branch of hypogastric artery. We treated 22 patients (10 men and 12 women, mean age 43.3 years); 14 had intractable intrapelvic hemorrhage (6 of bladder origin and 8 of vaginal origin); the other 8 had pelvic neoplasms. The embolic materials used were Gelfoam powder and pieces, steel coil, Ivalon, and lipiodolized chemotherapeutic agents. We found that immediate hemostasis was achieved in all cases of hemorrhage except in 1 case with recurrent bleeding, but neoplasms failed to respond. Finally, we found that unilateral (n=3) and superselective embolization of the anterior branch of hypogastric artery (n=5) was adequate and effective when the bleeding site could be identified. There was only one case of major complication: a women who developed gradual onset of sacral plexus syndrome and autopsy disclosed cancerous infiltration of her entire sacral plexus. The choice of embolic materials is crucial. It should be optimal to have decomposable embolic materials such as gelfoam powder or pieces for acute hemorrhage without neoplasms; Ivalon without or with a lipiodolized chemotherapeutic agent for hemorrhage from neoplasms; and a permanent material such as steel coil for massive life-endangering hemorrhage from ruptured pseudoaneurysm of major pelvic arteries. We conclude that pelvic TAE is effective and safe, and is indeed the method of treating intractable intrapelvic hemorrhage from acute non-tumor and tumor origin, but it is not effective for treating pelvic neoplasms.


In studies on international trade, the theory of comparative advantage explains the normative question "Why governments should allow free trade?". However, the positive question "Nevertheless, why governments do not allow free trade?" is not as well explored. In this paper we consider the above question in a stylized two-country Ricardian model "when governments are allowed to use industrial policy". We determine the necessary conditions for complete specialization in (a) the free trade regime; and (b) the protectionist regime implemented through industrial subsidy policy. Our results show that if the government intends to promote complete specialization, then unrealistically high level of comparative advantage and elasticity of substitution of exports and imports goods are required.


The paper presents the results of a study of films formed by titanium dioxide nanorods and deposited on their surface of reduced graphene oxide by electrochemical deposition. Nanostructured films based on TiO2 nanorods were prepared in a 100 ml stainless steel autoclave with a fluoroplastic insert from a solution containing 35 ml of deionized water (H2O), 35 ml of hydrochloric acid (HCl) (36.5 %, Sigma–Aldrich) and 0.25 ml of titanium butylate C16H36O4Ti (97 %, Sigma–Aldrich). The addition of reduced graphene oxide to the structure of titanium dioxide nanorods increases the specific surface area of nanostructures from 29.3 m2 /g to 63.1 m2 /g. Calculations based on the film impedance spectra have shown that the optimal deposition time of reduced graphene oxide on the surface of TiO2 nanorods is 3 minutes, since it has a low recombination coefficient and a long electron lifetime. Studies of the photocatalytic activity of nanomaterials and registration of the released hydrogen and oxygen gases have shown that when the films are irradiated for 5 hours, the amount of hydrogen released varies from 50 to 225 mmol/cm2 .


The problem of robust control of a class of important systems with backlash-like hysteresis is studied in this paper. Systems with hysteresis are looked as common nonlinear systems with uncertain but upper limit disturbance in input by analysis on backlash-like hysteresis. Control laws designed by employing non-singular terminal sliding mode (TSM) control method enable systems with hysteresis to track the desired trajectory in finite time with the desired precision. Therefore, the effect brought by hysteresis is mitigated, even eliminated at last. The problem is solved that original values of states in nonlinear systems are evaluated in simulation. Simulation results are presented to validate the proposed method.


In the presence of PVPK30,Cu 1-x Ag x I nanoparticles were prepared by ion exchange reaction.The product was char acterized by FT-IR,XRD,TEM,EDS and SPS,respectively.It was found that the value of x is ap-proximately0.5~0.6and the average diameter of the nanopa rticles is10~20nm.The product shows surface photovoltage property of semic onductor and the existence of Cu + greatly enhances the separation efficiency of photoinduced electron-hole pa irs.Meanwhile,SPS of Cu 1-x Ag x I nanoparticles with different X(Ag/I)value had been investigated.The re sults show that when X is0.5~0.576,the SPS intensity of Cu 1-x Ag x I nanoparticles is highest.


The objective of the study is creating children to be Bilingual in English language as the
second language, and to create outstanding young children who are, independent, discipline,
responsible, and creative by providing a type of learning system called Montessori. It"s a type of
learning approach that provides attractive set of educational materials and books, creative
teachers and supporting environment. Children learn English language actively at school, and
children learn English language from: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing lessons.
The research Methodology included setting and time of the research started from
September to March 2013 in Play Group II Class at Singapore Piaget Academy International
Elementary School Solo Baru. There are nine research questions that the writer has set in her
study. The type of the research is descriptive qualitative research. The data of the study consists
of the materials of the English lesson, the result of interview from teachers, students and parents.
Besides that the writer also documented some events and learning activities. The study was
classified into some steps; observation, get the data and find the results. There are some research
questions that the writer has prepared. Those questions are included; what are syllabus model of
Montessori learning?. What are the general and specific learning objectives of the school?. What
are the classroom techniques of the school ?. What are the instruction materials used by children
?. What are the teacher"s and student"s role ?. What are the media used ?. What are the
supporting components of Montessori Lesson ?. What are the evaluation of the teaching learning
? And also what are the procedure of teaching learning in Singapore Piaget Academy
International School solo Baru.?
The writer concluded that children have innate desire to learn and explore, with
parent, peers and environment support they can achieve good quality of learning. The
quality of learning itself is not the result but the processes that occur everyday.


Treatment of production fluids to meet the requirements of the first quality group for commercial purposes is becoming more relevant every year in the Perm Region. Most operational facilities are in the final stages of development and characterized by the high water content of production fluids, which later leads to the formation of water-in-oil emulsions (WOEs) during transportation and field preparation. When treated by traditional methods, such as thermal and thermo chemical gravity sedimentation, stable WOEs are not amenable to destruction. These preparation methods are easy to use but do not always provide the expected result. In this regard, an urgent task is to develop and implement new technologies for the preparation of hydrocarbons, which can be used separately from traditional methods, or in combination with them. This method is called ultrasound impact (USI). This article describes regularities in the influence of various parameters on the efficiency of stable water-in-oil emulsion destruction during field-based treatment with the use of USI. The paper describes the experience of using USI, as well as the high destruction efficiency of stable water-in-oil emulsions in comparison with traditional methods. The authors of the article conducted pilot tests using a mobile unit for treating production fluids with stable WOEs pre-treated by ultrasound. Following test results, the technological effect has been evaluated and recommendations for the practical application of the proposed method have been made.


Once a common and economically important furbearer, the eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius) is now listed as endangered, threatened, or a species of conservation concern throughout much of its historical range. Virtually nothing is known about the fundamental ecology of the species or the potential effects of forest management strategies on habitat use. To elucidate home range dynamics and habitat selection, we conducted telemetry-based field work in the Ouachita National Forest of western Arkansas. During two years of field work we collected locations at 28-hour intervals for 33 eastern spotted skunks. Using kernel-based utilization distributions and the volume of intersection index analysis, we found significant seasonal and intersexual differences in the home range dynamics. Adult males maintained spring ranges of 866 (± 235 SE) ha, which were much larger than the 76 to 175 (± 22-62 SE) ha ranges during the nonbreeding season and the 54 to 135 (± 7-30 SE) ha ranges of females. We observed little home range overlap between adults, especially between adult females. Using weighted compositional analysis we determined that during each season young shortleaf pine and hardwood stands were selected over other available habitat types. A comparison of used and available resting and denning sites using discrete choice analysis revealed


Background: Mitigation strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia volatilization, and nitrate leaching from agriculture are important for the management of environmentalpollutionandclimatechange.Tannins,whicharewater-solublepolypheno-lic compounds, were found to reduce emissions in animal husbandry systems when supplemented to ruminant diets. Aim: Two laboratory incubation experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of Quebracho tannin-enriched manure on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) mineralization processes, and greenhouse gas emissions from three different soils (sandy moderate acidic, sandy alkaline, and loamy alkaline). Methods: Inthetwoincubationexperimentsof4and9weeks,soilsampleswereanalyzed for K 2 SO 4 extractable C and N, NH 4 + and NO 3– , microbial biomass C, and pH. In the main experiment emissions of CO 2 , N 2 O, and NH 3 were regularly monitored. Results: Three days after manure application, the CO 2 emissions of the three soils were reduced by 26%–37% and N 2 O by 80%–92% in tannin-enriched manure treatments compared with tannin-free manure. However, subsequent cumulative CO 2 and N 2 O emissions were only reduced in the loamy alkaline soil applied with tannin-enriched manure. Also, in the initial 4 weeks net-mineralization after manure application was significantly lowerinsoilsappliedwithtannin-enrichedmanure,reflectinganimmobilizationofNcom-pared with tannin-free manure in the short term or an inhibition of the mineralization process by physicochemical complexation of proteins or inhibition of enzyme activities in the long term. In both experiments, NO 3– was by 23%–95% lower in the three soils after 3–9 weeks compared with tannin-free manure. Conclusion: Theseresultshighlightthemitigationpotentialoftannin-enrichedmanureon soil N leaching, and suggest that greenhouse gas emissions may be increased depending on soil properties.


This thesis submitted to the department of Information Science and Library Management
university of Dhaka as a partial fulfillment requirement of the degree of Master of Arts (MA).


Customer trust is very important to a company because it increases sales volum., To gain customer trust, the company tries to maintain excellent service, an affordable price and a good quality product (Goetsch & Davis, 2016). therefore to get customer trust is not easy.Companies have to pay attention to all aspects to get customer trust.The challenge is even higher for companies that employ people with disabilities (people with special needs).In this casethe companies have to work very hard to facilitate employees with disabilities.Because they have many disabilities, many adjustments have to be made both by the company and its employees.


In this paper, we study the convergence of fuzzy complex number sequences. We discuss the equivalent relationship between the metric and levelwise convergence. All this may be a foundation for reseaching fuzzy complex analysis.


Abstract To evaluate the clinical and technical factors affecting the ability of fluorescence cholangiography (FC) using indocyanine green (ICG) to delineate the bile duct anatomy during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). Application of FC during LC began after laparoscopic fluorescence imaging systems became commercially available. In 108 patients undergoing LC, FC was performed by preoperative intravenous injection of ICG (2.5 mg) during dissection of Calot's triangle, and clinical factors affecting the ability of FC to delineate the extrahepatic bile ducts were evaluated. Equipment-related factors associated with bile duct detectability were also assessed among 5 laparoscopic systems and 1 open fluorescence imaging system in ex vivo studies. FC delineated the confluence between the cystic duct and common hepatic duct (CyD–CHD) before and after dissection of Calot's triangle in 80 patients (74%) and 99 patients (92%), respectively. The interval between ICG injection and FC before dissection of Calot's triangle was significantly longer in the 80 patients in whom the CyD–CHD confluence was detected by fluorescence imaging before dissection (median, 90 min; range, 15–165 min) than in the remaining 28 patients in whom the confluence was undetectable (median, 47 min; range, 21–205 min; P < 0.01). The signal contrast on the fluorescence images of the bile duct samples was significantly different among the laparoscopic imaging systems and tended to decrease more steeply than those of the open imaging system as the target-laparoscope distance increased and porcine tissues covering the samples became thicker. FC is a simple navigation tool for obtaining a biliary roadmap to reach the "critical view of safety" during LC. Key factors for better bile duct identification by FC are administration of ICG as far in advance as possible before surgery, sufficient extension of connective tissues around the bile ducts, and placement of the tip of laparoscope close and vertically to Calot's triangle.


Design of a high-voltage and high-current solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) for aerospace applications is highly challenging, as the overall system should comply with the most stringent operating environment. In addition, the implemented power semiconductor devices within the SSCB would require excellent thermal performance and efficiency with minimised conduction losses as they always operate during on-state and only break current when there is a fault. The newer generation of the more electric aircraft architecture has a proposed DC link voltage of 2.4 kV (+/- 1.2 kV) which is much higher than the presently used DC link voltage of 540 V (+/- 270 V). The proposed DC SSCB would be rated at 2.4 kV with a nominal current rating of 100 A and would be used for protection and controllability to protect the aircraft's DC grid transmission network. A brief overview of the different elements of a DC SSCB have been discussed here followed by a discussion about the different viable bi-directional SSCB topology configurations. The thermal simulations were carried out in PLECs, which provide the conduction losses and junction temperature dynamics for different switch (Si devices and SiC MOSFETs) types and topologies. Moreover, different figures of merit such as conduction losses, semiconductor weight, and power density are also discussed.


In this paper, we propose a parallel re-programming method that can reduce the time to complete software updates of in-vehicle electronic control units. The proposed method has been designed to operate in an in-vehicle gateway that integrates different types of in-vehicle networks including controller area network, FlexRay, and Ethernet to provide seamless communication between heterogeneous networks. The re-programming method provides parallel processing for flash update data that has been received in order to enable a simultaneous software update of multiple electronic control units. We implemented the proposed method in an in-vehicle gateway on an embedded system and designed an experimental environment to evaluate its performance. We also measured and analyzed the performance of the parallel re-programming gateway by conducting an experiment based on the experimental environment.


Objective To investigate and compare the clinical feature and natural course of polycythemia vera(PV)between Uygur and Han nationalities in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Methods Clinical symptoms,signs,laboratory tests and prognosis of 37(20 Han,13 Uygur,4 other nationalities)patients with PV were analyzed.Results There were 22 males and 15 female.The mean age of all patients was 59.41±11.31(31-85)years old.The mean hemoglobulin level was(191.11±21.41)g/L.Erythremia combined with leukocytosis or thromboeytosis were observed in 23(62.2%)or 19(51.4%)patients respectively.Splenomegaly was found in 27(73.0%)patients and hepatomegaly in 9(24.3%).Serum LDH was elevated in 28(75.7%)patients.Twenty two patients(59.5%)had vascular thrombotic events.Two patients developed MF.N0 secondary neoplasm was identified.Two patients died of thrombosis.Over 60 years old,leukocytosis and thrombocytosis were the high risk factors associated with thrombosis.No significant differences of clinical manifestations and thrombotic events have been found between Uygur and Han patients in Xinjiang.Conclusion Over 60 years old,leukocytosis and thromboeytosis were probably the high risk factors of thrombosis in PV patients.There was no significant differenee in clinical feature and natural course of PV between Uygur and Han nationalities in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Key words:
Polycythemia vera; XINJIANG; Uygur nationality; Han nationality


Disclosed are a system and a method for controlling a voltage at a common coupling point of a wind power plant. An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for controlling a voltage at a common coupling point of a wind power plant including a plurality of wind generators, including the steps of: calculating a first voltage error value which is a difference between a real voltage at the common coupling point and a reference voltage of the common coupling point by a first calculator of the control device of the power plant; calculating a compensation reference voltage based on the first voltage error value by a first controller of the control device of the power plant; calculating a second voltage error value by subtracting a voltage at an output terminal of the power generator from a sum of a generator reference voltage and the compensation reference voltage by a second calculator of the control device of the power generator; calculating a reactive power compensation value corresponding to the second voltage error value by a compensation controller of the control device of the wind generator; and injecting reactive power corresponding to the reactive power compensation value to a system side by a converter of the wind generator.


A prospective application of offline reinforcement learning (RL) involves initializing a pre-trained policy using existing static datasets for subsequent online fine-tuning. However, direct fine-tuning of the offline pre-trained policy often results in sub-optimal performance. A primary reason is that offline conservative methods diminish the agent's capability of exploration, thereby impacting online fine-tuning performance. To enhance exploration during online fine-tuning and thus enhance the overall online fine-tuning performance, we introduce a generalized reward augmentation framework called Sample Efficient Reward Augmentation (SERA). SERA aims to improve the performance of online fine-tuning by designing intrinsic rewards that encourage the agent to explore. Specifically, it implicitly implements State Marginal Matching (SMM) and penalizes out-of-distribution (OOD) state actions, thus encouraging agents to cover the target state density, and achieving better online fine-tuning results. Additionally, SERA can be effortlessly plugged into various RL algorithms to improve online fine-tuning and ensure sustained asymptotic improvement, showing the versatility as well as the effectiveness of SERA. Moreover, extensive experimental results will demonstrate that when conducting offline-to-online problems, SERA consistently and effectively enhances the performance of various offline algorithms.


An increasing students' knowledge through health promotion at Kragan Elementary School, Sidoarjo is a form of counseling and practice that aims to provide education about the importance of healthy snacks so that it is hoped that students can choose healthy snacks that are beneficial for growth and health. Inaccuracy in choosing snacks can result in negative impacts on health such as obesity, decreased intelligence and diarrhea. The activity was held on January 26th, 2023 at Kragan Elementary School, Sidoarjo. The target was students in grades 4th, 5th and 6th at Kragan Elementary School, Sidoarjo. Before the implementation of the activity, there is a preparation process for the activity for 1 month before the activies are carried out, starting from the selection of health education materials to submitting permits to related parties. As an evaluation of the activity attended by 90 students, the participants participated in the activity enthusiastically and conductively, the activity could be carried out smoothly and  on time.


Echo decorrelation imaging, a pulse-echo method that maps heat-induced changes in ultrasound echoes, was investigated for in vivo monitoring of thermal ablation in a liver cancer model. In open surgical procedures, rabbit liver with VX2 tumor was imaged by 64-element image-ablate arrays and sonicated at 5.00, 5.05, or 5.20 MHz by unfocused 32- or 64-element apertures for bulk ultrasound ablation and electronically focused 64-element apertures for focused ultrasound ablation. Echo decorrelation and integrated backscatter (IBS) images were formed from pulse-echo signals recorded during rest periods following each sonication pulse. Echo decorrelation images were corrected for motion- and noise-induced artifacts using measured echo decorrelation from corresponding sham trials. Sectioned ablated tissue was vitally stained with triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) and binary images were constructed based on local TTC uptake. Echo decorrelation was significantly greater in ablated regions than in non-ablated regions. Motion correction significantly reduced echo decorrelation in non-ablated regions. Prediction of cell death by echo decorrelation and IBS imaging was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Areas under the ROC curve (AUROC) were significantly greater than chance for corrected and uncorrected echo decorrelation as well as IBS. Corrected echo decorrelation predicted ablation significantly better than IBS for the focused ultrasound exposures. AUROC differences between corrected echo decorrelation and IBS were not statistically significant for the unfocused exposure group, for which the IBS AUROC was marginally higher, or for the combination of all exposures, for which the corrected echo decorrelation AUROC was marginally higher. These results confirm that echo decorrelation imaging can effectively predict local thermal ablation in vivo.


ABSTRACT This paper deals with numerical solution for the space-time fractional diffusion equation with variable diffusion coefficient, and numerical inversion for the space-dependent diffusion coefficient by the homotopy regularization algorithm. An equivalent system to the forward problem is deduced by utilizing properties of the fractional derivatives, and an implicit finite difference scheme for solving the forward problem is set forth, and its stability and convergence are proved based on estimation to the spectrum radius of the coefficient matrix. The homotopy regularization algorithm is introduced to solve the inverse problem, and numerical inversions are performed with noisy data. The inversion solutions give good approximations to the exact solution as the noise level goes to small demonstrating a numerical stability of the inverse problem here.


The present paper introduces the revamp and upgrade of the Transformer Substation of the Rolling Mill in WISCO by updating its facilities including usage of the new type fault wave recorders featured with implementation of the advanced wave recording and dual storage technique,synchro-encoding technique and embedded structure as well as the results of application in the practical running.Practice demonstrates that the running safety level of the Station has been raised since the revamp,thus providing other stations of the similar kind with some reliable reference for their on-line revamp.


ISEE observations have shown trapped ion distributions in the magnetosphere along with streaming ion distributions in the magnetosheath. The more energetic ion beams are found to exist further away from the magnetopause than lower-energy ion beams. In order to understand these properties of the data, we have taken a simple two-dimensional reconnection model which contains a neutral line and an azimuthal electric field and compared its predictions with the experimental data of September 8, 1978. Our model explains trapped particles in the magnetosphere due to non-adiabatic mirroring in the magnetosheath and streaming ions in the magnetosheath due to energization at the magnetopause. The model also shows the higher-energy ions extending further into the magnetosheath, away from the magnetopause than the lower-energy ions. This suggests the ion data of September 8, 1978 are consistent with a reconnection geometry.


DNA, long known as a carrier of genetic information, has recently revealed itself as a multifunctional entity. Using the powerful technique of in vitro selection, catalytic DNA molecules, known as DNAzymes or deoxyribozymes, have been isolated to catalyse numerous reactions using a range of metal-ion cofactors. Conjugation of these DNAzymes to an array of signalling platforms has led to the development of several DNAzyme-based sensor systems. By labelling DNAzymes and their nucleic acid substrates with fluorescent and quenching dyes, sensors have been designed to report the presence and concentration of specific metal ions with high sensitivity and specificity. By coupling DNAzyme activity to the aggregation state of gold nanoparticles, visual sensors have been designed that report the presence of a metal ion by a change in colour, eliminating the need for expensive detection equipment. Electrode-bound DNAzymes have been developed into electrochemical sensors offering high sensitivity and reduced background. The types of analyte that can be detected by DNAzymes have also been expanded by coupling DNAzymes to DNA aptamers that bind specific target molecules. These conjugates, called DNA aptazymes, have been developed to detect small molecules such as adenosine and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Using an in vitro selection protocol with counter-selection steps, aptazymes that can detect molecules in complex mixtures have been isolated. This chapter will highlight innovative research that has been done to engineer DNAzyme-based sensors and discuss the prospects for using DNAzymes in future detection systems.


We investigate the impact velocity beyond which the ejection of smaller droplets from the main droplet (splashing) occurs for droplets impacting a smooth surface. We examine its dependence on the surface wetting properties and droplet surface tension. We show that the splashing velocity is independent of the wetting properties of the surface, but increases roughly linearly with increasing surface tension of the liquid. A preexisting splashing model is considered that predicts the splashing velocity by incorporating the air viscosity. The model is consistent with our data, but the calculation is complex. To address this issue, we propose a simplification, assuming atmospheric conditions and low viscosities, and show that the simplification gives an equally good prediction of the splashing velocity from a simple analytical formula.


An iconic recent moment in the English Premier League was the final day of the 2011/2012 season, where Manchester City needed a win to secure the title but trailed Queens Park Rangers by one goal heading into injury time. At the point, the key question was how the players would respond. Would they up their game or wilt under the mental pressure? What happened next has cemented itself into the lore of Manchester City's: Edin Džeko equalized before Sergio Agüero scored to improbably secure Manchester City's first league title in 44 years. While not all game situations are as pressure packed as this one, soccer players are confronted with numerous situations that impose a high level of mental pressure.


ObjectivesTo assess whether compliance with the nationally endorsed Optimal Care Pathways is evident in 75% of patients treated with curative intent treatment and if this compliance was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (hereinafter COVID-19).MethodsThis retrospective study included patients undergoing curative treatment with radiotherapy in head and neck (HN), breast, lung and gastrointestinal malignancies between January 2019 and June 2021 in a single NSW outer metropolitan cancer service. For care delivered within the remit of cancer services, the primary outcome measure was the proportion of patients whose treatment complied with the Optimal Care Pathways recommended time frame. Secondary outcome measures included evaluating the effect of COVID-19 on the proportion of patients being treated within the recommended time frame.ResultsThere were n = 733 eligible patients across the five tumour streams with the majority being breast cancer patients comprising 65% (n = 479) of the cohort, followed by HN cancer patients (n = 125, 17%). None of the tumour subsites abided by the 75% compliance rate. Oesophageal cancer patients had the lowest compliance rate of 4% (P < 0.001), with a similarly low compliance rate for rectal cancer patients at 33% (P = 0.002). None of the hypothesis tests to assess for detriment in treatment time during COVID-19 were statistically significant (P > 0.05).ConclusionDespite the availability of best practice guidelines, there is limited compliance throughout all cancer subtypes, which has not been negatively influenced by COVID-19. Improved awareness of the Optimal Care Pathways, and implementation of the associated infrastructure and systems, are required to support compliance.


We investigate the dynamics of deformation in the zone of convergence between the Arabian and Eurasian plates using a physical model that treats the lithosphere as a thin fluid sheet deforming in response to lateral variations in gravitational potential energy (GPE). This model has two free material parameters, the power law exponent, n, of the vertically averaged rheology of the lithosphere and the Argand number, Ar, which expresses the relative importance of GPE and stresses required to deform the lithosphere. With boundary conditions described by three additional free parameters, the model fits the observed deformation, as measured by 367 GPS velocities, with a root‐mean‐square residual of <2.4 mm/yr. We find negligible improvement when variations in material properties are introduced that represent increases or decreases in the lithospheric strength of the Central Iranian and Turkish‐Iranian Plateaux and the Zagros Mountains. Effective viscosity of the lithosphere ranges from 5 × 1022 Pa s at 10 nanostrain/yr to 1022 Pa s at 100 nanostrain/yr. As well as matching the decadal time scale strain rates determined from GPS, the computed distribution of strain rates is also consistent with the distribution and types of earthquake focal mechanism. Significant historical earthquake activity is seen in regions with strain rates lower than 20 nanostrain/yr, implying that it is prudent to base assessments of seismic hazard on regional strain rates.


This paper proposes the VSC-HVDC application to enhance and increase long-term voltage stability. A suitable controlling technique for VSC-HVDC is proposed in the paper. The goal is to reach the best possibilities from long-term voltage stability perspective with respect to system configuration and also the VSC-HVDC capability curve. To show the capability of the proposed control methodology, two long-term voltage instability scenarios are considered. For the first scenario, VSC-HVDC can lead to a stable condition with its initial active-reactive power set points. In the second voltage instability scenario which is more severe, the proper power flow change in the system using VSC-HVDC is needed to avoid the voltage collapse. VSC-HVDC is ever to effectively compete with classical HVDC, protective devices must be implemented in the system. Presently classic protection devices are widely in use for protection in HVDC Systems.